As they all walked towards the manor, Felix called out "Wait!" to Leo.

He turned around to look at Felix. "What is it?"

"We should... take a bath first. Scarlet got mad at me last time." Felix said.

Leo gave Felix a funny look. "You went to her room without bathing first, last time?"

Felix coughed. "Right, Hope, lead the way to the baths, if you please." he said to Hope, ignoring the question. Hope giggled and covered her mouth, and led everyone to the baths, except for Caldwell, who was dismissed back to his room.

Hope followed Felix in to the dressing room as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Felix expected this, but he still sighed. "Hope, listen, I'd be much more comfortable if..." Felix began.

"Err, but Master... look at the first Young Master..." Hope said.

Felix turned his head to look at Leo nearby. He had summoned five beautiful maids at some point, who were all undressing and giggling around Leo. He seemed to be having a grand old time, as his hands went wherever they pleased wantonly.

Felix's expression darkened. "Right, well, he is him, and I am me." he said to Hope.

"But Master... it's my entire job to serve you isn't it? If I can't even help you with a basic task like this, are you intending to just have me as a wallflower?" Hope asked, looking depressed.

"Well, no, but there are other tasks you can perform in my service..." Felix said.

"Yes, there are, but this is a maid's pride, you know, I'm supposed to be your first personal maid, but you won't even let me serve you... Am I not good enough for you Master?" Hope asked, her eyes tearing up.

"What, no, that isn't the issue at all! I'm just not used to having other people take care of me..." Felix said, looking away.

"Pfft. Stupid virgin. No wonder you died alone in your last life, even when a woman does show interest in you, you turn them away yourself!" Arboro chided him in his soul.

Felix's expression got even darker. "You know what, I've changed my mind. Go ahead and do what you think you should be doing, Hope." Felix told her, trying his best not to sound nervous. It didn't really work, but he tried.

Hope's expression brightened, and she swiftly and efficiently disrobed Felix and herself, and led him to one of the empty baths. She seemed to show no qualms or reservations whatsoever about either his or her own nudity, and she had a happy expression. She set the bath, and after Felix got in, she set about cleaning him personally, scrubbing him down, and then taking some time to clean herself as well. It didn't escape Felix's notice that she did so right in front of him, on purpose, clearly showing off her body to him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep his eyes off of her modest chest.

"L-listen Hope, I just want a bath right now, okay?" Felix said, looking around nervously.

"Of course, Master. I understand." Hope said, with a slight bow of her head. She had a smug grin on her face. Damnit.

After a couple of minutes more of soaking, Felix clambered out and returned to the dressing room, where Hope got him dressed first, and then began to get dressed herself. They could hear a lot of girly and giggly noises coming from the bath Leo disappeared to.

"Are you trying to die a virgin in this life too?" Arboro asked him in his soul. "You could have bent her over the side of the bath and taken her then and there, and there would have been nothing wrong with it." she said.

"That's not the issue, Arboro. The issue is that this is all too sudden. I just met Hope the other day, and all told, I only have a couple of hours of interaction with her." Felix said.

"If she's willing, why does that matter?" Arboro asked.

"Even if she's willing, I'm not willing! And furthermore, why do you think she's willing? Is it because she's just so incredibly smitten with me as a person, or is it because of my status as a Young Master of the Belrose family, and her personal ticket to safety, security, and resources, which she has already proven she was willing to steal to obtain?" Felix asked.

"So what? Humans are the race of Greed. Humans don't mate with each other because they like someone's "personal essence" or their personality or whatever, they do it because of the benefits it provides to themselves. Humans like each other because of what they do for them, and what they can provide for them, whether it's looks, resources, security, or whatever else, it's purely transactional. A few thousand years of romantic poetry and sonnets has warped your perception of reality. Also, furthermore, you already enslaved her, so you already have to provide her with safety and resources anyway! You might as well get what I can tell you want from her." Arboro said.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"Do you have to be quite so concerned with my sex life?" Felix said with a sigh.

"What sex life?" Arboro said with a snort. "Also, if I don't express concern for it, no one will, since you evidently aren't concerned with it." she continued.

Felix didn't have a response to that, so he turned to Hope, who had finally finished getting dressed, and was waiting with a smile.

"Did you enjoy yourself, Master?" she asked him, teasingly.

"...Yes." Felix admitted begrudgingly.

"Good!" Hope said with a smile.

They could only wait until Leo returned, so they did just that. After about a half hour, Leo and his squad of giggling maids returned and all got dressed. Leo dismissed them all with a smile, and turned to Felix and Hope. "Shall we?" he asked. Felix nodded, and they moved to Scarlet's room.

They arrived at her room, and Leo knocked on the door. "Scarlet, I've brought Felix, can we come in?" he called at the door.

"Come in!" Scarlet called out from inside.

Felix, Hope, and Leo entered her room. Scarlet looked at Hope for a moment, and then turned to Leo. "Really? Another new maid? Didn't you just get a new one last week, you abominable lecher? And that's besides the fact that you already have a harem of at least sixty." she said, not giving Leo any face at all as she berated him.

Leo coughed awkwardly. "No, no, this one is Felix's. Due to special circumstances, he ended up taking her as a personal maid, along with another slave." he explained.

"Hmph, even if that's the case, I don't doubt you've already defiled her with your eyes, whether magical or otherwise." Scarlet remarked, continuing to drill Leo.

Leo sighed. "I know I deserve every last word of what you're saying, but can't you at least give me a tiny bit of face as your older brother?" he asked Scarlet.

"Like you deserve any face! But even then, I give it to you by not speaking of you like this in front of anyone who isn't an insider!" Scarlet said, crossing her arms.

Hope couldn't help it and giggled, while Leo hung his head in resignation.

"Now what do you want? You're defiling my room with your presence right now, I can smell at least five different girls on you! Did you come here just after having a freaking orgy or something?" Scarlet asked Leo, wrinkling her nose at him.

"What are you, a bloodhound? How can you possibly tell that just based on smell? And anyway, It's called taking a bath." Leo said meekly.

"Uh huh." Scarlet said, crossing her arms.

Leo sighed and formed the sense-isolating water sphere around the four of them. "Felix, you explain to her please, before she bullies me to death." he said.

Felix smiled. "Well, Scarlet, we're here because I'm here to give you your coming of age present a little bit early. It's something which needs to happen before you turn 18." Felix said.

Scarlet smiled to Felix, her expression much warmer and friendlier towards him than Leo. "Oh really? And what's that?" she asked Felix.

"Well, first you have to decide if you even want it. Leo and I had to spend the last couple of nights in the crypt working on this. Basically, I have the power to see someone's affinities before they awaken, and yours happen to be fire and metal." Felix explained.

"Fire and metal, huh... I see..." Scarlet said, suddenly looking depressed.

"However, what we were working on in the crypts, was actually a spell that I developed which will allow me to alter your metal affinity into a darkness affinity, should you choose to accept it." Felix said.

"Eh?!? Really?!?" Scarlet's expression changed dramatically, and she looked at Felix with shock and happiness.

"Yes. We tested it out on a slave first, and I successfully turned him from a water and metal mage, into a water and darkness mage. There were some complications during his awakening, which I've hammered out now, and I would say that I'm 99% confident in being able to convert you successfully. However, nothing is absolutely guaranteed, there is a small risk it might damage your soul or something, or make you never awaken your second element, or even death." Felix said solemnly.

Scarlet thought about it for just a moment. "I'll do it. Nothing is guaranteed in life, and certainly most things don't have 99% success odds. And.... if it succeeds, I won't have to marry out of the family, if I don't want to." she said.

"All right. The sooner we do this, the better, so that way I can examine your soul for any issues and quadruple check nothing has gone wrong." Felix said. Scarlet nodded. "Unfortunately, we do have to do this in the darkness training room at the bottom of the crypts, because I need a very large amount of darkness energy for this." Felix explained.

Scarlet grimaced, then sighed. "Fine. I hate that place, but this is important enough that I'll go there. But let's do it tomorrow night instead, tomorrow is the new moon, when the dark energy in the world hits it's peak. That's the most auspicious time to seek the blessings of darkness." she said, looking at her window.

Felix and Leo nodded, and Leo banished the water bubble. It was still only roughly 2 o' clock in the afternoon, so Felix headed outside to train, finally beginning to work on Gypsum Skin, the next upgrade in the "Gem Skin" spell line. After a couple of hours, Hope brought him some food and drink, and silently began to train next to him. Felix sensed the elements, and he saw her absorbing the wind around them. He continued to work on Gypsum Skin for a few more hours, until the darkness in the world rose, and he returned to his room, to work on Hex: Inner Turmoil. It wasn't a complicated hex, due to it's low strength, so he finished it by the end of the night, and then he slept until the early afternoon as usual. The next day was much more of the same, Felix sat outside, working on Gypsum Skin with Hope, which he finished by about one-fourth, before Scarlet, Leo, and Verity came to find him in the evening, clearly prepared for the umpteenth journey into the crypts. Felix stood up, and with Hope following him with a depressed expression, they began the long descent to the bottom of the crypts again. On the way down, Felix began work on another hex spell, this one called Hex: Hemophilia. It was a hex spell which prevented wounds from clotting or closing over time, which could make even a minor injury into a serious issue over a prolonged fight. He only made a bit of progress on it before the reached the bottom of the crypts, however.

Finally, they all stepped off the lift, into Felix's favorite place, his own home away from home, the bottom of the crypts. He just wished he didn't have to leave this place so often, the surface world kind of sucked in comparison, in his opinion. As if sensing his thoughts through their soul connection, Hope once again looked at Felix like he had two heads. He just smiled in response.