The Demon Queen's Royal Consort
Chapter 152 – Calm Days – VII

Chapter 152: Chapter 152 – Calm Days – VII

The mountain breeze whispered between the ancient jade stones of the pavilion as Glenn, seated on a simple wooden chair atop the roof, finally experienced a corner of that place which, ironically, had always been his.

The air was fresher up there, free from the oppression of walls and the perfumed hallways he had only used to sleep after exhausting training sessions with Lesley and Elian. For six months, the royal consort’s pavilion had served as a shelter, but never as a home, and now, more aware than ever, he realized just how much he had overlooked.

The sky above looked like something out of a dream. A dark canvas dotted with countless pulsing stars. From time to time, a shooting star crossed the heavens with the grace of a flaming feather. And farther north, like a living painting, an aurora borealis waved softly in shades of green, blue, and violet—ethereal veils dancing above the vastness of the world.

Glenn couldn’t appreciate the beauty with the same enthusiasm he might have had at another time. His mind was in full turmoil, spinning in circles since the conversation with Elian.

The Broken Rose Society...

The same group that nearly killed Vex and Athena... the same group possibly behind the dungeon event that almost claimed the lives of all his companions.

Too many coincidences. Far too many to ignore.

Elian’s words, though raw, had relieved part of the corrosive anxiety Glenn carried in his chest. After all, it wasn’t like Selene or Lesley had deliberately thrown him and his group into a living abyss, right? It wasn’t some twisted test disguised as a mission...

Right?

"Right..." I repeated to myself, but the word found no strength inside my chest.

Because deep down deep down I still had doubts. Doubts that pulsed like invisible thorns.

And the strangest part was what came after that. Whenever those thoughts began to take shape, a strange discomfort would take over me. As if some hidden part of myself swallowed those doubts into nothingness, drowning the fear with a confidence almost... almost... indescribable. That was the only word I could form.

It was like snapping out of it and realizing I had already accepted something, even if... Like a force within wouldn’t allow me to doubt Selene, or Lesley, or everything around me for too long.

And honestly, I didn’t know why.

"I’m a broken man."

That sentence echoed in my head more times than I’d like to admit.

Three years serving as a test subject, being torn apart and tortured, manipulated and molded... had left scars that weren’t visible on the skin.

Parts of me still didn’t trust myself. Another part had already forgotten what it meant to doubt without fear.

I watched the aurora dance above the clouds. Too beautiful for a world with so many dark layers. And even there, alone atop a castle rising over the abyss, I felt that the answers I sought were still far beyond my sight.

I leaned a bit further back in the chair, looking at the sky as if I could find some answer in the aurora’s shifting colors.

’What were my parents like?’

I asked myself that question for the thousandth time... and, as always, received a blur in return. Faded faces, muffled voices, like old memories submerged under a thick lake of mist. I only remembered the constant feeling of being confined to a bed—the smell of medicine, the always clean sheets, the window I stared out of every day hoping the world would notice me.

My body... my body was a burden.

Sick. Weak. Limited.

And yet...

And yet, there was that strange gleam in my tutors’ eyes.

They spoke of my IQ as if it were something grand. As if my mind alone could make up for what my body couldn’t do.

But now?

Now, in this world of monsters, magic, and cultivators who split mountains with a sword, what is that intelligence worth?

The truth is, I don’t know.

I can solve complex equations in my head.

I can map out strategies, understand structures, find patterns.

But here... here, sometimes all that matters is how much you can take being crushed—and still get back up.

Maybe my mind works like a Formula 1 engine... but no one told me this race is run by abominations and earthquakes.

Or maybe... maybe I’m missing something.

Maybe, just maybe, what I am still hasn’t had the space to bloom.

Or maybe I’m just an idiot. Which would make a lot of sense.

Glenn didn’t understand that his progress was an anomaly. Saturating a core with electricity and gravity energies in just six months was insane, even by Atlas’s highest standards. Elian had always remained indifferent to the anomalies surrounding Glenn, as if everything happening was just another common event of the era. But everyone knew it wasn’t.

And the reason why his mana core still lacked spatial energy wasn’t due to incompetence. It was because spatial laws in that territory were thin, nearly nonexistent. Like trying to fill a bucket with rain in the middle of a desert.

The world simply hadn’t yet given him the right environment for what he was.

I sighed, long and weary, as if I could exhale the weight of the world in a single breath.

And then there was that damn news.

Honestly, I was in a bad mood. And rightly so.

In the demon territory, apparently, some important event involving a legendary blacksmith was happening. Big deal. I had no idea why that should matter so much, but of course, for Selene, everything matters.

Everything except...

She didn’t even come to see me.

Not one visit.

Not a damn question about how I was.

Nothing about my friends.

Nothing about Dórian. Nothing about Aeloria. Not even a simple ’he’s doing fine.’

And on top of that, she sends me a summons. Not an invitation. Not a heads-up. A summons.

"Prepare for the Tournament of Protection. It will take place in thirty days."

That was it.

No context. No explanation.

Just a new demand, like I’m some piece on a board she moves with a single finger.

Fights.

Fights, fights, and more fights.

Damn it.

I haven’t even had time to bury the memories of the last battle... and now they want to throw me into another arena?

Seriously, sometimes I wonder...

Do they think that just because I survived, it didn’t hurt? That it didn’t leave marks?

I’m not a sword you can sharpen and toss at the next enemy.

...but I know that’s exactly what they expect from me.

Even though Glenn’s thoughts cut through his mind like sharp knives, there was a part of him that understood—or at least forced itself to understand—that he wasn’t on Earth anymore.

This world wasn’t a white hospital with closed windows and doctors worried about a sick child. No. Atlas was a cinematic and merciless planet, where wolves fought for food and the weak served as sustenance.

Whoever the entity was that had pulled him from death and cast him into that world, they definitely had no intention of letting him rest.

At that moment, beneath the starry sky and the silent northern lights dancing above the mountains, Glenn accepted it with a bitter weight in his chest. The truth, cruel and simple, was that there was no alternative.

"I need to get stronger."

That was the answer. The only one.

But as urgent as it was, it would still take a few more days before he could put that resolution into action. His body, though recovered enough to walk and breathe without constant pain, was still far from ideal. His masters, Elian and Lesley, would remain too busy to guide him during that time. He might not even see them for weeks.

And so came the inevitable question:

’What should I do until then?’

Glenn lowered his eyes to the black ring on his finger—now adorned with golden inscriptions and a meticulously carved serpent on its surface. He thought about returning to the pocket world the artifact concealed, where only spatial energy was released. Maybe he could train there.

Maybe...

But the idea dissolved as quickly as it came. He had left that space at a stage he still didn’t fully understand. That internal world with unstable spatial rift patterns, with laws that seemed to change at every moment... it wasn’t the right time to return.

Glenn needed stability before launching himself once more into the unknown.

And stability was something still slipping through his fingers.

So, all that remained was to cultivate... or go to the library.

His body could already withstand long hours of meditation, and his prana core was finally fully saturated, each drop of electrical, gravitational, and spatial energy pulsing with stability there.

But the same couldn’t be said for his mana core.

Although it had also been filled with electricity and gravity over the past months, what was still missing was the scarcest of all: spatial energy.

And without it, advancing to the Full Awakened Rank was simply impossible.

He already knew that. And he also knew that there was no use insisting. No matter how much he tried to feel, absorb, manipulate, or summon spatial fragments... this region was simply too poor in that energy. The spatial laws here were thin and unstable. Even artifacts and spells dependent on that affinity struggled to function properly.

But now it was clear: no matter how hard he tried, saturating his mana core here would be pointless. _{fre/ew.ebnovel.c om}

Glenn stood from the chair with a slow sigh, his eyes still fixed on the horizon covered in bridges, mountains, and abysses—majestic, grand... and still insufficient.

"If I want to get stronger, I need to solve this."

With determined steps, he descended the pavilion floors, the sound of his boots echoing through the crystalline corridors.

"I need to find a place with abundant spatial energy."

And for that, there was only one viable path.

The library.