Archpriestess, seeing her puppy eyes weren't working on him, let her lips twitch ever so slightly. 'He's grown resilient too... I like it,' she thought to herself with a strange mix of admiration and frustration.
Still, she wasn't about to give up that enormous amount of money—funds that could sustain her Empire for years, maybe even decades.
So what did she do?
Something clever... something simple. Take him to the orphanage, and let the rest unfold naturally~
After all, she knew Aether far too well. She understood his heart.
Aether stood there, staring blankly at the crowd of children who had swarmed around him. They clung to him like a group of curious kittens discovering a warm human for the first time. Their big, sparkling eyes and innocent grins made it almost surreal.
One moment, he was sipping tea in the quiet comfort of her room—and the very next... he found himself in the middle of this chaotic bundle of laughter and noise.
