After Lyra finally left for her own room, silence returned.
I lay on the bed with my hands behind my head, staring at the ceiling as the events of the day replayed in my mind.
The battle.
The Eclipse Covenant.
Nearly blowing myself apart.
Lyra’s awakening.
The hug.
My brain immediately tried to focus on something else.
Which was when I remembered her.
The woman.
My eyes widened.
I sat upright so fast my ribs protested.
“Hold on…”
The realization hit me all at once.
Those golden eyes.
[A/N: changed her eye color to golden]
That presence.
That ridiculous feeling that reality itself was subtly bending around her existence.
“No way.”
There was absolutely no way I could have mistaken her.
“That was definitely her.”
[The host’s deductive capabilities have improved.]
I ignored the System.
Because holy shit.
That had been Verona Valeris.
Verona Valeris.
The strongest woman in the world.
Possibly the strongest living being on the planet.
And I had casually spoken to her.
In the original novel, Extra’s Path to Ascension, Verona was more legend than person.
Entire countries respected her.
Entire organizations feared her.
She stood at the peak of humanity as one of the few individuals whose existence alone could alter the balance of power between nations.
Years later she would encounter Lucien after he demonstrated extraordinary talent during his rise through the academy.
Impressed by his growth and potential, she would personally take him in as her disciple.
And after that…
Well.
The author wasn’t exactly subtle.
Disciple became trusted companion.
Trusted companion became emotional support.
Emotional support became something significantly less professional.
Typical harem protagonist nonsense.
Always gathering women like pokèmon
I rubbed my face.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Verona wasn’t supposed to appear this early.
More importantly, she definitely wasn’t supposed to meet me.
A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.
I froze.
The timing alone felt suspicious.
“Come in.”
The door opened.
And my soul immediately attempted to leave my body.
Verona Valeris stepped into the room.
She looked exactly as she had before—composed, elegant, and completely effortless.
Long ash coloured hair flowed down her back while golden eyes calmly swept across the room.
Nothing about her appearance screamed power.
Which somehow made it worse.
Because every instinct I possessed was screaming at me that this woman could probably flatten a mountain without much effort.
Ah shit.
Now that I knew who she was, I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to talk to her.
[You knew who Lyra was.]
‘That was different.’
[Explain.]
‘She’s my age.’
[Approximately.]
‘Close enough.’
[The logic remains flawed.]
‘The strongest woman in existence is standing in my room.
Forgive me if my logic isn’t operating at peak efficiency.’
The System wisely chose silence.
Verona tilted her head slightly.
“Is something amusing?”
“No.”
“Then why do you look nervous?”
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
Damn.
She moved toward a chair and sat down gracefully.
For several moments neither of us spoke.
Then she smiled.
“I see you’ve settled things with that girl.”
I immediately understood who she meant.
“Lyra?”
Verona nodded.
“She seemed worried.”
A small smile appeared on my face before I could stop it.
“Yeah.
She was.”
Something flickered through Verona’s eyes.
Interest perhaps.
Or amusement.
Whatever it was, it vanished quickly.
I cleared my throat.
“So…”
She raised an eyebrow.
“So?”
I gestured vaguely toward her.
“Why exactly are you here?
I’m guessing you’re someone important.”
“Someone important?”
“The expensive clothes help.”
A soft laugh escaped her.
For some reason that made me relax slightly.
Slightly.
Very slightly.
“The expensive clothes?”
“They’re definitely expensive.”
“I see.”
“And the whole powerful mysterious woman thing.”
Her smile widened.
“I wasn’t aware I had such an image.”
“You absolutely do.”
The atmosphere became surprisingly comfortable.
Then Verona looked directly into my eyes.
The room seemed to grow quieter.
Not because of pressure.
Not because of hostility.
Simply because she was Verona.
“My name is Verona Valeris.”
I pretended to be surprised.
Internally I was screaming.
“The Verona Valeris?”
“The one and only.”
Holy shit.
Actually holy shit.
Verona studied my reaction before continuing.
“I came because I wished to speak with you personally.”
My stomach immediately sank.
That couldn’t be good.
“About?”
“You.”
I pointed at myself.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
That definitely couldn’t be good.
Verona folded her hands together.
“Amir, I would like you to become my disciple.”
My brain stopped functioning.
For several seconds I simply stared at her.
Surely I’d misheard.
“There is absolutely no way I heard that correctly.”
Her expression remained calm.
“I would like you to become my disciple.”
Nope.
Still insane.
I pointed at myself again.
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“The Amir currently sitting in front of you.”
“Correct.”
“The one who almost exploded several hours ago.”
“Also correct.”
I stared.
Verona stared back.
I stared harder.
She remained completely unfazed.
What kind of monster wins staring contests against reality itself?
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
This was Lucien’s future.
Not mine.
Not now.
Not ever.
Verona seemed to notice my confusion.
“You appear surprised.”
“That’s because I am.”
To my surprise, she laughed.
Actually laughed.
It wasn’t mocking.
Just genuinely amused.
“I expected that.”
I leaned back against the bed.
“Can I ask why?”
“Of course.”
Her golden eyes sharpened slightly.
“The spatial techniques you used.”
Ah.
There it was.
“The precision required to manipulate dimensional boundaries at that level should be impossible for someone your age.”
Double ah.
“I have spent decades studying Awakeners.”
Triple ah.
“I have never seen anyone use space in the manner you did.”
Crap.
I might have gone slightly overboard.
Okay.
A lot overboard.
Verona continued calmly.
“The more I observed, the more interested I became.”
Interested.
That was a terrifying word coming from someone capable of destroying armies.
“I believe your potential is extraordinary.”
I remained silent.
Because technically speaking, she wasn’t wrong.
The System alone guaranteed that.
Still…
Something else caught my attention.
“You said disciple.”
“I did.”
“Just me?”
A knowing smile appeared.
“No.”
Immediately, Lyra came to mind.
“Her too?”
“Her too.”
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Then again, after witnessing Lyra’s awakening and those Soul Weapons, I wasn’t exactly surprised.
Verona stood.
“I do not require an answer immediately.”
That caught me off guard.
“You don’t?”
“No.”
She smiled softly.
“I prefer willing disciples.”
Fair enough.
She moved toward the door before stopping.
Looking back at me.
“Though I should warn you.”
I blinked.
“About what?”
“Most people would have accepted immediately.”
A grin spread across my face.
“I’ve never claimed to be smart.”
For the first time, Verona laughed openly.
The sound filled the room.
“No,” she admitted.
“You certainly haven’t.”
Then she left.
The door closed behind her.
Silence returned.
I stared at it for several moments.
Then immediately collapsed backward onto the bed.
“Holy shit.”
[Language.]
“The strongest woman in the world just asked me to become her disciple.”
[Acceptable correction.]
I ignored the System.
Because another thought had suddenly appeared.
A beautiful thought.
A glorious thought.
A profitable thought.
I slowly sat upright.
Wait.
Hold on.
Space.
I had Space Affinity.
Not only that, but my mastery over space was absurd.
Ridiculous.
Completely unfair.
And suddenly I remembered something from the novel.
The world’s only publicly known Space Awakener.
An old man so rich that entire corporations treated him carefully.
Why?
Storage rings.
My eyes widened.
Storage rings.
Spatial bags.
Dimensional containers.
Portable storage artifacts.
Every hunter wanted them.
Every noble wanted them.
Every organization wanted them.
The demand was endless.
The problem was supply.
Because the old man couldn’t make many.
His mastery over space wasn’t high enough.
The author had literally explained that multiple times.
Creating larger storage spaces became exponentially harder.
Most of his products were tiny.
Rare.
And absurdly expensive.
Meanwhile…
I looked at my hand.
Space twisted slightly above my palm.
A grin slowly spread across my face.
“Hehehe.”
[The host appears unstable.]
“Hehehehehe.”
[Correction.
Extremely unstable.]
I ignored the System.
Because numbers were already appearing inside my head.
Millions.
Billions.
Possibly trillions.
Storage rings.
Storage bracelets.
Storage necklaces.
Premium models.
Luxury editions.
Military contracts.
Hunter contracts.
Government contracts.
The possibilities were endless.
“Hehehehehe.”
[Host.]
“I’m going to be rich.”
[The host possesses the mentality of a supervillain.]
“Wrong.”
I pointed dramatically toward the ceiling.
“The future richest man alive.”
[There is significant overlap.]
I chose to ignore that.
Because for the first time since arriving in this insane world, I had discovered a legitimate path toward wealth.
No suicidal battles.
No near-death experiences.
No life-threatening missions.
Just money.
Lots and lots of money.
I could practically see mountains of cash rising before me.
Private training facilities.
Top-tier equipment.
Rare resources.
Entire buildings.
Maybe even my own island.
My grin widened further.
The System remained silent for several moments.
Then—
[I look forward to observing the catastrophic consequences this plan will inevitably create.]
My smile faltered.
“…Why would you say that?”
[Because every plan involving the host eventually results in explosions.]
I opened my mouth.
Then closed it.
Because annoyingly enough…
The System had a point.
Still.
This time would be different.
Probably.
Hopefully.
Maybe.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, a chill ran down my spine.
[The host no longer believes his own statement.]
“…Not even a little.”
And somehow, I had a feeling that becoming rich was about to be far more complicated than I imagined.
Amir IS going to have a Harem.
Just not one where all the women just fall in love with him in like one or two chapters.
Like how things are going gradually with Lyra that’s how it’s going to be.
Not so slow burn but not too much of quick love.
Just teal connections and all that.
That’s all I’ll say.
See you next chapter