Stefan’s POV

"Oh my my..." The words tumbled out of my mouth as I stared at what was inside it for a long moment before my brain finally caught up with my eyes.

Currency.

A pile of it, more than I’d seen in one place since I died, coins and small ingots stamped with markings I didn’t recognize but understood on some primal, lizard-brain level anyway. Wealth was wealth, whatever planet you died on. I reached out and ran my fingers through it slowly, letting the weight of it settle into my palm, cool and solid and undeniably real.

"How much is that?" I said out loud, voice tighter than I meant it to sound.

[One million, In the planet’s standard currency.] The system replied.

A short, disbeliving laugh escaped from my mouth, the sound bouncing off the gold walls around me. "You’re kidding me, right?"

I thought it was a joke. Because this system... My system had been anything but a generous giver. I meant, gifting money hadn’t been in the contract. Or was I the one who didn’t get the memo.

[An Incubus does not lack the means to provide for his women. ] [Wealth is expected of him. Riches are earned, not merely gifted.] The system said, calm as ever, like it was reciting something out of a manual I had never once been handed.

"Well, then I’d say this was worth every second of nearly drowning." I said, grinning down at the chest like it might vanish the second I blinked too long.

I reached out and accepted it properly, and the whole chest shimmered once before settling solid onto the bed beside me, real, tangible, mine in a way nothing else on this planet had felt yet.

[Miracle Authority updated.]

I checked the number fast, greedy for it, some part of me half convinced it would disappoint. 128 out of 100. I stared at that for a second, somehow confused by the math, before the next line cleared it up for me.

[Miracle Shop permanently unlocked.]

I let out a long breath of relief at that, some tight coil in my chest finally easing loose after weeks of dragging it around unnoticed. No more borrowing against a debt I couldn’t repay. No more begging the system for temporary access on credit I’d sworn I’d somehow make good on. Real, standing power now, earned instead of leased.

I pulled up the shop fast, hunting straight past everything else for the one item that actually mattered.

Life Ember — 2,400 AP.

I checked my own total. 1,580 AP.

I frowned hard at the gap between those two numbers, running the subtraction twice just to be sure I hadn’t miscounted somewhere. Eight hundred and twenty short, give or take, and only two sunsets left before Belladonna decided I’d wasted her patience one time too many.

"Can I convert some of this currency," I asked, gesturing at the chest, "into AP? Just this once?"

[Not applicable,] the system said. [Currency and Anguish Points do not share an exchange. Host must earn AP through effort.]

I groaned and pulled up my daily tasks instead, scanning down the list, groaning louder when I reached the bottom of it. Push-ups. Fruit fasts with small, forgettable rewards attached to every single one, pocket change compared to what I actually needed.

"Give me something worth actually doing," I said, dragging a hand down my face. "Please. I’m begging you."

Yeah, I would rather beg this system of mine than appearing as a failure before Belladonna and the Queen.

The door opened before the system could answer, and Kara stepped in, in her deliberate unhurried steps, her arms loose at her sides, that same knowing look on her face she’d worn since walking out of Belladonna’s chambers.

"General’s done. Sorted." she said, flat, already crossing toward the bed.

I sat up straighter. "And?"

"You are ready for me now." she said, not really a question, more a demand dressed up as one.

I grinned. "Ask me anything. I’m yours."

Kara’s eyes narrowed, unimpressed. "You better be. I did a thing I would never do, not for anybody, not on any regular day." She jabbed a finger toward my chest. "For you."

"You don’t have to keep telling me how impressive it was," I said, laughing. "Just say what you want already."

"I want you smuggled out. Out of this palace. Into my home. Where I learn everything, properly, alone, with nobody watching." Kara said, blunt as ever, no softness dressing up the words at all.

I blinked, caught off guard by the flatness of it, though the surprise came laced with something closer to excitement than hesitation. A private lesson with a noblewoman, tucked away from every prying eye in this palace, sounded exactly like the kind of trouble I’d been built for back on earth.

"I’ve got something to finish first," I told her.

Kara’s eyes narrowed further. "What thing?" She asked sharply.

That woman was so impolite.

"My work," I said, deliberately vague, though in my head it was crystal clear enough. Belladonna’s Flowers, still lying somewhere between life and nothing, still owed a healing I hadn’t managed to buy yet.

"Are you telling the Queen?" Kara said, sharper now, alarm cutting straight through the flatness of her voice.

"No."

"She shouldn’t know." Kara’s tone dropped low, urgent, cutting off whatever I might have said next. "Not this. Not any of it."

"She won’t," I promised. "I just need to finish what I started before I let you do whatever you want with me. Wait."

Kara studied me a long moment, jaw set, then gave one short nod, some of the stiffness draining out of her shoulders.

The system chimed the second she settled.

[Special mission available. Host may accept immediately.]

I smirked at the empty air. "Is it your birthday or something? You’re being awfully generous today."

The system ignored that entirely.

[INCUBUS ASCENSION — Development Arc]

Purpose: An Incubus’s body is built to perfection.

Mission: Complete two hours of training exercise with Jonquil.

Reward: 3,500 AP.

Penalty: None.

I winced just reading it. Two hours? My body still remembered the exact humiliation of failing at ten measly push-ups in front of an empty camp.

[Host may decline,] The system offered smugly. Definitely knew I wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation.

I stared at the number again. Three thousand five hundred? More than enough to close the gap on that life ember, with plenty left over. With that, I could buy two life ember and heal the two won over Flowers at the same time.

But how would I suffer a two-hour training exercise with Jonquil?

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