Chapter 53: the threat

"To make a long story short so you can understand," Scarlet said, taking a breath, "it went like this. On that day when you left with Velvet, you gave Brend an item—the purpose of which I still don’t know. Just a few moments after you departed, Brend suddenly vanished as well. Since you had already warned me that you would be taking someone with you, I wasn’t too worried at first."

​She sighed deeply before continuing. "However, the others were farther away and arrived late. After I explained that you had returned with Velvet and taken Brend with you, they were terribly disappointed. But because I assured them that you would return again, they decided they would simply wait for you right here."

​"At the time, I didn’t object," Scarlet admitted, rubbing her temples. "I knew that whenever you disappear, you always reappear in the exact same spot. I figured you would just materialize back in this corridor. But that was the biggest mistake I ever made."

​"The very next day, they started arguing over who would be the next one taken when you returned. To resolve it, they decided to fight each other to determine the strongest—claiming the victor would be the first to leave with you. But as you know, every one of those girls has her own specialty. Fair competition was impossible. Some demanded a shooting contest, while others insisted on a duel. There was no clean way to determine who was truly the strongest."

​"They began causing a massive commotion in the palace," she continued. "At first, it seemed like a minor squabble, but it quickly escalated into full-blown chaos. No one in the palace could get a decent night’s sleep. The girls refused to move their competition to the official training grounds because they were terrified you might suddenly return while they were away. They worried the faster, sneakier ones would see you first and snatch the opportunity. So, they refused to leave this specific corridor. It turned the inside of the palace into a madhouse."

​"I tried to make a statement to calm them down, but then they proposed something even crazier," Scarlet said, shaking her head. "Since they couldn’t agree among themselves, they dumped the responsibility on me to choose the rules of the contest. I couldn’t back out, so I set up a simple trial: the first person to break through a defensive line and reach the very center—where they would have to face me and my soldiers—would win, and she would be the next person you took away."

​"On the second day, they tried every trick in the book, challenging the formation individually. But none of them made it far. Then, things took an even stranger turn—they split into two factions: the Technical Camp and the Brute Force Camp. They demanded to split the corridor into two zones. So, I divided my soldiers into two defense forces, just as you see now."

​Scarlet gestured toward the battered hallway. "You just witnessed them attempting to break through. This has been going on continuously for two straight days. As you can see, this is where we are."

​She looked at him intently. "So, master strategist, how do you plan to solve this problem of yours? I’ve tried my best, but those girls are like lunatics. They don’t eat, they don’t sleep—they just lay siege to this hallway around the clock! Night raids, head-on assaults... some even tried to smash through the side walls, and others tried to tunnel in from underground! I had to station even more soldiers just to hold them back. The palace has literally become a battlefield, and it’s giving me a massive headache."

​While Scarlet complained, Smith listened in silent astonishment. What she was describing was entirely beyond his imagination—he never could have guessed that a brief visit would turn an entire palace corridor into a war zone.

​Truthfully, he actually enjoyed hearing Scarlet vent. Whenever she complained, she displayed a fiery, unique charm—much like Velvet did. It even made Smith wonder if Velvet would grow up to look and act just like Scarlet one day.

​His mind began wandering down that train of thought until Scarlet noticed he wasn’t fully focused on her words. She stopped talking and stared at him.

​"Alright, Smith," she said flatly. "Since you’re back now, you’re the only one who can fix this mess."

​Smith snapped back to reality and cleared his throat. "Okay, okay. Look, I’ve returned now, and I don’t plan on leaving again anytime soon. I still have a few things to settle before dealing with those girls, though. First, let me finish what I came here to do."

​Smith opened his inventory and retrieved the Dimension Binding Stone.

​When he had held it back in his original world, the stone had simply felt heavy. But holding it here, within this fragmented timeline, the sensation was entirely different. It released a dense, crushing pressure. Although it didn’t disrupt the physical surroundings, holding it felt like holding a massive ship’s anchor while floating in the void. In his hands, the stone felt light enough to manage, yet it carried the subtle, immense weight of something meant to anchor an entire world.

​Knowing he shouldn’t waste time, Smith activated the Dimension Binding Stone immediately.

​What happened next was incredible.

​The moment the stone activated, time itself seemed to freeze. Everything fell dead quiet—not a stray breeze rustled, nor a sound echoed. It was as if someone had hit a pause button on the place.

​The Dimension Binding Stone, floating in the air in front of Smith, suddenly shattered into thousands of shimmering, crystalline fragments. The crystal dust began spinning rapidly, forming a transparent, swirling portal directly before him. Through his direct spiritual connection with the portal, Smith knew he could anchor it anywhere, creating a permanent doorway back to the main timeline from which he came.

​Once the portal stabilized, the world snapped back to normal. Time resumed its flow.

​From Scarlet’s perspective, however, the portal remained completely invisible. Unaware of what had just transpired, she reacted as if nothing had happened at all.

​Smith turned to her and said, "Alright, I now have a way to create a permanent gateway connecting my world to this place. I’ll be able to visit whenever I want, and people from here will even be able to travel to my world. But I need a secure location to anchor the gate on this side. Do you know of a safe place?"

​Scarlet stood frozen for a second, stunned. She knew Smith possessed mysterious abilities, but opening a direct doorway between two different realms sounded genuinely magical.

​Quickly regaining her composure, she said, "Don’t worry, we have plenty of secure locations. To keep things simple and safe, we can place it inside our secret inner chamber. It’s heavily guarded and completely private."

​Smith nodded. "Good. Let’s head there now. I have other matters waiting for me on the other side, so we shouldn’t waste any time."

​Scarlet looked at Smith as if he were an idiot. She gestured broadly at the chaos surrounding them in the corridor. "And how exactly do you plan for us to get out of here?"

​Smith realized they were currently trapped right in the middle of a siege.

​He cleared his throat and smiled at Scarlet. "Just tell the girls that I have a way to take all of them with me. They don’t need to fight this competition anymore."

​Hearing that there was a way to put an end to this madness, Scarlet breathed a massive sigh of relief. She hadn’t known how to resolve the situation herself, but since Smith had a solution, she didn’t hesitate.

​Walking to the edge of the defensive line, Scarlet took a deep breath and roared at the top of her lungs:

​"Listen up, you little brats! The contest is over! Smith has arrived, and he says he has a way to take ALL of you with him this time! You don’t have to fight anymore! And I swear to you—if I hear so much as a pin drop in the next second, I will tell Smith to leave every single one of you behind!"

​Her voice reverberated off the corridor walls, ringing in everyone’s ears.

​This time, while time didn’t literally freeze as it had with the Dimension Binding Stone, the people in the corridor froze in mid-air on their own. The giant humanoid beast, who was in the middle of flinging a soldier across the hall, instantly stopped dead in her tracks.

​It was as if someone had hit pause on the entire room. Not a single person twitched a muscle; they stood as still as statues.

​Seeing this, Smith almost burst out laughing. Scarlet’s threat—even delivered as a half-joke—had proven extraordinarily effective at instantly ending the warzone in the palace corridor.