After saying goodbye to Lucía and feeling that heavy, intense gaze from someone unseen, Thomas took Iris to get the ice cream she had asked for. They walked hand in hand while he navigated the System interface.

  He made subtle finger movements to check his inventory, status, the main mission, and the synergy missions he could complete with Selene and Elvira.

  ‘Even though they’re optional, they seem to reduce the instability caused by forced domestication. It must be some kind of hidden stat, like in any RPG.’

  The Bonds tab displayed a list with each heroine’s photo, along with her full name, status, level, and gift. Thomas tapped Selene’s photo, and the information expanded completely.

  ‘Still unstable. Considering how important her gift is, I should prioritize improving our relationship. That reminds me… what is she doing right now?’

  He took out his phone and opened her public profile on her largest social media platform. She had a total of three hundred thousand followers.

  ‘Hm? Is she live?’

  He joined the stream, and Selene appeared on the screen. She was dressed in a catgirl cosplay, wearing a black wig with feline ears and a choker around her neck. She spoke with obvious indignation:

  “…And I was like, why are you charging me double if I wasn’t the one who showed up late? It was your employee’s fault for giving me the wrong address and then arriving forty minutes late. So explain to me why I’m the one who has to pay. And the guy just said, ‘I’m not arguing with you. You either pay or we throw your stuff out.’ God, I was so mad at that moment. But I had to stay calm…”

  ‘Where is she?’ Thomas wondered as he examined the background visible through the camera. Then he read the stream title and realized she was at a cosplay convention in a plaza north of Ark.

  ‘Wow, forty thousand viewers… she really is famous. Good thing I forbade her from revealing anything important. Otherwise, she could’ve ruined my entire life.’

  He put his phone away and stopped at a street corner, waiting at a red light. He watched the cars pass as he reflected.

  ‘I should use today to look for my next combat heroine. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I have four in mind. But I don’t know whether it’s better to domesticate women I already know or complete strangers. Which would be easier? Both options come with benefits… and obstacles.’

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  When the light turned green, he moved forward, holding Iris’s hand firmly.

  ‘I had a close friend during my first year of college. She stood out in athletics thanks to her gift. But the last thing I heard about her—after we had a falling out—was that she’d been admitted to the Academy of New Promises. And that academy doesn’t accept just anyone.’

  He scratched his white hair and continued thinking.

  ‘It’s embarrassing to show up in front of her after so long. She’ll think I’m only interested in using her… But her gift was incredible. She could channel years of future training into her present, no matter what she pursued. She described it as time manipulation, but only on herself. She was inexperienced back then and didn’t fully understand her limitations. Two years have passed since then. Now she’d be an extremely valuable offensive asset.’

  While he weighed his decision, the voices of a crowd began rising and moving in the same direction. Thomas and Iris stopped, drawn by curiosity.

  “Brother?” Iris asked, her voice uneasy.

  “Relax. They’re not running out of fear. They seem excited.”

  “Should we go see?”

  He didn’t even have time to respond before a loud boom echoed through the city, similar to an explosion. They were about twenty blocks away, but it was enough to grab Thomas’s attention.

  “Let’s see who’s fighting,” he said with a restrained smile.

  If anything shook all of Ark, it was a battle inside the city. It put the population on high alert and, at the same time, allowed them to witness the action that usually unfolded beyond the walls.

  After running two blocks, they reached an electronics store where a crowd had already gathered. The news channel was broadcasting live.

  The image was unstable, making it difficult to distinguish details clearly, but the creature flying among the clouds was visible. It had two massive crow-like wings and a lizard-like body covered in dark fur. Everyone knew it was a monster from the Abyss.

  “Another one got in?” someone in the crowd commented.

  “Aren’t the walls and the expeditions supposed to prevent this? What are the wall guardians doing?”

  “Is this the security our queen promises us? Look at the chaos just one of them causes…”

  It wasn’t only the footage on television showing flames spreading across the highway. A curtain of smoke was rising into the sky from the very sector where they stood.

  Thomas couldn’t help but tense up and, unconsciously, tighten his grip on Iris’s hand.

  “Belle Snow is attacking directly again!”

  ‘Belle’s fighting?’

  He pushed his way through the crowd and moved closer to the television. Nothing thrilled him more than watching his favorite heroine fight.

  When he finally saw her clearly on the screen, he had to lift Iris against his chest so she could see too. Belle soared through the sky with absolute calm. There was no agitation or clumsy movement—only a slender presence and unshakable composure.

  That was no coincidence. Her gift had never been about brute-force combat. Her red eyes glowed faintly, and her short black hair swayed in the wind.

  The sky itself seemed to tighten.

  She raised her right hand toward the monster.

  Thomas smiled with a mixture of admiration and fervor and thought:

  ‘Here it comes. Her incredible, overwhelming power. I can’t believe I get to see it again. The greatness of the number one heroine. The gift of Astral Sovereignty.’