Since there was about a month and a half until Scarlet's coming of age ceremony, and Felix finally had nothing urgent to do, he settled into a routine of working on earth spells during the day, and darkness spells during the night, punctuated with occasional breaks when he would eat or take a bath, and sometimes just taking a break to hang out with Scarlet to relax his mind. He didn't see much of Leo for about two weeks. During this time, Felix managed to finish the Gypsum Skin spell, further boosting his passive defense, and Supergravity, a powerful control spell which increased the effects of gravity on an opponent fivefold - Felix figured this was a good pick to focus on because flying opponents would be a huge pain if he ran into any, and even for ground-based opponents, it could be used to slow them down. Arboro informed Felix that there was a spell which countered it known as Antigravity which wind mages could use, but still, Felix reasoned, if he had Supergravity, but the opponent had not yet constructed Antigravity, it would be worth it, and maybe he could catch them off guard with it anyway. As for the darkness spells, construction was slower in his room than down in the crypts, but he managed to construct the very powerful Hex: Internal Bleeding during this time, which would cause veins to rupture incredibly easily, especially if one was in an excited state with an elevated heart-rate, which, since he would only ever cast the spell in the middle of a battle, was basically guaranteed to happen, and it paired quite well with Hex: Hemophilia. Additionally, having felt that he had a sufficient number of hexes, at least for this point in time, Felix had spent a couple of days researching the basics of soul magic and necromancy. He constructed the spell to extract a soul from a recently dead corpse, but he had no other spells to actually do anything with a soul yet.

After two weeks, Felix got ready to take a bath. As usual, Hope joined him in the dressing room, and undressed both Felix and herself. Felix was finally more used to her presence after a couple of weeks of constantly training next to her during the day, and she would pout and give him a look like she was an abandoned puppy if he tried to tell her he didn't want to bathe with her, so he had given up after only a couple of days, and was finally able to accept being pampered by his personal maids.

~~~~~~~~~Smut starts here, skip it if you want.~~~~~~~~~~

It still took him a lot of willpower to not stare at her body too much in the bath, though. Even though she didn't mind at all, he still felt like it wasn't appropriate for him to do so.

As they both settled in to the large tub to soak after Hope had scrubbed the both of them down, she spoke up:

"So, Master, are you getting used to life here?" she asked Felix, stretching and leaning back in the tub. This, of course, raised her breasts above the water line. Felix would bet his left arm she was doing it on purpose.

"I suppose I am. Although I'm not used to such luxuries, I appreciate them greatly. I'm thankful." Felix said, trying not to look at her.

"I heard that you were originally something of a farm hand, is that right, Master?" Hope asked.

"Yeah. I grew up on an apple orchard. It was a very different life from this." Felix replied.

Hope looked at him. "I guess that explains your toned muscles." she said, with a slight blush.

"There are no idle hands when it comes to farming." Felix said, not catching her meaning.

Hope looked at him, a bit frustrated. Then, she slid herself next to Felix. "Ah, there's a small spot of dirt here I missed." she said, rubbing his arm. Felix didn't see anything there, but he just let her do as she pleased. After pretending to rub his arm for a moment, Hope grabbed his left arm as if she were laying claim to it, wrapping her arms around it, sandwiching it between her breasts.

Felix could feel the two soft mounds surrounding his arm. "Err, Hope..." he said, turning his head to face her.

"Yes, Master?" she asked, looking up at him.

"My arm is err... I mean, I don't mind if you want to hold it but... it's kind of..." Felix stammered.

"It's what, Master?" she asked, squeezing his arm tightly, and pressing it into chest even more.

"Erm...N-nothing..." Felix muttered, looking away. Hope grinned, and intentionally rubbed her chest against his arm. Felix blushed, but he didn't stop her or say anything.

"So Master is that type, who wants the girl to take charge... I see, I see..." Hope said teasingly.

"That is... no...." Felix said weakly.

"Hmm, you say that Master, but your little brother down there is already like this." Hope said, reaching forward and grabbing Felix's erect manhood and giggling, as she stroked it gently.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Well, that's... I can't help that..." Felix muttered.

"Oh, do you want me to stop, Master~?" Hope asked him teasingly, as she continued stroking him under the water.

"....No." Felix said, looking away.

Hope giggled, and continued to stroke him gently for a minute, until his cock was throbbing with excitement under the water. She looked up at Felix and give him a smug smile, and then mounted him, sitting on his lap facing towards him, pressing her chest against his.

"I want at least one kiss first, you know?" Hope said, as she leaned in and kissed his neck.

"...All right." Felix said. He put his free right arm behind her head and turned it upwards, moving in and kissing Hope domineeringly for a few seconds, which surprised Hope greatly, her eyes widening.

"Does that satisfy you?" Felix asked, smiling. Finally it was Hope who blushed, as she meekly nodded, letting out a quiet "Yes...".

Hope recollected herself for a few moments, and lifted up her body, before positioning Felix's erect, throbbing manhood at her entrance. She hesitated for a moment, before slamming her hips down, causing Felix to feel the head get wrapped up in her warm embrace, before it pushed through a barrier, and his entire member was inside of her. Hope gasped, and panted on top of him for a few moments.

"Hope, you were... a virgin?" Felix asked her.

"O-of course I was, what kind of a girl do you take me for!? When I was free, I didn't have time to date idly, so I wasn't married, and now that I'm your slave, I belong solely to you." Hope murmured, looking away from him.

"Ah... I did something bad then, making you come onto me for your first time. Sorry about that." Felix said sheepishly.

"Hmph! Don't you apologize! Enjoy it, or else I won't be happy!" Hope pouted, glaring at him.

"All right." Felix said, pulling her head in for another kiss, as he began to thrust upwards underneath her.

Being a virgin up until this point, and also combined with the fact that Hope had spent some time stroking his manhood to work him up beforehand, however, meant that Felix didn't last very long before he felt like he was about to come. However, as if she had a sixth sense for such a thing, Hope pushed him down even more aggressively and clenched on him tightly, forcing him to come inside of her. Felix could basically only accept it at this point.

"Sorry, it was... my first time too, so I got excited a bit too easily." Felix said sheepishly.

"It's okay Master. I talked to some of the other maids and they told me to expect that. And besides, since I was Master's first, now I have a special place in his heart." Hope said, looking up at him with cloudy eyes and a flushed face.

"Jeez, just what sorts of things are you talking to the other maids about? Am I going to be subject to even more unsightly rumors after we get out of this tub?" Felix asked her, with a bemused expression.

"Mmm, yeah, definitely." Hope said, with a giggle. Felix sighed.

"Don't worry though, Master, we'll get you used to it so you can last longer." Hope said with a sly smile.

"I... err... okay..." Felix said meekly. Hope laughed and finally got off of him, and cleaned them both off again.

~~~~~~~~~~Smut ends here.~~~~~~~~~~

Not even the next day, but the next hour after they had left the bath, Felix could feel a bunch of the maids glancing at him, whispering a bunch, and giggling around him. He kept a straight face and paid them no mind. After this, Hope became much more affectionate towards him, pretty much spending all day with him, and flirting with him pretty much any time they weren't constructing spells. Felix had to put his foot down and not let her in his room at night, so he could at least construct darkness spells in peace. Arboro was amused with his situation, but she at least finally stopped insulting his masculinity.

However, Felix felt like Scarlet was looking at him differently, and glaring at Hope sometimes now when she thought he wasn't looking. One night, Felix voiced his concerns about this to Arboro.

"Oh, that?" Arboro said absent-mindedly. "While I worked on her soul, melding and strengthening it, I also imbued her with affection towards you. So she's definitely jealous." she said, without much care.

"You did WHAT?" Felix yelled.

"Calm down, it wasn't for no reason. It was to protect you. That issue regarding your bloodline is going to rear it's ugly head eventually, so me doing this is probably going to end up saving your life." Arboro mused.

"Even so, that's wrong. Undo it immediately." Felix ordered with a frown.

"Mmm, that's not a good idea. It's been a couple of weeks now, so it's been firmly entrenched and intermixed with her soul at this point. I would pretty much have to rip her soul apart and put it back together again. Even if she somehow survived, it would be excruciatingly painful." Arboro said.

"You overstepped your bounds, Arboro." Felix said angrily.

"Hmph, I'm the grand dragon spirit of darkness, I'll bend whatever mortals I want to my will. And besides, this only benefits you. She will be a powerful anchor for your relationship with the Belrose family." Arboro said dismissively.

"It's not right, Arboro. If she likes me, it should be of her own free will." Felix said exasperatedly.

Arboro scoffed. "Free will? You're literally a slaver. You're regularly sleeping with a slave who only has you to rely on, and you have three other slaves besides her, and that's just the number you have for now. I'm afraid that being concerned about the free will of others is a luxury you can't afford." she said.

"Then how the hell am I any better than any other slaver, nobleman, or any other oppressor?" Felix asked.

"You aren't. Did you forget that you're a human too? Did you forget that living your past life perfectly morally and not harming anyone bought you nothing but regret, pain, and loneliness? The only way to win as a human, Felix, is to be selfish, and to use every means at your disposal to get what you want. Or do you need a second failed life to remind you of this fact? Now shut up and accept the happiness that I'm handing you on a silver platter and quit being such a child, I'm not letting you fail this life too as long as I'm stuck attached to you." Arboro said with a snort.

Felix could not retort, and he could only ponder things deeply as he sat there in the dark in his room.

And he thought... Maybe if I don't have any good arguments against what Arboro is saying... Well maybe... Maybe that just means that she's correct.

Felix dismissed the thought almost immediately after it appeared, but it kept coming back, and eventually lingered in the back of his mind.

And now he couldn't get rid of it.