Chapter 547: Gift From Thora [Bonus - ]

Chapter 547: Gift From Thora [Bonus Chapter]

She looked at Aki, watching the First Princess cycle through five different expressions of outrage, embarrassment, relief, and frustration in the span of ten seconds.

There was something genuinely addictive about it.

In a world full of cold sociopaths like Vanderbilt and the King, Aki was honest and completely incapable of hiding what was happening in her heart.

’...Cute.’

Was she trying to steal his heart? Because it was working... a lot actually.

Aki pulled her knees up to her chest on the sofa, wrapping her arms around her shins and resting her chin on her knees.

The blush slowly receded from her cheeks, leaving behind a quiet pensive stillness.

"Silas..." Aki said quietly with the name slipping out softly.

Kara’s smile softened. "Yeah?"

"Why did you help me?"

Aki didn’t look up. Her eyes were fixed on the intricate patterns of the Persian rug below.

"My father... he’s the strongest man on this planet," she continued, her voice trembling slightly. "He holds Destruction. He commands the nine regional garrisons, the planet’s defense grids, the entire world military. Angering him... publicly humiliating him in front of the World Council... it puts Blessed Land in terrifying danger. You could have just taken the trade treaty and you could have walked away with billions in credits and full recognition."

She turned her head, resting her cheek against her knee, looking at Kara with wide searching blue eyes.

"Why throw all of that away for me?"

Kara leaned back against the armrest, looking up at the high lancet windows where the midday sun was casting long pale beams through the glass.

"Honestly?" Kara murmured, remembering something from her past life. "I just really hate shitty parents. That’s it... When an adult treats a kid like an expendable asset because they didn’t inherit the right genetic lottery, it pisses me off. I grew up with nothing, Aki so seeing people who have everything still act like selfish cold-blooded monsters just grates on my nerves."

Aki’s gaze dropped slightly.

’Oh,’ she thought, a quiet cold hollow opening up in the pit of her stomach. ’So that was it. Just... moral outrage. Just a good person feeling sorry for a stray dog.’

It was a noble reason, of course.

Anyone would be grateful for it.

But deep down, beneath the fear and the relief, a tiny childish part of her had hoped stupidly that there was something more.

That she, as an individual, meant something to the man behind the violet eyes.

Kara glanced down, catching the subtle downward curve of Aki’s lips as a small knowing smirk touched Kara’s face.

"Besides," Kara added, her voice dropping into a low, teasing cadence, "you’re an official member of Blessed Land now, aren’t you?"

Aki blinked, looking back up. "I... I am?"

"Of course you are," Kara said, leaning forward, resting her single elbow on her knee. "Remember that night in the Sovereign Realm? When I gave you that name? You looked me dead in the eye and told me that if I named you, I had to take responsibility for it..."

Aki’s breath caught.

"Well," Kara shrugged, her violet eyes crinkling with warmth, "I’m a man of my word. Even if I’m currently wearing a skirt and high heels. I took responsibility. So right now, in my book? You’re my responsibility and nobody gets to mess with what’s mine."

Aki’s entire body went rigid.

A brilliant wave of heat surged from the base of her neck straight to her forehead.

’Responsibility...? What’s... what’s mine...?!’

The words bounced around inside Aki’s skull like ricocheting bullets with her hands gripped her shins so tightly her knuckles cracked.

"D-Does that mean..." Aki stammered, her voice barely a squeak and her eyes darting frantically away from Kara’s face, "does that mean we’re... like... uhm... friends?"

Kara let out a soft snort, shaking her head.

"Friends?" Kara echoed, tilting her head with a teasing glint in her eyes. "Nah. It’s definitely much deeper than just friends, Aki."

BOOM.

Aki’s internal reality shattered into a million sparkling pieces.

’DEEPER THAN FRIENDS?!’

Her mind spiraled into pandemonium.

’Deeper than friends is... is a relationship! That’s romance! That’s courting! That’s... that’s betrothal!’

Her hands flew to her face with her cheeks burning so hot she felt like she could fry an egg on her cheekbones.

’Does that mean we’re dating?! Are we in a relationship right now?! In this room?! But... but I haven’t even had my first kiss! I don’t know how to be a girlfriend! What do girlfriends do?! Do they make lunches?! Do they hold hands in public?! What about the imperial protocols?! What about his female disguise?! Can two women be betrothed under Europa law?!’

She was hopelessly overwhelmed by the weight of what she assumed was a formal romantic commitment.

But beneath the terror, beneath the embarrassment, a fierce stubborn warmth bloomed in her chest.

’I’m not ready,’ Aki thought frantically, puffing out her cheeks and squeezing her eyes shut. ’I’m not ready for all the responsibilities that come with being Silas’s partner! But... but I’m going to try! I will become the most reliable girlfriend in the world!’

Kara, entirely unaware of the catastrophic five-layer romantic drama unfolding inside the First Princess’s head, stood up from the sofa.

"Anyway," Kara said, stepping close.

She reached out with her right hand, her long slender fingers gently brushing against the collar of Aki’s navy gown.

... It was warm again.

Aki jumped slightly with her breath hitching as Kara’s fingertips traced the cold metal of the Star-Iron necklace resting against her collarbone... the very necklace Silas had forged for her, its surface embedded with glowing mana diamonds.

"Thanks for keeping this on," Kara murmured softly, her violet eyes meeting Aki’s with genuine gratitude. "I know it’s heavy."

The proximity was suffocating.

Kara was standing inches away, her scent washing over Aki’s senses with her fingers lingering against the metal at her throat.

Aki felt her knees turn to water, her blush deepening until she thought her skin might actually catch fire.

"I... I never take it off," Aki whispered, her voice barely audible.

Kara smiled, stepping back and letting her hand drop.

"Good. Because we’ve got work to do."

Kara’s posture shifted.

The teasing warmth vanished, replaced instantly by the focused edge of a Lord preparing for war.

"So," Kara said, crossing her single arm over her chest, "we’re going to be fighting the representatives of the other nations in this Exhibition."

Aki swallowed hard, forcing her runaway thoughts to grind to a halt. She straightened her back, nodding seriously as the reality of the situation came rushing back.

"Yes," Aki said. "The King framed it as an exhibition to resolve the contested drilling rights for the Northern Corridor and the Nine Major Powers have been squabbling over the border for years... Whoever wins the tournament secures the exclusive extraction permits."

Kara stroked her chin with her right thumb with her eyes narrowing in calculation.

"So..." Kara mused, a slow, predatory grin curling across her lips, "if we win the tournament... we get the northern mining rights and by imperial decree, the territory itself has to be ceded to the winning faction’s banner. Which means... we get the land too."

Aki blinked, flustered by the sheer scale of the ambition. "All... all of that land? The entire northern land?"

"Of course," Kara said naturally, waving her hand. "Why the hell would we fight in a death tournament just to hand the dirt back to the Council? It’s only natural that we take the land rights. You’re going to own an entire sector under your own name, Aki... A real, recognized territory in the real world so we need a bit of a backer too."

She let out a dry dismissive scoff, looking toward the closed oak door.

"It’ll be ten times better than whatever that bum Alexander has... He’s thirty years old and still thrives on his daddy’s praise just to survive the week. We’re going to build something real."

Aki’s chest swelled with pride at the words, but then... just as quickly, a cold sickening dread clamped around her throat as she looked down at her small soft hands.

"Silas..." Aki whispered, her voice dropping, heavy with shame. "How... how can I be of use to you?"

Kara stopped, looking down at her.

"The Exhibition requires two combatants," Aki said, her eyes welling up again as she gripped the fabric of her skirt. "The rules state both representatives must fight in the arena and the other factions... they’re sending their prodigies. Seraphina Bloom has slaughtered monsters of high ranks with her daggers and Valerius Sterling commands the wind but even if I wear high-tier enchanted armaments, I don’t have mana to activate the runes. In an active Sovereign Realm zone... I’m just a liability! I’ll just get in your way!"

Kara didn’t look worried.

Her grin merely widened, splitting her face into a confident razor-sharp smile.

"Chill out, Princess," Kara said, stepping toward the center of the room. "You really think I’d drag you into a meat grinder without bringing the right tools?"

Aki looked up, confused. "What tools...?"

"Thora’s been working on something for you all week," Kara explained, rolling her right sleeve back slightly. "She stayed up in the workshop until three this morning just to finish the final stabilization rune before I left for the summit."

Kara extended her right hand with her palm reaching upward.

VUUUUUUUM!

A soft brilliant pulse of deep blue light erupted from her palm.

The air temperature in the room dropped by three degrees as a pair of slender exquisite combat gloves materialized in the glow.

They were stunning.

Crafted from supple, midnight-blue beast leather that shimmered with an inner liquid luminescence, the gloves were reinforced along the knuckles with thin overlapping scales of polished void-steel.

Runic circuits, so delicate they looked like silver thread, were woven across the back of the hands, converging into a single circular socket directly over the palm.

"What are they...?" Aki whispered, her breath catching as she stared at the glowing blue fabric.

"Try the right one on first," Kara instructed, tossing it lightly toward her.

Aki caught the glove clumsily against her chest but she didn’t hesitate and she didn’t ask about safety warnings either.

’I trust in Silas...’

Without a second thought, she slipped her slender right hand into the cool, silk-like interior of the midnight-blue leather.

SNAP!

The moment her fingers cleared the seams, the glove contracted as it snapped tight against her skin, fitting her hand like a second layer of living flesh.

And then...

SHK-SHK-SHK-SHK!

A sharp electric shock ripped straight from her knuckles, shot through her wrist, and traveled up the nerves of her arm, detonating straight into her spinal column.

"Ah!" Aki gasped, her knees buckling as her back arched and her spine sparking with tiny microscopic needles of internal friction.

Before she could fall, Kara’s single hand caught her wrist.

"Steady," Kara said calmly. "It’s going to cause a bit of trembling... The glove doesn’t draw from your dormant core but it creates an external bypass along your nervous system."

Kara’s eyes flared with sudden intense focus.

VUUUUUUUUUUUUUM!

A controlled current of raw mana flowed from Kara’s fingertips, surging directly through the Star-Iron weave of the glove and impacting Aki’s physical channels.

"Gah—!"

Aki let out a dry cough as the foreign energy slammed into her lungs with the power making her teeth rattle in her skull and then, the glove reacted.

The deep cool blue of the leather did not stay blue.

FZZZZZZT!

The silver runic circuits across the knuckles flared with crimson light.

The midnight-blue fabric flushed a deep volcanic red, the air around Aki’s fist warping with intense shimmering heat waves that made the edges of the sofa blur.

"What is this...?" Aki stammered, staring at her own glowing, crimson-lit hand in pure wide-eyed disbelief. "It feels... it feels so hot..."

Kara stepped back, crossing her single arm over her chest with her grin wider than ever.

"It’s a converter," Kara said proudly. "It takes external mana, stabilizes the volatile frequencies through Thora’s invention, and lets an unawakened host trigger high-tier spells through physical nerve-pulses so test it out."

Aki blinked, looking from her glowing red glove to Kara’s face. "Test it? How?!"

"Just test it," Kara encouraged, gesturing with her chin. "Aim it at the wall... Twitch your fingers and do whatever comes naturally."

Aki swallowed hard.

Her heart was hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

She looked at her fist.

For so many years, that hand had been useless... It had held embroidery needles, diplomatic tea cups, and books of dead history but it had never once felt the hum of power.

She raised her arm.

Her hand trembled slightly, but she gritted her teeth, locking her slippers firmly into the Persian rug.

She pointed her extended fingers straight toward the reinforced stone wall on the far side of the room.

"I... I don’t know what to do..." Aki whispered.

"Don’t think," Kara’s voice came from behind her,. "Just squeeze."

Aki’s knuckles twitched as her fingers curled into a fist—

CLICK!

The socket in the palm aligned.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

[Author’s Note]

And that’s the sixth Chapter, Phew~ I’ve done the Bonus Chapters for the Magic Castle and given you all more Chapters to read in the process. Thanks for the support but we might need a bit more, If possible I would like a lot of Golden Tickets. We’re almost at the Top Ten ranking!

Thanks a lot and more Chapters coming once I wake up, let’s get this arc started.