Killing Bandits and Reworking Elaria's Mana Veins

I looked at her and smiled; I wanted to tease her a little but realized she probably has some deep-seated worries about someone abandoning her, like I do, from our past before meeting.

I knew due to her father never seeing her, which would feel like rejecting and abandoning her, this would come up eventually. After all, sometimes I worry about whether they would leave me, so how couldn't someone who had it worse than me not.

Sometimes it's not the thoughts that you know might actually happen that eat away at your mind, but the ones you logically know won't happen that eat you away until you can't think of anything else.

I lifted her chin and tilted her head up, looking into her eyes and spoke seriously, "I won't leave you. You're one of my wives now; you're mine. Though she looks very beautiful, she can't come close to comparing with you. I want my house to keep getting bigger until it's a mansion or maybe a palace; I've always wanted to have a really big house. This does mean I need some maids to take care of it, and you and Luna could also each use at least one to help you with whatever. Only the best in the world can be my wives. She's only qualified as a maid."

She had a tear in the corner of her eye and wiped it away. I pulled her into a hug hoping to help ease all her worries.

"What about if we don't see each other for a long time, would you sleep with her then?" she asked.

I was a little surprised; from the sound of her voice, I wasn't sure if she wanted me to say yes or no, or if she even knew. She seemed to be thinking, if we didn't see each other for a while that I would replace her with some random girl to fulfill my desires, and that she wanted me to use a maid that she knew I thought wasn't as good as her so I wouldn't forget her. Complete nonsense as I'd never forget her and those aren't the only options, but I decided to not say either way and I would do what she wanted to make her happy.

"I already said she's only good enough to qualify as my maid, so whatever makes you happy."

She was silent for a moment before saying almost in a whisper, "T-then it's fine when we aren't around."

She quickly pulled away, returning to her usual self, drew her sword and charged through the barriers toward the bandit camp shouting, "I'll kill more than you!"

I was stunned for a second, thinking the answer would have been different, but I guess it's not necessarily bad for me since sometimes they could cultivate for hundreds or even thousands of years on their own, maybe even longer once they reach higher realms in higher-level worlds.

I ran down the hill after her with my sword intending to practice swordsmanship rather than magic this time since I hadn't had an opponent to use it on yet.

The bandits had noticed the barrier and were trying to break it. A group of little bandits trying to break a 5th level barrier, what a joke.

They saw us coming and readied their weapons to fight. With our enhanced speed, strength and swordsmanship from the Sword God himself, it was a one-sided massacre. I was quite disappointed with how pitiful they were, not even the slightest bit of practice. It would have been better to use them as moving targets for magic arrows.

I burned the corpses to ash so they wouldn't stink or attract monsters.

When the last bandit died I felt the string around my mana core undergo a slight change; it was still ethereal but less faint. This must be since I fulfilled my end of the deal. Elaria probably felt something also and knows all the bandits are dead now. Sure enough, she came down the hill a minute later and took a knee in front of me, bowing her head.

"Master, thank you for killing the bandits that attacked my village and giving rest to their souls. Is there anything I can do for you now?"

I felt a little awkward, "N- stop kneeling when you meet me. You can help us search for anyone captured here."

We didn't find anyone else and the three of us met back up by the only house in the middle and decided to stay in the house for the night.

"Master, what would you like me to do next?"

"Um, in the future normally Lila or I will just tell you if we have something specific, other than those things you can cook and help Lila get dressed or whatever you think you can help with. For now though, you can make a bed for tonight."

I gave her a thick blanket. The three of us walked into the house and made our beds on the opposite sides of the room. We could have used the bed that was already there, but when thinking about Lila and I sleeping in that bandits bed, my heart turned over in disgust.

The house was all one room, though that room was quite big, reminding me of a throne room with its large wooden chair on one side. It looked like they had intended to close off the bedroom and the kitchen but didn't finish yet.

After we finished, I called Elaria over.

When she got over to us I told her what I wanted to do, "I want to rewrite your mana veins and core to be the best it can be. It's not exactly a fun process, but it works well."

She nodded, "What should I do?"

I started to explain the process and when I got to the part about needing her core to be broken she visibly paled, but Lila said that her core had been broken but now it's fixed and 100x better than before. As I explained and showed her the mana vein diagram in the book that she needed to use for best results, Lila would chime in to help explain any parts I didn't explain well enough.

After about 4 hours, she took a seat facing away from me; I placed my hand on her back, and she stopped breathing. Sweat appeared on her forehead, and she was visibly terrified. I sent mana into her core in such a way that shattered it. After her core broke, she didn't breathe again for nearly 30 seconds and had to be reminded.

After giving her about 10 minutes to calm down, we started the process to reform her core. When the mana veins were being burned in, she let out a quiet strangled scream but didn't lose focus. After they were burned in, she kept packing her core with mana till it solidified with an audible pop.

She lay back on the floor exhausted. I remembered how she didn't even have a single circle before when elves have a good talent for magic. With how old she is, she should have been able to fight the bandits herself; they were only 1-2 circle mages.

"Why didn't you have a single circle before; don't elves have good magic talent?"

She grimaced, "Once in a while an elf is born with near-zero magic ability due to the structure of their mana veins and may only reach 1, and if lucky, 2 circles in their life, they are banished from society."

While she rested, I scrolled through the cultivation book. I wanted her to cultivate also; why would I want to train many staff when I can train only a few and make them immortal. I only want to train the number I need.

When I found good methods for her, I had Kitty make the basic information about cultivation as well as the methods I picked out in a physical book so Elaria could read them.

After handing them to her, I explained, "This is another way to use mana, practice it well. Wherever it says 'qi,' think mana, same thing different words."

She nodded and gave a small bow before leaving our side and going back to where her bed was.

I lay down on our bed and pulled Lila down next to me before pulling the blankets to cover us so she could sleep. She rolled away, and I thought maybe she was still mad but quickly had my doubts dispelled as she slowly undressed while staring into my eyes. When fully undressed, she crawled under the blankets and sliced my shirt open with a small amount of wind magic.

I glanced over at Elaria, thinking about there being another person in the room, but she was engrossed in the book. Still, it just made me feel uncomfortable with another person here.

I hugged Lila tightly stopping her movements and whispered, "Elaria is right over there."

"She's a girl, so it's fine, and isn't it more fun?" she whispered back with a wicked smile.

I blinked a few times and felt my brain frying over the fire of this little pervert's comment, "J-Just not tonight."

I started petting and massaging her ears. She let out a little disappointed sound but soon started making contented murmurs. She really reminded me of a cat purring but making different, more human sounds.

Soon she fell asleep, and I began working on my mana circles.

The next morning, I heard Elaria quietly come over. I cracked my eyes slightly to watch what she would do.

When she reached our bed, she started picking up and folding Lila's clothing that were lying around on the floor with a slight blush as she glanced our way. When she saw the two sets of clothing, the mage's robe which she recognized, and the clothing Lila normally wore that she had been wearing under it, she looked confused. Then when she saw the wig of brown hair, she looked even more puzzled.

She looked at where Lila was sleeping, but the blanket was covering her head, so she couldn't see her. She folded the clothing and stacked them in a certain order while waiting for us to wake up.

I opened my eyes, and she could tell I was awake.

I cast an illusion with words in front of her with a small explanation, "Lila's family wanted to kill her so she couldn't inherit it, so she had to escape in disguise. She's actually from the fox race, not human. Though now that we are this far away from them, she shouldn't need it now."

We should reach Ironspire by midday, and there was a large city about an hour across the border that we would stay at. Even if someone happened to see her at this point, we are too far away to report it to the capital. Besides, we'd stopped seeing posters about her a few months ago, so this far away it's unlikely anyone even knows anything about it.

Elaria looked slightly surprised but nodded that she understood.

I stretched out my hand and devoured the disguise since she didn't need it and looked better without it.

I began playing with Lila's ears under the blanket, and she woke up, throwing the blanket off. She started "stretching," while letting out small moans one would while actually stretching. I stood up putting on a new shirt since she ruined the last one.

She turned her head to Elaria, "Surprised I look different today?"

"Yes madam, a bit." Elaria said; her face was red, and she seemed to be unsure of where to look with Lila laying fully exposed on the blanket and wiggling around under the guise of "stretching."

Lila paused, and her face got a funny look with a pout, "I'm only 18 and a half; 'madam' makes me feel so old."

"Yes, Mrs. ?"

"Frost" "Sena," we answered at the same time. Lila looked at me and smiled, "Frost."