Chapter 171 | Calloway Residence

Chapter 171: 171 | Calloway Residence

The first cloaked figure nodded.

"Yes. But only a glimpse. She was inside the house, near a window. We observed her for approximately twelve seconds before she went out of view."

A pause.

"She appears to still be ill. The amnesia is still present. Otherwise, that bastard fellow would have been long dead."

The scarred man’s expression didn’t change. But something shifted in the air around him as a pressure emanated from him.

The scarred man exhaled.

"It’s already been long enough." He muttered to himself then, he moved his right hand from behind his back.

With a single, fluid motion, he flipped his palm upward. A translucent stone materialized above his hand. It was small, roughly the size of a marble, and perfectly spherical. Its surface was pale blue and faintly luminous, with thin veins of silver running through its interior like frozen lightning.

A Soul Stone.

A rare and extraordinarily expensive treasure designed to increase one’s soul strength.

The scarred man held the stone between his fingers then, without turning around, he flicked it backward.

The stone shot through the air through the air.

The first cloaked figure caught it without hesitation.

"It is not convenient for me to go there personally right now," the scarred man said. "The situation is delicate. Too many eyes and too many parties involved. If I make a move, it will be noticed. So you will do this instead."

He turned fully now, for the first time since the two figures had entered.

"Take the Soul Stone, watch the house and wait for an opportunity."

"She will not be holed up in that house forever. She will come out eventually. When she does, and when she is alone, you approach."

The two cloaked figures listened attentively.

"Place the Soul Stone on her forehead. It should be able to help her recover some of her memories. Once her memories begin to return, she will understand who she is and what needs to be done next."

He looked directly at the taller of the two figures.

"If she doesn’t remember and refuses..."

He said nothing more.

They nodded their heads in understanding.

...

The Calloway family residence was an empire unto itself.

The Calloway Estate occupied a massive tract of prime real estate in the eastern quarter of Stargate City, surrounded by walls of reinforced white stone that stretched nearly a kilometer in each direction. The perimeter was patrolled by hired heroes in Calloway livery.

Anti-intrusion formations were layered into the walls themselves, invisible to the naked eye but deadly to anyone foolish enough to test them.

Inside the walls, the estate was a self-contained world. Manicured gardens, training grounds, barracks for the family’s private military force and various other buildings.

And at the center of it all, rising above everything else like a crown, sat the Calloway Mansion.

The mansion was enormous. Three stories, with sweeping balconies, tall arched windows, and a grand entrance framed by pillars carved with the Calloway family crest.

This was the seat of the fifth most influential family in Stargate City.

And it was here, in the private study on the second floor, that the current head of the Calloway family sat at his desk and signed documents.

---

The study was large but understated. Dark wood shelves lined three walls, filled with leather-bound ledgers, cultivation manuals, and historical texts. A single window behind the desk offered a view of the central garden, where ancient maple trees cast long shadows across lawn.

The man behind the desk was handsome, sharp features, strong jaw and high cheekbones.

His hair was a deep, burnished red, darker than Rosalind’s copper-orange but lighter than Mira’s blood-crimson, tied back neatly in a low tail that hung past his collar.

A pair of thin gold-framed reading glasses sat on the bridge of his nose.

He looked to be in his mid-forties but he was, in fact, fifty-three.

The pen never paused as he signed various documents, his eyes scanned each page in the few seconds it took to sign, absorbing the contents with speed.

Suddenly, the door to the study opened but Victor Calloway didn’t look up and simply continued signing.

He signed three more documents, then he set his pen down, removed his glasses, and looked up.

There, Rosalind stood in front of his desk.

She stood with her hands folded before her but her eyes were blazing with fury so intense it seemed to heat the air between them. And at the corner of her mouth, was a trace of blood.

She hadn’t wiped it off and had left it there deliberately, so he would see it.

Victor looked at the blood.

Then at her eyes.

"What happened?"

Rosalind’s jaw clenched and she took a breath through her nose as she spoke like a brat reporting to their parent.

"Mira happened."

Victor’s brow furrowed.

"Explain."

Rosalind explained.

She told him everything. The visit to the bungalow. The bastard husband who had disrespected her at the gate. The sheer audacity of a man with no name, no status, and no power ordering her around as though she were a servant.

She told him about Mira’s refusal. The Phoenix Flare Flower offer. And Mira’s flat rejection of everything.

"She refused to beg," Rosalind said, her voice tight with disbelief. "She refused to even consider it. She said she didn’t need it. She told me to get out."

Victor’s expression didn’t change.

Rosalind continued.

"And then she attacked me."

The room went very still.

Victor’s pen, which he had been idling rolling between his fingers, stopped.

"She what?"

"She attacked me," Rosalind repeated. "Actually using Crimson Demoness techniques against her own sister. She’s grown even more disrespectful after living a while with that batard! Hmph!"

She touched the corner of her mouth where the blood had dried.

Silence.

Victor stared at his daughter with a blank expression on his gaze.

"Has she repaired her meridians?" he asked quietly.

Rosalind nodded. "Yes. Definitely. She was mid-session when I arrived. I caught her meditating, pulling mana into her body before she stopped."

Silence.

Then—

Victor Calloway threw his head back and laughed.

"Hahahaha!"