Chương 374: Presenting the Bill

The air on Aetheria-Beta tasted like raspberries, but right now, all I could sense was the overpowering ionized ozone smell of ambient mana. I stood on the pearl-sand ridge, suppressing my gravity field to keep from cracking the stone beneath my boots. Opposite me, the Lord of the Sapphire Flock hovered on a platform of wind-woven mana. He was draped in iridescent blue silk and crystalline jewelry, looking down his nose at us with the practiced arrogance of a local noble.

He was used to being the biggest fish in this particular shallow pond.

"I, Volarus of the Skyborn, will ask only once more, ground-dweller," Volarus sneered.

"By what right do you interfere with the administrative justice of the Flock? These children of yours assaulted my guards and tried to steal a registered indentured asset." Behind me, Jared stood with his hands in his pockets, though amber gravity sparks drifted from his heels, melting the pearl-sand below his boots. Beside him, Vesk crouched on a fallen copper-trunk, her tail lashing against the bark. Huddled between them was a small girl.

Her translucent skin had turned a sickly, pale grey — a sign of extreme fear for her species. A thin, glowing blue brand pulse-flickered on her collarbone. A soul-oath. A contract of debt.

"Instructor," Jared said flatly.

"This girl was being dragged with soul-chains and then the guards just laughed when she fell down from sheer fatigue. When we asked what she did, they used a mana-whip on Vesk's shoulder. I simply... redirected the kinetic energy of the whip back into the guard's collarbone."

"It made a very satisfying crack," Vesk added. I let out a slow, measured breath. This was supposed to be a simple vacation. I didn't want to spend the day explaining to the planet's trade registry why I had vaporized a local lord and his entire household over a dispute.

"Let's keep things civil," I said.

"How much do you need for this to go away?" Volarus blinked. He had clearly expected a fight, or at least some loud, posturing display of Tier 6 or 7 authority. He hadn't expected a transaction.

"The debt of the family Talise," Volarus said, adjusting his rings with a slow, deliberate flourish.

"Inherited upon the death of her parents. Five hundred thousand quintessence shards. But given the disrespect to my house, the price for her release is now double."

"One million shards," Jared muttered, his jaw tightening.

"That's highway robbery. Besides, she is just a child, she shouldn't have to pay her parents' debt."

"One million is a reasonable starting point," I said, ignoring my student.

"And as a token of good will, I will pay you two million shards. In exchange, you will hand over the contract and dissolve the soul-oath here, now." To Jared, a million shards was a lifetime of cultivation resources. To me, especially with the newly accumulated essence and the influx of our treasury, it was a rounding error. Volarus was practically salivating. His blue eyes locked onto my hand as I reached into my subspace vault and pulled out a single, dense, violet-black sphere of pure, high-grade Quintessence.

It was so concentrated that the local low-gravity of Aetheria-Beta actually groaned, the space around my palm bowing slightly under the sudden weight of the mana. Volarus' hand trembled as he pulled out a small, sapphire triangle from his robes. He tossed it to me, his eyes never leaving the sphere. I caught the sapphire, scanned it with [Void-Lattice Perception] to verify her true signature, and crushed it in my palm.

The glowing brand on the Glidewalker girl's collarbone dissolved into a shower of harmless, silver motes. I tossed the sphere of QS to Volarus. He caught it with both hands, cradling it against his chest in absolute, greedy awe.

"We are done here," I said, turning.

"Jared, Vesk. Pack the bags. We're heading back to camp." As we walked down the path, I kept my eyes forward, but my [Lattice Perception] remained fixed on the girl. She walked with her head down, her small hands clutching her ragged tunic, but her soul-thread didn't show relief. It was tight, vibrating with a dark, coiled resentment.

"You're disappointed," I said, not turning around. The girl, who's name I learned was Talise, flinched, her scales shifting to a defensive, mottled brown.

"I... I do not understand, Lord."

"You wanted us to kill him," I said, my voice casual.

"You saw Jared and Vesk. You realized they were strong, and you hoped that if you stayed close to them, the Sapphire Flock would provoke them into a slaughter. You wanted to watch Lord Volarus bleed." Talise slowly looked up, her opal-like eyes wide with a mixture of terror and desperate anger.

"He deserved to die."

"Probably," I agreed, finally looking back at her.

"But we are unveiled and on a vacation. And a war in a neutral sector is highly inefficient. Now, let's go." At the campsite, a starlight-driftwood fire crackled on the shore of the violet lake, sending green and gold sparks into the sky. Rexxar was standing over a giant iron grill, arguing loudly with Eliza about the marinade, while Lucas calmly carved a piece of silver-wood and Anna braided flowers into Tink's hair. As we walked into the firelight, Talise shrank behind Jared.

Even with our auras suppressed, the physical and spiritual density of fifteen high-tier cultivators sitting in one place made the local air feel thick.

"We're back," I announced, tossing my cloak aside. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Ah! As expected of the master, you have defeated the enemy before dinner!" Rexxar bellowed, waving his spatula.

"And a new guest! Sit by the fire! I have prepared the feast!" Talise sat on the very edge of a log near Anna, her knees pressed together. Jared slumped onto the opposite log, groaning.

"Instructor Eren is officially old and soft. He just threw away two million shards. Do you know how many gravity-conduits I could have bought with that?"

"About three," Vesk said, sliding next to him and reaching for a skewer of glazed fruit.

"And you would have blown up two of them within the first hour."

"It was a calculation error!" Jared protested, throwing a small pebble at her. Vesk caught it in her teeth and spat it back. Talise went entirely rigid. Her eyes darted from Jared to me, her breath catching. She looked like she was waiting for me to strike them down.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked gently.

"He... he threw a rock," Talise whispered, her voice trembling.

"And they are speaking back to the Lord. Will they... will they lose their tongues?" Anna paused, then let out a soft, melodic laugh that instantly took the chill out of the air.

"Lose their tongues? If Eren cut off their tongues every time they spoke back, this campsite would be a lot quieter. Don't worry, little scale-ling. He only bites when people touch his things."

"Don't encourage them, Anna," I grumbled, taking a cup of tea from Lucas.

"They're already entirely too comfortable. Jared, if you don't finish your gravity-mapping homework by tomorrow morning, I am going to have Rexxar use you as a training weight again." Jared paled, his bravado vanishing.

"That's just cruel." Talise watched this exchange, her opal eyes moving from Jared to me, then to Anna's smiling face. Slowly, the rigid tension in her shoulders began to yield.

"Drink," Anna encouraged her, sliding a cup of sweet, bubbling berry-juice toward her.

"It's really good. It has starlight-nectar in it." Talise took a tiny, hesitant sip. Her eyes went wide, showing huge circles of pure astonishment. The pure mana of the juice hit her tongue like a cold wave of liquid sugar, sending a warm, healing rush through her starved mana-conduits. Her scales flared into a vibrant, glowing turquoise. She took three giant, messy gulps, then reached out and took a piece of the roasted honey-glaze bread Eliza offered, eating with a quiet, desperate hunger.

Her tail gave a tentative, happy flick against the dirt.

"I was an orphan too," Anna said quietly, gently tucking a stray strand of orange hair behind Talise's scaled ear.

"A long time ago. Before the world changed. Eren and I... we didn't have much. We didn't even have bread like this. We just had each other and grandpa. But we kept moving forward, and we found people who we could call family. You're free now, Talise." Talise stopped chewing, her scales shifting to a soft pink.

"The... the Lord Volarus... he was the one who did it." The campsite went quiet.

"Did what?" Jared asked, his voice losing its teenage playfulness.

"The fern nursery," Talise whispered, a single tear of clear, saturated mana-water trickling down her cheek.

"My father refused to sell our land to him. So... Volarus had his guards poison our water-conduits. The ferns died. Then he offered us a loan to 'save' us. When my parents couldn't pay... they fell from the high cliffs during a storm. But my father was a high-tier glider. He didn't fall. He couldn't have." Jared's hand clenched. The log beneath him disintegrated into grey powder as a localized gravity-well flared, shaking the loose pebbles at his feet. Vesk's teeth bared, a low, reptilian hiss escaping her throat.

"We should go back," Jared said, looking at me.

"Instructor, please. We can go back and—""No," I said.

"But Instructor!" Jared yelled, standing up.

"He killed her parents! And you just gave him two million shards! You rewarded him!"

"Sit down, Jared," I said. I set my cup of tea down on the log. I didn't release my Domain, but the silent, heavy authority settled over the campsite like a leaden weight. The fire flattened as if pressed by an invisible palm, and the lake water stopped its gentle lapping, turning to a mirror-like sheet of purple glass. Jared froze. The gravity well around his boots vanished, and he slowly sat back down, his head dropping.

"You have let the power get to your head, Jared," I said, my voice carrying across the camp.

"Aetheria-Beta is a neutral node that has no Veiling or protection from the Prime. If we start a war here, the Courts will detect our signatures. Two million shards is nothing compared to the troubles we'll face if that happens." I reached out, tossing a starlight-lily into the fire.

"But don't mistake a transaction for forgiveness," I added, a cold, tiny smile touching my face.

"Those shards carry a signature. Every time he uses one, he is planting a beacon of my mana inside his own vaults. If he stays quiet, he keeps his toy. If he tries to push his luck... I will know exactly which coordinate to delete." Jared blinked, the math finally clicking in his head.

"You... you tagged him?"

"I tagged my own essence," I corrected. Talise looked between us, her head tilted, but the fear was gone. She took another bite of the bread, her scales shifting to a warm orange as she sat closer to Anna. Tink flew over, landing on Talise's head, and the girl let out a tiny, high-pitched giggle. We spent the next hour in comfortable chatter.

And as we all shared stories, Talise began to slowly open up and share some of her own — the way the ferns would glow in the dark, and how her father would take her gliding through the lavender waterfalls. It was a good evening of warmth and chatter, until I felt a strange ping in the lattice. Then, the hum of the [Symphony] spiked. The air above the lake rippled, and a large, blue-feathered messenger-beast descended, landing on a nearby boulder with a heavy, arrogant flutter of wings.

He adjusted his silver collar and looked down his beak at me.

"A message from Lord Volarus of the Sapphire Flock," the messenger announced, his voice carrying a magically amplified resonance. Talise instantly went stiff, her orange scales turning a terrified, pale white as she shrank back into Anna's embrace. Tink let out a protective squeak, hiding in Anna's hair.

"Speak," I said, not looking up from my tea.

"The transaction has been reviewed by the Flock's high elders," the messenger declared, crossing his feathered arms.

"It has been determined that the Glidewalker asset, Talise, possesses a rare, dormant Star-Wind core of the sixth rank. You deliberately concealed this value to scam the Flock of its heritage." I closed my eyes.

"Therefore," the messenger continued, "Lord Volarus demands an immediate additional indemnity payment of ten million high-grade shards. Failure to comply within twelve hours will result in the immediate nullification of the contract's release. The Sapphire Flock will deploy its sky-vanguard to reclaim our property and execute the foreign thieves." Beside me, Jared was already looking at me with a wild, expectant grin. Vesk was sliding off her log, her daggers shimmering in the firelight.

I opened my eyes, looking at the empty cup of tea in my hand. I let out a long, slow, exhausted sigh. The vacation was officially over.