Shyrna stood alone outside Shen Luolin’s door. her elegant robes were spotless.
She held a tray covered with a fine cloth in both hands. Her posture was humble, lacking the unapproachable majesty she had shown yesterday. Instead, she looked like a common maid about to serve a meal to her master.
Lia had never seen such a sight. She usually felt intimidated even when facing Second Young Master Lucius, let alone this dignitary whom even the Second Young Master treated as a guest of honor.
Lia was so terrified she didn’t know where to put her hands, and her head buzzed.
‘A noble Dragonborn Envoy, personally… delivering breakfast?’
Shyrna ignored Lia, who was frozen in place, and walked straight into the room.
She approached Shen Luolin’s bedside and performed another impeccable bow. Then, she raised the tray high, offering it to Shen Luolin.
The cloth was removed, revealing a warm, white porcelain bowl resting in the center of the tray.
Inside the bowl was a half-portion of warm, milky-white liquid. A very faint fragrance drifted out in wisps, chasing away the chill in the room.
Shen Luolin had just sat up in bed when he was met with this scene, and his brain stalled for a moment.
‘What kind of new service is this?’
Shen Luolin’s brow furrowed imperceptibly.
He did not like unexplained debts of favor. At his core, Shen Luolin was still a modern man who valued reciprocity. He understood that accepting a gift from someone was often the beginning of even greater trouble.
Furthermore, this did not feel like a simple favor; it felt more like an ancient debt that could never be repaid.
The words reached the tip of his tongue, but Shen Luolin could only change his tone, adding a hint of helpless self-deprecation:
“The Envoy is being so serious that I am almost afraid to drink it.”
Shyrna acted as if she had not heard him, moving the bowl even closer.
“This is… the highest respect and blessing of our Dragonborn clan. Please, you must drink it.”
He was about to decline when he met Shyrna’s calm eyes.
There was nothing in that gaze but a gravity that brook no refusal, as if his failure to drink would be a profanation of some supreme existence.
At this point, refusing would just seem petty.
Shen Luolin said no more and took the white porcelain bowl.
When the liquid entered his mouth, it was not scalding, but possessed a strange, gentle warmth. It slid down his throat and into his stomach. Immediately, a powerful yet incredibly soft surge of warmth exploded from his abdomen, instantly rushing toward his four limbs and entire skeleton.
It was not a simple warmth, but a kind of nourishment originating from the very source of life.
In terms of taste, it was just hot milk with a hint of sweetness, yet it carried a familiar aura that made his heart tremble.
This power wrapped around him gently, much like the fireplace that always burned too brightly in the snowy cottage within the simulated world. It also felt like… the sorrow contained within that girl’s heart-wrenching cries at the moment he finally dissipated.
‘Was it an illusion?’
Shen Luolin suppressed that inexplicable throb in his heart, allowing the power to wash through his weak body.
He could clearly feel that the sense of frailty lurking within him was being forcefully washed away and repaired by this energy.
He drank the liquid in the bowl in a single breath.
Only after confirming he had swallowed the very last drop did the tense gravity on Shyrna’s face relax slightly.
She bowed once more, took the empty bowl, and withdrew. Her etiquette remained perfect from beginning to end.
Lia watched tremblingly from the side. It was only when the door closed that she dared to take a deep breath.
She leaned in, her voice shaking. “Master Luolin… what… what exactly is going on?”
“It is probably… social niceties,” Shen Luolin replied casually as he moved his body, feeling an unprecedented sense of fullness within him.
This favor was certainly substantial.
***
In the corridors of Frostwolf Keep.
Lilis finally could not hold it in any longer. She caught up to Shyrna, her small face filled with confusion.
“Teacher Shyrna, why are we being so respectful to Lord Luolin? Bowing and even personally delivering… that…”
She wanted to say “Empress’s Colostrum,” but the words felt too private as they reached her lips, and she forced herself to swallow them.
Shyrna’s footsteps paused. She did not look back, merely staring at the distant forest blurred by the wind and snow. Her voice sounded somewhat ethereal as it was carried by the wind.
“Lilis, do you remember The Great Massacre I told you about?”
“I remember…”
In the Dragonborn textbooks, the history of how the Old Empire once tried to exterminate the Dragonborn was clearly recorded. As an honor student, Lilis would naturally not forget a knowledge point that appeared on every exam.
“In that disaster, there were actually many surviving children who were secretly hidden by a young knight.”
“I was one of them.”
Lilis’s footsteps came to a sudden halt. She stared blankly at Shyrna’s back.
“The Dragonborn will never forget this kindness,” Shyrna said softly.
Lilis nodded, half-understanding, then whispered a small mumble.
“I thought… you were trying to steal a man from the Empress…”
“Lilis? What did you just say?”
“Nothing, Teacher Shyrna!”
Amidst their playful banter, the two passed a young man.
The youth wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and had a handsome face. He was dressed in a well-fitted black scholar’s robe, which seemed out of place in the grim atmosphere of Frostwolf Keep.
Noticing their identities, he smiled and stopped, performing an elegant and impeccable bow.
Shyrna and Lilis also nodded in return. They did not pay him much mind and hurried away.
The youth straightened up and adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose. However, the eyes behind the lenses clearly reflected the retreating figures of the two Dragonborn women.
Beneath that calm smile, dark undercurrents swirled.
***
Before Shen Luolin had the chance to carefully experience the changes in his internal strength, the tower door was pushed open once again.
There was no sound of knocking.
The person moved very lightly, as if a feather were drifting to the ground.
“Young Master Julian?!”
Amidst Lia’s exclamation, Shen Luolin looked up and met a smiling face.
It was the third son of the Frostwolf family, Julian Frostwolf.
He walked in with a smile, his gaze sweeping unnoticeably across the narrow room before finally landing on Shen Luolin.
His tone was gentle, and every word carried a perfectly measured sense of intimacy.
“Big Brother, it has been a long time. The air in your room… seems a bit sweeter than usual.”
He adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses on his face. The lenses reflected a sharp light as his gaze finally shifted from the air to Shen Luolin.
“And your complexion looks much better than the rumors suggested.”
“It seems that while I was away, Frostwolf Keep hosted some extraordinary guests who brought extraordinary gifts.”
Pressure came flooding in.
Unlike the overt aggression Lucius wore on his face, Julian’s sense of oppression was invisible, hidden beneath smiles and etiquette.
Shen Luolin met Julian’s gaze calmly.
“Your nose is as sharp as ever, Third Brother. Lia just burned some calming herbs. Is it worth such a fuss?”
“Is that so?”
Julian walked slowly to the table. His long fingers elegantly brushed across the tabletop. Though it was empty, he seemed to see something there, and the smile on his face grew even warmer. “After all, the stories of our Frostwolf family are always more exciting than others. Wouldn’t you agree, Big Brother?”