"Oh, you noticed?" Benjamin’s face lit up with a bright, childish smile, the sa one he might have worn if soone had complinted his new shoes. "I think I got...uh..."
{Answer: Master has grown up to 10 tis the power he had at that ti.}
[Thanks, General Sys!]
"Yes," he continued without missing a beat, still smiling as though announcing the weather, "I grew ten tis more powerful than I was then. And I’m an arch human now."
He said it with the casual pride of a child showing off a shiny new toy he’d just bought at the biggest store in town, not simply just boasting, but flashing genuine delight.
However, the words landed on Dynamis like a Warhamr wrapped in cotton.
She understood from that naïve smile of his: Benjamin was not lying to her.
She made sure not to flinch outwardly. Her face remained composed and her dark eyes steady.
But inside... calculations began racing at frantic speed.
[What?! Is this lad deceiving or not? Ten tis? In one week? And he can’t possibly have reached Arch Human so quickly! That threshold normally demands nearly twenty brutal years of relentless training, countless life-and-death encounters, spiritual refinent, and the slow accumulation of insight that only cos from surviving what should have killed you a hundred tis over... Then what happens if he actually passes through those sa encounters? What kind of monster does he beco in another year, or five?]
Her mind spun through branching futures: alliances and betrayals, territorial borders redrawn in blood, the fragile balance between Goliathens and the surrounding powers suddenly tilting toward this unknown variable wearing a friendly smile and playing with a fairy queen’s braids.
After several long seconds of silence—seconds in which the only sound was the soft rustle of Titania’s wings and the dull creak of Benjamin’s new trousers as he shifted slightly—Dynamis reached a conclusion.
She turned her head deliberately toward the petite silver-haired queen still perched sideways across Benjamin’s lap, his fingers idly twirling one of her twin braids like they were newlyweds.
"Tyta," she said, voice low and final, "I want to make a demand."
"Hm? What is it?" Titania spared her only the briefest glance, far more interested in nestling deeper against Benjamin’s chest, her cheek pressed to the soft grey knit of his shirt.
"I would like to take the god-touched to Goliathens too."
"Nope. Not happening." Titania didn’t even lift her head.
She simply snuggled closer, her small hands curling into the fabric over his heart as though claiming territory.
Dynamis’s lips curved, the tiniest possible smile, so faint and fleeting that most people would have missed it entirely.
"I assud you would say that," she murmured, the smile already gone. "But I wonder... who would kill you first? Sakura... or Elara?"
Titania’s entire body went rigid.
Her rainbow wings snapped halfway open in alarm before folding tight against her back again.
"What is that supposed to an, Dyna?" she demanded, her violet eyes narrowing into dangerous slits as she finally lifted her head to glare properly at the ogre princess.
"You underestimate my intelligence-gathering abilities, Tyna," Dynamis replied softly and gently, the way one might correct a child who had reached for sothing forbidden. "I know you tried to steal him from Elara... but got outsmarted by Sakura. Then you switched targets and began aiming to steal him from her instead."
"Huh?! Y... You really knew that?!" Titania’s voice cracked into a high, panicked whine. "Wait, please, don’t tell either of them!"
But Benjamin only tilted his head, still smiling that sa easy, sunny smile, and said:
"She’s lying, Tania."
Titania’s neck snapped around so fast her braids whipped Benjamin’s cheek. She stared up at him with wide, shocked eyes.
"No way! You deceived ?" she asked Dynamis, voice trembling between anger and surprise.
Dynamis unfolded her massive arms and crossed them again beneath her chest, the motion making the spotted hide shift and the golden bands on her wrists clink softly.
"I hit the nail on the head, it seems," she said calmly. "I promise you, Tyna, I will tell Sakura that you took him away from under her nose. And I will tell Elara that you are in full compliance with the Beast Kingdom, conspiring to take her beloved weapon away from her grasp... And I’ll pray to Goddess Athena herself to carry word to Goddess Elyndor, since you apparently still maintain contact with Chröma despite everything."
Titania’s mouth fell open.
Then her small fists began pounding ineffectually against Benjamin’s chest.
"Geeeeeeeeeeeeez!! Just how much dirt do you have on ?!" she wailed, thrashing on his lap like an angry kitten, her eyes rapidly gathering tears that shimred along her lower lashes. "Fine! Don’t tell any of them anything. I’ll cooperate."
"What? Tania?!" Benjamin’s voice rose in genuine shock. His hands instinctively tightened around her waist to keep her from slipping off in her squirming. "You’re selling out?"
Titania froze mid-thrash and, very slowly, she lifted her tear-filled eyes to et his.
"N-Not that," she whispered, voice small and miserable. "I’m just... washing my hands off a really troubleso matter here."
She continued explaining, her voice pitching higher with each frantic word as she clutched tighter at the front of Benjamin’s grey shirt, her small fingers twisting the soft knit like it was the only thing keeping her grounded.
"Elara has been warning for centuries to stop ssing with her, but since she refuses to ever play with or even show up to my tea parties—unlike how she did when she was still a cute little thing, way back when—I can’t help myself! It’s like she’s daring to do sothing!"
The mischievous fairy’s rainbow wings fluttered erratically behind her, scattering faint prisms of light across Benjamin’s lap and the couch cushions.
"And that Sakura... She is a very dangerous and tricky woman," she went on, voice dropping to a dramatic whisper. "She might make do sothing truly horrible if she ever found out I ddled with her precious things... again. She had even been one of the most massive pain in the rear to Lucifer himself during the last war! If she can annoy him that much, imagine what she’d do to little old !"
"And Elyndor..." Titania’s voice cracked, eyes going wide with exaggerated fear. "Elyndor is super scary. If you ss with her even a little, she’ll put you inside this horrible dinsion that feels like eternity stretched across one single second! Ti itself becos your prison! If she finds out I’m still working with Chröma, she’ll seal away... again. probably for another few millennia this ti!"
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