Soon, there was a soft knock on the door. "Please, come in," Karl said, not even turning his head.
His gaze remained fixed on the breastplate in his hand, pondering the next point for runic carving.
The wooden door slowly swung open, and Iris entered with a tray carrying a beautifully packaged bottle of red wine and two wine glasses.
As soon as she entered, she was met by the warm candlelight and the faint scent of incense, causing her to pause for a moment.
Looking around, hundreds of candles brightly illuminated the entire room.
The statue in the center and Karl's upright silhouette stood out even more, creating a sacred sense of tranquility.
She instinctively turned and glanced at Triss, who was hiding in the shadows behind the doorframe, silently encouraging her with clenched fists.
Iris took a deep breath, as if making a decision, and nodded slightly to Triss.
Then she closed the heavy wooden door and with a click carefully locked it from the inside.
Although Karl stood with his back to the doorway, he was fully aware of Iris's movements through his senses.
He chuckled inwardly, but maintained a calm expression, focusing on studying the breastplate. A faint red glow flickered in his eyes, ready to begin carving at any moment.
Iris carried the tray and tiptoed over to the stone platform, where she saw Karl intently "looking" at the breastplate.
She didn't know that Karl was using super vision to observe and imagine; sometimes a faint red light flickered in his eyes.
She decided not to interrupt, but carefully placed the bottle of wine and the glass on an empty corner of the stone platform.
Then, quietly standing to the side, her gaze involuntarily drifted to Karl's focused profile.
The candlelight softly highlighted his well-defined jawline and prominent nose bridge.
Those eyes, which usually seemed to see through everything, were now slightly lowered.
His slightly long eyelashes cast a light shadow under his eyelids, making him seem less aloof than usual, and more calm and... researcher-like. Charming.
Iris watched, momentarily lost in thought, her heart involuntarily quickening.
At that moment, Karl seemed to have completed his plan. A red light suddenly flashed in his eyes, and two tiny, hot beams shot out again, stopping on the surface of the breastplate.
From Iris's perspective, Karl only slightly and quickly moved his head a few times.
Accompanied by two faint red rays, the breastplate outlined complex trajectories, like nimble pen tips, the entire process dazzlingly fast.
In just two or three seconds, he stopped all movement, and the red light in his eyes disappeared.
However, just as Karl stopped,
CRACK... CRACK, CRACK... CRACK, CRACK, CRACK...
Suddenly, a thick metallic cracking sound came from the breastplate.
Iris was shocked to see that the surface of the breastplate, just "drawn" by Karl, was instantly covered in countless web-like cracks.
Deep within these cracks, there was no darkness, but an increasingly bright, increasingly unstable orange-red glow.
It seemed that lava was boiling inside the metal, and the light quickly became dazzling.
"Careful! Karl, it looks like there's a problem!"
Iris didn't have time to think; she instinctively cried out, even taking a step forward to protect Karl.
Karl anticipated this, nodded slightly, and stopped Iris's movement.
There was not a trace of panic on his face, and he didn't even glance at the breastplate about to explode.
Casually tossing it like minor trash, he gently threw it into the deepest corner of the quiet room, away from the two of them.
The breastplate traced a parabola in the air, just as it was about to land.
BANG!! BANG!! Suddenly, a powerful explosion erupted, and a mass of orange-red energy burst forth in the corner of the wall.
A scorching shockwave, mixed with countless shattered, sharp metal fragments, rushed towards Karl and Iris.
Iris's face paled in fear; she instinctively closed her eyes and raised her hand to cover her face.
But the expected shock and pain did not come; she only felt a gentle force instantly envelop her.
She quietly opened a crack in her eyes and was shocked to see the sharp iron fragments fired less than a meter from her and Karl.
It was as if they had hit a completely invisible wall, making no sound, and then fell to the ground.
The subsequent waves of scorching heat and magical shockwaves were easily smoothed out by this invisible wall, not even a strand of her hair was stirred.
Karl even managed to control the bio-field, steadily holding the bottle of red wine and the glass that Iris had nearly knocked over in her earlier fright.
The aftermath of the explosion quickly subsided, leaving the corners intact, only scattered metal fragments with blue smoke.
Iris gently touched her chest with lingering fear, her gaze at Karl filled with remaining fear and confusion.
"Karl, just now... was that carving some kind of pattern? How could it... explode?"
Karl calmly nodded and explained: "It was a pattern, but more precisely, it was an energy-protective rune."
"Earlier, I enchanted another breastplate, but during testing, it reached its protection limit – the runes were overloaded and damaged."
"Now this one... it seems related to the fact that the breastplate, damaged by the runes, was repeatedly used as a carrier."
"Then the carrier couldn't withstand the energy infusion at the moment the runes were forming, leading to instability and... well, intense decomposition."
After the explanation, he looked as if he had just noticed the wine vessel on the stone stand, turned his head, and looked at the bottle of red wine and the two glasses.
A perfectly timed expression of question appeared on his face: "Iris, what is this...?"
Iris saw Karl's gaze fall on the bottle, and for no reason, her heart tightened.
She instinctively raised her hand to brush back the hair that had fallen by her ear, her gaze flickering for a moment.
But she quickly remembered Triss's encouragement, secretly cheered herself on, and forced herself to look up and meet Karl's eyes.
"I... I couldn't sleep properly. As soon as I lay down, I closed my eyes."
"Always... unconsciously, I remembered those... experiences from my old home."
Iris's voice grew softer, carrying real anxiety: "Having a little drink helps me fall asleep faster, fewer worries, and in the castle... I'm not very familiar with everyone."
"Only you, Karl... the only person I can think of to come and talk to..."
This reason sounds reasonable and evokes sympathy, but also carries a hint of deliberation.
Karl's eyes flickered slightly, but he didn't call her out. What interested him most was what Triss had actually said to Iris.
That gave Iris the courage to take such a proactive and clumsy "action."
A look of understanding and gentleness appeared on his face, and he nodded, outwardly fully accepting Iris's explanation.
"I see. Sometimes drinking a little to help you sleep is actually quite appropriate."
As he spoke, he naturally reached for the bottle of red wine with an open cork, ready to pour wine for the two of them.