anwhile, across the estate grounds, Thea walked the familiar path to the main residence.
She had changed into a simple but elegant robe—deep indigo edged in silver, hair pinned neatly back—before leaving the Moonvilla wing.
Her steps were steady despite the lingering exhaustion, her expression calm but resolute. Kaelan had sent word earlier: the Shadow Sovereign Isolde had arrived and was resting in the eastern guest quarters. More importantly, he wanted Thea to begin training in earnest—proper grooming to succeed him as House Lord.
She found them in the lord's study.
Kaelan sat behind the massive oak desk, scrolls and ledgers spread before him like a battlefield map.
Isolde lounged in a high-backed chair near the window, one leg crossed over the other, idly twirling a thin dagger between her fingers. She looked up as Thea entered and offered a bright, almost playful smile.
"Thea," she said warmly. "You've grown even lovelier since I last saw you."
Thea returned a small smile of her own—polite, but guarded. "Lady Isolde. It's good to see you again."
Kaelan rose, gesturing to the chair opposite his desk. "Co in, daughter. We were just reviewing the quarterly financial reports from the eastern provinces. I'd like your eyes on them."
Thea took the seat without hesitation.
She had spent years learning the house's ledgers, trade routes, tax flows, and investnt patterns. This was familiar ground.
As she leaned forward to scan the first scroll, Kaelan spoke again—voice low, almost casual.
"You'll be staying here from now on," he said. "No more guild excursions. No more extended absences. We begin your formal training tomorrow—morning strategy sessions, afternoon mana refinent, evening combat drills. Everything you'll need to stand as House Lord one day."
Thea nodded once. "I understand."
*
Back at the Moonvilla, the late-afternoon sun poured through the tall windows in warm golden bars across the polished wood floor. Qin Wei stepped out of the bathing chamber feeling like a new man.
Steam still clung faintly to his skin; his hair hung damp and loose around his shoulders, and the simple black robe he'd chosen afterward felt cool and clean against freshly scrubbed muscles.
The bath had washed away more than dirt—the lingering ache from the forced breakthroughs, the tension from the debt notification, even so of the guilt that had been gnawing at him since waking. He moved with a quiet, fluid ease now, every step lighter, every breath deeper.
He crossed to the low table beside the window, sat cross-legged on the cushion, and exhaled once—long and slow—before ntally summoning the character interface.
The familiar translucent panels unfolded before his eyes, crisp against the sunlit room.
Talent Points: 89
A small, tired smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Well… at least sothing good ca out of all that," he muttered to himself.
He scrolled through the available unlocks with deliberate care, fingers tracing idle patterns on his knee as he read.
First: Skill Cost Reduction (-50%) — 10 TP.
He tapped it without hesitation. The cost of future skill acquisitions—already a steep climb—dropped sharply. Worth every point.
Next: Recovery Rate 10% — 25 TP.
Another firm tap. Mana, stamina, and even minor wounds would nd faster now. In a world where fights could turn on seconds, that edge mattered.
Fifty-four points remained.
His gaze drifted lower to the two abilities he had relied on most heavily since arriving in this world.
Eye of Heaven
He lit up four Orbs one after another.
Duration increase: 150% total.
He unlocked all four in quick succession. Thirty-nine points gone. The interface updated instantly: Eye of Heaven could now be sustained far longer, its piercing vision cutting through illusions, concealnt, even low-grade spatial distortions with terrifying clarity.
Fourteen points left.
He switched to Eye of Truth and lit up 3 orbs.
Duration increase: 50% total.
He claid them all. One point remained—too small to spend, but enough to remind him how close he had co to emptying the pool.
Qin Wei closed the talent nu with a satisfied breath and scrolled further down the interface.
New functions glowed in soft gold lettering.
Appraisal Technique — unlocked.
Summoning Contracts — unlocked.
Mining Feature — unlocked.
Dismantle Technique — unlocked.
His eyes lit up.
Appraisal would let him identify items, artifacts, even hidden properties of people or beasts with far greater accuracy than before.
Summoning Contracts hinted at bound familiars or pacts—sothing he could explore later.
Mining… that one intrigued him most; if it worked the way he suspected, it could beco a steady source of rare materials without relying on rchants or dangerous expeditions.
And Dismantle—breaking down equipnt, monsters, even spells into usable components—opened possibilities he hadn't even considered yet.
But one thing pulled at his attention harder than the rest.
The sword.
He had felt it since waking—a quiet, warm presence coiled deep in his soul, like a second heartbeat running parallel to his own. No weight. No resistance. Just… there.
He focused on it.
With a single thought—Co—he called.
The air in front of him rippled.
No sword materialized in his palm.
Instead, golden light flared outward in a sudden, controlled burst. When it cleared, a towering figure stood where the light had been.
A muscled man—broad-shouldered, bare-chested, skin bronzed like sun-ward bronze—bowed deeply at the waist. His head was that of a lion: thick golden mane framing a regal, leonine face; amber eyes burning with quiet pride; sharp fangs visible even when his mouth remained closed.
"Master," the figure rumbled, voice deep and resonant, carrying the faintest echo of distant thunder.
Qin Wei stared. "You're… the sword?"
The lion-headed man straightened, mane shifting like living fla. "Yes, Master. My na is Leo."
Qin Wei blinked several tis, trying to reconcile the myth with the reality standing before him.
"I didn't know swords had spirits," he said slowly. In the stories he used to write in his past life, so blades did—ancient weapons with souls bound inside. But this one… This spirit is not sothing the system created. It is a native of this world. And in all the history books he had read, in Icarus's mories, there was never any ntion of Zodiac weapons having spirits either.
Leo inclined his leonine head slightly, pride evident in the lift of his chin. "Master, we are not re sword spirits. We are Zodiac weapons, the living shards of Astralith, the original Zodiac Beast. The guardian deity of the Divine Temple."
Qin Wei's breath caught. "Divine Temple?" Sothing stirred inside him.
Leo continued, voice steady and proud. "The Divine Temple was built around the largest remaining piece of Astralith's core. We, thirteen Zodiac artifacts, were its strongest limbs—each imbued with one aspect of the guardian beast's power. I am Leo—strength, dominion, unyielding will. My brothers and sisters carry the other signs."
He placed one massive fist over his heart.
"When the sword chose you, Master, it was not a re whim. It recognized in you the potential to reunite us. To restore what was broken. To stand once more as the guardian's full strength."
Qin Wei stared at the spirit—at the lion's proud gaze, the quiet fire burning behind it—and felt the weight of sothing far larger than himself settle across his shoulders.
He swallowed once. "And if I collect all thirteen…?"
Leo's amber eyes glead. "Then you will wield the power to slay even a true Deity, Master."
Qin Wei remained rooted where he stood, gaze locked on the towering lion-headed figure who had just bowed to him as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
The room felt smaller now—Leo's presence filled it like smoke, warm and golden, carrying the faint scent of sun-baked stone and distant thunder.
The spirit's mane shifted gently even though no breeze moved through the chamber, each strand catching the afternoon light like living fla.
Leo straightened fully, amber eyes eting Qin Wei's without a trace of challenge or subservience—only quiet, unshakable certainty.
"I don't know the specifics prior to our creation," Leo continued, voice deep and resonant, each word carrying the weight of centuries. "But when we were born—when the thirteen of us first opened our eyes—we saw only the Priestess. She stood before us in robes of starlight and shadow, her face hidden behind a veil of living constellations. She spoke only once."
He paused, as though the mory still carried sacred gravity.
"She told us our mission: to find the destined being who could one day open the doors of the Divine Temple once more."
Qin Wei pointed at Leo—slowly, almost disbelieving.
"And you think I'm that one?"
Leo tilted his leonine head slightly, mane rippling.
"I don't know," he admitted without hesitation. "Not with certainty. But Master… you carry a special divine power. It reminds of ho—of the Divine Temple itself. The aura that clings to your soul is the sa one that once saturated Astralith's core. Faint, still growing… but unmistakable."
Qin Wei's mind flashed imdiately to Aria.
The system's introduction echoed in his mory: "I am an artificial intelligence program rged with the Orb of Creation."
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