Chapter 673: Bastard Man
A melodious ringing voice cut through the air like silver bells.
Aki reluctantly pulled back from Silas’s chest, taking a half-step aside just in time, because Eluned was already closing the distance at a dead sprint.
The pristine former Goddess of the World Tree didn’t bother slowing down as she reached him.
She leaped straight off the turf with an airy graceful bound, throwing her arms around Silas’s neck.
"Got you."
Silas caught her smoothly with his arm sliding beneath her thighs to form a secure seat as she wrapped her legs around his waist.
"Mwah!"
Eluned planted a soft lingering kiss squarely onto the center of his forehead, her emerald eyes glowing with radiant adoring warmth.
"Welcome home, my heart. We missed you dreadfully."
She turned her chin slightly over Silas’s shoulder, catching Morwenna’s amused gaze, and playfully stuck the tip of her tongue out at the pirate queen with childish triumph.
Morwenna merely rolled her eyes with a dry snort, completely unbothered by the petty display.
Ther’Abella looked as though she were about to faint into the grass.
Silas let out a long heavy sigh, resting his forehead against Eluned’s shoulder for a brief second to center himself before looking around at the gathered group.
Eluned tilted her head until her lips brushed the edge of his ear.
"Your wife kept the bed warm throughout, my heart," she breathed, low enough that only he could hear. "I would like to be thanked for it tonight... Thoroughly..."
Silas’s ear went red from the tip down to the collar.
He cleared his throat twice and decided not to look at Morwenna, whose stormy gray eyes had narrowed at the whispering.
"I managed to settle everything back on Earth for now," Silas said, shifting Eluned comfortably in his grip. "I’ll be in the Sovereign Realm until Aki’s Novice trial concludes... Central City is out here too, so I’ll take care of my business there in the meantime then me and her have some things to handle."
Aki blinked, tilting her head with a puzzled frown. "What...?"
Then, her eyes widened as the memory snapped into focus. "Oh!"
"Yeah," Silas nodded with a wry smile. "We won the Tournament of Succession, which means that the entire northern sector is officially ours for the taking and with the truce we signed with Amazonia, we have to sit down with them and sort out the demarcation before someone gets trigger-happy..."
Aki raised both hands, vigorously rubbing her temples as the sheer weight of logistics crashed down over her combat high.
’What a stressful day...’ she thought with a groaning sigh, looking between Silas, the Keep, and the endless horizon of her new realm.
The open clearing on the other hand fell into a breathless lull that was broken only by the crackle of distant grass embers and the gentle rush of the mountain stream over polished stones.
Across the flattened loam, the twenty-eight warrior women of the newly raised vanguard paused mid-action.
One of them, still holding a heavy spear through the brisket of a twitching stone-carapace badger, blinked through sweat-matted bangs.
Another, an archer with half a dozen fletchings notched in her quiver, lowered her composite bow by an inch with her jaw parting in unmasked astonishment.
From their position near the tree line, they had watched the entire impossible sequence unfold.
Their Lord, the petite devastating girl who had just erased a nine-foot mountain troll from conceptual existence with royal-purple flames of pure annihilation, had dropped all pretenses of authority the second she saw the dark-haired young man.
She had sprinted across the meadow like a child running to her favorite elder sibling, hopping on her toes like an over-excited hare, and practically threw herself into his chest.
...And then, as if that weren’t enough of an overload to the senses, the fearsome pirate queen who had split drakes during their crossing casually sauntered up and planted a kiss squarely on his cheek, followed immediately by Lady Eluned, the radiant peerless former Goddess of the World Tree, literally leaping into his arms, wrapping her slender thighs around his waist, and showering his forehead with kisses while sticking her tongue out in petty triumph.
The two escort guards who had accompanied Silas from the main gate quickly caught up to the perimeter line with their cheeks flushed with pride, eagerly whispering to their sisters-in-arms.
"That’s him," the lead archer murmured in an urgent hushed hiss that spread like wildfire through the ranks. "That is Lord Silas Graves... The Sovereign of Blessed Land and Master of the entire parent dominion!"
The ripple effect was instantaneous.
Clank! Clink-clank!
The sound of dark steel plates striking damp earth echoed across the meadow in crisp sequence.
Without a second’s hesitation, every single one of the warrior women dropped smoothly onto one knee.
They bowed their heads with their right fists pressed firmly against their breastplates right over the twin-leaf insignia of Blessed Land, paying homage to the sovereign of their lineage.
Silas, still holding Eluned comfortably against his hip while she rested her chin on his shoulder, blinked at the sudden sea of kneeling warriors.
An embarrassed smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he raised his free hand, waving it in an easy dismissive gesture.
"Hey, please, don’t do that," Silas said, his voice carrying easily across the meadow with that natural authority of a Lord. "Stand up, all of you. You’ve been working hard all morning, and you don’t need to scrape your knees in the dirt every time I walk by..."
The women rose to their feet as one with their armor rattling, but their eyes remained locked on him with undisguised adoration.
"I was watching the way you handled that flank," Silas added, nodding toward the fallen boar pack and the disciplined defensive circle they had maintained. "Your spacing was clean, the shield wall didn’t buckle once, and your spear thrusts were timed perfectly with the archers’ volleys... That kind of unit cohesion takes weeks to build, and you did it on your first few days, it’s exceptional work... I really like your coordination."
A collective high-pitched gasp rippled through the front rank.
"The Sovereign praises our coordination!" the scarred vanguard leader gasped, her eyes practically sparkling with light.
She snapped her hand to her brow in a rigid trembling salute. "We thank the Great Sovereign for thanking our coordination! We shall hone our coordination until it pierces the heavens themselves for the glory of Blessed Land!"
’What’s with this Sovereign Talk? Not that I mind... still...’
"Thank you, Lord Silas!" the rest chorused with synchronized enthusiasm, their faces practically glowing with pride.
Silas’s left eyebrow twitched as a massive invisible bead of sweat slid down the back of his neck.
’Why are they all so ridiculously eager...?’ Silas thought, his mouth curving into a strained helpless grin. ’They’re looking at me like I just handed them knighthoods but it was just a standard defensive sweep...’
He cleared his throat, shifting Eluned slightly as he looked over at Morwenna.
The dark-haired pirate queen was still standing beside him, leaning casually against her sword while chewing on her smoked boar meat with lazy half-lidded indifference.
"Anyway," Silas continued, gesturing toward the gathered auxiliaries, "since they’re fresh summons and their foundations are still adapting to the territory, I was thinking maybe Morwenna could indulge in a bit of sparring drill with them... Set up a basic combat regimen, teach them some practical footwork, maybe run them through some defensive drills to tighten up their—"
"No way in hell!" Morwenna whined instantly, cutting him off with a loud groan.
She stomped the heavy tip of Tidebringer into the sod with a dull thud, crossing her free arm over her generous leather-clad bust.
Her stormy gray eyes flashed with mutinous defiance with her plush lips pouting in a way that looked remarkably dangerous on a woman who could bisect a sea serpent with a flick of her wrist.
’At this rate...’ Morwenna thought, a violent frustrated heat blooming deep behind her breastbone as she stared at the young man standing mere inches away, ’how the hell am I ever going to lose my virginity?!’
The thought practically set her teeth on edge.
It wasn’t that she minded training fresh recruits.
She had commanded crews across the tempestuous northern seas for years, and breaking in new blood was second nature to her but gods above, that wasn’t why she had crossed over to this territory!
’I want to teach HIM more Tide-Blade Arts!’ her mind screamed in pure longing.
It had been far too long since the two of them had actually locked blades in the private training room back in the Keep.
For heaven’s sake, had he even fully mastered the Second Style yet? Didn’t he want to learn the Third Style?! The intricate water-slicked footwork, the close-quarters body checks, the heavy panting breaths exchanged in the heat of a duel...
’Plus...’ Morwenna’s breath hitched, her cheeks heating up beneath her sun-kissed skin as her memories drifted back to their last private session, ’if I push him just a little bit harder this time... if I corner him like last time and actually insist on it... maybe he’ll finally stop holding back and just take me! I could lose this cursed virginity once and for all! I’d finally be one step closer to carrying his children!’
Her fingers twitched, instinctively reaching out.
Her calloused hand caught Silas’s free fingers, intertwining them with hers but the moment his skin touched hers, her courage short-circuited.
She jerked her chin away, averting her gaze entirely, staring down at the clover by her boots with a furiously burning face.
’I’m—I’m so sick and tired of being cuck... cuck-something...’
She racked her brain, trying to recall the exact term that mischievous Elf had dropped during their late-night drinks by her desk in the Library.
’Cucked!’ the word snapped into focus with furious clarity. ’I’m tired of being cucked by everyone else in this damn Keep! It’s my time to shine too!’
Her gaze flicked sideways, glaring daggers at Eluned, who was still clinging happily to Silas’s waist like a pampered cat.
Eluned was actively trying for children every single night, whispering sweet blessings into his ear while pulling him beneath the sheets.
And Aeliana... That perverted blond elf had literally cornered Morwenna two days ago in the library, whispering detailed, shameless architectural plans about setting up "the perfect situation" with aphrodisiac incense and enchanted hot springs so Silas would have no choice but to ravish them both.
’That perverted elf is already scheming in the shadows!’ Morwenna growled internally, squeezing Silas’s hand with enough grip strength to crack granite. ’If I don’t put my foot down right now and claim my turn, I’m going to be left choking in their dust forever while they all get pregnant before me!’
"I’m not playing nursemaid to thirty recruits!" Morwenna declared out loud, her voice sounding stubborn and defiant as she refused to look him in the eye. "My blades are for high-seas slaughter and sparring, not daycare!"
Across the clearing, the warrior women collectively let out a quiet trembling sigh of pure relief.
Several of them subtly wiped cold sweat from their foreheads.
They had seen Morwenna in action a bit and the woman was a blood-soaked demon with a sword, laughing like a maniac while severing limbs and cleaving monsters in two.
The aura of terrifying cruelty radiating from her was enough to give a hardened veteran nightmares... None of them wanted to be handed over to that lunatic for "basic drills."
Silas blinked at Morwenna’s sudden vehement refusal, though he noticed the bright red flush creeping over the tips of her ears.
He chuckled softly, giving her hand an affectionate squeeze before letting go.
"Alright, alright, fair enough," Silas conceded with an easy smile. "If you’re not up for it, I’ll just have Brida come over from the main territory to take charge of their combat training..."
The effect on the recruits was electric.
"Brida...?" one of the spearwomen gasped, her eyes lighting up.
"Oh! That sounds wonderful!" an archer whispered eagerly, her shoulders relaxing entirely. "Brida... that sounds like the name of a very calm and gentle woman... A wise elder sister who dislikes violence and teaches with patience and grace!"
"Yes! A serene instructor!" several others murmured, nodding with bright optimistic smiles, practically buzzing with relief.
Silas looked at their shining, hopeful faces, his mouth twitching as an amused chuckle rumbled in his chest.
’Are they seriously this excited for Brida...?’ Silas mused, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud. ’Do they honestly think a woman named Brida is going to be gentle? That woman probably eats raw iron for breakfast and makes recruits run mountain sprints with boulders strapped to their spines... They have no idea what kind of meat grinder they just volunteered for.’
Standing a few paces away, Aki slowly shook her head, casting a look of pitying sorrow toward her innocent newly summoned troops.
’Poor girls...’ Aki thought, wincing internally. ’They really have no idea what they’re walking into. Eluned’s training makes you cry, but Brida’s training makes you pray for death...’
She decided it was best not to shatter their fragile dreams just yet.
Clearing her throat with dignity, Aki stepped forward, clapping her small hands together.
"Alright, everyone!" Aki ordered, her voice ringing out crisp and clear over the meadow. "We’ve secured the sector for now! Begin collecting the carcasses of the high-tier beasts and loading them onto the transport sleds... We need the cold storage filled before nightfall!"
"Understood, Lady Aki!" the women answered in unison, quickly scattering to begin butchering and hauling the massive boars and badgers with practiced efficiency.
Aeliana drifted up beside Silas while the vanguard scattered, her pale green sleeves swishing against his arm.
"Lord Sy, you have a leaf in your hair."
"Do I?" Silas bent his head to look.
"Stay still." She rose onto the toes of her slippers and combed her fingers slowly through his hair, taking far longer than any single leaf required.
When she finally pulled it free, she held it up between two fingers and studied it as though it were a rare gem.
"There... You collect things so easily, Lord Sy... Leaves... Troops... Ladies..."
"The leaf was an accident though."
"And the ladies?" Her silver-green eyes glittered. "I rather think they were deliberate."
She did not drop the leaf.
She tucked it into her sleeve with a small private smile, and Morwenna noticed every second of it.
Three paces off, with the dirt of her humiliation still smeared down her cuirass, Ther’Abella watched the leaf disappear.
’Her too?!’ the First Hero screamed internally. ’The elf, too?! The counselor of his own house?! This is not a keep, it is a den!’