Chapter 184: Can I Accompany You, My Lady?

At the very same desk, Amelia was quietly finishing her dinner, her free hand idly spinning the crystal communication orb resting before her.

She glanced down at it periodically, her expression clouded with rare hesitation.

Amelia was weak—a brutal, undeniable reality she could not overlook, regardless of her vast reservoir of past knowledge and ancient experience. Venturing to the Tower of the Absolute Star on her own was out of the question; the structure was situated deep within a notoriously hazardous territory. Furthermore, navigating the interior of the Star Empire required specialized security clearances and high-tier administrative authorization that a child simply could not bypass.

Had her father been present, none of these obstacles would have posed a problem. Cain possessed the authority to resolve such matters with a single command, and his sheer presence alone would have deterred ninety percent of the imminent threats.

Yet Cain was not here.

Consequently, she had to construct an alternative contingency.

If she intended to reach that coordinate, she first needed to enlist sufficient power and high-level political leverage to clear the obstacles she was currently ill-equipped to face.

When she analyzed her options with cold objectivity, only one individual came to mind.

She remained slightly uncertain whether reaching out to him was the prudent move. Yet with zero alternatives available, she made her decision.

Roger.

Roger was, after all, the sole living soul in this world cognizant of her identity as a reincarnated Empress. With him, she could speak directly without donning masks or cloaking her motives in elaborate deceptions.

Just two days prior, Roger had approached her in secret, handing her the resonance key to his personal communication crystal with an explicit request to contact him whenever a situation demanded his intervention. At the time, Amelia hadn’t anticipated needing his services so swiftly, yet circumstances had taken a drastic turn.

Roger was her former disciple. Having survived a volatile power surge during his recent battles, his cultivation had finally stabilized, securing his breakthrough into the Prince Realm. Beyond his formidable martial prowess, he simultaneously held the high-ranking office of Minister within the Star Empire. His administrative clout should be more than sufficient to bypass restricted zone protocols or skirt imperial border regulations.

Amelia pressed her palm against the crystal orb and initiated the transmission channel.

She waited.

And waited.

Yet the crystal remained cold and unresponsive.

Her brow furrowed slightly. "Why is the signal response so weak? Where on earth is that man?"

It was genuinely perplexing; mana-based long-range communications were virtually instantaneous.

What she did not realize was that Roger was currently nowhere near the palace grounds.

Deep within a submerged, unmapped trench within the outer territories of the Star Empire lay a hidden subterranean cavern, thoroughly engulfed in absolute darkness.

The cavern floor was littered with mountainous piles of skeletal remains—monstrous carcasses intertwined with human skulls—a macabre landscape capable of driving an ordinary person insane from sheer terror.

The sole artificial light source was a single low-grade lantern emitting a dim, flickering glow that barely cut through the gloom.

Yet the lantern was not the primary light source in the cavern.

Seated cross-legged nearby was a broad-shouldered man, his chest completely bare. At the center of his sternum, a dense, blinding core of silver-white energy pulsed violently, as though a miniature star had been forcibly embedded into his living flesh.

The energy surged continuously, violently expanding and contracting in chaotic bursts, threatening to tear free from his physical vessel and incinerate everything within a thousand-yard radius.

Yet Roger bound it with an iron, unyielding willpower.

He sat motionless, methodically refining and stabilizing the explosive influx of power he had harvested during his recent battles. His foundation as a Prince-tier cultivator was now rock-solid.

This cavern was a mass grave he had personally crafted.

Following his previous engagement, he had systematically hunted and executed scores of high-ranking operatives from the Transmigrator Organization who had been pursuing him. Utilizing the covert assassination techniques of the Star Attribute, he had snuffed out their lives in absolute silence, leaving zero mana signatures that could trace back to him.

Roger had not initiated this war; they had hunted him first.

Thus, he saw execution as the only logical response.

Furthermore, the corpses rotting in this pit were not limited to foreign transmigrators; among them lay corrupt imperial officials and high-ranking nobles who had openly backed his treasonous brothers and former disciples.

Roger was currently a high-value target for the Transmigrator Organization. Yet his mastery over shadow-veil attributes allowed him to operate undetected, concealing his identity as the ghost orchestrating the high-profile assassinations of these influential nobles.

The political balance was balanced on a razor’s edge. Should an unexpected variable derail the shadow auctions, it would shatter the massive illegal deal these traitorous factions were attempting to finalize with external powers seeking to partition and subjugate the Star Empire.

To those traitorous elites, the appearance of an unseen phantom methodically slaughtering their key orchestrators one by one was a living nightmare.

To Roger, however, every ambush and forced engagement was merely fuel to accelerate his cultivation at a terrifying, unprecedented rate.

As Roger kept his eyes closed, fine-tuning the silver energy within his core, a faint violet pulse flickered in the dark corner of the cavern.

He snapped his eyes open.

The spatial crystal resting beside him was glowing. Someone was bypassing his highest-tier encryption channel.

Roger froze for a split second, his eyes widening in stunned disbelief as he recognized the unique mana signature of the caller.

"Is... is Master calling me?"

An uncharacteristic blend of shock and pure joy broke across his stern face. Rushing toward the crystal, he extended his mana and activated the connection.

The next moment, a cool, familiar voice resonated clearly from the other side:

"Roger... I need to head to a specific coordinate within the Tower of the Absolute Star. Will you accompany me?"

Roger could barely process what he was hearing.

She remembered him. She actively sought his aid. That singular realization sent a surge of exhilaration through him.

However, his expression shifted rapidly into a cold, grim scowl as the target location registered in his mind.

"The Tower of the Absolute Star...? Master, that region is no longer under the administrative jurisdiction of the Empire. Those traitors sold off that entire sector."

"Tsk. Cursed bastards,"

Amelia’s irritated voice echoed back.

Roger didn’t hesitate for a single second.

"Do not worry, Master. I will formulate a plan to secure your passage inside."

He paused, gathering his composure before voicing the question that had immediately formed in his mind.

"May I ask, Master... will you permit me to stand as your personal escort on this journey?"

Roger had already deduced the tactical reality: Amelia’s current physical form was severely vulnerable, rendering solo entry into an unmapped danger zone an unacceptable risk. With him acting as her shield, he could neutralize any high-tier threats long before they reached her.

Amelia’s voice came through the crystal, calm and measured:

"Very well... you may accompany me."