A vast, dimly lit room stretched before them, its only source of light coming from the massive round table at its center. Countless holograms flickered and danced across its surface, casting shifting glows of blue and white that illuminated the chamber in a cold, artificial brilliance.
At one end of the table sat a young woman clad in a black military uniform, her composure calm and collected despite the heavy atmosphere that filled the room. Beside her were four soldiers, each dressed in their respective uniforms, their expressions strained as they tried, unsuccessfully to mask their unease.
The source of their discomfort sat directly across from them another woman, strikingly beautiful in her own right, though far older than their captain. She appeared to be in her late forties, her silver coat fluttering behind her as if stirred by an unseen wind. The faint glow from the holograms reflected off the metallic sheen of her attire, giving her an almost spectral presence.
Her expression, however, was far from serene. A deep scowl marked her features, her eyes sharp with barely contained anger. That fury alone seemed to make the air heavy, pressing down on everyone in the room, especially the old man in the white coat seated near her, whose trembling hands betrayed his growing anxiety.
They had been waiting for more than forty minutes now, the tension in the room thick enough to feel against the skin. No one spoke a word. All they could do was wait for the ones who had yet to arrive.
Suddenly, the large doors at the entrance swung open, and a wave of light spilled into the room. The soft hum of the holograms dimmed under the weight of the presence that entered the room.
An old man stepped through, draped in long crimson robes. On the back of his robes gleamed a black serpent coiled tightly around a red chalice. The serpent's scales shimmered like dark metal, its fangs bared above the cup's rim as if guarding it. The chalice glowed faintly, runes etched along its edge, and together they formed a symbol that radiated quiet power and warning.
His very presence carried the same commanding weight as Colonel Violet's, a pressure that made the air feel heavier, denser. His face was stern and lined with the marks of age, the kind that spoke not of weakness, but of decades of experience and authority. He appeared to be in his seventies, yet there was an undeniable power concealed beneath his aged frame, something vast and dangerous resting quietly within him.
His thick white beard and long silver hair contrasted sharply against the deep red of his robes, giving him the look of both a sage and a conqueror. Despite his years, his steps were steady and deliberate, echoing across the polished floor as if each carried its own gravity.
Behind him followed a younger man, wearing a robe of a lighter shade of red, marked with the same insignia, the black serpent and the crimson chalice, proudly displayed across his back.
The old man walked toward the table without saying a word and took his seat with the grace and command of a king taking his throne. His mere posture warned everyone not to mistake him for anything less than royalty in his own right.
Everyone in the room stood in silent respect, everyone except Colonel Violet, who remained seated, her sharp black eyes following him without flinching. The old man noticed her stillness and glanced at her with a faint look of distaste, as though her composure irritated him. Yet, despite his clear displeasure, he made no move to challenge her. Perhaps he knew all too well that the woman before him carried power equal to his own.
"How have you been lately, Silver Colonel?" the old man asked at last, his deep voice rumbling through the room as his gaze swept around the table, counting those present.
"As you can see," Colonel Violet replied coolly, her tone calm but cutting, "I'm rather irritated at the moment, thanks to a certain someone."
Her expression remained composed, but her words were sharp enough to pierce stone.
"I understand your frustration, Colonel," the old man said with a firm, measured tone. "However, I was in an important meeting with the head of my House. It took longer than expected." His voice carried no hint of apology, only justification.
"I see," Violet said, her voice smooth but cold. "Saint Vale of House Aithreos. I suppose it must be difficult to manage the vast responsibilities of your House while keeping track of every mission briefing." She leaned back slightly, her tone laced with restrained sarcasm. "So, I'll let it slide this once."
Her calm demeanor did little to mask the simmering anger beneath. Even the old scientist beside her could feel the tension, the quiet defiance in her words directed at one of the most powerful elders of the Great Houses. He swallowed hard, silently praying the colonel's lack of restraint wouldn't bring consequences later.
Vale smiled, and the wrinkles on his aged cheeks deepened. "Finally, someone who understands the weight of responsibility resting on these old shoulders," he said, letting out a dramatic sigh and pouting slightly in mock weariness.
The young man standing behind him remained still, unmoved by Vale's words. His stance was firm and disciplined, but his eyes were somewhere else. From time to time, they flicked toward the young female captain seated across the table. Looking at Elysia as he wants something from her.
Rylan, noticing the man's lingering gaze, tensed immediately. His sharp eyes followed every subtle movement of the red-clad attendant. He didn't like the way the man looked at his captain, not one bit. Straightening in his seat, Rylan focused all his attention on him, silently vowing not to let even a single disrespectful glance pass unnoticed.
While the quiet tension simmered between the younger men, Vale continued his conversation with the Colonel. And after few momments, his attention shifted toward Elysia. His piercing eyes scanned her slowly, from head to toe, before his lips curved into a sly smile.
"It's good to finally meet you again, Elysia, or should I say, Captain Elysia?" Vale said, his voice deep and uncomfortably amused.
"I still remember our last meeting… when you rejected my offer."
His tone dripped with mock politeness, the kind that carried a hidden sting, as though he was reminding her that the offer still stood, waiting for her to reconsider.
Elysia met his gaze with a calm, composed expression.
"Thank you for your kind words, Saint Vale, and for your offer,"she said evenly.
"But I still believe someone of my standing cannot be compared to a person of your stature. I hope you can understand… and respect my decision."
Her voice remained steady, but a faint flicker of unease passed through her eyes,the memory of that offer clearly left a scar she'd rather not revisit.
Colonel Violet, noticing the sudden shift in Elysia's mood, narrowed her eyes slightly. It was evident that Vale knew Elysia from before,but the Colonel didn't seem entirely surprised. After all, she was well aware of Elysia's reputation. A woman with such rare abilities and potential was bound to attract attention from the Great Houses.
"I suppose you already know Captain Elysia, Saint Vale?" the Colonel asked, her tone sharp but controlled.
"Oh, yes," Vale replied with a pleased hum, leaning slightly back in his chair.
"Quite well, in fact. She's a remarkable young woman, famous not only for her abilities but also for her… presence." His eyes gleamed faintly.
"Our House leader himself ordered that she be recruited directly into House Aithreos."
He paused deliberately, looking at Elysia again. Though she appeared calm, her eyes betrayed a faint restlessness, a tension that only she and Vale seemed to understand.
Her team, however, was struck with surprise. Their captain, scouted by one of the Great Three Houses? And she had rejected them? Pride swelled silently in their chests. But before they could process the thought further, Vale's next words turned the air ice cold.
"We offered her a proposal of marriage," Vale said casually.
The room froze. Even the hum of the holograms seemed to fade. The scientists stared in disbelief, Colonel Violet's eyes narrowed dangerously, and Rylan clenched his fists beneath the table.
The young man standing behind Vale didn't flinch. He stood motionless, his expression unreadable, but his eyes flickered, if only for a moment, toward Elysia.
"Is that so?" the Colonel said while looking at Elysia.
"I didn't know the Great Houses were so eager to forge ties with a family from the Iron Reach that they'd accept one of its daughters for their own. I guess I was mistaken".
Her tone was calm, yet there was a sharp edge hidden beneath her words. She looked at Elysia with a surprised look on her face.
"And to think that there is someone from the outer districts who refused a proposal from one of the Big Three Houses…"
The Colonel's eyes slowly shifted toward the young man in his thirties standing behind Saint Vale, as if confirming that Vale had intended Elysia to marry his son.
Vale let out a short laugh, his lips curling into a mocking smile.
"You're right and wrong, Colonel," he said, his tone dripping with condescension.
"House Aithreos was indeed willing to take her into our clan, but no one, including myself, was willing to take her as a daughter-in-law." His smirk widened, the words slithering out of his mouth like poison.
"She's quite resourceful and beautiful, I'll give her that… but no one in our house seems to value those qualities. So no, Colonel, no one was willing to take her as a daughter-in-law."
His mocking tone filled the room, each word laced with pride and venom, stinging everyone who heard it. Every sentence that escaped his lips only fueled the anger within Elysia's team. Their faces darkened, their jaws clenched, and rage began to boil beneath their calm exteriors. The Colonel herself was starting to feel disgust for the old man sitting in front of her, but she kept her composure. She knew all too well that every House in the city shared the same rotten arrogance.
But she was not prepared for the next words that came out of his mouth.
"Since no one was willing to take her as a daughter-in-law," Vale said, his expression twisting into a sinister grin,
"I had to make the sacrifice myself. Since you know we can't disobey our family head's orders, So, I offered her a proposal of marriage, personally. But instead of accepting it with grace, she rejected it… and in doing so, she lost an opportunity that comes only once in a lifetime."
The room fell into dead silence. Everyone froze again. This time, clear anger appeared on Rylan's face, his fists tightening until his knuckles turned white. The rest of the team looked equally furious, their eyes burning with restrained hatred. That despicable man sitting across the table was not only mocking their captain but openly humiliating her without an ounce of shame. What kind of old man was he? Did he have no dignity at all?
Colonel Violet's pale face turned red, her calm expression faltering for the first time. The tension in the room became suffocating.
Everyone had assumed that Saint Vale had been speaking of his own son,the young man standing behind him, but they couldn't have been more wrong.
Instead, he had been talking about himself, a man twice Elysia's age, proposing marriage as if she were a possession to be claimed.
His leering gaze toward her made it even worse, like he saw her as nothing more than a tool for his House's gain.
At first, everyone thought Elysia had lost a golden opportunity by refusing a proposal from the heir of one of the Great Houses, but now they realized the so-called golden chance was nothing more than a piece of rusted metal.
And as they looked at her, sitting calmly despite the humiliation, they finally understood just how much she had endured, all the mockery, the disrespect, and the weight of unwanted attention. That realization made their fury burn even hotter with every passing second.
Looking at her teammates' faces, each one burning with fury, she calmed herself and forced her whole bearing back into composed focus.
"Calm down, everyone. Did you forget what I said?"
All four of them heard their captain's voice inside their heads, soft but steady, and some of the heat drained from their anger.
"I told you the House's representatives don't care for anyone. You must keep yourself in check despite their provocations," Elysia continued.
At first, they were all confused. How in the hell was she speaking directly into their minds? Then the realization struck them. They remembered that their captain had provided each of them with a piece of jewelry they were wearing at that very moment.
They now understood how she was communicating with them. The jewels rested in their ears like simple ornaments, yet the voice didn't come from the jewelry itself. Somehow, it was carried straight into their minds, an efficient method of communication designed to stay hidden even from those who had reached the rank of Transcendence or higher. Some Transcendent humans possessed hearing so sharp that they could catch a whisper from miles away.
"For now, keep your emotions under control. Don't do anything stupid. He is talking about me, not any of you. So don't pus..." she began, but the tense Rylan cut in, fury in his voice.
"How can you ask us to stay silent after hearing what that bastard said?" Rylan spat. He had already figured out how the jewelry worked: all he needed was the thought to speak, and the link answered.
"Same here, Captain. How can you ask us to hold back after that?" Liora burst out.
"I didn't know the Houses' people could be this despicable," Jaxon gritted.
"How can you bear all of this and still remain silent, Captain? Why didn't you answer back to that bastard?" Varick's voice shook with anger.
Elysia felt something warm swell in her chest. After all those years, there were finally people in her life who cared for her, people willing to be furious on her behalf, to stand against a Saint for her sake. But she also knew the kind of power Saints possessed, and so she tried to calm them. Her reply was soft.
"I know he's nothing more than a lowlife. But the man sitting over there possesses the strength of more than twenty of me… and fifty of each of you. So don't lose your patience, even for my sake."
She paused for a moment as that warmth in her heart deepened, the genuine care her teammates showed despite the insults aimed at her.
"I'm grateful to all of you for feeling as you do," she continued gently, "but I don't want you to lose your life or your position because of me. Keep it quiet and simple."
Hearing her calm, steady voice, everyone began to breathe more easily and forced themselves to settle.
"As I told you, Saint Vale," Elysia said, turning her gaze toward him while keeping her distaste carefully restrained, "thank you for your praise and your offer, but a lowlife like me can scarcely begin to compare to someone of your stature."
A wide grin appeared on Vale's face as he heard her words. To him, they confirmed that she hadn't rejected his proposal out of pride, but because she considered herself unworthy, someone who couldn't stand beside him.
"I understand, Captain," Vale responded, untroubled. "But what can I say, you truly lost the best chance provided to you." His tone remained the same, almost bored, even as the faces around the room grew angrier. He did not care what they felt.
Colonel Violet, on the verge of erupting, was about to reply when another voice rang out from the entrance, laced with mocking amusement.
"Marrying you, old geezer, is the best punishment anyone could give, and you call it the best chance?"
A woman in her early forties stood there, black hair falling like a curtain around her shoulders. She wore a black dress that draped over one shoulder and left the other bare, the hem stopping at her knees to reveal pale feet in black sandals. On her right arm was a tattoo ,a silver hand clutching a dying sun.
Behind her stood a man in his fifties, dressed like a butler in light-brown livery. The woman's presence cut through the tension like a blade.
Saint Vale didn't turn; he already knew the voice. Disgust twisted his mouth, but he couldn't move against her, she held a standing equal to his, and to Colonel Violet's as well.
"You seem to be losing your mind with your passing age," she said, taking a seat a few chairs away from Vale. The butler lingered silently behind her.
"Children these days don't respect their elders," Vale sniffed. "Why don't you tell me about your husband?" he added with a cruel grin, pressing where it would hurt.
Rumor had it her husband had left on a high-ranking mission more than two years ago and never returned. The woman's face tightened for an instant, shadowed by worry, then hardened into defiance.
"Focus on your own old age, you geezer," she shot back, her voice steady. "My husband is alive and young. Unlike you, he doesn't cling to life like a parasite while offering others as trophies."
The moment her words left her lips, a chilling aura erupted from the old man. Vale's face twisted with anger.
"I'm still young enough to handle someone like you without breaking a sweat," he growled. "So worry about your husband, not my age."
Everyone in the room, except Colonel Violet and the woman seated across from Vale, felt a cold shiver crawl up their spines. The air itself seemed to scream of blood, cracking under the sheer pressure. Elysia could feel the weight of the red aura radiating from Vale, her body trembling beneath its suffocating force. Yet the woman and the Colonel remained perfectly calm.
The killing intent was directed squarely at the woman sitting opposite Vale. Instead of fear, she met his gaze with equal fury and released her own black aura, which clashed violently with the crimson energy pouring from him.
"Why don't you try it, geezer?" she said quietly, her tone carrying a deadly promise. "There's nothing I'd enjoy more than watching your old body break."
The tension doubled instantly. A new, darker presence permeated the air, heavier and far more oppressive than before. The very light in the room seemed to dim as shadows deepened, twisting under the pressure of the two Saints' unleashed power. Members of Elysia's team swayed, nearly losing consciousness beneath the crushing force of their auras.
The butler and guards stiffened as the room trembled, vibrating with fury and the threat of destruction.
Before the confrontation could ignite, Colonel Violet's voice cut through the chaos like a blade of white steel. Her aura flared, pure and blinding, colliding with the red and black energies with equal force, without adding to their violence. Instead, it calmed the storm raging inside the room
Those who had been suffocating under the Saints' power began to breathe again, their strength returning as the Colonel's white aura steadied the air.
"I should remind you," Violet said coldly, "this is an army briefing room. If you two wish to kill each other, do it elsewhere. And please, Saint Amy", she fixed the woman with a hard stare", do not provoke Saint Vale."
Her authority was absolute. The storm within the chamber subsided before it could erupt, though the embers of rage still burned fiercely beneath the surface.