Chapter 668: Returning To The Sovereign Realm [Bonus - ]
’Elora...’ Evelyn thought, the name echoing through her mind with a sour weight.
...Elora Verinda.
The pampered sharp-tongued daughter of the City Lord, the golden scion of the central administration, who moved through high-society galas draped in silks and surrounded by retainers.
Why would someone of that tier be sending extraction teams into the southern periphery for an unregistered contractor like her?
Her thoughts flicked backward, tracing the events of the past few weeks.
’The hotel,’ she realized, a cold knot settling into the pit of her stomach. ’The Skybli... When I walked into that luxury suite with Kara... with Silas, when we were coordinating the back-channel logistics for Blessed Land.’
Was that why she was being targeted? Had the City Lord’s security apparatus flagged her presence entering a high-profile suite alongside the anomalous scion?
Evelyn had never exactly been a stranger to cameras, but nobody had ever followed her out of a lobby before.
Her eyes narrowed into sharp calculating slits.
’No... wait,’ she reasoned, her mind cutting through the first wave of paranoia. ’It’s not that serious... If Elora Verinda genuinely wanted me gone, if the City Lord’s office were running a black-bag purge, she wouldn’t use middle-tier private contractors who know her name. A real extraction unit would be faceless, scrubbed from the registry, and wiped of every identifying tie.’
She looked down at the bleeding man beneath her boot.
’He knew her face and he knew her name too...’
Which meant the operation was never an assassination... It wasn’t even a real capture...
Was it a message?
Elora Verinda wanted Evelyn to know she was being watched.
A reminder that in this city the walls had ears, the shadows had eyes, and the daughter of the high seat could reach into any alley she pleased.
’What sort of ridiculous high-society trouble have I gotten myself dragged into...’ Evelyn sighed internally, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her free hand.
Dealing with monsters and Lords was clean but dealing with the petty passive-aggressive territorialism of bored noble heiresses was a headache.
She lowered her foot and let the needle of light wink out, then drove the heel of her boot into the leader’s jaw in a short concussive kick.
THWACK!
His head snapped sideways as his eyes rolled back, and he slumped into unconsciousness silently.
Evelyn stood in the quiet alley, surrounded by five unconscious armored operatives, and took a slow drag from what was left of her cigarette.
The logical course of action was simple.
Any experienced person in the outer rim knew the rule... Leave no loose ends.
If she put a beam of light through each of their skulls right now, there would be no witnesses, no immediate tracking signatures, and no one to confirm the failure to Elora Verinda for several hours.
It was safe.
She slowly raised her right hand.
A sphere of incandescent light mana gathered in the center of her palm, glowing with enough concentrated heat to vaporize flesh and bone down to ash in a fraction of a second as she aimed it at the chest of the squad leader lying at her feet.
One pulse... That was all it would take.
Her fingers tightened then... her hand twitched.
A violent tremor shot up her wrist and seized the muscles in her forearm like an icy cramp.
Her breath hitched in her throat and turned into a ragged terrified gasp that rattled through her teeth.
’N-No...’
The sphere of light flickered wildly, its stable form breaking apart into jagged uneven sparks.
Her vision swam for a terrifying second.
The cobblestones seemed to tilt, and the scent of the alley was replaced by the phantom smell of old stagnant blood and shattered glass.
A face flashed in her mind looking wrinkled and terrified while looking up at her with eyes that didn’t understand why the light was burning him.
’Stop it,’ she told herself, her teeth grinding so hard her jaw ached. ’Just close your hand and fire.’
She couldn’t.
Her fingers refused to obey, her chest heaved, and a cold sickening sweat broke out across the back of her neck beneath her oversized hoodie.
The mana in her palm dissolved and collapsed back into her pathways in a ragged disordered rush that left her knuckles numb.
Evelyn lowered her trembling hand and shoved it deep into the pouch of her hoodie, her head hanging low.
"Pathetic," she whispered into the empty alley, the self-loathing in her voice so thick it tasted like bile. "What kind of Lord can’t even kill with her own hands...?"
She had commanded fortresses and she had directed sieges from behind heavy mythril plating, barking orders that turned entire fields of beasts into red mist but here, up close, looking at a helpless, unconscious man lying in the dirt?
She was useless... A coward who froze at the finish line...
’I’m going to pay for this one of these days,’ she thought bitterly, turning her back on the fallen squad and walking toward the mouth of the alley. ’All this hesitation... all this soft-hearted rot... One day someone I spare is going to put a knife through Elm’s throat, or Hiro’s, or mine and it’ll be my own blood paying the bill.’
She just didn’t know when the debt would come due.
...
Ten minutes later, Evelyn arrived at the secluded overgrown corner of the southern quarter.
It was an abandoned plot of ground, tucked between two crumbling brick storehouses that had burned down decades ago.
Tall pale weeds pushed through the cracked pavement, swaying gently in the damp autumn breeze.
In the center of the clearing stood a handful of simple weather-worn headstones looking unmarked and unkempt like a forgotten graveyard for those who died without families or guild registries to claim their remains.
Evelyn walked down the narrow dirt path, her boots silent against the grass.
She stopped before a modest uneven stone slab half-swallowed by creeping ivy.
There was no name carved into the granite... only a pair of deep horizontal grooves worn smooth by years of rain.
Slowly, Evelyn sank to her knees.
The damp earth soaked through the knees of her cargo pants and the cold seeped into her skin, but she didn’t care.
She reached into the interior pocket of her dark hoodie and pulled out a single fresh white blossom which was a wild mountain chicory she had bought from a street vendor near the gate.
She gently set the flower down at the base of the stone.
’It’s my fault,’ she thought, her dark eyes staring at the weathered gray rock.
The guilt was a heavy stone that had sat in her chest for years, never getting lighter, never eroding.
’I was the one who killed him with my own hands,’ the memory played behind her eyelids with agonizing clarity. ’He was an old man who had gotten too curious, a civilian who asked the wrong questions in the wrong district, looking into things that weren’t meant for regular ears.’
And she, in her panic, in her desperate need to protect the fortress and the false name of Lord Sky, had unleashed her mana.
She had fired and by the time the smoke cleared, there was barely anything left to apologize to.
Evelyn’s hand clenched tight against her knee with her knuckles turning bone-white.
’I don’t know if you’ll ever be able to forgive me, old man,’ she whispered internally with her throat tight and dry. ’I don’t think you should but I still remember.’
It was very pathetic of her... Just the simple act of killing this man had brought her here.
She stayed there for a long time with the cold wind rustling the weeds around her and the single white flower resting quietly against the damp granite.
"I’m sorry," she whispered aloud.
With that quiet confession, Evelyn pushed herself to her feet.
She dusted the dirt from her knees, pulled her cotton hood back over her messy black bun, and stepped away from the grave.
She pulled a fresh slim cigarette from the pack in her pocket, clamped it between her lips, and snapped her fingers.
A tiny controlled spark of light-mana ignited at her thumb and lit the tip with a soft glow.
Fwump!
She took a long deep drag, letting the bitter tobacco fill her lungs and ground her scattered thoughts back in the present.
’Well then...’ Evelyn exhaled a thick cloud of smoke toward the overcast sky. ’I’m meeting Silas later today... I’m leaving Blessed Land for now, but I’ll come back later, obviously. Still, what kind of parting gift do you even get for a man who sits on a Gold Core and owns a territory like that...?’
She puffed her cheeks out and blew a smoke ring through the weeds as she walked back toward the city gates with her hand already reaching into her pocket for her phone.
If she was going to be followed the whole way to Central City, she might as well make sure the one person she was actually walking with knew where to find her.
...
For Silas on the other hand, the world dissolved into pure darkness.
There was no sound as his Gold Core circulated smoothly, stabilizing his physical shell against the dimensional drag as the transition took hold.
HUUUUUUUUM!
A soft golden chime echoed in the back of his consciousness, and the darkness peeled away like a parting curtain.
Silas opened his eyes to find himself standing in the center of his personal quarters on the top floor of the Keep in Blessed Land.
The deep mahogany floors were polished to a mirror shine, and the arched windows let in the warm golden light of the late afternoon.
Through the glass, the canopy of the trees stretched across the horizon with their leaves rustling in a gentle breeze that carried the scent of blooming life and rich earth as well as fruits.
Silas lifted both arms over his head, interlocking his fingers and arching his spine until three distinct satisfying cracks echoed through his vertebrae.
"Man..." he groaned, shaking out his shoulders. "What a day it has been."
He had barely finished breakfast at home, and between Seraphina trying to turn his living room into a nursery, Harper disintegrating betrothal contracts with high-voltage lightning, and Valerius having a full-scale panic attack over his singed bangs, his head felt like it had been run through a mythril threshing mill.
The three of them had finally left for the day, still arguing in the driveway, and Silas had stood in his own doorway listening to the voices fade down the lane with the strange feeling of having survived a minor war.
He had no idea what kind of chaotic passive-aggressive alliance Seraphina and Harper were plotting wherever they had stormed off to, and quite frankly, he had zero intention of finding out.
’I’ll be heading to Central City today anyway,’ Silas thought, unbuttoning his soot-stained pajama shirt and tossing it toward the laundry basket. ’Better to let the dust settle before I walk back into that particular battlefield... Evelyn said later today so that gives me a few hours.’
He pulled a fresh tailored tunic of dark charcoal linen from his wardrobe, fastened the leather vambraces around his forearms, and walked out of the bedroom.
His boots made a quiet thud on the polished cedar staircase as he descended into the lower levels of the Keep.
The halls were unusually quiet.
At this hour Eluned would normally be pacing the corridors or Morwenna would too but today the main hall was completely deserted.
Silas pushed open the heavy oak doors leading into the Keep’s expansive kitchen.
Sitting alone at the massive cedar dining table was Aeliana.
The tall blond-haired Elf sat with impeccable poise with a delicate porcelain cup of herbal spirit-tea resting between her long slender fingers.
"Mhm~"
The afternoon sunlight filtered through the ivy-draped kitchen windows and caught the pale contours of her face and the luminous tips of her pointed ears.
As Silas stepped over the threshold, Aeliana lifted her head.
A serene and remarkably gentle smile touched her lips with her silver-green eyes softening as she set her teacup down on its saucer.
"Welcome back, Lord Sy," she greeted him, her voice smooth and melodic, like running water over river stones. "You look as though you have been wrestling mountain drakes..."
Silas snorted, walking over to the counter and pouring himself a tall glass of cold spring water.
"Close enough. A certain fire heiress decided she wanted to stress-test my ribs."
He downed the glass in three massive gulps, wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist, and pulled out a chair across from her.
"Where is everyone?" he asked, glancing around the quiet kitchen. "The Keep feels completely empty... I didn’t see Eluned anywhere, and Morwenna’s usually grumbling about training by now."
Aeliana chuckled softly and took a delicate sip of her tea.
"Lady Eluned and Morwenna are currently away. Thor went along with them as well. They have crossed over into the new Vassal Territory to inspect the initial boundary settlements..."
Silas paused, his memory clicking into place. "Aki’s territory?"
"Indeed," Aeliana nodded, her silver-green eyes bright with fond amusement. "Lady Aki officially completed her core awakening. Her foundation stabilized remarkably fast, and the territory bonded without the slightest rejection... The land has begun to terraform."
Silas smiled with a genuine warmth blooming in his chest.
"That’s great to hear. She’s been stressing about awakening for years. How has she been holding up? How’s the territory looking?"
Aeliana tapped her chin thoughtfully, a playful glint dancing in her gaze.
"It is... unique, Lord Sy. It would be far better for you to see it with your own eyes than for me to describe it. Words do not quite do justice to Lady Aki’s architectural vision."
Silas chuckled, rising from his chair. "Alright, you’ve got me curious... Lead the way."
Aeliana stood with effortless grace, smoothed the folds of her pale green robe, and led him out through the Keep’s rear courtyard.
Just beyond the manicured herb gardens, upon a raised dais of polished white marble, sat a massive circular array of spatial runes.
The glyphs were carved deep into the stone and pulsed with a golden luminescence.
"These are the runes linked directly to her territory," Aeliana explained, stepping up onto the edge of the dais. "It has been like that since she awakened."
Silas stepped up beside her, admiring the clean precise line-work of the runes, truly the System was the best.
"Has she given the territory an official designation yet? The Sovereign Realm requires a name on the territory... She can’t just file it as ’Blessed Land’s Vassal.’ after all."
Aeliana tapped her lower lip with a slender finger with a suppressed smirk twitching at the corners of her mouth.
"If I recall the declaration Lady Aki made to everyone this morning..." she murmured, "...she officially registered it as Aki’s Wonderland."