Chapter 73: Magnanimity
Stefan’s POV
The system’s reply came slower than usual, usually slow, like it wanted the words to actually sink in this time.
[Host could stop being arrogant and stop believing every problem must be solved alone.]
[Host has women. They are his to use as allies. Use them. Test their loyalty. Let them prove their worth to him instead of always the reverse.]
I snorted, loud enough that the Hand’s fingers paused briefly against my shoulder. "You think me arrogant? That is rich, coming from you, dude."
But I sat with it anyway, turning the idea over the way I used to turn over a mark’s weaknesses before deciding which lie to lead with. Jonquil or Kara. The two women were two very different tools for two very different jobs.
Jonquil was military, bound tight by rank and protocol, answerable to a chain of command that ran straight through the woman I was trying to get into a bath in the first place. Anything Jonquil tried would carry Belladonna’s authority hanging over it, some invisible leash she could not shake even if she wanted to.
But Kara? Kara had no such leash. No rank to answer to, no chain of command, nothing but her own nerve and whatever leverage her birth afforded her.
I made my decision fast.
"Go find Kara. That elite woman... Bring her here to me." I ordered the Hand.
The Hand hesitated, her brows furrowing slightly. "She is a noblewoman. She wouldn’t ordinarily be summoned for errands like this." The Hand said, probably thinking I intended to send Kara on the kinds of errands I sent her.
"She isn’t summoned for your kinds of errands. I need her for something different." I told her.
"Now, stop making me talk and go find her. She will be with Flower Jonquil. Try there first." I said.
The Hand nodded and slipped out, and I lay back against the furs, staring up at the gold-carved ceiling, running through exactly how I planned to phrase this once Kara actually walked through that door.
~
She arrived a few minutes later, the Hand trailing a step behind her before ducking back out at my instruction, pulling the door shut and leaving the two of us alone.
Kara looked at me with open curiosity, arms loose at her sides, already opening her mouth before I could get a single word out.
"Where do you come from?" she asked, blunt as ever. "Your world. What is it like, truly?"
"I don’t have time for that right now," I said, cutting her off gently, reaching out to take her hand instead, holding it soft between both of mine. "What do you want, Kara? Right now. Today."
She blinked at the sudden shift, thrown for a beat before answering. "A great deal," she said, simply.
I smirked. "I’ll teach you all of it. Every bit you want to learn." I let that promise settle before continuing. "But first, I need something from you."
Her brows drew together, curiosity sharpening into something more focused. "What is it you need?"
"General Belladonna," I said. "I need her to take the same relaxing bath the other warriors are enjoying. The one down in the palace baths."
Kara tilted her head, studying me. "Why does the Mending bath concern you so much? What is she to you, that you’d trouble yourself over whether she soaks in warm water?"
"It just happened that way," I said, deciding vague was safer than the actual truth, which involved a system, a mission, and fifty Miracle Authority hanging in the balance. "I can’t go near her myself anymore. Not after this morning. But it needs to be done, Kara. I need your help."
She went quiet for a moment, weighing it, and I watched her expression shift through something calculating before it settled.
"I’ll help you," she said finally. "I have a way to make the General accept it."
"How?"
"I’ll offer it to her myself," Kara said, simple and certain.
I frowned slightly. "Won’t she just refuse? She’s refused everything I’ve tried."
Kara’s mouth curved, faint and knowing. "She won’t refuse me. I have a way to ensure it." She lifted her chin slightly, some old pride settling into her posture. "I come from a high clan. A noblewoman, offering to bathe a General herself, is an honor. Refusing that honor insults my house, my blood, everyone standing behind my name. Even the General understands what it would cost her to turn that away."
I stared at her, letting that land properly.
"The Queen herself wouldn’t command a noblewoman to bathe a Flower," Kara went on. "That work belongs to court ladies. Lowly hands, not highborn ones. So when a noblewoman offers it freely, it isn’t service. It’s a gift. And gifts like that carry weight no soldier, however proud, can simply wave away."
I let out a long breath, feeling something in my chest finally unclench for the first time since that jacuzzi.
"You," I said, grinning, "are an actual genius."
I surged forward and scooped her up before she could react, arms hooking under her thighs, lifting her clean off the floor. She yelped, startled, then laughed, the sound bright and unguarded in a way I hadn’t heard out of her before.
I kissed her, slow and grateful, and she melted into it for a moment before pulling back just enough to speak against my mouth.
"There will be something," she said, "in return for my magnanimity."
I laughed outright at that, setting her back down on her feet. "You people really do know that trick too, huh." I studied her, amused, intrigued despite the very real deadline still hanging over my head.
"What do you want, then?" I inquired.
Kara’s smile turned sly, unreadable in a way that made my stomach do something complicated because I hated being the one being played. I was always the player.
"When I’m finished with the bath. I will tell you." She said and I groaned.
This woman...