I Reincarnated as an Extra in a Reverse Harem World
Chapter 72: The Meeting [End]
CHAPTER 72: THE MEETING [END]
As the final echoes of the discussion faded, Alaric looked upon the trio one last time.
"You already know what to do,"
He said, voice returning to its calm gravity.
"Follow the path that glows... and walk away from the ones that don’t. That’ll do the trick."
The three bowed deeply.
"Yes, Lord Aurelian."
And with that, they turned and departed—silent shadows vanishing down the glowing corridor. The throne room’s doors closed behind them without a sound.
For a brief moment, silence reigned.
Then, the velvet curtain stirred.
Alaric stepped out from behind it—no longer cloaked in divine light or aura-crushing majesty.
He looked... utterly ordinary.
Loose robes, soft sandals, a faint, mischievous smile tugging at his lips as though he had just played a harmless prank. His golden eyes glimmered with concealed mirth.
Auralyne, standing near the curtain, blinked in disbelief.
She looked at him as if seeing him for the first time all over again.
"...Master,"
She finally said,
"what is this place?"
Alaric tilted his head toward her, still smiling.
"This,"
He said,
"is a separate space."
Auralyne’s brows drew together.
"That much I figured. But how did you create it? Where did it come from? There was never any such place in the mansion before. Is it because of this—"
She held the necklace around her throat,
"—this pendant?"
Alaric chuckled. Not his usual composed hum, but something almost boyish.
"Partially,"
Se said.
"You can say that the necklace contains my imprint—my mark. It acts as a beacon. It led you here, and unlocked the gate."
He tapped the pendant lightly with a finger.
"Without it, even if you saw the glowing path, you wouldn’t have been able to pass through. The gate wouldn’t have responded."
Auralyne nodded, still dazed, her amethyst eyes wide with questions yet unspoken.
Then Alaric turned, walking with purpose.
"Before dawn, we still have something to take care of. Come."
She blinked, startled.
"Wait—what now?"
He didn’t answer. Just strode toward the door.
And Auralyne, bewildered but trusting, followed.
The moment they exited the throne room, the door shimmered behind them—like moonlight rippling across water—before fading entirely into the corridor’s darkness.
Gone.
As if it had never existed.
Then, as they walked forward, the mansion began to change. A gentle transformation. A corridor became a familiar hallway, a faint breeze drifted in, and then...
They emerged into the living room—the one with the balcony that faced the pond in the western gardens.
Auralyne stopped dead in her tracks.
Her lips parted.
"Wait—this... this is the other side of the mansion."
Her voice was breathless.
"Impossible... that throne room... it was here? No, that’s not right. This entire part of the mansion has always been mundane—there’s nothing like that here..."
Outside, the pond shimmered in the moonlight. Crickets chirped distantly. Nothing extraordinary.
Alaric was already halfway out the door.
"Hurry up,"
He called back, amused.
"We don’t have all night."
Auralyne blinked again. Her mind struggled to catch up.
That throne room... that space... it was folded into this part of the house?
It didn’t make sense.
Unless—
"Is it... an artifact?"
She murmured aloud. "A palace...?"
Alaric, hearing her, glanced back over his shoulder as they descended the steps.
"That ’throne room’,"
He said,
"is part of a treasure I acquired a few months ago—when I defeated a dungeon boss. At first, I thought it was just another storage relic... you know, a glorified ring."
"But then, when I willed myself deeper inside—something responded."
His tone grew thoughtful.
"A structure unfolded. A palace of white halls and golden light. Rooms that could exist outside the flow of space—connected only through stabilized anchors."
He gestured toward the vanished hallway behind them.
"That curtain gate was one such anchor. I embedded it here, in the mansion."
Auralyne listened, her breath catching.
"It only works,"
He added,
"when the surrounding space is stable. If there’s even a flicker of turbulence—mana storms, spatial rift activity—it can’t be used. Obvious, really."
He looked upward, as though gazing through the ceiling and sky beyond.
"When I first discovered it, I had no idea what to do with it."
"It was too much."
"Too perfect."
"Too... convenient."
He smiled again.
"And that’s why I sometimes wonder... if this entire palace was tailored for me."
*****
✢═─༻༺═✢═─༻༺═✢
✶ I Reincarnated as an Extra ✶
✧ in a Reverse Harem World ✧
⊱ Eternal_Void_ ⊰
✢═─༻༺═✢═─༻༺═✢
*****
The moon hung above like a silver witness, casting a pale sheen over the rooftops of the sleeping capital.
Three shadows danced across the skyline—figures leaping from one rooftop to another, fast and fluid, like whispers of the wind.
Caldrith led the front, his two subordinates in tight formation behind him. They said nothing as they moved, but their minds were a storm of questions. Of awe. Of disbelief.
And then, Caldrith stopped.
He dropped to the rooftop below, landing with effortless grace, his cloak fluttering once before settling.
His subordinates paused beside him. They said nothing. They didn’t need to.
Caldrith turned, his expression unreadable beneath the moonlight.
"You want to know what he did to me,"
He said quietly,
"don’t you?"
The two subordinates exchanged glances.
Not surprised. Or perhaps too overwhelmed to show it.
They nodded.
Caldrith exhaled.
He closed his eyes.
And his entire body shuddered—not from fear... but from the sheer, maddening gravity of what had happened.
No sane man would believe it.
No rational mind could process it.
But it was real.
It had happened.
And now it had to be spoken aloud.
"...He upgraded my Soul Trait."
The words felt unreal even as he said them.
The other two froze.
The night wind passed silently over them as the weight of that revelation sank in.
"...What?"
Sne of them breathed.
"Upgrade a... Soul Trait?"
"Wait—hold on—you had a Soul Trait this entire time?! Why didn’t you tell us!?"
Their voices came in rapid succession, a storm of questions spilling forth with no restraint.
Caldrith raised his hand gently, a small smile curving his lips.
"Calm down,"
He said.
"Let me finish."
They went quiet. Still stunned.
"And yes,"
Caldrith continued,
"I didn’t tell you."
He paused, eyes cast to the ground.
"...I suppose it was insecurity. Or maybe I just didn’t want to burden you with something I barely understood myself."
There was a silence—not awkward, but introspective.
His two companions nodded, slowly. Not with judgment... but with understanding.
"And as for what my trait is,"
Caldrith resumed,
"perhaps you’ve guessed."
"It’s related to instinct."
He looked up toward the moon as if drawing clarity from it.
"My Soul Trait lets me instinctively grasp the ending of my actions. A gut sense of where a decision leads."
"But..."
He took a breath.
"The moment Lord Aurelian touched my forehead..."
His voice dropped.
"It was as if the very foundation of my soul was rewritten."
He shook his head slowly, as if still grasping at the memory.
"A flood of information—branded into my mind. Knowledge I didn’t earn. Understanding I couldn’t have forged alone. It... shaped me."
"My very essence changed."
"I don’t know if what I felt was real... or just the echo of something divine. But I know what it means."
He looked at them directly now.
"Before, I could predict the outcome of a choice."
"But now..."
He paused—then spoke, solemn and sure.
"...Now, I can instinctively understand the path I must take to reach that outcome."
The silence that followed was long and reverent.
One of the subordinates murmured,
"...I don’t even know what to say."
The other, after a moment, found his voice.
"But look at you,"
He said, awe-struck.
"We were only there for an hour—less, even—and you’re already halfway into [Rank 5]."
"That kind of cultivation speed—it’s not normal."
Caldrith suddenly laughed.
Not mockingly. Not arrogantly.
Just... freely.
And that broke the tension.
As if a dam had burst, the three of them eased slightly.
"I felt it too,"
One of them confessed, voice tinged with wonder.
"At first, I rejected the mana. It felt... too pure. Like it didn’t belong to me."
"But the moment I stopped resisting and began circulating it—"
He paused, searching for the right words.
"—it didn’t just let me use it. It helped me. Like it wanted me to grow."
"The mana in my core now is... completely different. Cleaner. Sharper. It obeys me with reverence."
"If before I could wield 100% of my power, now it feels like I’m at 105%—without even trying."
They stood in quiet reflection.
The rooftop was still. Only the wind moved.
Then the second subordinate whispered, his voice barely audible:
"...And that was from less than an hour."
Another pause.
Then both of them said in near unison:
"Just... what is he?"
Caldrith looked up once more.
The moon glowed above like a divine eye watching over them.
"I don’t know,"
He said quietly.
"But he’s not ordinary."
A long silence.
Then Caldrith added, as if the truth had just settled in his bones:
"Maybe... it’s the Goddess’s will."
"Maybe the world is being rewritten—one soul at a time."
And with that, the three of them turned again, shadows gliding across rooftops as they returned to their base—forever changed.
-To Be Continued