Chapter 140: Don’t Go Breaking My… Core.

When the morning came, all of the horsemen were up at sunrise.

Upon leaving their rooms, they found Giselle, who was already awake and waiting for them.

Before they had even enjoyed breakfast, she was leading them up a staircase within the spire.

Along the way, she continually stole glances behind her at Solomon. It was something that all of the horsemen noticed.

Solomon didn’t actually pay much mind to the looks he was getting, that was, until Nila’s gaze became too heated to ignore.

“Something on your mind, sister…?” He whispered.

“You are already my brother, you will not be my father as well..!”

“….”

Solomon had no idea what he could have done to earn this sort of ire from her, but he was already beginning to regret his choices.

Giselle led the horsemen to a chamber above the living spaces. It was a simple cylindrical room around fifty yards in length, with stone pillars lining the walls and inconsistently spaced around the floor.

Each pillar was nearly double Solomon’s height and as thick as a redwood tree trunk.

Nila rapped her knuckles against the material, her expression deeply curious. “Are these… orichalcum slabs?”

“Indeed, they are.” Giselle was visibly pleased that Nila was able to recognize such a thing. “I-I use them as part of my own training.”

Solomon glanced at the stones around him. Most were covered in tiny holes of varying depth. Some traveled clean through to the other side.

“So… Which of you would like to go first?”

The horsemen glanced at each other.

“Ummm… What are we doing exactly?” Everett questioned.

“Well, if you’re going to start learning Will, then you can’t hold onto the infected cores you already have. Your bodies must be your own, your power must be your own. Totally and completely.”

Giselle suddenly turned around and pulled a small book out of her dress pocket.

She flipped through the pages at near-light speed, never stopping until she found the subsection that confirmed her previous statement.

“Okay… Yes, yes, that’s right! Sorry, it’s been a while since I read this thing.” Giselle smiled nervously.

Dakota placed her hand over her stomach timidly.

“But um… does having your core destroyed not cause excruciating pain..?”

“No, you’re wrong, sis.” Everett patted her on the head.

“Whew.” Dakota exhaled.

“Death is what it causes for most people.”

“W-W-What!??”

If you didn’t know Dakota, you would almost certainly never believe that she had come from an assassin’s clan. She was so soft-spoken that Giselle was instantly concerned for her.

“O-Oh, it’s okay! I promise, it won’t be that bad, I’ll be as gentle as I possibly can, since I’ve been practicing to do this for quite a while!”

None of the horsemen looked like they believed her.

Naturally, her eyes locked onto Solomon, and a coy smile spread across her lips. “Perhaps my sister’s young suitor is courageous enough to demonstrate the safety of this procedure?”

Solomon had a relatively bored look on his face thus far. He hadn’t even bothered to take his hands out of his pockets.

“…If it helps to earn the approval of my future sister-in-law.”

For some reason, the blonde elf smiled at his words. Though it was the exact same smile Nila usually gave before she tried to bite or stab him.

“My approval? Well then, I hope you don’t regret your choice of words just now.”

Giselle moved faster than any of the horsemen could react to.

With the flat of her palm, she struck Solomon cleanly in the stomach.

His eyes bulged outward as he was sent flying off his feet. His large body slammed into a wall of orichalcum so hard that he felt the back of his skull crack open.

Before he even hit the ground, he felt blood rushing up his throat and past his lips.

The only positive in this situation was that he was in so much pain from having his head crushed that he barely noticed the dreadful weakness that came with having his core destroyed.

Gritting his teeth, he glared up at Giselle as she said something he could barely hear.

Instantly, he felt his rage beginning to rear it’s ugly head. Vile, venomous words were not far from his lips, and his next action was almost certainly going to be something explosive.

But before he flew off the handle, he swallowed all of his anger instead. Solomon took measured, controlled breaths as he straightened his posture.

His voice became icy cold, and his tone became slightly more arrogant.

“…That was beneath us both. Mostly me.”

By the time Solomon stood up again, he appeared to be no worse for wear as he took the time to crack his neck into place.

As he opened his eyes, he stared down at Giselle as if she were not the most powerful one in the room.

“With the way you’d been looking at me since last night, I expected a bit of malice. But this is so much smaller. How embarrassing for you.”

The other horsemen were at a loss. Their oldest brother was talking down to a woman who had just sent him flying. It was as if he didn’t even put her in his eyes at all.

And to make matters even stranger… he wasn’t being beaten for his behavior.

Giselle looked down at her hand. A feeling of frustration took root deep inside her stomach.

“…You are right. That was a bit childish on my behalf. I suppose that hearing my daughter and my sister boast about you so fervently has unsettled something within me. I desired to test you just now, and you have my apologies for it.”

Giselle was a nearly impossible woman to read. At times, she seemed scatter-brained and even a bit clumsy. But just now, she seemed to also believe herself to be a protector of sorts.

She unconsciously tested Solomon just to know if he could protect her sister. To know if he was great enough to fight beside her daughter.

Solomon had not yet decided how he should behave around the woman going forward. Perhaps she would have been best avoided.

“So… Who’s next??”

–

Faint rays of sunlight crept in from behind a stained-glass window.

Inside a quaint study, a large mahogany desk supported a single sleeping woman.

A light, barely audible snoring came from her still-dressed form. Her messily strewn burgundy hair obscured the morning light that normally would have reached her eyes.

Underneath her desk, there was a small ball of black fur curled up beside her feet. The animal also seemed to be in a rather deep sleep, and it was unlikely to change that on its own anytime soon.

There came a gentle knock at the door.

“My lady…? There’s… something that requires your attention.”

After a few more knocks, the woman finally began to stir. Her snores changed into weary groans.

“Ryth… I swear the damn sky had better be falling…”

“…Something to that effect, yes, my lady.”

The woman got up from her seat, stretching away the aches and pains that came from sleeping at a desk instead of a bed.

As she stretched, she reached to push her hair out of her face and at least try to make herself look decent.

That was when she saw it. Something on her wrist that did not belong.

Rolling up her sleeve, she found that she wasn’t mistaken. The aberrations continued farther up her arm.

“What the fuck…?”

The woman walked over to an opposing corner of the room, desperate for some semblance of understanding.

However, there was another surprise waiting for her when she laid eyes on herself.

Underneath the gleam of dry drool and layer of grit around her eyes, there sat a much younger version of Jiaoying. One that was nearly indistinguishable from her twenty-five-year-old self.

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Sorry for the late upload, had some… incidents come up yesterday. But I wanted to let you guys know that I’ve published a new auxiliary Chapter that explains the events we’re going to be hosting weekly in the discord! Be sure to check it out whenever you get a chance!

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