Isaac followed Morga through the wide central hall of the tribe’s largest building.
The floor was smooth under his boots, polished by years of movement, and the air carried a faint scent of smoke and flowers mixed together.
Morga stopped at a wide door made from thick, pale bone panels set into a dark frame.
She turned and gave a short nod.
"Benefactor is waiting for you inside, Great Carus. Please go in. I will inform the War Chief about your arrival. He will come soon to meet you," Morga said.
Isaac nodded and entered the room.
The space inside felt warmer than the hall.
There was colored bone furniture arranged in a loose circle, each piece covered in great hides that served as sofas and chairs.
The walls were painted with flowers paste. The color was soft but bright enough to make the room feel alive.
The air smelled clean, and almost sweet.
The novel aesthetics wasn’t what he’d expected from a tribe that lived in the wilderness.
It was a strange feeling to be in a place so different and yet so similar to human settlement.
"Isaac!"
Emily and Celia noticed him at the same time.
They stood up from one of the hide-covered sofas and walked over, both of them moving quickly, though for very different reasons.
Emily’s movement was steady and calm. Celia’s steps were light, almost bouncing.
They came up to him.
"So, do you have anything to say to me?" Celia asked with a puffed chest.
She looked very proud, her hands resting on her hips as if she were waiting for applause.
Isaac didn’t even glance at her at first. His eyes went to Emily instead.
"Are you okay? Were you injured?" he asked.
"I’m perfectly fine," she replied with a small smile.
Isaac studied her for a second longer, as if trying to see past the words.
He could tell she wasn’t lying, but he also knew that being "fine" didn’t always mean things were simple.
"What happened with the ogres you met? Their ancestor were people who were rescued by your parents. I know staying here and meeting them might be heavy on your mind, since it would remind you of the past.
"If that’s how it is, then we can go back now. Don’t mind the fact that ogre tribes are strong. We are in no need of urgent strength and you don’t need to force yourself to work with them," he said.
Emily didn’t answer right away.
She took a breath, then let it out slowly.
"Thank you for worrying about me, Isaac. But I’m okay," she spoke. Her voice was somber and her eyes were resolute. "I have told you before. I have no intention of running away from my past. I want to work with these people and if possible, help them prosper. I want to continue to legacy of mother and father."
Isaac nodded. The tension in his shoulders eased just a little.
"Okay," he said with a smile, and without thinking too much about it, he reached out and patted her head. It was a simple gesture, but it felt right in the moment.
Finally, he turned to Celia.
She had been standing there the whole time, her eager eyes following every word, clearly waiting for her turn.
"What about me? don’t you have anything to say to me?" she asked.
"I have." Isaac smiled, but his eyes were cold.
Before Celia could react, he used Telekinesis to grab her head, making sure she couldn’t run away.
The sudden pressure made her stiffen.
Feeling the sensation on her head, Celia realized something was wrong.
"Isaac?" she asked with a strained smile. "Why are you angry?"
"So you can realize I’m angry?"
He stepped closer and jabbed his finger at her forehead.
"You go out in wilderness, and you conquer a tribe without informing me first. What would you have done if they had some powerful monster who would capture all of you?"
"Ouch!" she grabbed her head where he had jabbed her. "But I could teleport if things got—"
"What if the monsters have a relic that can block teleportation? You have a skill that can do that. Why didn’t you think someone else can have it too?
"Also, after you conquered Ashfang tribe, you also went to crawling serpent tribe and Eltari race? Huh? Is that something a sensible person would do? Not only you didn’t warn us, you also hit three locations in a few hours?
"What if they had powerful allies and they come after us now? Huh?" he asked.
Isaac kept jabbing his finger at Celia’s forehead.
She tried to stop him, but he was too fast.
The Telekinesis held her in place, and no matter how much she squirmed, she couldn’t pull away.
Tears began to form at the edge of her eyes.
The proud look she’d worn just moments ago faded into something smaller and more uncertain.
Seeing that the tears wouldn’t make him stop, Celia’s tail moved outside of Isaac’s vision and cleverly tugged at Emily’s clothes, asking for help.
Emily stepped forward.
"Isaac, don’t be angry on her. She was worried about you.
"Eltari race didn’t warn us about Sinkhole Worms. They know we don’t seem them in good light, and now that you crushed a Catastrophe and easily dealt with monster horde, they would know you are strong.
"They would be afraid and there was a chance they would do something like trying to attack us, thinking we were going to crush them.
"So, we decided to deal with them before they could make any move. Given the Ashfang tribes strength, it was easy to make Eltari submit without bloodshed," Emily spoke, trying to sooth Isaac’s mood.
Isaac clicked his tongue and finally let go of Celia’s head.
He didn’t say anything right away. He just kept looking at her with cold eyes.
Celia didn’t know what to say under that stare.
She had done everything to help Isaac. She thought that adding more strength to their side would make him happy, or at least relieved.
Of course, a part of her enjoyed the rush bought by conquest, but it was only a small part of the reason she did what she did. Definitely.
Catherine made herself visible at that moment.
She gently caressed her head.
"Don’t cry now. He was worried about you. Do you know what was the first thing he asked me when I told him about the situation here?" Catherine said.
"Sis, don’t spoil her. She needs to learn her lesson," Isaac frowned, already knowing where this was going.
"What did he say?" Celia asked, looking at Catherine.
In her heart, Celia felt a mix of things.
There was a bit of dissatisfaction, and a lot of guilt. It was true she hadn’t warned them, which led to guilt.
But it was the first time Isaac had scolded her like that, and it stung more than she wanted to admit. It was natural there would be dissatisfaction against Isaac.
However, the next words of Catherine, not only erased her dissatisfaction, but also warmed her heart.
"As soon as I told him about the situation, he immediately asked me if you were injured. When I told him you were not, he smiled in relief. And when I asked him if he was angry at you, he said as long as you were fine, he didn’t care about anything else. He wasn’t angry at you at all for what you did, he was just worried," Catherine said.
Celia was surprised.
A warm feeling rose in her heart.
She blinked a few times, then smiled.
She turned toward Isaac and stuck her tongue out at him, her earlier embarrassment replaced by something lighter.
"Hmph, you are just a tsundere. If you were so worried about me, you should just say so instead of acting angry. It’s because you are like this that you had no girlfriend until Emily forced your hand," she said.
Isaac’s lips twitched.
It wasn’t quite a smile, but it was close enough that Catherine noticed and smirked to herself.
Emily looked away, her cheeks faintly red.
Everyone in the room knew the story by now.
Celia had dragged it out of Emily one evening when they were bored, asking question after question until there was nothing left to hide.
That was when she learned how things had really started.
Emily wasn’t foolish. She had realized early on that Isaac’s first confession, the one he’d made when they met, wasn’t completely honest.
After she found out about his sharing ability, it was easy to connect the dots. He had needed her skills to survive, and he had said what he thought would keep him alive.
Even knowing that, she loved Isaac dearly.
It didn’t matter to her how their relationship had begun. What mattered was what it had become.
Over time, Isaac had stopped acting. He worried about her, protected her, and trusted her. That was enough for her.
Isaac cleared his throat and leaned back into the sofa, trying to shift the focus.
"Let’s talk about important matters first. I get the Ashfang Tribe and the Eltari race. But what about the Crawling Serpent Tribe?" Isaac asked as he settled more comfortably into the seat.
Celia and Emily sat across from him.
Catherine moved behind Isaac and placed her hands on his shoulders, massaging gently. He let out a quiet breath of satisfaction.
Between the paperwork, negotiations, and the stress Celia had added on top of everything else, the massage helped a lot.
"This," Emily said, pulling a folded paper from her spatial ring.
She laid it out on the low table between them.
It was a rough map of the mountain range, sketched with careful lines and a few notes in the margins.
She pointed to a spot deeper within the mountains, far from the main paths.