Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Harper’s eyes lit up brighter than her lightning.

’...Mine.’

A thin ribbon of black sand shot out across the floor, whipped up the leg of the bench, snatched the phone off the wood, and flung it back across the room toward her.

The flier’s lances arrived first.

WHEEEE!

Harper twisted at the hip, and both glowing tips hissed past her stomach close enough to singe her tank top.

The phone smacked into her palm.

She swiped to answer, hit the speaker button, and wedged the phone between her ear and her shoulder in one smooth motion, just in time to throw both gauntlets up in front of her face.

CLANG! CLANG!

Two of the swordsman’s blades crashed into her forearms and showered sparks down her chest.

”How’s my favorite hottie doing~?” Harper sang into the phone, her voice dripping with honey, completely ignoring the fact that her teeth were rattling.

There was a soft chuckle on the other end of the line, low and warm and so close to her ear that a shiver ran straight down her neck.

”Better now that I’m hearing your voice...” Silas said. ”How’s my favorite girl doing? You sound out of breath, Harper... What are you up to?”

Harper’s brain stopped.

’Favorite... girl...?’

Her eyes went wide and glassy as her mouth fell open.

The fierce cocky grin melted right off her face, and every single thought in her head was replaced by those two words, repeating over and over in big, glittering letters.

She froze for half a second.

Under triple gravity, against three of the best constructs money could buy, half a second was forever.

The executioner left his axe resting on his shoulder and drove his armored knee straight into her ribs.

BOOM!

”OOF!”

The air exploded out of her lungs, and Harper went flying.

WHOOOSH!

She tumbled across the room like a skipped stone, sixty feet of open air rushing past her ears and straight toward the solid alloy wall.

’Sand...! SAND...!’

She snapped her fingers, and a thick cushion of black sand surged up the wall a split second before she hit it.

FWUMP!

She sank into it back-first, bounced out, flipped once in the air, and landed in a crouch with one hand braced on the floor.

Her face was on fire.

A deep burning red had raced up from her collarbones to the tips of her ears, and she was pretty sure there was steam coming off her cheeks.

’Get it together, Harper!’ she screamed internally. ’You’re a Lord! You do not get kneed across the room because a guy has a nice voice!’

...Then again, it was a really nice voice.

”Harper?” Silas asked. ”What was that noise?”

”N-Nothing!” Harper squeaked, then cleared her throat and tried again, much lower and much smoother. ”Nothing at all... Everything’s totally fine. I’m just... doing a little light cardio.”

”Cardio?” Silas repeated.

”...Mhm, you don’t trust me?”

”I do, but it sounded like someone used you as a bowling ball.”

”That’s how rich people do cardio, Silas,” Harper said with as much dignity as she could manage, which wasn’t a lot, considering she still had sand in her hair.

He laughed, a real one this time, and Harper’s heart did a stupid little flip in her chest.

...The three constructs were already regrouping at the far end of the room, spreading out to come at her from three sides.

Harper stood up, wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist, and let her lightning flare back to life.

”So,” she purred, rolling her shoulders as she started walking toward them. ”To what do I owe the pleasure, handsome? Don’t tell me you missed me already...”

”Would it be so bad if I did?”

Harper’s step faltered and the executioner chose that exact moment to charge.

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

His footsteps cracked the tiles as he came, and his axe swung around in a wide, flat arc aimed at her waist.

Harper threw herself flat on her back.

WHOOOOSH!

The axe passed over her nose so close that she felt the wind of it lift her eyelashes.

She kicked both feet straight up into his chin.

KRAK!

He staggered back two steps, and she rolled backward onto her feet in one smooth motion, lightning snapping off her shoulders.

”Harper?” Silas asked. ”You okay? That sounded like a car crash.”

”I’m wonderful,” she said, slightly strangled. ”And no, it wouldn’t be bad... It wouldn’t be bad at all.”

The flier swooped down at her with both lances.

Harper’s cheeks went pink again, but this time she was ready for it.

She grabbed the left lance with her gauntlet, yanked the flier toward her, and pumped a fat surge of lightning straight up the shaft.

BZZZZRT!

The flier’s left thruster exploded in a burst of blue sparks.

KABOOM!

”N-not bad at all,” Harper said breathlessly. ”You should do it more often.”

”I’ll keep that in mind...” Silas said, and she could practically hear the smirk. ”I’ll call more if you do like me doing this.’

’You should do it more often’? Who even says that? She sounded like a teenager... She was a grown woman and a Lord, and she sounded like a teenager.

The flier spun out of control, belching smoke, and Harper jumped up after it, grabbed it by the ankle, and swung it around in a full circle before hurling it straight into the floor.

CRASH!

It burst into a shower of blue light.

”But I actually called because I need a favor,” Silas went on. ”And I figured you were the best person to ask...”

The swordsman came at her next, all four blades whistling through the air in a staggered sequence at her neck, shoulder, ribs and knee.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Harper twisted between every single one of them, her ponytail whipping through the gaps, and drove her elbow back into the construct’s chest.

CLANG!

It rang like a church bell, and the swordsman slid back across the floor, leaving four long scratches in the tiles where his blades dragged behind him.

”What was that?” Silas asked, sounding amused.

”A doorbell...” Harper said.

”You have a doorbell in your gym? What sort of rich people shenanigans is that...?”

”I have everything in my gym, Silas-kun~”

”Of course you do.”

She could hear the fond little sigh in his voice, the one he always made when she was being ridiculous, and she had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from giggling like an idiot in the middle of a fight with a hundred million worth of angry robots.

”A favor?” She asked sweetly. ”Name it... You want a yacht? A private island? An airship with a hot tub on the roof? I can have three of each by lunch...”

”I want to move.” Silas said and Harper blinked.

The executioner’s axe came screaming down at her from the side, and she threw a wall of sand up to block it without even looking.

KRAAAANG!

”Move?” she echoed. ”Move where?”

”Somewhere better,” Silas said. ”Somewhere close to the Academy, in a much nicer neighborhood... Silverleaf was the dream back when I was a kid in the slums, but now that I’m actually living here... I don’t know... I want somewhere Martha can feel proud to come home to... Somewhere with a real garden, and quiet streets, and neighbors who don’t shout at their cars you know.”

He paused, and a soft laugh slipped through the speaker.

”Somewhere you won’t call cheap the second you walk in.”

”I would never~” Harper lied. ”When did I call your house cheap...?”

”Come on, are we forgetting when you and Sera came...? Even before that...?”

”That was a valid question, I wonder why the Lord Of Blessed Land is living as though he’s in poverty... especially when he has a black haired woman that would fly countries for him.”

”Ah, you’re mad about Ev? She saved your life...”

Harper’s shoulders vibrated a bit as she pouted.

”...I know and I’m grateful but still...” Harper muttered as she sighed. ’Why do you two have to be so close...?’

”Anyway,” Silas said, and she could hear him grinning, ”I’m going house hunting, and I need your help... You know this city way better than I do, and I figured a billionaire would know where all the good places are hiding.”

A warm glowing bloom of pure joy unfolded right in the middle of Harper’s chest.

He hadn’t called a real estate agent and he hadn’t called one of his other girls.

...He’d called her.

Out of everyone he knew, out of every rich, powerful, connected person in his contacts, he’d picked her.

He was letting her into his home, into the quiet little life he shared with Martha, and asking her to help him choose where he’d sleep and eat and wake up every morning.

The swordsman lunged at her with all four blades at once and Harper caught one blade in her bare gauntlet and crushed it into powder.

CRUNCH!

”Silas, say no more,” she beamed. ”I’ll buy it~”

She kicked the swordsman’s knee sideways with a sick crack.

KRAK!

”Consider it done,” she went on happily, ducking a backhand. ”I’ll buy out an entire block in the best district in the city... We’ll knock down three mansions and build one big one, with a training hall and an indoor pool and a whole greenhouse for Martha, and a bedroom for you that’s bigger than your entire current apartment. I’ll wire the money right now...”

”No,” Silas said immediately.

”What do you mean, no?”

”I mean no, Harper... I’m paying for it...”

Harper slid between the swordsman’s legs, popped back up behind him, and fired a bolt of lightning straight into his spine.

ZZZAP!

”Why not?” she whined, pouting so hard he could probably hear it through the phone. ”I have more money than some countries! It’s pocket change!”

”Because it’s my house,” Silas said, his voice softening. ”I appreciate it, I really do but I want to buy this one myself... I’ve got more than enough.”

Harper groaned loudly.

”You’re so stubborn,” she complained. ”Do you know how many people would kill to have me offer to buy them a mansion?”

”...Probably a lot.”

”...All of them, Silas... Literally all of them... Mansions are really costly you know.”

”Well,” Silas said, ”I’m not a cheap man.”

Harper opened her mouth to argue and then shut it again, because he had her there and her face was burning again.

The swordsman took advantage of her silence as he swung all four blades down at her head at once in a single crushing chop.

Harper threw up both gauntlets and caught all four of them on the sand.

KRRRSSHH!

The force drove her down onto one knee, and the floor cracked beneath her.

The vibrating edges screeched against her gauntlets, grinding inch by inch toward her face, the sparks spraying across her cheeks.

”Harper?” Silas asked. ”You’ve gone quiet...”

”I’m thinking,” Harper grunted through gritted teeth, her arms shaking as she pushed back against four swords and three times her own body weight.

”About what...? Is there something wrong or...?”

”...About how annoying you are.”

She surged up off her knee and shoved with everything she had.

KRANG!

The four blades flew apart, and the swordsman stumbled back, wide open.

Harper didn’t give him a chance to recover.

She spun on her heel, lightning roaring up her leg until her whole calf glowed violet, and blasted him apart with a lightning-wrapped kick to the head.

KRAKOOM!

Blue dust rained down around her like glittering snow.

”Was that another doorbell?” Silas asked.

”Something like that,” Harper said, brushing the dust off her shoulder with a satisfied little smile.

Only the executioner was left, standing in the swirling blue dust of his fallen comrades with his giant axe resting on his shoulder, watching her.

The executioner lifted his axe off his shoulder, and black energy started crawling up the blade, thick and slow and hungry as the floor around his boots began to crack outward in a spiderweb.

Harper didn’t even look at him.

She landed lightly on her toes, flipped her ponytail, and a smug teasing grin spread across her face.

”Hohoho~” she purred into the phone, her voice thick with aristocratic smugness. ”So you don’t want your billionaire girlfriend to spoil you rotten...?”

The words floated out of her mouth, breezy and confident and perfectly delivered then they hit her own ears as Harper went completely still.

’Wait.’

A cold sweat broke out across her forehead, much colder than the sweat from her workout.

’Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait...’

Every alarm in her head started blaring at once.

’Did I just say... girlfriend...?!’

Her heart dropped straight into her stomach and then shot right back up into her throat.

They weren’t official... They had never been official... Sure, they’d flirted shamelessly for a while.

Sure, they’d kissed under the streetlights in Silverleaf until her knees went weak.

Sure, he trusted her with Blessed Land but Silas had never actually asked her, and she had never actually said yes.

’Did I just overstep?!’ she thought, panic spiraling through her. ’Is he going to think I’m clingy?! Is he going to laugh?! What if he says he only sees me as a friend?! Oh gods, I ruined everything! I just blew up our entire relationship over a house...!’

The line went quiet.

One second passed, then two, then three, and every single one of them felt like an anchor dragging her down to the bottom of the sea.

Harper stood frozen in the middle of the training room, clutching the phone to her ear so hard the case creaked, and waited for the silence to end her.