The Patriarch had removed the impaled heads of his enemies from the front of the tower so the repairing crew could move freely. For Alys, it was a joy to see the area around the former Arcane Tower return to normalcy. She hadn't complained about it, of course, but that didn't mean she had liked it.

She was carrying Bella in her arms, caressing the sleeping panther while she marched by the construction crew outside the tower. The beast had survived by a hair's breadth after hours of suffering, then had entered a deep slumber. Half a day had passed since, yet it still didn't look like she would wake up anytime soon.

Over twenty people were working on the tower repairs, and except for one, they were all Two Star Workmen. It was rare for Workmen to reach the Two Star level, but those who did could live well — for Qi Manipulators, that is. Though she now knew the truth about how Qi cultivation was important, it was still much less useful for society than all other energies.

The Workmen were obeying the orders of the Builder. Few people knew the name of the Three Star Earth Elementalist, who was mostly known by his class. The short sixty-or-so-year-old had little white hair remaining on his head, but that was the extent of his frail appearance. His was built like a taurox, with heavy muscles and dark skin, and he yelled energetically at his workers.

The Builder was beside big chunks of eventide voidstone, which the tower was built of. The Workmen were carrying the stones by hand and positioning them in a way predetermined by the Builder at the top of the broken tower. After that was done, he would go upstairs and use his skills to meld the stones together in the right form.

Alys didn't understand why the Stonemason who had delivered the stones by spatial ring hadn't put them on top of the tower already. Aaron had paid the man a bonus to deliver them before lunch today, on the day after the top of the tower blew up. Certainly, going up a few stairs wouldn't cost that much more?

But both the Patriarch and the Builder — who had also been paid a premium to come early today — had insisted on leaving the stones on the outside. At least the Workmen should be happy about it. She had heard that working for the Builder paid well, but all she had seen them do was carrying the big stone chunks, six feet by three by three, upstairs. What if they didn't have to do even that much? Would they go jobless?

The Patriarch was standing beside the Builder, looking at the tower's blueprint floating in front of him with a pensive expression. It was a very simple blueprint, as the floors had only the external walls, supporting pillars, and stairs. There were a lot of numbers on it too, something about material resistance and whatnot.

He was wearing a white robe similar to the first time she had seen him. It made him look like a weird mix of Priest and Martial Artist. He had called it a wudang robe, something from his homeworld. Supposedly, most cultivators there were also martial artists to a point, and this was their usual attire.

She paused and took a deep breath before approaching. He turned to her as soon as she approached. His abyss-black eyes felt especially terrifying this day, but it must be her imagination.

"Are you here for your punishment?" he asked with a level tone.

"Patriarch, with all due respect, I don't think I deserve punishment."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Patriarch, you never told me Bella was strong enough to protect anyone, nor did you teach me any beast taming techniques. Until she saved my skin, quite literally, yesterday, I never saw her as anything more than a pet. It was my understanding that you had bound her to me only to counter the damage she had caused to my soul, nothing else. Even if that wasn't so, during the attack, she had been by my side for only three days, and she had been a carnifex before that. I don't mean to offend or criticize you, but I believe you failed to communicate your expectations of me to me. It's not my fault I failed to deliver on something I wasn't even aware of."

He looked at her silently for a very long time, then nodded. "I hoped to work around your mental health issues with soft guidance, but if you can argue logically like that, they are deeper and harder to deal with than I thought. I can't help you."

"What?!" She widened her eyes in surprise. What mental issues?! Where had that come from?!

"You and your beast share an absolute Mistress-Slave Soul Contract, Alys. A contract I created myself. Do you know why the beast didn't protect everyone? Because you didn't want to protect everyone. Do you know why it didn't protect you? Because you didn't want to protect yourself."

She frowned. That sounded very, very much like a logical leap. Certainly, there were other reasons for Bella's inaction. "I don't... That doesn't even make sense, Patriarch," she replied sincerely.

He poked her forehead. "When I rewarded you for bringing me to this world, I told you to let go of Arcane Energy and cultivate Mind Energy instead. Do that with alacrity, for it comes with many mental benefits. Unfortunately, I don't know what underlying mental issues you have, nor is it my duty as a Patriarch to take care of that for you. Does this world have healers specialized in healing the mind?"

Aaron had minor training in psychology and psychiatry. It wasn't part of the Higher Arts, but you couldn't properly lead a clan without the capability to at least spot some issues of your clan members. Though he could work on Alys, it was contraindicated for people who were somewhat close to engage in therapy as healer and patient, and unless he read her mind, he would need her to talk about what ailed her to treat her. Moreover, he didn't have the time for that.

She nodded. "Mind Healers and some Priests can heal well. Mind Mages, Mentalists, and Monarchs don't specialize on that but they can help too."

"Find one of those to help you understand your behavior. It would be best to get rid of whatever this is, but that's your choice. That said, we can't have you putting the clan at risk because you want to suffer. Until you're convinced of your shortcomings and are looking for a way to work around them, I will both postpone your punishment and have you removed from any protective posting. It makes little sense to punish you without you understanding what you did wrong; it would only sow resentment between us. Just know that I am sure of my judgment. At the very least, the beast would've acted if you had any genuine desire to protect yourself from the damage you were receiving. You had none."

That was a weird claim. She felt quite offended too. She almost told him to go screw himself. Instead, she said, "Patriarch, I developed a skill to stop the pain. I couldn't have been enjoying it."

"You developed an entirely new skill to stop the pain. Instead, you could have improved your already existing protective skill to cover the surface of your skin too, thus stopping both the damage you were receiving on your skin and the pain."

She was getting even more upset. "I cannot be blamed for having the wrong type of enlightenment while being skinned alive!" She said loudly.

He looked with pity at her. It just made her even more furious.

"Yes, you can, Alys," he said firmly. "That would be the appropriate kind of enlightenment to have. I have studied it enough to know."

It had never been so hard to not swear at someone, but she wanted his power, and for that, she would swallow any pride she had.

"If you say so," she said with obvious hostility. Even she couldn't hide all the anger she was feeling.

His face made it clear that he wasn't amused with her attitude. "I do. Come talk to me after you have switched your Arcane Energy for Psychic Energy and found some help. I'll have the professional scrutinized to make sure you'll be safe in their hands."

"Yes. Patriarch."

"Then go take care of that." He waved his hand at her dismissively and turned to the Builder. "Why not distribute the pillars like this?" He used Arcane Energy to create a transparent purple projection above the blueprint. It had content similar to the blueprint, except for some changes. "This decreases the number of pillars by three per floor and increases the resistance by almost a third."

"Ha!" The Builder laughed ironically. "In theory, yes! But the Stonemason is a shady son of a pig, he is! He has delivered me shitty stones before, and I can't just magically check the insides of an eventide voidstone, now can I? His shitty deliveries are not common, but not rare either. My project will stand even if one in every ten of his stones is shitty! That's how outstanding I, the Builder, am!"

Alys bowed very slightly to the Patriarch and left while three Templars approached. She, a Four Star Shaper, was to find a Mind Healer or a Priest to treat her mental disease. That was humiliating. And stupid. She didn't have any issues!

But she would find such a professional anyway, just to show the Patriarch that he had been wrong for once.

The Kingdom of Illyria had ten Templar Knights, five of whom were stationed in key locations throughout the nation. The other half kept to the capital, and the Temple of Light always had at least two knights protecting it. So, the three Templar Knights who came to talk to Aaron were the most one could find walking freely at any time.

They wore identical white armor, but two were Two Star Qi Manipulators and One Star Devouts, while the third was a Three Star Qi Manipulator and a Two Star Devout. The latter was that kingdom's Captain of Light.

The three got to one knee when they approached Aaron, then removed their helmets. They were young, no more than thirty. Their short hair and eyes were golden, a consequence of becoming a Templar Knight of the Light.

"Raise," Aaron said and looked at the captain. "Did you find a healer for my maid?"

He nodded. "Yes, herald." His voice was firm and clear. "The High Priestess who just recently performed the Ritual of Virtue for the king is known for her healing prowess. We invited her back to perform cosmetic healing, and she accepted it. But before coming, she requests that you give her your word that she won't be conscripted into the Holy Crusade."

Aaron didn't even know he could conscript a High Priestess into the crusade. The Temple of Light's rulebook had said High Priests were above him in the temple's hierarchy, and it contained very little information about what he could do outside starting a crusade.

"I can do that?" he asked.

"That is not for me to teach you, herald," the captain answered apologetically.

The former immortal had received that same answer, letter by letter, anytime he tried to get information about his actual power in the Temple of Light. It was clearly greater than what he had been led to believe, but someone didn't want him to know.

His best guess was pantheon rules. Some Priests and the Templar Knights were in the secret, while the king and Alys knew nothing about it. He guessed he could learn it by simply accepting One Star Holy Energy from the Goddess of Light, but he would never allow alien energy outside his control to find a home in his dantian.

So, he had been finding his limits by touch, little by little. Sometimes, the Devouts helped with seemingly innocent questions or requests as the High Priestess' one.

"Tell her I'm very thankful for everything she is willing to do for me." They all denied that they were trying to teach him, so he even had to thank them in a roundabout manner. "I promise I won't conscript her into the Holy Crusade."

"I will let her know, herald." He made a pause then said, "I have a request."

The two other Templar Knights looked shocked at the man. Aaron at least knew enough about the Templar Knights, which he was supposedly in control of, to understand the man had overstepped his boundaries badly.

Lucky Templar, Aaron didn't care about rules he could ignore unless he had made them himself. Unlucky Templar, Aaron very much liked rules that made people incapable of asking him dumb stuff, thus eating his time away. This time, he would listen, but that better be good.

"Yes?"

"Heald, please reconsider using this kingdom as the rendezvous point for the troops of Light. It doesn't have the infrastructure to deal with the few hundred thousand combatants that will come to ride under the goddess banner."

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "There are ten million people in this capital, captain, and I have never seen a single starving person in here. Not that I looked, of course. Yet, an extra few hundred thousand people should be but a minor issue."

"I respectfully disagree, herald," he said firmly.

"Based on...?"

"I have lived in this kingdom for fifteen years. I have seen how it is at the brink of disaster. The king thrives in putting his nobles in conflict with each other, and he has done much to put the general populace and nobles at odds too. I have witnessed him badmouth the needy in grand balls, then donate large amounts of food to the needy while badmouthing the nobility to them. His donations kept at least half a million people fed every day."

"Kept? Past tense?"

The captain nodded. "After the king admitted to his wrongdoings in the Ritual of Virtue, he had to spend a lot of money to not get deposed. He had gone as far as asking the Temple of Darkness for a quote to kill every Devout of Light in the city, for goddess' sake! The Priests that accompany him on his public penitence are there as much to oversee his actions as to protect him from the more zealous followers of Light. I'm honestly surprised he's still alive."

"That's splendid news. Thank you for that, captain. Your request has been denied. Go bring me that High Priestess to heal my maid."

The captain looked incredulously at Aaron. People starving was splendid news? He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Aaron had already turned back to the blueprint. The Templar shut his mouth, shook his head, and left.

"Builder, look at his map," Aaron said, taking a city map from his storage ring. "Where is the poorest area of the city?"

The man immediately pointed at a region in the fifth layer. "Right here."

"Now, tell me, have you ever built an apothecary processing plant before?"