Chapter 47. Looming Threat Over Grayhollow

Chapter 47: 47. Looming Threat Over Grayhollow

The historical drama played on the floating screen above the coffee table.

Soft blue-white light from the Aether-crystals filled the living room.

Two older actors argued about land taxes in slow, measured voices.

The translucent projection stayed perfectly still, a quiet reminder that Aether-crystals powered everything in this world from entertainment broadcasts to the thermal stones that heated the pipes.

Magical beast cores and refined mana stones kept the surface of society smooth while the underbelly stayed brutal.

Kael kept one arm around Eira’s shoulders. His hand moved slowly through her hair.

He stroked her head in a steady rhythm and kept his eyes on the screen.

Eira’s eyelids grew heavier.

The quiet room and the steady motion of his hand pulled the last of the tension from her body.

She had always been the quieter one.

She leaned her head against his shoulder, cheek resting on his shirt.

Within a few minutes her posture loosened completely and her breathing evened out into sleep.

Only the soft drone of the recorded drama remained.

The ambient light shifted from blue to pale violet as the scene on the broadcast changed to evening.

Silence stretched. The tension from earlier still hung in the air.

Seraphine finally spoke in a low, sharp whisper.

She kept her face turned toward the screen.

"If you tell anyone what happened here tonight, I will cut your thing off and feed it to the stray beasts in the alley."

Kael’s hand did not stop moving.

His voice stayed calm and quiet so he would not wake the girl against his side.

"Don’t be so cruel, Sera. You’re my daughter and I love you. You don’t need to be shy around me."

Seraphine made a short, annoyed sound through her nose.

A flush crept up the back of her neck. She still did not look at him.

"Love? Don’t say that word so easily. You’re just the one Mother brought home. A weak, ordinary man. Don’t act like you own this family. You’re just my stepdad, not a real dad."

"I know how this started," Kael answered. "But I’m still your dad now. And I meant what I said. I’ll protect what belongs to me."

She huffed once.

Her arms stayed crossed tightly over her chest.

The usual sharp retort never came. Her fingers only tightened a little more on the fabric of her white t-shirt.

’She is so cute when she acts like a tsundere,’ Kael thought.

Her bratty act was more entertaining now that he knew how easily it could crack.

He watched her tense profile for a moment, then spoke again in the same even tone.

"Go to sleep, Sera. It’s late."

Seraphine made another quiet sound of irritation, but she did not argue. She kept her face toward the screen.

Kael shifted carefully, sliding his arm further around Eira’s back.

He gathered her sleeping weight and lifted her from the sofa.

Her head stayed tucked against his shoulder.

He rose and carried her out of the living room toward the wooden stairs, leaving Seraphine alone in the shifting glow of the broadcast.

His legs made no sound on the polished wood.

He pushed Eira’s bedroom door open with his shoulder and stepped inside.

The room was dark and quiet, carrying the faint scent of her perfume. He laid her down on the mattress, careful not to wake her.

Moonlight through the window outlined her shape under her clothes.

Heat stirred in his blood again looking at her exposed body.

Kael took a deep breath and forced the arousal down.

He pulled the thick blanket up to her shoulders and smoothed it over her chest.

He leaned down and pressed a brief kiss to her forehead.

"Good night, Eira."

He stepped into the hallway, closed her door with a soft click, and walked the short distance to his own room.

The moment he shut the heavy wooden door, the translucent blue interface of the Lust Dominion System flared open in his vision.

[Lust Dominion System]

LP: +800

Source: Receiving direct stimulation from one stepdaughter while another is in close proximity.

Total LP: 1980

Nearly two thousand points. The hidden encounter under the living-room table had paid out better than expected.

The system rewarded risk and taboo as much as direct physical contact.

Kael stripped off his outer jacket, lay back against the pillows, and opened the System Shop.

Rows of glowing text appeared.

Taboo Insight : 900 LP𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

Effect: Reveals basic emotional state, hidden desires, and physical weaknesses of targets during intimate contact.

Silent Step : 950 LP

Effect: Suppresses footstep noises and presence for short periods; useful for stealth, ambush, and approach.

Quick Step (Movement): 1,300 LP

Effect: Provides a short-range burst of sudden speed (30 second cooldown).

Mana Circulation : 1,350 LP

Effect: Improves the natural recovery speed of stamina, internal energy, and sluggish mana to flow better.

Iron Body (Intermediate) : 1,500 LP

Effect: Increases physical body durability and reduces incoming blunt/impact damage by 25%.

Weapon Mastery: Blade : 1,500 LP

Effect: Raises basic proficiency with all bladed weapons up by one full rank.

Kael studied the list with focus.

His mana channels were still clogged, the real bottleneck of his ordinary human body.

Without a working foundation he would stay vulnerable in any real fight, whether in a dungeon or against the Church of Light.

Combat skills were useful, but useless if he could not move mana properly.

He selected Mana Circulation and confirmed the purchase.

Total LP: 630

[Purchase Confirmed: Mana Circulation]

Heat flooded his chest, not the intoxicating burn of lust, but a sharp, clinical pressure that shot into his veins.

Kael gritted his teeth and clenched the bedsheets as the sensation spread from his heart to his fingers and toes.

He felt the tight, calcified knots in his spiritual pathways uncoil.

The heavy, stagnant weight in his limbs began to dissolve. Ambient mana that had once trickled like a dried stream now moved more freely.

This world’s mana system was rigid.

A standard human possessed exactly seventy-two main channels.

Those channels determined how much energy a body could absorb, process, and expel.

Other races and rare bloodlines held far more or less.

Total circulating volume set a person’s ranker level.

Seraphine was an anomaly with roughly fifty to sixty times Kael’s original capacity, placing her at D+ already.

She’s much stronger than an average D+ ranker for her hybrid bloodline.

Veteran Crimson Team members were standard D rankers, holding twenty to thirty times the mana of an average E ranker.

The leap from D to C was exponential, not linear.

The towering oni demon they had faced lower in the dungeon had been a C or C+ threat.

Its dense mana pool had overwhelmed four seasoned D rankers and one D+ prodigy.

Only the divine mark on Kael’s wrist had saved them making the demon distracted with fear.

The burning heat in Kael’s veins faded into a cool, steady flow.

His actual pool size had not increased, but the channels were open and reinforced.

Mana moved with clean efficiency. He could sense every muscle fiber, the faint shift of air in the room.

His vision sharpened in the dark. The day’s exhaustion vanished.

In one step the restrictions of his mortal vessel loosened. His foundation pushed forward into D- rank.

Kael clenched his fist and felt the new energy under his skin.

The road to the Royal Academy and the coming divine war was still steep, but he was no longer a spectator.

He had taken the first real step.

Sitting on the edge of his bed, Kael clenched his right fist.

He felt the cool and steady circulation of D rank mana flowing smoothly through his unblocked channels.

The burning sensation from the Mana Circulation upgrade had finally subsided, leaving his core foundation significantly reinforced.

Glancing at the translucent blue interface, Kael reviewed his remaining balance of 630 LP.

’I need 1,300 LP for Quick Step and 2,500 LP for Mind Fortress to handle the Mulberry Blade without risk,’ Kael thought with narrowed eyes.

’Seraphine’s resistance is already cracking tonight. Another session with Wet Dream Weaver will give me the LP boost I need before the academy exam.’

Before he could close the window, a harsh wailing screech shattered the quiet night.

WOOOOAAAAHH! WOOOOAAAAHH!

The heavy chime of a magical emergency siren resonated across the cobbled streets of Grayhollow.

Runic amplification cores atop the guard towers vibrated at a deafening pitch, rattling the glass inside Kael’s bedroom window.

The siren soon dropped into a low thrum, replaced by a booming mana enhanced voice that reverberated through every house.

"ATTENTION ALL CITIZENS AND REGISTERED ADVENTURERS OF GRAYHOLLOW! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY BORDER BROADCAST! BORDER SCOUTS HAVE DETECTED A DEMON ARMY VANGUARD MARCHING SOUTH TOWARD OUR TERRITORY!

ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL IS WITHIN FIVE DAYS! ALL RANKED ADVENTURERS ARE ORDERED TO REPORT TO THE GUILD HALL AT DAWN FOR MOBILIZATION AND FORTIFICATION DUTIES!"

The broadcast cut off, leaving a suffocating silence over the town.

Kael stood up slowly, his newly unblocked mana surging to his fingertips.

Quick footsteps struck the floorboards outside his room impending the arrival of Seraphine.