Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Chapter 147: Sibling Time

Silas didn’t even flinch. He simply reached his calloused hand down and patted her messy hair, completely ignoring her financial meltdown.

"It’s fine... you just have to calm down." Silas told her calmly.

He pulled his phone from his pocket, leaned over the marble counter, and tapped the screen against the glowing scanner.

CHIME!

[Transaction Approved. 200,000 SC Deducted.]

Lia let out a pathetic high-pitched squeak of pure economic trauma, completely defeated by the reality that her brother had just spent two hundred thousand credits on her wardrobe without blinking.

Elise beamed, sliding a sleek dark canvas duffel bag across the marble counter. It looked no larger than a standard gym bag, but Silas knew the interior was laced with expansion runes to effortlessly hold the massive pile of clothing they had just purchased.

He grabbed the heavy strap of the bag.

He didn’t sling it over his shoulder. In a flash of golden pixelated light, he put it directly into his Lord Inventory, letting the bag vanish into the spatial void.

"Your business is always appreciated, Lord Graves," Elise bowed deeply, pressing her hand over her heart. "Please, do not hesitate to contact me if the young miss requires any further alterations."

Lia, still completely catatonic from the price tag, managed a weak polite bow. She thanked her quietly though her voice was barely above a whisper.

Silas gave the clerk a respectful nod. He wished goodbye to Elise and the rest of the boutique staff, who were all gathered near the back racks, watching the ridiculously wealthy and handsome Lord depart.

They all greeted him too, waving him off with flushed cheeks and eager smiles.

Silas placed his hand on the small of Lia’s back, guiding the shell-shocked eleven-year-old out of the warm lavender-scented air of the Weaver’s Spire and back out into the cool, damp night of the Valoria City commercial district.

The rain had started up again, a light freezing drizzle that slicked the cobblestones.

Silas didn’t have to wait.

The grizzled taxi driver he had bribed earlier was parked exactly where they had left him with the engine idling warmly by the curb.

Silas opened the back door. They went outside, stepped out of the rain, and entered the cab.

"Welcome back, my Lord!" the driver greeted them enthusiastically, clearly thrilled to be earning triple his daily rate. "Heading straight back to the Silverleaf residential sector?"

"Yeah," Silas said, pulling the door shut. He paused, looking out the rain-streaked window at the glowing neon storefronts lining the street. "Actually, make a stop first. Pull over at the nearest high-end convenience store on the way."

"You got it, boss," the driver nodded, throwing the cab into drive.

They drove for about five minutes down the primary commercial artery before the driver pulled up to a massive, brightly lit storefront.

The neon sign above the sliding glass doors read: [Ether-Mart: Premium Provisions].

Silas stepped out of the cab, pulling Lia along with him.

The little girl was still muttering quietly to herself about the two hundred thousand credits, completely lost in a traumatic trance of financial guilt.

"I told you not to worry, didn’t I?"

They walked through the sliding glass doors.

The convenience store was massive and impeccably clean too, it was also fully stocked with high-tier terrestrial goods.

This wasn’t the grimy flickering bodega in the slums that sold expired synthetic nutrient paste and stale cheese blocks.

This place catered to the corporate elite and the wealthy.

The aisles were lined with fresh organically grown produce, magically preserved cuts of premium terrestrial meat, and rows upon rows of brightly colored expensive snacks.

Silas grabbed a heavy wire shopping basket near the entrance.

"Alright," Silas said, handing the basket to Lia. "We’re buying food. Real food."

Lia snapped out of her trance. She looked down at the basket, then up at the towering shelves of food.

Her stomach, which had been surviving on cheap spaghetti and tap water for quite some time gave a loud treacherous rumble.

They walked down the first aisle.

Lia’s eyes widened.

She stared at the shelves with her t instincts immediately defaulting to her old habits.

She reached out tentatively and grabbed a small, crushed box of generic grain crackers, the cheapest item on the shelf as she carefully placed it into the wire basket.

’Sigh... would it kill thie girl to be a bit more stingy?’

Silas stopped walking.

He looked down at the crushed box of generic crackers and helooked at Lia.

Without a word, Silas reached into the basket, picked up the crushed box, and casually tossed it back onto the shelf.

"Hey!" Lia protested, her brow furrowing. "Those were only two credits!"

Silas ignored her.

He reached out and grabbed five massive brightly colored boxes of premium enchanted sugar cookies, a large bag of expensive salted root-chips, and three heavy jars of roasted honey-glazed nuts.

He dumped all of them unceremoniously into her wire basket.

"We aren’t eating garbage anymore, Lia." Silas told her flatly.

Lia stared at the mountain of expensive snacks weighing down the basket. "Silas... this is like... fifty credits worth of snacks."

"It’s alright," Silas reminded her, tapping the side of her head. "Keep walking."

They moved through the store like an invading army.

Silas bought stuff apart from spaghetti.

He completely bypassed the dry goods and walked directly to the refrigerated butcher section at the back of the store.

He didn’t buy ground beef or cheap sausage links.

He selected three massive thick-cut, premium marbled terrestrial ribeye steaks.

"Hehe~"

He grabbed fresh cloves of garlic, sprigs of real rosemary, heavy blocks of sharp aged white cheddar cheese, and a massive carton of fresh eggs.

’This is what I mean when I say good food...’

Lia followed him with her eyes growing wider and wider at every item he dumped into the basket.

By the time they reached the checkout counter, the wire basket was overflowing with premium groceries.

The cashier rang them up.

Silas tapped his phone against the scanner, paid the tab without checking the price, and grabbed the heavy paper grocery bags.

They went back outside, climbed back into the warm waiting taxi, and drove the rest of the way to the Silverleaf residential complex.

"Sigh... Night man."

Silas paid the driver the promised triple rate, earning a salute from the exhausted man and led Lia up the elevator to their apartment.

The Spirit lock chimed with the door swinging open to reveal the quiet dimly lit living room.

Silas didn’t drop the bags on the counter and order her to go to sleep.

He walked straight into the small modern kitchen, set the groceries down on the marble island, and began unpacking them.

"Wash your hands," Silas instructed, rolling up the sleeves of his dark formal shirt. "You’re helping me cook..."

Lia blinked, surprised.

She quickly dragged a stool over to the sink, climbed up, and scrubbed her hands with soap.

Lia then hopped down and trotted over to the island, peering into the bags.

"What are we making?" Lia asked, her mouth watering at the sight of the thick-cut ribeye steaks.

"Steak and eggs," Silas replied simply. "A proper meal and none of that cheap pasta you were boiling earlier."

For the next thirty minutes, the quiet apartment transformed.

Silas had wondered what he was going to use to fill this place up... he had bought a good apartment and it was almost like he had no use for it since he had no connection to Earth apart from the fact that the LAB was here but all of that had changed now.

They cooked together. Silas handled the heavy work, dropping a cast-iron skillet onto the gas burner and letting it heat up until it was smoking.

He seasoned the massive steaks heavily with coarse salt and cracked black pepper.

Lia stood on her stool next to him, assigned to the critical task of peeling and crushing the fresh garlic cloves.

Shh Shh Shh!

She smacked the cloves with the flat of a kitchen knife, laughing as the papery skins flew off onto the counter.

Silas on the other hand dropped the steaks into the blistering hot pan.

HISSSSS!

The loud violent sound of searing meat filled the kitchen as a thick rich cloud of sizzling fat, crushed garlic, and roasting rosemary plumed into the air.

Silas grabbed a spoon, tilted the pan slightly, and began rapidly basting the searing steaks with melting butter and garlic.

Lia watched him, completely mesmerized by the effortless skill he displayed.

"You cook like a professional, Big brother. You never cooked like this before when we were living together."

"I never had ribeye steaks in the slums," Silas chuckled with his eyes focused on the searing meat. "And I’ve had a lot of practice recently. My head chef in the territory is a perfectionist... and she does a lot of work. If I burn the meat, she looks like she’s going to cry and I watch her cook when I’m free."

Lia nodded, she didn’t understand most of these stuff but she did know her Big Brother was having an excellent time and honestly that was enough for her.

He pulled the perfectly seared medium-rare steaks out of the pan, resting them on a wooden cutting board to let the juices settle.

He cracked four fresh eggs directly into the residual garlic butter left in the cast iron, frying them up perfectly with crispy, golden edges.

The apartment smelled incredible.

Silas stood at the kitchen island, wiping his hands on a towel.

He was smiling.

It was a genuine relaxed smile at the aroma of the food filling his home here... It felt quite normal.

’Though I still want to head back to Blessed Land but it’s probably when she falls asleep.’ Silas thought.

They plated the food.

Silas transferred the massive cuts of steak onto two ceramic plates, sliding the perfectly fried eggs right on top, and carried them over to the small kitchen table.

They sat down across from each other.

Lia didn’t wait for permission.

She grabbed her fork and knife, sliced a piece of the steak, and shoved it into her mouth.

"Mmmh~"

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and a soft groan of pure bliss escaped her lips as the rich garlic-infused fat melted on her tongue.

It was, without a single doubt, the greatest thing she had ever eaten in her entire ten years of life!

Silas cut into his own steak, chewing quietly as he watched her inhale her food like a starving wolf pup.

He took a sip of his water. He set the glass down, resting his forearms on the table.

Silas looked directly at his sister.

"So, Lia," Silas asked with his deep voice cutting smoothly through the quiet kitchen.

Lia paused, a piece of steak halfway to her mouth. She looked across the table at him as her dark eyes were wide and curious.

Silas rested his chin on his folded hands, his golden-ringed eyes locking onto hers.

"Are you still interested in heading to school?"

School.

It was something she had always wanted.

Ever since Silas had pulled her out of that freezing rotting dumpster in the lower wards, she had watched the clean, well-dressed children walk past the alleyways in their pristine uniforms, carrying heavy textbooks and glowing datapads.

They were learning about history, magic theory, and global economics, while she was learning how to pickpocket distracted tourists just to afford synthetic nutrient paste.

She had wanted to go so badly. And Silas was well aware of it.

Before she had run away, before the guilt of being a financial burden had driven her into the dark, Silas had a plan.

His original goal had been quite simple: he would finish his brutal, grinding curriculum at the Valoria Academy, graduate with a baseline placement, and use his entry-level salary to put her in a decent preparatory section fitting of her age.

He wanted her to learn.

He wanted her to understand the complex mechanics of the world in case she was lucky enough to awaken a core and become a Lord herself.

He banked on the fact that if he became a registered Lord... even a lowly Red Core, he would be granted priority placement for his dependents but then she stole his money and vanished, and the plan had died.

Until now...

Lia slowly lowered her fork with the heavy metal clinking against the plate. She swallowed the bite of steak and her small throat bobbed.

"Can I... really?" Lia whispered.

She looked at him as if he might suddenly laugh and tell her it was a cruel joke but Silas didn’t laugh.

He looked at the faded scar stretching across her ribs beneath the oversized t-shirt.

"Of course," Silas answered simply. "You have the clothes for it now, and I have the credits. I’ll get the paperwork filed tomorrow."