Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Lohan Sterling and Etilga Bloom were not members of the World Council itself, but they were unquestionably two of the most terrifyingly influential figures in high-society politics and global commerce.

It wasn’t that Silas couldn’t afford to offend them if it came down to a physical war... the Blessed Land’s hidden S-Rank and SSS-Rank roster could tear their corporate fleets to shreds but starting an unnecessary feud with two multi-trillion-credit family heads over a five-minute interview was completely foolish.

Vespera let out a quiet controlled breath, leaning her head back against her leather chair.

”Very well,” Vespera declared. ”I will grant an extension. Five additional minutes. Make them count.”

On the left feed, Lohan offered a formal satisfied nod.

”You have my thanks, Lord Vespera. A wise and pragmatic choice...”

On the right feed, Etilga chuckled darkly, tapping the ash from her cigarillo onto her husband’s back.

”A composed and gracious decision, my dear. I appreciate a ruler who knows how to manage public decorum.”

Meanwhile, right beside Vespera... Lord Sky was practically vibrating in his seat with sheer joy.

’HOLY SHIT! YES!’ Sky screamed internally, his eyes lighting up behind his streaming mask! ’I’M GETTING A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY FROM THIS!’

The live viewer counter on his display was currently sitting at a staggering 112,000,000 CONCURRENT VIEWERS.

The super-chats, high-tier corporate sponsorships, and stream ad donations were flooding into his account at a rate of millions of credits per second...

At this point, with the sheer volume of viewers he was pulling and the astronomical wealth he was generating just from Vespera sitting in a chair beside him, Sky realized it was definitely time to offer her a generous cut of the stream revenue.

If he offered her a fat fifty-percent split of today’s earnings, maybe she would actually agree to do more co-host streams with him later.

With this kind of viral traction, if Vespera ever decided to open an official social media account in the real world, it was going to completely break the global network.

Offering her a cut right now was like securing a massive, early-stage investment in the most valuable media asset in the Sovereign Realm...

Clearing his throat to maintain his professional host persona, Sky gestured toward the left video feed.

”Alright! Since Lord Sterling requested the extension first, the floor is yours for the first inquiry!”

Lohan Sterling sat up straight in his white silk suit, resting his manicured hands flat on his pristine marble desk.

He cleared his throat, adopting the rehearsed pompous tone of a corporate titan addressing a shareholder meeting.

”Allow me to formally introduce myself to you and your audience, Lord Vespera,” Lohan began, puffing out his chest with supreme pride. ”I am Lohan Sterling, CEO and Chairman of the Sterling Financial Conglomerate. Under my direct leadership, our family oversees four major global enterprises.”

Lohan raised his hand, ticking off his fingers one by one with an insufferable smirk.

”First, Sterling Banking & Capital, which manages over six hundred trillion credits in global assets and provides liquidity for fifty-eight sovereign territories... Second, Sterling Deep-Core Mining & Metallurgy, the primary supplier of refined star-iron and titanium-alloy plates for the World Council’s border ramparts... Third, Sterling Interstellar Logistics & Transport, operating a fleet of forty thousand heavy cargo freighters across the trade routes and fourth, Sterling Energy Matrix, which controls thirty percent of the country’s mana-grid generators.”

On the right video window, Etilga Bloom violently rolled her eyes, taking a long exaggerated drag from her cigarillo before blowing a thick cloud of smoke directly toward Lohan’s video tile.

”Nobody asked for your corporate resume, you pompous windbag,” Etilga sneered loudly. ”Get to the damn question before I fall asleep on my footstool.”

Lohan’s jaw twitched with rage, but he forced himself to ignore her, turning his piercing green eyes back toward Vespera.

”Setting financial metrics aside...” Lohan continued, his gaze narrowing as he inspected Vespera’s tailored suit, her dark hood, and her single silver-and-gold gauntlet. ”...I must ask for official clarification. Are you truly the Lord of the Blessed Land? Or are you perhaps a female Hero masquerading as a male ruler in exchange for your Lord’s protection?”

Vespera’s golden-ringed eyes narrowed beneath her hood, her lips twitching in sheer disbelief.

Lohan tilted his head, his tone carrying a subtle condescending edge.

”You must understand my skepticism. The rumors surrounding the Blessed Land describe a territory capable of completely obliterating high-tier monster swarms and possibly capable of pushing back regional raiding fleets. Naturally, one would expect the sovereign Lord of such a powerful, aggressive territory to be... significantly manlier.”

Vespera almost rolled her eyes right out of her skull beneath her hood.

Inside Silas’s mind, a wave of realization washed over him.

’Fucking hell man... Is he serious?’

It turned out that, unsurprisingly, Lohan Sterling was a backward, arrogant, self-important noble elitist who believed that true power could only belong to pompous men in white suits.

The fact that Lohan was this insufferable made the fact that his son, Valerius Sterling, was actually a relatively chill and easygoing guy who just wanted to hunt treasure in Secret Realms exceedingly surprising.

Valerius must have developed his chill personality specifically as a coping mechanism to avoid becoming like his terrible father...

’And that makes me like the fucker even more.’

Vespera leaned back in her high-backed leather chair, resting her gauntleted right hand over her knee, and replied in a calm steady voice.

”I am a woman,” Vespera stated flatly. ”And I am indeed the Lord of the Blessed Land, not a proxy Hero standing in for anyone else.”

Lohan blinked, his green eyes scanning her composed posture.

”Hmm. Fair enough. I shall accept your word for the public record.”

Lohan adjusted his gold cufflinks, leaning forward against his marble desk as his tone dropped into a probing one.

”Then let us address the rumors regarding your Core grade, Lord Vespera. The network chat and regional intelligence boards claim that you possess either a high-grade Purple Core or... a legendary Mythical Gold Core. However, observing your territory from this stream angle, I must express my doubts.”

Lohan gestured vaguely toward the Ironwood forest behind Sky’s mobile fortress, offering a patronizing smirk.

”A territory governed by a true Mythical Gold Core Lord typically displays a far more radiant spatial atmosphere... overflowing with dense ambient mana, glowing celestial flora, and access to elite high-tier mythical beasts. Your surroundings appear to be nothing more than a standard damp Ironwood Basin. So tell us... what is your true Core grade?”

’Standard? The fuck... did he even watch the last stream?’

Vespera sat completely still in her chair.

Beneath her dark traveler’s hood, Vespera’s blood began to boil with pure irritation.

With every passing second, it felt like this arrogant white-suited billionaire was looking down his nose at her.

’I literally went through the entire hassle of dressing up in a tailored suit, putting on a gauntlet, riding a Blessed Wolf through the mud, and sitting under floating camera drones for this stream...’ Silas thought furiously, his jaw clenching hard beneath his hood, ’...just for this pompous corporate bastard to sit in his marble room and look down on me?!’

The more Silas thought about it, the more pissed off he became.

He was holding back his territory’s true visual splendor specifically to keep a low profile from the World Council for now... and now this corporate loan shark was using that intentional stealth as an excuse to mock his territory’s standing live in front of one hundred million viewers.

Vespera folded her single gauntleted arm over her chest, her golden-ringed eyes flashing with a cold terrifying glare from beneath the shadows of her hood.

”My Core grade...” Vespera replied, her voice dropping into an icy dangerous frequency that caused the audio sensors on Sky’s drones to static slightly. ”...is classified territory intelligence. I refuse to disclose that information to a civilian corporate executive.”

Lohan raised a subtle eyebrow, taken aback by the sudden suffocating pressure radiating through his video feed.

He cleared his throat, quickly leaning back into his leather chair to mask his surprise.

”Hmph. Defensive secrecy...” Lohan muttered, adjusting his collar. ”A typical response for a ruler attempting to hide a mediocre co—”

”Oh, shut your pathetic arrogant mouth, Lohan!” Etilga Bloom’s voice exploded through the speakers.

On the right video feed, the crimson-haired matriarch took her lit cigarillo out of her mouth, pointing the glowing tip angrily at Lohan’s video window.

”This is no way to talk to a sovereign woman, you pompous white-suited worm.” Etilga snarled, her red eyes burning with disgust. ”You sit there in your air-conditioned office, questioning her authority and looking down on her territory just because she doesn’t conform to your pathetic corporate standards...”

Vespera offered a small, subtle nod of agreement in her chair.

’For once, the crazy fire lady is actually making sense.’

Etilga turned her gaze toward the central stream display, waving her hand dismissively at Lohan’s video tile.

”Ignore that uncultured idiot, Lord Vespera. He has no respect for true strength.”

On the left feed, Lohan’s face flushed bright red with fury.

He slammed both of his hands onto his marble desk, standing up to shout into his camera.

”Etilga! How dare you insult me once again on a public broadcast! I am the head of the Sterling—”

CLICK!

Suddenly, Lohan’s audio feed cut off completely.

On the stream display, Lohan Sterling was still standing up, waving his arms violently, screaming at the top of his lungs, and slamming his hands on his desk in a blind silent rage... but not a single sound was coming out of his window.

A red muted-microphone icon flashed brightly over his video tile.

Vespera blinked beneath her hood, looking at the silent furious billionaire, then turned her head toward Sky in confusion.

Etilga Bloom let out a loud wicked laugh on her feed, blowing a triumphant cloud of cigar smoke into the air.

”Don’t bother looking at your host, my dear,” Etilga revealed smoothly, a smug dark smirk stretching across her red lips. ”I just bought a sixty-percent controlling majority stake in the media conglomerate that owns this streaming network roughly forty seconds ago. I had my financial team execute the buyout specifically to shut that insufferable bastard up...”

Etilga flicked her cigar ash onto her husband’s back, leaning her elbow on her knee as she smirked at the camera.

”It doesn’t matter how much he screams. His audio channel will remain permanently muted until I say otherwise.”

”...”

Sitting in her chair, Vespera felt a massive invisible sweatdrop form on the back of her head.

Inside Silas’s mind, a wave of exasperated disbelief washed over him.

’Are these high-society figures even media trained?!’ Silas screamed internally, staring at the screen in horror. ’This is supposed to be a high-level diplomatic interview broadcast to over one hundred million people! Why are two multi-trillion-credit family heads acting like petty teenagers in a gaming lobby?! Where are the mature, sophisticated, and dignified noble representatives you always read about in political web novels?! Why is everyone in this world so utterly insane?!’

Etilga leaned forward in her velvet chair, her crimson eyes scanning Vespera’s suit with an approvingly intrigued expression.

”You see, Lord Vespera?” Etilga said smoothly, her voice surprisingly conversational now that Lohan was silenced. ”That pathetic man was looking down on you simply because you are a woman. That is what he always does. He believes men are superior simply because they sit in tall buildings and count paper money.”

Etilga took a slow drag from her cigarillo, adding casually.

”Which, by the way, is the exact reason why his own daughter utterly despises his guts, and why his wife cheated on him with three different guards two years ago. He must be bad in bed too.”

Vespera’s lips twitched beneath her hood.

’Ouch...’ Vespera thought dryly. ’That is a brutal amount of personal family damage to air out on a public broadcast.’

On the left video feed, the muted Lohan Sterling heard her words through his earpiece.

His green eyes nearly bulged out of his head with rage, his face turning an unhealthy shade of purple as he screamed silently into his camera with his frantic furious audio filtering out into silence.