Chapter 1071: Should I be Not Okay?

Chapter 1071 – Should I be Not Okay?

Naomi and Lux stepped out of the portal.

The mansion’s entrance hall welcomed them with warm light, polished floors, and the familiar scent of food, magic, and domestic chaos pretending to be civilized.

Gula was already there.

She stood in the middle of the hall with a plate in one hand and a cookie in the other, cheeks slightly puffed as if she had been caught in the middle of committing dessert-related crimes. Her eyes widened when the portal opened, but not enough to make her stop chewing.

Priorities.

Behind her, Aela sat on one of the lounge sofas with Sira and Lullaby beside her. Sira had one leg crossed elegantly over the other, fingers lazily holding what looked like a notebook. Lullaby was half-draped over a pillow, blinking sleepily while still somehow paying attention. Aela sat between them, posture straight, face serious, clearly receiving some kind of lesson.

Hopefully not something inappropriate.

Knowing this household, the chances were not good.

Lux narrowed his eyes. "What are you teaching her?"

Sira’s smile appeared immediately. "Household survival."

Lullaby yawned. "And how to tell when you are lying."

Aela nodded with frightening sincerity. "Apparently when Lux smiles too softly, he is planning either financial manipulation, emotional evasion, or seduction."

Naomi slowly turned to Lux.

Gula swallowed her cookie. "You’re home faster than I thought."

Lullaby lifted her head slightly, sleepy eyes moving over him from head to toe. "You look okay."

Lux placed one hand over his chest with wounded dignity. "I should be not okay? That’s so cruel."

Lullaby blinked. "You usually return half-dead."

Sira added, "Or shirtless."

Gula raised her cookie. "Or hungry."

Lux frowned. "I am always hungry."

Naomi muttered, "You literally ate a tower."

Everyone paused.

Gula’s eyes widened. "A tower?"

Lux looked at Naomi. "You phrased that badly."

"You did."

"I absorbed a curse."

"That held a tower."

"Therefore, not eating."

Gula looked disappointed. "Oh."

Aela leaned forward slightly, eyes sharpening with ancient curiosity. "I thought you were fighting the tower. Or whatever it was in Delacour’s mansion."

Sira’s gaze slid over Lux, then Naomi, then Lux again. Her mouth curved into a wicked smirk. "Or..."

Naomi’s eyes narrowed immediately.

Sira’s voice dipped into teasing silk. "Did you just~ fool around with Naomi?"

Naomi’s face warmed. "He didn’t."

Lux looked personally betrayed. "That accusation hurts me."

Sira raised a brow. "Because it’s false?"

"Because everyone assumes I cannot behave in a crisis."

Naomi looked at him.

Lux paused. Then cleared his throat. "I have evidence that I managed to get the tower."

He lifted the unconscious orange cat. He held her up with both hands like Rafiki presenting Simba to the animal kingdom, except instead of a lion cub, it was a limp orange cat with dusty fur, one twitching ear, and the exhausted aura of an ancient sorcerer who had filed several complaints with fate and received no reply.

The girls stared.

The kind of silence that formed when the brain needed time to decide whether reality had committed a typo.

Sira blinked first. "You got a cat?"

Lullaby squinted. "The cat is sleeping."

Gula looked at the cat, then at Lux, then back at the cat. "What are we supposed to do? Eat the cat?"

Naomi’s head snapped toward her. "No!"

Gula flinched. "I’m asking!"

Lux lowered the cat protectively against his chest. "No one is eating the cat."

Gula pouted. "This house has many rules."

"This rule is normal," Naomi said.

"Normal for you."

Aela rose slowly from the sofa, gaze fixed on the cat. Her expression changed from confusion to quiet seriousness. "I can feel power from inside the cat."

Lux nodded. "This is the tower in Delacour estate."

Everyone stared. Then, as one unit, they cringed.

Sira closed her eyes.

Lullaby hugged her pillow tighter.

Gula looked personally offended by the concept.

Aela looked like someone had just handed her a historical tragedy inside an orange fur wrapper.

Sira lifted two fingers and massaged her temple. "Okay." Her voice was too calm. "So the legend said a human became a tower."

Lux nodded.

Naomi nodded too.

Sira opened her eyes. "Then now you’re saying the tower became a cat?"

Lux and Naomi nodded again.

Sira inhaled.

Slowly.

Very slowly.

"I need wine."

Lullaby nodded. "This is absurd."

Gula raised her hand. "Can I have wine too?"

"No," Sira said.

"Why?"

"You asked whether to eat the patient."

Gula lowered her hand. "Fair."

Lux walked farther inside, still holding the orange cat carefully. Naomi followed close beside him.

"The original body was damaged," Lux said, tone shifting. "Completely turned to stone. No organic structure left. When I absorbed the binding curse, the statue collapsed."

Aela’s face softened. "So the soul fled."

"Yes. But it didn’t go upward. Didn’t go downward either. It entered this cat."

Lullaby blinked slowly. "Possession?"

"Something like emergency occupation," Lux said. "The cat’s original soul is still there, dormant but not destroyed. The sorcerer’s soul is currently dominant, but unstable."

Naomi hugged her arms lightly. "And the cat body can’t handle her power."

Lux nodded. "That’s why she collapsed."

Aela stepped closer and lifted a hand near the cat, not touching yet. The orange cat’s whiskers twitched once. A faint, almost invisible shimmer passed over her fur.

Aela’s brows drew together. "She is angry."

Lux snorted softly. "Understatement."

"She feels old. And hurt."

Lux’s smile faded. "Yes."

The mansion became quieter at that. For all its ridiculousness, the situation underneath was ugly.

"She was alive in there," Naomi said softly.

Sira’s expression lost its teasing edge.

Lux nodded once. "Alive enough to hate."

Aela looked down. "That means she endured."

"Yes."

Lullaby’s sleepy gaze turned heavy. "Poor cat."

Lux glanced at her. "Which one?"

"Both."

That answer sat quietly.

Naomi’s chest tightened. The original cat had done nothing either. Some random orange creature had become the landing place for a furious ancient soul. ℯℯ𝘭.

This was now a two-patient situation.

Lux exhaled. "The most confusing part is there were no wardens. No active guard structures. No Kaelmor trace."

Sira’s eyes sharpened immediately. "No siphoning?"

"None."

Aela looked up sharply. "That’s different from me."

"And Yue," Lux said. "With you, there was binding rooted in loyalty and false debt. With Yue, curse and self-containment. Kaelmor’s work or things connected to him, usually leave signs. Residue harvesting. Authority taste. Something."

Naomi asked, "But this one didn’t?"

"No."