Cely continued to teach Aria for a bit longer. Then, Aria finally managed to absorb and refine her first strand of Light Energy, officially entering the Light Accumulation Realm mere hours after being born.
"Ough!"
Aria emitted a small exclamation of surprise as her cheeks flushed due to the pleasant sensations running through her body all of a sudden.
"Feels good, doesn't it? Now though, you're probably pretty tired, hmm? Let me bring you to the bedroom."
Aria, though still feeling good and energetic because of the breakthrough she just experienced, yawned. With sleepy eyes, she nodded at her mother and followed her to the bedroom, where she was tucked in tight.
"Goodnight, darling."
With a small forehead kiss, Aria drifted off to sleep as Cely smiled in contentment above.
After a minute, though, Cely became more serious as she headed outside to find Dan.
It didn't take her as long as it used to to get to the Adventurers Guild, considering how she had reached the peak of Golden Core before she had to deal with those Monster Gods. Walking through the door, Cely thought she would be met by the, by now, familiar entrance hall.
Instead, she felt space shifting for a second before she appeared in the center of a large meeting room supported by 99 pillars.
100 figures sat in the room. Cely spotted multiple faces of high-ranking officials of the city she had seen before. Knowing what she did yesterday, it was easy to deduce what this was about.
Sitting in the central position of the seats, Edward opened his eyes.
"Welcome to this meeting, Cely. I am sorry for my rather abrupt action of transporting you here and hope you can be lenient. But we, the Council of Grimm, would like to discuss your fair compensation for saving us yesterday."
Edward was smiling throughout the entire announcement. How could he not be happy? He had been resigned to death yesterday, only to find out that, despite having reincarnated, Cely somehow retained a part of her past power. Though he guessed she was unlikely to be able to do something like this again.
"Naturally. There are three things I want."
Cely wasn´t surprised by this turn of events at all.
It was only natural that Edward and the rest would compensate her after they had all been saved yesterday. And if they hadn't? Well, let's just say she would have had a word with them at a later point in time.
"First. I want all the information you have on Neal. Be it forces within, landmarks, secret realms, folded spaces, or the positions, alignments, and strength of powerful entities. I want it all."
Looking through the room, agreement was obvious. Though this information would normally be extremely expensive, it was just information after all. Normally, you don't lose information just because you share it.
Normally.
None of the information they could provide would fall into that category, so it was fine.
"Second. I want 20 percent of the wealth of everyone in this room."
Hearing this, not one person in the room wasn't cringing. This one truly hurt. They couldn't afford not to pay, though. They all saw the reports from Dan and personally saw how the Chaos Hydra, Orioth, had been tortured for its transgression against this fierce woman.
They'd rather stay on her good side, as Lucifer recommended.
So, after a bit of grumbling, all of the people begrudgingly agreed.
"Third. I have a more personal request I would like to give to your ancestor here. We'll talk after this in private."
Hearing that the third demand wasn't more of their belongings, but a specific request from Edward, everyone else from the council could not help but be elated. For many in this room, those 20% were millions; for some, even billions of their accumulated wealth down the drain.
Edward was a bit surprised. He thought she would want something more special. Though he didn't know what this private meeting would be about.
"I agree. Everyone else, disperse. We will talk alone."
With a chorus of unanimous agreement, everyone else in the room teleported away.
"What is this request about, oh Overseer of Earth?"
Cely slightly raised her eyebrow at being called this. She didn't know when this guy had found out about it, though she guessed Lucifer might have had something to do with it.
"I want you to extract a system from me."
At this, Edward was shocked for a second before he calmed down again.
"I see. So that is why your evolution was so abnormal. I should have guessed. Aren't you scared I will do something when I separate it from your soul?"
"No. You know who I am. I don't think you're dumb enough to provoke them."
"True that, true that. Fine. Don't resist."
Right after he said that, Edward's emaciated body suddenly buffed out, becoming even taller and more muscular than Dan's.
Stretching out his clawed hand towards Cely, Edward pulled her towards his hand. Right when it seemed like his claws would pierce through her body, they just passed through as if they were intangible.
Ignoring the discomfort, Cely concentrated on keeping her body and soul from defending themselves during the operation.
Another second passed before Edward clamped down on Cely's soul af it were a physical object.
Then, with surgical precision, one of his clawed fingers pierced inside, slicing through it like a hot knife through butter. It took him roughly a minute before Edward located the system hiding inside Cely's soul, marking the end of the most time-consuming part.
A burst of power grasped the system inside Cely's soul before Edward ripped it out in one clean motion.
Cely staggered as the pain hit her. Although painful, she had actually not been damaged at all during the procedure. The part of her soul that was sliced open was not actually damaged. It's more like it was separated.
In about a week or two, it would be back to how it was before.
After getting a grip, Cely noticed with relief that the system was gone. She had honestly been surprised by how long she had pushed away getting rid of it, though, considering what she had been doing the past weeks, it wasn't surprising she hadn't gotten to it.
Cely knew all too well, even before arriving in Neal, how dangerous systems were; though, it was her first time noting that they could be manipulated. The chances of pulling the book of a Primordial God that you are enemies with from a Bronze Lottery are just too infinitely small to be a coincidence.
She could also guess someone interfered with the Gold Lottery to give her the AO-500 grains, though she didn't know who did it, since her parents weren't capable of something like that.
On that note, how did Lucifer do it with the book?
Was it even him?
"Mrs?"
Edwards' question pulled Cely out of her thoughts.
"Thank you for your help on this, Edward. I hope our friendly relations will not disappear. Until we meet again."
With those words, Cely, who had already gotten the 20% from every member transferred into her storage ring after they had agreed, walked into the teleportation formation on one side of the room.
Edward could only sigh in relief when she was finally gone. His muscular body returned to his previous emaciated form.
"Sigh. What a terrifying woman."
Exiting the teleportation, Cely appeared at the entrance of the Adventurers Guild. No one seemed to notice or care about her sudden appearance.
Suddenly, Cely noticed that she seemed to have forgotten to say goodbye to Dan.
"Never mind."
After returning to the house she had gotten, Cely walked past the table on the porch. The tea was still standing there. Cold.
Arriving in the bedroom, she was happy to find Aria still sleeping. Then, a sense of drowsiness overtook her. She was mentally exhausted. Not just in the sense of tiredness, but due to the temporary weakness from removing the system and the stress Lucifer's betrayal had put on her.
'Maybe... I need some sleep as well.'
With tired eyes, Cely pulled up the blanket on the other side of the large bed, making sure not to startle Aria. Then, after lying down, sweet rest overtook her.
A second later, Aria opened her eyes. Her eyes were still sleepy, just roused by the intrusion of her mother. Noting the new presence in the bed, Aria looked at Cely in delight before quickly noting that she was asleep.
Delighted, Aria pushed herself forward to hug Cely, who, unconsciously, in her sleep, wrapped her arms around Aria in a tight embrace.
Aria's giggle of delight right after devolved into a yawn, as she closed her eyes again.
The two of them drifted off into dreamland.