"Shadow? How am I going to be your Shadow?"

With his arms crossed, Johan asked Videl a question: "Videl, do you swear allegiance to the von Parseval family?"

"Yes, of course! I swore my oath back when I entered the family."

"Good. Now does that apply to me as well?"

"Yes. You're part of the family."

Johan nodded.

"Very good. Videl, in exchange for helping you out, I want you to be by my side forever. I want to trust you and take you on for a journey."

Videl blushed and then put her hand on her face.

"Don't worry we'll become closer overtime and you'll have plenty of chances to see if I'm a liar or not. I have an ability called 'Shadow Slave' which will bind you to me. I will always know if you are in danger or not. So, do you agree with the conditions?"

Videl hesitated. Her duty was to serve the von Parseval family in exchange for safety and monetary compensation. He was offering her both as well and will help get stronger again. After thinking for two minutes she agreed.

"I agree with the conditions. I hereby swear my allegiance to you, Johan."

Johan smiled. This was the first time he had scammed somebody. Just jokiiiiiing.

"Great to hear that. Then let's proceed with it tomorrow when we have the training room. Also do you know of more maids that you trust? This pent house is huge and we need to keep maintenance. I need you to gather a bunch of them and then I'll decide which ones I'm going to keep."

"Yes, as you wish."

"Also call me 'Lord Johan' from now on. The other maids are going to take an example from you."

"As is your wish, Lord Johan."

The reason why he wanted Videl as a Shadow Slave was not only her rank after healing but also the fact that he is going to see her a lot more in the near future. If he wants to create a stronger group of people who will help him then he has to increase their bond with them as well. He only had two slots for a 'Shadow Slave' so someone had to manage them and get them stronger.

THAT WAS A GREAT MOVE MY LORD. HAVING HER BY YOUR SIDE WILL MAKE THINGS EASIER IN THE FUTURE. THE MAIDS YOU WILL HIRE WILL ALSO GET STRONGER WITH YOUR ABILITY. IF YOU CREATE A 'LIGHT NEST' THEN YOU CAN HAVE POWER OVER THIS DOMAIN SO THEY WON'T GET HURT AND YOU WILL KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

'I see. I'll make sure to make that nest.'

"Now go ahead and make your Lords room. I want to take a nap."

"Yes, my Lord.", she said with a smle on her face. It seemed like she was happy about her situation.

'I have to take care of her. She is still too naïve.'

...

In his room he pretended to be asleep while he was actually checking out some of his abilities. He first tried out his 'Aether Mage' regular abilities. He could form striking spells but also shields which would guard him in haughty situations. It seemed that with every time he made a spell he used up Mana. Currently he had 83 Mana points with his first system. the other one didn't have any stats at all surprisingly. It seemed like there was something different with it.

YOUR STATS WILL GO HIGHER WITH YOUR LEVELING PROCESS. THE SECOND SYSTEM DOESN'T HAVE ANY STATS BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT MEASURED BACK IN THE DIMENSION IT'S ORIGINALLY FROM. YOU WON'T REALLY NEED MANA ANYWAYS BECAUSE MOST OF THE POWER COMES FROM THE MAIN ATRRIBUTE WHICH IS LIGHT.

Johan tried to use Light to create a sword. Little sparkles appeared on his hands and slowly a sword became clear. He swinged with it a couple of times and the waves left little marks on the wall. Even a piece of the table got cut off.

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"Woah!"

CAREFUL WITH THIS ONE. THE ABILITIES ARE A LOT STRONGER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK. TRY THEM OUT IN THE TRAINING FACILITY.

Johan saw his point. He noticed that after being exhausted his body automatically healed itself with the Light. He felt like he just woke up.

'Wow that's awesome! If I use this I might not even need sleep.'

Diririring Diririring

Johan's phone was ringing.

"Hello, mom."

...

Thimauess von Parseval wasn't able to sleep. He had been poisoned and he just found out. This meant that somebody knew about his decrease in power. Normally nobody would dare go against him this recklessly, especially because of his reputation. The poison seemed to be lethal but nothing he couldn't get rid off using certain items. The greater problem was how somebody found out about it. There were two options. The first one was that somebody from within leaked about the situation to an enemy for certain benefits. The second option was that somebody from within did it themselves. Regardless of the situation though, the matter was that somebody had tried to at least hurt the patriarch. or rather warn him. They probably were trying to tell him that his place was not secure and that it might be snatched away very soon.

'Shit! Why now of all situations?'

The patriarch already lost one of his grandsons, the family crystal was broken and now somebody from his own family wanted to get rid of him.

'Well, you know what, if they think it's easy to kill Thimauess von Parseval go ahead. Try me!'

Furious the patriarch stood up and went to his private training room.

...

Riding her bike, Rachel stopped by a small café near a lake. Going in she waved her hand at a girl in a maids outfit.

"Hey, Videl! It's been so long."

She jumped into Videl's arms.

"Ahh, so cozy. How have you been doing at your new family?"

"It's been a lot better. Actually the reason why I called you here was because of my new Lord. He ordered me to get him a batch of maids. Currently I'm the only one who works at his house. So I thought I might ask you to help me. You can also work there with me."

"I see. Do you trust him?"

"Absolutely! ... I mean yes, I do."

Rachel raised her eyebrows. Something was fishy. She had known Videl for a couple of years now and she was not the person to just like some man. Even though she was naïve but when it came to guys she had her bad experiences.

"What exactly is going on, Videl? You like him?"

Looking at her with a condescending gaze she asked.

"Hmm?... No, no! That's not it. It's... he is helping me repair my core. He also will get me into college."

"What? He's going to heal your injuries? I thought that they were really hard to get healed. Well, if it's that then obviously I'm helping you. Leave the maid search to me."

"Thanks a lot, Rachel. See you tomorrow."

Videl was very happy that her new Lord was somebody nice. She obviously didn't know what he was really about but she had good feeling. If he helped her get healthy again she would be able to go to college and become stronger.

The only thing on her mind was 'Shadow'. What did he mean by that? Is she going to be his from now on? She blushed thinking about that. He sure was handsome but she couldn't imagine someone of his class to even look at him.

Having finished convincing Rachel she then went to the pent house to get dinner prepared. She would make sure her Lord was fed well from now on.

...

Johan had left the mansion after talking to Videl. He needed a certain item that would cure her core over a period of time. 'Core Cleanse' was a A tier item which was rare but with Bahamuts help he figured out about a certain 'Black Merchant' who was an underground black market merchant who would have lots of rare items at his dispense. finding him was a piece of cake because who didn't love money. Talking to this guy and then that guy and giving them a little cash solved a whole lot of problems.

Arriving in an empty alleyway he saw an old inn with the name 'To the Black Lotus'. It seemed like he got the right information.

Going in he saw a bald man with sunglasses on standing behind the bar.

"Oh who do we have here? Seems like you got lost because this place is eighteen plus only."

"I'm not here for alcohol. I need an item. 'Core Cleanse'."

"Woah woah woah! What are you talking about? Ahahahahaha. It seems like you don't know the rules, do you?"

The guy had an angry expression on his face. He bended forward and grabbed Johan by his shoulder.

"Young man I don't think you know what you're doing. You canno-"

Johan waved his hand away with ease.

"I think I do know what I'm doing. It's money that you need, right?"

Johan opened his bag and threw a couple of crystals on the table.

"This should suffice. I need the item now. You should be able to make that happen."

The baldy was dumbfounded. Where did he get these crystals from? He looked like he just became a Ranker, but is showing me crystals worth exorbitant amounts of money.

"Young man, look I don't know who you are and where you got these from but I cannot just except them easily. They are more than enough to pay for one item but I can't be walking around with stuff that could get my business busted."

"Don't worry I'll put in a good word from the von Parseval family."

Johan winked at him.

"Von Parseval!? You're one of the ancients then. I see. Can I trust you?"

"I'll be doing more business with you in the future. I promise."

"Okay, I guess I'll get you the item then. Wait here."

Once the merchant left, Johan breath out.

'Woah that was intense. I didn't think it would work this easily but it seems that the family name sure has some weight to it.'

...