"That’s unfair! You cheated somehow!" Taula yelled out, her voice echoing violently off the narrow walls of the inn’s living room.

She slammed her hands flat against the wooden wall.

Directly across from her, Zephyra also joined in the yelling. The silver-haired royal pointed an accusing, trembling finger at the hot-headed warrior, declaring with absolute certainty that the entire game had been completely rigged.

Klaus just stood there, leaning heavily against the wooden doorframe. The door to his room... which happened to be the absolute only private bedroom in the entire modest inn was wide open.

Standing directly next to him was Mirela. The usually shy maid ran a delicate hand through her silver goat horns with a highly visible incredibly deep blush spreading completely across her pale cheeks as she watched the chaos unfold.

Against all statistical odds and physical logic... Mirela had won the final round.

That meant, according to the rules they had established while he was fighting for his life in his mindscape, she officially got the right to sleep on the bed today with her ’Master.’

Klaus rubbed his temples, feeling a sharp migraine building behind his eyes. He looked at the arguing girls, completely ignoring the sheer volume of their dispute.

"Are you all going to be alright out here?" Klaus asked. "There are no more rooms in this inn, after all."

Taula crossed her arms triumphantly, her chest puffing out with absolute pride. "I’ll be fine! I’m going to head over to my Grandmother’s place for the night!"

Zephyra’s terrifying aura instantly deflated at the realization that she wasn’t getting the bedroom.

She crossed her arms while pouting heavily. "I guess I will be sleeping right here in the living room..."

Serra, who had remained surprisingly quiet during the entire screaming match, simply ran a hand through her blonde hair and nodded.

"I will be staying in the living room as well, Boss."

Klaus let out a long, heavy sigh.

He stared blankly at the ceiling beams. Never in his wildest, most absurd nightmares had he ever thought he would heavily regret renting out a standard, one-bedroom inn.

But then again, how the hell was he supposed to accurately predict that he would rapidly accumulate several women who would all want to be living under his roof?

’I need more square footage,’ Klaus thought pragmatically.

He lowered his gaze back to the group. "Tomorrow, why don’t we look for a bigger inn...? Or maybe rent an actual house?"

The effect of those words was instantaneous. Zephyra perked up immediately.

The bitter disappointment of losing the card game vanished in a single microsecond and a heavy radiant blush exploded across her flawless face as her glowing purple eyes widened.

"Alright, Hubby~!" Zephyra cheered, her hands clasping together in delight. "We’ll look for some properties together tomorrow!"

Klaus offered a tired nod.

"Goodnight girls." He said while completely ignoring the lingering competitive glares, and stepped backward into the bedroom.

Mirela followed quietly right behind him as she offered a polite, graceful wave to the others in the living room before smoothly pulling the heavy wooden door shut.

Click!

She turned the brass lock, securing the room. The sudden silence of the bedroom was a massive contrast to the chaotic noise outside.

Mirela stood with her back pressed lightly against the wooden door with her heart hammering wildly against her ribs.

The room was incredibly small, consisting mostly of a single wardrobe, a small wooden desk, and one large plush bed.

’What if Master wants to sleep together?’ Mirela thought, her eyes darting nervously toward the mattress.

She swallowed hard.

For the vast majority of her life, she had been nothing more than a lowly maid.

She didn’t possess any actual practical knowledge regarding intimate relationships or sharing a bed with a man, mostly because she had been underage for her servitude but she was officially an adult now and if Klaus, her master, genuinely wanted to take that step tonight, she realized with a violently beating heart that she wouldn’t exactly mind s—

Mirela blinked while violently snapping out of her spiraling thoughts.

She opened her eyes and looked away from the bed, only to find that Klaus wasn’t even looking at the mattress.

He was sitting cross-legged directly on the hard wooden floorboards. His hands were resting casually on his knees, his eyes were closed and his breathing had already slowed.

"Master?" Mirela asked softly, her blush receding into a look of pure confusion. "Why are you sitting on the floor?"

Klaus didn’t open his eyes.

"Wizard Apprentices like us need to meditate usually," He explained. "It is the most efficient way to actively calm our mana pools after utilizing high-stress spells or engaging in heavy combat."

He paused for a second, then cracked one dark eye open to look at her. "Would you like to join?"

Mirela blinked, then immediately nodded her head.

It made perfect logical sense. Her unique Moon Mana was notoriously volatile and incredibly difficult to suppress.

She definitely needed far more control over her internal reserves if she wanted to be a highly effective asset to him in the future.

She walked over with her clothes rustling softly and sat down directly next to him on the floorboards.

Mirela carefully mirrored his exact posture, crossing her legs and resting her hands on her lap.

Klaus reached into his storage ring and a small, vibrant green leaf appeared between his fingers. He held it out to her.

Mirela took it delicately. "What is this, Master?"

"It’s a specific medicinal herb," Klaus told her. "If you chew on the leaf while meditating, the natural chemical compounds will react with your magical pathways. Your mana will forcefully stabilize and actually increase its density bit by bit."

He stared at the small leaf in her hand with a faint look of annoyance.

’Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten the opportunity to use my System’s Merge skill to aggressively upgrade the Leaf into a higher-tier consumable yet,’ Klaus thought. ’But I will absolutely do it tomorrow. Getting a passive mana buff is too good to ignore.’

Immediately, Klaus pulled a second leaf from his storage ring, popped it directly into his mouth, and began to slowly chew.

Mirela followed his lead.

She placed the green leaf on her tongue and bit down as a sharp, incredibly bitter taste instantly flooded her mouth, but she maintained her stoic expression, chewing rhythmically alongside him.

The bedroom fell completely silent.

The only sounds were the whistling of the wind outside the glass window and the slow breathing of the two magic users.

As the bitter juices of the leaf seeped into his system, Klaus could physically feel the erratic highly stressed mana in his veins beginning to cool down and settle.

Taking full advantage of the deep meditative state, Klaus allowed his conscious mind to drift backward.

He severed his connection to the physical world, plunging seamlessly back into the absolute, suffocating blackness of his Soul Space.

The transition was instantaneous... The wooden floorboards vanished, replaced by the invisible, frictionless glass of his soul domain.

Klaus materialized in the void and looked up.

A few dozen yards away, standing entirely alone in the suffocating darkness, was the glowing white soul of Valeria.

She wasn’t moving and she wasn’t practicing her phantom rifle skills. Valeria was just standing perfectly still, staring blankly into the endless terrifying abyss of his soul.

The moment Klaus’s presence fully registered in the domain, Valeria violently stiffened with her ethereal spine snapping straight.

"What exactly are you doing in this blackness?" Klaus asked, his voice echoing endlessly.

Valeria turned to him, her newly pristine, angelic features displaying a look of mild confusion. "I... I wasn’t doing anything, my King."

Klaus’s lips thinned into a tight, highly unimpressed line.

Leaving a fully conscious loyal entity completely alone in a sensory deprivation chamber with absolutely nothing to do for hours on end wasn’t just a massive waste of resources; it was something that a genuine monster would do.

Even if she was technically an undead assassin who had actively tried to blow his head off a few days ago, she was officially under his command now and Klaus took care of his assets.

He stepped forward, his boots making no sound on the glassy floor. He reached out his hand toward the glowing spirit.

"Do you want me to bring you up?" Klaus asked casually. "To the physical world?"

Valeria’s glowing green eyes widened to highly comical proportions. She stared at his outstretched hand as if he were offering her the literal sun.

"R-Really?" Valeria stammered, her voice cracking with sheer disbelief. "You would bring me out? Even after... even after I actively tried to kill you, my King?"

"I don’t hold grudges against useful tools," Klaus said. He tapped his foot impatiently against the invisible ground. "But you should be fast and grab my hand before I sit down and reconsider everything."

Valeria didn’t hesitate for a single microsecond.

She practically sprinted across the black void and she lunged forward, her glowing white hands desperately taking hold of his extended arm.

The moment she made physical contact with his soul, Klaus closed his eyes and willed the domain to violently eject them both.

CRACK!

The pitch-black world shattered into a million fragments.

Klaus’s eyes snapped open in the physical world. He was still sitting perfectly cross-legged on the wooden floorboards of the bedroom.

The bitter taste of the leaf was still present on his tongue, and Mirela was still breathing softly beside him.

However, something had fundamentally changed. A small, concentrated weight was currently resting squarely on his right shoulder.

Klaus slowly turned his head.

Standing on his collarbone was Valeria but she wasn’t the tall, imposing, terrifyingly voluptuous undead sniper she used to be.

The laws of the physical world, combined with the extreme limitations of his current soul strength, had aggressively compressed her ethereal form.

She was currently a tiny, glowing white, chibi version of herself. She was barely six inches tall, complete with tiny pristine white hair and an oversized, highly adorable scowl painting her miniature features.

The chibi Valeria immediately folded her tiny arms across her chest with her glowing green eyes scanning the cramped highly basic interior of the inn’s bedroom. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"So this is the King’s room... How amazing." Valeria’s voice echoed directly into his mind however Klaus didn’t move his lips.

He simply directed his internal thoughts toward her, utilizing the telepathic connection of the Master-Slave contract.

’You don’t have to glaze this common room,’ Klaus thought back dryly. ’There’s absolutely nothing special about it. It’s a cheap inn.’

He had fully intended for that to be a private, passing thought, but the telepathic link was apparently a flawless two-way street.

The Chibi Valeria immediately turned her oversized head to look at the side of his face.

"This is vastly better than my room back at the Death Cult’s hidden base, my King," Valeria stated telepathically as her tiny voice was filled with absolute dead-serious sincerity. "Our building was literally full of damp hay and rotting wood. Compared to that horrifying squalor, this is the absolute pinnacle of Luxury."

Klaus kept chewing the bitter leaf in his mouth, with his jaw working slowly. He stared blankly ahead at the wooden wardrobe.

’Well, those people sure are evil,’ Klaus thought, leaning into the conversation. ’Do you think they’ll still be hiding in those mountain caves? I have a score to settle.’

The tiny sniper shook her head, her miniature white hair swaying.

"No, my King. They weren’t permanent residents. They had merely moved into those specific mountain caves temporarily to be able to execute the grand plan."

Klaus paused his chewing. The phrase ’grand plan’ immediately triggered every single one of his survival instincts.

’Which plan?’ Klaus demanded internally.

"Oh, the curse," Valeria explained casually, her chibi form sitting down on his shoulder and dangling her tiny legs. "They successfully implanted a highly parasitic curse directly into the young man with the black hair... Neo who is the reincarnation of the Hero. It is designed to aggressively suck his Life Force over time. The accumulated energy will be used to ensure that the God of Death is successfully risen from the Great Beyond. Oh, and they also moved there because they specifically wanted to observe you properly, my King but they would be gone now."

Klaus slowly raised a hand and dragged his palm forcefully down his face, dragging his fingers over his face.

’Why didn’t you mention this earlier?!’ Klaus yelled in his mind.

If he had known that the literal main protagonist of the world was currently walking around with a ticking time bomb of a curse designed to resurrect a god, he would have—

Wait...

Klaus stopped his internal spiraling. What exactly would he have done?

He was a survivor, not a holy saint. Did he possess the magical facilities, the high-tier Holy spells or the deep alchemical knowledge required to actively break a divine death curse?

Absolutely not! If he tried to interfere, he would just end up drawing the aggro of the entire cult back onto himself!

’You know what?’ Klaus thought, letting out a deep sigh that ruffled Mirela’s hair slightly. ’It is significantly better if we just don’t talk about it at all. I am officially on vacation. Neo is the Hero; the world will probably bend over backward to save him anyway.’

He closed his eyes, completely discarding the impending doom of the continent from his mental to-do list.

He needed to focus on his own immediate progression.

As he settled deeper into the meditation, Klaus expanded his sensory awareness.

He could easily feel the dense, highly structural weight of the Metal Mana resting in his core.

Thanks to the contract, he could also feel the sharp highly pressurized currents of Wind Mana swirling lightly around his magical pathways but as he looked deeper, pushing past the elemental layers, he felt something else.

It was a completely different sensation. It wasn’t an element tied to the physical world... It was a cold, incredibly dense energy sitting directly at the very bottom of his core.

It was Soul Mana.

Klaus mentally grasped the strange energy and aggressively drew it upward.

Instantly, the mana snaked outward. A brilliant, highly concentrated white light erupted from his skin, completely illuminating the dim bedroom.

However, it didn’t aggressively spark upward into the air like a raging inferno, nor did it coat his body in a thick aura of overwhelming pressure. It merely clung to his skin like a faint, ghostly second layer.

There was simply too little of this Soul Mana in his system to manifest anything highly destructive.

On his shoulder, the Chibi Valeria immediately perked up. She stood up on her tiny feet, her glowing green eyes wide with awe as she stared at the white light.

"That is it, my King!" Valeria cheered telepathically. "That is the signature Soul Mana! It is an ancient energy that can only be wielded uniquely by the true Soul King."

’It feels weak,..’ Klaus let out.

"That is because your reserves are completely empty," Valeria explained, taking on the role of a miniature highly lethal tutor. "When heavily utilized by the Original Soul King, this mana would drastically increase his raw physical attack power, acting like a hyper-dense aura. He could even use it to actively bolster his regular elemental spells, turning the Soul energy into a massive magical amplifier."

She pointed a tiny finger directly at his glowing hand.

"And not only that, but pure Soul Spells are incredibly destructive, my King. He was able to use this energy to violently banish the souls of his enemies directly from their physical bodies, instantly absorbing them into his own domain to build his Soul Army. However... until you fully awaken your bloodline, your soul energy will remain pretty weak."

Klaus let the white light fade with the ambient glow dying down in the bedroom as he let out another sigh.

As much as he desperately wanted to take a break, buy a nice house, and live a highly lucrative, peaceful slice-of-life existence, the sheer mechanics of his own body were working against him.

It felt like the very fabric of the world was actively, aggressively urging him to travel toward the Haunted Winterlands to find that Shinigami and secure his power.

"However..." Valeria chimed in, interrupting his thoughts. "There is a specific way that you can forcefully increase your Soul Energy reserves directly for now, at least until we actually go look for the first Shinigami, my King."

’What way?’ Klaus asked, his interest instantly piqued by the prospect of an immediate tactical advantage.

"You must hunt," Valeria said simply. "If you kill monsters that possess exceptionally Strong Souls, and you utilize your domain to banish them upon death, a significant portion of their raw Soul Energy will immediately enter your core and rejuvenate your reserves."

Klaus was completely silent for a long moment.

Before he could finalize a training schedule in his head, a sudden soft weight hit his thigh. He completely dispelled the last lingering traces of his soul energy and looked down.

Mirela had completely lost her battle against exhaustion.

The deep calming effects of the medicinal leaf, combined with the rhythmic silence of the room, had completely knocked the Beastkin out.

She had fallen sideways, her head landing softly directly on Klaus’s lap and a quiet, highly adorable snoring sound escaped her lips.

Klaus blinked, staring down at the silver-horned girl.

"She fell asleep, huh?"

He didn’t wake her up.

Moving with slow precision to avoid jarring her, Klaus slid his arms directly under her knees and behind her back.

He stood up smoothly, lifting the woman into a perfect princess carry. She weighed practically nothing in his arms, her head resting comfortably against his chest.

He walked the three short steps over to the plush bed and gently laid her down onto the mattress.

As her head hit the soft pillows, Mirela’s mouth naturally opened up a tiny bit. Klaus looked down and saw that the bitter green medicinal leaf was still resting squarely on her tongue.

He leaned forward, using two fingers to carefully, gently pull the damp leaf out of her mouth.

He grabbed his own half-chewed leaf, walked over to the wooden window, slid the glass open, and casually threw both of the spent herbs out into the dark Galen Town night.

Klaus then closed the window, locking out the cold wind, and walked back to the bed.

He was completely drained as he pulled back the wool blankets and slid into the bed directly next to Mirela, resting his head on the opposite pillow.

"My King," the tiny voice echoed in his head. "Do I have permission to sleep on you?"

Klaus didn’t even bother opening his eyes.

’Sure, you can,’ he thought tiredly.

Immediately, the glowing Chibi Valeria floated down from the air. She landed softly on the center of his stomach, curled her tiny ethereal body into a small white ball, and closed her glowing green eyes.

Klaus turned his head slightly on the pillow.

He looked over at the innocent-looking Mirela. The Beastkin was sleeping soundly with a highly content smile painting her pale face under the moonlight filtering through the window.

"Goodnight, Mirela," Klaus whispered into the quiet room.

He let his heavy eyelids fall shut and a full minute passed in the silent room.

Once the steady sound of his breathing confirmed that he was completely asleep, the figure next to him shifted.

Mirela slowly opened her eyes as a massive overwhelming blush instantly flooded her entire face, burning so hot it felt like her skin was on fire.

She hadn’t been fully asleep when he picked her up... She had felt the princess carry and she had felt him gently remove the leaf.

She pulled the wool blanket up, hiding the lower half of her fiercely blushing face as she stared at the ceiling.

’Goodnight, Master...’