Chapter 74: Mira

Rael opened the menu and scanned the short list of evening dishes. Most of it was straightforward—grilled cuts, stews, bread, a few sides he did not recognize. He settled on the beef stew. When Mira returned he placed the order without looking up for long.

"Beef stew."

"Good choice," she said, already writing it down. "It’ll be out soon, handsome."

She left with a small sway that was probably deliberate. Rael’s eyes followed the motion of her hips before he caught himself and looked hard at the tabletop. Heat crawled up the back of his neck. He did not understand the sudden interest. He had never spent time staring at women like that before. The thought arrived uncomfortably clear: was this puberty finally arriving in full? The timing felt ridiculous. He had fought for his life in the First Realm, walked out of a family that discarded him, and only now his body decided to notice curves and short skirts. First Elena next door—calm, mature, older—and now this silver-haired rabbit-folk woman who looked years past him and spoke like she knew exactly what she was doing. He exhaled through his nose and forced the subject closed. Feeling it was one thing. Acting on it here was another.

Mira came back with the bowl and set it down closer than necessary. She leaned in to adjust the spoon and the edge of a napkin, which put the front of her fitted uniform uncomfortably near his face. The soft press of fabric and the light scent of whatever soap she used hit him at the same time. Heat that had nothing to do with the stew pooled lower. He kept his gaze on the bowl and his hands flat on the table.

"There you go," she said, voice warm and amused. "Careful, it’s hot. Wouldn’t want you burning that pretty mouth."

"Thank you."

She lingered half a second longer than the job required, then straightened with a small, knowing smile and moved to another table. Rael waited until she was gone before he picked up the spoon. The stew was better than he expected—rich, properly seasoned, the meat tender enough that it did not fight the bite. He had assumed most of the customers came only to watch Mira. The food itself was a legitimate reason to return. He ate steadily, using the simple act to push the earlier awareness back down where it belonged.

When the bowl was empty he sat back and waited. Mira noticed and returned, wiping her hands on her apron.

"So, handsome—how was the stew?"

Rael felt the tips of his ears warm again. "It’s good. Actually very good. And... I’d prefer if you didn’t keep calling me that. It’s embarrassing."

Mira’s ears gave a delighted little flick. "Come on. You’re no fun. Fine. What should I call you instead, sweetheart?"

"Rael."

"Rael." She tested the name like she was tasting it. "All right, Rael. I’m Mira, in case you forgot. Silver hair, these ears, the one who keeps making you turn red." She tilted her head, studying him with open playfulness. "You’re trying so hard to look serious. It’s cute."

He understood then, with slightly more clarity, that the teasing was not real interest. She was older, experienced, and clearly entertained by how easily he reacted. To her he was probably just a young customer who had only recently discovered certain feelings and had not yet learned to hide them. She was poking the reaction for her own amusement, nothing more. That knowledge helped. A little.

"How much for a room?" he asked, keeping his voice even.

Mira’s expression shifted into something more professional, though the spark in her eyes stayed. "We have a few types. Come on, I’ll show you so you can decide. Better than me talking at you down here."

She turned and led the way toward a side stair. Rael followed. The skirt of her uniform was short enough that the climb made looking anywhere else a deliberate effort. He fixed his eyes on the railing and the wall and told himself, not for the first time that evening, that short skirts should be illegal around people who were still getting used to their own pulse. His ears felt hot again. He said nothing.

On the second floor she stopped at a door on the right, unlocked it, and pushed it open.

"You’re alone, so you won’t need a double. And you don’t look like someone throwing platinum around. This should do."

The room was modest—single bed, small table, a window that looked out over a quieter side street, clean but nothing luxurious. It was smaller than his apartment on Titan and felt temporary in the way inn rooms always did. It was also exactly what he needed.

"This is fine," he said. "How much?"

"We charge by the day, the week, or longer. Longer stays get a discount. This room is ten silver a night. Take it for a week and it’s sixty. You save ten."

Rael did the quiet arithmetic. Sixty silver was not trivial, but it was manageable. The food was good, the location was inside the walls, and he could stay in Aetherion without burning through his coins too quickly. The only ongoing complication was the woman currently standing in the doorway watching him with that same teasing patience.

Mira stepped closer, one hand lifting to rest lightly against the side of her own chest in a gesture that was pure performance. "What do you think, Rael? Sweet enough deal for you?"

The movement pulled his eyes for a fraction of a second before he locked them back on her face. Embarrassment flared, sharp and immediate. He held onto his patience the way he had held onto the sword against the beasts he fought—tight, deliberate, refusing to give the reaction she was fishing for more than the minimum.

"The price is fine," he said. "I’ll pay for the week. On one condition."

"Oh?"

"Don’t stand so close to me. And ease up on the... rest of it."

Mira put a hand over her heart as if wounded, then laughed, soft and unoffended. "There it is. The serious face again. All right, all right. I’ll behave. Mostly." She held out a hand. "Sixty silver, and the room’s yours until the same day next week."

Rael counted the coins and placed them in her palm. Her fingers closed over them, warm and brief. She stepped back at last, giving him the space he had asked for.

"Enjoy the bed, Rael. If you need extra blankets or a late meal, just come down and ask. I’ll try not to make you blush too hard." Another small wink, gentler this time. "Sleep well."

She left, closing the door behind her with a quiet click. The teasing presence went with her. Rael stood alone in the small room for a moment, listening to the muffled sound of the common room below and the occasional footstep in the hall. The earlier heat under his skin slowly settled. He still did not fully understand why Elena and now Mira—both older, both carrying that calm, finished quality of women who had already grown into themselves—were the ones who pulled at the new, inconvenient awareness in him. Puberty was the easy answer. It was also the only one he had.

He sat on the edge of the bed, then lay back carefully, feeling the accumulated ache of the day’s fights in his shoulders and ribs. The ceiling was plain wood. The mana lamp on the table gave a steady, low light. Outside, Aetherion’s long night was fully in place.

It was time to look at the numbers.

Rael opened his status.

╔══════════ STATUS ═════════╗

Name: Rael

Race: Human

Level: 14 -> 15

Tier: Awakened

Main Class: Analyze (E-Rank), Infernomancer (B-Rank)

Copied Class: FrostHeart (A-Rank) (20%)

Bloodline: Abyssal Sovereign

Stage: Dormant

Effect: +100% Growth Multiplier

━━━━━━━━ ATTRIBUTES ━━━━━━━━

Strength: 44 -> 46

Agility: 50 -> 52

Mana: 48 -> 50

Vitality: 44 -> 46

Intelligence: 11 -> 12 (Sealed)

Unallocated Stats: 10

━━━━━━━━ RESOURCES ━━━━━━━━━

Souls: 88 -> 244

HP: 46 / 46

━━━━━━━━ SKILLS ━━━━━━━━━━━

Inferno Bolt (Expert), Hellfire (Expert), Flame Manipulation (Master), Frost Bolt (Novice) , Ice Armor (Apprentice), Frost Manipulation (Novice)

━━━━━━ BLOODLINE SKILLS ━━━━━━━

Conceal (Grandmaster)

╚═════════════════════════╝

He saw the level up even after killing the pack of fang wolfs and even an alpha he was still level up only by 1 it shows that as much as you level up it becomes harder to level up. Atleast his stats increase double compared to other people as every attributes of his increase by two who he levels up and he knows the common knowledge is that you only get one additional stats when you level up. It’s because of his bloodline he is becoming stronger at a double rate.

He could say even though his Tier is Awakened he could now easily beat anyone from his tier and even put a good fight to an average Awakened+ if he wants to. But it’s all in the theory nothing is sure until he tests it in real life. Rael lied back on the bed and closed his eyes and tried to sleep in this new world for the first time.

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