Chapter 687: Helping Lord Silas Out [Bonus Chapter]
The clerk continued smoothly, his eyes scanning the decree.
"The petitioner specifically requested, and I quote... ’A modernized, high-tier mobile vessel that eliminates obsolete industrial constraints, incorporating organic living sectors and advanced structural comfort, whilst retaining uncompromising defense capabilities for high-risk expeditionary campaigns.’"
Silence fell over the gate.
The wind rustled through the weeping willows with the distant hum of Central City’s skyline drifting over the wall.
Lord Sky stood completely motionless, looking for all the world like a statue of forged iron.
"...A new one?" Sky’s synthesized voice rasped out, slipping by a bit as Evelyn struggled to keep the modulator steady. "You... you prepared a new territory vessel?"
"Indeed, Lord Sky," the clerk smiled, rolling the parchment closed with a crisp snap. "The commissioning was expedited under priority directives... The new vessel has already been transported to the Council Dockyards here in Central City. I have been instructed to escort you there immediately. Should the vessel meet your structural specifications, the transfer of your territory core and anchors can be processed within the hour, Should it fail to meet your standards, the council has five alternative hulls available in the reserve yards for your immediate selection."
Evelyn felt the ground tilting beneath her boots.
Her mind was spinning, completely overwhelmed by the absurdity of the revelation.
’Kara White... Silas... requested this?!’ she thought, her hands trembling slightly inside her gauntlets. ’He spent a part of his North Khemet reward... on an entire new mobile fortress for me?!’
"Tell me," Sky rasped with the modulated voice sounding faintly strangled. "Out of pure curiosity... what was the evaluated cost of this commissioning? How many Spirit credits were billed to the settlement ledger for this upgrade?"
The clerk checked a secondary ledger and recited the figure without so much as a blink... the whole commission, hull, refit, and every requisition fee, came to eight billion Spirit Credits.
A sharp, violent pang of dizziness lanced straight through Evelyn’s temples.
’Eight... eight BILLION?!’
Her knees nearly buckled inside the armor.
’This...’ the thought echoed in her hollow, echoing skull, tasting of pure, overwhelming shock. ’He signed off on an eight-billion-credit warship... and all I gave him back was a handmade hoodie with two stupid chibi faces on the front?!’
Standing there beneath the autumn breeze, encased in twenty tons of cold alloy, the mighty Commander Lord Sky had never felt smaller in her entire life.
...
Meanwhile, on the grand arterial thoroughfares of Central City’s Upper Tier.
A sleek elongated limousine forged from burnished reflective gold glided silently over the polished magnetic rails of the elevated expressway.
The vehicle was a masterpiece of metropolitan luxury with heavily tinted enchanted glass, dampening fields that eliminated every bump in the road, and an interior lined with plush white velvet, mahogany trim, and chilled crystal decanters of sparkling nectar.
Sitting in the center of the sprawling rear lounge, Kara White leaned back against the cushions, staring straight ahead with an expression of profound, deadpan resignation.
To her left, Morwenna was practically plastered against Kara’s shoulder with her long legs crossed and her stormy gray eyes darting between the leather fixtures and the passing skyscrapers outside with intense suspicion.
To her right, Aeliana sat gracefully with her hands folded over Kara’s bicep, her ethereal silver-haired head resting comfortably against Kara’s sleeve, humming a soft melodious elven tune as she watched the passing traffic.
And sitting directly squarely on Kara’s lap, curled up like an oversized contented kitten beneath her heavy green traveling cloak, was Rika.
The Beast Goddess had both arms wrapped tightly around Kara’s waist with her chin resting on Kara’s chest and her vivid emerald eyes blinking peacefully while the fledgling Primordial Phoenix poked its golden head out from the folds of her collar, chirping softly at the velvet ceiling.
Kara let out a long quiet sigh, resting her chin on Rika’s dark, silky hair.
’How in the world did I end up in this exact physical arrangement...?’ Silas thought from within his feminine disguise, looking down at the tangled mess of limbs currently anchoring him to the upholstery.
The moment they had stepped into the luxury transit vehicle at the station terminal, the girls had moved with terrifying coordinated speed.
There was an entire six-seater lounge available, with empty leather couches lining both sides of the cabin, yet all three of them had converged onto a single square yard of cushion space like iron filings drawn to an oversized magnet.
Still... Silas couldn’t bring himself to push them away. There was an undeniable sweet comfort to the warmth pressing against his ribs.
"Hey," Morwenna muttered, her voice dropping into a low wary rumble as she pointed a calloused finger toward the control console in the driver’s partition. "What kind of beast is pulling this carriage? I don’t hear hooves... I don’t smell leather harnesses. Is there an earth-golem trapped under the floorboards?"
Kara held back a chuckle, smoothing a lock of Morwenna’s dark hair behind her ear. "There are no beasts, Morwenna... It’s an arcane engine. It runs on compressed lightning mana and magnetic repulsion rails."
Morwenna’s brow furrowed into an intense skeptical scowl.
"Magic rails? Sounds like an easy way to get your throat slit when the mana runs dry. Give me a good wooden deck and an ocean current any day."
Across the cabin, Aeliana tilted her head with her pointed ears twitching as she observed the towering spires outside.
"It is quite fascinating, Lord Sy. In the ancient high courts of the silver groves, we traveled via living boughs and wind-bridges. This... mechanical creation feels remarkably cold, yet the flow of mortal commerce is breathtaking."
Rika nestled closer into Kara’s lap, her fingers lightly gripping the fabric of the tailored coat, her voice barely a whisper.
"The noise... there are so many heartbeats out there. Thousands of them but none of them feel like predators."
Silas listened to their quiet wonder-filled observations, her violet eyes softening beneath her black fringe.
’It really makes you wonder...’ Silas thought, staring out through the tinted glass at the surreal convergence of magi-tech airships and ancient stone towers. ’All of these girls... they were summoned from different corners of reality. Different eras, different dimensional planes, different civilizations that rose and fell millennia apart... and now we’re sitting inside an electrified luxury limousine in the heart of a cosmic metropolis.’
The Sovereign Realm was a bizarre, beautiful, and utterly confusing crossroads where time, space, and history simply collided into a single endless marketplace.
Above the limousine, a barge the size of a cathedral drifted past with its lanterns lit, trailing banners that read GRAND ARC OPEN MARKET.
Rika pressed her nose to the glass and stared at it like it might be edible.
Ten minutes later, the golden limousine smoothly decelerated, gliding into the private underground carriage-court of The Celestial Reach Hotel.
The hotel was legendary... a hundred-story monolith of white granite and crystalline glass that catered exclusively to visiting Lords, high-ranking arbiters, and high-tier guild masters.
An immaculate silver-liveried butler bowed deeply as the vehicle doors glided open, escorting the group directly toward a private, express elevator shaft that bypassed the public lobby entirely.
Within moments, they were deposited onto the penthouse terrace of the highest floor.
The private suite was breathtaking.
Polished marble floors, soaring vaulted ceilings inlaid with shimmering astral constellations, floor-to-ceiling windows offering a panoramic view of the entire sparkling city below, and total uninterrupted privacy.
Beyond the glass the whole of Central City glittered below them like a spilled jewelry box, sky-bridges stitched between the towers and the afternoon barges drifting through the haze in slow lantern-lit lines.
The butler bowed once more, placing four small, gleaming obsidian cards upon the silver console near the door.
"Your private quarters, Lady Kara," the butler said with flawless aristocratic deference. "These are the territorial access passes keyed to your house registry... Should you require room service, private courier dispatch, or administrative escorts, simply channel your mana into the console. The entire floor is sealed beneath seventh-tier privacy wards."
"Thank you. You may leave us," Kara replied smoothly, gesturing toward the doors.
The butler bowed and exited, the heavy double doors locking shut with a soft chiming hum of protective wards.
Kara walked over to the dressing salon adjacent to the main lounge.
Resting on a plush velvet mannequin was an exquisite, tailored three-piece suit of deep midnight-blue silk, accented with silver threading along the lapels and fitted with high-tier kinetic-dampening mesh beneath the lining.
It was sharp, professional, and undeniably commanding.
Kara quickly began unbuttoning her travel coat, tossing it onto the lounge chair, and slipped into the tailored suit.
She turned back toward the lounge, fastening the silver cufflink at her right wrist, her long black hair cascading neatly over her shoulders.
"Alright, ladies," Kara said, stepping into the center of the room. "Here’s the plan. I’m taking Rika with me to the Beast Sanctuaries and the high-tier exchange pavilions in the central district... We need to scout proper beast contracts and see what kind of bloodlines the exchange has available."
She looked at Morwenna and Aeliana, raising an eyebrow. "What about you two? What do you want to do while we’re gone?"
Morwenna and Aeliana looked at each other, and then back at Kara.
"We can handle the supply run," Morwenna suggested, her thumb gesturing toward her own chest with confident swagger. "You’ve got that laundry list of raw construction materials and forge supplies that Aki handed you before we left... Instead of you hauling crates around the industrial ring, Aeli and I can go run the errands, secure the trade warehouses, and pick up the building blocks."
Aeliana smiled brightly, her emerald eyes dancing with eager excitement.
"Yes! And while we are navigating the commercial quarters, we can take Lady Eluned’s camera and capture magnificent landscapes of the high city to show her upon our return! We can also purchase delightful gifts and souvenirs for the other girls back in the Keep... some fine silks for Kaede, some sweet confections for Lupina, and perhaps new books for Aurelia!"
Kara paused, looking between the two of them.
The fierce blood-soaked pirate queen and the elegant Elf princess, teaming up to go grocery shopping and souvenir hunting in a high-tech metropolis?
’Can I actually trust them not to accidentally burn down a district...?’ Silas mused with an amused affectionate smile. ’Morwenna has a short fuse, but Aeliana has enough diplomacy to smooth over any ruffled feathers so they’ll be fine.’
"Alright," Kara smiled, nodding in approval. "I can trust the two of you with that. It’ll save us a ton of time."
Kara stepped forward, closing the distance between them.
She reached up, placing a gentle hand behind Morwenna’s neck, and pulled the tall pirate queen down slightly, planting a soft warm kiss directly onto the center of her forehead.
Morwenna’s stormy gray eyes widened with her cheeks instantly flushing a deep lovely pink as her swagger momentarily short-circuited.
Before she could sputter a complaint, Kara turned to Aeliana, leaning in and placing a tender lingering kiss on the High Elf’s smooth pale forehead as well.
Aeliana beamed, her pointed ears trembling with pure radiant joy.
"Thank you both," Kara said warmly, stepping back.
She reached into her inventory, pulling out the rolled parchment list Aki had given her, along with the ornate camera Eluned had provided, and handed them to Aeliana.
Then, Kara picked up two of the gleaming obsidian access cards the butler had left on the console, pressing one into Morwenna’s hand and one into Aeliana’s.
"These are the Blessed Land ID cards," Kara explained, pointing to the silver twin-leaf sigil etched into the corner. "They’re tied directly to our central trade account with the high exchange... If you go into any licensed shop, artisan guild, or wholesale warehouse, you don’t need to count copper or barter with gems. Just present this card to the merchant, tap your mana into the reader, and the payment clears automatically through the reserves we’ve been given."
She gave them both an encouraging smile. "Buy whatever Aki needs, get whatever gifts you want for the girls, and have fun. Good luck."
"Leave it to us, Captain!" Morwenna grinned, pocketing the card with a confident slap against her thigh. "We’ll have the trade wagons lined up before you even finish looking at your birds!"
Aeliana bowed with graceful poise. "We shall fulfill every request flawlessly, Lord Sy!"
[One Hour Later]
The bustling commercial promenade of Central City’s Grand Arc was a breathtaking sea of marble plazas, glowing crystalline streetlamps, and multi-tiered shopping pavilions.
Crowds of diverse beings, armored sovereign mercenaries, robed alchemists, feathered avian merchants, and wealthy noble scions, flowed through the wide avenues like an endless river of color.
Street performers shaped illusions of dragons above their hats, a vendor was hawking skewered sky-eel by the stick, and a courier on a hoverboard clipped a fountain’s spray and swore in three languages.
In the center of the grand pedestrian plaza, standing near a magnificent three-tiered fountain of singing water, was Morwenna.
The pirate queen stood completely motionless in the center of a dense winding queue of people with her arms crossed tightly over her leather-clad chest while Tidebringer was sheathed at her hip.
Her right eyelid was twitching violently.
’How the hell...’ Morwenna thought, staring blankly ahead at the back of a robed man’s head, ’...did we end up here?!’
[Author’s Note]
I did a mass release of 12 Chapters heh, I’ve done my best. The least you could do is give me all of your golden tickets heh, and add a magic castle hehe. Thank you all and expect another mass release tomorrow.