Eren stared at Elena.
For a moment, he wondered whether he had heard her correctly.
"Your chest," she repeated, her pale-blue eyes avoiding his. "I would like to sleep on your chest, Master. If you don’t mind."
’What?’
He glanced at the space beside him, then back at her. Nothing about her expression suggested she was joking. If anything, she looked slightly embarrassed by her own request, though she was doing a remarkable job of concealing it.
Eren had expected her to ask for a blanket or perhaps complain about the cold. He certainly hadn’t anticipated this.
"Is there a reason?" He asked.
Elena hesitated.
"It’s been a long time since I’ve slept peacefully."
Her answer caught him off guard.
For someone who had lived through the Great War, witnessed the destruction of an entire city, and carried the burden of being remembered as a traitor, perhaps peace was something she had long since stopped expecting.
Eren didn’t know what to say to that.
He had only known Elena for a short time, and although he possessed access to her status and skills, those things told him little about what she had endured. Knowing a person’s abilities was not the same as understanding their heart.
Besides, she wasn’t asking him to fight a monster or use his authority as her summoner. She was simply asking for somewhere she could rest.
"Fine," he said, shifting slightly to make himself more comfortable. "But don’t blame me if you find it uncomfortable."
A faint smile appeared on Elena’s face.
"Thank you, Master."
She moved closer and carefully rested her head against his chest. Her silver-blue hair spread across his shirt, and the faint chill that usually accompanied her presence gradually faded as she settled into his arms.
Eren stiffened.
He had no idea what he was supposed to do with his hands.
Should he place one around her shoulders? Would that be too much? Or should he simply lie there and pretend nothing unusual was happening?
After several seconds of awkward hesitation, he settled on the last option.
’Just act natural. It’s not that complicated.’
Unfortunately, telling himself to act natural only made him more conscious of every little movement.
Elena, however, seemed perfectly content.
She adjusted her position slightly, letting out a quiet breath before closing her eyes. The tension that usually rested in her face began to disappear, and her breathing slowly became steady.
It didn’t take long before she fell asleep.
Eren looked down at her with surprised eyes.
"Seriously?"
There was no response to that, as she was already fast asleep, her head resting comfortably against his chest as though she had found the most natural place in the world to rest.
He couldn’t help but smile faintly.
’And here I thought she would be the difficult one.’
Of course, he knew better than to mistake her quiet nature for weakness. Elena Snow was one of the legendary figures of the Great War, a woman whose magic had once been powerful enough to freeze an entire battlefield. The fact that she was currently sleeping peacefully against him didn’t change that.
Still, it was strange.
Less than a day ago, he had been standing in the middle of a barren wasteland, wondering whether he would survive his first night in the Dominion Expanse. His territory had been nothing more than a patch of dead land with a makeshift shelter, almost no supplies, and no reliable source of food or water.
Now, he had ten F-Rank spirits, three extraordinary women whose names belonged in history books, a shelter that had survived its first monster attack, and enough frozen wolf meat to provide food for some time.
He had even killed a Tier 3 Ashfang Wolf himself.
Eren glanced toward the entrance of the shelter.
The memory of that battle returned with uncomfortable clarity. The wolf had been stronger than the others, its jaws capable of tearing through flesh and bone. His knife had barely been enough to hurt it, and there had been a moment when he had genuinely believed he might die.
If the creature had been a little faster, or if he had failed to notice its injured leg, the outcome might have been very different.
He had won, but that didn’t mean he was ready for the next threat.
The Dominion Expanse was enormous, and the Ashen Frontier was only a small part of it. If a pack of eleven wolves could threaten his settlement on the first day, he could hardly imagine what might happen when stronger monsters appeared.
And they would appear.
He couldn’t depend on luck forever.
His territory needed stronger defenses, reliable food and water, and a proper shelter. Eventually, he would need a wall, storage facilities, farms, and enough people to turn the place into something resembling a real settlement.
The ten F-Rank spirits were a good beginning, but they couldn’t do everything at once. The fighters needed weapons and proper leveling. The builders needed materials. The farmer needed suitable land, and the healer needed supplies.
Then there were the three Calamities.
Eren lowered his gaze toward Elena again.
He still couldn’t fully comprehend what he had done by summoning them. Their knowledge and abilities were extraordinary, but their power came with limitations. They had only just returned from death, and their mana reserves were pitiful compared to what their reputations suggested. New chapters come out on novelping . com first.
If he wanted them to become reliable forces, he needed to understand the system better.
He also needed to understand the women themselves.
Vaelzara, especially, remained a mystery.
The history books described her as a demon queen who had sought humanity’s destruction. Yet the way she spoke about her death, and the strange confidence she had to justify that she wasn’t the villain they knew her as, was disturbing. Since she was summoned, she had never acted like the cruel, ruthless Demon Queen that the Human Faction stories talked about.
Elena and Hela clearly had their own reasons for despising her. Their hostility wasn’t the kind that could be resolved by a simple conversation, either.
Five thousand years had passed since the Great War, yet whatever had happened back then still followed them.
And now, somehow, all three of them were under his command.
’What exactly have I gotten myself into?’ Eren let out a quiet sigh.
He had no intention of allowing their old grudges to destroy his settlement. Whatever had happened between them, they would have to find a way to work together. He couldn’t afford to lose three of his most valuable allies because they couldn’t put the past behind them.
That said, he wasn’t foolish enough to assume that one order would make everything fine.
Trust would take time.
For now, he would focus on surviving, strengthening his territory, and learning as much as possible about the Dominion Expanse.
The hours passed slowly.
Every now and then, Eren shifted his position to ease the discomfort in his back, careful not to wake Elena. Eventually, even those movements became less frequent as he settled into the stillness of the night.
He didn’t sleep much.
There was simply too much to think about, too much he didn’t understand, and too much waiting for him when morning came.
By the time the first faint traces of dawn began to lighten the gray sky, Eren had already made several decisions about what needed to be done next.
The first day had been a success.
But it was only the beginning.
******
Outside the shelter, the night remained cold and quiet.
Vaelzara and Hela stood several paces apart along the settlement’s perimeter, watching the surrounding wasteland. The temporary defenses cast long shadows across the ash-covered ground, and beyond them, the dead trees stood motionless beneath the gray sky.
Neither woman had spoken for some time.
Hela kept her attention on the darkness beyond the stakes, her expression stern as she scanned the terrain for any sign of movement. Her large wings were folded behind her, while one hand rested close to her weapon.
Vaelzara, on the other hand, appeared almost relaxed.
She stood with her hands tucked into the pockets of her oversized red hoodie, her long white hair moving gently in the night breeze. Her crimson eyes occasionally wandered toward the distant ridges, but it was difficult to tell whether she was genuinely searching for danger or simply enjoying the silence.
Eventually, she grew tired of it.
"You know, I want to know something."
Hela didn’t turn, as Vaelzara tilted her head slightly.
"How much do you still hate me?"
"Just as much as I did from the very beginning."
The answer came without hesitation and Vaelzara smiled faintly.
"You know, I genuinely doubt that."
Hela’s eyes narrowed but yet she had still refused to face the Demon Queen.
"Because if you really hated me that much, you would have tried slicing my neck open the very moment you saw me."
"What if I’m just waiting for the right moment?" Hela immediately asked.
Vaelzara’s smile widened by the slightest degree. "Oh, well. One of the possible perfect moments is now."
She glanced around them, deliberately taking in the empty stretch of land and the distant shelter.
"It’s only you and me here, you know?"
Hela finally turned toward her. Her expression darkened, and for a moment, the air between them seemed to grow heavier.
Vaelzara met her gaze without flinching.
Hela could easily imagine a dozen ways to attack the Demon Queen. Even with their mana reserves severely limited, both of them possessed enough combat experience to make a fight dangerous.
But what would it accomplish?
They had been summoned by the same man. Whatever their feelings toward one another, attacking Vaelzara would create a commotion that could reach Eren before either of them had finished. It would also undermine the authority he had only just begun establishing over his territory.
Hela wasn’t willing to do that.
Not tonight.
She scowled, turned away, and resumed watching the wasteland.
Vaelzara seemed amused by the decision, but she didn’t press the matter as another stretch of silence followed. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
This time, it was Hela who broke it.
"It’s been five thousand years."
Vaelzara’s expression remained unchanged.
"Has it?" She asked.
"Don’t play games with me," Hela mused with a scowl on her face.
Her voice carried a restrained anger that had clearly survived the passage of centuries.
"Five thousand years, and your so-called prophecy still hasn’t come to pass. You keep talking about it as though it’s some undeniable truth. You’re giving me every reason to consider killing you."
For a moment, Vaelzara said nothing.
Then she smiled.
It wasn’t the mocking smile she had worn earlier, nor was it the expression of someone attempting to provoke an old enemy. There was something quieter about it, something that made Hela’s irritation deepen.
"You want to know whether I still believe in it?"
"I want to know whether you’ve finally accepted that you were wrong."
Vaelzara looked toward the distant horizon.
"Then I’ll tell you. I still believe in it, just as I always have."
Hela’s jaw tightened. "Of course you do."
"Surely, the prophecy will come to pass," Vaelzara continued. "And I hope we’ll all be here to see it."
Her crimson eyes shifted toward the shelter where Eren was spending the night.
"With the Master himself, naturally."
Hela followed her gaze before returning her attention to the Demon Queen.
"And what exactly do you expect him to see?"
Vaelzara’s smile softened as she sighed.
"The truth."
"The truth?" Hela furrowed her brows.
"That I was never an enemy of humanity."
For several seconds, Hela simply stared at her. Then she let out a short, humorless laugh that completely crashed on the statement Vaelzara had just made.
"Quit spilling bloody lies," Hela began.
"You are an enemy of humanity," Hela continued. "You always have been. That’s how he sees you, and that’s how he’ll continue to see you."
The words were sharp, carrying the conviction of someone who had spent five thousand years holding on to the same belief.
Hela had no reason to trust the Demon Queen. Whatever prophecy Vaelzara claimed to believe in, it didn’t erase the devastation of the Great War or the countless lives lost during it.
And Hela had no intention of allowing a few mysterious words to rewrite history.
Vaelzara listened without interrupting, and when Hela finished, the Demon Queen merely nodded.
There was no anger in her expression, no attempt to defend herself, and no desperate effort to convince Hela otherwise.
She simply smiled with the same composure she had maintained throughout their conversation.
"I guess we’ll see."
Hela frowned, but Vaelzara had already turned away.
"Thanks for the conversation, Hela Mountain."
She walked toward a more distant section of the perimeter, her footsteps quiet against the ash-covered ground. Without another word, she resumed her watch as though their conversation had been nothing more than a casual exchange between acquaintances.
Hela watched her retreating figure.
For a brief moment, she considered calling after her.
She wanted to demand an explanation. She wanted to know what prophecy could possibly make Vaelzara so certain that history would one day vindicate her.
But the questions remained trapped behind her teeth.
Instead, Hela turned back toward the wasteland.
The night was not yet over, and there was still a settlement to protect.
Yet Vaelzara’s words lingered in her mind long after the Demon Queen had disappeared into the darkness.
Five thousand years...
Five thousand years, and the Demon Queen still believed that something was coming.
Hela clenched her fist.
’Then let it come... And if it doesn’t. I promise I’ll be the one to kill her myself, and no one will stop me from doing that.’