The moment Lone walked through the Palace of Rest's front doors, a very specific pair of eyes landed on him.

The owner of these eyes was a scantily-clad woman of astounding beauty. She was a human as far as appearances went, but something about her deep-blue hair and her almost endless gaze gave Lone a mysterious feeling. As far as he could tell, she was only a C-ranker.

She strolled right up to him despite his current no-nonsense expression and she completely ignored the fact that he had a man slung over his shoulder.

"Explain. Why are the diamond spirits telling me that you half-destroyed one of the diamond suites?" she asked then sighed. "Had you not tipped so well, I'd have you removed from the premises immediately, so consider yourself lucky on that regard."

"Fuck off," Lone curtly replied.

"I beg your pardon?" The woman was understandably a bit shocked.

Wasn't it obvious from how the receptionist was looking at her that she was the owner of this establishment? At the very least, it was clear that she held a lot of power here.

"I said, 'fuck off'. This sack of shit on my shoulder kidnapped two of my friends from this building, so you're fucking lucky that I don't plan to burn this place to the ground." Lone gave the woman a firm glare as he said, "I don't give a fuck who you are, but cross me when I'm in a shit mood like this, given a bit of time, you'd fuckin' wish that you hadn't. Trust me."

"I see... The spirits didn't say anything about a kidnapping... I wonder how this, hmm, 'sack of shit', was it? I wonder how he entered my hotel..." The woman who was clearly Madam Cortelle held her chin then wore a regretful smile on her gorgeous face. "I can see that there's more to this tale than first meets the eye, Mr Immortus. I apologize for trying to stop you. Please, ask for Madam Cortelle tomorrow morning. I guarantee you that I'll have a suitable answer for you as to why this man managed to infiltrate our establishment."

Lone cooled down a bit after seeing how reasonable she was being. He shoved his free hand into his pocket before taking out an item bag and then tossed it to the woman who was clearly the hotel's owner. "Here. Five-thousand ruby-gold coins. Both for the room and for the trouble, now leave me alone. I'm busy."

Catching the item bag gracefully, the lady bowed her head. "Of course. I won't keep you any longer."

Lone stopped paying attention to her and the receptionist after that point. He immediately made his way up the hotel's flight of stairs and soon found himself in front of Eolande's room.

'Her soul's in the living room? She isn't asleep yet? Well, that works for me,' Lone thought before he knocked on the door.

A few moments ticked on by before it swung open slowly, revealing a dreary-eyed Eolande in nothing but a nighty.

She looked back and forth between Lone's serious expression and the man slumped over his shoulder pathetically. "Why, oh why, Lone, did you come to my room with another man in the middle of the night? I'm only interested in you. I don't mind conceding myself to Soph if she demands it, but another man is a bit... Well yo-"

A roll of the eyes and a bop on the head cut the girl's joking short.

"I get it, I get it. Fine, come in," she said as she yawned lightly and spun around.

Lone did so. As soon as he was in the suite's living room, he unceremoniously dropped the kidnapper and punched him in the head to daze him and to vent all at once.

"I see you're not friends," Eolande said sarcastically as she stared at the man in question. "Is he a triple-X-ranker? And... has his tongue been removed?"

Lone nodded as he sat down. "Yes, and yes. This piece of walking shit kidnapped George and Scott. Before I rescued them, he'd tortured George, badly."

Eolande's expression declined rapidly. "And his tongue? Any particular reason it's not in his mouth?"

"Yeah," Lone replied. "He can use this weird magic called 'compulsion magic'. I don't know the specifics yet, but it seems to be kinda like a forced contract. He made me kneel and was trying to get me to mutilate Scott before I'd had enough of it and decided to stop letting my resistance to his magic grow."

"Ever the opportunist. Still... I see. That sounds dangerous. Very dangerous," Eolande commented.

"I agree." Lone ran his fingers through his hair as he looked up at the ceiling. "I'm just glad that he was after Kyuubi. If he just wanted to hurt me, he could have killed both of them before I got to them in time."

"After Kyuubi? So he's some sort of slave trader?" Eolande asked seriously.

Lone and Hazel had mentioned the threat of slave traders, but considering how absurdly powerful Lone was, somehow, it just didn't feel like a real threat to the Elder Tylwyth Teg, at least, not until now.

"That's the thing, I don't know, but you can be damned sure that I'll find out." The man in question didn't like the sound of that, not one bit. "My plan is for you to fuck with his mind while Sophie physically tortures him. You to get info, Sophie for revenge. I don't want this fucker to have a moment of peace until the day that he eventually dies."

"Scary," Eolande replied as she pretended to shiver in fear. "But can't you simply have your sister do that?"

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Lone shook his head. "I don't want to involve her or any of the kids in this. I fully trust you."

"Well, I'm sure I have a degree in mind-rape around here somewhere," the girl replied as she smiled coyly. "That is the correct word, yes? 'Degree'?"

Lone smiled faintly. "You know, I appreciate your light-heartedness regardless of the situation, Violet Flower. I really do love that about you."

The girl's cheeks turned scarlet. "That's not fair! Don't throw those kinds of words around, okay?"

Lone chuckled softly. "Sorry. Anyway, do you mind getting started right away? Breena will keep you safe while you use your illusions. I already broke every bone in his body and removed his tongue, but if he tries anything suspicious, Breena, cut his eyeballs out or castrate him or something. Just tell me when that happens and I'll keep him from dying."

Slithering out of Lone's shadow, Breena bowed her head. "Yes, Master."

"Huh? When'd you jump into his shadow? Weren't you in mine?" Eolande asked in confusion.

Breena turned to her and said, "I returned to Master's side as soon as he came back to the city with our new companion."

"New companion?" Eolande asked as she raised an eyebrow while looking at Lone.

"A baby Rock Dragon. He's called Infa. You'll meet him in a second. Well, are you two ready to go into The Glade?" Lone asked as he looked at Eolande. "I know you're tired as well, but I really wanna sleep."

Eolande sighed. "So selfish." She muttered a skill's name and her body was then draped in some more appropriate attire. "A kiss on the lips. I won't accept anything less," the girl demanded with a bit of a pout on her beautiful face.

Lone smiled wryly. "If Soph agrees, sure. If not, the cheek is the best that you're gonna get."

"That works," Eolande responded happily as she used another skill to levitate the XXX-rankers body.

Lone nodded and opened The Glade for them. "Scott and George are in there too, so look after them if they wake up. Especially George. If you have the spare mana, wipe their memories of this evening for me. Say hi to Infa for me too."

Eolande was joyfully humming, but she still agreed to Lone's extra requests.

"Man, what a fucking day," Lone muttered under his breath as he returned to his and Soph's hotel room.

Once he was back, he immediately went to the master bedroom and stripped down to his boxers before flopping onto the large king-sized bed.

"Soph's sleeping, but she wouldn't mind if I summoned her and the girls, would she? I really need some stress balls right about now," Lone convinced himself as he did just that.

Soph was very groggy and she clearly still had a headache from using so much mana today, but she quickly snuggled up to Lone and grabbed a tail or two before she returned to her slumber.

Kyuubi didn't even wake up when she was summoned. She just stayed curled up with her tail held between her hands as she lay between Lone and Soph.

Garadia was a little bit surprised, but she was happy when Lone scooped her up into his arms and cuddled her. "Mmm, you're so soft, Garadia. No wonder Soph's such a fluff addict, huh?"

The baby Radiance Dragon closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation of her father hugging her. He was way gentler than her mother was, that was for sure. 'Gao.'

"I can feel my soul being cleansed..." Lone whispered as he fell asleep.

Truly, the warmth and love of one's family could wash away all of Lone's stress and worries for as long as he was with them.

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Now fully awake and refreshed, Lone was holding Kyuubi lovingly as he approached the Palace of Rest's reception desk.

Soph had given control of her body to Sophie who was now torturing the XXX-ranker. Eolande had only managed to find out that the man's first name was Benjamin before she had to go to bed. Infiltrating the mind of a man who was a whole rank higher than herself was one difficult task, that was sure.

Since Sophie shared Soph's immunity to all negative effects, she wouldn't be affected by compulsion magic, so Breena had been ordered to stay in the shadow of either Scott or George, both of whom had been returned to their rooms after having their memories of last night altered by Eolande.

Lone also used his Creation Magic to personally fix the damage to the suite that he'd caused. 

Garadia was spending a bit of time with Infa whom Lone had forced to sign a contract promising to never even think of hurting his daughter.

As much as he wanted the Rock Dragon to trust him, Garadia's safety mattered far more to him that Infa's feelings did. Luckily, Infa didn't object at all. In fact, he was extremely relieved to see that Lone's claim of having a dragon for a daughter was actually a genuine one.

"Can I help you, Sir Immortus?" the receptionist to the hotel asked Lone.

"Any news on how the kidnapper infiltrated the building? Madam Cortelle told me to ask for her here," Lone questioned the young woman with near-perfect looks who was sat behind the counter.

"Of course. Madam Cortelle is waiting for you in the staff lounge. Please, follow this spirit," the receptionist replied as she pressed a button on her desk. A moment later, a bright blue spirit popped out of it and hovered next to Lone's head.

Giving the attractive employee no more of his time, Lone followed the floating creature through the air until he finally found himself to be in what was apparently the staff lounge.

Sipping on a cup of tea and wearing a different dress from when they had last met, Madam Cortelle gave Lone and welcoming smile. "I'm glad to see you, Mr Immortus."

"Shame the feeling isn't mutual," Lone replied.

Not faltering even slightly, the woman nodded. "Indeed. You have every right to be upset with us."

"So? Found anything out?" Lone asked. "I'm busy and have a bunch of shit to do today, so I'd appreciate if you just told me what you know so we can both go about our days."

Completely unfazed by Lone's rudeness and foul language, Madam Cortelle took a graceful sip of her tea. "Indeed. He seems to have been a diamond suite customer like yourself. He was registered under the name of 'Albert Frisco'. Whether that name is real or not, I do not know."

She sighed very softly. "In all of my years as Madam Cortelle, this is the first time that a customer has pretended to be a spirit delivering food to trick a fellow customer into opening their door."

''In all of my years as Madam Cortelle'? Is that a title, not a name?' Lone was a bit curious, but not curious enough to ask a follow-up question. "I trust you're investing in preventative measures so that this doesn't happen again?"

"Of course. It will be expensive, but I plan to upgrade all of the spirits to be able to detect intent and forcefully lock doors in situations like this. In all honesty, it will be costly. Very costly," Madam Cortelle claimed. "Such enchantments and modifications will require nothing but the best enchanters and spirit forgers."

Lone scoffed as he stood up. "Prepare a price. I'll pay for it since you're such a fucking pauper, apparently. Can't even afford to guarantee your own customers' safety."

'Just who on Altros have I offended? Did I slight the Primals or something? This foxkin is so unrestrained,' Madam Cortelle privately thought. "Is that so? I normally wouldn't accept such charity, but I will have to make an exception here. Thank you for your kindness, Mr Immortus."

"Good. Oh, and by the way," Lone said as he got up and started leaving, "if anything like this ever happens again, I'll kill you and destroy this hotel. Mark my fucking words. I'll only excuse you again if a Divine or an Ancient is the culprit. I've given you a second chance, don't ruin it."

"Is that a threat?" Madam Cortelle asked as she narrowed her eyes.

"No," Lone looked at the woman with an icy coldness in his gaze, "it's a fact," he corrected.