Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls-Chapter 436: We are sisters.

The morning air still carried the freshness of the forest when Kael and Eva stopped outside the house, near the edge of the hill from where Veirona could be seen in the distance. The port city was already awake, the anchored ships gently swaying, but that scene seemed too distant to matter at that moment. There was a silent tension in the air, not heavy, but inevitable, like the instant before a blade is drawn.

Eva crossed her arms and glanced at him sideways, the wind playing with her light hair.

"I'll take you straight to the Ainsworth mansion," she said, in a practical tone, as if announcing a simple walk. "Then you'd better prepare for the supersonic jump."

Kael arched an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth curving into a confident smile. He cracked his neck, rolled his shoulders once, as if preparing for a heavy workout, and took a deep breath.

"This time I'm not being kidnapped," he commented lightly. "I'm aware, prepared… and fully willing to travel ten thousand kilometers at super speed."

Eva stared at him for a second, then laughed, a short, genuine laugh.

"Look at that," she said. "He learns fast."

Kael opened his arms in a theatrical gesture.

"Consider this personal growth."

She approached without warning, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and pulled him into a quick, firm kiss, full of farewell and promise at the same time. When she pulled away, her eyes still shone with that unwavering confidence that always made the world seem a little smaller.

"Then let's go," she said simply.

Before Kael could reply with anything witty, Eva already held him firmly, one arm around his waist, the other stabilizing his body as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He felt the brief adjustment of her posture, the slight displacement of air around them, as if space were being compressed before yielding.

And then the world disappeared.

There was no gradual acceleration, no time to react. It was like blinking. A single instant in which everything compressed, stretched, and broke all at once. Sound was lost, light became a continuous line, and the very notion of direction ceased to make sense.

The next moment, his feet touched the ground again.

Kael blinked a few times, feeling his stomach give a small, out-of-rhythm jump. The air was different. Denser. More familiar. Before him, imposing as always, stood the Ainsworth mansion, with its high walls, perfectly manicured gardens, and that almost oppressive aura of ancient power.

"…"

He opened his mouth, closed it, took a deep breath, and rested his hands on his knees for a second.

"I… I'll pretend that wasn't as violent as it seemed," he murmured, straightening up slowly. "But seriously… how did you not throw up after that?"

Eva was already perfectly balanced, her expression calm, as if she had just taken an ordinary step. She shrugged, unconcerned.

"It's just a habit," she replied. "After the first thousand jumps, your body just accepts it."

Kael chuckled softly.

"That's not a reassuring answer."

She smiled slightly, watching him regain his balance.

"You did well," she commented. "Most people stay down for a few minutes."

"I'm honored," he replied, still a little dizzy. "I'll add 'I didn't throw up after crossing half the continent' to my list of personal achievements."

Eva leaned closer and lightly touched his chest, feeling his heartbeat.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Everything's in place," he assured her. "It's just the world that's still trying to catch up with me."

She laughed again, a sound too light for the weight of the place they were in. For a brief moment, they stood there, side by side, staring at the mansion that held so many memories, conflicts, and people who were certainly not happy about his return.

Kael took a deep breath and straightened his posture.

"Well," he said, looking towards the entrance. "Time to face the consequences."

Eva crossed her arms, watching him intently.

"Are you ready?"

He thought of Irelia, of Amelia, of Adalric, of the Emperor, of everything that had accumulated since the moment he awoke from that coma.

Then he smiled.

"No," he replied. "But that never stopped me before." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Eva nodded, satisfied, and together they took their first steps toward the Ainsworth mansion, while the sun shone too brightly to ignore the fact that this return was far from peaceful.

As soon as Kael crossed the threshold of the Ainsworth mansion, the air seemed to change density, as if the house itself had held its breath along with him. The main hall was too quiet, too beautiful, too organized—the kind of calm that only exists seconds before something goes terribly wrong. He took just one more step inside, enough for the door to close behind him with a low, definitive sound.

It was then that the world exploded into motion.

The metallic sound cutting through the air came before his mind even registered the intention. A silvery flash crossed his peripheral vision, quick, precise, murderous. Irelia's sword appeared inches from his face, the blade descending in a perfect arc, calculated to kill without hesitation.

Kael didn't recoil.

He didn't flinch.

He simply raised his hand.

The impact was dry, brutal, echoing through the hall like a contained thunderclap. The blade stopped, motionless, trapped between his fingers, inches from his skin. The force of the blow was absurd—any other would have been split in two—but Kael remained there, firm, his arm outstretched, his feet planted on the marble floor as if they were part of the house's structure.

The silence that followed was heavy.

Irelia stood before him, her eyes wide for a fraction of a second before transforming into something even more dangerous. Pure rage. Indignation. A volcano about to erupt. Her arm muscles tensed, trying to push the sword forward, but the blade wouldn't budge an inch.

Kael tilted his head slightly, observing the weapon with almost academic curiosity, as if assessing the quality of the steel.

"Hm," he murmured, before looking directly at her. "You really need to learn to control that anger."

The sentence came out with an irritating irony, too calm for someone who had almost just lost face.

Irelia gritted her teeth.

"Do you have any idea," she began, her voice low, vibrating with fury, "how much I've thought about killing you since you disappeared?"

Kael dropped the sword, taking a small step back, his hands raised in an excessively peaceful gesture of surrender.

"Judging by your look," he replied, "I'd say quite a bit."

She pulled the blade back, expertly twirling it before pointing it at him again, this time not to attack, but to threaten. Amelia appeared right behind, standing near the stairs, her arms crossed, her expression too tired for surprise, but too relieved to be cold.

"You disappear," Irelia continued, taking a step forward. "You let yourself be kidnapped. You walk back as if nothing happened. And you even have the audacity—"

"—to walk in through the front door?" Kael finished, raising an eyebrow. "I thought it was polite."

Amelia sighed loudly, running a hand over her face.

"He's alive," she said, as if reminding herself. "That's something."

Irelia glanced quickly at Amelia, then looked back at Kael, still trembling with rage.

"I want my husband," she said finally, her voice faltering just enough to betray what was really behind all that fury.

Kael stared at her for a longer moment, the sarcasm softening.

"I'm here," he replied, with more seriousness than he had shown until then. "Just… a little harder to kill than before."

Silence fell over the mansion again, heavy with tension, relief, and the clear certainty that this meeting was far from ending peacefully.

Kael let out a long, heavy sigh, one of those that came from deep within his chest, running a hand through his hair as if he already foresaw the disaster before it even happened. The atmosphere in the hall was too tense, too electric, and Irelia's sword still seemed anxious to finish the job it had started seconds before.

It was then that Eva entered with the nonchalance of someone arriving late for afternoon tea.

"Can you two stop with all this jealousy?" she said, crossing her arms and tilting her head slightly, her tone too calm for the situation. "It's getting embarrassing."

Irelia blinked.

Amelia blinked immediately afterward.

The two exchanged glances, clearly trying to understand if they had heard correctly.

"Jealousy?" Irelia repeated slowly, as if testing the word. "Of what exactly?"

Eva sighed, as if explaining something too obvious to need saying aloud.

"His," she replied, casually pointing at Kael. "We're sisters now. You need to start acting like it."

The silence that followed was absolute.

Amelia turned slowly to Eva. "Excuse me… what?"

Irelia frowned. "Sisters… of what?"

Eva blinked a few times, genuinely surprised by their reaction.

"Well," she said. "Wives."

The word fell into the room like a magic bomb.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WIVES?!" they both said almost simultaneously, in different volumes, but with the same mixture of shock, disbelief, and imminent threat.

Kael felt a cold trickle down his spine.

Eva tilted her head, now clearly confused. "Wait." She looked at Kael. "You didn't tell them?"

Her gaze wasn't accusatory. It was… curious. Like someone trying to remember if they left the stove on.

"Tell… what?" Amelia asked slowly, without taking her eyes off Kael.

Irelia twirled the sword in her hand, her smile completely disappearing. "Kael," she said, in a dangerously sweet tone. "Explain. Now."

Eva snapped her fingers softly. "Marriage," she said, as if she were talking about some business deal. "He and I were already going to get married. Now that we've made it official, and you two are also his wives, we're sisters now. I'm married to him, you are too." Eva smiled.