Aria

Once I get to my room, I go ahead and have a couple glasses of one of the emperor’s bottles of wine before heading to bed and sleeping for a few hours. My first time going to sleep in over a month.

And it ends up being a rather peaceful sleep, only eventually interrupted by my phone buzzing and waking me up.

I groggily sit up, wearing just a simple shirt and shorts as I glance at my phone, finding it to be Shirogane. Then I yawn and move over to the edge of the bed before putting my legs out over the side. The bed proving its rather grand size in the process.

Wonder what… oh, right. I think I told him I’d see him ‘in a few hours’ at some point yesterday. But I never did see him.

I answer the call on my phone while putting it on speaker. And as I begin my morning routine of brushing my hair and sipping some rather lovely wine, I hear his voice coming from the phone, “Good morning Aria, I was calling to ask you something about yesterday. Is now a good time?”

After swallowing another sip of wine, I place my glass down and begin to change shirts while answering, “As good a time as any. You woke me up, but I wanted to get up anyways. Need to go do another run of the Spire.”

“Ah, okay,” he answers as I put on a brand new, rather comfortable shirt while putting yesterday’s shirt in my storage ring and bringing out my jacket. “Did the Council Leader say anything to you while he was… well… stalking you?”

“He didn’t say much,” I answer while putting on my jacket and changing into pants. “Just some rather cryptic things. Like how I could spot him, and how I could maintain eye contact with him. Also something about an inspection.” I frown after I finish changing. “Wasn’t much of a talker.”

Shirogane doesn’t say anything in response for a while as I reach over to my wine for another sip. Having finished changing and brushing my hair at this point.

Bright side about being what I am, what with my immortality and everything that comes with my body. Morning routines and self-care are a lot easier. I also don’t have to deal with natural problems other people have to deal with. And I’ve heard some scary stories from other women about things they deal with that I don’t.

Rory and Hannah were both jealous that I don’t have any of those problems.

Although, in hindsight, self-care isn’t actually a thing I have to deal with at all. Can’t really die or deteriorate or grow unhealthy in any way, so…

I continue sipping at my wine a bit before placing the glass back down and putting on my boots. Then I grab both my wine and my phone and head out onto the balcony, pausing at the end of it to lean over the railing while placing my phone on said railing.

And right as I’m taking another sip of my wine, Shirogane finally responds, saying, “There is a good chance that the Council of Darkness may be plotting an assault on the Grand Silvanian Empire.”

I pause mid-sip before continuing.

“Please notify the emperor if you run into him again,” Shirogane continues himself as I calmly drink my wine.

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After a few more sips, I calmly mutter, “Sure,” while enjoying the lingering flavor of the wine and gazing out at the lovely silvery-blue moon high in the sky.

The chirping of some cicadas and birds echo as the morning sings its tune. Meanwhile I see quite the number of knights roaming around the castle ground. But from my window, none of them pay me any mind. Since I’m so high up.

I find it interesting to just look at each of their levels from up here.

Some of them are as low as the low one hundreds, others all the way up to the thousands in levels. Although the ones that are at four digits in levels are very few and far between. Probably captains or something.

Higher ranking knights.

Hmm. If I remember correctly, all of the Nine Grands are in the five digits in terms of level. But the three Horsemen of the Apocalypse other than me are close to the twenty-thousands. According to Famine’s regular level updates, that is. Since the guy is so obsessed with people knowing how powerful the Horsemen are and regularly tells the press his level.

On the other hand, the others of the Nine Grands all only crossed into the five digits more recently.

So if any one of the Nine Grands fought against one of those three Horsemen alone they’d die. There’s no doubt about it.

But at the same time, level isn’t everything. So, with the right setup and everything, it could theoretically be possible to kill one.

Too bad they all have a single revival that they can purchase at an astronomical price from the Void Temple. Although no more than that due to that treaty thing.

Trying to revive a Horseman without using the temple though… not sure if that’s even possible. Pretty sure there isn’t a void mage strong enough to do that.

“Aria, thank you for trying to help me,” Shirogane suddenly says, reminding me that we were in a call. “It means a lot. And I never would’ve gotten on this planet if it wasn’t for you.”

“No problem,” I tell him before sipping my wine some more until I’m all out. Then I turn around, briefly grabbing my phone and reentering my room. “How long have we known each other? Quite the number of years at this point.”

He chuckles at that. Then we spend the rest of the phone call chatting about some of the things I saw in the Spire. And about my visit that I need to do later today. To sell him a bunch of stuff that I got while in the Spire.

And I mean it when I say a bunch.

I have way too much loot from my time in the Spire.

Makes me a little curious about just how much it’ll be worth.

We’ll need a warehouse to sort through it all though. So I might ask the emperor about that at some point too.

I also raised an entire half a level from my time in the Spire. Halfway up to level fifty-one.

So that’s a nice bonus.

My thoughts pause for a second when I hear a meow coming from my bed, bringing my gaze to a certain cat that is currently stretching on said bed. But I turn my gaze away from Asher as I head straight over towards the door instead. Only to spot some of those Crimson Order knights on the other side of the door when I open it.

Ugh. Them again.

I’m still trying to figure out what’s up with them. One of them actually called me a princess by mistake, which is raising more than a few red flags in my mind. Another called me, ‘young miss,’ for some reason. Which also raises red flags.

But I’m burying those flags in my mind. They don’t exist. And so long as they don’t exist, my mind is a happy place.

Although, I can’t help but grit my teeth as I walk past the knights. Because I know I won’t be able to bury those flags forever.

They’ll have to surface at one point. And when they do, I’m not entirely sure I’ll like what I make of them.

But until then, I’ll keep on burying them no matter how many build up.

All for the sake of my sanity.

I finish off the last of my wine as I walk through the hall, not even pausing as I place the empty glass on a random tray that a castle maid runs up to me with.

Now I can just think of how much coin I’ll be making off of the loot I got from the Spire.

A faint smile stretches across my face at the thought as I hear the pitter patter of little paws rushing to catch up before something tugs on my pants. Then I feel that same something climbing all the way up my legs, waist, and torso until Asher reaches my shoulder and meows.

I absentmindedly scratch under the cat’s chin as I walk.

Coin is always nice, even if I’ve got a bit too much of it nowadays.