Several hours later, in the backyard of Sigrún's mansion, Chen and Erik could be seen surrounded by different types of materials scattered on the ground. These formed a strange pattern, with various types of Zazen discipline characters arranged around them or even engraved on the materials themselves.

"It works!!!!"

An excited Chen exclaimed loudly as he watched with great emotion a beautiful dome of whitish light forming around them. Shortly after, what seemed to be swords made of light appeared inside it, floating in the air for a moment before slowly 'turning off' and becoming invisible.

"Yes, it works, but don't you think it looks a bit ugly?..." Erik asked, hand on his chin, looking uncomfortably at the formation on the ground. Chen responded, full of excitement.

"Ugly? What are you talking about? It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen—it works!! Hahaha, now I can return proudly to the family planet."

"Mmm... I don't know, it seems very ugly to me. Let me change something."

After saying that, Erik, feeling something akin to an OCD attack, could no longer resist the urge to do something about that ugly formation. He quickly deactivated it and went to fetch one of the nearby scrolls, closely followed by Seraphina, who trailed him like the faithful and dedicated maid she was.

Chen looked at Erik, a bit confused by his sudden outburst to change the formation that had taken them so much effort to deploy. But thinking it was just another of his quirks, he began to note down on a magical scroll all the necessary steps, proportions, and specific characters to successfully deploy the formation, not wanting to forget even the smallest detail.

Meanwhile, Eleonora and Sigrún, who were sitting around a beautiful carved crystal table several meters away while calmly drinking tea, began to comment on the situation with different expressions on their beautiful faces. They made sure no one could hear them by setting up a stealthy barrier.

"Here we go again..." Sigrún commented with a sigh as she watched Erik change the position of several materials handed to him by Seraphina, while making notes in a notebook.

"Fufufu, it's really curious how Erik perceives inefficiency as 'ugliness'." Eleonora added with a slight giggle, her gaze fixed on her disciple, who began to change several characters in the formation.

"Yes... but the most absurd thing is that he instinctively knows how to 'beautify' it, even when he has no idea what he's actually doing most of the time..." Sigrún added with another sigh, while Erik analyzed the formation from various angles and occasionally replaced some materials and slightly modified the characters.

"Fufufufu, how long do you think it will take him to come and ask why it worked?"

Suddenly, Eleonora cheerfully asked, her hand on the table holding her delicate face as she looked almost hypnotized at the gallant figure of her focused disciple. This caught Sigrún's attention, who responded with an amused smile.

"Hehe, no more than a couple of weeks. That information isn't in the faction's public library, nor in any of our libraries, so he'll most likely give up quickly this time."

Sigrún's words caused a mischievous smile to form on Eleonora's face. She turned again to look at the golden-haired Master, then asked with a small, challenging giggle.

"Fufu, how about a bet?"

"Oh, how much are we talking about?"

Sigrún's interest was immediately piqued, so she quickly asked challengingly. Eleonora's smile grew as she elegantly sipped her tea, then responded in a questioning tone, looking directly into the sapphire-colored eyes of her sworn sister.

"I don't know, perhaps a whole day alone with our dear disciple?"

"That sounds good... but no crossing the line."

After drinking her own tea, Sigrún agreed, but didn't forget to warn in a serious tone. After all, there was an agreement to maintain. Eleonora licked her lips provocatively, then commented with a mischievous smile on her face.

"Fufufufu, of course not—we'll just sleep together a bit."

"You seem very confident of winning."

Ignoring the provocative joke of her sworn sister, Sigrún quickly replied in a challenging tone. Eleonora responded with a confident smile and a soft tone, while slightly pushing out her ample bosom and looking amused at the beautiful golden-haired master.

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"Just a little."

"Well, we'll see about that. I bet on two weeks." Confident she would win, Sigrún quickly stated her bet while pushing out her chest similarly to Eleonora, who nodded cheerfully before giving her own wager.

"Then I'll go for one week."

"Closest under wins?" Extending her hand toward her sworn sister, Sigrún asked with a casual smile, to which Eleonora nodded happily.

"Of course."

With beautiful smiles on their faces, Sigrún and Eleonora shook hands conspiratorially. In the background, Erik laughed smugly in front of a stupefied Chen, who looked incredulously at how the sphere of light with swords inside was now twice as big as the original using the same amount of mana, thanks to the changes made by the star-haired boy.

"How did you do that?!!!" a shocked Chen exclaimed loudly, doubting whether what he was seeing was real.

"With a lot of effort."

A smug Erik commented as if he didn't care, not forgetting to reward himself for his genius with a delicious cookie given by his reliable maid. Though, he had to share his cookie with the pair of annoying wolves that appeared as soon as he took it.

Meanwhile, Seraphina casually glanced toward the pair of Master-levels in the distance, who laughed together conspiratorially. This caused her a bit of curiosity, but being the perfect maid she was, she couldn't spy on her young miss when she evidently wanted to keep her conversation private with the barrier she had placed around them.

"Why do you always say that? Would it kill you to explain something to me once in a while?"

Staring intently at the star-haired boy who was animatedly writing in his notebook, Chen asked in an exasperated tone due to his typical response. Despite having changed a bit as they got to know each other better and not saying it as often, it still slipped out occasionally, especially when he did something crazy, as if it pained him to explain his exasperating genius.

"Mmmm, I don't know, maybe if I receive a good gift, I could try harder to explain, hehe."

With a casual smile, Erik quickly evaded the topic with a random excuse, since he honestly had no idea why his 'arrangements' worked. He just felt that it looked better that way, and nothing more. But somehow it ended up becoming bigger, which honestly surprised him a bit, as he actually thought his changes would make it use less mana.

(It will really be a good time in the library until I find out why that formation did that...)

Erik sighed internally and consoled himself with another cookie while giving one to each wolf, who had started a tragic play in their puppy form to try to get more cookies from Seraphina, who just watched them amused without the slightest intention of giving them more.

For his part, Chen could only sigh tiredly at the peculiar friend he had made, who, for some reason, often gave him the vibe of talking to his esteemed grandfather. Though that might be because they were quite similar: obsessed with a random food, sometimes cheerful, sometimes grumpy, and above all, wanting to act mysterious with the young ones.

...

...

...

Some time later, in the middle of the hall of Sigrún's mansion, the two youngest Master-levels in history were gathered along with Seraphina, the perfect maid. They were calmly drinking tea while talking, sitting on comfortable sofas around an elegant tea table.

"Hehehe, seems like I'm the winner." Sigrún commented with a smug smile as she looked at Eleonora, who responded with annoyance.

"Hmph, that's cheating. The bet was supposed to be in weeks, and Erik took almost two months to give up."

"It's the same—it was seven weeks, and I said two, which makes me the closest under, so I win. Don't be a sore loser, Eli." With a smile on her face, Sigrún commented cheerfully while looking over her shoulder at the annoyed Eleonora. This piqued Seraphina's curiosity, who quickly asked.

"Are you betting again?"

"Yes, a little, you know..." Eleonora averted her gaze while speaking uncomfortably, which greatly increased Seraphina's curiosity. She quickly asked while staring fixedly at the pair of Masters.

"What did you bet?"

"Something meaningless, don't pay attention to it, Sera..." Sigrún responded evasively while focusing on her tea, at the same time scolding herself internally for her big mouth.

"Fufufufu, so you don't want to talk—how interesting. Maybe I should tell Erik that his beloved masters now use him as a betting chip." Seraphina commented with narrowed eyes, while the two 'accused' women avoided her gaze with all their might. This made the beautiful maid smile mischievously as she commented in a mocking tone.

"Fufu, well, then it's decided—I’ll take Erik away for a year to keep him away from these bad women who only want him as a betting game."

"Hehehe, don't be like that, Sera. We just bet an insignificant day to go out with our disciple for a walk, nothing more." Upon hearing Seraphina, Sigrún commented hastily, still not daring to look at her. Seraphina replied in an accusatory tone.

"Hehe, so you leave me out of something like that—I see... It's good to know... Now I'll take Erik as punishment."

After speaking, Seraphina tried to get up from the sofa but was quickly stopped by Eleonora and Sigrún, who gave her flattering smiles while speaking hastily. They knew Seraphina was very capable of doing what she said.

"Hehehe, you don't have to be like that, Sera. Of course, you're included too; we were just deciding our turns in a bet." Sigrún commented hurriedly with a forced giggle, to which Eleonora nodded and quickly added similarly.

"Fufufu, Sig is right—it was just to determine our turns. After all, the great maid of the Eldur house, the queen of shadows Seraphina, rightfully has the final turn."

"Fufufufu, that's good."

With a satisfied smile, Seraphina commented and elegantly sat back on the sofa, while Eleonora and Sigrún secretly sighed in relief. After all, if Seraphina fulfilled her word, it would be a real mess to find her afterward, if they ever managed to. And although she would eventually reappear, neither of them was willing to be separated from Erik, especially not at this time.

"So, when do we start?" After drinking a bit of tea, Seraphina asked with a cheerful smile, to which Eleonora responded equally cheerfully, as she had come out ahead.

"Next month is fine; we need time to prepare."

"You're right—we have to prepare well..." Seraphina commented in a thoughtful tone; after all, there were many things she wanted to do.

After agreeing on their respective dates, the three women left the hall and departed from the mansion in different directions, intending to make the necessary preparations for their respective dates. After all, this would be their first date, and it had to be perfect.