"Seeing how things have been going lately, I guess you two are here to add on to my workload eh?" Jun teased with a smile.

Magdalena stalled and Iri's smile froze on her face.

"Looks like I'm right! And I didn't even have to use my prediction abilities." Jun seemed quite proud of himself.

Iri chuckled in embarrassment but Magdalena was as quiet as death and almost beginning to regret coming to bother Jun and give him more trouble to deal with.

"Well then, may as well lay it on me." Jun bade them to spit out out they were there for.

Iri coughed in preparation before adopting a more serious posture and speaking her piece.

"Magdalena here was feeling rather restless and wished for a way to repay her debt to you by making herself useless. She came to me with these concerns and as I listened, I came to realize that I tool, have been mooching off of you and taking you for granted." Iri explained.

"As such, we decided to come here and ask you for the power and the way to best serve you." She concluded the request.

"Hmm . . ." Jun looked between the two of them while deep in thought.

"I do have a couple of ideas . . ." He revealed but still carried the expression of someone in deep thought with his eyes closed.

"Honestly, it ought not to be at all difficult for me to find a way for Magdalena to grow stronger." Jun started, making the woman's eyes shine.

"Mainly because that is a task most suited to one of my lovely wives and thus, requires no personal effort beyond taking you to her and explaining the situation." He added with a smirk which cramped the two women's expressions.

"As for Iri . . . It's a little more complicated . . ." Jun shared before falling into thought once again while considering his options.

" . . . May I ask why?" Iri tentatively inquired.

"Mhm . . . Truth be told, I have a safe way, full of potential but also something that does not suit me to do right now." Jun started.

"But?" Iri asked.

"But . . . I also have an uncertain method with unknown consequences that might result in an explosive increase in your capabilities." Jun revealed.

"So why not try that one that can be done now?" Iri inquired.

"Obviously because of the "unknown consequences" which may very well be death and likely something even worse." Jun elaborated.

" . . . Oh." Was all Iri got out before clamming up as well.

"Can you give specifics?" She asked, wishing to understand what exactly Jun had in mind and he obliged.

"Due to the original purpose behind your creation, you have a link, a deep connection to the Holy Grail System and the provides certain . . . Possibilities . . ." Jun revealed.

"Possibilities?" Iri wanted to know more.

"There is a Caster Servant version of you and an Avenger one as well which can both draw power from a virtual Holy Grail and, to a certain extent, the Root itself. I can give that power to you in the future once I'm ready to convert all of you girls into Servants." Jun explained.

"So that's the safe but long term method." Iri figured.

"What about the immediate yet uncertain one?" She continued to ask.

"Well . . . I figured that I could use your affinity with Holy Grail type artifacts connect you to my very own Grail which is basically the core of my power and the vessel for my true self, Aurea Poculum." Jun said.

"And why do you think that might end badly for me?" Iri inquired, determined to get to the bottom of the matter so she could make an informed choice which Jun found to be a respectable attitude.

He liked that Iri was not just tossing the whole decision to him as such complete and unwavering extreme trust was a burden in an of itself.

It would be even worse if she stubbornly wished to go for the immediate yet risky method without even taking the time to known what she was getting into though.

"It is harder to think of ways for it not to end badly." Jun replied to Iri's question.

"That bad?" Iri was somewhat taken aback.

"Aurea Poculum is no joke. It's miraculous for sure but it is, at its core, a corrupted grail of sin which could change you irreversibly in countless ways. Not to mention it is now holding Apokalypsis." Jun began to explain.

"I mean, you may explode due to too much power being pumped into your body, even if I can limit the connection it can mutate your physical form into some kind of apocalyptic beast or, even worse, corrupt your mind and turn you into an extremely fucked up version of yourself." He elaborated on some of the possible outcomes.

*gulp*

Iri could only gulp in fear, she was half a mind to try it out despite Jun's cautioning but was glad she heard all of the details because now, she was completely sure she was not going to risk it. Death truly was a better end when compared to having your mind twisted beyond repair.

"I now see why you didn't even want to bring that particular method up." Iri understood Jun's worries which relieved him.

"Still, that's way with the most potential to power me up right?" She asked which made Jun sigh.

"Yes . . . You are correct. But power isn't everything." Jun said.

"You're right Jun . . . So . . . Isn't there any way to make it work?" Iri insisted with an impish smile.

"Why are you suddenly so interested Iri? You seemed to be content just hanging about and caring for the girls until now." Jun questioned.

"Well . . . I simply had a change of heart." Iri huffed.

In truth, during the conversation, Iri had begun thinking to herself about her budding feelings for Jun. She still was not sure it was going to go somewhere but the question was . . . What if she came to truly love him?

Would Jun accept her as his actual wife even if she was so useless when compared to her future "sisters"?

'He probably would.' Iri thought.

But would her "sisters" be okay with that? Would she be okay being nothing but a pretty burden to her husband? Jun's wives were not only devastatingly beautiful, they were also extremely capable, each in their own special ways so Iri was not sure she would be able to bear it.

And so, a healthy thirst for power was born in the generally content irisviel Von Einzbern. She wanted to be worthy, in the mind of others but more importantly, in her own and that required her to be better, better than she currently was.

It was one thing if there was no way to grow stronger but since there was, it would make her unworthy to not even consider it.

Clearly, Iri was falling a tad bit into extremism and Jun's attitude in his quest for greater power, the attitude that sometimes got him into serious trouble, was beginning to rub off on her.

As for Jun, he was looking at iri with a deadpan stare as if asking, "Really?".

"Soooo? Is there a way?" iri asked again and Jun just sighed in defeat.

"Technically, if we use the safe way first to boost your strength as a vessel and I take my time creating countermeasures . . . It shouldn't be impossible and will at the very least mitigate the impact connecting to Aurea Poculum would have on you." Jun told her.

"Seems like I'll have to wait anyway then, oh well." Iri took the news that there was nothing to be done for now quite well in Jun's opinion.

He was honestly expecting her to have something to say on the matter but it appeared that despite the changes in her behaviour, Iri was still as patient as she was. So long as it was possible, she could handle the wait it seemed.

"Right then. For Magdalena though, I'll take you to individual that holds the key to your potential soon enough. I need to finish up a few things first and then I'll take you and Gray to meet the rest of the group, said individual included."

Jun informed the other woman who waited quietly on the side while he had his discussion with Irisviel.

And so, Jun solved the two women's concerns to some degree and got started on the path of solving the issues he was currently swamped with.

Though it seemed that one of his methods was tossing the problems to his future self which could be argued was procrastination rather than solution but oh well . . .

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba  without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.