With the last shutter closed and the clamor of the Imperial Capital reduced to distant murmurs, Kiara stood alone in the center of her new shop. Dust floated lazily through the dim air, stirred only by her breathing and the occasional creak of old timber.
To most people, the place would have felt abandoned—nothing more than a dusty relic waiting to be forgotten. But Kiara saw something else entirely. A weapon smith didn't judge steel by its rust. A strategist didn't judge a battlefield by its first appearance. She had always known how to look beneath the surface.
She selected her reward without hesitation.
The system interface bloomed in front of her. When she opened her inventory, hundreds of neat, translucent slots unfolded like a perfectly organized warehouse. Most were filled with practical things she'd brought from her travels—clothes, coins, preserved food, tools. Her eyes moved across them until she found something new.
A small gift box icon sat quietly among the rest.
