Chapter 51: A Princess’s Use

"Lex, what exactly are you implying right now?"

Frostbloom’s expression had gone somewhere between scandalized and delighted. "’Too much to take’? ’Can’t finish it all’? I’m going to need you to hear yourself."

Alexis caught up with what she’d actually said half a second too late. Heat rushed straight into her face, and she swatted at Frostbloom’s arm without any real force behind it.

"Get your mind out of the gutter. I meant the gear. There’s too much of it I can’t afford to buy all of it."

Ever since the merge, everyone on the server had learned the same lesson at the same time: gold wasn’t just gold anymore.

Nobody was selling coin for cash these days, not when that same coin could buy back years of a life.

Alexis’s usual method throwing real money at the problem until it went away simply didn’t work anymore.

Between buying lifespan and extracting attributes into the real world, gold had become the one resource nobody wanted to give up for anything less than gold itself.

She wanted every piece sitting in Kael’s shared trade window. She just didn’t have the coin to take it.

Kael only shrugged, unbothered. "Then buy what you can afford."

"Five minutes. Mark whatever you want."

She spent every second of it. In the end, five hundred thousand gold changed hands for every Gold-tier piece he had, thirty-one Silver-tier items, and twenty-six skill tomes essentially the entire high-value core of the haul.

Both of them walked away satisfied. Kael traded a few closing pleasantries, cracked a return scroll, and vanished in a flash of light back toward the city.

Alexis stayed rooted to the spot long after he’d disappeared, gaze fixed on empty air, something calculating working behind her eyes.

Frostbloom waved a hand in front of her face. "Hey. Earth to Lex. Everyone’s gone. What’s got you standing here like you’ve been hexed?"

"Shut it, you." Alexis shot her a look, more distracted than annoyed. "I just realized something.

Back when he first started trading with us before any of this reality-merge business he only ever took gold. Never cash. Not once."

"And he’s worn that mask since day one. Nobody’s ever actually seen his face. No way to trace who he really is."

"I brushed it off as just being careful at the time. Looking back now? That’s not careful. That’s knowing something the rest of us didn’t."

"Wait." Frostbloom blinked. "You think he saw the merge coming?"

The realization hit her a beat later, and her whole face lit up like she’d cracked some grand mystery. "Oh my god.

He’s from the future. He got reincarnated or something, didn’t he? That’s the only way any of this makes sense!"

"...That is the single most unhinged theory you’ve ever said out loud, and you say a lot of unhinged things." Alexis pinched the bridge of her nose. "Read fewer trashy novels."

"Then explain it. Explain any of it."

"I can’t. Not yet." Something sharpened in Alexis’s expression, thoughtful and a little dangerous.

"But if we ever actually saw what’s under that mask found out who he really is behind it I think a lot of these questions would stop being questions."

Kael had no idea he’d just become the subject of two women’s very determined curiosity, nor would he have cared much if he had.

Back in the city, he made straight for the auction house and dumped the rest of his inventory onto the block whatever gear, tomes, and materials Alexis hadn’t already claimed.

With the best of the haul already gone to her, nothing left triggered a server-wide notice.

Kael counted that as a win.

A little quiet was worth more than he’d have guessed a day like today would leave him wanting.

From there, he cut straight for the palace.

Before the siege at Highwatch Bastion had even started, he’d sent word ahead asking Elara to track down a handful of items.

Enough time had passed now that they should be waiting for him.

The palace grounds carried more guards than any other building in Frostwatch, but the identity token of the princess’s personal guard captain got him through every checkpoint without a second glance, straight to the door of Elara’s private chambers.

He bowed formally to the two sentries flanking it. "This guard carries urgent word for the princess."

"Enter," came the reply from inside calm, precise, carrying exactly the composure expected of royalty.

Kael let himself in and pulled the door shut behind him.

Elara Winters rose to meet him, draped in a gown that suited the title far better than the disguise she was quietly obligated to maintain in public.

The moment the latch clicked, she bowed her head.

"My lord."

Kael’s eyes flicked toward the door out of old habit before he caught himself.

Elara caught the glance and offered a small, knowing smile. "There’s no need to worry.

This room carries a sound ward. Nothing said in here reaches anyone outside it."

He relaxed at that, gave a short nod, and waved off the formality.

"You don’t need to bow every time. I’m not particular about that."

"Have you found what I asked for?"

"Everything’s ready, my lord."

She led him to a low table where three items sat waiting a shimmering blue-green pendant, a scroll etched with faintly glowing runes, and a small triangular banner in pale violet.

[Stormglass Talisman]

(Legendary-grade)

Automatically activates the instant its wearer is caught off-guard by an attack, raising a barrier of azure light to absorb everything that follows. Shield duration: 30 seconds.

[Nightveil Scroll]

(Epic-grade) 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Grants total invisibility for 120 minutes upon use. Effect ends the moment the wearer attacks or is struck.

[Farsight Banner]

(Epic-grade)

Establishes a 300-meter detection field upon activation. Any person or large creature entering the radius is instantly flagged.

The timing wasn’t accidental. With the game bleeding into reality now, Kael might sit unchallenged at the top of every leaderboard the server tracked, but none of that mattered if someone tracked down the body he still had lying vulnerable in the real world while his mind rode inside a capsule.

He’d seen it happen before, in his first life talented players erased in an instant because someone found their address before anyone found their name.

It was exactly why he’d kept the mask on since the moment he logged in.

These three items closed that gap. Not permanently. But enough, for now, that an ambush wouldn’t end things before he ever saw it coming.

Contracting her was worth every bit of the effort, in the end.

Unlike Void Behemoth or Wraithlord, Elara couldn’t stand at his side in every fight her position demanded she stay exactly where she was, playing her role inside a court that had no idea what she actually was.

But what she could do, no combat-focused companion ever would have managed.

reach into corners of the world Kael had no standing to touch himself, and pull out exactly what he needed, when he needed it.

While he turned each item over, checking the details on the readouts, Elara settled behind him and rested both hands lightly against his shoulders, easing some of the day’s tension out with a touch far gentler than her title suggested she’d ever need to learn.

"Word already reached the palace, my lord. They say you took first place among every adventurer at Highwatch Bastion."

Her voice stayed soft, careful. "That kind of battle takes its toll. Let me help you set some of it down, if only for a moment."

Kael let his eyes close, just for a second, and allowed himself exactly that one quiet moment, before the next fight found him again.