Chapter 341: Harper’s Appearance
The three girls instantly smiled, their faces lighting up with academic triumph.
Penelope immediately took charge of the interface.
The purple-haired noble girl reached out, smoothly dragging the glowing blue hologram directly to her side of the table.
She tapped a specific section regarding resource management and looked at Silas with an analytical business-oriented gaze.
"Alright, let’s start with raw resource acquisition," Penelope pitched her question like a seasoned corporate auditor. "If you discover a massive valuable area filled with raw ores near your territory’s borders, how much of a percentage cut do you typically have to give the Central City Guilds in order to legally employ their help with the excavation and registration process?"
Silas blinked.
He sat perfectly still in his wooden chair.
His brain completely short-circuited as he processed the unbelievable absurdity of the question.
’Uh...’ Silas thought, his golden-ringed eyes staring blankly at the haughty noble girl. ’We give our private mines to Central City? What the fuck now?’
It had been quite a while since he had personally sat through the basic Lord theory classes back at the academy before his awakening.
But even still, did these textbooks actually expect him to hand over his incredibly valuable resources?
Did they really expect him to casually sign away the mythril and obsidian veins located deep inside the Umbral Basin just to pay some arrogant, bureaucratic guild for ’registration’?
’I would literally rather die,’ Silas realized internally. ’I would rather burn Central City to the ground with dragon fire than give them a single ounce of my territory’s material.’
Silas remained completely silent for a few seconds too long, his face locked in an expression of deadpan disbelief.
Lia noticed his blank stare and instantly puffed out her cheeks.
"You’re a dummy, Big Brother!" Lia called him out playfully, tossing a crumbled-up piece of paper at his chest. "You don’t even know the standard tax brackets for your own mines!"
Kaede, however, was observant. She noticed the specific glint in Silas’s eyes and immediately raised her hand.
"Wait, no, it’s not that he doesn’t know," Kaede corrected Lia, her purple eyes widening with sudden realization.
She looked directly at Silas, leaning eagerly across the table. "Silas... is your territory stationed deep inside an Unknown Zone?"
Silas slowly nodded, his deadpan expression fading into a dangerous smirk.
"It is," Silas confirmed cleanly. "I am stationed off the grid."
The three girls instantly went completely quiet as the silence in the dining room was deafening.
They stared at him with awe.
Operating a territory in the Known Zones near Central City was basically like running a corporate franchise... you paid taxes, you followed rules, and you hired guilds.
But operating a territory in the savage, blood-soaked Unknown Zones meant you were an undisputed king answering to no one but the monsters at your gates.
"Oh my god..." Kaede whispered, breaking the silence.
She looked at Penelope and Lia, her voice trembling with excitement.
"Unknown Zone territories aren’t legally bound to pay any sort of tax or percentage cuts for whatever raw resources they find! They have total sovereignty over them!"
The exact second the realization hit them, chaos erupted.
The three girls practically abandoned their chairs.
They swarmed the head of the table, entirely surrounding Silas with glittering obsessive eyes.
They started aggressively peppering him with a barrage of complex rapid-fire logistical questions.
"How do you handle local monster migrations without Central City wards?!" Penelope demanded with her pen flying across her notebook.
"What is your caloric burn rate for a Vanguard unit?!" Lia asked frantically, tapping her datapad.
"Do you build luxury baths for your troops to maintain their psychological morale?!" Kaede yelled over the others, prioritizing the aesthetic aesthetics of warfare.
"Hold on, slow down!" Silas coughed loudly, raising his hands defensively as he tried to handle the overwhelming multi-directional assault of middle-school academia. "One question at a time! And yes, Kaede, I literally just built four massive residential complexes with heated clawfoot soaking tubs for my people."
"I KNEW IT!" Kaede cheered victoriously, pointing a triumphant finger at Penelope. "I told you luxury plumbing was a critical survival metric!"
Before Penelope could argue against the viability of bathtubs, the kitchen doors swung completely open.
"Alright, girls, calm down and give him some room to breathe," Martha announced warmly while cutting through the chaos.
The housekeeper marched into the dining room carrying a massive, incredibly wide silver serving tray.
The sheer volume of food she was balancing was staggering.
She gracefully lowered the heavy tray onto the center of the oak table, completely pushing the holographic projector to the side.
Martha began rapidly displaying the meals upon the table, talking passionately about every single dish she had prepared for him.
"I have a seasoned medium-rare basilisk steak with garlic butter," Martha listed off, setting down a sizzling cast-iron skillet that smelled like heaven. "I also made a rich hearty root vegetable stew for your stamina, an entire platter of spicy roasted noodles, and freshly baked garlic bread."
Silas stared at the massive mountain of perfectly cooked food. It was enough to feed an entire squad of heavy infantrymen.
"Martha," Silas said, blinking in genuine surprise. "Isn’t this way too much for one person?"
The woman completely ignored his protest.
She reached back onto the tray and immediately dropped a massive decadent chocolate lava cake covered in powdered sugar directly next to his steak.
Martha’s face instantly flushed a bright vibrant shade of crimson.
She gripped the edges of her white apron, looking down at the floor as she fidgeted nervously.
"Ma-Master Silas," Martha stammered softly, her composure cracking slightly. "I genuinely missed cooking for you while you were out risking your life. You need to keep your strength up, so you can have all of this. Please, just enjoy it..."
Silas let out a soft appreciative sigh.
He could feel the genuine love and care radiating from the older woman as he reached out and gently patted Martha directly on the top of her head.
"Thank you, Martha," Silas told her warmly, offering a sincere smile. "It looks incredible. I’ll eat every bite..."
Martha’s entire face practically exploded in heat.
Her cheeks turned a violently bright red and steam practically whistled out of her ears from the overwhelming flattery of the headpat.
She quickly spun around and power-walked back into the kitchen to hide her embarrassment.
Kaede and Lia watched the interaction with completely narrowed judgmental eyes.
They both pointed an accusatory finger directly at Silas from across the table.
"Pervert," Kaede and Lia called him out at the exact same time with their voices syncing flawlessly.
"Excuse me?!" Silas complained loudly, his pride instantly offended. "How is thanking my housekeeper for making me a steak perverted?!"
"You used the classic anime protagonist headpat technique," Kaede accused him shamelessly, crossing her arms. "You knew exactly what you were doing... You’re trying to build a harem right here in your own dining room!"
Silas opened his mouth to ruthlessly roast the ten-year-old girl’s degenerate logic, but before he could formulate his comeback, a sharp piercing sound cut through the apartment.
DING DONG!
The resonant chime of the front doorbell echoed down the hallway.
Silas instantly stopped arguing as his instincts flared slightly and his golden-ringed eyes snapping toward the front entrance.
Martha immediately peeked her head out from the kitchen doorway, holding a drying towel.
"I can get that, Master Silas! Or one of the girls can—"
"No, it’s fine. Stay here," Silas interrupted smoothly, standing up from his wooden chair.
He grabbed the towel off the back of his seat and casually draped it over his bare shoulder. "I will be the one to answer it. I am actually expecting someone to come over right now."
Lia tilted her head, her dark eyes filled with sudden intense curiosity.
"Who?" Lia asked, leaning over the table.
Silas didn’t think much of it. "It is just a girl that I met recently in the Sovereign Realm."
He walked out of the dining room and headed down the hallway.
Back in the kitchen, Martha’s cheeks completely lit up with a brand-new different kind of burning heat.
Her instincts were instantly hijacked by degenerate speculation.
’A girl... from the Sovereign Realm?’ Martha thought frantically, clutching the kitchen counter as her mind went entirely off the rails.
Was it actually possible that her terrifyingly strong successful Master was secretly hiding a girlfriend? He was bringing her back to Earth? To his private apartment?!
’If he brought a woman back from the combat zones, I definitely need to go buy some heavy-duty earplugs right now.’ Martha reasoned internally, her face flushing darker by the second.
Naturally, her Master was an incredibly fit and virile young man.
There was a probable chance that the two of them would be incredibly active sexually as a Lord’s stamina was the stuff of legends, after all.
’Perhaps if the woman has a higher libido than a normal human, I should help Master Silas procure some specialized stamina pills from the Association pharmacy so he can last longer,’ Martha plotted diligently, taking her maid duties far too seriously.
And then, an even darker and more forbidden thought crossed her mind.
’And perhaps... if Master Silas and his new woman are incredibly kinky... and they eventually want me to join in on their activities... I suppose I would have absolutely no reason not to accept my Lord’s command.’
Martha slapped both of her hands over her burning cheeks, shaking her head violently to clear the incredibly dirty images from her mind.
’It’s not like I actually want to have sex with Master anyway!’ Martha mentally defended herself, completely lying to her own soul.
Even her own body, currently heating up and betraying her thoughts, told her that was a shameless lie.
Out in the hallway, completely oblivious to the degenerate conspiracy brewing in his kitchen, Silas reached the heavy front door.
He didn’t bother checking the security peephole.
He fully expected to see Evelyn standing on his porch, probably wearing another oversized hoodie and complaining about the Valoria City traffic before they went to meet Jax.
Silas reached out and pulled the heavy brass handle, swinging the door open.
"Evelyn, you’re ear—"
Silas froze.
He stood face-to-face with an incredibly beautiful energetic woman with bright vibrant purple hair.
It was in fact not Evelyn.
"Wha—" Silas started to ask, completely caught off guard.
Before he could even process her presence, the woman lunged forward with explosive agility.
"SILAS!"
Harper tackled him with unrestrained joy.
The unexpected force of the Lightning Lord’s tackle caught him completely off balance.
Silas stumbled backward over the threshold with his bare heels slipping on the polished hardwood floor of the entryway.
THUD!
They tumbled violently down onto the ground together.
Silas hit the floor flat on his back, letting out a sharp grunt as the breath was knocked from his lungs.
Harper was physically clinging to him like a desperate koala, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and burying her face into his bare chest.
She let out a bright and incredibly happy laugh.
"Welcome back to Earth, you massive jerk!" Harper cheered loudly, refusing to let go.
She aggressively rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. "You totally ghosted me! You left all of my text messages on delivered! You are being such an incredibly bad friend right now!"
Silas groaned, staring up at the white ceiling of his hallway as he tried to calm his racing Warlord instincts.
"Harper, what the hell are you doing here?" Silas asked, lightly grabbing her waist to try and push her off. "Calm down and get off me."
Harper completely ignored his request.
She violently shifted her weight, aggressively pinning his arms to the floor as she swung her long legs over his hips, unapologetically sitting down directly on his crotch to keep him trapped.
"I am not calming down!" Harper declared stubbornly, her purple eyes glowing with fierce competitive affection.
She leaned down over him, pointing proudly at the dark fabric she was currently wearing over her expensive corporate suit.
"Look!" Harper demanded, grabbing the lapels of the coat. "I am wearing your dark trench coat! The one from the Secret Realm! I got burned in it, but I had my tailors completely fix it up and reinforce it with runic stitching just for you!"
Silas blinked, looking at the flawlessly repaired trench coat covering her slender frame.
"Great. Thanks," Silas said pragmatically, still painfully aware that a beautiful Lord was currently straddling his hips in his own hallway. "Now can you please get up?"