Ren tapped twice. The projection vanished at once, the ring returning to its faint pulse.

"Okay, I have trust in you because you are my best friend's father. And also we now face the same problems. Anyway, let me try this. Conceal the glow."

Ren twisted the band clockwise. The blue shimmer sank into silence, and the ring looked like an ordinary band of silver.

Veylan nodded once, satisfied. "You learn quickly. Keep it that way."

Ren flexed his hand, staring at the ring with a mix of unease and wonder. "It feels… strange. Like it's alive."

Veylan smirked faintly. "That is because it carries more than steel. And also as earlier I told you about it."

The silence stretched for a moment before Veylan pushed his chair back. "Well, we did so much conversation. It's too late already. May be it's late evening happens." He looked towards his watch and really it's late evening happened. So he spoked with gentle smile. "Come. It is time we eat together."

Ervin lowered his head, his hands trembling slightly.

"Thanks for asking, sir. But we are not worthy to take dinner with you. You already gave us so much money and funds. How can we sit and eat beside you?"

The Veylan smiled softly, leaning back in his chair. His voice was calm, steady, but carried warmth.

"Sir Ervin, don't speak like that. Money is only paper if there is no heart behind it. I did not help you out of gratitude. I did it because I believed in you. Money and funds are just tools, nothing more. What matters is trust and companionship."

Ervin shifted uncomfortably, his fingers tightening around the edge of the table. Ren looked down, unsure. Kairn just smiled. He knew that Veylan was not like other businessmen. He was a calm, gentle and soft hearted person. But when he went all out at that time he looked like a demon. Even worse than that.

The Veylan continued, his tone patient and gentle. He placed a hand on the table, leaning forward.

"Dinner is not about status. It is about sharing warmth as people. As equals. If you refuse, you will make me lonely at this table."

Those words struck deep. Ervin raised his eyes slowly, his throat tight. Ren and Kairn looked at each other nervously. Ren was confused. He thoughted... "What is going on? Sir Ervin just hesitates to take dinner with him."

Kairn thoughted... "Hope, the master will not be angry with him. Bcz they don't like, if someone hesitates in front of him to take dinner."

The Veylan chuckled softly, shaking his head. He understood that he spoked too much. So he controlled himself. He spoked with a gentle smile...

"Come now. You've worked hard, you've carried burdens. You deserve to eat with dignity. Do not deny me this small joy."

Ervin's chest tightened. He swallowed hard, his hesitation melting into gratitude. Finally, with a shaky voice, he whispered,

"Then… we will accept, sir. Thanks for that."

Then...

They all stood. Ervin, Veylan and Kairn stepped towards the right sided wall. Ren was confused but he followed them. Then Kairn stepped closer to the wall.

At first, it looked like nothing more than black stone. Its surface was smooth, too perfect, almost unnatural in its polish. Veins of silver ran across it in branching patterns, faint and dim, as though the rock itself had veins waiting to pulse with life. He narrowed his eyes. The rest of the chamber was ancient and rough, but this wall… it did not belong here.

He raised his hand, brushing his fingers across the cold surface. The moment his skin made contact, the air trembled with a low hum. Not the sound of stone shifting, but something mechanical like a machine hidden deep underground, waking from slumber.

A square of light flickered into existence. Transparent, like glass, but etched with symbols that twisted and reformed in constant motion. The glyphs glowed faint blue, reshaping themselves into patterns that were half circuit, half spellmark.

Kairn's breath slowed. He had seen runes before, and he had seen tech before. He saw this tech and runes fusion so many times.

The panel pulsed once, waiting.

Slowly, he pressed his palm against it.

The response was immediate. Thin filaments of light crawled outward from beneath his skin, racing along the silver veins in the wall. It spread in waves, glowing brighter with each heartbeat, until the entire surface of the wall came alive with flowing neon rivers. The hum deepened, mixing with the faint chime of unseen bells.

Kairn felt a pull inside his chest, a gentle tug, as if something was drawing mana directly from his core. His instincts screamed at him to pull away, but he held firm. The wall was reading him. Testing him. Matching the signature of his mana to its own strange code. He knew all this process. These were all things to protect something important. More important than anything.

For a moment, the light flickered, uncertain. Then the symbols aligned, locking into a perfect circle.

Accepted.

The stone shuddered once, then began to shift. Not with the grinding of gears or the breaking of rock. It dissolved. The black stone melted like glass touched by fire, receding inward without a sound. The silver veins unraveled into spirals of light, rearranging themselves into an arched doorway.

Beyond the arch lay a corridor.

Ren's heart pounded. This was no ordinary passage. It was a fusion of two worlds: science and sorcery, logic and the impossible. A secret made for only those who could bridge the gap between them.

They stepped towards the corridor. The doorway sealed silently behind them, leaving only the glow of the path ahead.

And with that step, Kairn descended into the unknown.

and Kairn opened a door for them. Then they left the chamber together.

Veylan walked at the front, Ren and Ervin followed side by side. Kairn shadowed them like a dark echo. Then they entered the corridor. Veylan walked with his hands clasped behind his back, his steps steady and measured. Ren followed a pace behind, still glancing at the ring as though afraid he might break it.

Beside the grand chamber, there were banquet halls also present. Not exactly beside, in between them one hidden room there. The hall was connected with a grand chamber through a corridor. The grand chamber had one hidden door that opened in this corridor. And that door was already opened by Kairn.

The corridor outside was wide, carved from old stone polished by generations. Lanterns in iron cages lined the walls, filling the hall with warm amber light. The floor echoed faintly beneath their boots.

Guards in Archive uniforms stood at intervals, straight-backed and silent. Some bowed slightly as Veylan passed. Ren kept his eyes forward, uncertain how to respond, but his shoulders stiffened under the attention. Ervin gave a casual nod to one or two he recognized.

They moved through several turns until the scent of food reached them roasted meat, herbs, and freshly baked bread. It drew Ren's stomach into a quiet growl.

Finally, the corridor opened into a large banquet hall.

The banquet hall was vast, stretching wider than the eye could take in, a space where old-world grandeur met the pulse of modern sorcery and machine. The ceiling arched impossibly high, a dome forged from crystal that shimmered with flowing glyphs. They drifted across the surface like constellations, glowing and rearranging themselves with every heartbeat of mana. Starlight poured downward, not from the heavens, but from living runes woven into the ceiling's design.

Suspended above, chandeliers of silver spiraled downward like branches of a sacred tree. Instead of candles, orbs of condensed mana hovered within their frames. Around each orb floated rings of transparent crystal panels, bending light into golden warmth. The result was neither the sterile glow of a lamp nor the flicker of fire, but a radiance that was alive, breathing, and eternal.

The floor was polished obsidian veined with silver and violet. Every step upon it would ripple faint light, spreading in delicate waves before fading away. It gave the sense that the ground itself responded to those who walked, listening in silence.

At the heart of the hall stretched a banquet table, long and seamless, carved from a single slab of pale crystal. Beneath its surface flowed rivers of light, circuits intertwined with ancient runes, glowing faintly like veins carrying lifeblood. Plates and goblets of enchanted alloy rested in perfect alignment, their surfaces gleaming as though untouched by time. Each piece of cutlery bore a faint mana resonance, enchanted to resist stains, spills, and imperfection.

Towering pillars lined the hall, carved with vines, beasts, and wings that coiled toward the ceiling. Yet these carvings were more than stone. Subtle streams of light pulsed through them like nerves beneath skin, animating the sculpted creatures so that their eyes shimmered faintly in watchful silence.

One wall stretched into a panoramic window. Yet it was no glass, but a projection woven of machine and mana. It displayed the night sky in staggering detail, stars moving in perfect harmony with the true heavens. The illusion was flawless, but heightened too vividly, too precisely, as if the cosmos themselves had been polished into perfection.

The hall carried no sound but a constant hum, a low vibration that resonated within the chest, reminding all who entered that the place itself was alive. It was not only a hall of feasting. It was a declaration, built to show that the divide between magic and technology was gone. Here, they existed together, not in conflict, but as one.

They stepped into the hall. Ren was shocked and amazed. He looked towards Ervin, Veylan and Kairn. Their expressions were normal like they came here often. Ren understood that he had to behave properly. So he took a deep breath and tried to do his pulse normally.

When they entered...

Servants in formal attire robes lined with silver embroidery that pulsed faintly with mana, stood in two rows, bowing low in perfect unison. Their movements were precise, as though guided by both discipline and enchantment.

"Welcome, sir Veylan and their honoured guests," the chief attendant spoke, his voice calm and measured, carrying just enough mana to echo gently through the chamber without rising in volume. His hands glowed faintly as he gestured toward the glowing floor that rippled beneath each step. "The hall awaits you."

Veylan walked first, then all followed him. Ren's eyes drawn upward to the dome of shifting constellations that moved as if alive. The soft radiance of the chandeliers washed across his face, painting him in starlight.

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