Sincir lies on his bed, staring at his ceiling, while Ena paces the room like an angry, locked lion, throwing him the occasional gre.

  Celia has gone for a bath, lead by Rez, at his request, while No and Esme are finishing dinner, and hopefully comforting one another...

  Celia was surprised by Rez’s appearance, but as he expected, attacking the half-goblin didn’t seem to even cross her mind... She is a good woman, if not exactly the most fun one at parties.

  “There must be another way!” Ena murmurs through clenched teeth, “We could attack their people...! The ones you said we know about, and at least try to extract some information!”

  “We went over that... It’s too risky, and the chance they’ll know something useful isn’t high to begin with.”

  “What about the house?! Are we safe?! Adrienne knows were we live, and that we’re close too you...! Why did she even tell them about you, in the first pce?!”

  Sincir sighs. “I don’t know... Maybe she thought it’d diverge their attention from the vampires, and herself, if they thought they had a new enemy to worry about; And if that was the case, it seems she was correct.”

  “Yeah, I’ll correct her face, next time I see her!”

  Sincir snorts. “Ena, there is almost a one hundred percent chance she is being tortured for information at the moment, not to say that she’ll most likely not survive to meet you-”

  “You think I don’t know that?!” Ena screams, “I’m hoping really hard I’ll have the chance to punch her one day, okay?!”

  Hearing from her voice that she is now actually crying, Sincir looks up, then rises, sighing as he approaches her and involves the hysteric half-elf in his arms, ignoring her weak attempts at pulling him away...

  “L-let me go, Sin! We should tell El about this...! What if they somehow know about her!? What if they go after her when she is on her own?!”

  Sincir frowns. “You’re being paranoid... There is no reason they should know about Eleanor, or for them to target her, in specific. As for the house, I don’t think Adrienne will tell them about it... It isn’t relevant information. Remember, they don’t know who I am, only that I’m a demon, and an incubus, at that; The chances they’ll underestimate me are very high.”

  It takes a moment, but Ena does stop struggling against him, meeting his gaze. “Then why are they after you, to begin with?!”

  “Again, Adrienne must’ve told them I’m also on their trail, but she doesn’t know how strong I am, so neither should they... From their perspective, I’m a new, unknown variable, but it isn’t likely they see me as a real threat yet.”

  Ena presses her lips together.

  “...C’mon, take a deep breath for me.”

  “Fuck you.”

  Sincir chuckles, then kisses her, slowly and gently, as her body shakes slightly against his...

  “...I told you it wasn’t always going to be a walk in the park,” he whispers against her lips, “And that there would be risks.”

  “A-and what if they torture you...? And what if they kill you on sight...?” Ena murmurs shakily running her eyes through his expression.

  Sustaining Ena’s gaze, Sincir smiles at her. “Idiot, I told you, didn’t I? I’m no martyr... I’m not going there without assurance.”

  Ena blinks. “...Celia?” she guesses.

  He raises an eyebrow at her. “Can you think of someone stronger?”

  Ena grimaces. “We could have more people.”

  “I won’t have the time to craft more than one artefact.”

  Her eyes widen slightly. “Fuck! I forgot we were going to...!”

  Sincir nods. “Like I said, it’s a good opportunity... Chances are, they’ll take me to their den, and with the artefact, Celia will be able to follow us without being spotted. In between the two of us, we’ll have a good amount of destructive power, given that she manages to free me... It won’t be easy, but it’ll catch them by surprise, and it’s our best shoot at rescuing those hostages alive.”

  Ena shakes her head. “Damn it... I... I need to learn how to keep my head cooler in these situations. Panicking doesn’t help anything.”

  Sincir kisses her again, and this time, she is much more willing to respond...

  “...You’ll get there one day, pipsqueak,” he murmurs, slightly breathlessly.

  “S-shut up!” Ena retorts, though she ughs softly as she does so, “Eleanor will lose it, when she learns of this...”

  “Yeah, she probably will.”

  Sincir pushes his half-elf against the wall then, and they make out for a while, caressing each other gently... Ena is still shaking a little, and in spite of his bravado, he is not all that calm, himself.

  There is much at stake, this time... Far too much. Him dying is one thing, but it’d be unforgivable to leave the girls exposed to danger, so he has no choice, other than success. He hopes those cultists aren’t particurly attached to life, because he won’t be able to hold back this once... His mercy only goes so far.

  “Listen, I’ll need your help-”

  “I’ll do it,” Ena retorts through their kissing, “You need me to help me convince Celia, right...? I’ll do it.”

  “...Sorry.”

  “It’s fine... Knew you were a sex demon, from the beginning... Let’s steal her heart... So she’ll become ours.”

  Stopping their long kiss at st, Sincir ughs sadly. “Less than a week as my girlfriend, and you’re already corrupted.”

  Ena biter her lower lip, pulling away from him, and meets his gaze as her leaf-green eyes gleam intensely. “No... I learned a lot in these past couple of days, Sin. And I realized that in this selfish, cruel world... I want us to be the exception. I don’t care what others think about us... Let’s make a difference.”

  Seeing the faith in her eyes, Sincir swallows, then nods. “Ena... Thank you.”

  He was close to forgetting what this was all about... Becoming one of the monsters again won’t solve anything, even if it might make him feel better, for a moment.

  She blinks. “What for...? I know I can be a brat sometimes, but I’m here for you... I’ll always be.”

  “...Partners?”

  She smiles. “Partners.”

  After a moment of sustaining her gaze, Sincir sighs. “We should go down... Esme and No are also nervous.”

  Ena nods. “Let’s go... Thank you for helping me calm down. And no matter what happens... Come back to us, okay?”

  “...I will,” Sincir promises.

  ...As expected, No and Esme seem at their wits end by the time they reach the kitchen, their hasty movements revealing their nervousness as they silently set the table.

  “Okay, cut it out, you two,” Ena says as they enter, “Being nervous won’t help things.”

  Once both girls stop to throw her ironic looks, Ena smiles at them.

  “Yes, I know I was the first one to freak out, and I apologize for that... Just use me as an example for what to avoid in a situation like this. How is dinner?”

  “...Almost ready,” No murmurs, her voice tense.

  “And Celia?”

  “Still bathing with Rez,” Esme says, smiling at him as he approaches and grabs her hand, squeezing it comfortingly.

  Then, he realizes what she said, and raises an eyebrow. “With Rez? They got in together?”

  Esme shrugs. “No saw they get in together, yeah... Rez helped Celia with taking her armor off, and she seemed very curious about her tail, so I guess that’s why?”

  Sincir chuckles, shaking his head.

  He is not surprised Rez doesn’t care about sharing the bath, but Celia... Did she mistake the half-goblin for a child? If that’s the case, they should fix the misunderstanding before it gets any more out of hand then it already has.

  “One of you go call them for dinner... And tell Celia that Rez is not a kid, in spite of her appearance. She might’ve thought otherwise.”

  Esme nods. “I’ll go... I think No is a little too tense, still. Calm her down, okay?”

  After a brief kiss, Esme leaves toward their back yard, where Sincir can see Celia’s armor and axe resting against their bathhouse, and he turns his gaze toward No, taking in her straight back and tense shoulder.

  “You have good reason to be nervous, No,” he says, “But take a deep breath, okay? We’ll talk about the pn once we’re all at the table... I promise I’ve not forgotten about your father.”

  No looks at him, and seeing the serious expression on his face, she slowly nods, seeming to rex a little.

  Now, where did he put the rest of those wine bottles...?

  The table is set by the time Celia walks in, wearing the clothes she had under her armor, and with her cheeks tainted crimson.

  “How was the bath?” he asks, causing her to grimace as she gres toward the half-goblin walking behind her with a confused expression on her face.

  “Liz kept asking Rez questions, but she wouldn’t let me grab her tail...” the half-goblin says, shrugging, “Now she is mad.”

  Sincir chuckles. “Is Liz short for lizard?”

  Smelling the air, Rez suddenly hurries to take a seat at the table, smiling as Ena pces a bowl of food for her. “Short for lizard, yes... Now Rez eat, no more questions!”

  Meeting Celia’s gaze once more, who watched their exchange bitterly, Sincir signals for her to also take a seat. “We found her during one of our missions for the guild,” he expins, “We were going to have her move deeper into the forest, but Ena convinced us to bring her home instead, for her own safety... As you can see, she is harmless.”

  Celia grimaces, massaging her temple. “I think I have a migraine... Gods, I’ve never wished to erase my memory of an evening more than this before today.”

  “Here, some wine might help with that,” Ena says while handing the half-dragon a gss which she accepts by reflex, “You’re probably used to some fancy stuff, so I’m sorry about how simple it all is.”

  “You’d be surprised about how suffocating that fanciness can be,” No murmurs as she takes her own pce at the table, “First thing I’m doing once this is over is find a smaller house... That and give a word of thanks to my maids, for their underappreciated work.”

  Her jaw now hanging open, Celia point a finer at her. “Wait, you... You’re No Barnett?!”

  No sighs. “Unfortunately... I hope you like the food, Miss Celia. If I knew you were coming, I’d have... Well, this is about all I can handle for now, honestly.”

  Seeing as she is the only one still standing, and that everybody, except for Rez, is staring at her instead of eating, Celia makes a face.

  “...C’mon, the food will grow cold,” Sincir adds.

  “I need-”

  “Expnations,” he interrupts, rolling his eyes, “I remember... No reason we can’t give you those over a warm bowl of food and some nice wine, right?”

  Celia gnces at the gss of wine in her hand... Then sighs, taking a long sip from it.

  “...It’s good,” she murmurs, surprised-sounding.

  “It’s also fucking expensive, but Sincir wouldn’t have anything else... Said he would rather drink piss,” Ena says, before averting her gaze as she murmurs under her breath, “At the time, I thought he was joking.”

  Having been about to take her seat, Celia blinks.

  Sincir grimaces. “Just so we’re clear, being willing to do something does not equal enjoying it.”

  “Too much, people,” No interjects, also having grimaced over Ena’s comment, “Not while we’re eating, please.”

  “Half the city was after you and your father,” Celia comments, seeming to have wisely chosen to ignore Ena’s comment.

  No shrugs. “It was the point... Cultists kidnapped my father, and Sincir deduced they’d come for me next, sooner or ter, so he hid me in here.”

  “You forgot the part where I jumped into a river to save you, after you tried to commit suicide,” Sincir adds while taking a bite of his food.

  “I also didn’t add the part where you forced me to work as your maid,” No retorts bitterly.

  He ughs. “I know you prefer having something to do over the alternative... In any case, No’s connection with the cultists is how Eleanor figured they’re hiding at Insect Burrows, and she is the reason we’re after them, to begin with.”

  “The friend you mentioned to my Grandfather was her...” Celia slowly deduces, “What about the vampires?”

  “They were after the cultists from the beginning... Elderspire is their home, and they have no desire to share it with kidnappers, killers, or demons. It just so happens we joined forces along the way... Long story.”

  Esme raises a hand.

  “...Esme, are you seriously asking permission to speak at our dinner table?” Sincir asks, being unable to keep the incredulity from his voice.

  Slowly lowering her hand, Esme blushes. “Well, it seemed like a serious conversation... You were even swallowing to speak.”

  Sincir grimaces, gring at her, and Esme smiles, clearing her throat.

  “Anyway, I was going to ask how did Celia ended up outside our door, to begin with... How did the meeting at the guild go? Were you able to convince the Guild Master to help our cause?”

  “The meeting went well,” Ena answers, “The Guild Master - who is also Celia’s grandfather, by the way - is a good man... Unfortunately, the help the guild will be able to give us is limited, because of stupid politics.”

  “We were going to have Celia for dinner, and I expected you to be out with Collin, tonight...” Sincir adds, “Obviously, things did not go as pnned. Sorry about your date being canceled again.”

  Esme shakes her head. “It’s just a date... We can do that whenever, as long as we’re both still alive.”

  Celia suddenly groans, grabbing at her temples. “Okay, I give up! I don’t get it! You all smell like each other! Who is dating who?!”

  The three of them of them exchange looks, while No rolls her eyes.

  “They’re all fucking,” she expins, “And their retionship status is one of the greatest mysteries of our time.”

  “C’mon, it’s not that complicated... Celia, girl, is that what has been bothering you, this whole time?” Ena asks gently.

  The half-dragon grimaces. “Am I losing my mind? Is this some sort of nightmare?”

  Esme chuckles. “You can smell us like Collin, huh? No wonder... Look, I’ll expin. Sincir over here has three girlfriends, two of which are his students, Eleanor and Ena, plus little old me, a simple librarian. Other than that, he fucked about half of Elderpire’s female popution-”

  “Don’t exaggerate so much, idiot; She might believe you.”

  “-Except for No, whom he insists is too good for his cock. As for us girls, I’m the only one who is actually seeing another guy, though we all technically have permission to... And yes, we all have fucked each other, at some point or another. Does that help you make sense of things?”

  Ena sighs. “Number of girlfriends just increased to four, actually,” she adds, “Mary has been officially promoted, earlier.”

  Esme’s eyes widen slightly. “Oh, right! I was going to ask where El has been... Is she with this Mary?”

  “Yeah, Mary had a rough time of it, so we sent El to take care of her tonight... She’ll flip when she finds out she missed on all of this, though.”

  “...Four girlfriends,” Celia murmurs incredulously while staring toward their table with a lost look on her face, “What... What do you even need so many of them for...?”

  He doesn’t need so many of them... But, of course, nobody would believe him if he said he is simply a victim of circumstances, in this.

  “Actually, Sin is the type who’d have preferred to soar free through the streets of Elderspire,” Esme expins, “Which is why we thought prudent to tie him down, at least verbally... Trust me, he’d go for ‘fuckbuddies’, over ‘girlfriend’, any day.”

  Celia blinks, and a little of understanding finally seems to gleam through her slitted eyes as she smiles toward the shorter girl. “You’d have him wearing a ring if you could?” she asks.

  Esme blushes. “Maybe a little too soon for that...”

  “We’d have him wear a colr, if we could,” Ena interjects, “But I’m afraid the ring and the colr sound about the same, to him.”

  Sincir shudders.

  “See?” Ena murmurs, gring at him.

  Once they talk a little more about themselves, and about their chase of the cultists so far, Celia finally seems to rex a little... In spite of having acted shy in the beginning, she has eaten two bowls of food before he noticed.

  “So, you grew up in the same orphanage...?”

  “Me, Sincir, and El,” Ena answers, “We ended up running away together when an assassin came after Eleanor... It’s a long story.”

  Celia shakes her head incredulously. “Had I not seen all that I did today, I might not have believed you...”

  With the dinner being finished, Esme and No begin to take care of the dishes, while the three of them stay at the table, drinking wine. Meanwhile, Rez disappeared somewhere, as usual...

  At this point, Sincir hears a knock against their door, and he is about to use a spell, when Celia speaks.

  “The vampire from earlier is back... Collin, was it?”

  She can smell him from here... It’s amazing she never came across any of them before, though that probably just means she doesn’t often leave her house at night.

  Praying nothing has gone wrong with the pn yet, Sincir rises to go see Collin, and finds the vampire staring at him with a grim look once he opens the door.

  “...Fuck, please tell me nothing else happened,” Sincir says once Collin doesn’t immediately speaks.

  Collin sighs. “It didn’t... Gracelyn is safe, and the others heeded my warning, even if they weren’t happy about it,” he says, “I came to hear about your pn... You have thought of something, yes?”

  Stepping aside so the vampire can enter, Sincir nods. “I’ll tell you about it soon... How did your master react?”

  “She didn’t... Asked me if I knew the one who was taken, and that was it.”

  Sincir cringes slightly... No wonder poor Collin looked so grim.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Collin shakes his head, “It’s fine... I’m used to it. She never wanted a cn, and I’m the one who forced the idea on her... I thought it’d be better to keep them under control, than the alternative... And now the humans are hunting us, regardless,” he finishes bitterly.

  Sincir smiles sadly. “Don’t worry, I’ll deal with the cultists... Have you seen our basement yet?”

  Collin stops, raising an eyebrow at him. “I can’t say I have... But Esme told me about it.”

  “Let’s go down for a talk... I’ll bring some wine.”

  Collin sighs again. “Why not?”

  Sincir smiles at him, this time encouragingly. “The girls are at the kitchen... Go say hi to them while I prepare the pool. Celia is dying to meet you.”

  Collin grimaces. “I bet she is,” he murmurs under his breath.

  Leaving Collin to it, Sincir heads toward their basement, as promised... Honestly, he isn’t sure how the girls got the pool ready on their own st time, but he should be able to handle it with magic.

  As he enters the dimly lit space, he finds Rez by the pool’s edge, staring toward the water with a frown on her face.

  “...Worried again?”

  “Sin... Might not come back from hunt.”

  Approaching her, Sincir sits by her side, nodding. “It’s possible... But even if I don’t, you’ll still have Ena. You won’t be alone, anymore.”

  “...Rez not worried about being alone,” Rez murmurs grumpily, still without looking at him.

  He chuckles. “Of course she isn’t... But I’m worried about leaving my cute Rez alone, so I’ll do my best to come back.”

  Rez throws him a sidelong gnce, blushing slightly. “...Sin promise?”

  Sincir smiles at her. “I promise... Now go up and grab a couple of nterns while I prepare the pool for us, okay? Do you know where to find them?”

  Rez nods, quickly rising to her feet and running up.

  Once alone, Sincir sighs. Keeping a cool head is important, and he has gone through enough crises in the past to manage, but it has never become easy to know a mistake from him could cost the lives of many others... Truly, he hopes he’ll be able to come back safe and sound, but there are too many unknowns about the situation for him to feel confident.

  In any case, moping won’t solve anything, and so, after a moment of it, he also rises, beginning to gather his mana...

  Cleaning and warming the pool is an easy process, but it takes a decent amount of his mana reserves, and by the time he is done, Rez has already finished setting up the nterns around them, giving the basement a rather cozy atmosphere as the others begin to walk down, led by Ena, who is carrying several towels in her arms.

  “Oh, you warmed it?!” Esme excims, noticing the steam coming out of the water, “Damn it, I love magic!”

  Both Celia and Collin seem shocked by their basement, blinking as they stare around with bnk expressions on their faces.

  Sincir ughs. “Okay, step forward so I can clean you... Celia, you can skip it, since you just came out of your bath, and Rez, you don’t need to as well, obviously.”

  Rez nods happily, then runs toward the water, removing her dress and throwing it aside... Before immediately diving head first into the steaming pool.

  Sincir shakes his head exasperatedly, beginning to cast cleaning spells.

  “H-hot!” Rez screams from the pool, a moment ter, “S-Sin!”

  Of course it’s hot, idiot... Well, she’ll get used to it in a moment.

  Esme pces a soft kiss against his lips once he cleans her, then also removes her dress, beckoning Collin with a finger as she walks toward the water with a bottle of wine in her hand.

  “I guess we’re having that date, after all...” she murmurs with a chuckle, “Thank you, Sin.”

  Celia stares at Esme’s naked body, then toward the dress she carelessly dropped, her mouth hanging slightly opened.

  “You don’t need to get in naked if you don’t want to,” Ena expins while offering the shocked half-dragon a towel, “But you’ll probably be the only one still wearing something, and it’ll feel a lot worse.”

  Collin sighs. “I’d keep my underwear on, but with Esme here...”

  Sincir nods. “I bet she’d take it as a personal insult,” he says, chuckling, “Go there and try to rex a little... We all could use it.”

  Collin throws the girls a brief, nervous gnce, then sighs again as he begins to undress himself...

  This time, Celia quickly turns away from the scene, causing Sincir to roll his eyes.

  If she were to see this, Saendara would die of ughter.

  “Where is No?” he asks Ena once he notices the young noble is nowhere to be seen.

  “She wasn’t feeling up for it... Even after I told her we’d talk about the pn for tomorrow. She said she needs some time alone.”

  Sincir sighs. He was thinking on giving her a shoulder massage so she could rex a little, but if she wants to be left alone, then he won’t bother her.

  Once he casts the spell over Ena, she shudders. “Thanks,” she murmurs, pcing the rest of the towels down in order to begin taking off her clothes, which she does so with crimson cheeks...

  Sincir doesn’t try to pretend he isn’t checking out her body, which causes her to shudder again under his gaze as her pants and underwear hit the ground.

  “We’re all so damn messy...” Ena murmurs, “Nobody other than Collin bothered to fold their clothes properly.”

  Sincir grimaces. “Hey! Now, when I fold mine, it’ll look like I did it because you said that...”

  Ena rolls her eyes, smiling at him as she walks past in order to reach Celia, who stares toward her naked body with blushing cheeks, then grabs her hand.

  “So... I bet you’ve never seen a basement like this, huh?”