Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls-Chapter 487: What exactly do you think of us?

Kael remained leaning against the bedroom door for a few seconds after the maid walked away down the hall, taking a deep breath as he tried to organize his thoughts. The silence of the room behind him seemed almost ironic, considering that just a few hours earlier that same space had been the scene of a sequence of events that were definitely not in anyone's plans.

He rubbed his face one last time.

"Okay… damage control."

He murmured to himself as he moved away from the door.

Kael looked back at the bed. Umbra and Inari remained in exactly the same position, fast asleep, their bodies relaxed in an almost absurd way. They looked like two people who had simply decided to disconnect from the world for a few hours.

Neither of them showed the slightest sign of intending to wake up soon.

"Of course."

He walked to the wardrobe, grabbing a clean shirt and a simple set of clothes. He dressed calmly this time, adjusting the buttons while trying to imagine the best way to explain… everything.

The problem was that even he didn't know exactly where to begin.

Umbra had disappeared, reappeared with a physical body, fought a primordial dragon, opened a dimensional portal straight to his room… and somehow, it had ended with the three of them in the same bed.

Kael sighed.

"This conversation is going to be great."

After finishing dressing, he glanced at the bed one last time before leaving. Umbra had turned slightly in her sleep, hugging a pillow with a tranquil expression on her face. Inari remained motionless, like a divine statue taking a cosmic nap.

Kael shook his head slightly and opened the door.

The mansion hallway was silent at that hour of the morning. Sunlight streamed through the large windows, illuminating the polished wooden floors while the distant sounds of household activity slowly began to emerge from the lower floors.

He started down the stairs.

Each step seemed to slowly increase an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't exactly fear, but it was definitely the anticipation of someone who knew a potentially complicated conversation was about to happen.

When he arrived in the main hall, the first thing he saw was the small tea table near the large windows.

And seated at it were two figures he knew very well.

Amelia and Irelia.

The two were seated facing each other, each with a cup of tea delicately resting in her hands. The table between them was set with impeccable precision, as always, with an elegant teapot releasing small swirls of steam.

At first glance, it seemed like a perfectly normal morning.

But Kael noticed immediately.

Something was strange.

The two were very calm.

Too calm.

Irelia had impeccable posture, as always, her hair neatly arranged as she held her cup with almost aristocratic elegance. Amelia, on the other hand, leaned slightly back in her chair, her fingers slowly swirling the rim of her cup.

Both were smiling.

But their eyes…

Their eyes were different.

There was a tension there.

An extremely controlled tension.

Kael noticed immediately.

"Ah."

He murmured softly.

But it was too late to back down.

Irelia was the first to look up.

"Good morning, Kael."

Her voice was soft, polite… and completely laden with a subtle layer of irony that someone less attentive might not notice.

Amelia looked up soon after.

She smiled too.

"Did you sleep well?"

Kael paused for a second on the last step of the stairs.

He quickly assessed the two.

Then he took a deep breath and walked to the table as if nothing were wrong.

"Good morning."

He pulled up a chair and sat down calmly.

"Yes, I slept… reasonably well."

Irelia tilted her head slightly as she took a small sip of her tea.

"Reasonably?"

She repeated in an almost curious tone.

Amelia rested her chin on her hand.

"Interesting choice of words."

Kael crossed his arms on the table.

"Why?"

Amelia raised an eyebrow.

"Well… considering what happened in your room during the early hours of the morning…"

She paused dramatically for a moment.

"…we were expecting something more enthusiastic."

Kael froze.

Not completely.

But enough for a keen observer to notice.

He slowly turned his head to Amelia.

"I… I'm not sure what you mean."

Irelia gently placed the cup on the saucer.

The soft sound of the porcelain clinking echoed gently through the room.

She then looked directly at Kael.

"Kael."

Her voice was still calm.

"Do you really intend to pretend nothing happened?"

Kael maintained a neutral expression.

"I still don't know exactly what we're talking about."

Amelia let out a small, nasal laugh.

"Oh, please."

She gestured vaguely with her hand.

"The dimensional portal."

Kael blinked.

Amelia continued.

"The explosion of arcane energy."

Another casual gesture.

"The noise."

Another one.

"The shadows writhing through the house."

She tilted her head.

"And, of course…"

She smiled a little wider.

"…the completely naked new woman who appeared in your room."

Silence.

Kael stared at her for a few seconds.

Then he slowly turned his head to Irelia.

She was watching him silently, with that same polite and dangerously controlled smile.

It was at that moment that Kael realized.

They knew.

Maybe not all the details.

But they knew enough.

He let out a small sigh.

"...Right."

Irelia crossed her hands on the table.

"I'm glad we're all on the same page."

Amelia took another sip of tea, completely relaxed.

"So."

She said casually.

"Who's the girl?"

Forty minutes later, the teapot on the table had already been replaced by another, the steam rising slowly in thin spirals while the room remained immersed in a silence that Kael didn't quite know how to interpret. During all that time he had spoken almost nonstop, explaining everything from Umbra's disappearance to her unexpected reappearance the previous night, passing through the fight against Nidhogg, the improvised portal using fragments of Yggdrasil, and finally, the rather difficult-to-ignore fact that she now possessed a fully functional physical body. At some point in the explanation he also mentioned Inari, her divine nature, and her slight tendency to appear at the most improbable moments possible.

Amelia and Irelia listened to everything.

Without interrupting. No comment.

No reaction beyond subtle eyebrow movements or slight head tilts that could mean absolutely anything.

Kael began to realize, about fifteen minutes into the explanation, that their silence was far more uncomfortable than any explosive reaction could have been.

Amelia leaned back in her chair, her fingers interlaced under her chin as she observed Kael with an overly calm attention. Her eyes followed his every move with almost clinical precision, as if she were analyzing not only what he said, but also how he said it.

Irelia, for her part, maintained her usual impeccable posture. Her hands rested delicately on the table, her fingers elegantly interlaced as she listened to every detail of the narrative without ever interrupting the flow of the story.

Her only perceptible reaction was her gaze.

And that gaze assessed everything.

Kael finished the explanation a few minutes later, finally describing the moment when Umbra crossed the portal and fell directly onto his bed in the middle of the night.

After that, he fell silent.

The hall seemed even quieter now.

The distant sound of the mansion slowly waking up continued in the background, but in that small space around the table there was only the weight of expectation.

Kael looked at one.

Then at the other.

Waiting.

Waiting for something.

A scolding.

An explosion.

An accusation.

Some clear emotional reaction.

But neither of them spoke immediately.

Amelia was the first to move.

She sighed.

A long sigh, like someone who had just heard a very long story and was simply absorbing all the information before making any decisions.

Irelia sighed afterward.

Then the two exchanged a brief glance.

A silent look that seemed to carry an entire conversation that Kael was definitely not included in.

And then… they nodded.

They simply nodded.

Kael blinked.

Once.

Twice.

"…Wait."

He frowned slightly, clearly confused.

"Is that all?"

Amelia raised an eyebrow.

"That's all?"

She repeated, as if genuinely curious about the question.

Kael made a small gesture with his hands.

"You… aren't angry?"

Irelia tilted her head slightly.

"Should we be?"

Kael opened his mouth to answer.

But stopped.

He thought for a second.

And realized he wasn't sure.

Amelia rested her elbow on the table again, leaning slightly forward as she watched Kael with a small smile that held something curious, almost amused, about it.

"Kael."

She spoke calmly.

"What exactly do you think of us?"

The question caught him completely off guard.

He blinked.

"…What?" Irelia replied this time. Her voice was soft, but there was a quiet firmness in the way the words came out. "You really believed that we didn't know this would end up happening?"

"I mean… we have ears, you know? We don't know what they're like, but we know the moans and things like that."