After camping overnight in the cave, they finally arrived at their destination village by the afternoon of the following day. Ayra personally selected a house for the two won to settle in. The village erupted in chatter at the unexpected visit from the lord, and Ayra left a firm reminder to the villagers to take good care of the won. She considered taking out so mana stones and supplies from subspace to give them but ultimately decided against it—she didn’t want it to seem like she was paying too much attention.
Leaving the village with the townsfolk seeing them off, they headed back toward the lord’s castle. Once no people were in sight anymore, Janus asked,
“So what were those humans involved with?”
As expected—he caught on quickly. But since Janus wasn’t the kind of dragon to go around babbling about her business, Ayra felt safe enough to be honest.
“Those won are related to Attera...”
She began naming nas but quickly changed the title. Janus didn’t even know the nas of her closest aides; there was no way he’d recognize a na like Attera.
“I an, they’re the High Priest’s family. More precisely, his mother and his half-sister.”
The woman’s na was Attera la Teanu, and the girl’s na was Garotta. Ayra recalled their Related Characters stats, which she had reviewed earlier.
Attera te Act: My poor son ‖ 95♡
Garotta: My daughter I feel sorry for ‖ 95♡
Attera la Theon: A man I can't believe is my blood ‖ -33♡
Taro Huntoberunka: A detestable bastard ‖ -62♡
Attera la Teanu: My only family ‖ 99♡
Attera te Act: I wonder what kind of person my brother is? ‖ 23♡
Taro Huntoberunka: A scary adult ‖ -38♡
Attera la Teanu.
She was the younger sister of the previous High Priest and, at one ti, had been engaged to Ayra’s father. As Ayra reviewed the stat windows, she activated Pebble to gather deeper intel during their ride back to the village. The data she obtained was as follows:
After Ayra’s father married soone from Sobletz, the engagent was broken off. Teanu was then hastily married off to soone else. Tragically, the morning after her first night with her new husband, the man fell down the stairs and died. The then-High Priest, Theon, declared the marriage annulled—not out of love for his sister, but purely for his own convenience.
But from that single night, Teanu beca pregnant. Fearing what her brother might do if he found out, she ran away. She gave birth alone, nad the child Act, and lived happily with him for ten years.
One day, however, she was recognized by a passing priest while visiting a neighboring village. She was soon dragged back to Theon.
Theon, even after a decade, found her beauty useful. He took her child and passed him off as another sibling’s son. Then, using Act’s future as leverage, he forced Teanu into another marriage. This ti, she was made into the concubine—one of many—of a wealthy man in Bolni, simply because she was "too old" to be a legal wife.
Naturally, Teanu’s life in Bolni could not be called happy. Her second husband, Taro, was a lecherous drunk who frequently hit his wives. Years later, Teanu gave birth to a daughter, but Taro refused to even register the child.
Teanu clung to her daughter and secretly exchanged letters with her son, enduring a miserable life in Bolni. Her only remaining hope was that one day Theon and Taro would die and her son would rescue them from this hell.
Then ca the earthquake that threw Bolni into chaos. Corpses and missing persons were everywhere. Teanu, who had been out shopping with her daughter, realized this was her chance to escape her monstrous husband. She fled with her daughter into the forest. Luckily, a kind coachman helped them reach a spot near Solar.
They eventually found an abandoned hut and began enduring the cold together. As Teanu racked her brain for ways to contact her son without alerting Theon, fate led her to encounter Ayra.
Ayra, already familiar with Act, had experienced a strange sense of familiarity upon seeing Teanu’s face—just as she, too, had likely recognized Ayra due to knowing Act’s parents.
“Pebble’s level has definitely gone up. I wouldn’t have been able to get such detailed info before.”
It had cost her a lot of mana, but the intel was more than worth it. Of course, since she couldn’t reveal the source, Ayra couldn’t share all of this with Janus directly.
“You didn’t seem like you knew each other.”
Ayra knew exactly how sharp this dragon was. He smiled faintly and lifted his chin in that annoyingly smug way he seed to enjoy.
“There was sothing suspicious about them. The way they spoke and carried themselves, and the clothes under that robe—definitely not poor.”
“Yeah, I thought so too.”
“So why would two people raised so delicately be wandering a forest instead of living in comfort?”
“Dunno...”
Apparently only mildly curious, Janus was already losing interest. But Ayra pressed on anyway.
“They were definitely born in Solar—that’s obvious from how they used Sacred Fla. But their clothes followed Bolni fashion. Plus, the woman looked just like the High Priest. And everyone in Solar knows who Act’s birth mother is. The ring on her finger bore the Attera family crest, and the necklace was one only given by the Solar temple to certain restricted individuals. Piece all that together, and it’s not hard to guess.”
Now that she already knew the truth, crafting a plausible deduction wasn’t difficult. Janus nodded lazily and summarized.
“Ah, so you’re planning to use them as hostages to blackmail the High Priest? Or is it revenge?”
“It’s not that...”
Even if her relationship with Act was complicated, Ayra °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° didn’t have the kind of personality that would jump to using his precious family as pawns.
Still... sothing was strange. She had assud this was the final vassal quest, but maybe she was wrong. No matter how she looked at them, neither the woman nor the young girl seed like they could be the fifth vassal. Could it be...?
Just then, with a cheerful chi, a system update window popped up.
[The Woman Wandering the Forest (1)]
Locate the woman wandering the forests of Bolni, ask her story, and offer help. (Achieved)
Reward: Linked Quest – The Woman Wandering the Forest (2)
[The Woman Wandering the Forest (2)]
Discuss the High Priest and the faith of Solar. (Unachieved)
Caution: ntioning Attera la Teanu or Garotta during the conversation will cause the quest to fail.
Reward: Linked Quest – The Woman Wandering the Forest (3)
Wait, really? You’re telling Attera te Act is my fifth vassal?
In disbelief, Ayra stared at the back of her hand. Pebble popped out and waved emphatically in confirmation. Janus poked it with a finger, and Pebble squealed, quickly retreating under her skin. When Janus tapped her hand teasingly again, Pebble scrambled up to her wrist in a panic.
“Don’t bully Pebble.”
“I was being affectionate.”
Janus’s tone was gentle, but his eyes looked ravenous. He scratched the inside of her wrist with a strangely clingy touch, then glanced around. Finding nothing but snowy plains, he reluctantly withdrew his hand. For the first ti, Ayra was grateful it was winter.
Putting so distance between herself and the slightly dangerous dragon, Ayra began considering the potential benefits if Act truly did beco her fifth vassal.
“He’s exactly the person to fill the one gap I have right now.”
Gretel and Jinas handled administration. Bloom commanded the army. Hera oversaw everything beyond legal jurisdiction. But when it ca to religion—one of the most vital institutions in Solar—Ayra had no one. Though she held the title of Sacred Master herself, the High Priest still wielded more influence.
And replacing the High Priest wasn’t easy either. For generations, the people of Solar had accepted the Attera family as the rightful successors to that position. Isolated for so long, the territory had co to treat the role as hereditary. By the ti Ayra’s predecessor was lord, the High Priest's power had effectively surpassed that of the estate’s ruler.
Which is why, even now, as lord, Ayra constantly found herself blocked and interfered with by the High Priest—who had even gone so far as to collude with Sobletz. But if Act were to beco her vassal...
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