*Click!*
The heavy wooden door shut, locking the Blood Princess inside her dark bedroom.
Rias stood in the empty, hallway. For three full seconds, he didn't move a single muscle. He kept his back perfectly straight, his chin raised, and his expression completely blank. He waited just in case Amyra was watching him through a hidden peephole.
When he was absolutely sure he was alone, Rias turned the corner.
The moment he was out of sight, his flawless posture collapsed.
Rias leaned his shoulder against the cold marble wall and let out a long, shaky breath. He closed his eyes, his chest heaving as the adrenaline finally crashed out of his system.
'Deception deactivated,' Rias commanded in his mind.
The skill instantly wore off. The cold, calculating mask he had worn for the past hour vanished, leaving behind a massive, throbbing headache. His mind felt like it had been stretched over a hot fire.
He reached up and wiped a thin layer of cold sweat from his forehead.
'Damn,' Rias thought, his heart hammering against his ribs now that he didn't have to suppress it.
'She is truly terrifying. She really is a damn villainess.'
Reading about Amyra Celestia on a glowing monitor was one thing. Standing in her bedroom, pinned to a mattress while she whispered death threats into his ear, was a completely different reality.
She wasn't just cruel. She was incredibly smart. She knew exactly how to break a person down. She used the environment, her physical strength, and her venomous words to create a suffocating trap. She wanted to strip him of his pride and reduce him to a crying mess.
If he didn't have his System... if he didn't have the [Deception] skill forcing his mind to stay calm... her words would have absolutely crushed him. A normal fifteen-year-old boy would have been discouraged, broken, and completely submitted to her will.
'She showed me exactly where I stand in this empire,' Rias mused, opening his eyes and pushing himself off the wall.
'I am a hostage. But I managed to make her doubt herself. I survived round one.'
He pushed the lingering fear to the back of his mind. He couldn't afford to look weak now. He needed to find his room and get out of the open hallways.
Rias walked down the long corridor, his boots clicking softly against the floor. He eventually spotted a young servant carrying a silver tray of fresh towels.
The servant stopped dead in his tracks the moment he saw Rias. The man's eyes widened, recognizing the dark blue coat and the blonde hair of the Leonhart envoy. He looked like he had just seen a ghost.
"You there," Rias said, keeping his voice perfectly level.
"Direct me to my quarters."
"Y-Yes, My Lord! Right away!" the servant stammered, bowing so low his nose almost touched his knees.
The servant didn't dare to make eye contact. He quickly turned and practically ran down the hall, checking over his shoulder every few seconds to make sure the "monster" was following him.
They walked in silence for several minutes, moving away from the central throne room and into a secluded, quiet wing of the massive crystal palace. Finally, the servant stopped in front of a pair of elegant white doors decorated with silver leaves.
"T-These are your chambers, Lord Leonhart," the servant whispered, pointing a trembling finger at the handle.
"Thank you. You may leave," Rias said gently.
The servant didn't need to be told twice. He sprinted down the hallway, desperate to get away from the son of the devil.
Rias ignored the fleeing man and pushed the white doors open.
He stepped inside and quickly locked the door behind him. He walked through a small, luxurious sitting area and into the main bedroom. The room was massive, featuring a huge balcony overlooking the glowing city of Erzel.
But Rias didn't care about the view right now.
He shrugged off his heavy coat and threw it onto a nearby chair. He sat on the edge of the massive, Soft bed and kicked off his leather boots.
He sank backward, falling flat onto the mattress.
"Finally... it is the end of the day," Rias muttered to the empty ceiling.
He was safe. The door was locked. The Emperor had accepted his presence, and the Princess was currently second-guessing her own traps. For the first time since he woke up in this brutal world, he had a moment to actually breathe without a knife pointed at his back.
And right on cue, the world tilted.
[Ding!]
Suddenly, the System message rang.
Rias's exhaustion vanished instantly. A massive grin spread across his face as he sat up.
[System Notification: Main Quest Completed!]
[Main Quest: The Wolf in the Lion's Skin]
[Objective 1: Survive the journey to the Velmer Empire. (Completed)]
[Objective 2: Establish a foothold in the Imperial Court. (Completed)]
[Objective 3: Survive your first encounter with your betrothed. (Completed)]
[Calculating Rewards...]
[Ding! Congratulations! You have successfully deceived the Emperor and survived the Blood Princess! You have secured your place in the enemy territory!]
[Rewards Distributed!]
[System Shop Unlocked!]
[1x Random Mythic-Tier Weapon added to Inventory!]
[10,000 EXP Granted!]
Rias stared at the massive number on the screen.
Ten thousand Experience Points.
During the carriage ambush on the road, killing a Silver-level assassin only gave him one hundred EXP. He had fought for his life just to scrape together enough points to break through the Bronze tier.
Now, the System was dropping an ocean of EXP directly into his core.
[Ding! Experience Threshold Reached!]
[Initiating Breakthrough!...]
BOOOOM!
Before Rias could even brace himself, a massive shockwave of pure energy erupted from his chest.
The ambient mana in the luxurious bedroom went completely wild. The heavy silk curtains whipped around as if caught in a hurricane. Rias's body began to float a few inches off the mattress, suspended by the sheer density of the power rushing into his veins.
His [Celestial Void Breathing Art] activated automatically, pushing itself to the absolute limit. It dragged every single drop of mana from the surrounding air, funneling it directly into his lungs like a roaring whirlpool.
[Ding! You have leveled up! You have reached Silver Lv. 2!]
The pain was nonexistent. This wasn't the agonizing purification he had suffered in the Duke's estate. This was pure, unadulterated growth.
His muscles tore and rebuilt themselves in the span of a single heartbeat. His bones hardened, becoming denser than solid steel. The flow of mana in his body widened from a narrow stream into a raging river.
[Ding! You have leveled up! You have reached Silver Lv. 3!]
[Ding! You have leveled up! You have reached Silver Lv. 4!]
Rias threw his head back, a breathless, manic laugh escaping his lips.
The power was intoxicating. He could feel his physical limits expanding rapidly. If he punched a stone wall right now, the wall would shatter into dust. He could hear the faint footsteps of the palace guards patrolling three floors below him.
[Ding! You have leveled up! You have reached Silver Lv. 5!]
[Ding! You have leveled up! You have reached Silver Lv. 6!]
The blue light in the room grew brighter and brighter, practically blinding him. The energy swirling around his body began to compress, packing itself tightly into his core.
In the mortal world, breaking through a single level of the Silver tier usually took years of brutal training, life-threatening combat, and expensive potions. A genius might cross a level in six months.
Rias was shattering those rules into a million pieces. He was doing what no one in this entire universe had ever done before. He was completely bypassing the natural order of the world.
[Ding! You have leveled up! You have reached Silver Lv. 7!]
[Ding! You have leveled up! You have reached Silver Lv. 8!]
[Experience Pool Exhausted. Breakthrough Complete.]
Rias slowly dropped back down onto the mattress.
The wind in the room instantly died down. The silk curtains stopped moving. The blinding blue light faded into a soft, steady hum.
Rias lay on the bed, staring at his hands. He slowly clenched his fists.
The air actually popped under the pressure of his grip.
"Silver Level Eight," Rias whispered, his voice trembling slightly with pure excitement.
He had jumped from the very bottom of the Silver tier all the way to the absolute peak in a matter of seconds. He was just a few step away from reaching the Gold tier.
If Lucien tried to intimidate him with his aura now, Rias wouldn't just ignore it. He could actively crush his older brother's aura just by staring at him. He was no longer the weakest piece on the board. He had actual strength.
"I am quite strong now," Rias chuckled softly to himself.
He took a deep breath, letting the newly compressed mana settle into his core.
He dismissed the level-up notifications with a wave of his hand.
[You have 1 Unopened Reward Box in your Inventory.]
Rias's eyes locked onto the prompt.
The Mythic-tier weapon.
In the novel he wrote, Mythic weapons were items of legend. They were artifacts forged by ancient gods or born from the core of dying dragons. Entire kingdoms went to war just to claim a single Mythic sword. The Emperor of Velmer likely possessed one in his secret vault, guarded by an army.
And the System had just handed one to Rias for surviving his first day.
"Open it," Rias commanded without hesitation.
[Ding! Opening Random Mythic-Tier Weapon Box...]
A massive, ornate treasure chest materialized in the air above the bed. It wasn't gold like the First-Time Login Gift. This chest was made of pure, pitch-black obsidian, wrapped in heavy chains of glowing purple energy.
The chest shook violently. Something incredibly powerful was trapped inside, desperate to get out.
*CRACK!*
The purple chains shattered. The lid of the obsidian chest blew open.
Instantly, all the light in the bedroom was sucked away.
It was as if someone had snuffed out the sun. The room plunged into absolute, suffocating darkness. Rias couldn't even see his own hands. The shadows in the corners of the room seemed to stretch and twist, drawn toward the center of the bed like water draining down a pipe.
Slowly, the item floated out of the chest.
It was a sword.
But it didn't look like any weapon forged by human hands. The blade was completely pitch-black. It didn't reflect any light; it absorbed it. Staring at the flat of the blade felt like staring into a bottomless abyss. The hilt was wrapped in dark, scaled leather, and the crossguard was shaped like two spreading dragon wings.
[Ding! Congratulations! You have received the Mythic-Tier Weapon: The Abyssal Blade, 'Eclipse'!]
[Item: Eclipse (Bound to Soul)]
[Tier: Mythic]
[Description: A blade forged from the crushed core of a dying star. It possesses no elemental affinity. Instead, it devours all magic it touches. Any mana-based attack struck by this blade will be instantly negated and absorbed to heal the Host. It is completely weightless to the wielder, but strikes with the force of a falling meteor.]
Rias reached out into the darkness.
His fingers wrapped around the dark leather hilt.
The moment his skin touched the weapon, a shockwave of cold, silent energy rippled through the room. The absolute darkness instantly receded, returning the normal light to the bedroom.
Rias held the sword in front of his face.
It was perfectly balanced. Despite looking like a heavy, two-handed broadsword, it felt as light as a feather in his grip. He gave it a casual swing.
*Swoosh~*
The blade cut through the air without making a sound. It didn't even disturb the wind. It simply erased the space it passed through.
Rias stared at the pitch-black metal, a wild, dangerous smile spreading across his face.
He was trapped in the enemy capital. He was surrounded by nobles who hated him. He was engaged to a Princess who wanted to torture him to death.
But as he looked at the Mythic weapon in his hand, he didn't have to live with fear anymore.