The one to break the awkward silence was Lipsilk. He had just entered the tent with the returning Swind and Eolande and he immediately felt the oppressiveness in the air. There was tension here, and not the good kind. "Am I walking in on something I perhaps shouldn't be?"

Lone peeled his eyes away from his sister and looked at the Fairy. "It's fine. Her Highness?"

"In tears. She took it better than I did, but she's still a mess. Al'ka is equally shaken. Ele'hunda was a role model to him. He's keeping it together to support the girl," Lipsilk detailed as he found a chair.

Lone sighed. "Coulda been worse, I guess." He rubbed his temple thoughtfully before he cast his eyes on everyone present one by one - only lingering on the kids for a few seconds longer than everyone else. "Contracts. Everyone, even Breena, Swind, Eolande and Lipsilk. You're all signing level three contracts, or you're not leaving this room."

Hazel didn't fully understand what was going on, but she felt something bitter rising inside of her. "Not her?" she asked as she gestured a bit rudely to Soph who had silently been watching everything from Lone's lap with a mildly concerned expression on her face.

"Her name is Soph," Lone replied with just as much rudeness in his tone as his sister's gesture had in it. "And of course not. I trust her and it's impossible to trick her into revealing sensitive information. She is immune to negative effects, and she's a very quiet girl."

Scott was starting to piece things together. He was blunt and a bit slow, but he wasn't an idiot. "What? Is this about the unique skills and being otherworlders?"

Lone nodded. "There are powerful people out there. People who would want to take advantage of myself, Soph, and all of you. I'm honestly surprised you three haven't been kidnapped by the Church of The Primals or something to poke and prod you until you broke apart considering how loose-lipped you kids are."

"We're not kids!" Hazel yelled. She was normally the most level-headed of their group after George, but her brother's actions and words had tilted her off balance. "We haven't told anyone about our powers yet! We only spoke about them now since we had to show them, and these people are your friends!"

Hazel felt offended. Not only did her brother view some girl he had barely known for more than two years as more of a sister than herself, but he didn't even trust her. Lone wasn't her entire world, of course, but nonetheless, it stung. It stung a lot. She had searched his thoughts during his speech and saw the things he'd been through. She couldn't understand, but she could feel sympathy for him regardless. That didn't make her chest hurt any less than it did, though.

Lone just scowled. Not in a disapproving way, but more in a disappointed way. "Eolande."

"Yes, Husband?" Eolande was just as emotional as Hazel was at this sudden demand of Lone's, but she was aware that he never did anything without explaining why or at least having a brilliant reason for doing it, so she was giving him the benefit of the doubt, for now.

"If I asked you to, could you pry open their minds and force their secrets out?" Lone asked as he calmly received the filled mana orbs from Swind and stored them in his Dimensional Storage for later use.

Alisa, Scott, Hazel and George all donned a scared face while Emma - oddly enough - looked fascinated, if not, even a bit willing.

Eolande raised an eyebrow. "Ah... Okay. Sneaky, sneaky Husband. Why haven't you done this sooner to Breena, Swind, Rachel and I? Also, yes, I could. A bunch of F and E-rankers? Are you joking? I can make them willingly tell me everything, even what underwear they wore three years ago on the first day of the year. Every single memory, whether forgotten, recallable or discarded by the brain. I can access it with the snap of a finger if I really needed to. Nasty stuff, but for a hug and a peck on the cheek? Maybe~"

Sophie, while still exhausted and borderline asleep, took control of Soph's body and made an effort of leaning into Lone and holding his hand that was still coiled around her belly softly. She glanced at Eolande with the smuggest look imaginable. 'You're too weak. you need to show her how amazing it is to actually be the one receiving his love twenty-four-seven.' A brief silence in Sophie's mind was present until the calmer and shyer Soph replied, 'I-I'll keep a note of that...'

Eolande ground her teeth audibly but soon returned Sophie's smile with her own dazzling one.

Lone shrugged, regaining a bit of his carefree attitude. Seeing Sophie and Soph reacting to Eolande, whether childishly or seductively, always eased his heart, even if it worried his mind. "No real need. The point is, without a contract, you'd all be screwed if someone wormed their way into your mind or charmed you or something. Soph is immune to negative effects like I said, and, without trying to sound too arrogant, nothing short of the beings above the Ancients are touching me, and even then, if they can get into my mind, it hardly matters since I'm fucked anyway."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Lone let his case settle for a moment before he continued. "You kids aren't against such stupidly powerful beings, but even a Lesser Succubus could peer into your minds, see you have special powers, enthral you all, and then you have a life worse than death on your hands. Also, Eolande, on the topic of not contracting this into you guys earlier, we needed exposure. It wasn't a big deal. I could have saved any of you if you got mind-controlled. The kids? They're walking targets that can't fight back like we can. This is more for them than for us."

It was George's turn to be offended now. Apparently, Lone's charms only went so far when it came to keeping the young noble son from Milindo on the fence. "Lone, I'm still sorry about that mess in Ranton and how I couldn't help you, but I have to speak up for myself and my friends. You're wrong. We can defend ourselves. On our way here from Mystopolis, we managed to take down a Lesser Drake which is a B-ranked monster. Please, I respect you, so respect me in return. Or at the very least, respect our strength."

Lone couldn't help but shake his head. 'Is this what I looked like to people after we escaped Milindo? Blind faith in my abilities? Unwarranted arrogance? Fuck. I wish I was better at dealing with people... How to handle this? Hmm... I hate him for doing it, but Clicker really showed me how big the world really was, maybe I should do the same thing he did?' Unfortunately for Hazel's group, Lone's idea of a 'kind' version of Clicker's brutal beatdown was even more insulting. Naturally, not on purpose.

"Swind. Kick the shit out of them." Lone was doing this for their own good, or at least that's what he was telling himself to justify setting one of his friends and fellow adventurers on his sister and her friends, one of which was his former-student and another he was on decent terms with. He kinda felt like Emma deserved it since she almost killed him the last time they met, but he wasn't going to say that out loud. Right now, he had to be the strict and unwavering man that was acting in their best interests.

They couldn't sense Swind's rank since none of them was B-ranked or higher, but he certainly didn't feel very strong if you could ignore his mechanical limbs and his sword.

"If you can beat Swind here, I'll not do anything to you. No contract- No, even better. I'll apologise. I'm trying to help you guys, not bully you or anything," Lone said in as soft a tone as he could manage. 'Carrot and stick, but the stick is actually a massive log.'

The entire group of teens turned to look at Hazel. She just frowned. "Impossible. His sword is stupidly powerful, so are his arm and tail. Lone made all three of them with the purpose of utterly destroying people higher ranked than himself. He's got better battle senses than everyone in this room, even Lone. He also awakened some sort of sixth sense on top of that. I'm not sure how exactly, the thought trailed off, but he's even managed to hurt Lone in a semi-serious fight. He is an F-ranker, but it's still an extremely uphill battle."

Her frown deepened. "And before anyone asks, if we fought Lone, we'd lose in less than a second. I'm not even talking about his aura from before. He has so many ways to wipe the floor with us in less than a second. It's scary, even without any mana."

"Jesus Christ..." Scott paled. "I've never seen her get so worked up before."

Lone gave his sister a curious look. "How do you know all of that?"

She shrugged. "I can read minds. Specifically, what people think at all times. I know, it's invasive, but I can't turn it off. Sorry if that bothers you." There was spite in the girl's voice. She was very pissed off at her brother. She wanted to slap herself for not at least imagining things turning out like this after what George and Emma had told her about what had happened in Milindo.

Yes, her relationship with him wasn't perfect. Hell, the two had barely spoken in the last decade beyond a single phone call once a week. Things were getting better when she was placed in his homeroom and his history class for third-years, but still, she could have made a better effort. They both could have made a better effort.

Lone smiled for the first time since they had entered the tent. "An incredible unique skill. You're not insane yet and you have friends, even with a skill like that?" Lone's tone was filled with pride. Even if he felt a large distance between himself and Hazel, she was still his baby sister. She had never directly wronged him, so even if he was kind of in the middle of putting pressure on her, what was so bad about a little bit of unfiltered praise?

Hazel was slightly lost for words. She'd heard Lone's thoughts and saw that they were gushing with joy. There was a layer hiding beneath that was wondering how he could use such a power if he had it, but there was no malicious intent.

A bit embarrassed and feeling some of her anger and building-resentment fade away, Hazel mumbled, "Th-Thanks. Everyone's bad. Literally, not a single person I've met had a pure mind, even kids. Especially kids. These guys don't want to hurt me." She cast a sceptical look at Scott and George. "These two have lewd thoughts. All of the time. But they're guys. I can understand. They don't hate me for my skill, and I never mention their thoughts. It's a happy balance."

Alisa launched a furious assault on Scott's chest with her fists while he laughed and George just blushed out of shame. Emma shrugged like this was all perfectly normal.

"I'm glad." Lone slowly got up, letting the now in control of her body again Soph, slide off of him. he returned his beanbag to his Dimensional Storage before he approached his sister and wrapped his arms around her. "I did miss you, you know? If you can read my mind, then you know that signing my contracts is entirely to protect you and your friends. Please, sign them for me?"

Hazel felt strange. She just laid there in her brother's loving hug. She threw her eyes to her friends for aid. 'What should we do?' Was what she would have said were she not tongue-tied.