Interstellar Beastworld: Raising A Cub With My Mummy System!-Chapter 38: THE ZEPHORIANS

Lin Yue did not leave the nursery.

She sat in the rocking chair beside Auriel’s crib, close enough to reach him if he stirred, close enough to see anyone who came through the door. Her phone was in her hand, the screen glowing with data MS had pulled from the estate systems.

The staff list scrolled past, forty-nine names with positions and years of service and pay rates, but she did not know what she was looking for yet, so she kept scrolling until the names blurred together.

[Focus on the ones with authority,] MS said in her head. [The rat has power here. They would need it to cover their tracks.]

She filtered the list to show only department heads and senior staff, the people with access to accounts and schedules and the parts of the house where regular servants did not go.

The woman who ran the household came up first with sixteen years of service and a thick file of commendations, handwritten notes from Uriel’s father thanking her for her work, a salary that had grown steadily over time.

The head of security came next with eleven years and a military record before that, his file cleaner than the first, more technical details about security protocols and staff rotations.

The quartermaster came last with twenty-three years on the estate, the longest service record of anyone, his file filled with inventory logs and supply orders and delivery schedules that went back decades.

Three people with power, three people who had been here long before Lin Yue arrived.

She heard footsteps in the corridor and locked her phone screen.

PThe head of household appeared in the doorway, her deer features soft in the afternoon light, her hands folded in front of her.

"Madam, I came to check on the little prince. Is there anything you need? Tea, perhaps, or something to eat?"

Lin Yue smiled. "No, thank you. We are fine."

The woman nodded and lingered for a moment, watching Auriel with genuine fondness. "He is a beautiful child. So peaceful."

"He takes after his father in that. Uriel sleeps like he is dead."

She laughed softly. "His Majesty was the same as a boy. His mother used to say you could carry him through a battlefield and he would not wake."

Lin Yue filed that information away, noting that this woman had been here long enough to see Uriel grow up, long enough to earn the trust of the family, long enough to become part of the furniture of this house. If she was the rat, she was the most dangerous kind, the one no one would ever suspect.

She left after a few more minutes of quiet conversation, and Lin Yue watched her go, watched the way the other servants in the corridor stepped aside for her, watched the easy authority in her posture. She was not a servant in the way the others were servants. She was something else entirely.

Lin Yue looked back at her phone, at the three names still glowing on the screen.

[Which one?] she asked silently.

[I do not know. But you have three days to find out.]

She looked at Auriel, still sleeping, still perfect. Then she looked at the door, where the woman had disappeared.

"I need to watch them." she thought. See how they move through the house. See who they talk to and what they do when they think no one is paying attention.

[You cannot do that from here.]

"I can. This is where my son is. This is where I stay. If the rat wants to come to me, let them."

She settled deeper into the rocking chair, one hand on the crib rail, her phone balanced on her knee.

From here she could see anyone who approached, anyone who lingered, anyone who looked too long at her son.

She would wait.

The rat would come eventually. They always did.

Uriel was reviewing estate accounts when his tablet buzzed with an incoming call. He glanced at the display and saw Magus name, then accepted.

"There is a situation," Magus said. "The Zephorian envoy delivered their final answer this morning. Their council has voted unanimously. When the peace treaty expires at the end of the month, they will not renew it."

Uriel set down his stylus. He had been at the border during the last war, a young officer watching his comrades fall to venom and blade. He had seen what the Zephorians did when they were not bound by treaties. He had carried soldiers to the medical tents, held hands while they screamed, and wrote letters to families that would never be the same. The memory of it had never left him.

"What are their terms?" he asked.

"They have not offered terms. They have broken off all diplomatic communication. Our sources on Zephoros report that their military has been mobilized for the past three weeks. The poison masters have been recalled from retirement."

Uriel stood and walked to the window. The garden spread out below him, peaceful and green. The Chief of Defence would handle the initial response, mobilize the fleets, coordinate with the other branches. That was the protocol in peacetime. But if the Zephorians were truly preparing for war, protocol would not be enough. He would need to step in, and stepping in meant leaving.

"Has the Chief of Defence been informed?" he asked.

"Already in contact. He is mobilizing the border fleets and reinforcing the watch stations. He asked if you would be available for a briefing tomorrow morning."

Uriel watched a servant cross the garden below. "I am supposed to be on paternity leave. My son is barely a week old."

Magus was quiet for a moment. "The Chief of Defence can manage the initial response. But if the Zephorians move beyond posturing, you will need to be there. You know their tactics better than anyone. You fought them before."

Uriel closed his eyes. He remembered the sting of venom in his own arm, the weeks of recovery, the way his father had looked at him when he returned from the front, proud and afraid at the same time.

He remembered thinking he would never have children, and would never give anyone that same fear.

Now he had a son and a woman waiting for him in the nursery, and the thought of leaving them so soon felt like a wound he had not yet received.