Chapter 724: A Shared Secret...that nobody knows.

Selene stepped out into the courtyard and found Moon standing in the cool night air, his Beast Soul and Mirage beside him, the aftermath of his experiments still scattered across the stone.

Moon turned before she’d said a word, sensing her footsteps.

"Oh, you’re awake." His expression shifted to an apologetic one. "I must’ve woken you with all the noise. The attacks, and everything. I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking about the hour."

Selene shook her head, walking further into the courtyard.

"Don’t worry about it. I’d already slept a bit. I just... didn’t feel like going back to bed." She didn’t mention why. Didn’t mention lying awake, or the sound of the front door earlier, or who she knew he’d gone to meet.

Something moved behind Moon, and her eyes caught it.

A small golden bun, shell shining like gold in the courtyard, cute eyes turning to regard her with a calm that no ordinary beast possessed.

"What is that?" Selene breathed, stepping closer.

Moon’s face softened, and he gestured the little turtle forward.

"This is Honeybun. He hatched today, on the floating island." He knelt beside the turtle. "I fed the egg some rare materials during incubation, and this is what came out. A Golden Turtle. First of its kind. And he’s already stronger than you could imagine."

Selene crouched down, studying the turtle with wonder, and Honeybun regarded her back with an assessing gaze.

Moon watched her, and internally, he made a decision.

I’ve been meaning to tell her about all of it. I told Alaric because he helped me, but I never sat Selene down and explained. Not because I didn’t trust her. There just was never the right moment, always a fight, and always somewhere to be.

His eyes moved over her face, lit soft by the moon’s glow.

She is awake in the middle of the night, and here’s Honeybun. If there’s ever going to be a right moment, it’s this one.

"Selene... There’s something I want to tell you." Moon spoke quietly.

Selene’s heart began to beat rapidly in her chest as she looked up from the turtle, her attention solely on Moon.

’Is he going to...’ She thought, her face turning red before Moon could even say a word.

"You know S-Rank is considered the pinnacle. The strongest beasts anyone’s supposed to encounter." Moon sat onto the stone beside her before motioning for her to sit down beside him.

"Well, it isn’t. There’s a tier above it, those beasts are called Supreme-rank creatures. Almost no one knows they exist. Honeybun is one of them."

Selene’s eyes widened but did not speak, allowing Moon to continue uninterrupted.

"And killing a Supreme creature grants something ordinary beasts don’t. Super Lives. They’re what allows you to push Epic-rank skills up toward Legendary-rank."

Selene sat very still, absorbing it. Then a memory resurfaced, and her breath caught.

"Back in Lunaris, when you pulled me aside and asked if I knew of any skills beyond Epic-rank. That strange question, out of nowhere. Was that... was that because of this?"

Moon nodded.

"Yeah. That was it. My evolution requirement was to obtain a Legendary-rank skill. But I had no idea Supreme creatures even existed back then, or that Super Lives were the answer. I only learned all of it after I encountered the first Supreme-rank beast, inside the S-Rank gate." He gave a small, rueful smile. "The Three-Tailed Fox. The one none of the others ever knew was really there."

Selene was quiet for a long moment, the pieces of things she’d half-wondered about clicking into place. Then she looked at him, something vulnerable in her eyes.

"Who else knows about this? About Supreme creatures, Super Lives, all of it?"

Moon met her gaze.

"Just you. And your brother. Nobody else."

"...Not even Nina?"

Moon shook his head, and there was no hesitation in it.

"Of course not. We’re not close like that. She doesn’t know a thing about any of this, and she won’t...until everyone else does at least."

Staring into Selene’s eyes, Moon spoke with a firm tone, "This isn’t something I share. It’s the core of everything I am, the thing that could get me killed if the wrong people learned it. I’ve told two people in the entire world. Alaric, because he had already figured out enough on his own, and because I wanted to repay him for a favor he had done for me... and you."

Unknown to Moon, a tight chain that Selene had been carrying in her chest for a few days finally loosened at once, easing her heart.

Me and my brother are the only people that know...

Selene felt a warm feeling spread through her chest. There was something strangely comforting about knowing that she was carrying a secret that no other female knew.

She couldn’t help but feel that it meant something.

I have something with him that the other girls don’t.

It wasn’t just the information itself. It was the fact that Moon had trusted her with it. Now, whenever she felt sad, she would know that there was something shared between them, something that belonged to the two of them alone.

For so long, she’d watched him grow stronger, disappearing into gates and returning stronger than ever. She had started to wonder if there was any place left for her beside him.

But this made her feel differently.

She had her own little piece of him now. A secret he had chosen to give her, something she could hold onto that no one else could claim.

Maybe I really am special to him.

"Why me?" she asked quietly, and there was something fragile and hopeful in the question.

Moon considered it, and for once he didn’t reach for the pragmatic answer.

"Because you mean a lot to me," he said simply. "From the very first hidden realm, the frozen one, when it was just the two of us surviving the cold. I trusted you then, when I had no reason to trust anyone... and you’ve only strengthened that trust "