Back at the booth, Maya scrambled.

She nearly knocked over her water glass with her hair flying wildly as she watched his broad back disappear through the exit.

"Wait!" Maya blurted out,m as her face flushed a furious shade of crimson.

She suddenly realized he was actually walking away without asking for her contact information.

He hadn’t even checked if she was okay!

Maya pushed herself frantically out of the booth with her heels clicking rapidly against the floorboards.

"Graves!" Maya called out, rushing toward the front door. "I need your number! For... for coordination!"

Silas paused halfway down the marble steps.

He turned around, pulling his hands out of his pockets, and offered her an easy smile though his eye was twitching.

"Coordination?" Silas chuckled warmly, genuinely finding her excuse highly entertaining. "Maya, we’ve been in the exact same academy group chat for three years and even then new one... I am literally listed under the letter ’S’."

Maya froze on the top step, her face turning an incredibly bright shade of red.

She had completely forgotten about the group chat.

"I... I meant your private encrypted line!" Maya stammered desperately, holding her Spirit Phone out. "You know, for emergencies! As fellow classmates!"

Silas couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

’She is trying so hard,’ Silas thought, highly amused. ’I respect the hustle, but I really don’t have the PTO for a girlfriend right now.’

He didn’t want to completely embarrass her in front of the entire cafe window so he simply raised his hand, casually reciting a string of eleven randomized digits over his broad shoulder.

"There you go," Silas smiled pleasantly. "Stay safe out there, Maya."

The heavy brass doors swung shut behind him, leaving the purple-haired girl standing awkwardly in the cafe lobby, frantically typing the numbers into her Spirit Phone.

She wouldn’t realize until tomorrow morning that he had just given her the direct delivery number for Luigi’s Deep-Dish Pizza!

Outside, the freezing relentless rain continued to fall heavily over the neon-lit streets of Valoria City.

Silas walked down the sweeping marble steps.

He didn’t pull his collar up against the cold.

The rain hit his dark shirt and immediately hissed into steam against the passive comforting heat of his core.

He was just about to pull open the door of his idling mag-cab when a voice called out to him.

"Lord Graves!"

Silas paused with his hand resting on the metal door handle.

He slowly turned his head.

Stepping out from the deep, rainy shadows near the marble columns of the cafe entrance was a young woman.

She wasn’t wearing a bulky civilian trench coat or a cheap brunette wig anymore.

She had completely dropped the surveillance disguise she had been using inside the cafe.

She wore a perfectly tailored, dark charcoal corporate pantsuit that clung flawlessly to her slender frame.

Her long vibrant purple hair was cut into a sharp, asymmetrical bob that framed her jawline perfectly.

She pushed a pair of sleek wire-rimmed glasses up the bridge of her nose.

Had he met such a beauty before? Silas didnt know but he did know that she could not compare with Eluned.

She held a sleek black alchemical umbrella over her head, completely shielding herself from the freezing downpour.

Silas immediately recognized her.

He didn’t drop into a combat stance... He just offered a polite casual nod.

"Oh, hey," Silas greeted her warmly. "Nice umbrella... You’re the girl from the roof across the street, right? The one with the optical displacement artifact?"

The young woman took a slow measured step forward, closing the distance between them.

She tilted the black umbrella slightly, offering him the edge of the magical dry barrier.

"You saw right through my optical displacement," she said smoothly with her violet eyes glowing a bit.

She didn’t look terrified of him like the rest of the city.

She looked deeply intrigued.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Silas chuckled, stepping casually under the edge of the umbrella to stay dry. "The ring leaves a slight, pixelated shimmer in the rain. It’s a great artifact, though... Very stealthy."

The corporate heiress blinked, momentarily thrown off by his entirely casual friendly demeanor.

She had fully expected a cold threatening Lord.

Instead, he was complimenting her gear like they were discussing the weather.

She quickly recovered, pushing her glasses up her nose again.

"I appreciate a man with keen perception," she noted. "My name is Harper. I represent a highly lucrative, entirely independent commercial syndicate. We are currently seeking... robust partnerships with capable new Lords since I am one myself."

She looked him up and down with her gaze lingering intentionally on his broad chest.

"I’m quite cute," Harper added smoothly, leaning heavily into a practiced seduction tactic. "And you are clearly highly capable. Would you be interested in joining forces? Perhaps discussing the details over dinner?"

Silas looked at her.

He saw the exact same hollow desperate ambition in her eyes that Maya possessed, completely wrapped in a more expensive, tailored suit.

He found the entire situation incredibly funny.

’I am literally a single father to a pantheon of violently unhinged women right now...’ Silas thought, holding back a laugh. ’I really, really do not have the time to go on a dinner date...’

Not that he was interested but he didn’t want to offend anybody.

Silas offered her an apologetic smile.

"You are definitely very cute, Harper," Silas agreed politely. "But I’m going to have to pass on the dinner."

Harper blinked, genuinely surprised by the immediate rejection.

"Pass?" Harper repeated with her perfectly arched eyebrows rising over the rim of her glasses. "Just like that? You won’t even hear the preliminary contract terms over a glass of wine?"

"I don’t sign contracts," Silas explained gently, giving a small shrug. "And my schedule back at my territory is an nightmare right now. I’m basically running a day-care for heavily armed mercenaries but I appreciate the offer."

He stepped out from under the umbrella, completely dismissing the beautiful wealthy woman standing in the rain.

He walked down the remaining marble steps and grabbed the heavy metal handle of the waiting luxury mag-cab.

He pulled the door open and slid into the plush dry leather seat.

"Silverleaf, please..." Silas told the driver smoothly.

"Y-yes, my Lord!" the terrified driver stammered, instantly hitting the accelerator.

The heavy mag-cab tore away from the curb, its anti-gravity engine whining as it merged smoothly into the high-speed evening traffic.

Harper stood entirely alone on the wet marble steps, holding her black umbrella.

She watched the taillights of the cab disappear into the neon glare of the city.

A brilliant unexpected blush spread rapidly across her cheeks.

The cold corporate shell she had spent years building completely cracked.

"O-oh," Harper whispered to herself with her purple hair blowing gently in the freezing wind. "He’s... he’s actually quite cute up close."

...

Inside the soundproofed cabin of the luxury cab, Silas leaned his head back against the heavy leather headrest.

He pulled his Spirit Phone from his pocket and tapped a sequence of numbers into the banking app.

He transferred a flat highly generous forty-thousand Spirit Credit tip directly into the driver’s commercial account.

The man had driven him around all day without asking a single irritating question.

The driver’s dashboard terminal chimed loudly.

The man glanced down at the screen. His eyes completely bugged out of his head.

"L-Lord Graves!" the driver practically wept from the front seat. "This... this is forty thousand credits! I can pay off my entire mortgage!"

"Buy yourself something nice, man," Silas smiled comfortably, staring up at the dark ceiling of the cab. "You earned it... Thanks for putting up with all the detours."

Silas locked his phone and slid it back into his pocket.

He had the raw materials.

He had the clothing and now, thanks directly to the politics of Earth and a casual coffee meeting, he had the catalyst for his next evolution resting in his pocket.

’Now I need to get home.’

...

The freezing relentless rain of Valoria City hammered violently against the reinforced,m tinted glass windows of the luxury mag-cab.

The heavy downpour blurred the vibrant, floating neon alchemical billboards into streaks of bleeding color.

Inside the soundproofed cabin, the silence was suffocating.

The driver kept his eyes locked rigidly straight ahead.

His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were loodless white.

He didn’t dare glance into the rearview mirror despite the donation.

The man sitting in the back seat was not doing anything overtly aggressive.

He was simply staring out at the passing commercial district, his thick arms crossed casually over his broad chest but the crushing density of the raw mana bleeding passively off his skin completely filled the enclosed space with a heavy weight.

He had felt it a lot today but that didn’t make it less scarier... It triggered a primal buried alarm in the driver’s brainZzz the exact terror of a prey animal locked inside a steel cage with a waking apex predator.

Silas noticed the driver nervously sweating through his crisp uniform collar.

’I really need to figure out how to turn this aura off.’ Silas thought, feeling a sudden wave of guilt for terrifying the poor guy. ’I’m just sitting here thinking about what kind of armor to forge, and this guy looks like he’s about to have a heart attack.’

Silas cleared his throat, trying to lighten the heavy mood.

"So," Silas started casually. "How’s your night going? Busy shift?"

The driver violently flinched. He practically jumped entirely out of his seat.

"I-It is highly satisfactory, my Lord!" the driver shrieked with his voice breaking into a high-pitched squeak. "I am deeply honored to serve you! Please do not execute me!"

Silas let out a long, exhausted internal sigh.

’Alright, small talk is a bust,’ Silas noted pragmatically. ’I’ll just stick to large tips.’

His mind drifted miles away from the fragile, glass-and-steel politics of Earth.

He mentally cataloged the massive, expensive haul currently sitting fully secure inside his digital inventory.

The brief excursion to his native dimension had been a complete victory.

’I hope Blessed Land hasn’t been burned down by now.’ Silas thought with a sigh.

The heavy mag-cab smoothly pulled off the main commercial highway and glided effortlessly into the pristine guarded residential streets of the Silverleaf District.

The cab slowed, pulling to a perfectly silent halt right in front of his towering residential apartment building.

Silas didn’t wait for the terrified driver to scramble out and open the door for him.

He pushed the heavy metal door open himself and stepped directly out into the biting, freezing rain.

The dark fabric of his tailored tactical shirt immediately began absorbing the cold mist.

"Have a good night, man..." Silas called out cheerfully, waving briefly at the front window.

The mag-cab instantly tore away from the curb.

The driver was completely desperate to escape the crushing gravity of his passenger’s unsuppressed aura.

Silas walked forward to the door, it was the exact way he had left it.

His place was exactly like he had left it... completely untouched.

’I guess the defense runes really did their job.’ Silas thought, it was not like he had that much to keep except for his clothes and his phone.

Silas pressed his right palm directly against the central glowing security rune etched into the wood.

The magical matrix hummed brightly.

It instantly scanned his encrypted signature, verifying that it was him that was the one activating the rune.

The rune flared a vibrant green, fully accepting his authority.

The heavy internal lock clicked open.

immediately slapped his hand forcefully against the interior mechanical locking mechanism on the wall.

"Activate Spirit Lock," Silas commanded warmly.

Heavy solid titanium deadbolts violently slammed directly into the reinforced steel door frame with a rapid series of deep secure mechanical thuds.

The highest-tier security measure engaged perfectly.

It completely sealed the luxury apartment off from the rest of Valoria City.

No heavily funded corporate guild strike team, no highly trained rogue assassin, and no desperately ambitious aristocrat could breach that physical door without structurally bringing down the entire place.

His Earth-side sanctuary was completely secure.

’Before I go back to Blessed Land... I should try to upgrade the items.’