"I’m glad to see you again so soon, Seris." Lian looked at the girl who had arrived and a smile appeared on his face.
That’s right, it was no one but Seris... and his guess was completely correct.
Seris stopped a few meters away from Lian.
Her long silver hair moved gently on her shoulders with the breeze passing over the Silvervein Basin.
Her completely black eyes remained fixed on Lian’s face for a few moments.
On the surface, no particular change appeared on her face, that same cold face and that same deep calmness, that same emotionless look that even a field full of corpses and blood could not disturb.
But Lian knew her well.
He saw the very slight rise of one of her eyebrows and recognized the brief pause that formed before her next move.
Seris had not expected to see him here.
Just as Lian had not expected to encounter her in this world.
His foot was still on the side of Kharvek’s skull.
The Varkesh leader was lying face down on the soil, and every time he breathed, blood would drip from the corner of his mouth onto the ground.
Around them, dozens of Varkesh soldiers lay dead or with broken bones on the silver deposits of the basin.
Nevertheless, the atmosphere between Lian and Seris did not look like a battlefield, it looked more like a meeting between two old acquaintances.
Two people who had last stood facing each other in the Vorhelm clan’s territory, between the stone walls and the fighting arenas.
"It’s been a while." Lian said with a calmer tone.
"It has." Seris answered after a short pause.
Her voice, like always, was short and calm.
There was no obvious warmth in it, nor any reluctance, just a direct sentence.
But that short answer was enough for Lian to understand that Seris was not unhappy to see him.
Behind Lian, Averian and the Lacerian soldiers were looking at the two of them in disbelief.
For them, Seris was the same creature who had defeated their leader in less than a few moves and had cut off both his hands.
Someone whose blade’s speed even Averian had not been able to fully see.
But now Lian was talking to her so casually as if none of them were standing on a ground covered with corpses.
The relationship between Lian and Seris had never been like ordinary friendships.
They did not sit next to each other for hours to talk about life, family, or their worries.
Neither of them had any interest in parties, social relationships, or the entertainment that most of their peers followed.
What had brought the two of them close was not conversation.
It was battle, growth, and power.
Seris considered most people her age either weak or boring.
Those who lost their motivation after a few defeats, those whose only goal was to gain their family’s attention or achieve a comfortable position.
But Lian was different.
He was the only person her age who had truly been able to defeat her.
Not with luck, not with help from others, but with power and skill that had forced her to reconsider her own limits.
From that time, Lian had found a different place in that girl’s mind, something between rival, friend, and a goal she did not want to fall behind.
Even if Seris never put a name to that feeling.
"When did you enter the Special Area? I didn’t see you enter at the same time as us." Lian asked.
"I entered a few hours after you all did." Seris answered.
Lian nodded.
This answer clarified part of what he had in mind.
So the Awakened ones’ entry had not been simultaneous, the transfer had probably happened in several waves or stages.
He had expected Seris to enter the Special Area from the beginning, someone like her was unlikely to miss a chance to fight, grow, and obtain unknown resources.
But the more important question still remained.
Lian gave a brief look at Kharvek and the Varkesh soldiers and then asked.
"But why with these?"
Seris also turned her gaze to the Varkesh for a moment.
"I appeared near their tribe." She paused briefly.
"They attacked me, I beat all of them, and they decided to submit to me."
For a moment, even Lian said nothing.
The way Seris described it was so simple that it was as if she was talking about crossing a river or finding a place to sleep.
Behind Lian, a few Lacerian soldiers could not hide their reaction.
Their gazes toward Kharvek changed, fear and hatred were replaced by contempt.
So the Varkesh had not made an honorable pact with Seris, they had not chosen her as a hero, they had not even offered her anything.
They had attacked an unknown girl, all of them got beaten, and then they decided to introduce themselves as her subordinates to save their lives.
Averian also gave a very faint smile.
Kharvek, who was still under Lian’s foot, clenched his teeth.
The scales around his neck darkened, his face twisted in anger, humiliation, and shame, but he still did not dare to say anything.
"I see, you did a good thing." Lian said calmly and then a faint smile appeared on his face.
For him, Seris’s behavior was not strange.
If the Varkesh had attacked first, then being defeated and becoming subordinates was a natural outcome.
He saw no reason to scold her for it.
However, his gaze became a little more serious.
"But I would appreciate it if you didn’t attack my friends."
For the first time, Seris took her gaze off Lian.
Her black eyes moved over Averian and the Lacerian warriors.
Her gaze was brief, cold, and evaluating.
The tribe leader unconsciously moved the fingers of his new hands.
The memory of both his arms being severed was still so fresh that he could not ignore Seris’s presence.
"I didn’t know they were your friends."
"It’s fine."
Seris was silent for a few moments.
It seemed she was examining something.
Maybe she was trying to understand whether Lian was upset about what had happened or not, and finally, with a completely serious tone, she asked.
"Do you want me to kill all these lizards?"
Absolute silence formed.
A few Lacerian soldiers froze, even the wounded Varkesh who did not dare to move looked at Seris in terror.
She was not joking, there was no sign of mockery on her face.
From Seris’s view, if these people had hurt Lian’s friends and Lian was upset, the simplest way to make up for it was to completely eliminate them.
"No. It’s not necessary." Lian laughed briefly.
The girl also slightly shook her head without objecting, as if the matter was resolved at that same moment.
Then the young Vorhelm took his foot off the side of Kharvek’s head.
The Varkesh leader coughed heavily and pulled himself back a few centimeters.
He placed his broken hand under his body and tried to raise his head, but still did not dare to stand.
"We came for the river." Lian said to Seris.
"I don’t care, they asked me to help them. I did." She gave a brief look at the Varkesh.
Then she looked at Lian again.
"If you want it, it’s yours."
Averian showed no reaction for a moment.
A matter that could have turned into a long and bloody war between two tribes had been resolved in less than a few sentences.
No negotiation had taken place, and not even a contract had been written, no one had even been forced to make a concession.
Seris had only said the water didn’t matter to her.
And that was enough.
Just that? A matter that had been such a big problem and a life-and-death issue for them was solved so easily?
And in fact, do creatures who don’t even belong to this world decide the fate of two tribes?
How could such a thing even make sense?
"This is the river you wanted." Lian turned his head toward the tribe leader.
Averian opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Kharvek suddenly shouted.
"No!" His voice was harsh, broken, and mixed with madness, and all eyes turned to him.
Kharvek struggled to stand on one knee, his face was bloody, and one arm hung lifelessly by his side.
"This river is ours!" He took a heavy breath.
"We won’t give it!" He grabbed one of the fallen axes on the ground with his healthy hand.
Averian frowned, a few Lacerian soldiers raised their weapons.
Kharvek wanted to step toward him, but before his foot could fully touch the ground, Seris moved.
No one saw her sword coming out of its sheath, only a very thin silver line formed in the air.
For a fraction of a second, light broke on the edge of the blade, and then everything was over... Kharvek’s head separated from his neck.
It spun in the air for a few moments, and his eyes were still open, with anger frozen in them.
The head fell with a muffled sound on the silver deposits next to the water, and the headless body took one more step.
The axe fell from his hand, then he fell on his knee and collapsed to the side.
Warm blood splashed from the severed neck onto the soil and silver rocks.
The two tribes fell into complete silence.
Even the sound of the weak water current seemed louder for a moment.
Seris shook her blade once, the blood separated from the sword in a thin line, and she calmly returned the sword to its sheath.
"He was making too much noise." She then said with that same emotionless face.
The Varkesh’s terror was complete, they unconsciously lowered themselves.
But even the Lacerian soldiers stepped back from Seris, now they understood better why Averian had not been able to resist her.
For Seris, killing the leader of a tribe was no more important than silencing an annoying sound...