"Cough, cough..."
Upon hearing what Alice had said, Alex started coughing. Meanwhile, Alice was giggling at his reaction.
After a moment, Alex composed himself and whispered back to Alice, "What are you talking about?"
"Is it not true?" Alice replied.
"As a matter of fact, yes, you are wrong." It was true he could be a bit perverted at times, but not to that extent!
"If you say so," Alice responded, sounding unconvinced.
Just as Alex was about to retort, he heard Violette's voice saying, "Hey, old man, that's enough!"
Before he could respond, Violette and Alice started to pull away from the hug. However, just before they completely separated, Alice whispered one last thing in his ear.
"We'll continue this discussion later."
As they broke away, Alice planted a kiss on his cheek. Lilia and Viviane, who were observing, had noticed the whispering but hadn't paid much attention. However, the kiss piqued their interest, and Viviane asked Alice, "What was that for?"
"It's a secret between Daddy and me," Alice replied provocatively.
Hearing Alice call him "Daddy," Alex sensed her intentions. She rarely used that term, and among his children, only Viviane did. So, the kiss and the use of "Daddy" were likely meant to make Viviane jealous.
The expected effect was achieved because right after Viviane said "Daddy," her face turned green with jealousy. She also hurried over to Alex and planted a kiss on his cheek. In response, Alice remarked, "Very infantile."
In response, Viviane stuck her tongue out at her.
"That's enough," Lilia interjected before the situation could escalate any further.
"Behave like adults," she continued. Seeing their mothers' intervention, both girls stopped their teasing.
Once they had settled down, Lilia, while taking a seat, said, "We have much more important matters to discuss."
The girls nodded in agreement and took their seats as well. Alex also positioned himself beside Lilia, with the girls facing her.
Although he had initially mentioned his intention to join today's dinner, Alex had no intention of discussing preparations with Lilia and the girls. So, while they began their discussion, he summoned the system, which displayed:
[Name: Alex Eswald
Age: 60
Strength: 10
Agility: 20
Stamina: 15
Defense: 10
Mana points: 5
Harem: Lilia Eswald
Abilities: Soul Linkage
Soul points: 10]
"Hmm... Which stat should I improve?" He didn't intend to enhance a stat right now, but it would be good to know which one to focus on.
While considering which stat to enhance, he noticed something he hadn't paid attention to before.
"Why is 'abilities' in plural when I only have one ability?"
The system's screen changed, and he read:
[Because you can also increase the number of abilities you have.]
"Huh..." Alex was greatly surprised to hear this response. He didn't expect such a thing.
"Just... just imagine all the possibilities that would open up."
Despite his efforts to hide his excitement and not alert the girls, he couldn't help but smile from ear to ear. Fortunately, they were no longer paying attention to him and didn't notice his peculiar expression.
After a few moments lost in thoughts about all the things he could do with this, he calmed down and asked, "How can I acquire more abilities?"
[You can acquire abilities from women you have intimate relationships with.]
"Then why don't I have Lilia's powers when I..." He stopped himself, realizing how stupid the question was. How could he copy Lilia's powers if they were sealed?
However, the system still answered his question:
[Lilia Eswald's powers were sealed, which is why you couldn't copy her powers. Also, you don't have enough points.]
'Oh, it takes points. How many points does it take to copy someone's power?'
But when Alex saw the response, he exclaimed, "Motherfucker."