Chapter 122: Business at 2AM...
An hour later, the "truce" was already failing spectacularly.
Zen came downstairs, dressed in a fresh black t-shirt and sweatpants, his wet hair plastered to his forehead. The hot shower had washed away the freezing ash of the dungeon, but it had done nothing to alleviate the bone-deep exhaustion radiating through his suppressed D-Rank core.
He walked into the dining room, expecting to find the goddesses arguing or, at the very least, glaring at each other.
Instead, he found perfection.
The mahogany table had been completely transformed. Aurelia had apparently summoned her personal Imperial Chef through a spatial rift, because the table was currently covered in a lavish, twelve-course feast.
There were roasted phoenix wings, incredibly rare draconian truffles, and a massive centrepiece of glowing, crystal-sugar lotuses.
Valeria was sitting quietly, sipping water. Lyra was reading a book, her equations politely tucked away. Aurelia was smiling warmly, and Selene was vibrating with pure, wholesome devotion.
Zen stopped in the doorway, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"What did you do?" Zen asked, scanning the room for traps.
"Nothing, Zen," Aurelia said sweetly, pulling out the chair at the head of the table. "We simply had a productive house meeting. We realised that our bickering was causing you undue stress, so we have agreed to a formal truce. Please, sit. Eat."
Zen didn’t trust them for a second, but his stomach gave a loud, treacherous growl. He was starving.
He walked over and sat down in the heavy oak chair.
Before he could even pick up a fork, Aurelia leaned over, her golden earrings chiming softly as she poured him a glass of sparkling water.
With a flick of her finger that was so fast even an A-Rank hunter would have missed it, she slipped a tiny, glowing golden pill into the liquid. It dissolved instantly without a trace.
"Drink up," Aurelia smiled, her amber eyes gleaming.
"Fascinating," Lyra muttered from across the table, casually turning a page in her book. Beneath the table, out of sight, her fingers twitched in a complex geometric pattern.
Suddenly, the space around Aurelia’s chair subtly warped. The chair slid back exactly three inches, completely silently, altering Aurelia’s centre of gravity just as she reached for a serving spoon.
The Empress stumbled slightly, her elbow knocking over a crystal salt shaker.
Aurelia’s head snapped toward Lyra, her eyes flashing with pure murder, but her voice remained sickeningly sweet. "Oh, how clumsy of me. Lyra, dear, could you pass the napkins?"
"Certainly," Lyra replied flatly. She pushed the napkins across the table, adding a microscopic, high-density gravity field to the bottom of the stack, making them weigh roughly four hundred pounds.
Aurelia went to grab them and nearly dislocated her wrist. The Empress smiled through gritted teeth, her golden mana sparking furiously beneath the table.
Zen rubbed his temples.
The "truce" was a complete lie. They weren’t fighting openly anymore; they had simply weaponised their passive-aggressive hostility. The entire dining room was a minefield of invisible spatial traps, gravity wells, and alchemical poisonings.
While Aurelia and Lyra engaged in an invisible war of physics, Selene quietly slid her chair closer to Zen.
She reached under the table, resting her soft, warm hand on his thigh.
Zen stiffened, glancing sideways.
The Saintess was staring at him with wide, obsessive silver eyes. Her holy mana pulsed softly against his leg, sending a wave of warm, euphoric energy through his exhausted muscles. It felt incredible, but it was also highly manipulative.
"Let me heal you tonight," Selene whispered, her voice barely audible over the clinking of silverware. "Just you and me. I will draw you a bath. I will wash the ash from your hair. Please, Zen... I will be so good."
Valeria, who had been trying incredibly hard to behave, saw the subtle movement of Selene’s shoulder. The Vanguard’s heightened senses easily picked up the pulse of holy mana beneath the table.
The killing intent in the room spiked so hard the crystal chandelier above them began to crack.
Valeria didn’t say a word. She simply picked up a solid silver steak knife and drove it directly into the mahogany table, burying it to the hilt.
"Oops," Valeria grunted, staring directly into Selene’s soul. "My hand slipped."
Selene yelped, pulling her hand back from Zen’s leg, summoning a massive, glowing holy cross behind her back in pure panic.
"You deceitful little fanatic!" Aurelia hissed, abandoning her shadow-war with Lyra and turning her wrath on the Saintess. "You agreed to the schedule!"
"I am just doing my duty as a healer!" Selene cried defensively.
"Enough!" Zen shouted, slamming both of his hands onto the table.
The crystal water glass shattered, spilling the drugged stamina elixir everywhere.
The room went dead silent.
Zen rubbed his face, taking a slow, deep breath to keep from losing his mind.
The townhouse was a powder keg, and Maya was sleeping directly above them. If he stayed here all night, one of them was going to eventually snap and level the district.
He needed an excuse to defuse the house. He needed an out.
"I am going to sleep," Zen said, his voice cold and flat. "Alone. And tomorrow, I am leaving the house for the entire day. Maya and I have a mandatory academy field assignment in Sector 14. We have to gather low-tier mana crystals for the logistics department."
The mention of Maya’s name sent a fresh, lethal wave of hostility through the room.
"Do NOT follow us," Zen continued, his Emperor aura flaring just enough to make them flinch. "Do NOT interfere. Do NOT destroy this house while I am gone. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Emperor," they chorused reluctantly.
Zen turned and walked out of the dining room. He climbed the stairs, checked the warding on Maya’s door, and retreated into his own room, locking it behind him.
Down in the dining room, the four Goddesses stood in silence, staring at the empty doorway.
—
At 2:00 AM, the server room was dark, illuminated only by the frantic blinking lights of stolen Aether-drives.
Nyx was lying upside down on her velvet pillows, playing a retro fighting game on her tablet.
The metal door to the server room slid open with a soft hiss.
Aurelia stepped inside, wrapping her silk robe tightly around her waist. A moment later, Selene slipped in behind her, looking nervous but determined.
Nyx didn’t look up from her game. "I don’t do technical support after midnight. If you broke your tablet, you’re buying a new one."
"We don’t need technical support," Aurelia whispered. She walked over and dropped a solid gold data-chit onto Nyx’s stomach. "That is the access code to an untraceable offshore account containing fifty million credits."
Nyx paused her game. She looked at the gold chit, then up at Aurelia. "I’m listening."
"Tomorrow," Selene said softly, stepping into the dim blue light of the servers. Her silver eyes were terrifyingly hollow, completely consumed by obsession. "Zen is going on a field assignment. With her. He explicitly forbade us from interfering."
"Yeah, I heard," Nyx grinned, popping her lollipop out of her mouth. "So?"
"So," Aurelia sneered, her amber eyes flashing with absolute venom, "we aren’t going to interfere. We are merely going to... observe. From a distance. To ensure his safety."
"We need his exact route," Selene whispered, clasping her hands together in prayer. "We need to know exactly which anomaly he is investigating. We need you to hack the Ares Academy logistics mainframe and give us the live GPS coordinates of their assignment."
Nyx blew a dark purple bubble, letting it pop with a quiet snap. "Hold on a second. Fifty million is nice, Empress, but Zen explicitly said no interference. If he catches me feeding you his live telemetry, he’s going to lock down my server cluster, revoke my proxy access, and cut my bandwidth in half. Why should I risk my entire setup just so you two can play creepy stalkers?"
Aurelia stepped closer, her golden eyes burning with intense conviction. "Because if that commoner parasite spends six uninterrupted hours alone with him in Sector 14, she will embed herself even deeper into his routines. Do you really want a D-Rank nobody holding more leverage over the Emperor than us?"
"Plus," Selene added eagerly, "I will channel a permanent Sanctum Blessing into your cooling units! Zero hardware decay, zero thermal throttling, and infinite energy efficiency for your rigs!"
Nyx tapped her chin thoughtfully, spinning her lollipop stick between her teeth. "And I get to record the live feed of whatever unhinged mess you two create out there?"
"Full, unredacted 4K resolution," Aurelia agreed darkly.
Nyx stared at the two ladies. She saw the unhinged jealousy radiating off them. They were willing to break Zen’s direct orders just to stalk him and sabotage the commoner girl.
Nyx picked up the golden data-chit, a massive, wicked smile spreading across her face.
"Ladies," Nyx laughed, tossing the chit into the air and catching it. "It is a pleasure doing business with you."