Chapter 185 The Sun Tower

The next morning, Meira’s front gate was as crowded as a festival.

"Bring this scarf!" Elowen shoved a scarf into Erik’s hands. "It is definitely cold in that tower!"

"It is currently-"

"Bring it!"

"...All right."

Felyn followed the line of his shoulder and tucked a small pouch embroidered with chrysanthemums into his pocket. "I made it myself. It is a little ugly, but there is a safety charm inside." She smiled, but the fingers resting against his chest trembled faintly. "Come back early, okay?"

Carmilla quietly placed a lunch box in his hands. Vylana stood beside Saraya, folding her arms and sternly instructing him, "If that old man dares do anything to you, tell my mother to swallow him alive."

"I heard that, daughter." Laviana’s lazy voice drifted from inside the car. "But it is not a bad idea."

At the corner of the gate, Runi stood still, her hands clasped before her stomach. She watched Elowen wrap the scarf around him, watched Felyn sew the pouch, watched Carmilla hand over the lunch box, as though trying to carefully memorize what people did when seeing someone off on a long journey.

Erik looked at the pile in his hands: the scarf, the pouch, the lunch box, and a bottle of water Elowen had just hurriedly shoved in. One by one, he placed the lunch box and water bottle into his spatial bracelet, while carefully keeping Felyn’s pouch in his breast pocket. Then he laughed.

"You are acting like I am going to war. I am only going to a meeting."

"A meeting with an old man who kills people like flies!" Elowen immediately retorted.

"Meira and Laviana are coming with me."

"That makes it even more worrying!" Elowen glared at the car. "Those two sitting in the same car as you the whole way there..."

Meira, who was adjusting the sleeves of her Healer robe, calmly replied, "I will keep an eye on him."

"You are the one I am most worried about, Mother!"

Laughter rose from before the gate. Even Carmilla had to turn away to hide her smile.

Erik glanced toward the corner of the gate, where Runi still stood quietly, then called out.

"Runi."

Runi looked up in surprise.

"Get in the car. You are coming with me."

The front gate suddenly went silent for a moment. Elowen’s eyes widened. "You are bringing Runi too? For what?"

"At the Council, every man who enters has a maid attending him." Erik shrugged. "I do not want those people looking down on me the moment I walk through the door. Besides, the tea in that tower is made by Zeka’s people. I will feel safer if someone from our side pours it for me."

Elowen was speechless. Laviana giggled inside the car.

Only Meira silently glanced at Erik, very briefly. Erik gave a slight nod.

The real reason was one they both understood. He could not leave the thing inhabiting Runi’s body behind in a house with only Elowen, Felyn, Saraya, and Vylana, none of whom knew anything. It had to be somewhere Meira could hear its mana rhythm, where Laviana’s Serpent Eye could see every movement. Somewhere he himself could stand in front if anything happened.

Runi stood still for several seconds, as though she could not believe her ears. Then she walked over and reached out to straighten the scarf Elowen had unevenly wrapped around his neck. Every movement was slow and careful, as though imitating what she had just watched.

"Yes... Sir Erik."

Her voice was very quiet. But when she sat in the seat beside the car door, the space between her and him was only the width of a hand. Closer than at any time since that morning.

Erik shook his head and got into the car. Before the door closed, he turned back to look at everyone one more time.

Morning sunlight painted familiar faces in gold. Elowen was still grumbling. Felyn waved toward the sound of the engine. Vylana had an arm around Saraya’s shoulder.

And Saraya stood there, at the very back.

She did not say anything. She did not give him instructions, wave, or run toward him like the others. She only stood still and watched him, her eyes still slightly swollen from the night before.

There were so many things she wanted to say. Be careful. Do not take risks. I will wait. I am sorry. Thank you.

But she did not say them.

Because she understood now. In the past, he had never needed to say, "I am worried about you." He had simply done things quietly. Stayed awake all night. Run all over the city. Stood in front of her.

No amount of words could compare to one meaningful action.

Erik looked at her for a second. Then he gave a slight nod.

The car door closed. The vehicle began moving, slowly leaving the tree-lined street and heading toward the city center, where the flickering Lighthouse still stood tall beneath the scarred sky.

Saraya watched until the car vanished completely around the bend.

Then she turned, rolled up her sleeves, and walked toward the kitchen where Carmilla was cleaning up.

"Carmilla." Her voice was still slightly hoarse, but her eyes were very bright. "Will you teach me how to make mushroom cream soup?"

Carmilla looked up, slightly surprised.

Saraya smiled.

"This time, I want to make it many times."

...

The Council building was still the same as the first time Erik had come.

More than twenty floors covered in white stone and golden metal, glaring beneath the noon sun. At its peak, the massive sun emblem still spread its arms, bestowing false light upon the square below.

Only one thing had changed: several new cracks ran along the facade, remnants of the night the sky dome collapsed, hastily plastered over with white mortar that had not yet dried.

The main doors opened.

Two rows of Succubi in white uniforms still knelt along the path. Their knees pressed against the marble floor, heads bowed so low their faces could not be seen. Whenever they needed to move, they were still only permitted to crawl on their knees. The stone floor was still polished clean enough to reflect people’s images.

Erik knew why it was so clean.

Beside him, Meira paused.

She had once heard Erik speak of this place. She had once seen Succubi from the Council brought to the hospital with shattered knees and purple lightning burns beneath their skin. She was a Healer. She had treated them, stitched them up, bandaged them, then watched them return here.

Back then, she had only felt pity.

But now, it was different.

Now, she knew what it felt like to have someone lift her face and say, "Look at me."

She knew what it felt like to be asked, "Does it hurt?" without having to fear giving an answer.

She knew what it felt like to rest her forehead against a man’s knee without being pushed away. It was precisely because she had been loved that she understood what the women kneeling here had been deprived of.

Not freedom.

But even the ability to know that something called being loved still existed in this world.

Meira tightly gripped the sleeve of her Healer robe. Her fingers trembled very faintly.

Laviana walked on the other side, the ever-present smile on her lips gone at some point. Her blue eyes passed over every bowed face, her pupils narrowing into thin slits, cold as blades.

Runi walked last, both hands holding the teapot brought from home.

Her expression showed not the slightest emotion. She looked at the bandaged knees, the callused hands, at a young Succubus trembling as she crawled aside to make way. Everything was recorded, clear and cold, like the numbers she always counted.

But somewhere deep inside Runi’s chest, something stirred slightly.

Not pain. Not anger. Only a vague discomfort, like swallowing a small shard of bone.

She did not know what to call it. She only held the teapot a little tighter.

...

The elevator stopped at the top floor.

Two Succubi kneeling beside the gold-plated doors were about to stand and block the way, only to immediately drop back to their knees when they realized they had just intended to stand higher than a man.

"Sir... the women accompanying you must kneel when entering..."

"They will not kneel," Erik said.

"But the rules-"

"Then they will wait outside." Erik turned to Meira and Laviana. "Wait standing up."

Meira looked at him and nodded slightly. Through their Contract, she could still sense his heartbeat. Laviana leaned against the gaudy golden wall, crossing her arms, while twelve transparent snake eyes silently slithered through the cracks in the wall and inside.

"Runi, follow me."

The doors opened.

The room was still as large as before. Zeka still sat in a chair combining an electric cart and a magic device, its body carved with sun patterns.

His body was gaunt, little more than skin over bones, and two Succubi kneeling behind him held up his long white hair that touched the floor.

His claws, longer than half a meter, rested upon two velvet cushions. But his face was grayer than before, the hollows beneath his eyes deeper, his lips purplish.

Standing in the corner of the room was the black-haired female attendant, her face expressionless like a porcelain doll.

Viper’s gaze passed over Runi for an instant before lowering.

Zeka looked Erik over from head to toe. His gaze was slow and scrutinizing, as though inspecting defective merchandise.

"You walked here."

"Yes."

"Succubi followed you, yet no one pushed a cart for you. No one lifted your hand." Zeka’s voice was high and slow, each word seeming to wait for someone else to write it down. "A high-ranking Healer, one who possesses the Serpent Eye, and you leave them outside the door as bodyguards. Yet you walk on your own and speak with your own mouth."

He tilted his head slightly.

"You are very strange, Erik. You have Succubi to enjoy, yet you use your own body to protect that trash."

Runi stood behind Erik, setting the teapot down upon a small table beside her. Her hand paused for a beat.

"They are not trash."

Erik’s voice was not loud. But the room seemed to turn cold.

"They have names. They have people they love, and people who love them. They know pain, fear, and how to cry when someone they care about is hurt." Erik looked directly at Zeka. "The girl you killed last time, just because the tip of her finger touched your shoe. She was the same."

The two Succubi holding Zeka’s hair trembled violently.

Zeka did not get angry. He only looked at Erik for a long time, then let out a long breath, hoarse as wind passing through a rotted bellows.

"Did you come here to talk about that?"

"No. I came because you invited me."

"Then let us discuss the real matter."

...

Zeka slightly raised one finger. Viper stepped forward and placed an old map on the table, its edges yellowed with age.

"North of the city is an ancient human ruin." His long claw tapped a red-circled point. "Inside is something the Council needs."

"And?"

"Its stone door only opens for men."

Erik frowned. "The Council does not lack men."

Zeka did not answer.

Erik looked at him. At his thin legs like two sticks beneath the gold-embroidered robe. At the Succubi holding up his hair and hands. At the chair that could not move without Succubi pushing it.

Then he understood.

That night, the Council’s group had stood before the stone door all night. The door only opened for men. But within the Council, not a single man could cross it on his own. Without Succubi to carry and support them, they could not even walk ten steps.

Those people who called themselves gods had lost even the use of their own legs.