I dashed out of the tunnel the moment their meeting concluded, as I expected the headmistress to send me a message the moment she was back at the office, and it would have been better if I wasn't under wards when she did so.

Especially since these wards were under her direct control.

It was good that I did, because, a few seconds after I had left the wards, I had received the message, a message that would have failed to pass the protective wards without triggering.

Close call. Unsurprisingly, she was asking me to visit her in her office immediately. Knowing the severity of the situation, I rushed. A minute later, I was knocking on her office door, the oppressive feeling of the wards not even registering after the repeated exposure.

The door once again opened wordlessly, revealing the headmistress sitting behind her desk, wearing her dark robe, but the hood was down, revealing her beautiful face that contrasted greatly with the rest of the dark decorations of the room.

She did her best to look impassive, but even without watching her fateful meeting, I would have noticed the panicked expression on her face. It was a pity that I missed half of the meeting, as I would have loved to see the exact reason why she had been unsettled to such an unbelievable degree, probably relating to the faction the dragon belonged to.

"I have another mission for you, a very important one," she said, fully confident that I would accept despite the mental crisis she was going through. It would be a lie to say that I wasn't tempted to reject her, just to see her confidence shatter even more.

Too bad that the cost of doing so was too heavy for momentary entertainment.

"As you wish," I said, accepting the mission before she even gave the details. Ironically, spying on my own boss was very helpful to sell an image of devotion.

She accepted that move readily, confident in my loyalty after observing a decent amount of Divine Spark, not aware that it was safely locked in my body behind several complicated, ever-changing wards, preventing it from even slightly affecting my mind.

"I need you to spy on her," she explained, once again economical in her words, though there was no doubt who she was referring.

"How, magically, or physically?" I asked.

"I arranged you as the servant for her. It'll give you an excuse to stay close. You can observe her in detail, and record anything valuable," she explained, acting like it was her own idea rather than a request she was unable to resist.

Her attempts to be sneaky were simply cute.

"As you wish," I said.

She stayed silent for a moment, before adding. "It's good that you survived," she said, complimenting me about the mission. Since I had already included a report of the mission with the message I had sent earlier, she didn't ask any follow-up questions.

Interestingly, her lack of follow-up questions about the move suggested an interesting detail. Because, while I had explained the challenges I had experienced during the event, I had deliberately avoided mentioning anything about my speculations about the Eternals' movements, in particular to its possible function as some kind of training program, not wanting to reveal to her how much information I was able to collect under the restrictions of the wards.

The fact that she didn't ask a single question either meant that she didn't care about it at all — which wasn't likely for someone that managed to last two centuries as the head of a political entity — or she had a good idea what was the point all along.

"Is there any specific thing you want me to do? Interrogation, maybe some torture—" I offered, only to be cut off, a beautiful panic appearing in her face.

"No!" she gasped, her face covered with emotion the second time — the first being the suggestion about her nakedness under her robe during her first reveal. To her credit, it didn't take long for her to suppress that panic, and continue with her usual monotone tone. "Try to keep her happy. She is an important connection."

"How nice?" I asked, deliberately pushing the headmistress a bit.

"Within reason, but check with me if she asks anything extreme," the headmistress answered.

I nodded, barely holding back my smirk. I didn't know whether she didn't realize or she just didn't care because she thought of me as a loyal soldier, but she had just given me a huge opportunity to do a lot of things, using my new 'mistress' as an excuse.

Before leaving, however, I decided to ask another question, one that was very important. "What if she wants that…" I said, looking up to where her room was, implying that she might ask for the Divine Spark.

"Don't worry," she said, surprising me with the quickness of her answer, so much that it showed on my face. "Dragons have no use for it. They only use pure mana."

Another interesting detail.

"Do you think you can handle another transfer?" she asked.

"It might be safer to wait another day, the struggle to keep her safe exhausted my body too much," I said, both selling an idea of loyalty that forced me to push my limits just to defend someone for her — and a struggle that was much harder than the actual events — but also subtly implying that, while I was strong, that strength wasn't without a significant cost.

Being underestimated never hurts.

"As you wish," she said as her gaze fell back on her desk, dismissing me without even mentioning it.

I left her office, and went back to the basement, to the room of my new mistress. I knocked on the door.

"Come in," called a familiar voice, and I entered, only for my gaze to capture the beautiful sight of my new boss for a foreseeable future.

And what a sight it was. Unlike the previous dress, she was wearing a light green dress, half-transparent as it wrapped around her body, tantalizingly displaying her amazing curves despite her petite body. It was not a dress, but a nightie, the type a concubine might wear to seduce her Emperor.

Her pose was even more interesting than her dress. She sat on a chair, her legs crossed, showing a great deal of her smooth skin through the slit that cut through her nightie's skirt, enhancing the eroticism even more. The subtle leaning of her body enhanced her cleavage even more than her nightie had done in the first place.

Yet, despite her seductive look, clearly, it wasn't the message she was trying to give. She was partially facing the door, but not directly looking, even as I entered, like I wasn't important enough to actually pay attention. The platform under her chair — one that was not there earlier — elevated her seat almost like a throne.

Her words hardly disagreed with the impression. "My servant … you're finally here," she said, hardly managing to hide the glee in her tone.

Ironically, the obvious glee in her tone turned what might have been an insulting attitude into something amusing. The glee she felt over having power over me was so obvious that, ironically, it weakened her hold.

Though, the fact that I had been fondling her naked body a few hours earlier hardly helped her attempts to look authoritative.

"Oh, yes," I said, giving her a rebellious, frustrated gaze. It was fake, of course, but it was easier to fake resentment rather than looking impervious and forcing her to ramp up her attitude until she actually become annoying.

"Yes, what?" she said smugly as she looked to me, her earlier impervious attitude forgotten the moment she got the slightest victory, suggesting my — hopefully short — time as a servant wouldn't be too difficult.

Her next order just reinforced that impression. "Wash my feet," she ordered as she gently shook her crossed foot, which in turn moved her dress more, giving a short yet delicious glimpse of her beautiful inner thighs, with a tantalizing — but unfilled — promise of giving a glimpse of her core.

"As you wish, mistress," I said with a defeated sigh, giving her the thing she wanted more than the actual massage as I walked toward her.

As I walked toward her, however, I did more than appreciate her sexy body. I started examining the room, in particular, the mana regeneration capacity of the room even as she happily devoured it. It must be another part of their arrangement, because the intensity was much higher than what I first saw, something that was about half of my regeneration.

Which meant it was more or less as intense as a dozen level thirty mages' regeneration, hardly something to dismiss, even for something as vast as Silver Spires.

Though, it also highlighted just how ridiculous my power, in particular, my mana regeneration was getting.

As I arrived in front of her, I conjured a crystal basin, another spell filling it with mana-induced water, costing me a significant chunk of mana.

[-2375 Mana]

Then, I crouched down in front of her, grabbing her foot, ready to give a massage, deliberately ignoring the amazing sight I would receive the moment I would glimpse up, at least at the moment, and instead, stayed deliberately focused on the massage the full extent of the duration, even though she started to let out frustrated growl repeatedly as the arousal clearly build-up while my mana penetrated through her skin.

Meanwhile, I was testing just how crazy I could drive her with another foot massage…

[-1394 Mana]

With great success. Yet, even as she started parting her legs 'accidentally' I resisted the urge to peeking, driving the impression even higher.

"Is there anything else, Mistress?" I asked when I finally finished and stood up, only to catch a beautiful expression on her face, a mixture of arousal and annoyance, accompanied by the shock that I resisted the implied invitation to push more — therefore depriving her the opportunity to slap me down.

"No, you can go, I want to rest," she answered as she waved her hand dismissively, chasing me away. "Make sure to be ready here in the morning to serve, though."

"As you wish," I said as I gave her an exaggerated bow, once again not reacting to the glimpse of skin as I walked away.

But when I finally left the room, the smile on my face was erased quickly. Playing with her was fun, but I had a lot to do with our royal guests.

—

[Level: 31 Experience: 493210 / 496000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6226 / 6324 Mana: 5197 / 7750 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

Expert Craft [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]