100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full?-Chapter 450 - New Ally

The Sect Master dismissed the two disciples first.

They obeyed at once, bowing low before retreating from the mountain path.

Only when they were gone did Eirene let the pressure around her ease.

The moonlike radiance dimmed. The silver brilliance receded. Her Lunarian form dissolved, and the Flower Fairy returned.

She exhaled softly.

"I cannot remain in that form for long," she said.

Then she lifted her gaze toward the unseen horizon, toward distances far beyond the mountain, and her voice turned quieter.

"They might notice my return otherwise."

The Sect Master’s expression changed at once.

The reverence remained, but something else entered it now.

Understanding.

And beneath that—

A flicker of old fear.

She knew exactly what Eirene meant.

That hidden pressure beyond ordinary powers. Those ancient watchers whose attention was reason enough for a being like Eirene to choose reincarnation, obscurity, and an entirely different life rather than return openly as what she had once been.

The Sect Master lowered her head.

At the same time, another emotion rose through her like heat under ice.

Embarrassment.

Not the shallow kind.

The deep, sinking kind that came from remembering every time she had spoken to Eirene as if she were merely an unusually gifted Floran, every time she had held herself as Sect Master before her, every time she had thought herself the elder in that exchange.

And yet—

As the shame flared, another realization came with it.

’No wonder.’

No wonder Eirene’s presence had always felt so strangely natural to her.

The Ancestor had been standing before her all along.

She only had not seen it.

Eirene noticed the turmoil on her face and gave a small, almost helpless smile.

"Do not make that expression," she said. "If you start apologizing for every past conversation, we will never finish what matters."

That pulled the Sect Master back to herself, if only partly.

She straightened and took a slow breath.

Eirene did not waste time on old names and old lives.

Those things had mattered in their time, but that was not why she had revealed herself today.

She had revealed herself because concealment no longer offered more value than truth.

And because, with this single revelation, the entire Lunareth Sect would no longer need persuasion.

They would move.

Out of blood and origin.

That was cleaner. That was faster. That was what the moment required.

Eirene looked at the Sect Master properly and finally spoke her true name.

"Selunai."

The woman’s crescent pupils trembled.

The name was hidden from the world.

To hear it from Eirene’s lips shook her more deeply than the transformation itself.

Selunai lowered her head again, but this time her voice was steadier.

"You remembered."

Eirene’s expression softened.

"It would be strange if I forgot."

That nearly broke Selunai’s composure a second time.

Still, she mastered herself.

That, too, was proof of Lunareth discipline.

The Sect had remained untouched by the Exchange’s poisons for a reason.

It was not luck.

It was structure.

Stillness practitioners, especially those trained in the old Lunareth way, had long cultivated aversion to artificial agitation.

Their entire path was built on internal regulation, disciplined perception, emotional restraint, and distrust of anything that offered force faster than understanding. Even before the miracle drugs had spread widely, the senior practitioners had already noticed the wrongness in reports surrounding them.

Power gained without internal consonance.

Advancement without stillness.

That alone had been enough to make the Sect suspicious.

And once they became suspicious, they simply did what Lunareths had always done best.

They withdrew from temptation and observed.

And the conclusion had been unanimous.

The Exchange’s methods were filth wrapped in benefit.

So Lunareth held the line.

Not because they were isolated fools, but because their discipline made them difficult to tempt through shortcuts.

In a world that had begun to bend under desperation, they had remained almost offensively intact.

Eirene gave a faint nod as she sensed the steadiness in the mountain around them.

"You held your people well."

Selunai finally allowed herself a small smile.

"We were shaped by your teaching, even when we did not know we were still standing beneath it."

Then her expression sharpened.

"But you did not come only to reveal yourself."

"No," Eirene said. "I came because the time to move has arrived."

And then she told her everything that mattered.

The cure. The hidden conquest in Sareth The liberated settlements. Lootwell. The beginning of the cleansing. The plan to uproot the Exchange’s grip before it could fully harden into something worse.

Selunai listened without interruption.

By the time Eirene finished, the Sect Master’s eyes had changed completely.

Stillness did not mean passivity.

Silence did not mean cowardice.

The Lunareth discipline was not withdrawal from the world. It was conservation of motion until motion truly mattered.

And now, clearly, it did.

"The world mistook restraint for weakness," Selunai said quietly. "That was their mistake."

Moonlight seemed to gather around her sleeves.

"We do not flail. We do not lunge at every insult. We do not spend ourselves proving we are dangerous to fools."

Her gaze lifted, sharp and pale.

"But when the correct moment comes..."

A pause.

"...stillness moves once."

Eirene smiled faintly.

"That is why I came."

Selunai did not hesitate after that.

"I agree," she said. "The Lunareth Sect will act."

There was no dramatic oath.

Only certainty.

Which, from a Lunareth, was worth more.

Soon after, Eirene gave her next instruction.

"My identity is not to be revealed outside the sect."

Selunai inclined her head immediately.

"That was already understood."

"It may be acknowledged within," Eirene said. "I trust the Lunareth in this."

That was not empty praise.

She truly did trust them.

The Lunareth were one of the few derivative races she had helped shape whose inherited temperament had remained close to what it was meant to be. Restrained. Observant. Difficult to provoke into stupidity. Their silence was not emptiness. It was containment.

They did not scatter important truths simply because they possessed them.

Then Selunai asked, quietly and with great care, "Has "He" returned as well?"

At those words, Eirene’s expression changed...

Into a genuine smile.

That alone was answer enough.

Selunai saw it and did not ask another question.

She knew that smile too well for that.

Instead, Eirene said only, "I now stand under the rule of a man called Luc."

That caught Selunai’s full attention.

"He has built a place called Lootwell," Eirene continued. "That is where our people are gathered. For future coordination, that is where we may meet."

Selunai absorbed the name in silence.

"Only not yet," Eirene added. "Not until the world has been cleansed enough that movement there does not become a beacon."

"That is wise," Selunai said.

Then Eirene came to the final point.

"I want someone sent to Aurion to speak in detail with our allies there."

Selunai’s crescent pupils brightened instantly.

The enthusiasm on her face rose so fast that Eirene noticed it at once.

And cut it down just as fast.

"Not you."

Selunai’s expression fell.

Eirene almost laughed.

"It would be too much," she said. "If the Lunareth Sect Master appears personally now, then every quiet movement we are trying to make will grow louder."

Selunai knew she was right.

She still did not like it.

"Lythrae will suffice," Eirene said. "She sees broadly, speaks well, and knows enough of the old arrangements to navigate the details without damaging them."

Selunai reluctantly inclined her head.

"She will go, then."

They spoke for a while longer after that, refining what could be shared, what must remain concealed, how fast the Lunareth could move without drawing outside notice, and what sort of support they could commit immediately versus what must be held in reserve.

By the time it was done, the mountain no longer felt merely like a sect hidden in stillness. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

It felt like an old blade being quietly drawn.

At last, Eirene rose.

Selunai bowed again, though less desperately this time and more like herself.

When Eirene turned and began making her way back toward the hidden path, there was a clear smile on her face.

For once, she did not try to hide it.

Another ally.

Secured.

And when she returned, Lucien would hear a good news.