Chapter 115: Exploiting a Loophole...
The sun dipped below the horizon, casting long, bruised shadows over the residential district surrounding Ares Academy.
Zen walked down the brick-lined street with his hands stuffed into his pockets and his boot heels clicking softly against the pavement. The simple matte-black iron ring sat snugly on his finger, its runes compressing his Low A-Rank mana pathways down to a quiet, unremarkable D-Rank.
Maya walked close to his side, her fingers lightly gripping his elbow. Her wooden healer’s staff was slung over her back, and she kept casting anxious glances over her shoulder.
"Zen..." she whispered. "Are you sure they didn’t follow us?"
"They are S-Rank entities under strict core suppression," Zen said calmly. "Even if they wanted to shadow us, they can’t do it without Nyx’s network. And Nyx is currently registering her student ID. Relax, Maya. We are going to the townhouse. It’s warded."
The townhouse in question was a spacious, three-story brick building situated in a quiet, high-noble quarter of the district.
It was the same property where he and Valeria had previously stayed during his brief stint as her "guest." The wards surrounding the perimeter were high-tier Ares military grade, designed to repel S-Rank intruders and suppress mana leaks.
Zen reached the iron gate, pressing his palm against the runic scanner. The gate clicked open with a satisfying metallic hiss.
"See?" Zen said, looking back at Maya. "Nobody here. Just a quiet..."
The words died in his throat.
The heavy oak front door of the townhouse swung wide to reveal a massive, silver-trimmed mahogany wardrobe being carried into the foyer by four burly, terrified-looking men in royal Crown Domain livery.
"Careful with that!" a sharp, tyrannical voice barked from inside. "That wardrobe is made of refined star-wood! If you scratch the gold filigree, I will have your guild licenses revoked before sunrise!"
Zen’s eye twitched.
He walked into the foyer with Maya trailing nervously behind him.
The spacious entrance hall, which had once been decorated in Valeria’s simple, military-style crimson and gold, had been completely overhauled.
Refined crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, thick velvet rugs carpeted the marble floor, and towering portraits of Aurelia in her imperial coronation robes lined the walls.
Aurelia herself was standing at the bottom of the curved staircase.
She was still wearing the gold-trimmed Crown Academy uniform, but she had draped a silk designer shawl over her shoulders, her amber eyes scanning the foyer, looking like the landlord.
"Aurelia!" Zen called sharply. "What is this?"
"Ah! Zen!" Aurelia’s face instantly transformed. The tyrannical expression melted away, replaced by a radiant, manic smile.
She practically floated down the remaining steps, reaching for his arms. "You’re finally home! Do you like the new decor? The previous vanguard theme was so... uncivilized. I had my personal treasury staff liquidate three of my villas in the capital to fund the remodel. Only the best for my fiancé."
"I’m not your...," Zen started but didn’t complete his sentence. "This is Valeria’s townhouse."
"Correction: it was my townhouse," Valeria’s voice growled from the living room.
She walked out, holding a massive wooden crate under one arm as if it weighed nothing. She had shed her academy jacket, wearing only a loose, oversized t-shirt that hung off one shoulder, her skin glistening with a light sheen of sweat.
"She bought the deed from the landlord three hours ago for ten times its market value," Valeria muttered, casting a dark glare at Aurelia. "But I refused to vacate. So we signed a co-habitation agreement. I’m staying in the master suite on the second floor, right across from Zen’s room."
"You will stay in the guest room on the third floor, you brute!" Aurelia snapped. "I am the betrothed! The master suite belongs to me!"
"I am the Vanguard of the Ares Domain, and this is my domain!" Valeria roared back, slamming the wooden crate on the marble floor. The impact shook the foyer, cracking one of Aurelia’s new marble tiles. "If anyone is sleeping next to Zen, it’s me! I’m his shield!"
"Both of you, shut up," Zen commanded.
The authority in his voice, even though it was suppressed to D-Rank, made both S-Rank Goddesses flinch and snap to attention.
Zen walked past them, entering the living room.
Lyra was sitting on the newly installed velvet sofa. She was wearing her Aether uniform, her long silver hair falling over her shoulders as she read a massive, leather-bound tome on spatial physics.
Beside her sat a steaming cup of tea, hovering two inches above the coffee table in a miniature gravity field.
"The spatial coordinates of this townhouse are quite optimal," Lyra murmured without looking up from her book. "The gravity wells in the basement are stabilised. I have already set up my laboratory in the study. I will be handling the household equations."
"Equations?" Zen countered. "Who gave you permission to move in?"
"Logic dictates my presence, Emperor," Lyra replied, turning a page. "The other four cannot be trusted to maintain the domestic seals. Without my calculations, they will destroy this house within forty-eight hours. I am the stabilising factor."
"A stabilizing factor?!" Selene’s voice cried out from the kitchen.
The Saintess stepped out in her white and silver robes, her face flushed as she carried a bowl of steaming, glowing soup. Her silver eyes were wide and brimming with desperate devotion.
"Zen! I made you my special holy elixir soup! It will purify the lingering Void toxins from your core!" Selene pleaded, rushing toward him and completely ignoring the others. "Please, drink it! I spent three hours filtering the water with my own mana! Let me prove my devotion!"
"Selena," Zen said, using her transfer name. "Put the soup down."
"Oh, look at this. A family reunion."
Nyx stepped out of the shadows near the coat rack. She had changed into an oversized black hoodie that hung past her knees, her purple eyes glowing in the dim light. She was holding a tablet, her fingers flying across the screen.
"I’ve already bypassed the house’s main security terminal," Nyx purred, sliding next to Zen and leaning her head against his shoulder. "I’ve locked down the cameras, mapped the neighbourhood, and set up a private server in the walk-in closet. Nobody enters or leaves without my system flagging them. We’re completely secure, Zen."
Zen let out a long, slow exhale. His knuckles turned white as he twisted the black ring on his finger.
He was trapped. Five S-Rank yanderes, all suppressed to B-Rank or C-Rank, had officially invaded his home.
"Before we go any further," Zen said in a dangerously low voice. "Explain yourselves. I gave you all direct orders to hold the Abyssal Trench and manage your domains. Why did you disobey me? And who is running the continental defences while you play house?"
Aurelia scoffed, waving her hand dismissively. "The Trench is fine, Zen. I left my Grand Marshall in charge of the Crown forces. My domain is currently being managed by a proxy council under emergency decree."
"And I authorised my top inquisitors to handle the Ares border," Valeria said, crossing her arms. "The monsters aren’t pushing past the perimeter anymore. It’s stable. And if anything, I can always pop in."
"The Aether Domain’s autonomous defence grids are functioning perfectly," Lyra chimed in, still not looking up from her book.
"The Sanctum’s archbishops are handling the purification rituals!" Selene added quickly. "I left them very clear instructions!"
"And my shadow network practically runs itself," Nyx purred. "Besides, we didn’t disobey you, Zen. You said we couldn’t announce your identity or use our full power. You didn’t say we couldn’t enroll as students."
Zen stared at them. They had found the exact loophole in his command and exploited it simultaneously.
Maya stood behind Zen, looking like a rabbit that had wandered into a den of wolves. The intense, suffocating jealousy radiating from the five Goddesses was focused entirely on her.
Aurelia’s eyes narrowed into a sharp, lethal glare as she locked onto Maya. "And why is the healer girl here? Zen, she is a D-Rank commoner. This townhouse is a sovereign imperial territory now. She belongs in the student dorms."
"I am not leaving her in the dorms," Zen replied. He stepped in front of Maya, shielding her from Aurelia’s gaze. "I told you at the camp: Maya is my anchor. She stays with me."
Selene’s grip on her holy soup bowl tightened until the ceramic began to crack. "But Zen... she is a parasite! She drains your vitality! Let me heal you! I can cleanse your core, I can take your pain..."
"If you touch her, Selene, I will personally shatter your rosary," Zen interrupted, his eyes flashing with a cold, indigo light. "Maya is staying in the bedroom next to mine on the second floor. Valeria, you are on the third floor. Aurelia, you are on the third floor. Lyra, you stay in the study. Nyx, you can stay in the server room. Selene, the guest room on the first floor is yours."
"What?!" Aurelia screamed. "You are putting the commoner next to your room?!"
"This is the directive," Zen commanded, his aura flaring just enough to make the crystal chandeliers rattle. "If any of you violate this arrangement, if any of you try to sneak into Maya’s room, or if I find a single parasitic tether on her, I will take my fragment back from you right now, spatial collapse be damned. Am I understood?"
The Goddesses ground their teeth, caught in a massive, agonising internal struggle. Their territorial instincts wanted to tear Maya to pieces, but Zen’s authority... and the threat of his self-destruction forced them into compliance.
"Understood, my Emperor," Aurelia whispered, bowing her head in submission.
The others reluctantly followed, muttering their assent.
Zen turned to Maya. "Go set up your room, Maya. Jax will be bringing your bags from your dorm."
"Okay," Maya whispered, casting one last, terrified look at the Goddesses before running up the stairs.
Zen watched her go, then looked back at the five S-Rank powerhouses standing in his living room, already glare-fighting over who would get to use the kitchen first.
’This is going to be a long school year,’ Zen thought.