It happened like a switch being flipped off.

One moment Alyssa’s body had been hovering in the air with effortless grace, carried by the will of an ancient primordial. The next, that presence was simply gone — and without it, the body had nothing holding it up.

She dropped.

Everyone watched for a beat too long, collectively frozen, as the small figure fell toward the floor from a height that was quite significant for someone of her size. Six feet was nothing for a regular person. For Alyssa, it was a different story entirely.

Aaron snapped out of it first. He reached out with his mana quickly, catching her midway and bleeding off the velocity until she was moving slow enough to be lowered the rest of the way without any impact. She touched the floor gently, settling onto her back like someone being placed into bed, small and still and completely unaware of how close she had just come to a very undignified landing.

Nobody got the chance to appreciate the save.

The moment Alyssa was safely on the ground, Claire and Eva turned and descended on Aaron simultaneously. They moved like they had coordinated it in advance, closing in from both sides with the focused energy of people who had been sitting on questions for too long and had finally run out of patience.

"Explain," Claire said flatly.

"What the hell just happened? Who was that woman? Being? Monster?" Eva added, her words running together slightly.

Aaron looked at their faces — two sets of wide eyes, both clearly shaken, both demanding answers at once — and had to physically suppress the urge to laugh. It was the kind of situation that shouldn’t be funny and somehow was anyway. He knew better than to let even a hint of amusement show, though. Claire’s expression had the particular quality of someone who had already decided to throw a punch and was simply waiting for a good excuse to do it.

Instead of answering, he wrapped an arm around each of their waists and pulled them both in.

One of them yelped in surprise. The other made a sound of resistance, sharp and indignant, before going still and reluctantly allowing it. It wasn’t hard to tell which reaction belonged to which woman.

"Calm your tits, women," he said, keeping his voice light and teasing so the words landed the way he meant them to.

Then he turned to Eva specifically, narrowing his eyes. "Also, what is with your question? Didn’t I just narrate the whole class trial run to you? It shouldn’t be hard to guess who that woman was!"

Eva pulled her brows together. "Then what the hell was she doing inside Alyssa?! Your descriptions are overlapping!"

"Well, obviously I don’t know the exact details, but do you really think possessing someone else’s body is a big deal for someone of her strength? Especially when that someone was a member of the race that was created by her?"

Eva opened her mouth. Closed it again. There wasn’t really a good counter to that, and most of what she was asking was less about needing answers and more about needing somewhere to put all the confusion that had been building since the moment Bella’s aura had hit them both like a wall.

What was really sitting at the back of her mind, though, was the parting instruction Bella had left her with.

A small gift. If she could grow Alyssa to normal human size.

The problem was that small gift covered an enormous range of possibilities and narrowed down exactly none of them. A level advancement was a small gift. A useful item was a small gift. A single candy from a market stall was also, technically, a small gift. Without any further detail, Eva had no way of knowing whether the effort involved was going to be worth what she got for it.

Aaron read her expression and got there ahead of her.

"Remember that Lady Karen gave me a primordial bloodline for a partial completion?" He raised an eyebrow. "She didn’t need to give me anything at all, but she still handed me something that valuable as a freebie. I don’t think the primordials are going to be cheap with their gifts."

He paused, then added with a small smile, "As for why she called it a small gift — you’re actually right to question that. It could be anything and everything. The plane of existence that we live on is nothing but small to her."

That reframing landed visibly. Eva’s expression shifted, the uncertainty giving way to something brighter as her mind started filling in the blank with more optimistic possibilities. A bloodline. A rare ability. Something that could change the entire shape of her future. The excitement moved through her quickly and without apology.

"Though," Eva said, following the thought to what she apparently considered its logical conclusion, "you had slept with Lady Karen before she gave you any gifts. Do I need to sleep with Lady Bellanoir to receive good gifts as well?"

Aaron stared at her.

The silence lasted several seconds. He turned and looked at Claire, the appeal in his expression entirely clear — a wordless request for backup, for someone to please help address whatever was happening with this line of reasoning.

"Oh, what are you looking at me for? I am not getting anything at all!" Claire informed him, her arms folded, her tone carrying the distinct flavor of someone who had decided to be aggrieved about something and was fully committed to it.

He was on his own.

"Sleep... with... empress...?"

The voice was quiet and slightly unsteady, coming from somewhere low in the room. Everyone turned, found nothing at eye level, and then looked down.

Alyssa was awake.

She was lying on the floor where Aaron had placed her, blinking at the ceiling with the slow, uncertain focus of someone whose body and mind were not yet fully in agreement about the current situation. But she had heard enough.

For someone who regarded Bella as something close to a goddess, Eva’s casual suggestion had landed somewhere between offensive and genuinely incomprehensible. She lacked the energy to do anything about it, though. Her head felt like it was full of static and her limbs seemed to have forgotten their purpose. Scolding anyone right now was simply beyond her current capability.

"Heyyy, welcome back to the realm of the living!" Aaron crouched down and scooped her up carefully, the same way you’d pick up something small and slightly fragile, like a sleepy kitten that hadn’t asked to be moved but wasn’t in a position to object.

"Mhmm." Alyssa made a small sound in the back of her throat. Then, in a quiet murmur: "I feel like I am dying a little too much ever since coming in contact with Sir Aaron."

Aaron cleared his throat. "You’re alright now, just chill!"

Alyssa blinked a few times and looked around. Her eyes traveled across the room, taking in the scale of the furniture, the height of the ceiling, the general size of everything around her — and then settled on Aaron, then Claire, then Eva.

"So large..." she said softly. "Is everyone here a monster like you? Why would you even bring me into such an unfair world, Sir Aaron?"

Claire laughed, warm and genuine. "Don’t worry, sweetheart. While we all are larger than you, there won’t be monsters like him here. We are nice."

"Says the one that was running to slice me into salami with her blade..." Aaron muttered, just barely under his breath.

A single side-eye from Claire shut him up with impressive efficiency.

He stepped back and left the two women to introduce themselves to Alyssa properly, letting the conversation settle into something quieter and warmer without him in the middle of it. He had somewhere to be, and more immediately, he needed to check what he actually looked like before going anywhere.

He found a cracked mirror across the room and stopped in front of it.

His nanotech suit responded to a silent prompt, shifting and expanding into clothing that looked like it belonged on Solaris — casual, unremarkable, the kind of thing that didn’t invite a second glance. It settled neatly over the wing-backpack, smoothing out the shape underneath until the whole arrangement looked like an ordinary bag worn against his back.

That left one remaining problem, and the mirror confirmed it clearly. His eyes. The bestial slits stared back at him, red-tinged and sharp, the kind of eyes that made people take a step back before their brain had finished processing why.

He sent a quick instruction to the nanotech. The cosmetic function had never given him any trouble, and it didn’t now. A pair of classic aviator shades formed over his eyes, clean and unhurried. The dangerous slits disappeared behind dark lenses.

He studied his reflection for a moment longer.

Old was gold. The classics never stopped working.

He turned back toward the group, where Alyssa was already sitting upright in Eva’s hands, looking more alert than she had five minutes ago.

"Okay, I know you just revived and all, but daddy’s got some important work. Hop into my pocket." He kept his voice easy and smiled slightly at her.

Alyssa’s expression shifted into something unexpectedly smug. She straightened up, lifted her chin, and responded with the energy of someone who had been waiting for this moment. "No need. My mommy offered me a much more comfortable spot."

She stood up from Eva’s palm with the kind of deliberate, unhurried grace that had absolutely no business belonging to someone who had been unconscious thirty seconds ago. She walked to the edge of Eva’s palm with a suave little sway to her steps, tiny hips moving with complete confidence.

Aaron watched.

Eva raised her hand toward her own neckline.

The bad feeling arrived before his brain had finished working out why.

And then it happened.

Alyssa slid smoothly into the opening of Eva’s cleavage and nestled herself between her plump breasts with the comfort of someone settling into a favorite armchair after a long day.

"Haah, so comfortable! I love it!"

Aaron stared. He looked at Eva. Then back at the general chest area. Then at Eva again.

"We need to get your breasts checked," he said, his voice completely flat. "I think I can hear them somehow."

"Haha, very funny," came the muffled grumble from somewhere inside Eva’s shirt.

Claire and Eva both laughed. Aaron continued staring at nothing in particular, quietly reconsidering several of his life choices.