Anime Magic Card Era

Chapter 126: Chapter 125: Isn’t Having Me Enough?

For 30 advance/early Chapters : p atreon.com/AutumnXd

My ancestors, Luke, rein it in, do NOT push your luck! Victor’s heart very nearly stopped. He had half a mind to physically clamp a hand over the boy’s mouth. Becoming a Region Governor’s disciple was a fortune most Card Masters wouldn’t dare dream of after ten lifetimes, and this lunatic was, what, haggling? Victor wanted to scream. He wanted to grab Luke by the collar and shake him. He did neither, because Lilith was right there, so all he could do was stand frozen, screaming on the inside while his face stayed locked in a strained, deferential smile.

This junior brother has a death wish. Selene’s jaw came loose. She stared at Luke as though he’d grown a second head.

When she had been taken on as Lilith’s student, she’d been so overcome that she’d genuinely nearly fainted on the spot, and had spent the following three days in a daze, half-convinced she was dreaming. The notion of staying as composed as Luke, let alone negotiating for a meeting gift, would not have occurred to her in a thousand years. This boy hadn’t just stayed calm. He’d treated the offer like a marketplace transaction and asked what was in it for him.

This kid is something else entirely.

Wait. A new thought struck Selene, and she abruptly felt as though she’d lost a great deal. If Master actually gives him a meeting gift, then as the senior sister, doesn’t that mean I owe him one too?

Noticing the looks of disbelief Selene and Victor were giving him, Luke rolled his eyes internally. He wasn’t the one who’d sought Lilith out. Lilith had come to him, intending to take him as a student. Raising one small request hardly seemed excessive.

"Oh? Is having me not enough?"

If Luke’s reply had been startling, Lilith’s counter-question robbed both Selene and Victor of the ability to think at all, shattering whatever expectations they had left.

This conversation is definitely not the way a teacher and student talk to each other. Have they lost their minds, or has the world?

Faced with Lilith’s question, paired with that nation-toppling face, even Luke’s composure cracked a hair. He understood her real meaning, of course.

A Region Governor’s disciple. That title alone was enough to make the overwhelming majority of people who might harbor designs on Luke stop and seriously weigh whether they could withstand a Governor’s fury afterward.

"Master, the two don’t conflict, do they?" What good is something you can look at but can’t have? Luke wouldn’t have minded steering things in a forbidden teacher-student direction, but the gap between them at present was enormous. Faced with a beauty like this, he doubted any man alive would fail to be interested. Even someone who batted for the other team might waver.

Lilith laughed, brilliantly. Even Selene, who had spent years at her side, was seeing her master laugh this radiantly for the first time.

"You really are as interesting as I thought." Lilith’s smile was dazzling. Then a thought seemed to occur to her, and she said something that sent everyone’s head spinning all over again. "Here’s what we’ll do. Since I’ve come out all this way, I’ll stay here for a while. As for the meeting gift, that will depend on your performance."

In that moment, never mind Victor and Selene, even Luke began to wonder whether this Region Governor had a few wires crossed somewhere.

A meeting gift riding on my "performance." She’s enjoying this far too much.

"Luke, tell me honestly. Are you and Lilith related somehow?" Inside the house, Victor had pulled Luke into a blind corner where neither Lilith nor Selene could see them, and was questioning him in a low voice. "Ashenvale folk don’t lie to Ashenvale folk."

"What do you think?" Luke replied, thoroughly exasperated. If he were actually related to Lilith, would he still be stuck in Ashenvale? Ashenvale folk don’t lie to Ashenvale folk, my foot.

Even Luke, though, couldn’t work out why Lilith had responded the way she had. His home wasn’t some blessed fairyland paradise.

"Ah." Victor was momentarily at a loss, then conceded the point seemed reasonable, before quickly recovering and offering a reminder. "Well, since Lilith is staying with you, be extra careful these next days. If you need anything at all, just come to me directly."

Lilith’s arrival was known only to Victor, Harrison Cole, and a small handful of others. Yvonne and the academy representatives were exceptions, but given their nerve, none of them would dare leak a word once they’d returned to their respective academies. Besides, by the time they’d fled, the whole situation had still been shrouded in ambiguity.

Victor had originally assumed Lilith was simply here to take on a student and would leave shortly afterward. He hadn’t imagined it would develop into this. The shock was nearly enough to last him a full year.

Because of it, Victor resolved that the moment he returned to the Mansion, he would mobilize his people into maximum alert status. For the duration of Lilith’s stay in Ashenvale, he would not permit a single troublemaker to cause any disruption.

The little rats hiding in the shadows were also overdue for a cleaning. He’d loop Harrison into that as well. The old man would, Victor was certain, be more than happy to participate.

A short distance away, Lilith and Selene were having their own quiet conversation.

"Master, are you genuinely staying?" Although the topic had passed some time ago, Selene still felt the preceding scene bordered on surreal. Her brain capacity was, frankly, struggling to keep up.

"Naturally." Compared to everyone else frantically trying to divine her true intentions, Lilith, the architect of all this chaos, wore an expression of perfect serenity, the very picture of someone who fully intended to settle in and stay.

"Do you remember what I told you before we left the Night Palace?" Lilith glanced at Selene and spoke again.

What she said before we left the Night Palace? Selene’s mind raced. "Master, you mean the legend of the Millennial Sovereign?"

Even now, Selene hadn’t heard anything more about Millennial Sovereigns, and Lilith hadn’t offered any further explanation.

"That’s part of it, the Millennial Sovereign reason. But there’s another part as well." As Lilith spoke, her gaze seemed to pierce through layers of barriers and settle on Luke. "I have a premonition. The inspiration for creating new cards may be found in Luke."

An Undying Realm Card Master seeking card-creation inspiration from a rank novice. If Lilith hadn’t said it with her own mouth, Selene would never have believed it.

Is he genuinely that remarkable? Selene mused inwardly, but she hadn’t reached Lilith’s level, and standing before Luke, she felt no comparable premonition of her own.

"Then, Master, do you need me to stay as well?" Honestly, Selene had grown quite curious about whether her junior brother really possessed enough of whatever-it-was to resolve Lilith’s card-creation inspiration.

If that were true, then as the senior sister, surely it wouldn’t be excessive for her to skim a little inspiration off the top as well.

"No need. The exam is over, and one way or another, you should make a trip back to Celestial Academy." Lilith shook her head, then teased, "Also, shouldn’t you be preparing a meeting gift for your junior brother?"

"Master!" Selene protested, her tone sliding into a sulk. "I never asked you for a meeting gift back then!"

Had she only just become Lilith’s student, Selene would never have dared behave this way. But years of close companionship had forged a bond that ran deep. Blood relation aside, the two of them were as close as any true family.

"Have I ever treated you poorly, all these years?" Lilith said, reaching over to rub Selene’s cheek with helpless affection. "As for my relationship with Luke, don’t reveal it to anyone except the Head of Celestial Academy for now."

Unlike Selene, Luke’s situation was far more complicated. It touched on Original Cards, and on the matter of the Millennial Sovereign.

And a Millennial Sovereign was an absolute existence that every nation in the world fought to claim, especially given that Luke might well prove to be something more than simply a Millennial Sovereign.