Chapter 43: The girl that could one day destroy nations
The next morning, I slowly opened my eyes.
For a few peaceful seconds, everything felt normal.
Then I saw her.
Lillith sat perfectly still on the chair directly in front of my bed.
Smiling.
Exactly the same way she had been smiling last night.
My soul nearly left my body.
"AH—"
I immediately threw myself backwards in panic and tumbled completely off the bed.
But before I hit the floor—
I stopped midair.
A faint purple aura surrounded my body while I floated several inches above the ground.
Lillith still hadn’t moved from the chair.
The only sign she had done anything at all was the faint glow within her deep purple eyes.
Slowly, she lowered me gently back onto the bed.
I stared at her in horror.
Then my eyes drifted toward where the bedroom door should’ve been.
And froze.
The door was gone.
Not broken.
Not shattered.
Gone.
As if it had never existed in the first place.
I slowly looked back toward her.
"...What happened to the door?"
Lillith tilted her head slightly.
Then smiled softly.
"...Did you really think that measly door was stronger than my love for you?"
I genuinely had no response to that.
After several seconds of silence, Lillith finally stood from the chair.
Then calmly climbed onto the bed toward me.
"...Now."
My survival instincts activated instantly.
"You owe me payment for watching you sleep all night."
I immediately started dragging myself backwards across the bed.
"I never asked you do that!"
"I know."
"That somehow makes it worse!"
Lillith suddenly lunged forward and grabbed me before I could escape.
Then immediately wrapped herself around me.
Arms.
Legs.
Everything.
"I’ll accept one hour of cuddling."
"That sounds less like a payment and more like hostage negotiations."
She ignored me completely while happily nuzzling her cheek against mine.
Meanwhile I continued trying pry myself free.
"Lillith," I groaned, "I need get to the construction site."
That finally made her expression twitch slightly.
"The construction site again..."
"...Yes?"
For the first time all morning, irritation visibly crossed her face.
"All this talk about the construction site is starting piss me off."
A cold shiver ran down my spine.
I immediately tried escaping harder.
Unfortunately, that only seemed amuse her.
Lillith chuckled softly before tightening her grip around me further.
"There’s no way you’re escaping."
I froze slightly.
Then her smile slowly widened.
"And your little trick at the academy won’t work this time."
My eyes widened instantly.
She remembered that?
Lillith leaned close against my ear.
Very slowly—
Very deliberately—
She whispered:
"...Because I would never let you go."
My survival instincts had officially reached critical levels.
For the next hour, I attempted escaping constantly.
None of it worked.
Every time I managed slipping one arm free, Lillith wrapped herself around me tighter.
When I tried rolling away, she simply dragged me back effortlessly.
At one point I genuinely attempted crawling off the bed only for her to casually pull me backwards by the ankle without even looking up from where she had buried herself against my neck.
Eventually—
I gave up.
The moment my struggling stopped, Lillith immediately seemed pleased.
She gently patted my head.
"Good boy."
"...I hate that phrase so much."
She ignored me completely before kissing my cheek softly.
After that, I simply laid there blankly staring at the ceiling.
At this point, Finn could probably manage things at the construction site without me for a few hours.
Hopefully.
Meanwhile Lillith continued quietly talking beside me.
About how much she loved me.
How she missed me.
How I would never again exist outside a two-foot radius around her.
That last part concerned me slightly.
Eventually I heard the clock within the room chime softly.
One hour.
Finally.
I immediately looked toward her.
"The hour’s over."
Lillith tightened her grip slightly.
"...Five more minutes."
Then she buried herself even deeper into my neck.
"Lillith."
No response.
"Lillith please."
Still nothing.
After another ten minutes of me continuously begging for freedom, she finally sighed dramatically before releasing me.
"You’re very demanding."
I stared at her blankly.
Then immediately got out of bed before she changed her mind.
A while later, the two of us walked toward the new steel production site together.
Well—
I walked.
Lillith remained attached to my arm almost the entire time.
The construction area looked far more active than yesterday.
Workers moved constantly between materials while smoke drifted upward from temporary furnaces.
The scaled-up bloomeries were slowly beginning take shape beside the river.
And surprisingly—
The workers actually seemed slightly more competent today.
Slightly.
One man still managed dropping an entire stack of prepared stone directly into wet clay and another nearly set his own boots on fire trying move charcoal improperly.
But compared to yesterday’s disasters—
It was progress.
Meanwhile Finn marched around the site dramatically yelling instructions toward the workers like some kind of exhausted military commander.
"No, the support beam goes UNDER the frame!"
A loud crash sounded nearby.
"...Why are you all like this?!"
Then finally Finn noticed me approaching.
Relief immediately crossed his face.
"Leon, where the hell were y—"
He froze.
Slowly—
Lillith stepped out from behind me.
Her deep purple eyes locked onto Finn silently.
Finn’s entire body stiffened instantly.
"...Oh."
The workers nearby also slowly began noticing her.
And one by one—
The entire construction site started going quiet.
Finn cautiously walked toward me like he was approaching some kind of unstable magical beast.
"...Leon," he asked carefully, "where exactly were you this morning?"
I slowly turned my head toward Lillith.
She currently had both hands wrapped tightly around my left arm while leaning comfortably against me.
Finn immediately understood.
"...Right."
He instantly straightened his posture.
"Everything is perfectly fine then. No issues at all."
The speed at which he switched tones was honestly impressive.
It sounded less like he was talking normally and more like he was desperately trying avoid being instantly killed.
Which—
Considering who stood beside me—
Was probably reasonable.
Lillith stared at him silently for several long seconds.
Finn nearly stopped breathing entirely.
Then finally she lost interest and rested her head against my shoulder again.
Finn visibly relaxed.
The day continued surprisingly smoothly after that.
Well—
Compared to yesterday at least.
The workers still made mistakes constantly, but nowhere near as catastrophically as before.
One knight accidentally mixed the wrong ratios within one of the charcoal pits, nearly smothering half the furnace with smoke.
Another somehow managed hammering an iron support completely crooked despite three separate people yelling at him.
And at one point, two workers started arguing over which direction a support beam should face hard enough that they dropped the entire thing into the river.
Still—
Progress was progress.
By halfway through the day, we had successfully completed another scaled-up bloomery.
During the midday break, I attempted sitting down beside one of the unfinished furnace structures.
Unfortunately—
Lillith immediately grabbed me and pulled me directly onto her lap before I could protest.
Then she held me there with one arm wrapped tightly around my waist.
Completely trapped.
Meanwhile Finn sat nearby reading another newspaper.
Which still felt deeply unnatural somehow.
I stared at him.
"You really kept reading newspapers after your near-death experience?"
Finn shrugged.
"I’m a changed man now."
"You got blown up by wind magic."
"And you got sliced up by wind magic."
Then suddenly Finn blinked while reading further down the page.
"...Oh."
That immediately got both mine and Lillith’s attention.
"What?" I asked.
Finn looked back toward the paper again before reading aloud.
"Apparently Duke Nightbane personally led a major counterattack into Magneto territory."
Lillith immediately looked up.
Finn continued reading while his expression slowly became more stunned.
"The battle supposedly involved another high-ranking A-rank mage..."
His eyes widened slightly.
"...And according to witnesses the entire landscape got permanently altered."
That caused me pause.
"What?"
Finn kept reading.
"Soldiers from both armies described it as ’watching two gods battle.’"
The construction site had gone oddly quiet around us while Finn read the descriptions.
Mountainsides shattered.
Forests burned away.
Entire sections of terrain collapsed from magical pressure alone.
Lillith remained strangely silent through all of it.
She simply stared downward quietly while Finn continued reading witness accounts from the battlefield.
I looked toward her.
"You alright?"
She blinked slightly before nodding once.
"...Father will be fine."
Despite her words, she still looked worried.
So after a moment, I gently placed my hand on top of her head.
"I’m sure he’ll be alright."
Lillith froze slightly.
Then slowly—
A faint blush appeared across her cheeks before she leaned quietly against me and closed her eyes.
For once—
She actually looked calm.
Work resumed afterward and continued until sunset.
By the end of the day, we had nearly completed yet another bloomery despite progress slowing considerably due to Lillith refusing release my hands for more than several seconds at a time.
Eventually the workers departed for the evening while me and Lillith headed back toward the manor together.
Or more accurately—
She dragged me home while attached to my arm.
The moment we entered the manor, Mother immediately asked something.
"...Leon."
I froze.
"Yes?"
"What happened to your bedroom door?"
"...I have absolutely no idea."
Thankfully she had apparently already replaced it while we were gone.
Lillith remained attached to me the entire walk back toward my room.
The moment we entered, I immediately collapsed onto the bed from exhaustion.
A second later—
Lillith dramatically collapsed beside me in the exact same position.
For several minutes neither of us spoke.
Then slowly, my mind drifted back toward the earlier newspaper story.
Toward Rosthwall Nightbane.
Toward the descriptions of the battle.
I turned slightly toward Lillith.
She was smiling softly while staring toward the ceiling.
The scene from earlier suddenly reminded me of something important.
Lillith wasn’t just some overly attached girl.
She was the heir to one of the most powerful families within the kingdom.
Definitely the most powerful outside the royal family itself, or at least until she matures.
And after hearing what her father had done—
That reality felt much heavier now.
"...Lillith."
"Mhm?"
"What are you planning do when you inherit the Nightbane title someday?"
She lifted one finger thoughtfully against her lips before staring upward for several seconds.
Then finally she turned toward me again.
"...I haven’t really thought about it."
I nodded slightly.
"But one thing I know for sure..."
Her smile slowly widened.
"I’ll declare war on the Aldric territory."
I stared at her blankly.
"Then I’ll arrive with an army, take you away, and lock you inside the Nightbane capital forever beside me."
I looked upward silently.
The scary part was—
I could tell she was joking.
Mostly.
But only because if Lillith genuinely wanted do that—
She wouldn’t need an army.
Even now, the young girl laying beside me could probably destroy the entire Aldric territory by herself if she truly wanted to.
And a fully grown, fully matured Lillith Nightbane...
Would likely be capable of bringing entire nations to their knees alone.
