Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 623: Bowing Deep

The association handled the transition with its usual efficiency.

A short request, a few verified credentials, and a reinforced transport vehicle arrived. Its frame was heavy, rune-lined for altitude and hostile terrain, engines humming with power as it settled against the mountain stone. Notifications were sent ahead through secured channels, destination confirmed, and identities authenticated.

Vespera was informed.

The doors sealed, the vehicle lifted, and the jagged mountain range slowly fell away beneath them.

The journey was smooth and saw Alexandra sit stiffly near the window with Nyx close enough that their arms brushed. The two old friends kept chatting, though it was mostly the pink-haired beauty encouraging her blonde bestie.

Aria watched the scenery pass with excitement while Luna dozed with her head resting against his shoulder. The two monster girls kept their education session going, with Bastet explaining to Calypso the marvels of the internet - namely, them watching funny cat videos.

Soon, the Ashborn manor rose from the land.

The vehicle came to a controlled stop at the outer grounds, and the doors opened without ceremony. Kaiden stepped out first and found a group of guards already waiting near the entrance.

Then the doors to the manor opened.

A line of maids and butlers filed out in practiced order and formed two neat rows along the path. They bowed deeply as one.

”Welcome home, young master.”

The words landed heavier than Kaiden expected.

He stopped without meaning to and simply looked at them. Every face was lowered. Every posture careful and respectful. There was no calculation in the gazes of these people now, just obedience and expectation.

Home.

That word felt strange.

Once, this place had never felt like that. When he was the only non-awakened member of the family, the servants had given him just enough respect to keep their jobs, nothing more. They spoke politely when others were present and sneered when they thought he would not notice. Some had smiled when he failed. Others had learned to look straight past him.

Now those same people bowed.

The difference had nothing to do with affection. It was power, pure and simple. He was no longer a liability or an embarrassment. He was useful, dangerous, and painfully visible. He was the firstborn son of the Ashborn family, and even if Selena was older, it did not take much thought to see how quickly his position was changing.

He had been disowned and carried the Grey name, but that detail felt temporary. A few signatures would be enough to correct it, and everyone standing here understood that.

They were not welcoming the boy they had dismissed as a failure in a family of genetic prodigies. They were welcoming the man who might one day pay their salaries, the man who might one day be their master.

Kaiden moved first and did not acknowledge the bows or the greeting.

He walked straight down the path between the servants with his girls at his sides or a half step behind him. No one spoke as he passed, and no one lifted their head. He gave them nothing to react to, and that absence carried more weight than any response would have.

Halfway down the line, an older butler stiffened and drew a breath as if muscle memory had taken over.

He opened his mouth to say something about protocol or order or how the household expected certain courtesies to be observed, the same way he had years ago when Kaiden had been younger and easy to correct.

Now, however, the words never came out. Kaiden merely looked at him without changing his expression, and the man felt the moment stretch until his throat tightened and his courage failed him.

He closed his mouth and lowered his head further, pulse hammering as he realized that he had misjudged the distance between them by a wide margin.

The guards stationed near the entrance stepped forward then, moving to flank Kaiden out of habit rather than instruction.

He raised a hand and gave them a small nod before they could fully fall in. ”It’s fine. I’m in the Ashborn Manor, a place defended by trustworthy men and women like you. I know no danger will befall me here.”

The guards straightened at once, shoulders squaring as pride replaced formality, and they stepped back without argument.

They had never treated him with contempt, even when he had been weak, because they had been chosen by Vespera, which naturally meant they were trained to become proper murder machines rather than gossiping servants.

The butler noticed. He felt it in the way the guards looked at Kaiden and in the way Kaiden dismissed them without diminishing their standing.

It settled into his gut with an unpleasant certainty. Power in this house was shifting, and servants who had survived by trading embarrassing rumors about Kaiden and the cruelty of his failures were the first to be swept aside when inheritances were decided.

He lowered his head further and began thinking about apologies he might offer and favors he might perform, because it was suddenly very clear to him that the young master remembered more than he hoped.

Kaiden continued inside without slowing his pace and without looking back, leaving the servants bowed behind him and the guards standing tall as the doors closed on the old order.

...

Kaiden followed the familiar corridors deeper into the manor until the space opened into one of the leisure halls that overlooked the inner gardens.

A flash of movement caught his eye, and a bronze-skinned teenager stepped out from near one of the seating areas. Naira froze for half a heartbeat when she saw him, and then her face split into a wide smile that erased any trace of hesitation. She crossed the distance quickly and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug that carried more strength than her petite frame suggested she was capable of.

”You’re back!” she said into his chest, smiling as she pulled away just enough to look up at him. ”Thank you, Kaiden, everyone. Really. Thank you for everything. My mother is recovering safely. She’s getting better every day, and she looks so healthy now! If I weren’t seeing her progress every day, I’d not be able to recognize her!”

Naira was the Native American girl who could be said to have changed the projection of his life with her involvement in the Calypso Dungeon clearing mission. Without her, he might not have met the demoness and missed the chance to claim her dungeon.

Her mother was a poor woman who volunteered to serve their tyrant leader, Varek, sparing Naira from having to enter his house and do horrible things.

”Oh?” Kaiden mused with mild surprise as his gaze lifted past her. ”Is that so?”

Naira grinned and stepped aside with a small flourish. ”Take a look for yourself!”

A woman stood a short distance away near one of the pillars. Her posture was straight but careful, as if she was still learning how to stand without pain. Her skin shared the same warm tone as her daughter’s, and her dark hair was braided neatly down her back.

She wore simple clothing cut for comfort rather than display, and it fit her far better than the rough, dirty garments Kaiden remembered from before.

She bowed deeply when she noticed his attention. ”I am grateful to you. You saved my daughter when I could not, and you gave us shelter when we had nowhere else to go.”