Emma was the first to react by shrugging. "It's just contract magic, right? We can remove it if we need to. Not saying we will, but the option's there."

Lone shook his head. "It's one of my special powers." He thought for a second before coming to a decision. "Since Hazel is here, there's not much point in hiding it. Another one of my unique skills is called The Summoning Room. It's basically a pocket dimension that can't be accessed by anyone except my contracted beings. You need a level-five contract to be one of those, by the way."

"... And he can only have so many of them..." Hazel stared at Lone wide-eyed for a few moments. "C-Can I see them?"

Lone tapped his chin thoughtfully. He whipped out a sofa this time from his Dimensional Storage instead of a beanbag. Sitting on it and letting Soph get comfortable next to him, he smiled. "Sure, but if anyone tries to hurt them, you get your soul crushed, okay? This includes you, Lipsilk."

The kids were a bit startled and didn't know what the hell was going on. Lipsilk just raised a curious eyebrow and laughed. "I'm almost insulted you'd think I would dare. I already have an inkling to what you're about to amaze us with. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't anxious to meet her as well."

Lone chuckled. "Letty? Stupid Fairy probably tipped you off, huh?"

A smirk was Lipsilk's only reply.

Scott hated it the most when Hazel did this. Kept everyone out of the loop. She always revealed what was going on eventually, but he loathed the way she felt it was a waste of time to even explain things before showing them, sometimes resulting in them landing in the lap of danger. "Can someone please tell me what's... going... on..."

His words trailed off at the end when he saw a baby girl with a single golden fox tail and fox ears which were sitting atop of a neat head of hair suddenly appear out of nowhere. In Lone's other arm, lay a perplexed and slightly frightening monster. No, maybe calling it a monster was a bit of an overreaction. It was green, a bit chubby, adorable, and looked very soft.

Soph's hands reached over Lone's lap and scooped up Kyuubi so he could hold Garadia with both of his hands. He was better at soothing her from the limited experience they had together so far. Soph was also aware that the baby dragon would be scared at seeing so many new people all at once and it would be better if Lone could snuggle her until she was comfortable.

Lone gently stroked Garadia's neck and dug his fingers into her feathers. "This is Garadia. She's a dragon, yes, but she's also my daughter. Semi-adoptive, semi-real. It's hard to describe. My power was used to help her birth. Anyway, she's really young and she isn't very fond of new people. If you want to, you can all have a turn stroking her, but you have to be really gentle. She may be a newborn, but she's as smart as you or I and she can understand what you say, so be nice."

Lone glanced over at his other daughter who was, of course, sleeping peacefully. "That there is Kyuubi. Yeah, yeah, shitty naming sense. Sue me. Don't let her looks fool you. She is, in fact, a foxkin, not a slothkin. She's entirely adoptive, but she's not as shy as Garadia. If you're not rough with her, you can play with her tail or ears and she won't wake up."

"Beautiful..." Lipsilk mumbled. He couldn't believe it. Garadia had been reborn! This was incredible news. He knew the implications of Lone's words, however. If he was seeing her as a daughter, there was no way he would let her stay at the tree once he left, but Lipsilk didn't mind. He wasn't a greedy man. Knowing that she yet lived was cause to soothe his crying soul at least somewhat.

Scott could almost feel his jaw hitting the floor. "You have a pet dragon?! I don't know much about monsters, but even I know that dragons are stupidly rare! There's only, like, twenty in existence!"

Alisa frowned. "Forty-seven reported ones, possibly hundreds more in hiding or living in the dens of the reported ones. And don't be a retard," she said as she punched him lightly. "He said she was his daughter, not his pet. You're basically asking him to beat you up for that. I'd be pretty pissed if my kid got called a pet."

Lone nodded. "You don't get to touch her for calling her a pet." Scott winced a bit. He was secretly hoping he'd get to stroke Garadia, but now he'd dashed that hope. "Alisa, you want to? And Hazel, I see you staring at Kyuubi. Go ahead. Like I said, be gentle, and she won't wake up."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The two girls approached. Alisa carefully and a bit hesitantly offered her hand to Garadia. Lone saw his daughter's hesitance, so he lowered his head and whispered, "It's okay. she isn't going to try to hurt you." With that, Garadia nodded very lightly and pushed at Alisa's small hand with her fluffy head.

"So soft..." Alisa crumbled. She was on her knees in front of Lone and Garadia as she used both of her hands to pet and play with the tiny dragon.

Meanwhile, Hazel had sat down next to Soph and was now cradling Kyuubi in her arms with a strange look in her eyes. "Does she ever cry?"

"Nope," Soph replied. "She never makes any noise, even when she's hungry or she needs to be changed. She just wakes up and looks at you. Different smiles mean different things. She's weird, but she's adorable."

Hazel nodded and was going to scratch behind Kyuubi's fox ears, but the baby - in her sleep - caught Hazel's hand and hugged it like a pillow.

She tried to not show it on her face, but the tiny squeal of delight that escaped Hazel's lips showed exactly how much she was loving this. It was almost therapeutic, in a sense.

George was like Emma in that neither of them particularly cared for small and cute things, but he found this to be a good time to make fun of Scott. "You see the way Alisa is playing with the dragon? How she's looking at the baby girl? Whatever protection you're using, be careful she doesn't tamper with it."

Emma burst out into a fit of giggles while Scott's face turned pale. Alisa had heard them and her body just froze up.

Lone smiled. "Now that everyone's more relaxed, I really do need to stress the importance of the contracts." Since he had everyone's attention again, he continued, "My contracts are unbreakable and cannot be tampered with. Give me ten minutes to write them up and then sign them, okay? I don't want to ruin the atmosphere, but I still stand by my earlier statement. No one's leaving until they've signed. You can try, but you won't make it out of the door, so just do it, please."

Hazel sighed. Kyuubi tightened her grip on the girl's fingers, which only made things worse. "Fine. Damn it. You're such a manipulator, Big Bro. Babies, really?"

Eolande laughed flirtatiously. "He could have done other things. He has a particular charm that works only on smaller girls. I'm sure if you stuck around long enough, Alisa would be swooning all over him. Maybe not yourself and Emma since you two are more... developed, but I wouldn't put it past him. He's done more impossible things before."

Soph cast a wary glance in Alisa's direction before she shook her head. She couldn't let Eolande get the better of her!

Hazel looked to her teammates. "Do any of you not want to sign the contract? I can guarantee from his thoughts that he won't let us out, even when the Taslo Empire gets here. He plans to have Soph trap us in a barrier until we agree."

"I think it's fine. I wasn't against it from the start," Emma said with a shrug.

Scott scratched the back of his head. "I mean, I don't know much about magic. So long as I'm not selling my soul, I don't really care."

Alisa nodded. "I trust him."

George didn't look particularly happy, but he agreed. "I'm not the biggest fan of being threatened, but sure. It's just a contract, right? As long as it's not worded in a complicated way to trip us up or something, I'm fine with it."

Lone breathed out in relief. "I'm glad. Lipsilk, I assume you're fine with it?"

The Fairy just chuckled softly. "I'm actually looking forward to it. Being bound by a mysterious form of contract magic? Sounds like the perfect distraction to keep my mind... occupied."

Lone was trying to avoid bringing up Ele'hunda to avoid triggering Lipsilk, so he just smiled in response. "Breena, Swind, Eolande. I trust none of you has an issue with a contract?"

Swind nodded. "Of course, Mr Immortus-ss. I owe you too much to refuse. Not that I want to."

Eolande waltzed through the tent and fluttered her wings slightly to get off the ground. She wrapped her arms around Lone's neck and slide down his right side, taking up the only space that was unoccupied on the sofa. She pressed her body up against his arm and grinned. "This is the hug for the mana orbs." She then planted her lips of his cheek. "That was for the contract."

Lone groaned, feeling as conflicted as ever. He winced as he felt his tails getting squished by someone. "Okay. Breena?"

Poking her head out of his shadow, Breena said, "No problem."

"Woah, what the hell?!" Scott yelled. "When'd she get in there?!"

Alisa, still petting Garadia, replied, "More like, 'How'd she get in there?'. That feels like magic, but it's not magic." She looked confused.

"It's a Darkness skill. If you guys don't know about Primal Essences and their link to demis, I can fill you in while I write the contracts," Lone suggested when a bucket of red sticky liquid appeared out of thin air. He caught it and placed it on the floor.

George looked at it suspiciously. "That's not what I think it is, is it?"

Lone shrugged. "I dunno." He smirked as he took some blank sheets of parchments out from his Dimensional Storage. "Do you think it's a bucket full of my blood? If so, then yes. I need it to write the contracts or they don't work."

The kids all paled once again, resulting in Lone cackling like a villain. No matter what atrocities they may have seen or witnessed thus far, they were still just immature little kids in his eyes.

Alisa backed away, almost scrambling. She covered her mouth with her hand. "I... I think I'm gonna be sick... This smell..."

Swind tilted his head to one side and held his chin. "It's-ss just blood, no? Mr Immortus'-ss healing is far more gruesome, I can guarantee. You ss-should be happy that he is-ss choosing to do this first instead of repairing Miss-ss ss-Soph's-ss mana organs-ss."

"Ah, you reminded me!" Lone exclaimed. "I should do that now."