Chapter 464: A Speech Before Rebirth [Bonus - ]

Chapter 464: A Speech Before Rebirth [Bonus Chapter]

A brilliant warm golden-blue light erupted from the control pedestal!

Their combined mana instantly flooded the circuit as the dormant magic circles beneath all six eggs flared to life, humming with a deep vibration as soothing heat began to properly incubate the sapphire shells.

But Reina wasn’t looking at the eggs.

She was staring blankly at Silas’s large hand resting warmly over hers, their mana perfectly intertwined and flowing together to bring the new life into the world.

A sudden rush of heat flooded Reina’s face.

A brilliant crimson blush exploded across her cheeks, spreading all the way down to her collarbone and her heart began to hammer erratically against her ribs.

’Wait...’ Reina thought, her brain completely short-circuiting in a haze of panic. ’We just infused our mana together... to incubate the babies... Does that mean I’m the mama... and Lord Silas is the papa?!’

The golden-blue light of the incubation pedestal slowly faded, sinking deep into the porous ceramic stone and leaving the six sapphire spider eggs pulsing with a warm rhythm.

Silas pulled his broad hand back, letting his mana circulation settle.

As he turned his head to look at Reina, his brow furrowed in mild amusement.

The Beast Tamer was standing perfectly still, her hands clasped tightly against her waterproof leather apron.

Her face, from the tip of her chin all the way to the delicate points of her ears, was burning with a brilliant shade of crimson.

Her eyes were wide, completely out of focus as she stared blankly at the stone pedestal, her mind clearly lost in some chaotic panicked spiral of thoughts.

"Reina?" Silas asked, his deep voice cutting through the humid silence.

He tilted his head slightly, studying the intense flush on her cheeks. "Why is your face so red? Is the heat in here set too high?"

Reina violently flinched, snapping out of her romantic panic like a startled deer.

"N-no! Not at all, Lord Silas!" Reina stammered frantically, averting her eyes and desperately waving her hands in front of her chest to dismiss the question.

She stepped backward, nearly tripping over her own boots. "It’s just... the mana! Yes! The sudden surge of raw mana reacting with my meridians caused a minor circulatory flush! It’s a completely normal physiological reaction to high-tier incubation magic! Nothing to worry about!"

Silas stared at her for a long quiet second, easily seeing right through the completely fabricated excuse.

But rather than press the issue and embarrass her further, a warm smile spread across his face.

He closed the distance between them with a single step and raised his hand, placing it gently but firmly onto Reina’s shoulder.

Reina froze, her breath catching in her throat at the sudden comforting weight of his hand.

"Regardless of the heat," Silas murmured, his voice softening into a tone of deep gratitude, "I need to thank you, Reina."

Reina blinked, finally forcing herself to meet his piercing blue eyes.

"T-thank me? For what, my Lord? I merely showed you the room."

"For this," Silas said, gesturing his free hand around the massive, state-of-the-art incubation chamber, and by extension, the entire sprawling Mythic Sanctuary waiting outside. "None of this infrastructure would have been possible if you hadn’t taken the initiative to drop that idea into the Suggestion Box. You saw a critical flaw in our territory’s logistics, and you stepped up to fix it. This pavilion, the Blessed Wolves, the new Umbral cavalry... it all exists because of you."

Reina stood completely paralyzed.

The embarrassed beating of her heart slowed, replaced by a deep overwhelming swell of emotional warmth that spread through her chest.

She had submitted that suggestion on a whim, hoping, but never truly expecting, that the Lord would actually listen to a mere recruit but Silas had listened.

He had read her words, invested into her vision, and elevated her to a position of authority over the territory’s most vital assets.

A soft radiant smile touched Reina’s lips.

The lingering blush on her cheeks shifted from embarrassment to pride.

"That’s right..." Reina whispered softly, her eyes shining as she looked at him. "If that Suggestion Box hadn’t been placed in the Barracks... if you hadn’t taken the time to read it... I wouldn’t be standing here right now." She bowed her head respectfully, her voice steady and filled with devotion. "Thank you for reading my entry, Lord Silas. And thank you for trusting me with this."

"You earned it, Reina," Silas replied, giving her shoulder a final, approving squeeze before dropping his hand. "Now, come on... We have forty-six feral wolves waiting for their contracts, and I’m sure the girls are anxious to get it over with."

They turned away from the pulsing sapphire eggs, walking back down the dark basalt corridor and pushing open the heavy ironwood door to re-enter the main paddock of the Beast Pavilion.

The transition from the quiet humid nursery to the sprawling outdoor Sanctuary was jarring as the massive open-air stable was an absolute madhouse of joyous activity.

The heavy, snow-laden blizzard was still howling fiercely against the slanted ironwood roofs above, but inside the heated paddock, the atmosphere was a bustling soapy wonderland.

Dozens of women from the Blessed Land that Silas had seen earlier, having stripped off their heavy armor in favor of light linen tunics, rolled-up trousers, and waterproof aprons, were scattered across the stone tiles.

They were still armed with heavy wooden buckets sloshing with warm water, massive bristle brushes, and thick, fluffy towels, actively wrangling the massive Umbral Wolves.

The [Nature’s Calm] runes etched into the pillars were doing their job flawlessly... despite being surrounded by humans and soapy water, the forty-six feral wolves were entirely docile, letting out content rumbling pants as they were scrubbed clean.

"Oh my gods, look at his little paws!" one of the women cooed loudly, vigorously towel-drying the sharp claws of a gray wolf that was easily the size of a warhorse. "He’s so cute! Who’s a good predator? You are!"

"Hold still, you giant baby," Sarah laughed from the next stall over, wrestling with a wet, struggling black wolf that was playfully trying to bite the wooden handle of her scrub brush.

Silas and Reina walked out onto the main concourse, observing the wholesome chaos.

Near the center aquifer fountain, one specific woman... a fiery redhead whose name Silas recalled was Clara was currently locked in a battle of wills with a filthy mud-caked Umbral Wolf.

The beast was stubbornly sitting on its haunches, refusing to lift its chin so she could wash its neck.

Clara had clearly lost her patience.

She was holding a heavy, pressurized rubber hose connected directly to the magical aquifer pump, blasting the massive wolf right in the chest at absolute, full throttle.

"Lift your damn head, you stubborn mutt!" Clara yelled over the roaring spray of the water, completely unimpressed by the feral beast’s terrifying size. "You smell like a rotting goblin swamp! You think any of the pretty Wolves are going to look twice at you with that matted fur? You’re never going to get laid looking like a mud-rat!"

The massive wolf let out a pathetic whining yelp, squinting its yellow eyes against the pressurized water and finally tipping its head back in defeat.

Silas let out a deep laugh that echoed over the splashing water. "You tell him, Clara! Keep strict discipline in the ranks!"

Clara froze instantly.

The pressurized hose slipped from her grip, thrashing wildly on the stone floor and spraying water in every direction as she whipped around to face the Lord.

Her eyes blew wide in panic as she hadn’t realized Silas was standing mere feet behind her.

"B-boss!" Clara stammered, frantically wiping her wet, soapy hands on her apron and snapping into a rigid and slightly crooked military salute.

"At ease," Silas smiled warmly as he looked her over.

Her fiery red hair, usually kept in a strict military braid, had come undone in the chaos of the washing, currently tied up in a loose, chaotic, wet bun with stray strands framing her flushed face.

It gave her a wild and incredibly charming look.

"Your hair looks good like that, Clara," Silas noted casually, offering a genuine compliment. "It suits you."

Clara stopped breathing.

Her entire face instantly detonated into a shade of red that rivaled her own hair.

Her pupils dilated, and her brain completely, utterly short-circuited under the sudden unexpected praise from her Lord.

She stared blankly at his handsome face, her lips parting as a low unhinged mutter slipped past her teeth.

"Master’s gonna fuck me tonight..." Clara whispered, staring into the middle distance.

Silas froze.

The warm smile completely evaporated from his face, replaced by a look of paralyzed bewilderment.

He stood there, completely lost for words, desperately trying to process what the hell he had just heard.

Before Silas could even formulate a response to the staggeringly bold, perverted mutter, a hand clamped down on his wrist with the force of a vice grip.

Reina stepped forward, her eyes narrowed into a judgmental glare aimed directly at Clara.

"We are leaving," Reina announced sharply, forcibly dragging Silas away from the fountain by his wrist.

Silas stumbled after the Beast Tamer, looking back over his shoulder at Clara, who was currently covering her face with her hands and sinking slowly to the wet floor in absolute, mortified agony.

’It seems...’ Silas thought, shaking his head as he followed Reina toward the center of the paddock, ’a staggering majority of my girls have suppressed perverted tendencies.’

"Alright, everyone, listen up!" Reina shouted, clapping her hands together.

Her voice carried with the unquestioned authority of the territory’s Beast Tamer, instantly cutting through the chatter and the splashing water. "Baths are done! Towel them off and herd them to the center of the paddock! I want all forty-six wolves in a straight, organized formation! Now!"

The women immediately scrambled into action.

They tossed their scrub brushes aside, quickly running heavy linen towels over the damp wolves before coaxing, pushing, and pulling the massive beasts toward the center of the geothermally heated tiles.

Within minutes, the chaotic mob of beasts had been arranged into five neat, organized rows facing the main entrance of the Sanctuary.

Most of the wolves sat obediently, their tails thumping against the stone as they basked in the warmth of the room.

But right at the front of the formation, the one-eyed gray alpha wolf... the incredibly arrogant beast that Vala had been aggressively scrubbing earlier remained standing.

’Why is it stubborn now...?’

It puffed out its chest, refusing to sit, looking around the paddock with an air of stubborn defiance.

Reina narrowed her eyes. She marched right up to the massive alpha, pointing a stern finger directly at its nose.

"Sit your ass down, Howard," Reina commanded flatly.

The terrifying alpha wolf instantly dropped its rear onto the stone tiles, letting out a soft compliant whine.

Standing a few feet away, Silas completely lost his composure. He slapped a hand over his mouth, his shoulders shaking with silent uncontrollable laughter.

’Howard?’ Silas thought, struggling to breathe as he looked at the menacing wolf. ’She named the arrogant beast in the pack... Howard?!’

Reina ignored his laughter, turning on her heel to face him. "The formation is ready, Lord Silas."

Silas took a deep breath, forcing his amusement down and allowing the commanding aura of his Gold Core to rise to the surface.

’Even if they are wolves... I need to give another motivational speech.’

...Truly being a Lord was hard work.

Silas stepped to the front of the pack, sweeping his piercing blue gaze across the forty-six damp Umbral Wolves.

"You were born in the dark," Silas began, his voice projecting with a deep authority that made the very air in the pavilion vibrate.

The wolves’ ears perked up instantly, their yellow eyes locking onto him, captivated by the overwhelming pressure of his presence.

"You were hunted by monsters, corrupted by the magic of the Umbral Basin, and forced to fight for every scrap of survival in a wasteland..."

He slowly paced in front of the formation, his dark robes sweeping over the wet stone.

"But that life ends today," Silas declared, his voice rising in power. "You have been brought to Blessed Land... Here, you will not freeze... You will not starve... You will be treated with the utmost respect, and you will be feared by our enemies... You are no longer feral beasts scavenging in the snow. From this moment forward, you are the Cavalry of my empire!"

Silas stopped in the center, projecting his aura outward. "Will you serve?"

"HO-WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A deafening earth-shaking chorus of forty-six synchronized howls erupted into the air.

The sound was so powerful it rattled the ironwood beams of the roof, shaking the dust from the rafters as the beasts threw their heads back and pledged their absolute loyalty to the predator standing before them.

Silas smiled, nodding his head. He looked to his right, gesturing for Reina to take the floor.

Reina stepped forward, her Beast Tamer mana flaring with a bright vibrant hue as she raised both of her hands, her voice ringing out clear and true.

"To serve Blessed Land, you must leave your corrupted past behind!" Reina shouted to the pack. "Bow your heads! Prepare to be reborn!"

Without a single moment of hesitation, all forty-six Umbral Wolves, including the arrogant Howard, bowed their snouts completely flat against the warm stone tiles in a posture of total submission.