"What happened? Are you truly so wimpy that you couldn’t trust me? You had to disappear after handing over the Spirit Pool?"
Camilla’s voice grew quieter as she added; "Do you think I wouldn’t keep my word?"
Stan considered how much to tell her and he decided on the truth.
Not all of it, the identity of the Void Sovereign, the deeper history behind the inheritance, and the fact that the return of the vanished races was already inevitable. Those secrets would remain his for now. But the general outline was safe enough to share.
"I encountered an inheritance," he said simply. "I passed its trials and received the legacy left behind by its creator. That’s why my aura has changed."
Camilla stared at him. "An inheritance?"
"Yes."
"You, a New Age human, encountered an inheritance beneath a glacier, passed its trials, and received its legacy."
"Yes." She remained silent for a long moment.
"...Cultivator," she said at last, "you are the strangest person I have met in a very long time."
Stan shrugged; "I’ve been told that before."
Camilla’s eyes narrowed. "And what good can such an inheritance possibly be? If it was hidden on Earth, then it was likely left behind by one of the weaker cultivators. All the truly powerful ones were already transported away with the others."
Stan almost smiled. ’If only she knew.’
The inheritance sitting in his possession belonged to a man who had once possessed enough power to hide an entire world from the greater cosmos.
Fortunately, she didn’t know that. Yet.
Stan stepped fully into the cavity and stopped at a comfortable conversational distance from her.
He could feel the ambient Qi around them, thin and sparse now, little more than residual traces left behind by the departed Spirit Pool. But he could also feel, distantly, the vast reserves of Qi stored within his Void Vault.
For the first time since arriving on the ice, he was no longer at a disadvantage in this cave.
Not entirely, anyway. He could not immediately overpower Camilla.
The inheritance had given him a foundation. It had not given him years of practical combat experience. In raw fighting ability, she was still stronger than he was.
That gap would close in the years ahead. But at this exact moment, the balance of power remained in her favor.
And despite everything he now possessed, those crimson eyes and the faint pressure of her aura still sent a chill down his spine.
’System?’
[Yes, Host?]
’She’s really already in my harem?’
The response came instantly.
[Yes, Host.]
[Camilla Dragomir has already been integrated into the Harem System.]
[Harem Loyalty Binding completed.]
[Camilla Dragomir will not act against Host’s interests, will not intentionally cause harm to Host, and will not betray Host under any circumstances.]
Stan blinked. Then he glanced at Camilla, who was still studying him with the amused expression of a predator trying to figure out whether its prey had somehow grown fangs.
’You know...’
The system remained silent.
Stan continued anyway. ’Is it just me, or are you becoming more talkative lately?’
No response
’Seriously. You were practically mute for weeks. Then around the time I met Camilla, you started answering questions.’
Silence
Stan waited.
Still Nothing
A vein twitched near his forehead.
’Right. Of course you’re ignoring me now.’
The system offered no reply.
Stan rolled his eyes; ’As if you weren’t just answering my questions a moment ago.’
The silence somehow felt smug.
Thinking of something, Stan took a slow breath to calm himself then turned his awareness inward, not toward his own body, but toward a connection.
It existed somewhere between himself and Camilla, not physical, not spiritual in the conventional sense, yet undeniably real. A bond woven into something deeper than either.
As he focused on it, he felt it, it felt like a faint thread, a subtle flow.
A soft, invisible current of Qi drifted across the cavity, brushed against Camilla, and dissolved into nothingness. The effect was instinctive. Part of the Harem System.
Qi could flow through the bond. He could transfer Qi to those connected to him, and they could do the same in return.
Camilla blinked. A small frown appeared on her face; "Something just..."
She stopped. Her Royal Blood senses had detected the movement of Qi. She knew something had touched her.
But she couldn’t identify what. Whatever it was had operated at a level beneath her ability to examine.
Then her eyes narrowed. ’This sensation... It felt strangely familiar.’
It reminded her of the inexplicable feeling she had experienced moments before Stan had vanished six hours ago.
She looked at him; "Something just changed."
"Something did change." Stan met her gaze evenly.
"You may not fully understand it yet. You will, eventually. In brief, you are now bound to me in a way that means you will not, and cannot, act against my interests."
Camilla’s crimson eyes narrowed. For several seconds, she said nothing. Then her smile vanished; "Repeat that."
Stan met her gaze evenly; "You are bound to me. You will not, and cannot, act against my interests."
A heavy silence hit the place... For the first time since he had met her, genuine anger flashed across her face. The temperature in the cavity seemed to drop.
A faint crimson glow appeared in her eyes as a pressure rolled outward from her body. Ancient, predatory and dangerous.
A Royal Blood vampire was not a creature that accepted chains.
"Human..." Her voice was soft.
Far too soft.
"You are telling me that you bound me without my permission."
"I am."
The pressure intensified. Instinctively, Stan’s muscles tensed.
Then something strange happened. The anger stopped growing.
Camilla frowned. The fury was still there. She could feel it. Yet every time she tried to feed it, to let it build into true outrage, it slipped through her fingers like water.
Her expression changed. Confusion replaced anger. She tried again, yet she was met with nothing.
The indignation remained, but it felt distant. Muted. Unable to become more than a shadow of what it should have been.
Her eyes widened slightly; "What..."
For the first time, genuine unease entered her voice. She focused inward.
A Royal Blood possessed absolute confidence in their own will. Their minds were fortresses. Their emotions were their own.
Yet something was wrong. Not because her thoughts were being controlled. Not because her memories had been altered.
But because she could no longer sustain hostility toward the man standing before her.
She tried. Again and again. Each attempt collapsed before it could fully form..The realization struck her like a physical blow.
"I should be furious." Her voice was barely above a whisper. She looked at Stan, then looked away, unsure of how to counter it...It felt as though something had reached into the foundations of her existence and quietly declared that her will was no longer entirely her own.
Gritting her teeth she looked back at him again. But the anger simply refused to remain.
A long silence followed. Then, unexpectedly, she laughed.
A soft, genuine laugh filled with disbelief.
"I would be furious," she said, "if I didn’t feel so calm about it."
Her smile returned, though this time it was smaller and far less certain.
"And I have never, in my long life, felt calm about being bound to anyone."
A strange expression crossed her face. It was confusion, disbelief. Even now, she could hardly accept it, she was after all a Royal Blood.
A direct descendant of one of the oldest vampire lineages in existence. Her will should not bend. Yet it wasn’t bending. That was what disturbed her most. The bond didn’t feel like domination. It didn’t feel like coercion. It simply felt... right.
She studied him. The same predatory fascination remained in her gaze, but there was something else beneath it now.
Something warmer. Something she had slowly developed over the hours spent waiting for his return and the moments spent watching the changed man who now stood before her.
More startling still was what she could no longer do. She could not form killing intent toward him. Not even when she tried. And his blood...
Her gaze flickered briefly to his neck. The scent still tempted her. The hunger remained.
But it no longer clawed at her instincts with the same overwhelming intensity as before.