Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Chapter 157: Preparations For Valoria Academy [Bonus Chapter]

Rowenna stared at him.

The unshakeable confidence he had in her potential... the certainty that she would win the rematch made her breath catch in her throat.

"Thank you, my Lord," Rowenna whispered fervently with her loyalty spiking into the stratosphere as she grabbed the edge of the blanket. "I promise you. I will grow stronger... For your sake. I won’t ever fall in the snow again."

"I know you won’t," Silas replied, giving her hair one last pat. "I’ll be waiting."

Rowenna’s face instantly flushed a brilliant hot shade of crimson.

’Lord Graves...’

Silas chuckled, standing up from the wooden chair.

He left the Runic Arcanist to rest and walked out of the cramped sleeping quarters.

The barracks were relatively quiet.

The seventy-three soldiers were currently split across the Keep; half of them were still browsing the new Tier 3 Library, while the other half were gathered in the lower communal floor of the barracks, warming up by the massive stone hearth.

As Silas descended the wooden stairs to the lower floor, he heard a loud overlapping chorus of voices echoing near the hearth.

He reached the bottom step and saw a bizarre concentrated briefing taking place.

Aeliana was sitting on a sturdy wooden bench near the fire.

The Starlight Arcanist had changed out of her ruined, scorched white robes and was now wearing a simple, clean linen tunic.

Eluned had healed her bruised purple jaw from Rowenna’s flaming punch and now she looked completely focused.

Surrounding her in a tight semi-circle were Eluned, Morwenna, Brida, and Thora.

The two divine beings and the other women were aggressively advising the Elf on what to do when she accompanied their Lord into the Secret Realm, specifically regarding her interactions with the other Lords on Earth.

"If another Lord looks at the Warlord for longer than three seconds," Morwenna instructed loudly, slamming her fist into her palm, "you drop her... You don’t ask questions and you don’t negotiate. You just break her knees and throw her into the nearest ditch."

"Do not be barbaric, pirate," Eluned corrected her smoothly, adjusting her green silk dress.

The Goddess of Nature leaned closer to Aeliana as her green eyes flashed with malice.

"Aeliana, you must employ psychological dominance... If this woman attempts to assert authority over our Lord, you simply remind her that she is a transient weed, and you are the apex flora. You show them exactly what their place is beneath the Blessed Land."

"And if she tries to get handsy with the Warlord," Thora chimed in, holding her alcohol mug high, "you remind her that he prefers women with actual big breasts! Tell her to go eat a loaf of bread!"

Aeliana was blushing a brilliant shade of pink, completely overwhelmed by the territoriality of her peers but she nodded firmly, her silver eyes burning with serious commitment to the mission parameters.

Then, Aeliana looked past the crowd and saw Silas standing at the bottom of the stairs.

She immediately stood up from the bench, brushing past the commanders, and stopped directly in front of him.

"I have won, Lord Graves," Aeliana stated, her voice carrying a soft fierce pride.

She bowed her head slightly. "I will enjoy being your weapon in the dark."

Silas smiled, reaching out and placing a heavy, reassuring hand on her slender shoulder.

"I’ll be glad to have you watching my back, Aeli," Silas told her honestly. "The raid is in three days and I don’t have the exact coordinates yet. I’ll get more information when I’m back on Earth tomorrow morning."

The entire room went dead silent.

Eluned blinked, her delicate brow furrowing in deep divine confusion. She took a step forward, looking at him as if he had just spoken in ancient dwarven.

"My Lord..." Eluned started slowly. "You just got back. You ascended mere hours ago and you have to go back again tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Silas nodded, letting his hand drop from Aeliana’s shoulder.

He looked around at the disappointed faces of his women. "Yes, Elu. I have to put my sister in school."

All women present on the lower floor of the barracks stopped completely still.

They looked at him like he was talking absolute, unfiltered gibberish.

Eluned blinked rapidly, her flawless face completely blank.

"S-sister?" Eluned repeated with her voice pitching up slightly.

The Lord... their Lord... had a sister? A little sister? That he was taking to school?

...

[The Next morning.]

The early sunlight of Valoria City filtered through the expensive, reinforced glass windows of the Silverleaf apartment.

Downstairs in the modern kitchen, Lia was practically skipping across the hardwood floor.

The eleven-year-old girl was wearing her brand-new tailored denim pants and a soft dark blue breathable shirt.

She was currently standing on her stool by the marble island, making tea while humming a bright, off-key tune about going to school.

"Hmmm~ Books and pens to write and write~"

She poured the boiling water into two ceramic mugs, letting the expensive tea bags steep.

Silas stepped downstairs a few minutes later.

He was wearing clean comfortable civilian clothes... a fitted dark gray henley and sturdy black trousers and currently he was rubbing the back of his neck, having just gotten off a lengthy encrypted phone call upstairs.

He walked into the kitchen and sat down at the island.

Lia immediately slid one of the steaming ceramic mugs across the marble counter toward him, offering him a bright incredibly eager smile.

"Good morning Big brother... have a drink."

Silas looked down at the dark aromatic liquid. He raised an eyebrow, looking back up at the eleven-year-old former pickpocket.

"Is this spiked?" Silas joked deadpan, picking up the mug.

"Big Bro!" Lia gasped with her cheeks puffing out in cheeky offense. "I am trying to be a refined student! I wouldn’t poison your tea! I didn’t even steal the tea bags... you bought them last night!"

Silas chuckled, taking a slow sip of the hot tea. It was actually perfectly brewed.

"I just got off the phone," Silas told her, setting the mug down. "I spoke with the Principal’s secretary at the Valoria City Academy. I booked a direct meeting with the man for this morning so we’re going in to get you registered and tested for placement."

Lia’s eyes widened.

She grabbed her own mug, her hands shaking slightly with pure excitement.

"That’s good," Lia said, her voice dropping into a soft, deeply sincere whisper. She looked at him over the rim of her cup. "My Big brother is working so hard for me so I should be a good little sister and work hard for him too."

Silas smiled warmly. He reached across the marble island and patted the crown of her hair, ruffling the messy brown strands.

They finished their tea quickly and they moved to the front door.

Silas placed his hand on the metal panel, temporarily disengaging the heavy glowing Spirit Lock to let them pass.

Once they stepped out into the hallway, he pressed his palm against the exterior scanner, re-engaging the dense mana ward to ensure the apartment remained completely impenetrable while they were gone.

CLICK!

Both of them were outside now and the rain from the previous night had completely cleared, leaving the cobblestone streets clean and shining in the morning sun.

Silas walked down the sidewalk, stopping near the edge of the immaculate, gated community.

He looked at his own completely empty driveway slot then, he glanced across the street. His next-door neighbor... a wealthy corporate executive had a sleek glowing silver anti-grav sedan parked elegantly in his designated spot.

Silas crossed his arms, looking down at Lia.

"You know," Silas joked dryly, tilting his head toward the empty driveway. "I have enough liquid capital right now. I should probably buy a supercar like the midnight-blue one Elora used to pick us up yesterday. It would make the commute easier."

Lia instantly spazzed out.

Her financial trauma flared back to life with a vengeance as she grabbed his arm, violently shaking her head back and forth.

"No!" Lia shrieked, completely horrified by the prospect of him spending more money. "No supercars! I don’t want to ride in an extra expensive car! It’s a terrible investment! If we go broke again and want to sell it, it wouldn’t even go for half the price! The depreciation rate on those models is awful! Big Brother, please don’t buy a car!"

Silas sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Money was not an issue anymore.

He could generate another two million credits tonight just by dumping more Star-Iron on Peter’s appraisal table but looking at her panicked face, he knew she wasn’t wrong about the depreciation rate.

And honestly, driving in Valoria City traffic sounded like a nightmare compared to just taking a cab.

’Besides I have to go get a driver’s license too...’ Silas thought.

"Fine. No supercar," Silas conceded.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, opened the local transit app, and pinged a commercial cab.

Two minutes later, a standard yellow mag-cab pulled up to the curb, hovering silently on its repulsors.

Silas opened the back door, ushering his sister inside before sliding in next to her.

"Take us to Valoria City Academy..." Silas instructed the driver. "I’ll pay once we get there."

"You got it, boss," the driver replied, engaging the thrusters.

The mag-cab pulled smoothly away from the curb, accelerating down the cobblestone street and merging into the heavy morning traffic, leaving the Silverleaf district entirely behind.

As the yellow cab disappeared around a distant, sweeping curve in the road, the quiet residential street fell still.

Directly across from Silas’s apartment complex, sitting casually on a pristine white wrought-iron bench beneath a manicured oak tree, a figure moved.

Harper reached up and slowly took off her wide-brimmed sun hat.

The purple-haired girl stared down the empty street.

"He has a younger sister too, huh?" Harper muttered to herself with her voice becoming a low intrigued purr.

It was true.

After her rejection encounter at the Solstice Cafe, she had immediately run his name through the deep-dive Valoria City registry.

The algorithm had flagged his file, showing that Silas Graves had officially registered a dependent named Lia when he had been thirteen years old but the file noted she had been missing for two years.

Harper hadn’t expected them to be reunited and living together so soon.

A smile appeared on Harper’s lips.

"Well, that works for me," Harper murmured, tapping her manicured nails against the wooden slats of the bench.

She had been stalking him since dawn.

She hadn’t even bothered to actively hide her physical presence or mask her mana signature.

She knew Silas was capable of seeing through baseline stealth spells anyway. She was simply sitting in plain sight, observing his movement patterns.

’Not only is he going to the Secret Realm too...’ Harper thought, mentally reviewing the intel she had purchased from her father’s guild contacts last night, ’but he’s also taking his sister to the Academy... What a busy day for the Lord hehe~’

She leaned back against the bench.

While he was inside the Secret Realm, dealing with whatever ancient boss monster was guarding the vault, Harper already had a meticulous multi-step checklist of things she was going to do to ensure they grew significantly closer during the expedition.

She had already planned out the endgame. The raid was going to end with Silas taking her virginity.

’Oh my...’

Her cheeks turned a dusky pink.

It wasn’t because she was genuinely flustered or embarrassed by the prospect of intimacy.

It was the thrill of the entrapment itself.

’We won’t carry any condoms in our combat gear...’ Harper strategized. ’He’ll ravage me in the heat of the moment after the boss fight. He’ll finish inside and once he does... I already have the high-tier fertility pills.’

She was most certainly going to get pregnant!

And once she was carrying his child, the Lord of the Blessed Land wouldn’t have a choice.

She would use the pregnancy as unshakeable leverage for them to get married, permanently locking his unprecedented power and territorial assets into her father’s guild.

It was the ultimate acquisition but to execute the plan flawlessly, she needed a distraction.

’I need someone to establish a friendship with his sister...’

Harper reached into her designer jacket and brought out her encrypted gold-plated phone.

She dialed a highly secure number.

The phone rang twice then, a person on the other side answered the call.

"Hello?" the voice of a young girl echoed through the receiver, sounding bored and slightly annoyed.

Harper smiled.

"Hello, bitch," Harper greeted her cheerfully. "Would you like to go to Valoria Academy?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. The young girl clearly wasn’t expecting the offer.

"No," the girl replied bluntly.

Harper let out a long exasperated sigh. She raised her free hand, running her fingers through her sleek purple hair, completely unfazed by the rejection.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Harper tutted softly into the receiver. "This simply won’t do."