Chapter 70: The Night Before the Storm, and the Holy Maiden in the Shadows

The third-floor balcony of the Student Council building sat bathed in the light of a full autumn moon. The night wind drifted through the ancient pines, carrying the delicate scent of night-blooming jasmine and a chill breath from the northern snow mountains.

Below the balcony, the entire capital of Solaris stretched out in a blaze of magical light, reaching all the way to the horizon, shimmering like an artificial galaxy laid across the heart of the continent.

Eleanor stood leaning against the white marble railing. She wore a simple white silk dress, no jewelry, her golden hair loose and drifting in the night breeze, quietly gazing at the city below.

Two steps away, Lucian sat at a small round table, stamping the jade seal firmly onto a permit expanding the Ancient Language Club's research zone on Floor 1 of the World Tower.

He lifted his cup of hot chrysanthemum tea and took a small sip, letting out a quiet, satisfied breath.

Ting!

A dim black Unified System v2.0 notification appeared before him.

[COMPREHENSIVE SUMMARY — STAGE 2: ACADEMY & INSTITUTIONAL POWER]

[Core achievements completed:]

• Academy foundation phase complete: Now leading a coalition of underground power.
• Strategic alliance established with the Second Transmigrator (Evelyn Wright).
• Floor 1 of the World Tower unlocked & arcane industrial production legalized.
• Eleanor has fully abandoned her fantasy of the Nameless Hero; real feelings established.
• Command of 4 Supreme Ancient Languages: Elvish, Demonic, Silver-Tongue, Titan.
• Team Combat Power: Sufficient to face a National-Tier Army!

[SYSTEM PREPARING TO UNLOCK: ERA 2 — WAR OF THE GREAT POWERS!]

Lucian pushed the notification aside.

Eleanor walked over to the table and leaned against the railing across from him. She looked up at the full, perfectly round moon and spoke softly.

"Lucian... if this continent ever falls into all-out war one day, where would you stand?"

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Lucian let out a long yawn, casually plucked a grape off the plate and popped it into his mouth, answering without a second thought.

"In the VIP seats, selling weapons, bandages, iodine, and hardtack rations to both sides. War's the best portfolio-rebalancing opportunity there is."

Eleanor looked at his utterly unbothered expression and burst out laughing. She shook her head slightly.

"I knew you'd say something exactly like that."

She stepped up beside his chair and, for one brief moment, tilted her head, resting her golden hair against his shoulder under the moonlight.

"But at the very least... you wouldn't abandon me, would you?"

Lucian froze for half a second.

He glanced sideways at the princess's exquisite profile, resting against his shoulder, catching the faint scent of white rose drifting through the night air, running the numbers in his head.

Well, damn... looks like this retirement portfolio's starting to yield emotional returns too...

He took a small sip of tea, didn't push her away, and answered evenly.

"As long as you keep signing my tax exemptions and paying for tea and snacks on time, I'll protect my strategic partner to the very end."

Eleanor smiled softly and closed her eyes, resting against his shoulder.

Moonlight fell across the ebony table, illuminating a black envelope with no postal stamp, sitting neatly at the bottom of a stack of documents delivered earlier that evening.

There was no sender's name on the envelope — only a single symbol, drawn in dark red liquid: an hourglass, its sand flowing upward, in reverse.

Lucian reached for the letter and used his small fruit-paring knife to slit the edge of the envelope open.

Inside was a piece of old, weathered parchment, a single jagged line written in dried blood.

'Traveler from a distant place... You have shifted the course of history far too much. The catastrophe of ten thousand years is about to strike ten years earlier than planned.'

Lucian narrowed his eyes at the blood-written line.

Out in the wider world, the most secretive intelligence agencies of every great empire, the Holy Church, and the Dwarven Alliance had all quietly filed House Vance under "the world's most dangerous neutral entity" — a power holding Titan technology, Demon Realm mineral wealth, and a chokehold on global capital flow.

The fragments of an entire era were beginning to collide, violently.

Lucian folded the parchment, tucked it into his spatial ring, and tilted his head back, looking up at the stars tracing their geometric paths across the night sky.

The corner of the ten-year-old's mouth curled into an arrogant smile.

"Shifted the course of history? Who cares."

He set the empty teacup down on the table and stood, walking toward the door.

"As long as that future comes with money and no overtime... I'll trade it away ten times over, no hesitation."