Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Silas froze.

’Wait. What?’ Silas thought, his eyes widening slightly. ’She’s going to the Secret Realm? Elora said other Lords would come but still... How the hell did Harper get an invite?’

Before he could even open his mouth to interrogate her about the raid parameters, a sleek armored midnight-black corporate anti-grav limousine pulled up silently to the curb right in front of them.

The rear door slid open automatically.

Harper didn’t wait for his questions. She ushered Penelope into the luxurious back seat, climbed in right behind her, and offered Silas one final wave through the tinted glass.

The door slid shut.

The limousine’s repulsors flared, and the massive vehicle accelerated down the street, driving off and leaving Silas and Lia standing alone outside the Academy gates.

Silas stared after the retreating car with a deep headache beginning to form directly behind his eyes.

’I didn’t want her to come... this will be more trouble in the Long run especially for me in this situation.’ Silas thought.

”Big brother?”

Lia’s voice pulled him out of his spiral.

He looked down. Lia was looking up at him, her dark eyes shining with overwhelming gratitude as she grabbed the fabric of his coat, hugging his arm tightly.

”Thank you,” Lia told him. ”I’m so excited to start. I’m going to make you proud.”

Silas’s frustration completely melted away. He smiled warmly, ruffling her hair.

”I know you will,” Silas replied.

He looked down the street toward the commercial sector. ”Why don’t we get you a bit more prepared? The Academy is sending the basic textbooks, but I’ll purchase some advanced terrestrial history and mana theory textbooks on the way home. Give you a head start.”

Lia instantly cheered, her face lighting up. ”Yes! I love reading! I’ll read whatever you give me!”

They turned and began walking together down the cobblestones, heading toward the high-end commercial bookstores, completely leaving the politics of Valoria City behind for the afternoon.

...

[Two Days Later - Monday Morning]

Silas stood in front of the sleek modern mirror in his Silverleaf apartment bathroom, aggressively brushing his teeth.

He was wearing a thick white wool bathrobe tied loosely around his waist as he leaned over the porcelain sink, spitting out the minty foam, and splashed freezing cold water on his face.

He looked up at his reflection.

’Not bad buster...’

He had bruised dark circles under his golden-ringed eyes as he looked like he hadn’t slept in a month.

The exhaustion was entirely the courtesy of the seventy-three women currently living inside his territory.

Managing a rapidly expanding high-tier faction in the Sovereign Realm was a logistical nightmare.

Over the last forty-eight hours, he had supervised the construction of a Tier 3 armory, dealt with Rowena and Aeliana demanding destructive rematches in the training yard, stopped Morwenna from wrestling a dire-bear, and helped Eluned map out a new agricultural grid so that crops would not only be grown where they were meant to but many other places.

He was exhausted but staring at the Lord looking back at him in the mirror, he didn’t mind it at all.

He was building an empire and this expedition was going to make it stronger...

Suddenly, the bathroom door banged open.

Lia marched in. The eleven-year-old was completely dressed in her Academy uniform, her dark blue tie perfectly knotted with her blazer immaculate.

She was carrying a heavy leather satchel over her shoulder, and her cheeks were puffed out in judgmental annoyance.

”Are you serious?!” Lia reprimanded him loudly, tapping her foot against the tile floor. ”Stop taking your time! Are you a woman?! I have to be at the cohort assembly in forty minutes, and you are standing around in a bathrobe staring at yourself!”

Silas grabbed a towel, drying his face with a dry chuckle. ”Hold on, menace. The cab isn’t even here yet.”

”I need to get my secondary notebooks!” Lia complained, spinning on her heel and running back out into the hallway. ”Hurry up!”

Silas hung the towel on the rack, shaking his head. He was genuinely glad that she was happy about going to school, but she was being a bit too aggressively excited.

He tied the wool robe tighter and walked out of the bathroom into the wide, sunlit living room.

As he stepped out, a middle-aged woman approached him from the kitchen.

She was dressed in a simple immaculate black-and-white domestic uniform. Her graying hair was pulled back into a tight, neat bun, and she carried a steaming cup of dark coffee on a silver tray.

She stopped three feet away from him, keeping her posture perfectly straight, and bowed her head deeply.

”Master,” the woman spoke with her voice sounding calm and respectful. ”I have prepared your civilian clothes for the day. They are laid out on your bed.”

Silas took the coffee mug from the tray. ”Thank you, Martha.”

He took a sip of the bitter brew, walking past her toward the master bedroom. He stopped in the doorway, looking back over his shoulder.

”While I’m gone for the next few days,” Silas instructed her clearly. ”You are the one in charge of handling Lia and the house. She goes to school, she comes straight back. There are no detours.”

Martha, the cute petite middle-aged woman, immediately bowed her head lower, her hands folded neatly in front of her apron.

”Understood, Master. I swear my full loyalty to the cause. The young miss will be perfectly safe.”

Silas had hired a maid. Or, as the upper-class citizens of Valoria City legally defined it, a Servant.

When Silas had realized the sheer scale of the danger surrounding his identity, he knew he couldn’t leave Lia alone in the apartment while he was conquering Secret Realms or expanding the Blessed Land.

He needed someone to watch her but he couldn’t just hire a random babysitter off the terrestrial net.

If a normal civilian saw him vanish into thin air during an ascension, or overheard him talking about SSS-rank goddesses, they would sell that information to the corporate tabloids in a heartbeat.

In this world, if you needed operational security, you bought it.

The Valoria City legal code allowed citizens to willingly become Servants.

If an individual fell into massive debt, or simply wanted a guaranteed roof over their head and protection from the outer wards, they could sign their life away.

If one did, and wanted to be sold, a corporate Arcanist would engrave a ’Slave Rune’ onto their flesh.

A Slave Rune was a regulated and magically binding contract.

It was a physical declaration that you had completely surrendered your future autonomy.

Once a buyer paid the exorbitant terrestrial fee to the guild holding the contract, the Arcanist would engrave the corresponding ’Master Rune’ onto the buyer’s biometric registry.

It ensured that the servant belonged to the Master alone. It bound their vocal cords and their physical actions.

As much as Silas deeply hated the idea of people submitting as slaves, the logic nside him recognized the necessity of the magic.

He had willed the Master Rune to explicitly mandate that Martha couldn’t mention whatever he did, whoever she saw, or whatever anomalies occurred inside this apartment to anyone.

With that rune active, she physically couldn’t spread information about him if he ever let it slip up by mistake.

Her throat would simply lock up. This was the only way he could fully trust someone in this ruthless world to watch his sister.

It wasn’t exactly full chattel slavery since the terrestrial laws mandated baseline living conditions but when you sold yourself completely, it was expected that you gave everything to the Master.

Luckily, Martha was incredibly chill about the entire arrangement. She was a widow from the lower industrial wards who had willingly taken the rune to pay off her late husband’s medical debts.

To offset his own crushing moral guilt about owning a human being, Silas treated her exactly like a high-end corporate employee.

He had explicitly told her on the first day that he would be paying her a massive monthly salary in Spirit Credits, far beyond the standard living stipend required by the rune laws.

The promise of actual financial independence had made her quite happy.

As long as she continued this hard work, maintained the apartment, and kept Lia safe, Silas was perfectly content to let her live a comfortable life under his protection.

Silas walked into his master bedroom.

His clothes were laid out perfectly on the mattress. A crisp white button-down shirt with a dark charcoal vest, heavy black trousers, and his dark trench coat.

Martha followed him into the room, stepping up quietly behind him.

Without a word, she reached out and helped him shrug off the heavy wool robe, taking the garment and carefully draping the crisp white shirt over his broad, heavily scarred shoulders.

Silas stood still, letting her button the cuffs.

’I can understand why millionaires get slaves too,’ Silas thought, staring at the wall as she expertly adjusted his collar. ’Having someone dress you is actually quite soothing... if you completely look past the incredibly embarrassing part of standing half-naked in front of a middle-aged woman.’

Once he was dressed, they moved back downstairs.

Breakfast was already laid out on the marble island. Thick fluffy pancakes, heavily smoked bacon, and fresh fruit.

Silas sat down, pouring syrup over his plate, and immediately pointed his fork at Martha.

”Sit down and eat,” Silas urged her firmly. ”I’m not having you stand in the corner while we eat. There’s plenty.”

Martha smiled warmly with her initial conditioning slowly breaking down under his casual treatment.

She pulled up a stool and served herself a small plate, eating quietly as Lia practically inhaled her bacon.

Ten minutes later, they were standing outside the apartment complex in the crisp Monday morning air.

Silas looked down the street, waiting for the mag-cab he had pinged on his app to arrive.

He looked at the empty driveway again, shaking his head.

”I really should have just bought a car,” Silas commented dryly, checking his watch. ”Waiting for public transit is going to get old fast.”

Martha, standing respectfully behind Lia, chimed in smoothly.

”Master, I actually possess a Class-A terrestrial driver’s license. I was a courier in the middle wards before I took the contract...”

Silas turned his head as his golden-ringed eyes widened in delight.

”Are you serious?” Silas praised her, a massive grin breaking across his face. ”Martha, you are literally one of the most valuable assets in this entire apartment.”

Martha blushed deeply, dipping her head at the high praise.

”Thank you, Master.”

The yellow mag-cab finally pulled around the corner, hovering smoothly to a halt by the curb.

Silas opened the rear door. He looked at the maid. ”Make sure she gets to the Academy gates, Martha. And be there at three o’clock to pick her up.”

”I will not fail you, Master,” Martha nodded, stepping toward the cab.

Before Lia climbed inside, the eleven-year-old dropped her heavy leather satchel, threw her arms around Silas’s waist, and squeezed him tightly. She looked up, pressing a quick affectionate kiss against his cheek.

”Bye, Big brother!” Lia beamed. ”Wish me luck!”

”You don’t need luck, menace,” Silas smiled, patting her back. ”Go show them how it’s done.”

He let her go. Lia climbed into the cab, followed closely by Martha.

Silas leaned into the front window, tapping his phone against the driver’s console to prepay for a massive, guaranteed round-trip fare.

He stepped back, watching the cab accelerate down the cobblestone street until it disappeared around the corner.

Silas let out a slow breath, turning his back on the apartment complex.

He began walking downward toward the primary commercial intersection.

’Once that Secret Realm is open...’ Silas calculated grimly with his hands buried deep in his trench coat pockets. ’The spatial threshold is going to lock so I’ll at least be gone for five days.’

That was another massive reason why he had gotten Martha.

He needed someone to watch over Lia, yes, but having the maid around also made the massive apartment feel more lively.

Lia wouldn’t be sitting in complete isolation for a week, wondering if her brother had been eaten by an ancient god.

As Silas approached the main intersection, a low expensive hum vibrated through the cobblestones.

A beautiful, sleek, midnight-blue supercar with heavily tinted windows and four luxurious seats pulled up directly in front of him, blocking the crosswalk.

The passenger-side window rolled down with a smooth mechanical hiss.

Elora Verinda was sitting behind the wheel.

The City Lord’s daughter looked immaculate, dressed in a form-fitting and high-end stealth suit designed for elite combat maneuvering.

”Get in,” Elora told him, her voice tight with suppressed adrenaline.

Silas didn’t hesitate. He pulled the heavy door open and slid into the plush, leather-upholstered front passenger seat.

As he buckled his harness, he glanced in the rearview mirror.

Jaxon and Maya were sitting in the back seats.

”Morning, Graves,” Jaxon grunted respectfully, offering a brief nod.

”Hey,” Silas greeted them smoothly.