Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

The sight of what was clearly a private Teleportation Circle caused Hal to raise an eyebrow.

The prospect was not exactly impossible, as Hal himself had a private Teleportation circle in Sapphire city although that circle was limited in its range. 

Anyway, having a private Teleportation circle was very much plausible but usually was owned by large families because of the sheer amount of maintenance and manpower that was needed to build and maintain it.

Families like the Doxons and other Duchy rulers, while possessing private Teleportation circles of their own, would hardly need one since the power that they wield makes it so that every teleportation Circle in their Duchy was already theirs to use as they deem fit.

Even the Danes treat the Teleportation circles all over the Silva Duchy capital as though they were their property which is understandable as they were previous rulers of the kingdom that had now become a Duchy.

Anyway, the fact that there was a private Teleportation circle in an establishment belonging to one of the greatest Runemasters currently living on the Haron continent (Tanya Haron) did not exactly surprise Hal once he allowed himself a second to think about it.

"Tanya asked that you use this to get back to the Imperial city. Apparently, she no longer has a problem with letting you know how thorough and secretive the travel plans of her information-gathering network truly are" Aliya was with a sigh and a shake of her head.

"What?" Hal asked and Aliya who had been looking at the Teleportation circle with melancholy looked back at him with a frown,

"Every Duchy capital that has an establishment which belongs to Tanya, establishments like this Rose Petal Restaurant, have Private Express Teleportation circles linking them.

They are all cut off from every other mainstream Teleportation circle on the Haron continent, i.e it is impossible to use these circles to travel to any place or any other teleportation circle that is not in an establishment belonging to Tanya and a part of her information-gathering network. 

Incidentally, no one can also arrive at any of these circles or any of the others without making use of one of the others in the network.

It's our private traveling network that allows us to journey between locations out of the sight or watch of any external body. 

No supervision and any cost of travel borne totally by the establishments" Aliya said with pride.

'In other words, it's just a convoluted way of revealing that Tanya is much richer than I had ever thought' Hal thought.

Never had he thought Tanya was not wealthy... Either by being a capable businesswoman who owned a wide and expansive communication network or by being a member of the Imperial family, Hal always knew Tanya to be rich.

That said, he had also always known she was skimping on his pay and now it seemed to hit even harder how much she had been skimping and how much she still owed him for his services.

Especially since she placed a lot of importance on the merit points she awarded him after every mission, even though the merit points were looking to be more useless to him the stronger he became and the more ambitious his plans were revealing themselves to be.

That said, all that Hal had gotten paid had been enough for the expenses he had at the time, and at the moment, after a trip to the tomb and his women taking everything the tomb had to offer in terms of gold and blue gems, Hal was no longer after material wealth.

Not to mention;

He had the Silver moon sect and their wealth under his control... He also had the wealth of the Doxons in his control while also having a large stake in the magnificent success that was the Paladin Trade union...

Just the night before this reveal of the true extent of Tanya's wealth, he had managed to contract the Duke of the Arkene Duchy and set him on a path to pacifying the entire Duchy capital under his faith...

Wealthy as the Princess was, Hal just no longer needed it... Not to even for the sake of pretense.

Hal was flush with wealth and amassing more of it was, at the moment, at the very bottom of his priorities but Tanya did not know that...

To her, he was still a hire who would gladly sell his strength to anyone who could pay enough, and Hal could not help but wonder if she wasn't only allowing this to be shown to him to let him know that she would always be able to meet his needs financially...

He refused to believe that she was letting the circle be revealed just to have him return to the Imperial city as quickly as possible.

Sure it was an Express Teleportation circle that would speed up travel and that could be a primary reason but Hal was willing to bet that this was just Tanya attempting to kill two birds with one stone...

He drew himself out of his thoughts quickly and looked over at Aliya still frowning at him,

"Impressive," he said.

Aliya nodded,

"Yes, it is. But that is to be expected since Tanya is impressive in whatever she does..." Aliya began while drawing herself to full height but Hal interrupted with a chuckle,

"Who said anything about Tanya... I meant that it is impressive how much self-control you have when your entire being just wants to be touched by me" he said.

Aliya pursed her lips but did not deny Hal's words because they were true and she knew with certainty that any attempt to deny would only confirm it...

She felt it would be much better to keep quiet in regards to the attraction her body was feeling for him (despite all her mental attempts to refuse the feeling and sensations) and just count the seconds until he finally left and took that delicious scent of his with him.

Alas, Hal felt like lingering and walked closer to her...

Here he was, at the peak of the cosmic Aurora realm closing in on a Cosmic semi-saint with such a predatory smile that said Semi-saint could not help but take a step back.

Hal scared her... 

Not in the way of losing a battle to him(That was another issue entirely) but in how her body reacted to him and how much she could hardly control herself with him so close.

The fact that she was screaming in her mind that he could not be trusted in any way didn't stop her from feeling the way she was feeling...

The fact that she swore with all her heart that the only one she had eyes for was Tanya did not stop her heart from beating faster the closer Hal got to her.

Hal walked closer to her and she kept taking steps back until her back hit the wall and she had nowhere else to go.

And there it was... Another factor of fear was how powerless she felt with his eyes so intently on hers... 

The thoughts of bringing out her Armament or striking him with a Cosmic attack imbued thickly with Semi-saint energy were wiped clean from her mind.

It became forbidden like a taboo and when Hal took her lips in a firm kiss that instantly caused her legs to wobble, she instantly wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him even harder into the kiss.

Hal chuckled against her lips and hearing that sound made Aliya realize what she doing... She was kissing a blue-eyed bastard that was in no way trustworthy and only wasted to use her...

However, the full realization of what she was doing didn't make it feel any less good and neither did it make her want to stop.

As they kissed, Hal's hands went from her back down to her ass which he grabbed and squeezed to elicit a moan from Aliya's lips...

The first of many...

The more she moaned, the less ashamed Aliya felt about what she was doing and the more she indulged in it...

If she ever had the thought of getting it all out of her system with this kiss, she soon realized how wrong she was and how much of a trap any contact with this magnificent specimen of a man was.

There was no escape...

When Hal finally pulled away and leaned back, he could not help but laugh at how puckered her lips were and how much she was anticipating a continuation.

"Still don't like me?" he asked Aliya who shook her head and then nodded and then froze in confusion... What exactly was she feeling...?

What was her opinion of him and did it even matter if he could kiss as well as he just did?

Alas, all those thoughts had to be tabled as Hal was already slotting in blue gems into the Teleportation Circle and imputing coordinates for the Rose petal Hotel in the Imperial City.