This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

The dining hall was the size of a ballroom.

That was Kain’s first thought as he entered it.

His second was that the table—made of polished blackwood with silver leaf trim—could probably host a diplomatic summit. Easily thirty seats stretched along its length, every chair carved with the Storm family crest: a chalice overflowing with wild, jagged spiritual flames. But only three places were set.

One at the head.

Two flanking the center.

Serena’s father sat at the head of the table like a man carved from marble—shoulders square, expression unreadable, eyes glinting beneath pale lashes. His posture was perfect. His hands rested lightly over a sheathed dagger at his waist, as if he always dined prepared to gut an intruder.

Kain occupied the seat to his left.

Serena sat across from him, elegantly poised, sipping soup like she hadn’t just thrown him into a pit of hungry dragons and locked the door.

Kain poked at his plate.

Roasted auric fowl. Moonfruit compote. Shaved crystalroot salad.

Delicious, no doubt. Probably the most expensive meal Kain has ever had an opportunity to eat, certainly. And completely inedible under the pressure of being stared at like a war criminal.

The worst part?

Serena hadn’t even tried to ease the tension.

She hadn’t redirected the conversation. Hadn’t told her father to stop glaring. Hadn’t even made a joke to break the ice.

She was letting it happen.

Kain swallowed down a sigh and tried to force a bite down anyway. The succulent, perfectly cooked meat somehow tasted like sand soaked with his tears.

Then—

“So,” Serena said, her voice light, “how’s the Central region looking these days?”

Her father blinked once and turned away from Kain to look at her.

Thank the stars. She must have heard his prayers.

“Unstable,” the man said. His voice was deep. Cold. Polished. “The Abyssal energy readings have spiked. Four new minor outbreaks near the capital. Two major ones further out. We’ve already deployed three forward teams.”

“Any response from Elowen Haven?” Serena asked.

“No,” her father replied. “But we’re keeping channels open.”

Serena nodded. Her father continued to explain a few more work details in that same precise tone. Kain didn’t say a word. He just listened, occasionally nodding as if he were supposed to be part of the conversation.

Eventually, the two lapsed into more general small talk—Imperial politics, new marriages between noble houses, other news from the empire’s high society—and Kain started to relax.

But only slightly.

His mind wandered back to earlier. After arriving and being shown into the estate. A servant had silently led him down an opulently carpeted corridor, past no fewer than four sitting rooms, two private libraries, and a glass-ceilinged atrium.

Then, they’d stopped in front of a massive door located on the far end of the eastern wing. Kain had opened it to find what could only be described as a suite: velvet-curtained windows, a marble bathing chamber, and a ceiling mural that probably required a dedicated artist. And yet, what stood out most was the distance. He hadn’t needed a map to realize they had placed him in the exact opposite wing of the house that Serena had headed to for her room. Coincidence? He doubted it.

The servant had waited politely just outside and escorted him to the dining room once he’d finished bathing. Kain had been grateful for the guide. Without him, he might’ve wandered the estate for hours…

Serena’s voice suddenly snapped him out of his reverie.

“Oh, Father,” she said casually. “Kain brought some minerals with him. Rare ones. We were hoping to get them appraised.”

Her father’s eyes snapped back to Kain like a guillotine blade. Although his expression didn’t change too much, it was noticeably colder at the reminder that there was an intruder on their father-daughter dinner.

Kain resisted the urge to choke on his water. ‘Seriously?!’

He wanted to glare at her, but her expression was calm. Encouraging. Her chin even tilted slightly, as if to say Go on, it’s fine.

No. No, it was not fine.

But fine.

He sighed and reached into his spatial ring.

One by one, he pulled out the samples he’d chosen and moved to his space ring when given a few minutes alone to wash up. They were all fist-sized hunks of ore—some dull, some sparkling. Cracked crystals. Color-shifting alloys. A midnight-blue hunk veined with gold. A jagged red sliver that vibrated faintly in his palm. Every colour and texture one could think of. All of them had been pulled from underground caches or cliffside deposits in Pangea.

Each one had potent energy contained within and Kain could tell that they should be high-quality metals.

He just hadn’t had the means to identify them.

He placed them gently on the white silk table runner between himself and Serena’s father.

The man looked down at them without moving.

Then he lifted one.

A black-and-purple shard with feathered ridges like volcanic glass.

His fingers turned it slowly. No spiritual probe. No words. Just touch.

Then he picked up another sample—a yellow-orange hunk that shimmered faintly in the candlelight—and his brows pinched.

“Where exactly did you find these?” he asked, voice quiet.

Kain kept his tone neutral. “In the…in the wilderness.”

Not technically a lie. They are from the wilderness… in Pangea.

He didn’t mention that most of these had been… borrowed from a dragon’s personal hoard.

—————

Meanwhile in Pangea…

Mountains split as a gold dragon roared in fury, shaking the region with his rage. Lightning spiralled across the horizon.

Aurem’s hoard was empty.

Empty.

The prized ore collection he (well, technically, his underlings) had spent a great deal of time and energy amassing—gone.

Gone without a trace.

“I WILL FIND THE THIEF!”

The scream echoed across valleys, forests, and several unlucky low level spiritual creatures who happened to be within earshot had their ears begin to bleed uncontrollably from the roar.

—————

Back in the Storm manor…

Serena’s father gently set the yellow-orange ore down and picked up a darker purple sample.

“This looks similar to Originsteel-Touched ore. But the density of spiritual power and purity of the mineral is higher than any I’d seen before” he said finally.

Kain’s eyes narrowed. “Is that rare?”

Serena’s father looked at him like he was an idiot. “It only forms when energy from the planet’s origin erupts from its core and seeps into an already high-quality ore that can contain the energy.”

‘Planet’s origin? Energy from the core?’ Kain suspected that this was what he called Source energy.

Serena’s father continued, “It’s anti-corrosive. Resistant to spiritual decay and even Abyssal energy. Extremely strong yet highly conductive for spiritual power. It cannot be replicated artificially. Most major Abyssal response squads try to have at most one weapon forged with even a small gram of it.”

“…Oh.”

He set that one down and picked up a third. Then a fourth.

Finally, he spoke again.

“You brought me some of the highest-grade naturally occurring metals I’ve seen in years. Some I can’t even immediately identify at my level. I may need to ask my teacher for help identifying them.”

Kain blinked.

“My father,” Serena cut in smoothly to talk to Kain, “studied under the Exalted Grandmaster Halreth himself.”

Serena’s father neither confirmed nor denied her claims. Not because he was being humble, but more likely he couldn’t be bothered to explain his credentials to Kain.

Serena, seeing the lack of response, continued breaking the silence.

“Father even passed the exam to become a Master Forger by his thirties. He likely would be even more accomplished in the field if he didn’t choose to focus on his personal strength and cultivation.”

Still no response.

“So,” Serena said sweetly in a tone that Kain had never heard before, “I thought it’d be a good idea to ask your opinion about how to exchange the ores for funds for the auction on such short notice.”

Her father didn’t respond.

Instead, he gathered the samples and slowly stood.

“I’ll test them in the forges tonight and let you know by morning what I think,” he said. “Before the auction.”

He turned and began walking away.

At the doorway, he paused.

“Guest chambers are cleaned every morning at sunrise. I hope you rise earlier than that.”

The door shut behind him.

Kain sat very still.

Then, finally, he turned to Serena.

“I am going to die here.”

She smirked slightly, stealing one of the elderberries from his barely touched plate. “Probably.”

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