Alexis Cyril

We followed Elaria a distance behind her as she made her way through the hallways towards a room where she would conduct the interview for a new servant. Shortly before she reached the door, I decided I wanted to see what she did if she didn't know I was around.

I motioned for Lila to go a different way and sent an illusion of me walking away with her before activating my invisibility skill to follow her.

When she opened the door, I saw her glance at Lila and "me" walking in another direction before entering. I used my short-range teleportation spell to make it through the door before she closed it behind the two of them without her noticing.

After she shut the door, she motioned to the seat at one side of the table and took a seat on the other. The girl sat down where she was told, and I took a good look at her.

She was a human of average height with long light brown hair and large brown eyes giving her a cute look. She didn't look as perfect as Luna or Lila, but I definitely wouldn't complain to Elaria about her on the looks aspect.

Elaria got started, "I'll ask you some questions; please answer them truthfully. First, what is your name?"

"Alexis Cyril."

"Do you have any family?"

"No."

It was important that my servants not have any family as we will be leaving this world eventually, and they might not want to never see them again. Of course, if they had a family but were fine with not seeing them again, that was fine also.

"Are you currently under a slave contract?"

She looked a little sour, "Yes."

A slave contract has the ability to be forced on the other party, and if they disobey the contract holder, they suffer punishments or death, the specific consequence is decided by the contract holder.

"Are you ordered to be here or agree to whatever I want?"

"No." I was completely unconvinced of her answer, and I don't think Elaria was either.

If she's been instructed to do whatever Elaria says, then I don't know how Elaria will conduct the rest of the interview. But that's her problem.

"Is the person who holds your contact going to give it to us?"

"If he gets the magic free twice."

"How do I contact him?"

"He's waiting where the auction took place."

Elaria left the room and came back a few minutes later with a piece of paper.

"The contract has been signed over to me now. Please answer all questions truthfully."

Alexis looked at her with hate and slammed her fists onto the table, "I don't want to work for you! Just let me go! I hate you, and I'll never do what you want!"

Elaria just nodded, "We'll see. If after a while you still don't want to, I'll burn the contract myself."

Huh? Elaria's going to try and train this girl? I don't know how well that'll work since she seems to hate Elaria, but if she wants to try, I won't interfere.

Alexis could see that was as good as she'd get and pointed at Elaria, "You better keep your promise!"

Elaria led her out of the room to another room she had obviously had someone prepare beforehand.

I kept myself invisible while teleporting behind them to avoid detection.

The new room they went into had a small kitchen, bathroom, 2 bedrooms, as well as several other rooms like a meeting room and a mini-restaurant. It reminded me of a movie set with the random-looking rooms, and I wasn't sure what they were for, but I suppose Elaria will use them for something.

I wondered briefly why the magic tower let her set this up here, but then I remembered how much Herbert wanted me to take over. I think he'd let her do whatever and even help.

"I will teach you things here. Don't leave these rooms. You get the bedroom on the left."

"Just remember your promise to burn the contract."

"I'll be back after a bit."

Elaria left, and I followed her again. She went out to where a guy with two women was sitting in the seating where the auction took place. He looked happy, and I assumed he must be the guy who previously owned Alexis.

"I'll take you two back now."

I decided to let her do her thing and spend some time with Lila for a bit. I don't care about her servant training camp or whatever and will just check the results after she's finished. That is if it works.

---

It was now about a month after the initial auction; we'd made thousands of mana crystals, and I decided it was probably time I get to the 8th circle even though that'll require me to take over the magic tower. It shouldn't mater to much at this point, I can handle the towers affairs while Elaria keeps running the money printing operation, I think I might be richer than the king.

Elaria also notified me that she'll introduce the new servant to me today, and I was curious about the results of her training, though I think it must have been good because she'd never allow a failure of anything to exist in front of me.

I'm thinking I should just put her in charge of all servants I aquire and get one for each Luna and Lila under her.

We were all currently in the apartment, and I think now is as good a time as any for us to advance to 8th circle mages.

"Elaria!" I called as she was in the kitchen or somewhere while I was sitting with Lila in our room.

The door opened, and Elaria appeared in the doorway, "Yes, Master?"

I pulled out a small mountain of high-grade mana crystals and put them in front of me while motioning for her to sit across.

"Let's all get to the 8th circle and Core Formation now. We have way, way plenty of crystals. You just get to 1st layer Core Formation, Lila; you use enough to reach the 9th."

"Yes, Master."

Lila just grabbed a handful of crystals and started using them.

I started devouring a pile and converting it to mana like Kitty showed me. It's kind of unfortunate that the two girls can't do the same since it's more efficient, but oh well, nothing can be done about it.

It took me about 30 minutes to teach the 8th circle and 1st layer of Core Formation, I was also much faster than them; they'd probably be at it for 2-3 more hours.

[Quest: Reach the peak of the 9th circle.

Time Limit: 24 hours

Reward: Mana core level advancement manual.]

'Kitty, what's that reward? I don't know a mana core had levels also.'

[In this world, people go to the 10th circle rather than advancing their core. This cuts off the ability to advance the mana core, and as such, no one knows the correct advancement path.]

I looked in my inventory. I did have enough crystals to take myself to the level required for the reward, but I'd wanted us or at the very least Lila and I to go to the next circle's together. Not that she'd really care I just wanted to. I didn't have enough yet for us to both make it to the 9th circle together.

Well, I guess I'll just have to forget my little thoughts; Kitty's rewards are always too good to miss.

It's not like I won't get more. Youth Retaining Magic provides a very steady income. More and more people are chomping at the bit to get their hands on this new magic, especially the old guys, I heard even the king sent all his wives and concubines to us through other people.

I pulled out almost all of my remaining crystals and got to work.

---

[Congratulations on completing the quest! The rewards have been delivered to the inventory.]

I started scrolling through the new book while waiting for the two girls to finish their 8th circle.

Apparently, when a person reaches 9 circles, they should condense them down into their core, thereby strengthening their core. This process leaves behind a sort of phantom circles still allowing them to cast the same magic spells as before; they just become stronger.

They can begin using more mana to solidify these phantom circles, and when they are all solidified, condense them into their core again. Most humans don't bother with this process as they don't live long enough and even races like elves can only do it once or twice.

I didn't have enough crystals on hand to try it, but if I collect the earnings from the brothel, I probably will; I'll send Elaria to do that after she finishes.

I finished reading the manual and understood the process of what I needed to do when Elaria finished. It would take Lila a little longer since she was going to the peak of Core Formation.

"Please go collect whatever earnings from the brothel you can."

"Yes, Master."

She left, and I stayed with Lila while thinking about what to do next. I think I should see if Herbert will wait another week for me to take over the magic tower on the basis of me learning the necessary spells to perfection.

I need to go pick out some new spells from the tower then we should probably go out of the city a ways to practice, as spells of our level can be quite destructive.

Lila finished, and we set off for the tower to pick out some spells, telling Elaria to meet us there.

We now went up to the 9th floor of the tower, and I started picking out spells.

At the 9th circle, attack spells that could cripple a country were possible, and if I wasn't the next tower master, they would be incredibly hard to get.

I could also now teleport anywhere in the world as long as I knew the location; this was one of the things I was most excited about.

After Elaria found us, I gave her a stack of spell books to learn and counted the crystals she brought. According to what I'm supposed to do with my circles, I should now have enough crystals to follow the manual's instructions, but I'll do that later. For now, I want to perfect the new spells for an instant and chant-less cast.

After notifying Herbert that I'd take over the tower in a week, he looked like he could barely hold himself back from dancing, but I just ignored him, and we left the city to practice our new spells.