Chapter 46: Two Million Aether—Selling the Royal Hall Again
Cassian studied the numbers without speaking immediately.
Nightstripe Huntlord.
Twelve Level 14 Rare Ridgewardens.
And farther in, an entire Dwarven Royal Hall guarded by a Level 18 Legendary Hill King.
Not every one of those things had been coming for Elara personally.
But they had appeared around her with an unusual density.
"So you think she’s going to keep running into high-quality targets."
"I hope I’m wrong."
Aveline’s voice was calm.
"But if I’m not, it only gets more dangerous later."
Before turning it into a request, she laid out the limits herself.
"Once Elara reaches Rank III and has a stable, legal way to connect with allies, I want the two of you to keep an emergency route available."
"If she runs into something she genuinely cannot handle, I want her to be able to call you."
Cassian asked directly.
"For anything?"
"No."
Aveline was just as direct.
"If she picks a fight herself, or refuses to retreat when she clearly could, I won’t ask someone else to pay for her choice."
"I’m talking about a true high-tier threat that couldn’t reasonably be avoided beforehand."
Cassian nodded.
"If I can get there."
"Fine."
Aveline let out half a breath.
"In return, if families, Lord organizations, or Steward channels outside the newcomer period ever try to crush you with their background, House Vayne will stand on your side."
Cassian looked at her.
"You trust me that much?"
"It’s not trust."
Aveline shook her head.
"It’s judgment."
She counted the reasons one by one.
"Your public record starts with an F-grade Forgotten Shrine, and every result after that has proven that judging you by the label is a mistake."
"You created a Rare Eclipse Legionnaire line that can be reproduced consistently and triggered a Shattered Marches Realmwide Announcement with it."
"You had every opportunity to keep the Epic Hero Sigil, yet you still transferred it to Elara after the balance was paid, exactly as agreed."
She paused and glanced toward the outer room.
Even through the wall, Aurelia’s clean high-tier presence was easy to feel.
"And now there’s a Legendary Hero too."
"Those four things together are enough for me to place a bet."
Cassian didn’t ask anything else.
Instead, he brought the conversation back to why he’d come.
"Perfect."
"I have something I want you to bet on too."
One of Aveline’s brows lifted.
Cassian pushed the full Dwarven Royal Hall panel toward her.
The first three lines were enough to command attention.
[Dwarven Royal Hall]
[Quality: Epic]
[Owner: Cassian Vale]
Below that—
[Hill King | Legendary | 1 / 30 days]
[Storm Guardian | Epic | 1 / 3 days]
[Ironhorn Ram Cavalry | Rare | 1 / day]
[Ridgewarden | Rare | 1 / day]
[Dwarf Gunner | Elite | 10 / day]
Aveline read slowly.
The first stable production line was where she stopped.
"Legendary Hill King."
"One every thirty days."
"Yeah."
"And this is in the mountains east of Elara’s Domain?"
"Yes."
Aveline raised her eyes.
"So you took a Troop Building sitting near her operating area, and now you’ve come back to negotiate terms with her?"
Cassian didn’t dodge the point.
"I’m the Owner."
"She found the outer patrol first, but after losing three Troops to the Ridgewardens, she had to retreat."
"If I hadn’t gone in, Haldor would still be alive."
"And if I hadn’t taken it, the next group to find the place wouldn’t necessarily have waited until she was strong enough."
Aveline didn’t argue.
Cassian continued.
"Besides, the Royal Hall is here. Elara is the one who has to live with the location long-term."
"Supply routes, traffic through the mountains, reconnaissance from other forces—her side is closer to all of it."
"So I’m not selling ownership."
"I’m selling Recruit access."
Aveline understood.
"Name your price."
Cassian didn’t test the waters.
"Two million Aether."
"Elara gets long-term Recruit access to every stable troop line in the Royal Hall except Hill King."
"When she wants to recruit, she tells me first. I confirm it from the Owner side."
"She pays the Building’s base Aether cost for every actual Recruit."
"I still control stock and production timing."
"Ownership doesn’t change."
Aveline asked one question.
"What about Hill King?"
"Not included."
Cassian answered.
"If she really wants one, five hundred thousand Aether per unit. Separate deal."
Aveline did not start haggling immediately.
She looked through the Royal Hall’s production lines again.
A Building that could steadily produce Legendary Troops.
Two million did not buy ownership.
It bought permanent access to every stable line except Hill King.
It sounded expensive.
From House Vayne’s perspective, the price was actually lower than she had expected.
"Agreed."
She accepted faster than Cassian expected.
"But the Epic Hero Sigil payment already pulled a large amount out of our liquid Aether."
"I can release one million now."
"The other million will come out of the next family budget after I return."
Cassian nodded.
"Fine."
Aveline wasn’t finished.
"One more condition. Call it after-sales service."
Cassian looked at her.
"The Royal Hall won’t stay secret forever."
"If outside forces put pressure on Elara’s side because of the Building, I want you helping defend it."
Cassian didn’t even need to think about that one.
"That’s already my problem."
"The Building belongs to me."
"If someone comes to take it, they can ask me first."
Aveline smiled.
"Deal."
She did not take any resources out through the Observer Passage.
She only issued a House Vayne funding authorization.
As with the earlier payment correction, settlement came into Cassian’s account through an external funding channel.
[Aether Crystal +1,000,000]
[Aether Crystal: 280,466 → 1,280,466]
The remaining one million stayed on the books under the terms they had just agreed.
Cassian glanced at the balance.
The Royal Hall had already paid him once in Boss rewards.
Then in ownership.
Then in its first stock of Troops.
Now it had produced another million in cash and another million receivable.
Now he had truly squeezed another layer of value out of that mountain trip.
When they returned to the main hall, Elara looked at Aveline first.
"Done?"
"Done."
"I spent two million."
Elara: "..."
She slowly turned toward Cassian.
"You visit my Domain once and somehow sell me another two-million-Aether deal?"
"Your mother bought it."
"Is there much difference?"
"On the bill, yes."
Brogan nearly spilled his ale laughing.
Elara shoved the dining table toward Cassian with an annoyed look.
"At least eat before you leave."
Cassian checked the time.
"No."
"I still need to buy something."
He did not stay long in Elara’s Domain.
Aurelia and Eira left with him, while the four Blackfang spread out ahead again.
This time, Cassian did not start buying things on the road.
One million Aether had just arrived.
Before deciding what to buy, he wanted to know exactly what gap the purchase needed to fill.
By the time he returned to Forgotten Shrine, the Hill King, two Storm Guardians, twenty Rocketiers, and five Gloomhoof escorted back by the five Stormlance had already arrived.
Veyra was outside the Eclipse Muster Hall, rearranging Aegis Fold again.
Cassian didn’t go to her first.
He went to the Gloomhoof Warcamp.
From the day he occupied the Warcamp, the Building panel had carried one line at the bottom.
[Very low chance to produce a higher-bloodline unit.]
For a long time afterward, the Warcamp had never actually produced one.
Until now, that line had only meant one thing to Cassian—wait for the Building to hit an absurdly low probability on its own.
All seventeen Gloomhoof were Rare now.
When Cassian opened that line again, a new prompt appeared beneath it. One he had never seen before.
[Active Higher-Bloodline Growth: Locked]
[Unlock Condition: At least 1 Rare Gloomhoof Centaur reaches Level 10]
Before now, he had only been able to see the natural-production note.
This active growth route was new.
And it was one threshold short of unlocking.
Conveniently, the five Gloomhoof that had just returned from the mountains were here.
Cassian opened the first one’s growth panel.
[Gloomhoof Centaur]
[Quality: Rare]
[Level 6 → Level 10]
[Battle Essence ×8,000]
"Raise it."
Growth light descended.
[Current Level: 10]
The locked line lit up immediately.
[New Growth Function Unlocked: Higher-Bloodline Trial]
[Applicable: Rare Gloomhoof Centaur]
[Minimum Level: 10]
[Unit must complete independently | Equipment allowed | External Hero / Troop assistance prohibited]
[Activation Cost: Battle Essence ×12,000 / attempt]
[Success: Enter higher-bloodline sequence; Quality rises to Epic]
Only now did the full rules appear.
Veyra walked over from behind him and read the panel.
"You’re looking at this?"
"Yeah."
"A Rare unit goes in alone and tries to break through to Epic."
"Normally, that would be difficult."
Cassian’s attention stayed on one line.
[Equipment allowed.]
"Then I won’t make it fight normally."
Veyra followed his gaze.
"You’re buying equipment for them?"
"One set."
"One set for seventeen?"
Cassian didn’t explain.
He checked one more Trial rule first.
[After the Trial, intact and unbound equipment is returned normally.]
That was enough.
Only then did he open the Regional Exchange.
His purchase request had three conditions.
[Level 10]
[Complete four-piece set]
[Mounted / ranged compatibility preferred]
Price was not the first filter.
The Trial allowed one unit to carry a complete equipment set inside.
Cassian only needed the answer to one question: could he take it off, move it to the next unit, and keep using it?
Within a dozen minutes, several high-resource Lords sent private offers.
Most were individual pieces.
Complete Sets were already rare.
Complete Sets that actually fit a mounted ranged unit were rarer still.
In the end, only one offer remained.
[Stormrunner War Set]
[Quality: Legendary]
[Level Requirement: 10]
[4-piece Set]
[Combat Profile: Mounted Assault / Mobile Ranged]
[Price: 1,000,000 Aether Crystal]
The seller did not hide why it was being sold.
The Set came from a family reserve allocation and had originally been meant for a high-tier mounted ranged line. That troop line later changed direction, leaving Stormrunner sitting in storage and tying up roughly a million Aether in liquid value.
For an ordinary Lord, it was still exactly what it looked like: an extremely powerful, extremely expensive Legendary Set with narrow compatibility.
One Set could equip one unit at a time.
That was what the market was pricing.
Cassian was not looking at "one unit at a time."
He sent the seller one question.
"If I remove all four pieces and equip them on another unit, will the Set effect reactivate?"
The answer came quickly.
[Yes. Equipment is not bound to one unit. The Set effect reactivates whenever one unit completes all four pieces.]
That was all the confirmation he needed.
Someone else was buying one Set for one high-tier mounted unit.
Cassian was buying one Set for seventeen Gloomhoof to take turns using.
"Deal."
[Aether Crystal: 1,280,466 → 280,466]
Four pieces of Legendary equipment etched with dark-silver wind patterns entered his storage together.
Aurelia glanced at them.
"The million you just received is gone again."
"Not gone."
Cassian took out the Stormrunner War Set.
"It just changed shape."