In the most exclusive restaurant in District 12, the private rooms were a display of elegance and almost excessive luxury. The perfectly polished mahogany parquet floors reflected the soft light emanating from a large crystal chandelier that hung majestically from the center of the high ceiling with magical candles. The candles, in addition to illuminating the room, gave off a light woody aroma, similar to sandalwood, evoking tranquility and sophistication.

The center of the room was occupied by a round wooden table with golden veins, surrounded by elegant and comfortable velvet chairs. One of the walls had been replaced by an enormous glass pane that revealed the scene of skyscrapers above the clouds of District 12. On the other walls, aside from artworks and sculptures, there was a large sideboard displaying a selection of the finest wines and liquors in the galaxy.

Sitting on one of the beautiful chairs was a young man with deep green eyes and black hair adorned with stars and galaxies, dressed in an elegant jet-black suit. He looked incredibly disappointed as he slumped his upper body over the table, his face bearing an expression full of pain and regret.

While the young man seemed lost in his sorrow, Seraphina entered the room with an elegant and almost rhythmic stride. Upon seeing the state of her young master, an adorable pout appeared on her face. She approached him and hugged him from behind, leaning intimately against him, and whispered sweetly in his ear.

"You don't have to feel this way, young master; that money is yours to spend as you wish."

"But it was 500 million." Erik commented softly, his tone laden with regret, which made Seraphina smile amused. She whispered warmly, almost maternally.

"No, young master, it was ONLY 500 million. You are very thrifty with money and spend responsibly, so don't worry about that. Instead, let your personal maid attend to you and lift that sadness that envelops you."

As she finished speaking, Seraphina helped Erik up from his chair. At the same time, a beautifully crafted massage bed appeared in the room, decorated with countless runes carved all over its surface. She swiftly removed his elegant jacket, followed quickly by his tie and shirt, leaving his upper body bare. She then laid him face down on the massage bed.

"Thrifty? Even accepting the director's job, it would take me more than a century to pay off those 500 million. So, in the best-case scenario, I spent more than a century of honest work in just a couple of hours..."

Already accustomed to Seraphina's suspicious ability to remove his clothes in seconds, Erik spoke softly as his beautiful personal maid applied cream to his back, which exuded a relaxing and delightful aroma.

"Fufufu, don't see it that way, young master. The factories to produce the healing pills are already under construction, and the clinical trials are underway with very good results. Soon they will enter mass production, and the estimated profits are quite high, so it won't take you long to earn that amount of money." Seraphina commented cheerfully as she began to massage her young master's back with a satisfied smile.

Although Erik intended to sell licenses of his patents, he mainly referred to the devices he developed during his research and some variants of Manalite. As for the patents related to the healing pills themselves, he wanted his masters to exploit those exclusively for a while before selling licenses. Moreover, once the pills gained a good market share, pirated copies and similar patents would start to appear, so it wasn't a sure thing either.

Regarding the production processes he had patented, he didn't have much hope. Industrial processes were relatively easy to modify, so it wouldn't be long before others figured out how to change them enough to avoid infringing his patents. But since it was revolutionary, even if they managed, their methods would still be much less efficient and more costly than his, which, with luck, would give him enough time to establish himself in the market and somehow repay the great affection and care his masters had given him.

Furthermore, his brand would start as a small subsidiary of the company his masters were registering for the healing pills. Initially, it would focus on refining the industrial production process to make it as efficient as possible while bringing the quality to the maximum. This would allow them to release a special version to the market where he could proudly display his brand's name.

"Well, you may be right about that, but it doesn't change the fact that it was too much money, so I absolutely refuse to return to that place." Erik replied firmly and decisively, which made Seraphina laugh amusedly. She cheerfully added, while ensuring that her young master's skin properly absorbed the cream's properties.

"Fufufufu, don't worry about that, young master. You only ended up buying three items at the auction; they just turned out to be a bit expensive because they were from the Lotus Union and were of a relatively high level. But that's far from putting a dent in the funds at your disposal—you could even buy the entire auction house if you like."

Stolen story; please report.

Apart from the scroll, Erik ended up buying two other items. One was a quasi-master-level magical artifact in the form of a sword that reportedly possessed the famous artifact spirit and came from the same hidden mausoleum as the scroll. He wanted to study it carefully and compare its functionalities and capabilities against the wisdom runes that supposedly do something similar.

Meanwhile, the second item he bought was also obtained from the same hidden mausoleum: a sword technique of the Zazen discipline. It seemed to be both a kind of sword martial arts technique and a set of spells similar to bio-mystic exercises that combined body movements with mana movements inside and outside the body to unleash powerful slashes of all kinds.

Erik's plan with that 'sword technique' was to study it to compare it with his way of fighting with his machetes. So far, he had been using his self-taught bio-mystic technique with the machetes as an extension of his arms, which had been quite effective. But through comparison, he wanted to see if there was room for improvement.

Additionally, there was something else Erik wanted to analyze from that 'sword technique': the flying slashes. Recently, his own flying slashes were losing much of their effectiveness due to their simplicity, so that 'technique' could help with that. Moreover, he wanted to compare that kind of set of spells that complemented each other with those of the Aegis system and sacred geometry, which could lead to an advancement in his stalled research on runic circles.

"Back off, demon; I won't fall for your seductive temptation."

Hearing Seraphina's words, Erik replied firmly and decisively, like a warrior ready to face the demon himself. This caused a mischievous smile to form on the beautiful maid's face, who commented in a joking and playful tone.

"Fufu, in the end, you'll fall for the seductive temptation of spending, young master; it's useless to try to resist."

"Yes, but I'll fall with my own money. I refuse to return to that place of temptations until I get my own stable source of income, or they'll leave me bankrupt and full of debts!" Erik replied with firmness and integrity, to which Seraphina responded by leaning close to his ear and whispering in a tone laden with seduction.

"Don't worry about that, young master; if that happens, your personal maid will take care of you and provide for you for the rest of eternity..."

"So now I'll be a kept man? How low I've fallen..." Erik replied softly with a joking tone that tried to sound tragic. Seraphina quickly played along and added in a soft and seductive tone.

"Fufufu, that's right, young master; now you're going to live off your personal maid, so don't resist and just enjoy."

As she spoke, Seraphina began to massage Erik's shoulders with a highly professional technique, which was not only relaxing but also had the ability to improve and nourish the body with the help of a special cream. If Erik were to find out its price, he would never allow himself another massage; after all, that single jar of cream was several times more expensive than all the sage advancement potions the princess Firestone had in her possession.

Soon after, while Erik and Seraphina were joking among themselves, a small bell sounded in the room, indicating that the food was ready and requesting permission to enter. But before the star-haired boy could do anything, the perfect maid used her shadow to press a button on the table and open the door, at which point she commented out loud.

"Please come in and leave the food on the table."

Quickly, Erik turned his head to look at Seraphina, who returned his gaze with a slight smile. After sighing, he lowered his head again while the beautiful maid returned to her pleasant task of massaging, which of course was entirely her young master's idea and had nothing to do with her.

Shortly after, a group of three beautiful young women entered the room and promptly arranged all kinds of dishes on the table that exuded an exuberant aura, entirely ignoring the master and maid pair in a corner of the room. After all, that scene was far from the craziest thing they had witnessed inside a private room; the rich and powerful generally had very strange quirks.

After setting the dishes on the table, the women performed a polite bow and then left the room in an orderly and hurried manner, leaving the master and maid alone again.

...

"Young master, the food is ready; you may come and eat if you like."

After a while, Seraphina said, as she reluctantly withdrew her hands from her young master's shoulders. At that moment, a simple white T-shirt appeared in her hand, which she offered to Erik. He thanked her with an ironic smile, then took the shirt and sat down to eat with pleasure after putting it on.

"Thank you."

Some time later, Erik finished his meal and leaned back on the chair's backrest with a full stomach with a happy and satisfied expression on his face. Despite it not being as delicious as what Seraphina usually cooked for him at home, it wasn't bad and was quite satisfying; besides, it was interesting to eat something different once in a while.

As he stretched comfortably in his seat, Erik suddenly felt soft and delicate hands on his waist. He quickly looked down to find Seraphina gazing at him with a mischievous smile as she unbuttoned his pants.

Without saying a single word, Erik gave Seraphina a skeptical look, who quickly removed his pants with quick, fluid movements, demonstrating an absurd dexterity in the curious task, at which point she commented mischievously.

"Young master, I have to finish the massage since you need to be totally relaxed for what's to come."

"What's coming?"

As he settled back onto the massage table, Erik asked Seraphina with a curious tone as he looked at her. She was strategically placing different scented candles around the room so that their scent and warmth could fill the room evenly while giving a sense of elegance and order, while answering with a small smile.

"A small cocktail party organized by Miss Belmonte, young master."