Chapter 7: Master and Student

Roxana’s leg nearly gave out beneath her when the hand clamped down on her shoulder.

She spun around, and the irritation on her face hardened instantly into fury.

"Garrick. What are you doing?"

"What am *I* doing?" His voice rose, sharp enough that a nurse two doors down glanced over. "You’re standing here smiling at some stranger like nothing happened. Do you know what this hospital bill is going to cost? If you’d been more careful in that dungeon, none of this would’ve happened."

Roxana wasn’t in the mood to argue with him. Not today.

"I have money," she said flatly. "I can pay it myself. You can go now."

Garrick’s jaw tightened. He let out a sharp, irritated breath, turned, and walked off without another word.

*He can’t stand it,* Roxana thought, pinching the bridge of her nose. *The one time I actually smile at something, and it’s a problem.*

She sighed, pushed the thought aside, and went to sign her discharge papers.

---

Daemon was finally home, sitting in the living room while Victoria stood by the window, phone pressed to her ear, discussing something work-related in a low, clipped tone.

He was still turning that over in his head — hospital, sunrise, her hand on his forehead — when the sound came.

Ding!

[Reward Unlocked.]

[Condition Met: Emotional Bond Strengthened]

[Your wife found comfort and safety in your presence today. For the first time, she recognized you as someone genuinely important in her life.]

[Bloodline Growth +0.6%]

[Reward Granted.]

Daemon blinked.

*So that’s how this works. It’s not just cooking. It’s not just protecting her. It’s... this. Whatever this was, at the hospital.*

He pulled up his status, curious now.

[Status Window]

[Name: Daemon Miles]

[Rank: E]

[Bloodline: Nameless]

[Bloodline Growth: 1.2%]

[Strength: Increased]

[Vitality: Increased]

[Reflexes: Increased]

[Skills: None]

[Passive Effects: Nourishing Touch]

The numbers were still small. But compared to where he’d started — nothing, blank spaces, an empty status sheet — this felt like something.

Then a second notification followed.

[Bonded Wife Effect — Victoria Hale]

[Nourishing Touch has evolved: Bloodline Nourishment (Passive)]

[Meals prepared by the Host now carry a stronger restorative property, gently suppressing corruption symptoms in his Bonded Wife over time.]

Daemon read it twice.

*Every time I cook for her now... it actually helps slow the corruption down. Not much. But it helps.*

Something settled in his chest, warm and quiet.

*Then I’ll just have to cook a lot more.*

---

He wanted to see the difference for himself.

The backyard was small but open enough, a rack of old training weapons leaning against the fence — leftover gear from whoever had lived here before them. Daemon picked up a sword, testing the weight in his hand, and settled into what he thought was a reasonable stance.

"Easy," Victoria said from the doorway, and before he could react, the sword was out of his hand.

"Hey—"

"You’re holding it like a child playing pretend." She turned the blade over once, testing its balance with practiced ease. "Grip’s wrong. Stance is wrong. Weight’s all in your heels."

Daemon rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn’t know. Care to teach me?"

Victoria looked at him for a long moment.

Then her eyes brightened — a flash of deep crimson catching the afternoon light — and the smile that spread across her face was pure, unmistakable mischief.

*Did I just provoke something I shouldn’t have?*

"Hereafter," she said slowly, "you call me *master*. Note it."

---

She wasn’t gentle about it.

"Feet shoulder-width. Weight forward, not back — you’re not running away, you’re standing your ground." She kicked lightly at his ankle until it moved. "Grip looser. If your knuckles are white, you’re already losing."

Daemon adjusted. She corrected again.

"Elbow in. You’re not swinging a bat."

He swung anyway, out of habit, and found himself flat on his back a second later, Victoria’s blade resting lightly against his throat, not even breathing hard.

"Dead," she said flatly.

"...Noted."

They went through it again. And again. Footwork drills, block-and-recover, the same three motions repeated until his arms burned and his shirt stuck to his back with sweat. Victoria corrected everything — his balance, his breathing, the angle of his wrist — with the calm precision of someone who’d been doing this since before she could walk.

By the twentieth round, Daemon was on the ground again, staring up at the sky, entirely spent.

"Say it," Victoria said, standing over him, sword resting on her shoulder.

"Say what?"

"You know what."

Daemon smirked, wicked and slow, and pushed himself up onto one elbow.

"Yes, *master wife*. Thank you for your guidance."

Victoria’s face went red in an instant, all the way to her ears.

"You— you got hit in the head too hard," she stammered, already turning, already walking fast toward the house. "I’m going inside."

She was practically sprinting by the time she reached the door.

Daemon lay back down in the grass, laughing like an idiot at the sky.

*A week ago, she was a complete stranger.*

*Now it feels like we’ve been doing this for years.*

---

He cooked dinner that night with more care than usual, folding quiet intention into every step the way the system had shown him — the new skill humming faintly under his hands as he worked, something he couldn’t see but could somehow feel, threading itself into the food.

They sat down to eat. Victoria took one bite, paused, and looked up.

"This tastes different tonight," she said. "Better, somehow."

Daemon just smiled and didn’t explain.

---

Over dinner, Victoria finally brought it up.

"Rosalind wants you to take the guild selection test. Soon." She studied him carefully. "Do you want to go?"

Daemon thought about it — about growing stronger, about staying close enough to actually be useful the next time something went wrong, about the version of himself that couldn’t do anything but watch if her condition worsened.

"Yeah," he said. "I’ll go."

Victoria nodded, satisfied, and was about to say something else when the doorbell rang.

She rose to answer it.

The moment the door opened, her eyes went wide.

..................

Author’s Note:

Thank you so much for reading my novel and adding it to your collection! ❤️

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