NOVPUBThe torchlight flickered along the corridor as Leonhardt walked ahead, his coat draped lazily over one shoulder, boots silent against the black stone. Erina followed a step behind—measured, restrained—but her heart pounded far louder than their steps.
The wall behind her had gone cool.
But Erina's skin still pulsed where his fingertips had lingered. She followed him in silence, not because she had to, but because her feet no longer listened to her doubts.
Every step beside him felt like walking through a fog of sensation.
The dungeon pulsed softly with ambient mana, its touchstones flickering hues of violet and blue. The light wasn't warm, but the presence beside her was.
Leonhardt walked a half-step ahead, his coat loose on his shoulders, the scales along his spine catching faint glimmers of light like onyx in motion. His tail moved with languid ease behind him, cutting shapes through the air. She tried not to stare.
She failed.
This wasn't the same Leonhardt who sat with her by the fire in Arlet. This man was larger. Sharper. Like something carefully honed—and newly dangerous.
"Walk with me," he'd said.
She was.
But she didn't know if she was walking beside him… or toward him.
He said nothing, and the silence between them settled like a second skin. Erina's thoughts crawled over themselves, each one heavier than the last. Was she breathing harder because of him? Was her heart racing because of him?
Yes.
No.
Maybe.
She couldn't trust herself anymore.
Then, as they passed under a low arch lined with spider-thread etchings, Leonhardt stopped. His eyes glanced at a pulse node embedded in the wall—a soft, organic glow that beat like a second heartbeat in the stone.
Her thighs pressed slightly together. The sensation of the earlier scene hadn't faded. She still felt it in her chest, in her breath, in the slick warmth that made her robes feel too heavy now. But worse was the comfort. The warmth in the centre of her belly. As if her body had accepted it. Accepted him.
And he hadn't said a word.
He hadn't even touched her since.
That made it worse.
"Where are we going?" she asked, the words thinner than she intended.
Leonhardt didn't turn. "To the outpost. I want to see how the goblins are doing."
She nodded, trying not to focus on the sway of his scaled tail. She tried to breathe through her mouth. It didn't help.
Then came the click-clack.
Very soft. Too faint for Leonhardt to react. But Erina turned.
Behind them, maybe twenty feet, a slim figure crouched low against the wall, eyes glowing faintly. Erina squinted.
Vyx.
The mischievous succubus gave her a cheeky grind and pressed a finger to her lips.
Her goat-like legs shifted behind a column like a child sneaking cookies from a forbidden jar. The polished stone floor beneath her hooves gave her away in soft, rhythmic ticks.
'Why is she following?'
Erina stiffened and moved closer to Leonhardt as a result.
"What's the matter, Erina?"
"N-Nothing... I just..."
"Hmm, I see."
Though she might have seemed strange, Leonhardt just nodded his head and smiled.
His mind seemed to be more occupied with the dungeon than with her right now. Erina's chest became heavier thinking about this... but she also understood that Leon wasn't like a normal man.
At least human men.
Vyx grinned wider as if she'd noticed.
The succubus didn't speak.
She just crept forward one step at a time, hooves muffled now by her spell-muted gait, arms swinging playfully behind her back like a schoolgirl waiting for a scolding. She didn't wear the maid outfit correctly—her top was half-unbuttoned, her skirt twisted, her collar open wide enough to tease... but not quite reveal.
Erina looked at Leonhardt.
Still ahead. Still walking.
Still ignoring it.
Or pretending to.
She bit the inside of her cheek. "She's following us."
Leonhardt's voice came without pause. "I know."
"...And?"
"If she's quiet, let her."
That was it.
No rebuke. No command to send her back. Just quiet permission.
"Are you jealous of them?" He asked.
"Eh?" 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
Erina gazed back at Vyx, who was happy, bouncing hooves clicking, and fell into a casual pace just a few steps behind Erina, her wings folded neatly, posture unusually proper now. But the heat radiating off her, the scent, the presence—it differed from before.
Not seductive.
That's why Erina found it strange.
Unlike Zafira, these succubi didn't seduce Leonhardt; instead, it was different... strange. Another type of affection.
This wasn't just some unruly succubus tailing her creator. This was a girl trying to follow her father.
'She's not a rival,' Erina thought bitterly.
'But his daughter. Yet it doesn't make this easier.'
Erina's aura fluctuated each time her thoughts lingered on Leonhardt. His red eyes shimmered with a blue light as he noticed the changes with a smile.
Her once golden aura now looked darker, a shade of violent seeping through it, staining her in Leonhardt's colour.
The entrance opened, instead of teleporting, they took the long path down the first squares of his dungeon as the Embervale Outpost came into view, a beautiful black and amber wall sizzling with braziers and a massive black-iron gate with glowing red sigils.
A dozen goblin guards with curved axes and armour protected the gates, their taller red bodies appealing to the eye, with twenty archers scurrying along the walls.
One saluted clumsily. The other bowed.
Leonhardt stepped through the arch without slowing, but Erina hesitated.
Vyx brushed past her, humming under her breath.
"You don't have to fight me," the succubus whispered, smiling without malice. "I'll help you seduce my daddy~"
Erina's cheeks flushed pink, hearing the succubus whispering to her.
Stunned, she blinked. "What?"
But Vyx didn't explain. She followed Leonhardt through the gate.
And Erina... followed them both.
Thanks to the addition of Hanz, the goblin craftsmanship increased tenfold. He only took a few goblins at first, but once the embervale goblins proved themselves, he brought more and more into his workshop, which was now the same size as an entire ring in Astrea city.
The outpost opened like a wound carved into the mountainside.
Thick chains crossed over the gate's interior mechanisms, reinforced with overlapping dungeon glyphs and pulsing mana cores. Spiked parapets jutted from the battlements, and rows of scavenged ballistas were mounted in strategic positions—half-goblin, half-dungeon forged. It wasn't a castle. Not yet.
But it was becoming one.
This was Hanz and his vision.
"My lord's castle must be the best!" He bellowed when recruiting the goblins, but the bonfire goblin did more than just improve the citadel... Tools, weapons, armour, even the dungeon cutlery were his design.
Leonhardt stepped into the central courtyard without hesitation, eyes scanning the evolving layout. The earth was blackened from heavy mana absorption. Watch towers dotted the perimeter, each one pulsing faintly.
A half-finished barracks covered in scaffolding stood to the left of the citadel, made from spider-silk ropes and bone-laced wood.
Goblins scurried.
Hundreds of them.
Some hauling stone. Others with blueprint scrolls. A few armed and patrolling in jagged formations, their armour haphazard but effective.
A small group paused when they saw him.
And dropped to one knee.
"Master!"
"Father!"
"The great one has come!"
Not for show. Not because they'd been ordered to. It was instinct. Recognition. The magic running through the foundation of this place was no longer just dungeon-born.
It was Leonhardt's.
The ticklish feeling spread through his body, to see these goblins worship him... yet they didn't do it because he asked, or the dungeon desired it. But because they wanted to!
That's what made Leonhardt so happy.
"You need not kneel or bow, stand and complete your tasks. My brothers."
Erina stepped in beside him, eyes darting around the courtyard. The smell of sulfur, sweat, and mana-laced steel stung her nose.
"This place..." she whispered.
Vyx popped up beside her, hands clasped behind her back, tail swaying. "Neat, right? It's like a goblin ant hill… if ants were cute and murdery."
Erina gave her a look. "That's not helping."
Leonhardt turned toward a raised platform where three goblins stood, distinct from the others, not by size, but by presence. At the centre, a familiar one adjusted her robes and stepped forward.
Goblina—Lina—Head of the Goblin Council.
Today, she wore her priestess variant robes, dyed in dark crimson and deep violet, fringed in golden thread. Her eyes shone with something between reverence and madness as she spotted Leonhardt.
"Master," Lina greeted, her voice sweet and sharp. "You grace us. I sensed your arrival the moment the soil warmed."
To her left, Griv bowed too fast and nearly dropped the satchel slung over his shoulder.
"Lord Leonhardt," the goblin butler began, then flinched as Snaggle, now in a bright purple waistcoat, stepped on his foot.
"You mean 'Master,' you idiot. He's not your cousin from the sewer!"
"I wasn't raised in the sewer, you rat-faced—!"
"ENOUGH."
Leonhardt's voice silenced the courtyard.
Even Vyx stopped twirling her hair.
He stepped forward, just once, and the mana-pulse across the outpost deepened. Like the earth beneath their feet recognised him. The outpost's breath aligned with his own.
Leonhardt looked down at Lina.
"Have you located their movements and camp?"
Lina's eyes shone with a sultry glow, causing Vyx to tremble and hide behind Erina.
Lina's smile didn't fade, but her tone tightened. "Yes. South of the ruined lizard warren! Just beside Arlet village."
Erina's throat tightened.
Leonhardt didn't blink.
"They didn't approach?"
"No. But they found the outer trade tunnel. They burned the goblin totems... and left their own in its place."
"A warning?" Erina asked.
Lina looked at her. Her smile stretched.
"A declaration."
Leonhardt turned to Erina. "This is their first move. They think I'll strike back immediately."
"You won't?"
"I will," he said. "But not here."
He turned to the south, and his lips curled into a twisted and crazed smirk.
"I am going to make Astrea burn."
