The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 504: Serina

“So in the end, it was Aerith’s husband who convinced his mysterious master to send you back here,” Serina summarized after Ariana finished telling everyone what had happened ever since they were pulled into that gate more than 20 years ago.

“Yes! He took ‘Aerith’s husband’ with him as soon as we got here, saying that they had something to do.”

“I see…” Serina nodded, then closed her eyes as if to fully comprehend what she just heard.

At the moment, she was sitting on a chair beside Rosette in a large conference room where everyone sat down.

George, who stood politely behind his master after arranging refreshments for everyone, couldn’t help but sigh as he looked at his master, then at Rosette, who was deliberately avoiding his gaze, choosing to look at Mike, Alice, and Lara… As if trying to judge what their mother looked like.

Slowly, he looked around, inspecting everyone’s reaction to what they had just heard.

First was Maril, who was beside Rosette … George couldn’t help but give her an extra gaze. This young woman was his master’s eldest daughter after all! To tell the truth, he found her story of growing up in an elven kingdom a little unbelievable, but looking at the fat elf sitting beside her, shooting secret glances at Alice, he couldn’t help but believe it.

Turning to the other side of the table, he spotted the little girls, Lara, El, and Yin, who sat politely at the bottom of the table… They were absolutely shocked; their eyes kept darting between Macil’s ears and Aerith’s horn while whispering between themselves.

Aerith, that demonkin girl, didn’t seem to be interested in hearing the story. Her eyes, other than periodically looking at Theodore and Mike as if comparing them to someone, kept focusing on Lara as if she found her interesting.

Next was Alice. Other than carefully inspecting Rosette, Meril, and Aerith… She periodically glanced at the elf and that young man Quras, who seemed to have come from the otherworld on a whim and was a bit overwhelmed by the atmosphere. She seemed to be interested in them… Not like a woman found an interest in a man, but more like a cat that found an interesting mouse…

Next was Mike… Although he appeared like he was deep in thought, George could tell that he was secretly inspecting Quras’s sister… Strange, that girl seemed perfectly normal? Why was Mike interested in her? Never mind that…

Theodore was, as expected, only interested in Rosette, not caring about anyone else, including Mirai, who kept winking at him. George did remember that woman always trying to hit on him when they were young… Anyways, the moment Theodore heard about Meril and how she was his daughter, he immediately switched to focusing on her, looking at her with compassion… No, knowing his scummy master, George was sure he was going to use ‘Getting to know his long lost daughter’ as an excuse to make up with Rosette…. Yeah… He had been with his master so long that he knew how his rotten brain worked!

George sighed as he began to think of a way for his master to make up with Rosette… Being the wingman had been a part of his responsibilities for ages.

The only one who seemed to be normal in the room, other than Lady Ariana, was that young Girl Lyra who sat there politely and acted like a proper noble lady. She might be a good additional companion for Lady Lara in the future!

“I have a few questions…” Serina finally said, opening her eyes after a brief silence.

“Please ask!” Ariana responded.

“First… Who is Aerith’s husband? From what you told me, this guy seemed to be not your average Joe…” she asked, remembering how Aerith seemed to hold great compassion for him as she told them how she married him, but also seemed to be hiding something about him, for example, how could Rosette and Ariana trust that scummy guy that quickly! “Why are you deliberately avoiding talking about him?”

“Ah…” Ariana sighed. “ His master has instructed us to keep his identity a secret… “ Ariana finally replied.

“Oh….”

“Sorry, but according to him, for security reasons, only Theodore might know!” Ariana hesitated for a moment, then said. “I will tell you afterwards if….”

“Was it Victor?” Theodore asked immediately, interrupting her. The moment Ariana told them how he made Aerith marry him while acting as a pervert, he suspected as much. Victor did cross from the same gate they did after all! And his stupid son was the kind who would take interest in horny girls… and grandmas….

“....” Ariana hesitated. “Yes…” she finally admitted it. Since Theodore decided not to keep it a secret, it was no longer her business.

“Hssssssssssss….” Lara gasped with El, but everyone ignored her, including Yin, who nodded to herself.

“Victor?” Serina frowned. “Your perverted lost son?” She asked, turning to look at Theodore. ”Didn’t you find him a month ago…”

“That one was a fake… It’s a long story, but we are investigating who did it, suspecting a connection with the Mining Island incident!” Theodore replied before turning to Ariana. “Telling you to keep his arrival a secret, his master might know something…”

“...”

“...”

Everyone remained silent, not really sure what this all meant.

“So he really came back with you…” He eyed Rosette. She ignored him.

“Yes… But as I said, his master took him somewhere, he said he would be back later…”

“Oh…” Theodore nodded to himself, deciding to ask Lily or Margret about him later. That pervert son of his would definitely contact his harem before his own parents.

“Was there anyone else… There was another guy who was pulled with him back then,” Theodore asked.

“...dead.

“Oh…” Theodore sighed in relief. With Bruno dead, he no longer needed to worry about unexpected variables. “Let’s keep all the info about this a secret for now…” Theodore finally said, especially eyeing Lara when he said it.

Everyone nodded.

“Then let’s go to the second question….” Serina asked. “Victor’s master…”

“We really know nothing about him!” Ariana said.

“Yes, other than him being some kind of a demon hunter, The Storm Lord did mention something about him having absurd Authority, but that’s it…. He seemed to be from this world originally…” Rosette said, looking at her grandmother. “Oh, and according to her lordship, he is not a Lord!” she finally added.

“A lord? Isn’t that just a title?” Theodore asked with a frown. When he heard them mentioning the Storm lord and the Sun lord, he thought these were some otherworldly ranks, but from the way Rosette phrased it, it didn’t seem that way.

“No… And don’t ask about things that you shouldn’t!” Serina scolded him. “Keep all the facts about lords a secret for now,” she turned to Rosette and said.

“Does this world have Lords?” Rosete couldn’t help but ask.

“...” Serina sighed. “Yes… And No! In a way, they are no longer relevant… That’s all you need to know!” she firmly said, ending this argument. “Let me ask you a few questions about the other world then…” she added, changing the subject.

Theodore, who watched them go at it again, sighed, then slowly stood up and walked out of the room, giving George a glance to report what they would be talking about later.

At the moment, he had a phone call to make.

***

“What? Sorry, but that’s a little inappropriate… I am your daughter-in-law and such… Not that? Oh… Your son… Oh, sorry, I totally misunderstood. He is right here, just finished assaulting me like a beast! You really raised a hunk of a son… Ah… One moment,” Margret, who lazily lay in bed wrapped in sheets after a long, exhausting battle, said on her phone before turning to look at her husband, who had just finished taking a shower. “It’s for you…” she said, throwing the phone at him.

Victor raised one eyebrow at her as he caught the phone and put it to his ear. “Hi, Daddy…”

“BASTARD! WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL ME AS SOON AS YOU RETURNED!” Theodore’s scolding came from the other side.

“You know the priorities… Hoes before bros…”

“It is the fuckin’ reverse… And I am your fuckin’ father!” Theodore couldn’t help but scold from the other side. His son was getting more and more brazen every time he talked to him.

“...Right… There was that too…” Victor chuckled. “Missed me?”

“Like hell!” Theodore scolded. He was just worried, but he was not going to say it. “Weren’t you supposed to be with your ‘mysterious’ master?”

“Nah… It was just an excuse as I wanted to slip away and spend some time with my wives before introducing Aerith to them!” he replied. He had been watching Ariana’s debriefing through Mike, so he was expecting his father to call any moment.

“Did Margret tell you about the situation?”

“Yeah… That Axel guy… Do you want me to play along?”

“Yeah! Talk to him and sort things out between each other… I don’t want to alert the snake!” Theodore said, glad that his son was smart enough to figure things out quickly.

“I understand… “ Victor nodded. Through Lin, he could tell that Axel had already finished conquering that dungeon and should be here in a couple of days. “Now I am a busy man… Do you need anything else…”

“... What are lords?” Theodore curbed the urge to curse at his son and asked directly.

“Some sort of very strong players… According to my master, they have some other rules, but I am not sure about the specifics,” Victor said. “Think of the strongest boss you fight, then make him 100 times stronger…”

“Hsss….. Then…”

“I am not sure about their existence in this world. Grandma Ann might know something...” Victor said. After hearing what Alpha said, he suspected that some facts might be kept to the head of each family. This legacy might also be lost. “My master only told me that they are under some kind of restriction and that I shouldn’t worry about them.” Victor quickly said. This should be enough for his father for now.

“Oh…Your master?”

“I met him as soon as I entered the other world. He saved my life. I can’t tell you anything about him, but he doesn’t belong to any known world power… “

“Oh… Are you sure he is not using you?”

“He is strong enough to play the otherworldly lords, so even if he has ulterior motives, I can’t do anything against him,“ Victor sighed. “If my guess is correct, though, he seems to be interested in my bloodline that is compatible with some demon hunting art… That’s all I can say!”

“Oh….” Theodore sighed. “...Just be careful…”

“Yeah… I am always careful!”

“That girl Aerith…”

“She is horny!”

“She seems like a nice girl… Don’t bully her!”

“... Sure….” Victor raised his eyebrow. His father was really into rosettes, even caring about her demon daughter! "In a week or so, can you take her to the mansion and introduce her to my wives..."

"You don't want to do it yourself?"

"It would be better if I stayed away for now..."

"... Fine..." Theodore nodded. This might be a chance for him to make up with Rosette! She would definitely be interested in meeting Victor's wives!

“Now do you need something else?” Victor asked in a hurry.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“.... Bastard! Is fucking your fucking wives more important than talking to your f… your father!”

“.... Do you really want to hear the answer for that?”

“...." Theodore sighed. Yeah... He didn't want to hear the answer. "Just be careful… When all of this is done, I want to hear the full story!”

“I understand!”

“....”

Beeeeeeeeeep

Theodore hung up.

Victor sighed as he threw Margret’s phone back to her.

“Rest well…” he said as he put on some casual clothes, then turned to leave.

“Who is your next target?” she asked.

“Hana…” he said as he walked out.

"Poor girl..." Margaret yawned and slipped under the sheets to get some much-needed rest.

***

“WHAT?” Theodre, who returned to the room, and George whispered something in his ear, exclaimed.

“As I said, I want your daughter and her servants to become my disciples," Serina answered, eyeing Lara for a moment before glancing at El. “Someone with their complex bloodlines needs professional teaching… Something you grunts can’t provide!” she said, casually cursing at all the aristocratic family who thought of themselves as noble!

“This…” Theodore held the words he planned to say. “You already forced me to make Alice your disciple back then!” Theodore said angrily. Back then, after Rosette disappeared, he, being completely in love, made a promise that his eldest daughter would be raised by Serina.

He came to regret it later, after his daughter developed a set of very weird hobbies, but due to Serina’s very high position, he had no say in the matter.

“And what’s wrong with that… Look at Alice now, didn’t she grow up to be a fine young woman?” Serina raised one eyebrow.

Alice nodded to her father. She couldn’t really tell him directly due to an oath of secrecy, but being Serina’s disciple was a really good thing. That was despite all the political intrigue happening in the heavenly sect.

“This…” Thedore was about to refute her, but looking at Rosette, looking at him with questioning eyes, he paused. Would it be worth it to sacrifice his other daughter in order to bang his childhood friend?

Dah… The answer was simple.

“I can’t make that decision…” he said with complex eyes. “If Lara is ok with it, I will consider it!” he said, turning to face Lara. “Are you ok leaving the family to the heavenly sect to be Lady Seriana’s disciple?” he asked.

Lara, who had been frowning for a moment, hesitated. “What is the heavenly sect?” she asked worriedly.

“It’s a very big place! If you go there with me, you would be able to get very powerful, far more than anything you ever dreamed of!” Serina said. “Right?” She turned to Alice.

“Lara… This is a trade-off… You will have to stay away from the family and mother for some time, but in exchange, you will learn many things about your power, things that no one in the family knows!”

“Even Esteemed brother, Victor?” Lara frowned.

“Even Victor…” Alice sighed. Victor really did have a big influence on this young girl. “In fact, if you go there, you will get a chance to be so strong that even Victor would be surprised!” she said, presiding over her younger sister. A chance to enter the heavenly sect was not something that should be missed! Due to the sect’s nature and rules, the only real way to join was to be taken in by one of the elders as a disciple. The other publicly known methods were all scams to collect slaves with the promise of rising up one day. For most of them, it would be a promise until the end of their lives!

Lara hesitated, looking at Mike, who sighed and nodded for her. Since Alice wanted her to join, he wouldn’t oppose it.

“If… If I may… I have a condition….” Lara bit her lip and said worriedly.

“Oh… What?” Serina asked with interest, her eyes kept glancing at El every few seconds.

“I want El, Yin, Rin, and Stephanie to go with me…” Lara said.

“Rin and Stephanie?”

“Rin is my other friend… She is also a player… Stephanie is not a player…” Lara replied nervously. She didn’t know where she got the corsage from, but ever since she became a player, she hated the fact that she was hiding a secret from one of her best friends!

She could feel that they had become a little distant in the last month, and she didn’t like it one bit!

“...” Serina hesitated. “Fine… I will make her a player for you…. Deal?” she asked with an interested smile.

“Deal!” Lara responded as her eyes began to sparkle.

Theodore, on the other hand, could only sigh and glance sideways at Rosette, catching her looking at him as if inspecting his face. The moment their eyes met, she quickly looked away and puffed her cheeks.

…It seemed like he was on the right track…

***

Since it was already late at night, Victor didn’t alert any of the little maids as he left the mansion.

As he headed directly back into the base at the back of the mountain. He kept monitoring what was happening in his father’s mansion through Mike.

NAME: Serina Divinerose

LEVEL: 999 (22391)

CLASS: JUDGE, SSS

SUBCLASS: MYSTERIOUS MERCHANT, SSS

ABNORMAL STATUS:

HEAVENLY EMPIRE 2ND DEGREE BARONESSHEAVENLY POND ACTIVATION PASSAN ???? OATH (///////////*/)AUTHORITY: 51133

HEALTH: 811240

STAMINA: 830250

MANA: 820030

Strength: 9999

Agility: 9999

Intelligence: 9999

Luck: 41

Charm: 50

Order: 1993121

SYSTEM SKILLS :

JUDGMENT, SSS

DECODER, SSS

ALL-SEEING EYE, S

LIE DETECTION, A

EIDETIC MEMORY, A

IRRESISTIBLE COMMAND, A

—

HIDE PRESENCE, SS

SYSTEM STORE ACCESS, S (LEVEL 9)

PLAYER MARKET ACCESS, S (LEVEL 4)

EVIDENCE ERASER, S

DISGUISE, AAA

--

MAGIC RESISTANCE, B

THUNDER RESISTANCE, C

COLD RESISTANCE, S

POISON RESISTANCE, SS

BLOODLINE SKILLS:

BLOOD HISTORIAN, X

HEAVENLY CONNECTION, X

EMPOWER, X

IMMORTALITY, AAA

REGENERATION, AA

ACQUIRED SKILLS :

WHIP ARTS, SSS

FIST ARTS, S

MUSIC ARTS, S

SWORD ARTS, S

HALBERD ARTS, S

MARTIAL ARTS, AA

PAIN TOLERANCE, A

DANCING, A

CHARM, A

ARCHERY, A

COOKING, A

FLUTE, A

ZETHER, A

LUTE, A

HARP, A

PIANO, A

SHIELD ARTS, A

SURVIVAL, B

DISGUISE, B

FISHING, C

LET THEM CRY, D

SEXUAL ARTS, E

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY, F

Bloodline :

HEAVENLY BLOOD, X (2%)

EQUIPMENT :

SKY GARB, SSS

TELEPROTATION RING, S

STORAGE RING, AAA

RESISTANCE NECKLACE, AA

SCENES ENHANCING EARNING, A

FATE:

FATE’S POWER: AAA (SS)

DEFINED FATE: UNDEFINED <SPIRIT LORD OATH EFFECT>

DESTINY LIST: ERROR - UNDEFINED

Wow… This woman was scary! Still… she seems to be under some restriction.. An OATH! It seemed to be restricting her power and fate!

Victor couldn’t help but notice many things about this Heavenly Empire. It seemed to be the same thing mentioned by the Storm Lord. So his suspicion about it having a relationship with the Heavenly sect was correct.

How could such a woman suddenly die in the other timeline? Did she really die, or was she sent away?

Too many variables….

Frowning, he heard them arguing about Lara going there.

This…

Well, for now, it would not be a bad thing.

To tell the truth, he had been worried about Lara lately; her unexpected rise into power was a little problematic. Especially as she grew up and entered her rebellious age. His father’s impregnating women skills clearly didn’t come with a parenting guide…

Also, the heavenly sect only suffered damage in the other timeline after Caspian rebelled. Other than that, it was a very safe palace during the Reckoning.

He sighed, thinking about it… Well, at least he would be able to check on her later after he goes there!

As he thought about many things, he finally arrived at the secret base.

There, he walked past the totally oblivious guards, going directly to the underground lab. In a way he was testing the security here, and it was not bad for a hidden power that no one knew or cared about, but knowing what he did now, he decided to buff it up in the future… Using an automatic array would be his best option, but he didn’t have enough shard stones to replicate the security in the mansion, so his best option for now was to try one of the protection arrays he found in some of the books he newly acquired…

He sighed as he walked and finally located a certain lab.

He stepped directly inside.

It was a large hall with huge tube tanks scattered around. Inside them were what appeared to be disfigured bodies of unknown creatures.

For a second there, Victor suspected that he might have walked into some kind of sci-fi movie set. An unfinished one at that, as the lab was mostly empty with that stuff only taking up a small corner of it beside a large desk where a certain girl was sleeping in her disorganized desk and drooling over what seemed like a stack of design paper..

Hana…

Victor was by her side and, without caring to wake her up, he fired up her pc, logged right in, and began to comb through it.

After going through a few BL comic collections, he finally found the data he needed.

Sighing, he began to check her experiment's data.

“FUCK…” he cursed after just five minutes. He understood nothing. This girl’s data-keeping habits were a total mess. Damn it! Well, at least if someone were to really infiltrate this place and try to steal the data, he would be totally lost!

“VICTOR!” Hana, who woke up abruptly and was frightened by his sudden cruising, exclaimed as she sat up.

“Sorry to wake you up…” he said, not being sorry at all. “Don’t you have a bed… Why sleep in the lab?”

“Been busy on something… And I like it here… When did you come back?” she asked as she secretly sent a message to Margret using her phone inside her lab coat.

“A few hours ago…” he said. “I've just finished with Margret, and since everyone was asleep, I thought I would come and check your progress!”

“Oh…”

“It seemed like the experiments are not proceeding well…” he said, eyeing the corpses in the tanks.

“At first I thought they were, but after some time it’s turned into a complete mess,” she sighed as she eyed her phone, then relaxed a bit. This one was the real Victor! “The data you gave me had many problems… Although this process of giving people monster powers appears fine, it has very severe side effects.”

“How severe?” he frowned.

“It slowly eats up people’s vitality, like cancerous cells that require too much energy… In its deactivated phase, on average, the loss is negligible, merely 0.3% per month, but in the case of continuous activation, the subject would only live for a week! In fact, once activated for 1 day continuously, deactivating would become almost impossible…” she said. “The results, of course, vary depending on the type of monster we are using; the ones I mentioned are for semi-humanoid monsters like a lamia… If I used the flesh of a humanoid, a goblin to be exact, the subject would survive for a month and a half…”

“And for complete monsters?”

“After giving them the blood of a demonic squid, all experiment subjects ended up in the drain in the matter of 3 hours…” she sighed again. “The dragon egg you gave me resulted in an instant explosion!”

Victor frowned. It seems like his plan to turn his chicks into dragon chicks was not going smoothly. ”I have some info… In fact, it came from your cousin Luise while punishing her…,” he said after pondering for a moment.

“Punished? Already? What did she do now? ” Hana frowned. She really liked alpha, but she knew how crazy she could get sometimes. But why would Victor punish her as soon as he returned?

“Nothing important, ask Margret about it later…” he sighed. “Anyway, according to her, all the aristocratic family bloodlines might be artificial… Granted by someone… The whole thing about another worldly creator being our ancestor is a lie…“

“Impossible…” Hana frowned. “Where did Alpha get that?”

“Some family heritage…”

“...” Hana frowned even more. “Even if… I don’t think it can be true… The genome factor is simply too integrated in bloodlines!”

“It’s just random info for now… We need to verify it…” he said, “But if it is true, that would mean that von Zwei’s techniques might be them trying to replicate that method.. So I had this thought, maybe their direction was completely wrong!”

“...” Hana frowned as she looked at him. “Do you happen to have some idea?” she asked.

“Yeah… Let’s focus on the term.. BLOODLINES!”

“Oh… Ditching the flesh and using blood…” she raised one eyebrow, then sighed and shook her head. “This sounds plausible, but it won’t work. In the data you gave me, Von Zwei seemed to have tried this, and they failed…”

“Remember the blood purification pill you made for me? Consider using it as a base…”

“...” she frowned. “You might not know this, but I tried giving one of the leftover pills from back then to a ‘subject,’ but it didn’t work!” she replied. “It didn’t affect his body, but he went mad and started attacking and biting people like some kind of zombie!”

“Eh…” Victor paused. “Did…”

“Of course, he was not a real zombie… Don’t worry!” she said.

“Oh….” Victor frowned. “Did you try to use other bloodlines?"

“I did, the results were less severe, but other than giving them some severe side effects, it didn’t work!” She shook her head again.

“...” Victor frowned. “Then what are your thoughts now?”

“No idea… Been working on something, but it is not very promising…” she said. “But if what you said about the aristocratic families' origin is true, there should be a way…” she pondered as if she could see some possibility.

“What?” he asked. Alchemy and biology stuff were beyond his area of expertise, as he never dabbled in them in his past life.

“No idea… But I might find something, I need samples… Full bodies!” she said as she eyed him.

“From the aristocratic families?” he asked as he raised one eyebrow. This girl didn’t even dare touch a body a few months ago… The von Richter girls seemed to be all somehow a little crazy. Well… Injecting a shit ton of memories into them as young children might be the cause!

“Yes… The purer the bloodline, the better!”

“How many?”

“200 different ones should be fine… Would it be hard?” she frowned.

“Alive or dead?”

“...” she paused for a moment. “I didn't mean corpses!” she spat, noticing how he was looking at her. “I just need blood samples… Maybe some other bodily fluids too…” she said, glaring at him. Although she didn’t mind experimenting on murderers and rapists that Alpha secured for her, she was not going to target innocents for her experiments!

“Other bodily fluids…” Victor swallowed. Remembering that the Fragrant Shadow team was made up of former hookers, it should be doable.

“You know….” Hana blushed a bit as she looked away.

“Fine…” he sighed. “Well… Is that everything you have for now?” he asked. Well, it had only been a few months, and expecting amazing results in this timeframe was unreasonable.

“Yeah… Sorry…” she sighed. She felt a little embarrassed, as not making a lot of progress depicted all the resources they had been providing her.

“It’s fine… What about the other thing?”

“What other thing?” she asked. She turned to face him again with a frown. Did he want something else from her?

“About you finally accepting to marry me…”

“WHEN THE FUCK DID I SAY I WOULD DO THAT!” she asked as she looked away to hide her face. His confession came out of nowhere!!

“Didn’t we agree that I would wait for you until you choose to accept me?” he asked with a hurt voice.

“I never said I will ever do that… I… I am here just to do experiments for you… That’s our deal…” she spat. Damn it… She could tell that he was trying to make an advance on her, but she was not ready yet!

“...” Victor smirked. “Well… I will wait for you…”

“Basterd… You will wait while scamming some other girl…” Hana couldn’t help but hiss. “Now go… I need to think about a few things… “ she gestured for him to leave without looking at him. Her heart was beating hard.

It would be a lie if she said she was not interested in him. After all, after meeting him, he was the only guy who would appear sometimes in her dreams…. Especially after breaking up with Sebastian.

Still, she felt that she didn’t know Victor well, and relationships were things that needed time… And he had a lot of wives… and… And she was not ready yet… Yeah…. She needed to know him more… A little more… he was not her type after all… but… He was really handsome… Ah… Why was she remembering that scene from her dream now…. NO…. She had to calm down… It would be very embracing if he knew what she was thinking about…. CALM DOWN, HANA…

Victor smirked as he watched her go blank with many random thoughts and squeeze her legs a little. Slow cooking using his absurd charm was in the process… Not bad…

“Right… I have a few things for you…” He said as he placed a wooden box on the table beside her. “This is a gift from the other world… I thought of you when I saw it… It matches your eye color!”

“I will check it later…” she said without daring to look toward him.

“Well, feel free to call me if you need anything else, and take care of your health. I don’t want you to have black eyes when we consummate our marriage…” he said as he turned to walk out.

“BASTARD!” she cursed at him behind his back, finally turning to look after hearing the door closed.

Biting her lip, she turned to the box and opened it.

It had two things. A necklace made of some strange material with a dark blue gem that matched the color of her eyes perfectly, and beside it, a luxurious-looking storage ring.

She blushed a bit, checking the necklace, then turned to the ring and grabbed it to see what was inside.

“Hsss………” she gasped as she began to breathe heavily in excitement. Inside the ring, there was the furniture, an entire lab full of all kinds of materials and strange, otherworldly alchemical instruments. She could recognize only some of them, but from the materials they were made of, she could tell that those things were absolutely precious!

How the hell did he get all of this? Loot the lab of some kind of famous alchemist?