Chapter 671: Aki’s Wonderland
Just beyond the pastel Keep, situated along a lower terrace of the hill, lay the military district.
Unlike the playful aesthetic of the main residence, the barracks were built with serious craftsmanship.
Long sturdy longhouses constructed from dark pine and reinforced with iron braces formed an orderly quadrangle around a wide dirt training yard, and the yard was nearly empty.
The rest of the vanguard was out hunting as only two women sat on the perimeter bench by the weapon racks in the afternoon sun, one waxing a recurve bow and the other oiling a spearhead.
They were tall, athletic, and possessed the sharp disciplined posture of seasoned soldiers, but what caught Silas’s eye immediately was their gear.
Both of them wore a new uniform of dark steel plate and forest-green cloaks, cut in the style of Blessed Land’s own vanguard and stitched along the hem with fresh gold thread.
’Hm... a new uniform?’
Silas walked down the sloping path toward the yard, shifting Ther’Abella slightly on his shoulder.
"How many did she pull on her initial summoning batch?"
From over his shoulder, Ther’Abella grumbled, having finally given up on squirming to conserve her breath.
"Lady Aki has summoned thirty auxiliaries, and myself," she muttered reluctantly. "Twenty on the first day and ten more this morning... She told us she would construct additional residential quarters as the territory stabilized, but for now, we share the primary longhouse."
"Thirty-one," Silas mused, nodding in approval. "Solid starting pool... That’s enough to establish perimeter watches and run perimeter sweeps without burning everyone out."
The crunch of Silas’s boots on the gravel of the training yard drew immediate attention.
One of the warrior women, a tall broad-shouldered archer with a scar across her jaw, looked up from her bow.
Her eyes widened as she caught sight of Aeliana, and then drifted toward the dark-haired young man walking beside her, carrying their First Hero upside down like a sack of grain.
"Stand to!" the archer barked, rising instantly.
Beside her, the younger spearwoman dropped her spearhead into the dirt and scrambled upright, snapping into the same crisp posture half a second later.
Aeliana stepped forward, raising her chin with regal grace.
"At ease, soldiers of the vanguard... Presenting Lord Silas Graves, Sovereign of Blessed Land and Lord of this domain’s High Seat."
The reaction was instantaneous.
The two women dropped smoothly onto one knee with their armored plates clanking in unison against the packed dirt of the yard and their heads bowed in reverent respect.
"We greet the Sovereign!" they chorused, two voices ringing out with crisp discipline.
Silas chuckled warmly, waving his free hand to signal them up.
"At ease, both of you. Please, stand up. You don’t need to kneel in the dirt every time I walk by."
The two women rose, their posture relaxing slightly, but their eyes remained fixed on him.
Curious, vibrant gazes swept over his frame, taking in the casual, unbothered way he stood, the easy confidence in his posture, and the undeniably handsome sharp features of his face.
A startled breath escaped the younger one.
’He’s... he’s the High Lord?’ the young spearwoman thought, a sudden bright flush creeping up her neck. ’He looks so young! And he’s... remarkably cute...’
’He took down Ther’Abella without even drawing a blade?’ the archer thought, her eyes wide with admiration. ’Look at him! He’s carrying her like she weighs nothing at all!’
"I’m glad to have all of you as part of Blessed Land’s extended family," Silas said, offering them a bright genuine smile that made the younger spearwoman blush furiously. "I hope Aki’s treating you well? She can be a bit of a whirlwind when she gets excited, but her heart’s always in the right place..."
"Lady Aki is wonderful, my Lord!" the scarred archer replied eagerly, stepping forward with a broad grin. "She provided us with fresh rations within an hour of our arrival, and she’s already promised us custom armaments once the forge is made! She is an exceptional Lady!"
"Glad to hear it," Silas smiled. "Where is she right now? I came over to see how she was settling in."
The archer gestured toward the southern boundary of the valley.
"Lady Aki and the rest of the unit are currently outside the perimeter wall, my Lord! They’re running a suppression sweep through the outer groves, clearing wild beasts to stock up our cold storage with fresh meat... Would you like us to escort you to the front line?"
Silas nodded. "Lead the way."
The two women fell in on either side of them, their faces beaming with pride at the assignment, and began guiding them along the main flagstone avenue that cut through the center of the settlement.
As they walked, the two escort guards eagerly pointed out the layout of the burgeoning territory.
"Lady Aki designed the residential sectors to circle the Keep in rings," the lead guard explained, her hand sweeping toward the wide open plazas currently marked with white chalk lines and foundation pegs. "The barracks sit here on the inner flank, while the workshop pavilions and alchemy shop will be positioned near the eastern riverbed to utilize the water currents."
Soon, the open fields gave way to the outer perimeter, and Silas found himself looking up at a massive imposing barrier.
’I’m jealous...’
Silas couldn’t do this with the Umbral Basin if he tried, why couldn’t he get a better zone, huh?
The wall was at least forty feet high, forged from solid interlocking slabs of dark, matte-black steel that drank in the starlight.
It was thick, imposing, and lined with sharp runic bevels that hummed with heavy dampening fields.
Despite its density, the design was remarkably clever with narrow, reinforced slit-windows and elevated parapets allowing a panoramic view of the wild untamed forests that stretched beyond the settlement’s borders.
Nestled along the inner base of the black steel wall were several sprawling, lush gardens.
"Lady Eluned grew these yesterday," the second escort said proudly, pointing toward the rows of vibrant, shimmering flora. "She spent three hours channeling her wood mana into the soil before she went outside to watch Lady Aki."
Among the neatly tilled rows of spirit herbs stood a grove of low, elegant trees with twisting silver bark and broad, emerald leaves.
Hanging from the branches were clusters of large, perfectly spherical fruits that glowed with a soft radiant golden light.
Without waiting for permission, one of the escort guards nimbly leaped into the branches, plucked two of the glowing fruits, and dropped back down to the path with a bright grin.
"Here, my Lord!" she said, offering one to Silas and one to Aeliana. "Lady Eluned said these are Golden Star Apples! She told us they nourish both the physical marrow and the soul pathways, helping newly awakened warriors stabilize their core channels after prolonged combat."
Silas took the fruit.
The skin was cool and smooth, glowing faintly against his palm like a polished topaz as he brought it to his mouth and took a crisp hearty bite.
Crunch!
A burst of intensely sweet nectar flooded his mouth, tasting of wild honey, crisp mountain pear, and fresh spring water.
The moment the juice slid down his throat with a gentle soothing warmth bloomed behind his breastbone, radiating outward through his meridians like a wave of pure liquid vitality.
It swept away the microscopic fatigue from his earlier clash with Seraphina, leaving his senses sharp and refreshed.
"Damn," Silas breathed, his eyes lighting up. "That is incredible. Eluned really outdid herself with these... Remind me to steal a dozen saplings for the main garden back home."
Aeliana took a delicate bite of her own fruit with a serene smile gracing her lips.
"I am certain she has already prepared a nursery bed specifically for your Keep, Lord Sy. She knows how fond Morwenna is of fresh orchard produce."
They reached the massive southern gatehouse.
Instead of heavy iron winches, chains, or cumbersome manual wheels, the gate was sealed by a single monolithic slab of black steel inscribed with a massive array of interlocking runes.
The lead guard stepped up to a raised pedestal beside the archway.
She placed her bare palm against the central crystal node, channeling a thin measured thread of her mana into the stone.
HUUUUUUUUM.
The runes flared with brilliant cerulean light.
With a deep hiss that sounded like a hydraulic vault unsealing, the colossal steel slab split down the center, sliding smoothly into hidden recesses within the flanking towers without making a single screech of metal.
Silas watched the mechanism with keen interest.
’Now that is slick,’ Silas thought, admiring the clean engineering. ’A simple mana-keyed bypass. I really need to implement this on the the side gates we plan to build back at Blessed Land... This is many times more efficient than opening a new one.’
He looked up at the empty parapets flanking the high gatehouse.
’And turrets,’ he reminded himself, his mind already drifting toward his upcoming trip to Central City. ’I need to browse the high-tier defensive artificer stalls... If I can purchase automated mana-pulse ballistas or autonomous crystal turrets, the guards won’t have to mount twenty-four-hour watches on the walls in freezing rain as the arrays can handle standard perimeter deterrence on their own.’
He reached into his mental ledger, reviewing his assets.
’I still have those Troop Summoning tickets sitting in my reserve storage... I should crack a few open later If I can pull more craft-oriented dwarves to join the dozen we already have, we can finally build our own heavy munitions forges and if the tickets don’t drop what I need... Central City has mercenary exchanges and specialized artisan markets. I can get skilled dwarves directly from guilds or other places, There’s a lot of business to settle out there.’
The heavy gates completed their cycle, revealing the untamed wilderness beyond.
The moment they stepped through the threshold, the warm tranquil atmosphere of the valley vanished, replaced by the wild chill of the outer territory.
The canopy overhead grew dense and tangled, the trees towering nearly eighty feet into the lavender sky with their gnarled roots twisting across the damp forest floor like dormant serpents.
The lead escort guard immediately raised her hand, her posture stiffening into active combat vigilance.
"Keep your senses sharp, my Lord," she warned softly, her hand resting on the hilt of her broadsword. "The wild zones in this territory harbor two distinct varieties of threats. There are the standard roving predators... dire wolves, horned drakes, and underground burrowers but the more dangerous ones are the flora... Plant-type ambush monsters that mimic vegetation. They have no beating hearts, so reading their presence through aura detection is nearly impossible until they strike."
"Understood," Silas said, though he didn’t tense up in the slightest.
With his Gold Core foundation, the mana fluctuations of the entire forest were already mapped out in his mind like ink drawn across white paper.
As they walked down a mossy deer trail, the escort guards keeping their eyes glued to the thickets, a massive ancient-looking willow tree with thick weeping vines suddenly trembled.
CREEEEEAK!
The bark along the trunk split open with a sickening wet tearing sound.
Two hollow glowing yellow eyes flared to life within the timber, and four colossal branch-like arms tipped with razor-sharp wooden barbs lashed outward, shrieking through the air directly toward the two escort guards!
Behind it the roots tore free of the forest floor in a spray of black soil, a tangle of limbs as thick as siege columns thrashing across the trail to cut off any retreat.
"Ambush—!" the archer began, reaching for her quiver.
SNAP!
Aeliana didn’t break stride as she lifted her left hand and flicked her wrist toward the charging horror as casually as shaking water off her fingers.
FROOOOOST!
A blinding crystalline wave of absolute zero ice-mana erupted from her fingertips...
The air temperature plummeted instantly with frost crystallizing across the grass in a sixty-foot cone, and the vines whipping through the air stiffened, whitened, and snapped off like glass rods.
The wave raced up the nearest barbed arm faster than the eye could follow, and the moisture within its cellular fibers froze solid.
The azure frost crawled up the trunk, along every branch, down into the thrashing roots, and into the glowing core in less than a microsecond.
The monster’s yellow eyes went wide as it tried to roar, and the sound came out as a thin brittle crack as the ice reached its throat.
Aeliana closed her fist.
SHATTER!
The massive eight-ton arboreal terror exploded into a million glittering harmless fragments of blue ice, raining down onto the forest floor like a winter hailstorm and chiming against the stones of the trail.
A single frost-white splinter drifted lazily past the archer’s nose and settled on her sleeve.
Upside down over Silas’s shoulder, Ther’Abella had stopped squirming.
’One flick,’ she thought, staring at the glittering ice. ’Everyone in this territory is a monster.’
The two escort guards stared at the shower of ice crystals with their weapons half-drawn and their breath catching in their throats.
They turned to look at the serene High Elf princess with a collective shiver running down their spines.
"T-This place is truly bizarre and dangerous..." the archer stammered, swallowing hard as she sheepishly sheathed her sword. "Thank you, Miss Aeliana."
"Pay it no mind," Aeliana smiled gently, brushing a stray snowflake from her sleeve. "A weed is simply a flower in the wrong place and that one was remarkably poorly placed."
They continued down the winding trail for another five minutes until the dense forest opened up into a massive sunlit clearing bordered by a rushing mountain stream and the scene that greeted them was... chaos.