The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family-Chapter 447: Five Minutes to Authority(4)

"Level 450 is the threshold," she said and did it in a way as to underline the fact that even Reidar was informed of that. After all, what would be the goal of pointing that out if it weren't to underline the fact that the progenitor might have turned feral?

"I know," Reidar said.

She did not ask him to tell her how he knew that, also because she expected Reidar not to want to.

Lyra'xis turned to her officer and spoke in the Kytinn language. The officer responded with a brief sequence of gestures and then moved off toward the edge of the clearing.

"We will deploy our teams through the survivor areas," Lyra'xis said. "You keep doing what you are already doing."

"Good," Reidar said.

She closed the ledger and held it for a moment before handing it to the remaining junior officer. Though she noticed Reidar didn't leave. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"You came here for another reason; am I right?" she asked. "The church information was the first." She paused. "What is the second?"

Reidar looked at her. "My family," he said. "My wife and son were moved to Kingsgate under Aegis Phalanx protection. I need to know where they are."

Lyra'xis Sola's eyes stayed on him. She didn't say anything, but her four arms shifted. Reidar did not know its meaning, but the overall posture read as something between evaluation and consideration.

Reidar's son and wife were a good bargaining chip against him, so him coming here to take them might be a problem. But at the same time, it was clear she could not refuse him.

"Martha Miller and Marcus Miller," she said. "Do you want to meet them?"

"Yes," Reidar said.

"Before I do that," she said, "I want to understand something."

Reidar waited.

"You returned to Earth and did not come to us first," she said. "You purchased equipment and skills through the vendor network. You tracked the church's supply lines. You found the outpost. You conducted the interrogation. You moved your army into Kingsgate." She paused. "You did all of this without contacting the Aegis Phalanx at any point and not even coming to find your family despite you being clearly able to pass the monster horde surrounding the city. Why?"

"I contacted you when it was necessary," Reidar said.

"You contacted us when your primary objectives were already complete," she said. "The church's network in this city is being dismantled right now. The infected food is being secured. You arrived here with 110 summons and an army of nearly 50,000 already inside Kingsgate, and you are asking us to cooperate on an operation that is already in progress." Her mandibles clicked once. "You are not asking for our help. You are just telling us of what you have done and asking us not to interfere."

Reidar looked at her. "I am also asking you not to engage my summons."

"Which means you were concerned we might, and this answers the second question."

"I was not sure how you would respond to 50,000 summons appearing inside a city under Aegis protection," Reidar said. "So I came here first, before you could make a decision without the full picture."

Her lower arms shifted again.

"You are more careful than you should reasonably be," she said. "The question is why."

"Why? Are you really asking me that?"

Reidar realized that the woman was smart, far too smart, and that she was basically seeing past his actions. Yes, Reidar did not contact the Aegis because he was worried about them, but he didn't do what he did without a way to explain himself.

"Yes, I'm asking you."

Reidar paused. "My family is here… I didn't have time. Plus, I didn't really come to get my family because I knew it would be safe with you guys." There was no need for further words.

Lyra'xis remained silent for a moment; her eyes studied him. She knew Reidar was hiding something—perhaps knowledge he got during his time away from Earth, perhaps something deeper about his capabilities or his plans. But the explanation he offered, stripped of pretense and delivered with the bluntness of a man who had no patience for negotiation, was enough.

What Reidar said, in essence, was simple: there had been no time to coordinate with the Aegis Phalanx because his family's safety outweighed every other consideration. He acted independently, not out of distrust—otherwise he would not have left his family with the Aegis—but out of necessity.

And implicit in that lie was a truth—that if forced to choose between the survival of humanity and the survival of his wife and son, Reidar Miller would choose his family without hesitation.

It was selfish. Undeniably so. But Lyra'xis had seen enough species, enough wars, and enough desperate choices made in the shadow of extinction to understand that selfishness was a common trait.

In fact, it was often the selfish ones, the ones who refused to let go of what mattered to them, who fought the hardest when everything else had fallen apart.

Could she blame him? No, she could not.

The junior officer who had moved off earlier came back and spoke to her in Kytinn, and Lyra'xis turned back to him.

"Martha and Marcus Miller are alive," she said. "They are in this settlement."

Reidar felt something in his chest loosen. He kept his face still.

"There."

Reidar looked in the direction she was pointing. "That is…"

"Yeah… Your wife told us about it. It's your company's building, am I right?"

He nodded, but then Lyra'xis spoke.

"The Aegis Phalanx has kept to the arrangement made before you got pulled through the portal," Lyra'xis said. "Your family has been protected, housed, and provided for. Martha Miller has been contributing to the settlement's operations and has been leveling at a rate consistent with active participation in the settlement's defense rotations. Your son is healthy."

She paused.

"I hope you will keep your end of the bargain, then…"

"I will, but I want to meet them first," Reidar said.

"That can be arranged. But first, there are things we need to discuss." Her eyes did not move from his face. "The church is not the only issue here. The Progenitor is." She paused.

"If the information you gave us is true, then we might know why the World Carver Behemoth is targeting Kingsgate."

"And what would that be?"

"The Progenitor. It's very likely he has gone way past level 450."

Lyra'xis gestured toward the command building at the settlement's edge, and two of the junior officers moved ahead to open the entrance.

"Come with me," she said. "We will talk, and then I will take you to your family."