Chapter 787: More Upgrades

Slung over his shoulder, Ther’Abella let out another furious squawk.

"Don’t let him bewitch you, Elowynn!" Ther’Abella yelled, pounding her fist against his lower back. "He’s using some kind of charm on you! Close your ears!"

Silas gave the elf’s thigh a firm squeeze to quiet her down, which earned him an indignant squeal, and turned to Aki.

"Alright, Aki, lead the way," Silas said with a broad smile. "Show me how everything turned out..."

Aki beamed and nodded eagerly, then turned and led the group down one of the pale gravel paths toward the middle of her territory.

"This way, Silas!" Aki said proudly, her azure eyes shining as she walked right beside him. "Thanks to all the building materials you brought us, we’ve been able to build so much!"

The group fell into step behind them as they walked through the quiet pretty heart of Aki’s Wonderland.

Inside the walls, the territory was calm and lovely.

Silver-barked birches lined the gravel paths, their pale branches swaying gently overhead, and the little cobblestone squares between the buildings were swept clean in neat patterns of pink and white.

The air smelled of fresh wood and stone dust from all the new building... Little flower beds edged the paths, freshly turned and planted, and someone had tied pink ribbons around the trunks of the birches nearest the square.

A couple of Aki’s girls were sitting on a bench outside one of the buildings sharpening arrowheads, and they jumped up and waved shyly as the group went by.

Lupina waved back with both arms however Morrighan didn’t, but her tail did.

Kaelia had drifted over to walk beside Solenne, and the petite chef kept stealing curious little glances at the nine silver tails swaying along next to her.

"Um... Solenne?" Kaelia asked shyly. "Doesn’t it get heavy, carrying all of those around?"

"Not at all, little chef," Solenne chuckled warmly, one of her tails curling up to sway right in front of Kaelia’s nose. "They’re the lightest part of me... Though brushing them every morning is another story."

"I’d love to make you a tail-brushing snack sometime," Kaelia said earnestly, her eyes going round. "Something sweet to keep your energy up while you brush..."

Solenne let out a delighted laugh, her fox ears twitching. "Now that’s a deal I’ll take."

Ahead of them, Aki pointed toward three new stone buildings sitting at the edge of a little square.

"Look, Silas!" Aki said, pointing with real excitement. "Over there on the left is our new cookhouse! It’s got four stone hearths and a proper chimney and next to it is our storage building. We’ve stocked it all the way up with spare weapons, materials and everything else we could fit in there!"

She pointed next to a sturdy stone workshop with a tall chimney puffing pale gray smoke into the sky.

"And that’s our new smithy!" Aki went on, a small sheepish grin tugging at her lips. "We’ve got iron, charcoal and an anvil in there, and we’ve stocked up on spare spearheads and arrows... Though we still don’t have anyone to work it. I don’t have any dwarves yet, so Ther’Abella and I have been trying to hammer out arrowheads by ourselves."

Silas chuckled as he looked over the sturdy stonework. Aki really had worked wonders with what he’d given her.

For a new lord still in the middle of her Novice Trial, building all of this from nothing was a big accomplishment.

"You’ve done an incredible job, Aki," Silas said sincerely, turning his dark blue eyes on her. "Really. But before we go out and crack open those nests, I want to help your territory out a little more."

Aki blinked up at him, her azure eyes wide with curiosity.

"Help out...?" Aki asked, tilting her head. "How?"

She looked at him with complete trust as there wasn’t a shred of doubt in her heart.

...If Silas said he was going to do something, she’d believe him even if he said the sun was going to rise in the west but she was still curious.

Silas gave her a mysterious lopsided smirk.

"Let’s just call it a unique power of mine," Silas said, his tone light and playful. "A little help to make sure my favorite vassal’s walls don’t get knocked down while we’re out hunting..."

Aki nodded slowly, her heart fluttering at the words ’favorite vassal.’

If he wanted to help her, then he was going to help her.

That was just how the world worked now. Every time Silas walked into her life, impossible things happened, her problems disappeared, and her territory grew.

But as they kept walking down the path, a heavy quiet ache settled deep in Aki’s chest.

She watched his tall confident stride, the way the light caught his dark hair and the easy strength in every step he took.

She looked back at the incredible women walking behind him, women who could level mountains, carve runes into anything and break whatever stood in front of them with one punch.

’He gives me everything...’ Aki thought, her fingers tightening around the fabric of her sash as a painful knot twisted in her stomach. ’He’s the reason my territory’s still standing. He brought me materials and weapons. He carried me to bed when I was drunk and now he’s brought all of these amazing girls just to clear out nests for me... If he keeps giving me all of this help, how am I supposed to pay him back...?’

The question scared her.

She was a princess, but out here, that didn’t mean much.

She didn’t have a treasury full of gold, and she didn’t have any ancient treasures... Her Destruction flames were still weak, nothing compared to her father’s, while the girls he’d brought could wipe out whole packs of monsters so she didn’t have much to offer him at all.

’What could I even give him...?’ Aki’s thoughts spun in frantic circles. ’My body? B-but my body already wants him! My heart races every time he looks at me! Giving him my body wouldn’t be paying him back, it’d just be giving myself what I already want! So what else is there...? My soul? Am I supposed to give him my soul?! But h-how is a princess supposed to give someone her soul?!’

The silliness of the thought made her face flare pink all over again, though the fierce determination in her chest kept burning.

Before her thoughts could spiral any further, Silas came to a stop as they’d reached the middle of the settlement.

Behind them, in the middle of the pink and white plaza they’d just crossed, stood the pearl-white Troop Summoning altar and rising right in front of them was Aki’s Keep.

It was a charming pastel Tier 2 Keep, built from cream and blush pink stone with sea-green tiled spires and arched windows.

It looked more like a pretty summer palace than a fortress, and it had the same cozy sweetness as the girl who owned it but it didn’t look like it would hold up for long against anything big trying to knock it down.

"Hm."

Silas stood in front of its gates and let his gaze sweep across the Keep, then turned to look at the new cookhouse, the storage building and the empty smithy.

He focused his mind, and the System’s numbers appeared in his head.

...Every building would cost 500 UP to bring up to Tier 3, and her walls would cost 1,200 UP to bring up to Tier 4.

Silas stood quietly in the breeze, his dark blue eyes narrowing as he weighed it up.

’Tier 3...’ he thought. ’Or should I just push them all the way to Tier 4?’

Slung over his shoulder, Ther’Abella had finally stopped kicking, though her low muffled cursing kept buzzing against his back like a hornet trapped in a jar.

Every few moments, she muttered dark promises about cutting his tendons the second she got the feeling back in her toes, and Silas paid her no attention at all.

Beside him, Aki had her hands clasped over the front of her tunic, her azure eyes wide and bright as she watched his face, waiting for whatever he was about to say.

Behind them, Solenne was idly stroking the tip of one of her tails while Kaelia marveled at it, and Aurelia and Rowenna were whispering to each other about the pretty pastel buildings.

Lupina was crouched at the edge of the path, sniffing at the gravel with her ears swiveling toward the treetops.

In his head, he made up his mind.

There was nothing wrong with Aki having Tier 3 or even Tier 4 buildings.

Giving his vassal the strongest territory he could made a lot of sense... A strong territory could hold off whatever came at it, and he wouldn’t have to come running every time something nasty wandered out of the wilds but a building being stronger didn’t make it any easier to live with...

It had taken Silas a while before he’d felt comfortable enough to have Tier 4 buildings in Blessed Land himself.

They were bigger, there was more to manage, and they changed how the whole place ran.

If he dropped them all on Aki at once, she’d spend half her trial feeling like a lost guest in someone else’s palace instead of the lord of her own territory.

She needed to get used to running Tier 3 buildings before she had any Tier 4s.

...Tier 3, then. That was the right place for her to start.

Silas turned his gaze to the pastel Keep, and a translucent golden window flickered open in front of his eyes.

[Upgrade System: Would you like to upgrade Tier 2 Blossom Keep to Tier 3 Rosewater Citadel?]

[Cost: 500 UP]

"Confirm..."

The ground under their boots gave a sudden deep shudder.

RUMMMMBLE!

A pillar of golden light burst up from the foundations of the Keep and swallowed the whole building.

The cream and blush pink stones groaned as they spread outward and upward in a rolling wave... The walls thickened by three feet of solid stone, and their soft colors deepened into a rich rosy pink that caught the light and glowed against the silver birches.

The roof lifted as a whole new floor rose up underneath it, with sweeping eaves of dark polished wood.

At the four corners of the building, slender spires pushed up into the sky, their sea-green tiles gleaming, each one capped with a pale globe that hummed softly with warding mana.

The front doors melted into a shower of sparkling golden motes and reformed into a wide arched gate of white marble bound in polished brass and carved with blooming flower patterns that pulsed with a gentle glow.

The light faded, and a soft sweet-smelling mist drifted off the stone as the new Keep settled, standing proud and strong and breathtakingly beautiful in the middle of the birches.

Every window in the new Keep caught the light at once and threw little rose-colored glints across the plaza, and somewhere inside it, a bell none of them had ever heard before chimed three soft notes.

DONG! DONG! DONG!

Aki’s jaw went completely slack. Her hands flew up to her mouth, and her azure eyes filled with the reflection of the gleaming rose walls.

"M-my Keep..." Aki whispered, her voice trembling with breathless shock. "The stone, it got bigger! The spires... Silas, how did you do that without any workers?!"

Silas didn’t give her time to work it out. He turned his eyes to the new cookhouse on the left side of the square.

[Upgrade System: Would you like to upgrade Tier 1 Cookhouse directly to Tier 3 Hearthbloom Kitchen?]

[Cost: 500 UP]

"Confirm..."

Golden light burst up out of the ground and swallowed the little stone cookhouse whole.

CRRRREAK!

The single-story building spread outward as its foundation pushed deeper into the ground, nearly tripling the space inside.

The rough stone walls melted and hardened again into smooth pale granite lined with gleaming copper pipes... The roof rose higher and traded its plain shingles for heavy interlocking slate glazed a deep forest green.

From the back of the building, three tall fluted chimneys of dark stone rose up together, each one capped with a brass damper that immediately started puffing out pale warm air.

Along one side, a cold pantry grew right up out of the earth, its thick stone walls covered in faint glowing runes that kept the inside cool and dry.

"Oh! Oh my goodness!" Kaelia squeaked from behind Silas, bouncing up onto her toes as her eyes locked onto the three chimneys. "Look at that! Three separate chimneys! You could bake honey pastries in a low oven while searing boar over open coals, and the bakers wouldn’t even get smoked out! T-that’s a dream of a kitchen!"

Silas chuckled at her pure chef excitement and turned to the storage building next door.

[Upgrade System: Would you like to upgrade Tier 1 Storage House directly to Tier 3 Everseal Vault?]

[Cost: 500 UP]

"Confirm..."

The ground groaned under the storage house as another golden pillar lifted its frame.

THOOM!