Extra: Yandere Milfs Obsessed with me!

The medical wing of Sky City was far, far from the outside turmoil. Inside, the silence was broken only by rhythmic humming.

These mana crystals, embedded in the mother-of-pearl walls, pulsed, filtering the air to extract every impurity. In one of the private rooms, the atmosphere was gloomy, steeped in a sharp odor where high-quality medicinal balms mixed with the lingering smell of dried blood.

Julian Frostvine lay on a bed. His torso was wrapped in tight bandages, concealing the wounds from his battle on the Tenebris continent.

Eyes fixed on the ceiling, he lost himself in his own thoughts, replaying on loop the horrors he had endured and what had happened to his friends.

At his bedside, Norah Walpurgy kept watch. Nox’s little sister, but also his girlfriend. Her eyebrow and lip piercings caught the reflections of the crystals, while her irises never left Julian’s face. Since his disastrous return, she had imposed herself; more than the nurse, she constantly took care of him.

Suddenly, the door leaf swung open silently. Duchess Irene Frostvine entered. Her long hair fell in silky cascades over her shoulders, framing a face whose aristocratic beauty was marred by deep marks of worry. Norah stood up quickly, smoothing her black leather dress.

"Good day... I didn’t know there was already someone inside," Irene began, stopping halfway, surprise visible in her eyes. Her gaze swept over the gothic silhouette of the elf before settling on her son. "You’re Julian’s girlfriend?"

Norah bowed with formal respect. "I greet Duchess Frostvine. This is our first official meeting, but I am indeed Julian’s partner," she replied in a neutral voice. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Irene gave a melancholic smile. "You don’t need to be so formal here. I would have liked to meet you under more welcoming circumstances, but reality gives us little respite." She cast a pained look at her son’s bandages.

"I’m really sorry about his condition," Norah murmured, understanding that the duchess shared part of her burden.

"It’s not necessary," Irene replied as she approached. "On the contrary, it reassures me to know someone watched over him during the year he distanced himself from us."

Norah gave Julian one last look. "It was a pleasure. I’ll leave you then... I’ll come back later." She left the room silently. Strangely, the usually crazy Norah could show decency when the situation demanded it.

Julian grunted an inaudible reply as Norah left the room, closing the door behind her. The silence that followed was heavy. Irene approached the bed, pulled the chair Norah had just vacated, and sat down slowly. Julian kept his eyes fixed on the ceiling, jaws clenched.

As usual, Irene had come to see Kaiser at the academy, but upon learning that her son had been brutally injured on a mission in Tenebris, especially after those ominous signs in the sky, she postponed their meeting for later and went to visit her son.

"So, how are you, Julian?" she asked, her voice filled with worry. Even if their relationship had worsened over the years, she was still his mother. The love she bore him was genuine.

Julian clenched his fingers on the sheets. "How do you think I’m doing?" he retorted with bitterness audible in his voice. His teeth clenched under a surge of pain. "I failed miserably. Plus, my body hurts like hell... I’m lying on this bed like a little shit!"

Her fingers brushed her son’s hand, but Julian pulled it away abruptly. She sighed, her gaze lost toward the room’s window.

"Failure is part of life, Julian... it’s through falling that we learn to stand up stronger," she murmured, her own memories resurfacing.

Julian sat up abruptly with a stifled groan. His bandaged muscles contracted violently, revealing an unusual tension under his skin. He stared at his mother, a gleam of suspicion burning in his gray eyes.

"Speaking of strength... what exactly happened to me?" he asked in a brutal tone. "During the final fight, I felt something explode in my chest. My mana... it didn’t just increase, it quadrupled all at once. According to the doctors’ reports, they say I’m now an A+ rank warrior, maybe even close to S rank... That’s absurd, right? No one gains that kind of power from mere adrenaline."

Irene looked away, her fingers nervously kneading the luxurious fabric of her emerald dress. From the doorway, she had felt it... Julian’s spirit blood had awakened, that blood inherited from his true Pleiades nature, but she was not ready to shatter the veil of lies protecting their existence.

’It’s still too dangerous for now...’

"It’s probably the extreme stress of the battle that triggered a late awakening of your potential, Julian," Irene replied evasively, refusing to meet his gaze. "Some people have hidden reserves that only manifest during existential crises; that must be your case."

Seeing the way his mother was acting, Julian immediately knew she was trying to hide things from him. If it had been before, it wouldn’t have mattered to him, but circumstances had changed.

"I think I at least have the right to understand what’s happening to me, don’t I?" he insisted, his voice rising an octave. "This mana... it doesn’t feel like anything usual. It’s cold, of a purity that Jasper says reminds him of when his cousin enters Resonance with her guardian spirit."

"We’ll talk about it when you’re out of here and can stand for more than ten minutes without shaking. For now, rest. That’s an order from your mother."

Julian remained silent for a moment... He finally let out a heavy sigh, his shoulders slumping.

"You’ll never understand what I feel," Julian murmured, turning his gaze toward the window. His voice was barely audible.

Irene, sitting on the edge of the bed, tilted her head slightly in incomprehension. She crossed her arms, trying to catch his gaze without succeeding. "What are you talking about?" she asked, a little perplexed.

Julian took a deep breath before sitting up abruptly. "I need to become much stronger... Today, I learned that that bastard is dead," he said suddenly, his voice growing colder as he tried to control his anger.

Irene froze, not really understanding why but feeling strange, her heart skipping a beat.

"Who are you talking about?" she asked, a cold sensation beginning to invade her limbs.

"Kaiser D. Paragon," Julian replied, ignoring the sudden paleness of his mother.

"He was a son of a bitch, that’s for sure... a manipulative dickhead. But... he was the one who helped me get together with Norah. He was a good guy, deep down. If I had been more powerful... if I hadn’t been so pathetic in Tenebris, I wouldn’t have lost against The Spectrum, and Kaiser wouldn’t have died in that assault on Paragon County."

"What!!!???"

She stood up in turn, staggering.