Are Beast Nobles Supposed to Be This Lewd?

A crystal hovered above the center of the lake. It was enormous. Long and narrow, tapering toward both ends, with irregular facets.

It didn’t touch the water.

It simply floated there.

Light radiated from somewhere deep within it.

White at its center. More transparent toward its edges. The light soft enough that Mirabelle could look directly at it, yet powerful enough to illuminate the entire clearing.

Its glow touched the surrounding trunks.

Caught in droplets of water.

Turned the mist between the trees silver.

And beneath it, the lake reflected the crystal so perfectly that it looked as though there were two of them. One suspended above the water. One descending endlessly beneath it.

Like a moon hanging in a place where sunlight had never been meant to reach.

Mirabelle stood between the ferns, unable to move. Inside her, the black current seemed suddenly vast.

She didn’t need Pebbles to tell her.

She didn’t need a system notification.

She knew.

She had found the Territory Core.

But what now?

Mirabelle looked around somewhat helplessly.

Nothing happened.

The lake remained perfectly still.

The enormous crystal continued to hover above its center, bathing the clearing in its pale, moonlike glow.

No voice welcomed her.

No mysterious spirit appeared to explain what she was supposed to do.

Mirabelle lifted her hand. The heavy signet ring gleamed on her little finger. She turned her hand slightly, studying it from different angles.

Nothing.

The gold remained gold. The engraved seal of Luchsenstein looked exactly as it had before.

No glow. No warmth beyond what she’d already grown accustomed to. No helpful arrow pointing toward the next step.

Mirabelle lowered her hand again.

Then she reached inward.vThe strange black current was still there.

But it had changed. It no longer flowed.

The vast stream that had guided her through the forest had become completely still, as though whatever destination it had been leading her toward...

She had reached it.

"Pebbles?"

Mirabelle waited.

Nothing.

Her brows drew together.

"Pebbles?"

Still nothing.

No puff of smoke.

No tiny floating octopus.

Not even an offended voice complaining that she was being impatient.

Mirabelle blinked. That was unusual...

Then she remembered.

<I have no influence over this. It’s entirely on you.>

Right.

Pebbles had warned her.

Whatever this place was, whatever the Territory Core was about to demand from her, the little system spirit couldn’t help her here.

Mirabelle looked back toward the enormous crystal hovering above the lake.

For once, there would be no Pebbles.

No system explanation.

No convenient blue window telling her what to do next.

This was entirely on her.

Right.

So this was definitely where she was supposed to be. That still didn’t tell her what she was supposed to do.

Her mother’s words returned to her.

<You’ll place your hand upon it.>

Mirabelle stared across the water.

So...

She had to touch the stone?

A faint unease settled in her stomach. Because apparently she’d developed at least some survival instincts since arriving in this world, and touching enormous glowing magical objects without knowing what they did seemed like an objectively terrible idea.

Especially ancient glowing magical objects.

Especially ones floating above perfectly motionless lakes in forests that appeared to be alive.

What if touching it did something?

Something irreversible.

What if she woke something?

Released something?

Started something she couldn’t stop?

The thought sent a cold little shiver along her spine. Mirabelle remained where she was for several seconds, staring at the crystal.

Then she exhaled slowly.

There didn’t appear to be another option.

She had come here for the Territory Core.

And she had found the Territory Core.

And — according to her mother — she needed to touch it.

Mirabelle swallowed.

"Alright."

Her voice sounded strangely small in the luminous clearing. She stepped toward the lake.

The closer Mirabelle came to the crystal, the more something about it bothered her.

Not in a frightening way. It was familiarity.

She slowed. The light wasn’t perfectly constant.

It pulsed. So faintly that she hadn’t noticed it from the edge of the clearing, but now she could see the rhythm within the pale blue-white glow.

Almost like a heartbeat.

And with every pulse, something moved through the air. Mirabelle felt it against her skin more than she heard it. A deep, almost imperceptible vibration that passed through her body and seemed to continue into the earth beneath her bare feet.

She knew this. Her steps came to a stop. Directly befor the water.

Mirabelle stared at the enormous crystal.

The light within it. That strange sensation of concentrated power.

And suddenly —

It clicked.

"A Beast Core..."

The words escaped her before she’d consciously formed them. Her eyes widened.

Of course. She had seen Beast Cores before.

Not like this. Never remotely like this.

But with that realization came a strange certainty that settled somewhere deeper than logic.

This was a Beast Core.

Mirabelle slowly tilted her head back. The sheer size of it made the thought almost ridiculous.

If this really was a Beast Core...

What kind of creature had it belonged to?

Her gaze traveled along the enormous crystalline structure hovering above the perfectly still water.

Something ancient? Something that had lived here before Luchsenstein had existed?

Before her bloodline? Before the kingdoms whose borders now divided the continent?

A chill traveled over her skin that had nothing to do with the cool air.

How powerful would a Beast have needed to become for its Core to look like this? Mirabelle couldn’t even imagine it.

Perhaps...

Her gaze wandered toward the colossal trees surrounding the clearing.

Perhaps whatever creature had left this Core behind had once watched over these lands.

And when its body had died, its Core had remained.

Centuries passed.

Perhaps millennia.

Roots had spread around it.

Forests had grown.

Generations of creatures had lived and died above the same earth.

Until eventually the Core had become part of the land itself. Or perhaps the land had become part of it?

Mirabelle thought of the presence she’d felt earlier. The sensation that the entire forest was watching her. One enormous living being composed of trillions of smaller pieces.

Her attention returned to the crystal.

The thought should have seemed absurd.

Instead, something deep inside her simply...

knew.

This was a Beast Core.

An unimaginably old Beast Core. The remnant of something so powerful that Mirabelle had no frame of reference for what it must once have been.

And after all this time...

It was still watching over Luchsenstein.

"Incredible," she whispered.

Then Mirabelle carefully stepped into the lake. Her foot broke through the perfectly still surface.

A single narrow ripple spread outward from the point where her skin entered the water, traveling farther and farther across the lake until the flawless reflection of the Beast Core fractured.

The second crystal beneath the surface disappeared into trembling lines of pale blue and white.

Mirabelle sucked in a breath.

Cold crawled up her leg. For a heartbeat, it felt as though she’d stepped directly into ice water.

Except it didn’t hurt. There was no painful sting, no instinctive need to pull her foot back.

Instead, the cold carried a strange freshness with it. Almost like biting into fresh mint and feeling that impossible coolness spread through her mouth and into every breath afterward.

Mirabelle’s jaw tightened instinctively.Then she brought her other foot forward. More ripples spread across the lake.

The strange coldness climbed higher. Mirabelle continued until she stood completely within the water. And the sensation spread through her entire body.

Her skin prickled.

A shiver traveled along her spine.

Then...

Her jaw relaxed.

Mirabelle blinked.

She hadn’t told herself to relax it.

It simply happened.

The tension disappeared from the muscles around her mouth, then from her neck.

Her shoulders lowered. Something loosened along her spine. The faint ache in her lower back vanished. So did the tightness between her shoulder blades.

One sensation after another disappeared before Mirabelle even had time to realize it had been there. She stood completely still.

The lynx female hadn’t known how much tension her body was carrying. Small discomforts she’d apparently grown so accustomed to that her mind had simply stopped acknowledging them were dissolving one after another.

And it wasn’t only her body.

Something inside her head seemed to clear.

The exhaustion from the previous day.

The lingering heaviness from too little rest and too many thoughts.

The constant background noise of plans, responsibilities, questions, worries—

Gone.

Suddenly there seemed to be space between the thoughts. Her mind felt sharp. Awake.

Mirabelle inhaled deeply. Even breathing felt easier. The cool, damp air filled her lungs until she felt as though she’d somehow never taken a complete breath before.

Energy spread through her limbs.

This felt different. As though every part of her body had been returned to exactly the state it was supposed to be in.

Mirabelle stared down at herself in fascination.

Her hands caught her attention. There had always been tiny scars there. Nothing significant.

Fine, pale marks scattered across her fingers and the backs of her hands, so subtle that Mirabelle hadn’t even noticed them immediately after waking in this body. Later, she’d simply dismissed them.

A Beast pup growing up in a world filled with forests, climbing, claws, rough games, and considerably fewer concerns about childproofing was bound to collect a few scars.

Mirabelle lifted one hand. A thin line crossed the skin near one of her knuckles.

She watched it. The scar began to shimmer.

Mirabelle’s breath caught. A faint pale-blue light traced the old mark. For several seconds, it glowed beneath her skin. Then the line grew thinner. Fainter.

Until... it disappeared.

Mirabelle brought her hand closer to her face.

Nothing remained. Not even the faintest discoloration.

Tiny remnants of injuries Mirabelle herself couldn’t even remember receiving lit up across her hands like delicate threads of light.

One by one...

They vanished.

Her skin became smooth beneath them, as though the injuries that had created those marks had never happened at all.

It was as though the water were healing her.

Energizing her.

Step by step, Mirabelle walked deeper into the lake, and with every movement, she felt lighter.

The world seemed to grow clearer around her.

Colors became sharper. Sounds more distinct. Even her own thoughts felt brighter, no longer weighed down by exhaustion or tension she hadn’t realized she’d been carrying.

Then she stood directly before the Core.

Up close, it seemed even more immense, its pale light washing over her skin with every slow pulse.

Mirabelle no longer hesitated.

She raised her hand. And pressed her palm against the smooth crystal.

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