I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 673: Oh my god! Is this you claiming me??!! [Golden Ticket - Bonus]

The mana seals fractured like ice beneath a hammer.

Jack’s hand fell away from the throne room doors, and the barriers he’d woven dissolved into wisps of dark energy.

The air pressure in the Spire shifted.

It was subtle enough that mortals would have missed it entirely. The temperature didn’t drop or rise.

Instead, the atmosphere itself seemed to compress, as if the very space around Jack had become denser, weighted by his presence.

The darkness that had swallowed the throne room for thirty days exhaled outward, dispersing into the castle corridors like smoke settling back into its shadow.

Jack stepped through the open doors.

Thirty days of subjective isolation had left no visible mark on him. His golden-orange eyes remained steady, but everything else had changed.

His aura was silent now.

Where once there had been the faint crackling of demon transformation, the barely restrained power was bleeding smoke and shadow. Now there was nothing.

The dark mana flowed through his veins with such perfect synchronization with his heartbeat that it had ceased to be a separate force and become an extension of himself.

Jack walked down the castle corridors as if he owned them. The demons he passed froze mid-step, their instincts screaming that something had changed. Their master was no longer simply powerful. He had transcended into something else entirely.

The laboratory was where he found them.

Loryn stood near the workbench where the sigil-tracing had occurred, still bearing the scorch marks from the cold dark fire.

Faye was perched on a stone seat nearby, bouncing slightly with nervous energy, counting the hours that Jack had been sealed away. When the laboratory doors opened, and Jack stepped through, she erupted.

She moved like a hurricane.

Faye sprinted across the stone floor with the kind of speed that only someone sustained by divine blessing could manage, her bubbly nature overflowing into motion.

She collided with Jack at full speed, wrapping her arms around him and pressing herself against his chest with the kind of intimate contact that made her divine form feel arousing.

”Jack!” she cried out, her voice carrying genuine emotional depth beneath the usual bubbly surface. ”You’re back! I was so worried. I kept asking Loryn how long you’d been in there, and he just kept saying ’as long as it takes,’ and I thought maybe you’d gotten trapped or hurt or...”

She pressed her face against his chest, inhaling deeply, as if confirming he was still real. Her large breasts pressed against him with soft, undeniable pressure, the physical reality of her divine aura making itself known through layers of silk.

When she pulled back slightly to look up at him, her eyes were red-rimmed but shining with absolute joy.

”I missed you so much,” Faye whispered, and then she kissed his cheek. A soft, emotional gesture that carried far more weight than simple affection.

Jack didn’t push her away.

Instead, his hands settled on her lower back, and his internal machinery spun into motion.

He observed how her eyes tracked his face, searching for any sign of weakness or fatigue that she might need to comfort. He calculated exactly how far he could push her before reaching the breaking point of her willingness.

But his voice, when he spoke, carried only that flat, calm authority that made her shiver.

”I’m back,” he said, his hand moving to her hair in a gesture that was almost tender. ”And I brought something for you.”

Faye’s expression brightened impossibly further.

Jack commanded Loryn to leave. The casual instruction was delivered with absolute certainty that the ancient demon would obey.

Loryn bowed with perfect deference, his skeletal form radiating satisfaction, and Jack led Faye deeper into the cavernous space.

But Loryn didn’t leave.

Instead, the ancient demon slipped through the shadows that clung to the laboratory’s corners. He found the hidden observation point that had existed in these walls since before Jack claimed the castle.

A peep-slot concealed behind a porous, enchanted false stone that allowed sound and sight to pass through without detection.

Loryn positioned himself there, and his hollow eye sockets fixed on his master with the kind of reverent awe that transcended simple loyalty.

”What will Young Master do?” Loryn whispered to himself, his raspy voice barely audible even in the silence of the laboratory. ”What masterwork will he craft from the clay of the Chosen One’s devotion?”