Chapter 131: A Library?
Chapter 131: A Library?
Silas let out a silent breath of relief. He didn’t have the stamina to navigate another bathhouse turf war today.
"I’ll be down in twenty minutes," Silas promised, pushing past them and hauling open the heavy Keep doors.
He climbed the spiraling stone staircase to the master suite on the top floor.
The Keep was quiet with the thick stone walls blocking out the sounds of the military drills and the distant howling of the wolves.
He stepped into his private bathing chamber, kicking the heavy wooden door shut with his heel.
The room was already sweltering.
The massive circular cedar tub in the center of the slate floor was filled to the brim with crystal-clear steaming hot water, enchanted with thermal runes to keep the temperature perfectly regulated.
Silas didn’t waste time.
He unbuckled his heavy weapon belt, resting the glowing hand-and-a-half sword carefully on a wooden stool.
He stripped off his soaked, filthy canvas shirt, peeling the cold fabric away from his skin with a heavy groan of relief.
’It’s so sweaty and wet...’
He kicked off his boots, discarded his heavy dark trousers, and stepped completely bare into the steaming water.
The overwhelming heat of the tub hit his sore muscles like a physical hammer.
Silas sank down until the water reached his collarbones, resting his head back against the smooth curved rim of the cedar wood.
He closed his eyes, letting out a long shuddering exhale as the hot water began to melt the deep agonizing stiffness out of his lower back and shoulders.
He reached over blindly, grabbing a clean sea-sponge and a fresh bar of soap from the shelf, and began scrubbing the dried mud off his arms.
’I feel quite Lordy today... maybe I should take on a second suggestion?’
Knock! Knock!
The soft polite rapping sound on the heavy wooden door made Silas open his eyes.
"Lord Sy?" a quiet, melodious voice called out from the hallway. "It is Aeliana. May I enter?"
Silas paused, the soapy sponge hovering over his chest.
He thought about telling her to wait outside but Aeliana wasn’t Morwenna or Eluned.
She didn’t burst into rooms demanding attention or trying to start a fight.
The Arcanist was the most disciplined, polite, and devoted member of his girls.
If she was knocking on the door while he was bathing, it usually meant she had a report or a territorial update that couldn’t wait.
’It’s quite funny how Aeliana went from one of the less trusted ones to such a high status... She really does get her job done.’ Silas thought.
"Come in, Aeli," Silas called out, resting his arms on the edge of the tub.
The heavy door clicked open.
Aeliana stepped into the steamy slate room. She quietly closed the door behind her, sliding the iron bolt into place with a soft clack.
She wasn’t carrying her usual stack of clipboards as her hands were completely empty.
Aeliana didn’t strip off her clothes and launch herself into the water like the other girls.
She maintained her pristine elegant composure.
Aeli slowly walked across the wet slate tiles, reaching down to gather the flowing fabric of her white spider-silk robes.
She tied the heavy silk in a neat knot at her waist to keep it from dragging in the puddles, then meticulously rolled her long, flowing sleeves up past her delicate elbows.
She walked right up to the edge of the cedar tub with her green eyes glowing softly in the dim steamy light.
"You have had an incredibly taxing day, Lord Sy," Aeliana murmured, her voice turning into a soothing quiet melody.
She reached down, gently taking the soapy sea-sponge directly out of his hand. "You spent hours securing the perimeter, and establishing a new cavalry division. Your arms must be exhausted. Please... allow me to wash you."
Silas looked up at her. The steam curling around her silver hair gave her an ethereal otherworldly beauty.
"I can scrub my own back, Aeli," Silas offered mildly, though he wasn’t exactly rushing to take the sponge back.
"I know you can, My Lord," Aeliana replied smoothly, stepping behind him. "But you shouldn’t have to."
She knelt gracefully on the slate floor right behind the tub. She dipped the sponge into the hot water, working the cedarwood soap into a thick, slick lather.
Aeliana placed her hands on his broad wet shoulders.
The exact second her soft, cool fingers made contact with his hot bare skin, a powerful electric shiver ran straight up Aeliana’s spine.
Her heart slammed violently against her ribs with her pulse skyrocketing in the quiet room.
’My Lord truly is perfect,’ Aeliana thought with her eyes tracing the thick musculature of his upper back.
Lord Kal had long since been forgotten.
’His skin is burning hot... The muscles are so dense and he is letting me touch him. The pirate and the goddess are downstairs boiling vegetables, and I am the one doing this... So I win right?’
She kept her face a flawless mask of polite serenity, but her hands moved with slow agonizingly thorough precision.
She pressed the soapy sponge firmly against his shoulder blades, dragging it slowly down the deep curve of his spine.
She washed the soot from his neck with her thumbs massaging the tight, knotted muscles at the base of his skull until Silas let out a low deeply appreciative groan.
"That hits the spot~" Silas muttered, leaning his head forward to give her better access. "You have magic hands, Aeli."
A hot blush spread across Aeliana’s pale cheeks as her chest tightened with overwhelming joy at his praise.
"It is my honor to serve you, Lord Sy," she whispered, her voice trembling slightly with suppressed emotion.
She rinsed the sponge and poured a stream of clean, hot water over his back to wash away the suds.
As she continued to wash his arms, working her delicate fingers over the heavy, scarred muscle of his biceps, she took a slow, steady breath.
"Lord Sy," Aeliana spoke quietly, breaking the comfortable silence. "While you were reviewing the suggestion box earlier today... you mentioned that you truly valued the input of the troops. You said that building a territory requires listening to the needs of the Soldiers."
Silas opened his eyes, resting his chin on his folded arms at the edge of the tub.
"I did. The Beast Pavilion was a massive success. Why? Did someone else drop a pitch in the box?"
"No, My Lord," Aeliana replied softly.
She moved her hands to his chest, gently lathering the thick pectoral muscles framing his glowing Gold Core that was inside.
"I did not put it in the box. I wanted to bring it to you directly. A personal suggestion for the expansion of the Blessed Land."
Silas turned his head slightly to look at her over his shoulder.
He was genuinely intrigued. Aeliana managed the logistics of the base like him; she rarely asked for anything for herself.
"I’m listening," Silas encouraged her. "What do we need?"
Aeliana kept her hands moving, maintaining the soothing rhythm of the bath as she laid out her tactical pitch.
"We need a Library, Lord Sy," Aeliana stated clearly.
Silas blinked. "A library? Like... for reading books?"
"Precisely," Aeliana nodded, her silver eyes serious. "The military expansion of this territory has been staggering... We have armories, beast pens, and forges but a faction cannot survive purely on steel and muscle. I have been observing the girls."
She rinsed his chest with a wooden ladle of hot water.
"Many of the girls you summoned possess incredible combat stats, but they lack basic educational fundamentals..." Aeliana explained tactfully. "Just yesterday, I spoke with Vruj... one of the heavy shieldmaidens stationed at the north gate. She possesses exceptional defensive reflexes, but she admitted to me in private that she cannot read the weapon manuals Thora leaves in the armory. She doesn’t know how to write a perimeter scouting report."
Aeliana leaned slightly closer, her soft breath brushing against his wet shoulder.
"If you construct a dedicated Library within the Keep’s walls," Aeliana proposed, her voice filled with quiet passion, "complete with writing materials, blank ledgers, and bound tomes... I could hold evening classes. I could teach Rowena and the rest of the infantry how to read and write properly. A literate army is a highly efficient army, Lord Sy. They could read your written orders... They could draft precise scouting maps of the Unknown Zone instead of just pointing at trees... It would elevate the intelligence of the entire Blessed Land."
Silas sat completely still in the hot water.
His brain aggressively processed her pitch as he analyzed it from a strategy perspective, running the logistics through his head.
’She is one hundred percent right...’ Silas realized with his respect for the Arcanist deepening. ’I’ve been so focused on raw attack and defense that I completely ignored the intelligence threshold of the base. If my scouts can’t read a map properly, they’re useless on a huge scale... A library isn’t a luxury, it’s a critical intelligence upgrade.’
Without saying a word, Silas closed his eyes and mentally commanded the Warlord interface to open.
The familiar glowing blue UI materialized in the darkness behind his eyelids.
He navigated past his unit roster, past the resource tabs, and directly into the Architectural Blueprint menu he had unlocked when the territory hit Level 10.
’Luckily there’s also a hologram version available...’
There it was, buried in the civic infrastructure tab.
[Unlocked Blueprint: Grand Archive - Tier 2]
[Type: Civic Infrastructure / Intelligence Hub.]
[Materials Required: 800 Ironwood Beams, 400 Refined Stone, 200 Blank Paper Rolls, 50 Vials of Starlight Ink.]
[Function: A dedicated repository of knowledge. Generates a passive 20% increase to the mental processing speed and mana regeneration of any allied entity studying within its walls. Unlocks the ability to decrypt ruin texts and draft high-tier magical spell scrolls.]
Silas checked his inventory sync.
He had the resources, well except for that Starlight Ink and Paper Rolls.
Silas opened his eyes. He looked back over his shoulder at Aeliana, who was watching him with a tense, hopeful expression, waiting for his judgment.
"Why not?" Silas smiled, his deep voice echoing warmly in the steamy room.
Aeliana froze, her hands slipping off his shoulders. "Truly, My Lord?"
"Truly," Silas confirmed, turning fully around in the tub to face her. "It’s a brilliant suggestion, Aeli... The combat stats will keep us alive, but intelligence is what will actually let us conquer this grid. We have the resources. I’ll lay down the wireframe for the Library in the eastern wing of the Keep first thing tomorrow morning and the classroom is yours."
The reaction was instantaneous.
Aeliana’s flawless serene composure completely shattered.
Her eyes went wide, shining with unshed tears of pure joy. The beautiful smile that broke across her face was so radiant it seemed to illuminate the steamy air.
"Thank you!" Aeliana gasped, her voice cracking with emotion.
She was so incredibly happy that she completely forgot her usual polite restraint.
Aeliana threw herself forward, wrapping her arms tightly around Silas’s wet bare neck, burying her face into his shoulder.
Silas grunted slightly as her weight hit him.
Her white silk robes plunged directly into the cedar tub, instantly soaking through, but she didn’t care at all. She hugged him fiercely with her heart hammering against his chest.
"Thank you, thank you, Lord Sy," she whispered repeatedly into his wet skin, completely overwhelmed that he had validated her intellect and granted her a place of true purpose in the territory.
Silas chuckled, reaching his wet hands up to gently return the hug, patting her slender back.
"Easy, Aeli, you’re soaking your robes..." Silas murmured gently.
He pulled back slightly, looking into her shining eyes.
"You don’t need to thank me. Thank you for contributing to the territory. You’re the brains of this operation. I’d be lost in the mud without you."
Aeliana’s face flushed a brilliant hot shade of crimson.
Her chest heaved as she stared at his handsome smiling face. She slowly pulled her arms back, looking down at her completely ruined soaked silk robes with a faint, embarrassed giggle.
"I... I should let you finish your bath, My Lord," Aeliana stammered softly, standing up from the wet slate floor. "The girls are waiting for you downstairs."
"Right. The cooking war," Silas sighed, the looming threat of the dining hall crashing back into his mind. "Wish me luck."
"You will need it," Aeliana smiled warmly, bowing gracefully before slipping out of the heavy wooden door, leaving him to finish washing in peace.
Ten minutes later, Silas stepped out of the bath.