The Conquerors Path

Clara's POV:

"If you can't believe me, this is the recording that Master Austin has left for you..."

Clara spoke her final words, placing the orb on the table next to Carmel, and walked out, having completed the task that Austin had handed over to her. A light smile came to her face, her steps feeling much lighter than before.

'I wonder how Austin is doing?'

She thought, her mind filled with loving thoughts of Austin and a small mischievous tingle at how he might be making Marlene fall in love with him. Clara might not admit it, but a side of her that likes these types of plays was awakening inside of her. She seems to find the idea of messing around with these powerful women, making them fall in love with Austin, quite fun and exhilarating.

'But in the end, the best thing is being with Austin!'

She remarked as she kept walking, her hand slowly traveling towards her bottom where she could still feel the warmth of the seeds that Austin had left behind on her body. Her body started to heat up just thinking about him. Clara always made sure to keep his seeds in her as long as possible, trying to make use of all ways to retain his heat in her.

'Maybe I should head there....'

Thinking of it, she slowly veered away from her path, entering a more closed-off room that she only has access to, opening up all the locks she slowly entered inside. The room lit up with all her prized possessions, or more accurately, every old possession of Austin...

In the room contained everything Austin has used and discarded since coming to the Babylon Academy. There are even the sheets that he used to have either sex or play around with women, each nicely kept without cleaning, especially the ones he used to sleep with Clara. She had made sure to save them all up, taking the route of placing a new cover rather than cleaning the old ones.

"Ah~ smells just like home~"

Clara muttered as the scent of Austin invaded deep into her body, his raw scent along with the scent of all the sex they had filling up the room, playing within her mind all those memories, making her body much hotter. She walked towards the bed covered with Austin's most recent scent, holding it tenderly as she took a deep breath.

"Ah~"

Just that was enough for Clara to let out a small moan, her voice filling up the room, as her mind focused on the several images of Austin. In her life, most of the time, 99% of her brain works only on Austin while the rest was focused on the world.

Small tendrils of darkness started to leave her body, picking up several of the photos as she stared at them. By now, she had come to get much better control of the power she earned back at the realm, the power over darkness, a power that Austin, her love, her world had led her towards, and she had poured her soul over trying to get a better understanding of the power.

"Um~ darling, come back soon~"

She spoke out in a sultry voice. She loved helping out Austin but true to her heart, she wished to spend all her waking moments with Austin. 24/7, she wished to be by his side. To her, nothing else mattered in this world. Austin might one day walk up and decide to destroy this world, then she would gladly walk beside him and destroy it, watching as both their lives ended together.

Just those thoughts itself made Clara giddy as she let out some small chuckles. To Clara, Austin is her world. For him, she would do anything and be anyone. In the end, all that matters to her is to be close to him.

"Come back soon..."

She muttered in a low voice before going back to enjoying her collections.

...

Carmel's POV:

'We did wrong...'

Carmel spoke to her inner self, and Carmelia, her sister, remained silent, acknowledging her words. Right now, the two of them sat on chairs as they looked at the report they received. By now, the investigation by her Empire was done, and the report had already found out that whatever problem her little sister is experiencing is all because of her bad luck, which struck again.

This would mean that Austin had nothing to do with it. He was innocent, and she had pointed her hands at him, someone who claimed to be her family, her junior, and someone she came to care about.

'What do we do now?'

Carmel asked again, as she clutched her throbbing head. Right now, she was in control, and she had no idea what she should do. Austin wasn't like the rest. She had come to deeply care for him—his small antics, his food, and his light banter to always keep her mood up. She placed him quite close to her, yet she had accused Austin of something that surely hurt his heart.

While Carmelia was the one that shot the question, it didn't change the fact she too had those doubts.

'Carmelia, tell me what should we do?'

Carmel asked again, to which Carmelia finally replied.

'I don't know, aren't you the one that usually deals with these types of situations?'

Hearing Carmelia's reply, Carmel turned silent. She indeed deals with the more humane side of politics while Carmelia deals with the colder side. Yet Carmel was never placed in such a situation before. She never had anyone truly and unforgivably angry and disappointed at her, well not a person she cared about anyway.

With her sunny and happy personality, she always exudes a good-natured aura. Hence, people always were happy around her, and even if she makes someone angry, they normally reconcile with her or don't dare to even show it. Even her best friends whom she had lightly pissed off in the past had never made a problem with her.

In the end, everything works out for her, plus the people she really cares about, she never makes them sad. So, for this future Empress, this was the first-ever situation she was facing, and she has no idea what she should do.

She cares too deeply about Austin for her to let things go, and from Austin's words, she understood that their relationship has now become strained.

'Who would have thought we would have a time like this?'

Carmel questioned.

'True.'

And Carmelia agreed, both of them never thought they would grow so attached to a boy so quickly. It's just that there seems to be this layer of mystery around Austin that the two of them couldn't help but be attracted to. Moreover, Austin's cooking is out of this world, enough to drive her taste buds crazy.

And she wouldn't say it out loud, but her heart definitely skipped a beat beyond normal twice in the past with him, the first being the first time she saw him, back at the Seth hunt—the star-striking moment where he stood against Xavier and fought alone. That cool moment surely shook her heart.

The next moment being when he led the war in the realm, he looked really cool in the eyes of both of them. More than all this, she had come to enjoy his company. The time they spent together really made her happy, and now she had thrown that relationship down the drain.

In all honesty, she would be lying if she didn't think of Austin once as a marriage partner. After all, there wasn't anything to hate about him. He's handsome, he's talented, has an amazing background, he can cook like no one else, he's fun to be around, he doesn't make them feel bored, and she likes his personality.

'I mean, what's there to hate about him?'

She questioned herself. Perhaps if he were a citizen of her Empire, she would have thought more seriously.

'Now is not the time.'

Suddenly, Carmelia spoke, making Carmel focused. Her confused eyes looked around the room until her eyes lit up.

"I get it! Let's ask Ella! She might have an idea!"

As such, Carmel rushed forth.