Supreme Magus novel Chapter 1982

Chapter 1982: New Floors (Part 4)

"None of you had any reason to stay behind and follow me right after your demise. Even though you haven't given me your full loyalty, you haven't betrayed my trust either.

"When I conjured you in front of the Royals, you could have exposed my tower and Solus. The Kingdom would have greatly benefitted from such knowledge and the Crown would have asked much more from me.

"Yet you didn't, Locrias. You guarded my secrets just like you protected my family whenever I asked you to. You guys may be dead, but you still feel pain when you are hurt and you suffer from your condition as Demons.

"The cycle of dreams and nightmares would have broken lesser people, yet you three endure them on a daily basis without complaining. You always answer my call and are willing to fight for my sake even when it's not the safety of the Kingdom at stake but my interests.

"For that I'm grateful to you, and you deserve more than the living space of a feather from me. Locrias, Valia, you have my word that I'll make sure that the Crown rewards you for your valor and that your prizes go to your families."

"Thanks, my liege." Trion was the first to kneel, creeping Tista a bit.

Even though there was little love between them, he was still her older brother. Comparing his old attitude with the current deference toward Lith made her think that either Trion had truly changed or that a slave spell had to be involved.

"Thanks." The other two kneeled as well, bringing his hand to their forehead as they had done to Kamila. "You have our solemn oath that we'll defend your household like our own.

"We'll protect your secrets with our lives and we'll never use anything you are gifting upon us against you, no matter our orders."

Lith nodded and let them go back to their training.

Those who hadn't met Lith since he was still struggling with the bottleneck of the deep violet core remained shocked by the change in his attitude.

He hadn't threatened to dispel their souls the moment they attempted to betray him, nor had he mocked them for their blind loyalty to a Kingdom that had already forgotten about them.

There was now a confidence in him that made those words pointless. Lith was now at peace with himself and that allowed him to stop seeing threats where there were none and to treat people right.

He trusted none of his Demons, but he respected them and their beliefs. The feeling was returned in kind and the more they learned about him, the more simple resignation to their condition turned into trust and loyalty.

"How does the Factory work, exactly?" Salaark asked once the prolonged gawking stopped amusing her.

"It's actually the result of the combination of several different floors working in unison." Lith replied. "I have to store the production method in the Library and the necessary Forgemastery arrays in the Heart.

"Then, I have to decide if to craft something for real, in which case the materials come from the Crucible, the Mine, and the pocket dimension, or just to make a mock-up. If it's the latter, the Workshop provides the Factory with the test materials.

"In either case, the smithy then smelts the metals and gives them the proper shape before the enchantment process starts. My skills as a blacksmith are still lacking, but I can easily purify anything with Origin Flames and I need but a rough sketch for the tower to create a proper mold.

"Once everything is set, the Factory can produce both alchemical and enchanted items without any supervision from either me or Solus.