The quality of an awakened’s realm core directly impacts the peak realm they can achieve. Studies have shown that with enough effort and resources, anyone can reach the peak of the fourth realm. Those with the most inferior of core realms will certainly take more time and consume more resources, but they can get there with sufficient determination.

  In general, we classify realm cores in seven categories based on their peak realm.

  — Excerpt from Treatise on Realm Cores

  Day 106, 12:20 PM

  After saying goodbye to Newstar, I headed over to my study and returned to my conquest of chemistry, finalizing the apothecary class and preparing to become an alchemist. It was the first time I had the conversation with Newstar, his future actions a mystery, but I didn’t trust anyone to follow him.

  I was fairly certain he wouldn’t try to murder me and hoped he would follow my suggestion and meditate on what had transpired. He was in shock, so a day or two of calming his nerves would do him good. The brothel I set him up in had decent food and lovely girls. Maybe some of them could help soothe his heart.

  Or so I thought before Hammer knocked on my door again.

  “Townlord, Newstar Salamandra is back, and he is requesting another audience.”

  I looked at the work in progress. “Tell him I’m busy. I can see him in half an hour. And, Hammer, if he still wishes to meet, prepare some tea.”

  Half an hour later, the boy came to see me. I had once more assumed a suitable appearance, and sat relaxedly as he came in.

  He closed the door, and I speared him with my glare.

  “I believe I told you to sleep or meditate, not to go for a walk around the town and come back.” A bit of annoyance seeped into my voice. I wasn’t annoyed, not much anyway, but you can’t just come knocking to a respectable sage’s door whenever it suited your fancy.

  “I realized I have failed to introduce myself.” Newstar gave a shallow bow. “Newstar Salamandra.”

  “Greetings Newstar, I am Dandelion without a surname. People call me Blackfist, but I cannot fathom the reason; it turns a steel-like dark gray.” He didn’t seem amused by my joke, so I motioned him towards the chair. “Come, have some tea.”

  “Why tea?” Newstar sat and accepted the cup.

  “People find it difficult to fight when someone’s giving them a tasty, high-quality beverage. I think tea and wine will help me walk my path in the future.”

  “You should consider crescents,” the boy mumbled, surprisingly taking the initiative and finally offering a constructive suggestion. Unfortunately, I spent a while tasting everything Hailstown had to offer and found none of the food palatable enough for me to offer to my guests. I regretted not having honeygrubs.

  “I did.” I flashed him a smile. “But I am afraid I will need something of higher quality.”

  Newstar nodded, but his vacant look told me he didn’t understand my plight. Maybe he found the baked goods sold on the street passable?

  “You mentioned you visited the library. Have you read anything about heart demons?”

  “Plenty.” I nearly smiled. As planned, he came seeking advice.

  “I,” he hesitated, “am interested in ways of resolving them without conflict.”

  “A wise choice.” I leaned forward. “But you should make advancement a priority over perfectly resolving your heart demons. Some can be resolved through peaceful means, others cannot, and it all depends on you. And if you cannot get rid of them peacefully, violence is always a reliable alternative, even if the heart demons will probably reform in the next realm, but at least you would have denied them their evolution.”

  I thought he would give me a hint regarding his problem, but he listened silently.

  “What troubles you exactly?” I asked after several seconds of silence.

  “Well, do you have any advice?”

  Ignoring me? I nearly cocked my eyebrow at his words, but remained professional and answered his question.

  “As I said, I have plenty, but it would be more efficient if you gave me a detailed description of your heart demons, but I guess that is not happening.” Newstar shook his head, and I could only start with random wild guesses.

  “The texts I read agree that the most common heart demon is fear. If you still fear the object from which the heart demon was born, overcoming your fear has a slim chance of resolving the heart demon. I see fear is not interesting. I will move on.

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  “The next most common heart demon is regret, which awakened can also resolve peacefully. For instance, if you regret not having something, acquiring it and seeing it is absolutely irrelevant in your life should dispel the heart demon.”

  While he was from a poor family, Salamandras were billionaires and landowners, such base regret shouldn’t have been his problem. Then I recalled something.

  “If you have slain someone by accident, you can honor them with a proper burial, trying to make it up to their family, or performing good deeds in their name. Unfortunately, you are not trying to exorcize a ghost, but satisfy your own conscience and resolve the guilt weighing on your heart. It is vital to make peace with yourself, and the deceased has little impact on the process.”

  He frowned in thought when he heard that one, perhaps killing his uncle birthed a heart demon.

  “The next common one for young men is jealousy or unrequited love. But that is irrelevant for you now,” Jasmine should have been thoroughly gone from his mind. The only emotion left was disgust or pity, given his character, and since he hadn’t reacted, I guessed I was right.

  “Young men also often have a problem with the size of their p—” Newstar’s eyes went wide. “But you naturally do not suffer from such base worries.

  “Another common heart demon is a rival.” He seemed to have realized something, so I went into more detail. “Someone we envy or who is better than us, or has something we think they do not deserve, can twist our hearts enough to form a heart demon. The best way to resolve this heart demon is to challenge the person in question and beat them at the discipline which caused the heart demon. If you envy someone’s skill at alchemy, bashing their brains out with a hammer will not make the heart demon go away. It will lock it in place because you could not and never will be able to defeat your nemesis in the discipline which really matters to you.”

  The youth looked thoughtful. Did he have a rival? All the reports and profiles I paid to be made about him didn’t hint at anything similar.

  The discussion once more brought me back to the question I asked myself. What kind of horrors will manifest in my realm? Is Manny waiting for me in the depths of my soul, or have I made peace with my fears and longings?

  I realized the room had gone silent.

  “Any other questions?” I took a sip of tea to calm down, thinking, considering, hoping. Would it even matter if she was just a figment of my imagination made real?

  “How does the tea stay warm?” the boy asked, and if not for the weeks I spent in front of the mirror, mastering my face, my jaw would have dropped.

  “Enchanted.” I pointed at the kettle. “I bought it at the scribes’ guild for five first realm crystals. It keeps the water slightly below boiling point, perfect for tea. I thought it a worthwhile investment for the occasion.”

  “Is every townlord like you?” he asked, and I laughed.

  “I dearly hope not. I have not met them in person, but based on the information I bought on them, their realms are around mine. They might not represent a valid sample, but I do not think townlords closer to the capital are much better. It is, for the most part, a position for those who had given up on advancing.”

  Newstar frowned. “Why do you hope they aren’t like you? Wouldn’t it be good if everyone was reasonable and willing to discuss everything?”

  I offered to refill his cup, but he shook his head.

  “You misunderstand amiability. If a mosquito buzzes around your head while you are trying to sleep at night, what do you do?”

  He waited, believing the question rhetorical, which it was, but I wanted him to answer it.

  “I swat it, or try to drive it away.”

  “And what do you do if a fully evolved tenth realm dreadwalker runs towards your home? Assuming you have nobody to save and the building is empty.”

  He considered the question while I finished my tea.

  “I would run away. Our ancestral home is priceless, but jumping in front of a manabeast eight realms above me is suicide.”

  “Even two realms difference is suicide,” I digressed a bit before I made my point. “If a non-awakened came into my home because of a girl Hardstone had stolen, I would first politely ask them to leave, and if they caused a scene, I would swat them dead before having a talk with Hardstone about why in a world half-filled with women, he had to go looking for someone else’s woman.

  “On the other hand, if a tenth realm exalt from a royal or ducal family came and told me Hardstone had dishonored his great-granddaughter or worse his wife, I would disembowel and behead Hardstone even before the monster in question asked me to do it.”

  Newstar gasped, and I moved to silence his shocked protest. “In the first scenario, the non-awakened has vindication, but lacks excuses and survival instincts, thus becoming extinct. In the second scenario, Hardstone lacks survival instincts, and I treat him fairly. You, however, are neither a powerless non-awakened, nor a powerhouse who can exterminate me and my whole family with a casual sneeze. I would prefer to find a peaceful solution, which would allow us both to thrive, rather than either of us risking extinction.

  “That is amiability,” I concluded, staring at the shocked and horrified youth.

  “So you try to be reasonable with those of equal or lower standing, but offer your son’s head to someone stronger to appease them?”

  I smirked. “First of all, if it’s only a stolen girlfriend without foul play, I would try to speak up on Hardstone’s behalf, but in the scenario I mentioned, I would kill him for my own reasons. If he was stupid enough to bring such a calamity upon his entire household over a woman, he might do it again and again. Better nip that possibility in the bud and remain safe for years than to worry about an eventual doom which he would summon one day.”

  I suppressed my laughter. If Hardstone was my real son, things might have been different. I have annihilated armies for killing two of my sons when they went out to play war, but that was in a world where all men were more or less equal, with me being the most equal.

  Newstar, obviously, disagreed with my viewpoint.

  “Do not look at me so appalled. Hardstone’s failure to control his lower half is my failure as a parent and his failure as a person. If he were a child, I would shoulder most of the blame, but he is nearly forty years old, an age when most humans would be expected to bear the consequences of their own actions, unless they are influential.”

  I held back a sigh. “You do not understand what I am talking about, but that is all right. You are a child. Several years on the road will sharpen and temper your mind. Limited amounts of suffering are good for you.”

  Newstar poured his own tea, tactful little fellow, and spoke without raising his gaze.

  “Thank you for your advice. Do you, by any chance, have insight on realm shaping? My primary elements are earth and fire.”