Chapter 675: Warm
Sylas walked into Cassarae's after her and closed the door. He took a seat on a couch, looking around casually.
As expected, the City Lord's mansion had grown considerably once more. It still wasn't as large as the functional castles and palaces of the System Cities, but it was already at a size that would have taken a sizable fortune to build back before the Summoning.
He cast a glance outside the windows and found that the city had also grown much larger. But he could also see the problems at a glance.
For one... the line of trees that had once been there were no longer present.
Cassarae hadn't really set her city up in the best location. It was in the middle of a swampy land and its foundation wasn't the best. However, it had excellent soil for farming and there was room to expand. In addition, there was natural protection.
Sylas didn't believe that Cassarae had just cut all the trees down because she could. It was more likely than not that this deforestation was related to the saltwater pouring in from the portal in the skies.
It seemed that he was going to have to find a way to close it as soon as possible. But... the damage also likely seemed to be done. With this much salt invading a region it wasn't meant to be in, it was bound to happen.
Unfortunately, Sylas didn't know of an easy way to fix something like this, and Cassarae herself also had her hands tied.
The thing was that the less the people in this region could rely on the natural resources hanging around them, the more they would have to invest in the System Cities, and the cycle would continue.
It seemed that all of these plans were feeding into one goal.
Cassarae took a seat behind her desk, leaning back in her chair and giving Sylas an annoyed look. But it was the kind of look Sylas could easily tell would be several degrees more annoyed had he not followed her.
"What have you gotten yourself into this time?" Cassarae asked.
"What are you referring to?"
Cassarae pulled a drawer open and tossed several documents onto the table. Sylas couldn't see them from this vantage point, but his visualization could.
Warrants. All of them for his arrest. One from the Celestial Republic. Another from the Africor Continent. And the last, oddly enough... was from Eurpeia.
Sylas' eyes narrowed. Why would Eurpeia be targeting him?
The Celestial Republic made enough sense. He had killed one of their top Generals. The Africor Continent made a little less sense than that, especially since he had never interacted with any of their monarchs personally, but it was easy enough to understand why they might have it out for him.
What Sylas didn't understand was Eurpeia.
'It can't have something to do with Cole and his family, could it?'
Sylas knew that Cole was wanted by the Eurpeia government. That was why they had crossed the waters separating the two behemoth-sized lands to escape into the Africor Continent.
But that once again left the question...
How could they possibly know that?
He had met Cole inside of the Mountain of Giza. Since then, the only thing they had done after leaving was travel. He hadn't even gotten involved in any conflict.
Sylas suddenly realized something at that moment.
He couldn't delay it any longer.
He had to return to the Grimblade family.
Now.
Suddenly, Sylas stood and Cassarae's expression became more serious. She could feel the shifts in Sylas' emotions more clearly than even his own parents could.
"That's the face you make when you're about to do something stupid."
"There's a family of three and a young man living in Lone Star. I'll give you their address. I'm not sure if they're still there or not because I've left them for a long while, but the mother of the family was a high-priority target of Legacy in the past. She's very important to us making certain advancements, now more than ever. So it's worth the investment to go and get them." "Okay." Cassarae nodded. She didn't feel the need to ask questions about it.
Sylas already expected this, so his thoughts were already being expended on other matters. Originally, he didn't know how he would make use of Professor Fembroise's expertise. But after finding that Quest City, he knew that there wouldn't be anyone better than her to run the Glasswright Breeding Facility.
Sylas' lips parted and then he began to speak about several things, alerting Cassarae to matters she might not be aware of before transferring an entire half a billion F Coins.
"Are you trying to buy my affection?" Cassarae asked.
"Is it working?"
"Not in the slightest bit. I'm very expensive." Cassarae said with a lazy smile. "Then you wouldn't be upset if I told you I have more than two billion left over?" Cassarae gave him a speechless glance. By now, the capital her father and the Memory Merchant raised, along with her city, was quite substantial. Easily in the millions a day.
But they were working on a scale that a single person like Sylas shouldn't be able to match. And yet, this half a billion was more than they would earn in three months. How could he possibly manage to have so much more?
Still, her surprise was one thing, her sharp tongue was another.
"What? Are you saving them for your other mistresses?"
"Other?" Sylas asked with a subtle curl of his lip. But Cassarae only stared back at him as though he hadn't asked anything at all, so he continued as though nothing was said, too.
"I will also need the Basilisk Skin Armor back now."
Cassarae nodded, standing to her feet.
What happened next made Sylas question if he still wanted to be so arrogant around this
woman.
Cassarae strolled to the curtains and closed them. Then with her back facing Sylas, she began to peel her armor off.
Her hair fell in a black stream, covering much of her back. Even when there was nothing but the skin-tight Basilisk Skin Armor left, and she began to peel that off of her as well, it continued to do so, tantalizing Sylas' imagination.
Cassarae wiggled her hips, slipping the skin armor down the curve of her waist and bending over to nearly touch her ankles. Sylas could just barely see the side of her breasts as they swayed to the side, their arc jiggling into sight for the faintest moment before her back and
hair hid them once more.
Unfortunately... her chair was in the way of the only sight her hair couldn't hide. Sylas could just barely see the arch of something soft and plump before there was a swiveling patch of black cushion that blocked the rest of his view.
Cassarae stood to her full height, still not looking back as she carefully folded the armor and slipped her other clothes and armor back on. Then she turned and walked to Sylas who was
still standing in the same spot, staring at her with burning eyes.
She handed him the bundle of neatly folded black and smiled.
"I kept it warm for you. You're welcome."
And warm it was. Sylas could practically feel the pulsing heat of the armor piercing into the
palm that held it.