The four women were all struck silent with surprise. Even Rosalia did not know that this was Max’s plan. What surprised them even more was how he even understood such matters. Strangely and suspiciously enough, Max was handling royal affairs pretty well, almost as if he had once belonged to a royal family and had been trained from a young age.

"You wish to separate us into founding houses, as if dividing the kingdom into different territories?" Freya raised her eyebrow, her long nails gently tapping against the table.

"I might be powerful, but running an entire kingdom alone is like trying to lift a mountain with one hand. Power can conquer land, but it cannot manage every field, road, storehouse, and clan dispute alone. This kingdom needs order, and order needs more than one person carrying it."

Agnia was taken aback. Some hope finally returned to her eyes as she leaned forward slightly, her fingers pressing against the edge of the table.

"Does that mean I’ll be able to rule over these lands again?" she asked, a little too excitedly, drawing a smirk from Max.

"No," he shot back, making her face drop. "I have other plans for you, and for all of you here. None of you will be the leaders of the founding houses."

"Why?!" Agnia raised her voice.

Both Freya and Gertrud looked at Max with confusion. Freya’s eyes narrowed, while Gertrud’s fingers tightened around the armrest of her chair. Neither of them knew if he was mocking them, testing them, or if his other plan had something to do with the fact that only women had been called into this room. That thought alone left the two of them terrified.

"Because you, Agnia, will become my concubine, bearing my child for the royal bloodline."

The room fell silent. Even the small creak of a chair could be heard as Agnia’s face turned bright red. A memory flooded back into her mind of him taking her wildly and finishing deep inside her. She did not say anything anymore. She simply turned to the side, trying to hide her face, but the heat in her cheeks betrayed her completely.

Two chairs scraped against the ground.

Freya and Gertrud stood up, their eyes wide with fear.

"Don’t you dare touch me," Freya spat out, blue lightning flickering faintly around her fingers.

Gertrud said nothing. Her thoughts drifted somewhere else, as if wondering if this was even real. A strange feeling burned in her chest when she looked at Max, and her fingers curled against her palm before she even understood why.

Excitement.

But she refused to believe it. Instead, she stepped back slightly, as if trying to escape the situation before that feeling could become something she had to understand.

"Freeze."

Max did not raise his voice, but the command still crushed the room. A powerful pressure swept over Gertrud, forcing her to stop. Her body stiffened, her breath catching in her throat. She tried to turn her head, but she could not.

"Let go of her, you monster!"

Blue lightning suddenly flashed, rushing at Max without any warning, but he did not move. Rosalia waved her hand, and purple ice flames swept through the lightning, freezing it midair. The frozen bolt hung there for a brief moment, glowing beneath the layer of ice, before cracking apart.

"Why are the two of you so on edge? Did my husband even say he is interested in you?" Rosalia’s eyes moved between them, calm but sharp. "Don’t you think you’re being a little too judgmental and prideful? He and Agnia have some connection. That is why she is being absorbed into his Royal House. But what about you two?"

She gave them a look, then glanced at Max, who simply shrugged.

"Then why? What is the reason for having us here?" Freya’s heart pounded in her chest. She was afraid he would steal her from her husband, afraid that this meeting was nothing but a prettier cage prepared for the two of them.

"I want those who were not part of the royal families in your old empires to become the new leaders of the houses. It would be fairest to the people. And after all, the two of you are my political hostages. If I suddenly absorb you into my kingdom and give you power, won’t I become a laughingstock before other rulers?"

Max released his dragon pressure, finally allowing Gertrud to breathe. She sucked in a sharp breath, her fingers trembling slightly against the table as the invisible weight left her body.

Rosalia was not wrong, at least not for now. But Max had to admit, he did have plans for them to become his one day.

Just not yet.

First, he had to find a way to quietly deal with Thor and Oswald. Only then, when he was certain they would not receive any bloodline powers, would he take someone from the other two clans and secure their bloodlines through his future children.

He had already let go of one threat because of Rosalia. He had no idea what Henry was doing right now, but knowing that the old man had gained a powerful bloodline upgrade meant he was dangerous politically, even if his power would never compare to Max’s.

------

Far away, in the lands beyond the Thunder Dragon Empire, a lone man crossed the snow mountains long forgotten and abandoned by the dragon clans. His broad figure was covered in the blood of wild beasts that roamed the frozen grounds, their warmth already turning cold against his skin.

"Thank you, Max, for this power. Because of you, I was able to come back home." The man laughed as he stood before ruins buried beneath endless snow. Only a few broken peaks of an ancient citadel still remained, rising from the white wasteland like frozen fangs carved from ice.

He walked closer, taking every step carefully as something ancient pressed down on his blood. The pressure forced him to grit his teeth and push ahead, even as his body trembled beneath the invisible weight. At last, he dropped to his knees, sinking into the snow before the thick ice where something massive loomed inside.

He wiped the snow away with his bare hands, revealing what looked to be the giant head of a dragon frozen in time.

And for a moment, the pressure in the ruins grew heavier, as if the thing inside had noticed him.