Sita had heard how the royal family had been furious when Ethan suddenly stopped overseeing their businesses and went off to build his own empire from scratch. But Ethan, although considered trash in terms of cultivation, was someone they couldn't afford to lose.
His mind was worth more to them than a million mid-level cultivators, and they knew it. He was valuable for his skills alone, and that fact ate at them every single day.
"Come, we can talk." She said softly, because an opportunity like this was simply too good for her to pass up. She invited him to the best restaurant in the city—a place reserved for nobility and high-ranking cultivators—and there, they spoke over a spread of dishes that would have cost a normal person a year's salary.
"What I want to build here is pretty simple. Well, there are a few things. But first, I want to improve the communication capability of your empire. I want to build towers around the planet, and these would be called communication towers, as they would take in signals and transfer them." Ethan said while eating, not bothering to eat like a prince in the slightest.
He was fully enjoying the meal placed before him, tearing into each dish with the kind of enthusiasm that made Sita shift uncomfortably in her seat. She had never seen royalty eat like that before—like a man who genuinely didn't care who was watching.
"What would these signals do?" She asked softly, choosing to focus on the business pitch rather than the way he was holding his chopsticks.
"Allow for almost instant communication with anyone around the planet. Picture someone on the other side of the world. One would be able to push a button on a magical treasure, and instantly you can call someone on the other end of the planet, and speak with them almost instantly." Ethan said, and she frowned at that. It sounded impossible. As things stood, only a powerful cultivator had the means to communicate across that kind of distance, and even then, it required significant focus.
"That sounds far too good to be true." She said with a frown, suspicion lacing every word.
"I wouldn't say something just to end up embarrassing myself," Ethan said with a smirk, the kind that carried absolute confidence behind it. She held her frown for a long moment, studying him carefully, searching for any hint of a bluff. She found none. After a few seconds, she nodded.
Ethan stayed with her for the following few weeks, building the prototype of what he had pitched. Well, by "building," he paid local craftsmen and low-level formation masters to construct things using the rough drafts of the blueprints he had drawn up.
They brought his sketches to life piece by piece, and in no time at all, two towers stood on the planet—one on each side, separated by the entire diameter of the world.
Sita was genuinely shocked at the result. Ethan, someone without a drop of cultivation energy in his body, had done what no cultivator had ever thought to attempt. Sure, the connection wasn't perfectly instant—there was a slight delay that a sharp ear could catch—but she could see it clearly.
The more towers that were built between the two endpoints, the faster and cleaner the connection became, until there wasn't a hint of delay left at all. It was elegant in its simplicity, and it worked.
"It's a shame you can't cultivate." She said softly, looking at Ethan with something in her eyes that hadn't been there before—a quiet sadness, barely visible but unmistakably present.
"I don't think it's too bad. 100 years is a long time; it just means I have to make every second of it count… plus I believe I'm luckier than most. How many people in this world can say they have met the most beautiful woman in the world?" Ethan asked with a smile, and a faint blush crept across her cheeks before she could stop it.
"I-I'm far from the most beautiful woman." She said softly, shaking her head at the compliment. As a cultivator advanced, their entire being improved alongside their power—that included their appearance. She was only a Martial Grand Master, which placed her far below the women at the higher realms. In her mind, calling her the most beautiful was simply factually wrong.
"If you could see what I can see, you wouldn't say that. I've seen Martial Sages, Martial Kings, and more… but something about you is special." Ethan said, shaking his head at her attempt to brush it off. There was no flattery in his voice, no practiced charm. Just honesty.
"R-really?" Her heart began racing, and she hated that she couldn't control it. Ethan wasn't lying—she could read him as easily as ever, and every word that left his mouth rang true. She looked at him in quiet shock, unable to understand how someone could think so highly of her when she didn't even think that highly of herself.
"How could I ever lie to you?" Ethan asked, reaching across the table and taking her hand in his. He looked at her with that charming smile of his, the one that had no right being as effective as it was. For a moment, neither of them said anything. They just looked at each other across the table. Then she leaned forward and kissed him—lightly, barely more than a brush of her lips against his.
"Even your lips feel heavenly…" Ethan said softly, his voice barely above a whisper.
"D-don't say stuff like that, it's embarrassing." She said, her face burning red, not even fully understanding why she had done it. They were from two completely different worlds—literally and figuratively. This couldn't go anywhere. It shouldn't go anywhere. But her body had moved before her mind had the chance to stop it.
"I can't help but speak the truth," Ethan said, lifting her chin gently with his fingers. Their eyes met again, and this time, he closed the distance. He kissed her, softly at first, and she was stunned—but she didn't pull away. Instead, she found herself melting into it, her lips parting as their tongues met and moved together in a slow, unhurried rhythm.
As Ethan's tongue explored her mouth, she couldn't stop herself from doing the same, her face flushing a deeper shade of red as she reached forward and pulled him closer by the collar of his shirt.
Ethan didn't shy away. He pulled her in as well, his hands finding her waist before wandering further, exploring her body with a confidence that made her breath catch. And what followed that evening was a night that Sita would come to both regret and treasure for the rest of her life.
She and Ethan slept together that day… and it was heavenly. She had never known that sex could feel like that—could reach places inside her that she didn't even know existed. Ethan did things to her body that made her feel sensations she had never imagined were possible. She fell in love that night, completely and without reservation… but when the morning came, she forced her heart shut.
Ethan was a mortal. She was a cultivator. They couldn't be together—the gap between their lifespans alone made it cruel to even try. Yet as the years passed and Ethan's limited time continued to tick away, the walls she had built around her heart began to crack.
She realized that Ethan didn't have long to live. And the thought of him dying, leaving this world while she was still here—alive, breathing, and swallowed in regrets she could have avoided—was unbearable.
So she came to arrange a marriage, so they could spend whatever time he had left together. Even if it was only a handful of decades, she wanted every single one of them.
***
"Okay, I accept… What do you think, Ellen?" The king asked, turning his gaze toward his daughter, the one most likely to inherit the throne.
"I don't know. Ethan has problems," Ellen said softly. Her face was blank and unreadable—a mask she had perfected over years, watching, listening, and never letting anyone see what was going on behind her eyes.
"Problems? I recall you said he got to me too…" Sita asked, confusion slipping into her expression. The king's eyebrow rose slightly, realizing that Sita had no idea what Ethan had been up to in his personal life.
"Let's say Ethan has relationships with others," the king said carefully, unsure how to word it without making it sound worse than it already was. Instantly, Sita's face dropped, the warmth draining from it in a heartbeat.
"It's okay, we can work our problems out… but may I know who these others are?" Sita said, her voice taking on a cold edge that hadn't been there a moment ago. The king let out a quiet sigh. He had seen that shift before—the calm before a very dangerous storm.
"I believe I can help you with this. Just yesterday, Ethan was badly injured by a girl he was sleeping with. I believe he needs a strong and capable wife like you to not only keep him in line, but to also protect him." Ellen said softly, and both Sita and the king raised their eyebrows. This was news to both of them.
"I-is he okay?" Sita asked, worry flooding into her voice so fast it nearly cracked.
"He's okay. And I know the perfect way to get the others out of the picture," Ellen said, and a rare smile appeared on her face—the kind that didn't come from warmth, but from the satisfaction of a plan falling into place.
"How?" Sita asked, her eyes narrowing as she leaned forward slightly.
"I know someone who would happily kidnap Ethan. I would go speak with her, and I will have her draw out the others." Ellen said with a smile, and Sita's expression shifted from suspicion to understanding before settling into a smile of her own. It was the kind of smile that promised nothing good for anyone named Ethan.