"A-Are you sure?" Breena asked Mistress Soph.

The confident yet playful woman rolled her eyes as she held her hand out, a beautiful green transparent barrier quickly appeared in front of it. "Yes, it's fine. I'm trying to learn Teaching Mastery since Lone can't always help me, but he thinks me and Sophie can teach each other, exploiting the skill. I can explain what's going on with your magic better than anyone else. Uh, probably. So just hit it."

Breena's new fire magic spell, Fireball, was one she had earned through Master Lone's teaching efforts, so she saw the value in the skill Mistress Soph had mentioned.

However, her attacking the unkillable man whom she respected deeply at his insistence was entirely different from targeting the very killable woman who was her idol.

Sofia, both sides of her, appealed a great deal to who Breena wanted to be. Strong. Kind. Independent and dependant when it suited her. Expressive. Honest. Sociable and reclusive. Soph was so perfectly... approachable. Sophie, meanwhile... Breena saw her as a goddess.

It was one thing to be afraid of her, which she was, quite deeply so, in fact, at least until just recently. That fear had turned into raw, unfiltered, awe. When she, as a C-ranker, had so brutally murdered a sexual deviant who was X-ranked as if it were as easy as flicking her finger... It made her wish for such powers when she was nothing but a slave to the disgusting hero of Milindo.

"Br- Ah, Sarah! Stop spacing out! Lone let you borrow his magic ball for a reason, so just hit my little barrier as hard as you can, 'kay? Remember what he told you about how the skill should feel. I'll tell you how it looks and what to work on per ball," Soph prodded.

Breena snapped out of her thoughts and steeled her expression. 'I'll never get strong enough to protect myself like them if I keep hesitating. No more of that!'

She closed her eyes and called upon her meagre 6% fire affinity. With an extended hand, she invoked, "Fireball!"

It was small. It was weak. It was simply incomparable when stacked up against Master Lone's own version of the skill. Still, it flew true, slow as it was, and it hit Mistress Soph's barrier.

It sputtered out harmlessly. Breena had to wonder why she had been so worried in the first place. 'Master Lone attacks them all the time. Of course my pitiful magic can't do anything to her barriers.'

"Again," Soph ordered. "Lone's orb can hold 100,000 MP and I fully charged it for you. He has a bad habit of forgetting to do that. Anyway! 40 more Fireballs! Also, focus less on your affinity and more on the skill. There's no point on drawing on such a weak affinity. It'll grow eventually, but the skill can grow now, so yeah, attention on the skill!"

A gruelling hour passed before the mana orb was completely dry of its stored power.

Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.

Breena smiled under her facemask. "I-I got a level."

She was exhausted. Drawing on the MP of the orb had strained her body to the point that she likely needed Master Lone to fix it. It was not her own MP so of course, for a normal person like her, there would be side effects to using more than 30 times her total MP capacity in one day.

Congratulations! The host has gain 4 points of Magic Power! The host now has 306 Magic Power.

"I also gained four Magic Power, so 40 MP," she added, knowing the number was nothing to the magical powerhouse in front of her, but still, it made her feel proud to know that her pain wasn't for nothing.

Soph sighed. "I got nothing. Lone is such a cheater... Well, wanna keep going? Wanna overdraw your organs? Lone'll fix you up and as he always says 'stress is best when it comes to skills'."

"No-" Breena stopped herself from finishing her rejection.

Wasn't this exactly what she had just resolved herself to stop doing only a few hours ago? No more hesitating, right? She took a deep breath and replied, "O-Okay. I-I'll do it."

Soph looked surprised but she smiled brightly a second later. "I told you she could. You're such a bad judge of character. Now, Sarah, it's going to hurt a lot. Not physically, but mentally. Like, A lot. I've never actually done it myself, but we both know Lone has. You might pass out. He did that a lot in the early days."

"I... I'm ready..." Breena began visualising her Fireball without focusing too hard on her affinity.

Before the spell was even nearing completion, she felt her body rock and blood pool in her mouth before it sputtered out, covering the inside of her face mask. She grit her teeth and continued regardless. Master Lone would fix her. She... she trusted him.

Her vision grew hazy and it felt like someone had started ringing a powerfully loud bell directly in her skull. Still, despite this, she drew upon the mana that she didn't have. What felt like hours of excruciating pain passed before she was finally able to weakly call out, "Fire... ball..."

It flickered to life pathetically and was a funny, unnatural colour, but a ball of magic that belonged to her now crippled mana organs flew out before evaporating weakly. She too, collapsed into a heaving unconscious mess.

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"She is just adorable," the matriarch said as she rubbed behind Kyuubi's ears.

Lone smiled. "Ain't she just? Shame she wasn't a real Golden Foxkin, but she's as much a daughter to Sofia and I than any person would be."

The lazy, plump fox stretched a little on Lone's lap before crying weakly, "Kyuu..."

"I can onl-"

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'Breena collapsed! I, uh, encouraged her to overuse her mana organs, and, well, when you did that, you didn't cough up blood! Basic Regeneration must have fixed you. She's, uh, she's dying, I think! Her mana keeps getting weaker,' Soph relayed to him in a panic, cutting off the matriarch.

"Unsummon Kyuubi Immortus," Lone said seriously before he got up. "Have to go downstairs, like, five minutes ago."

"Wha-"

Lone turned around and jumped through an open window, plummeting down the five storey pagoda with both speed and grace. He used Ungrounded to prevent any impact before he rushed to Soph and Breena's location.

Thanks to his speed and their proximity, he was with the girls in moments. Soph was a panicked mess while Breena was choking on her own blood.

"Well, this fuckin' sucks, but it's nothing I can't fix," Lone muttered as he moved Breena's body and head before removing her face mask, stopping her from choking herself to an early grave. He then immediately used Creation Magic to restore her body to its peak condition, mana organs and all.

The pained expression on the teenager's face lessened considerably but not completely. She was still unconscious but her life wasn't in any further danger.

Lone sighed in relief. "Scare over. Still, even if it was risky, I bet she gained a lot from that."

He wiped his brow then gently picked up the teen. He noticed that she was probably the same height as Sofia now despite still being in her growing phase. "She's gonna be tall."

"What?" Soph asked at his side, noticeably calmer now that Breena was in no immediate danger.

"I'm saying you're short," Lone laughed.

Soph smiled brightly. "Yup! Sophie hates it since it means we have weaker muscles, but I know you like me for who I am. I also know you were trying to tease me. Stupid Lone."

He grinned innocently. "Tease you? me? Never. Now Sophie on the other hand..."

"Lone!" Matriarch Lossa yelled as she approached only to stop in her tracks, a frown covering her expression as she stared at the unconscious Breena.

'Ah. Fuck. Probably should have put her facemask back on or made her a new one. It's been a long time since she was kidnapped so maybe she won't get recognised?' Lone hoped.

Very few people had a method to retain a perfect recollection like he did with his Puzzle Locked Memory. Suspicion was fine, but Lone didn't really feel like answering any pointed questions about Breena's identity without her consent and conscious presence.

"What happened?" the matriarch asked as she slowly approached.

Soph pursed her lips and replied, "I was training with her and she overdrew her mana organs. Lone fixed her, so we're going to rest now."

Lone laughed softly. "I do it all the time but I've never noticed the organs actually rupture and tear given they aren't physical and I heal all injuries ridiculously fast. Hard to notice a metaphysical organ crippling your real brain and heart when your whole body is fucked beyond repair at the same time, huh? Really showed me up as a twat, didn't she, our little Sarah? To think Gilbert did this and survived. Crazy old goat..."

"Sarah... That's her name?" Matriarch Lossa stopped just a half metre away from Lone and reached over to Breena.

Lone didn't stop her and just watched as she lovingly placed the unconscious girl's cheek in her palm. She smiled a sorrowful smile before pulling back and saying, "I'm glad the emergency has been resolved. Why don't I walk you to your new residence? There are a few Spirit Pavilions to choose from among the ones hosting lesser spirits."

"How many have G-ranked spirits?" Lone asked, not failing to notice the matriarch was more focused on Breena than himself and her offering to help him choose a home now was likely an effort to be close to the girl.

"Only three, and all only have a single G-ranked spirit," Lossa replied. "One is twice as large as the other two. The second has a bamboo forest. And the final one, boasts a small lake."

Lone smiled. "Well, I guess show us those three then, if you wouldn't mind."

The matriarch returned his friendly gesture with her own. "I'd love to."

'She recognises Breena, doesn't she?' Soph asked telepathically.

'Seems like it. Breena is the fourth in line to succeed as the clan leader, and if my research is correct, Lossa is her grandmother. Doesn't surprise me she got recognised the moment she saw her without her mask. It'd have happened anyway with a decent info probe,' Lone replied.

Soph frowned. 'At least she's being tactful, I suppose.'

'That's about the best we can ask for,' Lone signed in response.

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"So I can do what I want with this place, right? It belongs to me, after all," Lone asked the matriarch.

The two of them were on their own, Soph having left to tend to Breena inside the central pagoda of the Spirit Pavilion. Meanwhile, He and Lossa had settled at the wooden plant-filled gazebo that sat in the heart of a lake behind the pavilion with a network of bridges going across it.

It was very beautiful and something about it spoke to Lone, which was why he had chosen this Spirit Pavilion.

"So long as you don't destroy it or harm the spirits living here, then yes, you can... modify it, if that was your question's intention," the matriarch answered. "Are you sure you don't want a couple of the clan's caretaker to clean and maintain the pavilion for you? It's very large."

"No, like I said earlier, it's fine. I can do that myself and will likely earn a new skill or two for my efforts," Lone replied.

A silence overcame the conversation before the matriarch hesitantly said, "That gir-"

"Yes," Lone interrupted. "She's Breena. No point hiding it since you likely guessed already and could confirm it with a bit of investigating. I'll warn you now though, don't ever approach her as her grandmother unless she willingly reveals who she is to you. As far as you're concerned, she's a normal Crimson Foxkin who forgot who she was and got renamed by her former master to Sarah."

"Bu-"

"No," he interrupted again. "You and the clan let her get kidnapped almost a decade ago. I understand you punished a lot of the people responsible and recovered a lot of the victims, but you didn't save her. She knows you met with me in Milindo when she was little more than a starving sex slave of a disgusting, pathetic excuse for a hero. How would you feel in her shoes, knowing the public leader of your clan and your own grandmother didn't save you? You who was so very publicly a victim of horrendous crimes when that very grandmother was strong enough to rival the king of the kingdom you were trapped in?"

"... Breena is a common name among our people. I didn't know what she looked like and it was a political misstep for me to enter Milindo just to meet you and investigate the baby Golden Foxkin in the first place. Even if I had known she was my little Bree, it would have ruined the clan's ima-... I sound like the elders," Lossa said in horror at her own words.

Lone nodded. "That's why my top priority is to become stronger. To stop giving a fuck what other people think. Politics? Means nothing when all rulers are eager to suck your pinkie toe if you're a Divine. Words speak loudly, sure, but fists can speak louder."

"I... Can I... Visit her? What about her cousins? Her uncles and aunts? Her mother is still alive too and she's never been the same since we were raided and lost her," the matriarch pleaded.

"You can visit, but no one is to know who she is. You also cannot let her know you know who she is, nor can you try to coerce her to rejoin the clan. That is a decision for her to make, free from my or your influence. Do I need to magically enforce that, Lossa? I will if it is to protect her privacy," Lone warned.

Lossa smiled. "I'm happy you care about her so much. It's... reassuring to know she has support. No. You don't need to enforce my words but if it will give you peace of min-"

"Oppressive Gaze," Lone invoked. "Don't mind the creepy eyes. This'll let me know your intentions, so give me your word."

"Sight magic? How rare... Of course. I swear to not interfere in my granddaughter's life. I just want to be a part of it... I would love to apologise for failing her so profoundly but until she is ready to stop being Sarah, then to me, Sarah is who she is. I also won't reveal her identity to anyone without her consent," Matriarch Lossa stated.

Lone saw no falsehoods or intentions to deceive him, neither with his magical skill nor with Enhanced Vision. He nodded and let his sight magic spell collapse, returning the lingering magic to Altros.

Congratulations! The host's active sight magic skill [Oppressive Gaze] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.

"Good. Now, take me to War Leader Clari's Spirit Pavilion. I want you there to stop her from randomly attacking me again," Lone said.