CHAPTER 171: EX 171. HIGH MEMBER

In her room at the Kael estate, steam still clung faintly to the air. Valeria stepped out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel draped around her neck, droplets sliding down her pale skin and tracing the lines of her lean figure. Her raven-black hair clung wet to her back, strands dripping onto the wooden floor as she rubbed at it with the towel.

On the bed lay a loose house robe she had set out earlier. She slipped it on slowly, the fabric falling baggy over her frame, hiding the strength beneath. The hot shower had been a small mercy, a much-needed release after the brutal work of dismantling the Demon Cult. Her body was clean, but her mind was still restless.

As she pulled the top over her head, her voice broke the silence.

"He’s already surpassed me."

Her tone was calm, and steady, but her chest tightened. On the surface, she had smiled at the dinner table, her composure flawless. Yet in the quiet of her room, the truth pressed harder. She could still see him in her memory, the boy she had met when she was barely five, small and soft-spoken, always looking up at her. That boy had grown into a man who not only stood at her side but had already walked ahead.

Valeria sat on the edge of her bed, towel still in hand, eyes staring into nothing.

"I should be happy," she whispered, forcing a faint smile. "Now I won’t have to worry about him."

But the words rang hollow. She hugged her pillow close, burying her face in it. Her thoughts softened, drifting somewhere between pride and longing.

’I wonder when I’ll see him again.’

Sleep took her quietly, leaving the pillow warm against her cheek.

****

Meanwhile, at the border base, after Leon had sent the letter home to his family, he decided to call for a squad meeting. They would be heading into the trial world soon, and he wanted to gather them himself. There was only one person left to fetch, Elizabeth.

He walked down the hall and stopped at the door of her newly repaired room. A quick knock, and it swung open. Elizabeth stood there, brushing a lock of hair from her face.

"We’ve got a squad meeting in the common area," Leon said simply.

"Alright," she nodded, stepping forward. But as she tried to pass, his arm moved, hand braced against the doorframe, blocking her path.

Elizabeth froze. His eyes were fixed on her, deep and burning with unspoken heat. "Lizzie," he said, voice low.

Her cheeks lit crimson. Her heart hammered as wild thoughts raced through her mind. For a breathless moment, she swore he was about to pull her close, to do something reckless, something she wasn’t sure she could resist.

But then,

Leon smirked. A mischievous spark flickered in his gaze. as he thought

’Got you.’

He chuckled to himself, remembering how he had pulled the same stunt on Nikko earlier. Twice in one day, and it still amused him.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," he thought, savoring her fluster. "There’ll be more in the future."

Aloud, he leaned closer and asked, "Lizzie, why don’t you tell me about the cult?"

Her face, once burning with imagined fantasies, cooled instantly. A sharp exhale escaped her nose, her expression twisting into annoyance.

’This jerk... led me on.’

****

Elizabeth had finally calmed herself, though a faint heat still lingered in her chest from Leon’s earlier teasing. Instead of snapping back, she decided to drop something else on him, a truth that would no doubt rattle him more than any of her anger could. Leon had a cult. Or, if one wanted to put it in less disturbing terms, a fan club. A growing circle of soldiers had begun idolizing him, treating him like a living legend, like some military celebrity.

And who could blame them? Leon had shattered record after record, his name etched into the Federation’s hall of fame as if it belonged there since the beginning. In a world where strength was valued the way fish valued water, it was only natural that someone like him would become a symbol. But for Leon himself, the revelation landed with the force of a hammer.

"But Lizzie... who formed this fan club?" he asked, a frown cutting across his face. He couldn’t bring himself to call it a cult, the word felt heavy. "Fan club" sat better on his tongue.

Elizabeth only shook her head, keeping her voice casual. "I don’t know. Are you forgetting I just got here?"

With that, she brushed past him, walking toward the common area where the meeting was to be held. Leon watched her go, uncertainty stirring in his chest. Is she still angry that I teased her? he wondered as he followed after her.

But the truth was far from his suspicion. Elizabeth hadn’t walked away because she was upset. No, her reason carried a far sharper edge. She already knew far too much about this so-called cult, because she wasn’t just aware of it... she was one of its high-ranking members. That secret weighed on her, and it was one she could never let Leon discover. ’He should never find out,’ she thought as her lips pressed into a subtle line. ’If he does, I’ll never hear the end of it.’

By the time the tension of their private moment faded, Unit 1 had already gathered. Nikko stood with her usual regal stillness, Adrian with his quiet, smoldering determination, and Eden with his easy calm. Elizabeth took her place among them as Leon stepped forward.

"Alright," Leon said, his voice steady, carrying enough weight to quiet the room. "Let the last meeting before the summoning begin."

****

The chamber was silent except for the faint hum of the restraints embedded into its walls. It smelled of iron and stale air, a place meant not for living but for containing. On the bed in the corner, a girl lay curled on her side, her chest rising and falling with the shallow rhythm of fragile sleep. Her hair, once a proud shade of blond, was a tangled mess, dirtied and matted, strands sticking across her face. Life had not been kind to her; it had chewed her up and spat her back out, leaving her hollow.

Even in slumber, the bruises on her skin told a story no one wanted to hear. But right now, none of that mattered. In her sleep, there was quiet. A fragile escape. A world where the chains didn’t exist, and the walls couldn’t close in.

Then, the stillness cracked.

Her body twitched, a sharp inhale cutting through the silence. Her lips parted as though the air itself had grown heavy. Slowly, her eyes snapped open, wide, and alert. The dull gray they once held was gone, replaced with an unnatural glow. Dark blue light pooled in her gaze, shimmering like a storm caught behind glass.