Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Chapter 691: World Council Building [Bonus Chapter]

”Hey, don’t look so sad,” Kara smiled, her violet eyes gleaming with quiet confidence as she offered her hand again. ”They might not have dragons... but this is the World Council. They have the accumulated plunder locked behind those doors so why don’t we go inside, check everything out, and see what kind of monsters we can claim?”

”And Rika? Keep the dragon in mind. I asked what you wanted, and I meant it. If one exists anywhere in the Sovereign Realm, we’ll find it...”

’Once Rika’s contract is settled, Kara goes back in the ring,’ Silas thought. ’I’ll meet Valerius as myself.’

Rika looked at Kara’s outstretched hand, her emerald eyes brightening once more as she took it with a firm, eager nod.

”Yes, Master!”

Rika leaned toward the phoenix and whispered...

”If they do have a small dragon, we’re taking it.”

The phoenix chirped its full agreement.

WHOOSH!

The sprawling marble plaza outside the World Council Central Directorate resembled an overturned anthill of high-tier nobility.

Everywhere the eye could wander across the grand terrace, visiting Lords from distant sectors strode along the polished flagstones, trailed by glittering retinues of awakened champions, winged valkyries, towering armored minotaurs, and robed court sorcerers.

Yet the moment the elegant figure in the midnight-blue tailored three-piece suit stepped past the fountain balustrade, the murmur of thousands of Lords abruptly choked off.

Eyes locked onto her like iron filings drawn to an unyielding lodestone and whispers tore through the ranks like wildfire:

”Is that...?”

”It is! The black hair, the three-piece silk suit, the pinned left sleeve... that’s Lord Vespera!”

”Lord Vespera! The Lord who stood down the monsters and broke the hordes of monsters in North Khemet leading hundreds of thousands of people to a proper evacuation due to her actions.”

Within three seconds, a veritable tidal wave of lesser Lords, merchant delegates, and breathless young squires surged across the plaza, surging toward them with silver fountain pens, commemorative scrolls, and leather-bound journals clutched in their trembling hands.

”Lady Vespera! An autograph, please! Just a signature on my lineage ledger!”

”Lord Vespera! My house controls three fertile valleys in the Eastern Expanse... if you would merely grant us an audience—!”

”Lady Vespera! A single greeting for the Silver-Wing Guild!”

Kara didn’t break her stride.

Her black bangs swayed softly against her cheekbones as she maintained a flawless smile that was as polite as it was impenetrable.

Her one hand remained casually tucked in the pocket of her tailored trousers with her pinned left sleeve stirring at her side and her posture radiating an effortless untouchable grace.

”I appreciate your warm enthusiasm, ladies and gentlemen,” Kara spoke, her melodious feminine voice effortlessly drifting over the clamor, ”however, my companion and I are operating under strict official business today... Please, mind your decorum upon the council grounds.”

With an airy dismissive wave of two manicured fingers, she gently deflected the outstretched fountain pens and rolled scrolls, parting the crowd like a sleek clipper slicing through river foam.

Behind her, keeping her small hand firmly locked onto Kara’s left sleeve, Rika trotted along with quick disciplined steps.

Despite the sea of people trying to catch a glimpse of the great sovereign, not a single one of the frantic nobles dared to push their way past the massive perimeter cordons leading toward the entrance.

Standing before the five-story-tall gilded bronze gates of the Directorate were two full centuries of magistrate-corps guards.

Encased in immaculate crimson-and-gold plate armor, their halberds grounded in one perfect line, the guards stood like an unyielding wall of living steel.

The main gates were locked down tight... Common visitors, merchants, and low-tier supplicants were strictly barred from setting foot through the grand ceremonial archway.

If anyone wished to access the internal concourses, public registries, or administrative pavilions, they were funneled through a fortified side portal flanking the western pavilion, the designated gate for licensed diplomatic envoys and the sprawling commercial exchange.

Kara swept toward the side entrance without missing a beat, flashing the silver sigil pinned beneath her lapel.

The two guards manning the threshold instantly snapped their right fists against their breastplates as their halberds parted with a crisp clatter to grant her immediate unhindered passage.

Behind them, the roar of the crowd cut off with a heavy thud as the heavy rune-reinforced doors swung shut behind them, cutting off the deafening roar of the eager crowd outside in an instant.

’Haa... Finally some peace.’

Inside, the grand concourse opened into an awe-inspiring cavern of luxury.

Soaring vaulted ceilings inlaid with shimmering lapis lazuli and constellations of glowing astral crystals arched hundreds of feet overhead.

Giant fluted columns of white celestial marble supported sweeping balconies, and the polished floors of dark porphyry reflected the warm glow of floating arcane chandeliers.

Fountains of singing, scented water burbled in recessed alcoves, and private meeting lounges lined with plush velvet couches flanked the wide pedestrian boulevard.

Rika glanced around the cavernous hall with her vivid emerald eyes tracing the gilded friezes and tapestries hanging along the high walls.

For an ordinary girl summoned from a mortal backwater, the crushing opulence of the World Council Directorate would have been enough to induce vertigo but to Rika, it was simply familiar.

’It’s grand...’ Rika mused quietly, her chin tucked slightly into the high collar of her dark forest-green traveling cloak. ’Though honestly, it doesn’t look much different from the high sanctuaries I used to walk through in my era...’

At the height of her divinity, when she had held the titles of Goddess of Beasts and High Warden of the Primeval Brood, she had owned multiple palaces that easily rivaled this architectural extravagance.

Vast sanctuaries carved from the living roots of primordial world-vines, sprawling amphitheaters paved with crystallized beast cores, and golden citadels where subservient vassal kings knelt before her throne to plead for beast-breeding rights.

A bitter melancholy pang tightened behind her breastbone.

’By now...’ she thought, looking down at the dark polished stone beneath her slippers, ’...the official ownership of every single one of my ancient domains has undoubtedly been transferred to someone else.’

That was even the best-case scenario.

She had never been foolish enough to believe every one of her followers was a good person, or that every one of them had liked her...

The far more likely reality was that after her catastrophic fall, the predators among them had descended upon her empty halls like carrion birds, stripping the gold from the pillars, butchering whatever juvenile broods remained in the nurseries and auctioning off her personal chambers as private hunting lodges.

A cold smoldering heat flared in the depths of her chest.

Naturally, the thought of those thieving treacherous bastards carving up her legacy pissed her off to no end but as quickly as the anger ignited, it sputtered and dissolved into a soft quiet sigh.

’What can I even do about it now?’

Nothing, the past was nothing but cold ashes.

Besides... she wasn’t a forsaken wanderer trapped in the prison of ice anymore.

Rika lifted her head, looking at the broad-shouldered silhouette of Kara walking a half-step ahead of her.

...She was a Hero of Blessed Land now.

She belonged to Silas Graves.

The Fanged Courts could burn her ancient palaces, pawn her golden thrones, and carve up her hunting grounds for all she cared but none of those cold, dead stone halls could ever compare to the warm laughter of the Keep’s hearth, or the quiet shelter provided by her Master’s presence.

A tiny blissful grin tugged at the corners of Rika’s lips then, her left eye gave a sudden involuntary twitch.

’Wait... this again...?’

Rika’s fingers knotted against her midsection, her cheeks warming with sudden flustered embarrassment.

Deep within her soul pathways, a strange overwhelming ripple of emotion bubbled up from the fledgling contract anchored to her core.

Usually, when a high-tier Tamer or Beast Goddess forged a soul-bond with a summon, the connection was an open bidirectional conduit.

You could see through their senses, channel their raw elemental output, and direct their combat instincts with telepathic synchronization.

But there was a natural unavoidable byproduct to such intimacy, it was well known as emotional bleed.

The emotions of the bonded beast inevitably bled backwards into the tamer’s own consciousness and in her case... her very first bonded partner was a newborn Primordial Phoenix.

Perched snugly beneath the folds of her green cloak, nestled warmly right against the hollow of her throat, the tiny golden-feathered bird chirped happily with its little head bobbing against her collarbone.

It was barely two hours old. Its consciousness was overflowing with pure radiant unfiltered childish wonder...

Everything in this vast polished building looked shiny... Everything looked like an adventure... It wanted to run across the smooth floors, hop on the plush velvet couches, and hold Master’s hand as tightly as its little talons could manage.

And because the fledgling’s soul was so overwhelmingly potent, carrying the raw primordial law of an apex celestial entity... its bright childish impulses were currently flooding straight through the bond, overriding Rika’s dignified divine persona.

’It’s making me act like a five-year-old girl!’ Rika screamed internally, mortified by how intensely she had wanted to skip across the marble earlier. ’Pumping my fists in the air on the front steps... shouting about giant dragons like an over-excited toddler... that wasn’t me! That was this little bird’s childishness leaking through my meridians!’

She gave the chick an affectionate helpless nudge with the knuckle of her thumb.

’It’ll only last for a day or two...’ she comforted herself with a silent desperate pout. ’Once its consciousness stabilizes and its ego matures, the emotional spillover will settle down. Until then... I just have to endure acting like a pampered kid...’

Up ahead, the main corridor transitioned into a sweeping administrative reception rotunda.

In the center of the chamber stood a massive semi-circular desk carved from a single unbroken block of petrified dragon-bone, reinforced with polished silver braces.

Behind the counter, lounging back in a high-backed leather chair with her long legs kicked up onto the corner of the polished bone desk, was a young woman.

She possessed a striking cascade of bright electric-blue hair cut into a messy uneven bob that framed a pale sharp-featured face.

She was clad in a dark form-fitting administrative tunic that lacked any official rank insignia, and between her slightly parted lips, a sphere of pink bubblegum expanded into a translucent globe.

POP!

The bubble burst with a sharp wet snap as the blue-haired woman deftly pulling the gum back between her teeth with a bored flick of her tongue.

She didn’t bother taking her boots off the dragon-bone counter as Kara and Rika approached.

Her heavy-lidded dull gray eyes swept over them with the soul-weary apathy of an office worker who had spent a lot of time watching paperwork pile up on her desk... Silas could relate to this.

”Welcome to one of the World Council’s primary administrative headquarters in the Sovereign Realm,” the blue-haired receptionist droned, her monotone voice sounding entirely rehearsed and utterly dead inside. ”Please state your registry credentials, your territorial tax-clearance code, and the specific departmental annex you wish to—”

Crunch!

Her jaw stopped mid-chew.

Her dull gray eyes, previously fixed somewhere in the empty space above Kara’s forehead, suddenly snapped into sharp laser-like focus upon her features.

The black hair, the pinned left sleeve, the tailored three-piece suit, and the unmistakable shimmer of her mana.

The woman’s expression didn’t shift by an inch as not a single muscle in her pale bored face moved.

”Greetings, Lord Vespera,” she said, her flat emotionless tone barely acknowledging the legendary Lord who had made even the Magistrates sweat blood. ”Greetings to your contracted summon as well... What business brings the master of Blessed Land to the central reception desk?”

’She knew who I was before I opened my mouth,’ Silas thought. ’Well I am that famous.’

Within the feminine shell of Kara White, Silas Graves stared down at the young woman, violet eyes narrowing with intense puzzled scrutiny.

’Wait a second...’ Silas mused internally, his brow twitching behind Kara’s bangs. ’Why does this girl look so ridiculously familiar? Have I seen her somewhere in the official council? No... that’s not it. It’s the way she holds her head. That lazy vacant tilt...’

He racked his memory, searching through the dozens of people he had crossed paths with during his life.

Nothing matched the blue hair or the bored chewing-gum expression but then... the image clicked into focus.

”Oh.”

The dragon-bone counter and the archives buried beneath five miles of solid granite.

’She’s related to him...’

The eccentric flamboyant curator wearing immaculate midnight-silk robes, tossing summoning tickets with theatrical flair, and tilting his head at that exact signature ninety-degree angle whenever he was pretending nothing had happened.

Silas had never seen Musvi’s real face beneath that painted grinning theater mask but the posture?

It was unmistakable.

Kara leaned against the edge of the dragon-bone desk, resting one elbow on the silver trim with her feminine lips parting into an amused knowing smirk.

”...Musvi?” Kara uttered softly.

A sudden sharp spark of bright, intense light ignited within the blue-haired woman’s dull gray eyes.

Her jaw dropped with the wad of gum sticking to her lower lip as her boots slid off the desk, hitting the floor with a dull thud.

She leaned forward across the counter with her eyes looking wide as she stared at Kara with genuine astonishment.

”You... you know my father...?” the woman asked, her monotone voice completely shattering into a breathless disbelieving whisper.

Kara smiled, letting out a soft, nostalgic sigh as she smoothed her lapels.

”I met him not too long ago,” Kara replied smoothly, her voice rich with fond amusement. ”A bit more than two weeks ago, in fact... Deep beneath the bedrock of the World Vault, behind that absurd dragon-bone counter of his. He was just there with the biggest smile on his face.”

Well she assumed that Musvi smiled, with his demeanor, it was impossible for him not to smile.

Her chair hit the floor behind her with a crash, three guards at the far wall went for their halberds, and the woman didn’t even glance their way.

”Ah... ah...”