Sincir, Eleanor, and Collin leave Victoria’s pce after saying their goodbyes.

  Sincir wished to ask Adam about the mixture he was using to paint Victoria’s nails, but with the conversation having become so tense near the end, he never had a chance to...

  “...Do you think they’ll be fucking the whole night, now that her show has been canceled?”

  Eleanor, who had a grim look on her face since their discovery about the cultists, grimaces over his comment, gring at him.

  “What?” he asks, smiling at her.

  Collin clears his throat. “Mr. Sincir, I appreciate your invite from earlier, but in view of the urgency of the task at hand, I believe we must part ways here.”

  Throwing the serious looking vampire a look of sympathy, Sincir sighs. “Are you certain?”

  “A day could mean the difference in saving those people or not,” Collin says, though he is unable to hide a slightly strain in his voice.

  “Sorry.”

  “No, I should be thanking Mr. Sincir for putting things together before the situation could escate further... Miss Eleanor as well, of course.”

  Sincir chuckles. “I’ll tell Esme you said hi... Pass by when you have the time, okay?”

  Collin nods. “I’ll instruct somebody to come tomorrow afternoon to guide Mr. Sincir to Leon’s party, and brief you on the pn... I suppose we’ll have to discuss the details at the time.”

  “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”

  Nodding, Collin bows his head, then walks away...

  “...Bet you’re feeling like an asshole now for being a bitch to him earlier,” Sincir tells Eleanor once the vampire has disappeared from their views.

  Having been staring at the corner Collin turned at, Eleanor makes a face, gnces at him, and then sighs. “...I’ll apologize next time we meet,” she murmurs under her breath.

  “Two silver you will back out at the st moment, and say something stupid instead.”

  As they begin to walk, at st heading home, Eleanor groans. “I’m not falling for that. You’re just trying to back me into a corner so I’ll have no choice.”

  “Is that a chicken I hear? Strange, I thought we were at the rich part of the city...”

  “...You’re on,” Eleanor grumbles exasperatedly, “But when I win, I want my money in coin.”

  Sincir smiles. “It better be a proper apology then, or I won’t pay.”

  “What does even make for a proper apology?”

  “...You don’t want to know what I’d consider a proper apology.”

  “Pervert.”

  “Same to you, same to you...”

  Elderspire’s nightlife is as lively as always, but Sincir can tell Eleanor is still thinking about the cultists and the disappearances they are responsible for, and so he walks through the crowds with her in silence.

  He wonders if what happened today shattered her view of Victoria, but he wagers that must be the st thing on her mind right now.

  He probably should try to distract her before she overthinks things too much...

  “Hey, wait here for sec, okay?”

  Saying as much, Sincir quickly ditches Eleanor and heads for one the stalls nearby...

  A couple of minutes ter, when he returns with a salted corn cob in his hand, she throws him an incredulous look.

  “What? Those were nicer than I thought, so I figured I’d grab some for myself... C’mon, I’m joking, no need to resort to violence.”

  As he extends the cob in her direction, Eleanor untightens her jaw, sighing exasperatedly.

  “Bastard... You know I might actually have broken up if you went there to grab one for yourself and not for me, right?”

  Once Eleanor takes a first, tentative bite, and they resume their walk, Sincir chuckles.

  “I didn’t know you enjoyed corn so much...”

  Eleanor sighs. “Sometimes the world reminds me I’m just an orphan, peasant girl... For me, seeing corn is one of these times.”

  “Wow, I’d have swore you thought of yourself as Itera’s queen...”

  Eleanor gres at him.

  “...Sorry.”

  She sighs again. “Being a nephilim, it is hard not to see myself above humans... Or maybe that’s just me; Not like I have met another of my kind before.”

  “Oh, they tend to be stuck up all right... Don’t worry, it isn’t just you.”

  Eleanor grimaces. “I’m not sure I should feel happy or not.”

  Still, amazingly enough, the corn seems to have improved her mood, which Sincir would call a mission well accomplished...

  By the time they are able to spot the house, Eleanor has cleaned her cob, and her expression is considerably lighter than before.

  “So, do I pass?” he asks, which causes her to throw him a measuring look.

  “...Barely.”

  “Barely?!”

  “A seven, I would say.”

  Sincir grimaces. “That’s because Hanna arrived at the worst possible moment...”

  “...If you say so.”

  “Don’t go too far! This conversation isn’t over!”

  Eleanor chuckles as she heads into the house, leaving him to close the door. Unfortunately, before he has a chance to chase after her, something green rushes past her, stopping just short of actually hitting him.

  “W-wow there, Rez, is something the matter?”

  As abruptly as she appeared, the half-goblin extends something in his direction, which Sincir identifies as... A small bag of cookies?

  “F-for house... Rez thankf-ful.”

  Seeing the half-goblin’s slightly widened eyes and reddened cheeks, Sincir forces himself to maintain a neutral expression as he carefully accepts the bag from her hands.

  “...Did you make these?”

  “Ena help.”

  “I see. Thank you, Rez; I’ll be sure to enjoy them.”

  The half-goblin nods, turns on her heels, and quickly disappears down the stairs...

  As he stands in the corridor, still somewhat shocked by what happened, Ena pops her head from the kitchen, giving him an exasperated look. “You can wipe that huge grin from your face, mister.”

  “I can’t help it... Isn’t she the cutest thing ever?”

  Ena rolls her eyes. “Who was it that wanted to leave her to her fate, again?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about...”

  She snorts. “Fine. Just make yourself useful and go grab those bums upstairs for dinner... I’m not letting you take the food up there again.”

  “...Yes, Ma’am.”

  Sincir chuckles, climbing two steps at a time as he passes by Ena and heads up. All things considered, he is in a surprisingly good mood... Though he changes his expression to a more neutral one once he stops by No’s door and knocks against it.

  “...No? It’s me.”

  A couple of moments ter, Sincir hears soft footsteps approaching, which are followed by the door opening to reveal a disheveled, barely awake No, who looks as though she is about to colpse.

  Sincir blinks. “...Creator, have you been practicing self torture in there since a st saw you?”

  “...Did Mr. Sincir manage to meet Daniel?” she murmurs hoarsely.

  Sincir grabs the bridge of his nose; He should’ve told the girls to check up on her.

  “Yes, I did, but I’m not telling you about it unless you go down for dinner.”

  No blinks, slowly, then steps by him, heading down the stairs without a second look back.

  Lords... Being away from her house must’ve destroyed what little she still had which kept her going...

  After shaking his head, Sincir heads for the room he is sharing with Esme and lightly knocks against the door, entering before he receives an answer.

  “Uhm... Sincir, is that you...? My feet are cold...”

  Seeing Esme under the bnkets, he grimaces. “Were you sleeping again? At this time?”

  “Hey, I was tired after helping the girls clean... Did Rez manage to give you the cookies...?”

  As Esme turns and reveals a face swollen by sleepiness, Sincir rolls his eyes and shows her the small bag.

  “Yeah, she did.”

  Esme smiles. “She worked really hard on them... But for such a small thing, she sure has a foul mouth. I swear she knows more curse words than otherwise.”

  “Okay, enough; This is an emergency. I need you to go down and force No into a bath. Scrub her down if you have to.”

  Esme blinks. “What...? Right now? Did something happen...?”

  “You’ll see what I mean after you see her.”

  Looking more awake by the second, Esme finally seems to recognize the urgency in his tone, which has so she quickly nods.

  ...Perhaps Ena would be more suited for the task of restoring some of the noble dy’s spirit, but she is busy with dinner, and Sincir wagers that in spite of their differences, No and Esme could become good friends, if only they’d give each other a chance.

  “...Be nice to her, okay?” he tells Esme as she quickly throws a dress over her previously naked body.

  “When am I ever not nice...?”

  “Be the opposite of your usual nice.”

  “Fuck off!”

  “Oh, Collin says hi.”

  “Good for Collin...”

  “Point in case.”

  As she is about to exit the room, Esme pauses and throws him a look over her shoulder, grimacing. “...I’ll try to be nicer than usual,” she murmurs at st.

  “Good.”

  She sticks her tongue at him, and as he watches her go, Sincir chuckles.

  But man, he is exhausted...

  Is it okay is he lies in bed until somebody comes up to call him...?

  Taking a deep breath, Sincirallows himself to fall over the mattress, his thoughts wandering as he stares toward the ceiling.

  He’d have liked nothing more than have jumped under the bnkets with Esme and called it a day right and then, but as...

  Maybe he’ll rest his eyes just for a bit...

  Heh, speaking of Esme, the bed smells like her...

  And he never got to do anything fun, after Hanna showed up...

  ...Ugh, now he is too horny to nap.

  How long has it been since he did it himself? It isn’t as though he is above it, exactly...

  It does feel nice to just rex and not have to worry about someone else’s pleasure, every once in a while...

  ...Wait, he remembered to close the door, right?

  As Sincir raises his head, his fears are immediately confirmed by spotting the figure of Ena at the door, palms against her face as she stares toward him from in between her fingers, underneath of which her reddened cheeks are painfully obvious.

  “...Dinner is ready?”

  “...Yeah,” she murmurs.

  “...Aren’t you supposed to politely turn away?”

  “...Aren’t you supposed to close the door?”

  “...I’m be down in a minute.”

  Ena nods, turns around, and runs through the corridor, causing Sincir to groan out loud.

  How long had she been watching him for?

  Had she just arrived?

  It didn’t look like it...

  Still, how embarrassing.

  Well, he better go down before she has a chance to bbber about it...

  A minute ter, Sincir enters the kitchen to find it lively with movement and conversation.

  Esme and No both have their hair sightly wet, sitting by each other while holding hands and talking in rushed tones; Both of them have a blush on their faces, but No is looking much better than before, causing Sincir to smile.

  Eleanor leans against the table with her magical tome in hand, all but ignoring Rez’s questions about where they’ve been the entire day, and Ena quickly buzzes around, cheeks still slightly reddened, as she fills bowls for everybody.

  “...What happened?” Eleanor asks, without having ever looked up from her book.

  What is she, a mind mage?

  “I caught him-”

  “Changing,” Sincir cuts in, throwing Ena a look which dares her to correct him.

  “...Changing,” she finishes, returning his gre in kind.

  Eleanor snorts. “If you wanted it so bad, you should’ve asked me.”

  Distracted from her conversation with Esme, No throws the three of them a confused look. “Asked what?”

  “Don’t mind her...” Sincir murmurs as he takes a seat for himself, “More importantly, did my girlfriend cheat on me with you just now, or is that blush...?”

  Esme immediately jumps away from No, as though burned. “We bathed! Nothing else!”

  Sincir chuckles. “Is that so...? Shame.”

  “Is that what you were thinking about...?” Ena whispers, as she roughly pces a bowl in front of him, her disgust obvious by her tone and expression.

  He smiles at her. “Wouldn’t you like to know...?”

  “...Never mind.”

  “How long were you watching me for, you pervert?”

  “Never mind I said!”

  At this point, no matter how sheltered No might’ve been, she’d have to be utterly clueless to not understand what happened, as proven by the fact her eyes suddenly widen slightly and she quickly seems to find a lot of interest in her bowl of food.

  “What are you guys even talking about?” Esme murmurs as she finally returns to her seat, after having jumped from it, now carrying a grimace on her face, “Am I the only one who doesn’t get it?”

  ...Unbelievable.

  “...I’m sure Rez is also in the dark,” Sincir murmurs appeasingly, causing her to grimace further.

  “No, Rez gets it,” Eleanor says.

  And sure enough, once Sincir looks in the half-goblin’s direction, now greedily eating from her steaming bowl of food, the half-goblin pauses in order to meet his gaze, nodding once.

  “...I don’t believe it,” Esme says, just as Sincir is about to.

  Rez swallows. “Ena caught Sin pying with his-”

  “Okay, okay! Rez, I’m sorry; I’ll never doubt you again!”

  “Told you,” Eleanor says, while Rez returns to her food with a self-satisfied look on her face.

  Pcing her palms against her now heated face, Esme groans. “Just kill me now...”

  “Anyway...” Sincir murmurs, rolling his eyes, “If you guys are done talking about my cock at the dinner table, I have important news to report.”

  Esme and Ena throw him dirty looks, though surprisingly enough, No is the one to speak next.

  “Please... I must hear what you have to say, Mr. Sincir.”

  Seeing the desperate, yet nearly hopeless look on her face, Sincir sighs. For a moment, he considers hiding some of what they have found out about the kidnappers (likely to be cultists) in order to not give her false hope, but in the end he decides she deserves his honest thoughts on the matter, and so he proceeds to recount his encounter with Daniel and his tail, as well as the information he acquired from Victoria, which lead to their conclusion about the cultists’ identity and hiding spot...

  By the time he is done telling the girls about everything, they have all but finished their dinners.

  “Of course, nothing is certain until my associate's people manege to confirm or deny our suspicions, meaning that all we have so far is specution... And if we are wrong about this, it’s back to ground zero.”

  “I understand they’re hiding near this nest thingy... But why would they want to acquire No’s nd so bad?” Esme asks.

  “Again, we just think they do, it is not a certainty, but... I imagine that if they were able to acquire the nd legally, it’d be much easier to keep people away from it. Adventurers’ aside, having the right to bar people from entering the terrain surrounding the nest would allow them to expand their operation.”

  “What are you pnning to do if it turns out we are wrong?” Eleanor asks.

  “At that point... A forcible approach might be our only option. Unless anything else turns up, we’ll have to go after Daniel’s tail and extract whatever information we can from him. After that, it’d be whoever sold themselves from No’s servants... Well, you get the point. One way or another, we’ll figure them out.”

  No opens her mouth, but then closes it again, without saying anything.

  “Go on,” Sincir prompts, not without gentleness, “I know you must have a lot to ask.”

  “My... My father,” she eventually murmurs hoarsely, “Do you truly believe...?”

  “If we are right about everything else, then there is a chance they might be keeping him alive as one of the future sacrifices for their big summoning...” Or as food for the demons they have already summoned. “No way to make sure yet, though, sorry.”

  “I... I understand. Thank you for everything you’ve done so far, Mr. Sincir. I’m sorry, but if you’d excuse me, I’m feeling unwell...”

  Sincir nods. “Of course. In this case, Esme will accompany you to bed...”

  “She will?” Esme asks.

  He ignores that. “...Again, don’t hesitate to ask if you’re in need of something; The girls, as well as I, would be more than happy to help you.”

  No nods, rising from her chair as she does so.

  Sincir pretends not to notice the way her hands shake, or the haunted look in her eyes as she walks away from the table while followed by a worried-looking Esme...

  “...Do you really think bathing is all they did?”

  Eleanor groans. “If you’re so curious, just ask Esme ter,” she grumbles.

  “Sin, you’re such a dumbass,” Ena adds.

  “What? I was just trying to lighten the mood...”

  “Yeah, right...”

  Catching Rez staring at him, Sincir fshes her a smile... Strange; She usually runs away to her basement cave as soon as she is done with her food.

  “You see what I have to deal with? They hate me...”

  Rez shakes her head. “Ena talk about Sin all the time. Rez ears bleeding from it.”

  “Rez!”

  Sincir smiles. “Does she now...? Mind if I ask what she talks about, exactly...?”

  Rez throws Ena a quick look, and catching her gre, the half-goblin shakes her head. “Sorry, no do. Rez loyal.”

  Damn it, she is too smart.

  “I was telling her about how we met, and our journey here,” Ena crifies, though her slightly heated cheeks make it clear that’s not all they talked about, exactly.

  “If you say so...”

  “...Shut up.”

  “Are you going to skip on working tomorrow?” Eleanor asks.

  “Naw, I should be fine going with you guys in the morning, then dipping ter...”

  “Wait, is there something else going on?” Ena asks.

  Right, he never told her about Leon, did he?

  As the girls start with the dishes, Sincir briefly describes Victoria’s situation with the duke’s third son to Ena, as well as how they are pnning on handling the problem tomorrow.

  “That’s... Wow, what a bastard. Also, isn’t making him a sve for all of eternity going a bit too far...?”

  “Considering the next option is to kill him... Well, I’m sure Collin will treat him well.”

  “Meaning you’re washing your hands from the whole thing,” Ena murmurs, rolling her eyes.

  “Hey, it wasn’t my problem to being with, and I can’t fix everything of wrong in the universe... Sometimes, the lesser of two evils is the only choice you’re left with.”

  Ena sighs. “Fair enough, Sin, I wasn’t trying to give you shit this time... You didn’t have to help her.”

  “Thank you,” Sincir responds gracefully.

  “Please don’t infte his already giant ego...” Eleanor murmurs.

  Sincir chuckles. “Too te for that... Well, I’ll let Eleanor help you with your training today, Ena, because I have some things to do still, is that okay?”

  “Sure.”

  “I’ll come by your room ter, so make sure not too fall asleep immediately, as usual.”

  Once Ena throws him a suspicious look, Sincir winks at her. “I promised you a massage, remember?”

  “Oh... Right, I had almost forgotten.”

  “You don’t want it?”

  “No, a massage sounds great...”

  Sincir narrows his eyes at her. “Your distrust hurts, Ena.”

  She flinches. “Sorry, but I did just catch you beating it before dinner.”

  Sincir grimaces. “If you don’t want it, that’s fine,” he says, averting his eyes away from her.

  “You do know you’ve given him about a million chances to take advantage of you before today, right?” Eleanor asks drily.

  Out of the corner of his vision, Sincir catches Ena flinching again.

  “It’s not that I don’t trust him, it’s just that I don’t... Fuck, fine, I’ll wait for you awake,” Ena finishes in a murmur.

  “You don’t have to force yourself,” Sincir grumbles.

  “What are you, a moody teenager girl?! I’m sorry, okay?!”

  “I think you hurt his feelings,” Eleanor says, chuckling as she does so.

  “I can see that!”

  Sincir groans, waving his hand dismissively. “Forget it...”

  “And you! After all of this, you better show up...! Why are you just sitting there, anyway?! Go find something to do!”

  ...In the end, he was kicked from the kitchen.

  Jeez, she really knows how to make a storm out of nothing, doesn’t she...?

  “Sin...?”

  After scratching his neck and shaking his head, Sincir is about to head up the stairs when he notices Rez behind him, having obviously followed when he exited the kitchen.

  “...When did you took up to calling Sin, anyway?”

  “S-Sincir.”

  “...No, I wasn’t trying to correct you... Is something the matter?”

  “Coo-Cookies, how...?”

  Oh... Right.

  Sincir smiles apologetically toward the fidgeting half-goblin. “Sorry, I didn’t have time to try them yet.”

  Rez nods, though her disappointment is obvious. “Sincir busy still...?”

  He raises an eyebrow. “For a cute thing like you? I can always spare a couple of minutes.”

  Rez blinks, then her cheeks quickly grow crimson as she immediately averts her gaze. “R-Rez no cute...” she grumbles under her breath.

  ...Yep, cute.

  “...Follow,” she murmurs in the end, grabbing his hand as she walks around him.

  Being curios about what she wants, Sincir doesn’t resists as she begins to drag him toward the basement.

  “How have you been? Do you still miss your cave?”

  “Rez fine...”

  “Is that so?”

  “Rez fine.”

  Not much of a small talker, huh?

  Once they go down the stairs, Rez points toward the small house he built for her using earth magic, causing Sincir to smile.

  “Oh, I see; You wanted to show me your new curtains? It’s pretty.”

  Differently from when he st saw it, green curtains now hang over the entrance and windows, which means Ena got around furnishing the pce at some point during these past few days. He wonders if she managed to bring everything in, already...

  Rez shakes her head; Then, she continues to pull him toward her house.

  “...Do you want to show me the inside as well?”

  She nods. However, before going in, she stops at the entrance and points him toward the hole he left as a way to account for all the earth he moved.

  “Ena say it won’t work like this,” Rez says.

  He was tired at the time, so he didn’t realized it, but she must mean the hole needs an out-yer to keep the water from simply seeping into the earth... Well, he is sure she can figure it out from this point, since she is the one setting the house up for Rez.

  “Ah, Rez, wait, I was still-”

  Rez throws him a look, but she doesn’t stop pulling him until they are past the curtain and within the house’s small kitchen.

  “Ena says it won’t work either,” she says while point toward the stove he made.

  It will... Also need to be out-yered by something, or the fire will crack the earth.

  “...Sorry, I guess I didn’t think this through-”

  Rez shakes her head. Again, she begins to pull his hand before he has a chance to inspect things more closely, leading him through her living room (which Sincir confirms does have a couple pieces of furniture now, outfitted to fit the pce... Did Ena bring those in herself?), before going through another curtain, this one pink, which reveals a small bedroom containing a mattress lying on the ground-bed he made her, a mini-sized closet, and a nightstand, all green colored.

  “...How did she get these built so fast, anyway? Wait, are you about to tell me something here doesn’t work? Is the space too small?”

  Rez shakes her head. “Rez doesn’t like mattress thingy.”

  “...Are you too used to sleeping on the ground?”

  She nods.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it soon... Is this all you wanted to show me?”

  Rez lowers her gaze. “Rez... New to this. Rez grew used to being alone... Before that, surrounded by many... Always share everything.”

  Sincir smiles at her. “You did fine; There’s nothing to worry about... Your room is cozy, I like it.”

  “Truth... Rez is having trouble falling asleep...”

  Seeing as she is still avoiding his gaze, Sincir squeezes her hand softly in order to get her to look at him.

  “Rez, rex,” he murmurs to her once she shifts her red eyes to meet his, “Is the mattress that big of a problem? It’s common for people used to sleeping on the ground to have a hard time adapting to something softer... I went through the same problem myself, once.”

  “...Sincir did?”

  “Well, it’s a long story, but I was a... Do you know what a sve is?”

  She blinks, then her eyes widen slightly. “Rez old tribe kept some...! Was Sincir...?!”

  It must’ve been a big goblin tribe, if they had the manpower to ensve humans.

  “...It was long time ago.”

  Rez quickly steps away from him, her face palling as she removes her hand from his and lowers her gaze once more. “R-Rez s-sorry!”

  “What? Oh, I wasn’t ensved by goblins, so you don’t need to feel any responsibility... But you had a big tribe once, huh? You have to tell me about it sometime.”

  Rez quickly nods, though she still doesn’t raise her gaze to meet his.

  “...I guess you want me to help you with your sleeping problems?”

  Rez nods. “P-p-petting helped Rez fall asleep before... So, if S-Sincir h-has the t-time...”

  ...Ah. And here was him thinking about what sort of excuse he’d have to come up to pet her again...