Chapter 346: A New Game II
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Bat Bat actually bounced on her heels and then caught herself because she remembered too late that political seriousness was supposed to look more refined than visible excitement.
Mihos smiled openly now. Good. Let him. He thought he had made a lower cousin dance.
He had not yet understood he had built a hunting ground for Sekhmet and invited the wrong predator into it.
Sekhmet continued before anyone else could take the center back.
"It will be good training."
There. The truth of it was spoken aloud.
For one second, Mihos almost looked as if he had not expected the answer to come in that form.
Sekhmet’s voice remained even.
"My lesser vampires. The ghouls. The bats. The twins. Lily." He let the names stand without explaining them because he did not need Mihos to understand the whole structure. "They need work. Iron House can provide it."
Mihos’s eyes narrowed at lesser vampires and bats, but the heir was too proud to ask which of those words hid the greater danger. He just guessed Sekhmet had some low level vampires hired by him or bought from the contract market.
He was unaware that Sekhmet himself was the creator. Sekhmet was an original vampire himself. And that he can create as much as he wants.
Mihos thought, " That won’t change the outcome. You will lose."
Let him remain ignorant and foolish. That will be Miho’s downfall.
Inside Sekhmet’s mind, the game had already become exactly what he had named it.
A hunt. Not survival only. It was a collection. Testing. Feeding. Growth.
And if he found something in Iron House worth stealing, something alive or useful or dangerous enough to improve his own forces, then the game would pay more than one prize.
Good. Very good.
Lady Seraphiel looked at him for one long second and understood that persuading him away now would take more force than the road could survive politely.
So she shifted her attention instead toward rules.
"Then we define limits before this becomes house poison."
Stephen nodded immediately. Good. At least one other adult stood on the road.
Mihos looked mildly amused. "By all means."
Stephen stepped in with the calm authority of a man who had spent too many years translating noble madness into structures the world could actually survive.
"Then the first limit is clear," he said. "Elena cannot join."
Silence followed.
Bat Bat’s eyes widened. One of the fan-girl maids looked ready to object before discipline strangled the idea in its cradle. Elena herself did not move.
Sekhmet’s eyes shifted to Stephen.
The head butler continued.
"If Elena joins, then I will join." His gaze remained level. "Because Elena is a low level god."
That landed hard.
Kess looked down immediately. Some truths of rank were safer when not stared at too openly. He never knew she was a god level powerhouse. He just thought she was strong. But now that he found out the truth. His body gave him chills.
Stephen went on. "If I join, then the game becomes false before it begins."
Elena answered in the same level of tone.
"You are a mid-level god. It would not be fair if I joined and you joined. We are not equal in ranks."
Mihos listened with fresh interest now. This was better. Rule-craft. Judge lines. Structures of violence. Something more complex than a simple road fight.
Stephen inclined his head slightly to Elena. "That is why I suggested you cannot join. The iron house is weak. They don’t have any god level power. So, if you join then from master Mihos side I must join."
It was a clean explanation. Very clean one.
Then he addressed the road at large.
"Let it remain below Chaos Rank Five. Anyone above Chaos Rank Five cannot participate directly."
That drew immediate reactions.
Mihos’s guards shifted.
Bat Bat looked disappointed and relieved at the same time because rank discussions larger than her understanding always made the world feel briefly unfair.
One maid inwardly thanked every god she had ever heard named that Elena would not be entering the field, because lower Dawn already had too many teeth without adding divine ones.
Stephen continued. "Lady Seraphiel, Elena, and I can act as judges."
Mihos considered that.
Then said, "If Head Butler Stephen suggested it, then I know you will be fair, Elena." His eyes moved to Seraphiel. "And I trust Aunt Seraphiel will be fair too."
Seraphiel’s mouth moved faintly at the idea of Mihos using fair and trust in the same breath.
Sekhmet spoke before anyone else could shape that line too far.
"I agree Elena will be one of the judges."
That was a plus point for him. It could help him keep an eye on the rules. So Mihos can’t break it.
He looked at Mihos directly. "That way you cannot cheat."
That made Bat Bat silently adore him for one full breath.
Then Sekhmet turned to Seraphiel.
"You can also keep everything fair."
Lady Seraphiel actually let out a small breath of amusement this time. "No."
Everyone looked at her.
She met Sekhmet’s gaze and the softness that touched her expression was real, if brief.
"I cannot join as a judge."
Sekhmet asked, "Why?"
She replied, "I have to return."
The line seemed too simple at first. Then she finished it.
"There is urgent work waiting for me in the Middle Domain."
That changed everything again.
Stephen’s expression sharpened.
Elena’s eyes narrowed.
Mihos’s amusement thinned, because if Seraphiel was leaving that quickly, then whatever moved in the Middle Domain was not a minor matter. Kess felt the old noble terror of words like urgent work and Middle Domain in the same sentence.
Bat Bat, having no noble terror at all, whispered, "Everyone important keeps leaving to do more important things."
One maid whispered back, "Quiet."
"But I am learning."
"You are learning silence too."
Bat Bat was unconvinced.
Sekhmet looked at Seraphiel for a long second.
This would be the second time in too short a span that she had stepped into his life, moved events violently, and then announced departure before the consequences finished settling. He did not like it. That feeling showed only a little.