The attack-type relic was a tiara. It rested inside the velvet-lined box.
Pitch black, smooth, and composed of multiple small star-like segments linked together in a gentle curve. Each "star" looked identical, yet when one stared long enough, subtle differences appeared in their edges and depth, as if each piece held its own identity. The relic was simple yet elegant.
"It’s called Crown of First Command and it can..."
Selene’s voice trailed off.
Her fingers hovered over the tiara for a second before she picked it up. The moment her skin made contact, a screen appeared in front of her eyes. She froze as she read it, and then her eyes twinkled.
Without hesitation, she placed it on her head.
Instead of resting against her hair, the tiara lifted slightly and hovered just above her head.
Selene closed her eyes for a brief moment, and when she opened them again, she simply willed it.
The tiara vanished.
Her gaze slowly moved around the room, testing, feeling, exploring something none of the others could perceive.
And then—
A sharp hum filled the air.
A hologram burst out of Isaac’s device without warning. It was Ruby, the City’s AI, contacting Isaac.
"Lord Isaac, I sensed a powerful invasion into our systems from here," Ruby said, her tone steady but urgent.
Isaac frowned.
Before he could respond, his device vibrated violently, and showed several commands.
[Transferring encrypted chats, photos, and videos.]
[Deleting on device chats, photos, and videos.]
"What are you doing?" Isaac asked.
"Deleting everything before the device is hack—"
Ruby’s voice cut off abruptly, and the connection glitched.
And then, through the same device, another voice came.
Selene’s.
"It really works. I know nothing about hacking, but I can hack into machines around me," she said, sounding almost amused.
Isaac slowly raised his head.
Selene sat there, the invisible tiara hovering above her, a faint, smug smile forming on her lips.
"...did you just try to hack into my device?" he asked.
"Yes," Selene replied without hesitation, nodding once.
Isaac stared at her for a moment before asking, "Is that the ability of that Imperial-grade Crown?"
"Yes."
Isaac felt a bead of sweat form on his temple.
That had been close.
Very close.
There were... things on that device. Things that absolutely did not need to be seen by anyone else. Some were private recordings, some were photos, some were—
"Why are you suddenly so silent?" Selene asked, tilting her head slightly.
"You shouldn’t peek into other people’s devices without permission," Isaac replied, keeping his tone as normal as possible.
"Why? Were you hiding something?" Selene’s lips curved faintly.
"Ask your sister," Isaac said, rolling his eyes.
"...?" Selene blinked, confused, and turned toward Alice.
Alice met her gaze with a perfectly neutral expression.
Under the table, however, her foot shot forward and kicked Isaac sharply. The message was clear for Isaac.
Shut up.
He chuckled under his breath.
Alice, despite everything, was still modest when it came to certain topics. It didn’t matter how open or fiery she could be when it was just two of them, anything related to intimacy still made her embarrassed in front of others.
"It’s fine now. You don’t need to worry," he told Ruby
"Understood, Lord Isaac," Ruby said and disappeared.
"Selene," Isaac said, shifting his attention back, "what exactly does that Crown do?"
"It connects me to all mechanical devices within a five-hundred-meter radius, and it grants SSS-rank Machine Mastery. I can understand how machines work quickly thanks to it, and then... access them," she said. She seemed quite happy with such a powerful relic.
"Don’t play with it too much," Alice said from the side.
"What do you mean?" Selene asked.
"If you keep poking into other people’s devices, you’re going to see things you don’t want to see," Alice said.
"Like what?" Selene raised an eyebrow. She was a veteran businesswoman, and had seen a lot of things. She doubted there would be many things that could faze her.
"Like seeing uncle flirting with his girlfriend," Alice said.
"Huh?" "What?" Selene and Isaac had wide eyes.
Alice blinked, wondering why they were so shocked, and then her gaze flickered, realizing what she had said.
"I meant it as an example. Uncle obviously doesn’t have a girlfriend," Alice clarified.
"O-Oh. Right. An example. Of course he doesn’t. He’s too old for that. Hahaha," Selene gave a nervous chuckle.
Isaac, on the other hand, was watching Alice.
On the other hand, Isaac was staring at Alice, carefully observing her expression. Even though her face betrayed nothing, he noticed her trying to avoid his gaze.
Isaac’s smile widened.
There was definitely something going on. Even if Chairman Lucius didn’t have a girlfriend, Alice wouldn’t randomly use that kind of example. It wasn’t the type of thing someone said without reason.
Where there was smoke, there was fire.
’Old man, you sure had guts lecturing me while piping your lil’ old secret, huh.’
Isaac was going to have so, so much fun with this.
Alice finally looked towards him, and noticed his expression. Her brows furrowed, and she suddenly felt her uncle was in incredible trouble.
She opened her mouth, but Isaac was faster.
"Selene, what’s the other Imperial-grade treasure you got?" he asked, changing the topic.
"Let me check," she said.
She reached into the box, and pulled out a parchment.
"This is... a contract?" Selene muttered, a bit confused. "This is supposed to be my Imperial-grade defense artifact."
"How do you use it?" Isaac asked.
"I need to sign it," she said. She took out a pen from her spatial ring, and placed the paper on the table, and signed the contract.
It broke it a cluster of glowing particles that split into two streams. One surged directly into Selene’s body, disappearing into her chest. The other half shot upward and vanished into empty space, as if traveling somewhere far beyond the room.
Selene’s eyes became dazed, and when she regained clarity, she had a lock of shock on her face.
She opened her mouth, "I— I—"
"She formed a contract with an Elemental Spirit, a powerful one at that," Avery said, suddenly next to Selene.
Selene nodded.
Isaac and Alice were surprised too.
Elemental Spirits were top-level powerhouses. An example was Avery, the Water Elemental Spirit. She had easily crushed a Sun Dragon, who was Overlord rank, and the commander of Ladder of Heavens.
"Give me your hand," Avery said.
Selene did. Avery held her hand, and closed her eyes. After a moment, she reopened them, and had a look of awe.
"You are lucky. Although the contract says ’she’ needs to only protect you, it’s still a big news that you got a contract with ’her’," Avery said.
"Her?" Alice asked.
"The Elemental Spirit of Machines, one of the older Elemental Spirits," Avery said.
The Elemental Spirit of Machine seemed to have no intention of revealing itself, but the fact that Avery confirmed it would protect Selene from now on meant that there was no need to worry.
"How can an Elemental Spirit of Machine exist? A Machine shouldn’t be counted as an element in the first place," Alice suddenly said.
"Why can’t Machines be an element? Poison is made of countless different things, and it is counted as an element. Water is fusion of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, and yet it is counted as one-element. Time doesn’t exist as a physical construct, yet it is counted as an Element. If these are elements, why can’t Machine be an element?" Avery asked.
Alice had a look of realization.
Avery continued, "Elements are not limited to what you see in nature. They represent concepts that have achieved stability in the world. Fire, water, wind... those are just the most known ones. Over time, new ’elements’ can emerge, as long as they become fundamental enough."
"That’s... surprising," Alice nodded.
After the explanation, Selene continued checking her reward. She picked up a rectangle slip of paper from the box.
"It says Class Evolution ticket. What is it supposed to do?" she asked, turning to look at Avery.