SSS Rank: Strongest Beast Master

The next day, Jonah's workshop was finally quiet. Vanessa's "get lost" rune seemed to be working. Students would gather, hoping for a glimpse of the "Living Saint," only to find themselves suddenly feeling very bored. They'd stare at the door for a minute, shrug, and wander off to find something more interesting to do, like watch paint dry.

Jonah was just starting to feel like he could breathe again when a new knock came at the door. This one was different. Firm and it completely ignored the soft repelling magic.

KNOCK. KNOCK.

Jonah opened the door, expecting to see another wide-eyed clergyman or an overly ambitious noble.

Instead, he saw Thanos.

The leader of the Aegis faction, A top-ranked senior at the Academy, stood there looking just as powerful and serious as ever. He wasn't smiling, but he didn't look hostile either.

"May I come in?" Thanos asked, his voice a low rumble.

Jonah, surprised, stepped back and let him in. He had expected Thanos to be one of the many trying to recruit him, but the senior student didn't look like he was here to make a sales pitch.

Thanos's sharp eyes swept around the workshop, taking in the complex Synthesis Loom and the scattered research notes. He seemed to understand more from a single glance than most people did in an hour.

"Congratulations on your new title, Saint Jonah," he said, and Jonah could hear the faint hint of irony in his voice. "You've won the Church's favor. That's no small feat."

He paused, his gaze landing on Jonah. "But in doing so, you've made a powerful enemy."

Jonah's guard went up. "What do you mean?"

"I mean Colonel Boris and the Bureau of Elite Development," Thanos said, getting straight to the point. There was no political fluff, no careful wording. Just the hard, cold truth.

"I have… contacts," Thanos continued. "They tell me the Bureau is furious. They don't see your power as a divine gift. They see it as a strategic bio-weapon, a priceless asset that the Church just effectively claimed right out from under their noses."

He started to pace slowly around the workshop, his presence filling the space. "Think about it from their perspective. They are the nation's military research arm. They are supposed to find and develop new weapons to fight the war. And you, the most unique and powerful 'weapon' to appear in a generation, have just been publicly branded as the property of their biggest political rival."

Jonah felt a chill run down his spine. He had been so focused on the Cardinal's trap that he hadn't fully considered the fallout with the Bureau. He remembered the cold look in Colonel Boris's eyes. She wasn't the type to just let this go.

"They see this as a major blow to the nation's military and scientific progress," Thanos explained. "And they blame you for it."

"I didn't have a choice," Jonah said, his voice quiet.

"I know," Thanos said, surprising him. "But they don't care about your choices. They care about assets. And you are their most wanted asset."

He stopped pacing and looked Jonah directly in the eye. His expression was dead serious. "Listen to me, Jonah. The Bureau will not take this lying down. They will look for any opportunity to discredit you. They will try to prove that your power is dangerous, that it's unstable, that you can't be trusted with it."

"They will watch your every move," he warned. "They will scrutinize every mission you take, every Progeny you create. They will be waiting for you to make a single mistake. And when you do, they will be there to reclaim their 'asset'."

Jonah felt the walls of his workshop closing in even tighter. First the Church, now the Bureau. He was caught between two grinding gears of power.

Thanos seemed to sense his thoughts. He walked over to a workbench and picked up a piece of inert crystal, turning it over in his hands. "The monsters you fight in the field are predictable," he said, his voice low and thoughtful. "They have patterns. They have weaknesses. You can study them, understand them, and defeat them."

He placed the crystal back down with a soft clink.

"The ones you fight in the halls of power are far more dangerous."

The warning hung in the air, heavy and sharp. This wasn't a recruitment pitch. It wasn't a threat. It was… advice. A warning from someone who understood the political battlefield far better than he did.

"Why are you telling me this?" Jonah asked, genuinely curious. "I thought you'd want me to join your faction."

Thanos let out a short, humorless laugh. "Of course I would. Your power would be a tremendous asset to Aegis. But I am not a fool. A man who can face down the Grand Inquisitor and the Cardinal is not someone who can be easily recruited. You are your own power now."

He turned to leave. "I came here because a house divided against itself cannot stand. The Bureau, the Church, the Academy… we are all supposed to be on the same side. But a political war is brewing, and you are at the center of it. The Bureau's obsession with control could hurt us all."

He paused at the door. "Be careful who you trust, Saint Jonah. And be very careful what missions you accept from now on."

With that, he was gone, leaving Jonah alone in his suddenly too quiet workshop.

The conversation had solidified the vague unease in Jonah's gut into a cold, hard certainty. He now had a shadowy government agency actively working against him. They wouldn't send assassins in the night - that was too crude. They would use politics, misinformation, and perfectly crafted traps.

He had escaped the poverty and the danger of the beasts, only to find himself in a game with far higher stakes and far more treacherous players. The rules were different here, and he didn't know how to play.

Not yet.