Luke found himself sitting in the empty living room, alone in the dark. It wasn't that deep in the night; they usually go to sleep an hour after sunset, and they waited another hour for Jake to sleep before he and his wives engaged in their marital duties.
It's been about an hour or two after he had pleasured his wives and lulled them to sleep and despite his own tiredness, his body will not let him sleep, his mind torturing him about what to do with his present situation.
"No, this is simple, I just have to complete more quests in a day than I normally would"
He whispered to himself; most adventurers are advised to take one quest a day, Especially if you're lower ranked, as fighting monsters at the same level as you can leave you tired and sloppy, and that leads to death.
Luke has always taken that advice to heart. He may be struggling, but he didn't need to put his life in danger, end up dying and leaving his family without him.
A woman without a husband usually ends up a prostitute or ends up as a debt slave, it was a fucked up world they lived in.
While Ruth learned to read and write, she still cannot find any work, not to mention, their son is still quite young.
Maria is able to read and write and has a background of being a Royal Academy dropout, which was enough to find part-time work at the library but barely earned enough to help him with the debt; her income plus a minor portion of his own are used on the house and necessary expenses.
What was frustrating the most was that the present situation he was in was his fault, Maria wouldn't have to drop out of the academy due to the need to cut back on expenses and by now she probably would be working for a noble that would pay her enough that he can easily pour all his income on the debt.
"I need to fix this"
Maria had a good future ahead of her, and he was supporting her to get it but eventually ended up being the one to hold her back and especially ruining her prospects; as her husband, he shouldn't be the one to destroy her life like that, yet he did.
He clenched his fist in frustration and anger, and his stomach churned with guilt, how could he do such a thing to her?
He needed to fix this; both of his wives and son deserved far more than they were getting, and the responsibility was on him to make sure they got what they deserved.
"I Need to fix this!"
This time, his words were laced with copious amounts of conviction; he was determined to fix his mistake by all means and was willing to do whatever it may take.
...
"M'lord, are you ready?"
June asked the heavily panting Marquis Augustine, the man was slouched on the couch, sweat visible on his forehead and some minor sweat stain on the chest area of his white tank top.
"Give me a minute!"
He said as he tried to control his breath; the Marquis wasn't the most athletic man in the world. However, he was in decent shape; it was unfortunate or perhaps fortunate that he had 3 women to please in bed, and that always left him exhausted and sweaty, just as he was right now.
It also didn't help that one of them was a Beastwomen with an insatiable sexual appetite.
"Alright, report"
"M'lord, Prince Nathaniel is not a C-rank"
Marquis Augustine's interest was quickly captured by those words; he immediately leaned forward and positioned himself properly as he asked what his subordinate meant, to which June explained what he had witnessed.
"I see, so his guild card displays a false rank?"
"Most likely, it's possible when he was signing up he didn't get an observer to properly assess his rank, or his guild card is fake"
June informed and the Marquis hummed in contemplation. If the prince is stronger than initially thought, then he may be a boon to have around, at least until after the sword tournament.
"How strong do you think he is?"
"I'd say around BBB, and maybe close to A rank; the assassins were masking their aura with Black crystals; anyone not close to A-rank would be unable to detect them, but he did."
The marquis once again hummed; black crystals are supposed to mask your aura, making it impossible to detect you; the only person he knew was capable of detecting anyone regardless if they had a black crystal was the princess.
"Interesting, observe how the Count will move after this if anyone higher than triple B-rank is sent observe him and see if he's stronger than your current assessment, but regardless if he's as strong as you say, he might prove useful during the sword tournament so save him when you believe he needs to be saved"
The Marquis explained that, for the most part, the Dreyer Kingdom had more participants than the Hendrix Kingdom; if Nathaniel proves to be strong, then having him fight for the Hendrix Kingdom may even increase the playing field a bit.
"Yes M'lord, should I have my men contact his majesty and inform him?"
The Marquis nodded to June's questions, and the man quickly disappeared, leaving the Marquis alone, but he wasn't alone for long as after 2 minutes, he suddenly felt arms drape over his shoulders.
"Leone, come on! Let me rest"
He said to his insatiable Beastwomen wife it wasn't even the mating season for her, yet she was constantly horny.
"No"
She refused, and he could only sigh in defeat; it's not like more sex was a bad thing; at least, that's what he tried to convince himself as she began to kiss his neck.
....
The next day, early in the morning, Reniris was once again separated from Eon; she still felt a bit anxious; however, she felt it was for the better. What happened last night has caused their interactions to be a bit awkward at the moment.
The female devil turned the page; she was unable to find the library yesterday as she got most of the information she needed; however, there were still a few things she was curious about, so she sought Maria, who then guided her to the library and now Reniris was absorbed in a book about monsters.
"So there are different kinds of monsters"
She whispered to herself as she read the book, which was practically a monster encyclopaedia.
As she read, she found out a few interesting things about monsters.
The book she was reading stated that in this world there were about two types of monsters, the first being magical monsters and the other being natural monsters.
Magical monsters did not refer to monsters that could use magic but rather, monsters that were made from mana, mana-made monsters( MMM), similar to goblins.
These are the monsters whose body disappears after a few days as the mana dissipates back into the atmosphere.
Despite these monsters being magical in nature, they still were capable of reproduction with other creatures.
"Hmm"
Reniris hummed as she found the topic interesting, and questions began forming in her head; her curiosity peaked, so she continued to read.
Magical monsters can reproduce with each other and other creatures, such as humans or animals; however, while magical monsters can reproduce amongst themselves, the resulting offspring still disappears once it's dead.
Should a magical monster manage to reproduce with another creature that is not mana-made then once the offspring of that union dies, it will decompose naturally and leave behind a skeleton.
"Oh so natural monsters are the offspring of mana-made monsters and a biological animal"
She concluded as she turned the page and found more information on natural monsters, she read further.
While it is true that natural monsters can be the result of man-made monsters and biological animals, it is also true that mana can influence the biology of a creature in a variety of ways.
For instance, a snake living in a mana-dense zone will experience gradual changes to its biology, and depending on the type of prey it hunts, scarcity of resources and predators that hunt it, the snake will develop advantages and defences that will help it survive
Of course, this isn't always the case; a snake being giant may not be because it needed bigger prey to eat; it could simply be because its body absorbed too much mana, causing it to grow bigger.
"Well, that last part is a bit ridiculous, but I suppose magic doesn't need to make sense. But still…"
She said while leaning back on her chair, and decided to take a look around the library, looking at the walls and seeing the glowing runic writings on the walls.
"Must be how they maintain the cool atmosphere in here"
She said she also figured the runes could be reversed and made to keep the entire interior of the library warm in the winter while also making sure it doesn't get too hot that the books become wet.
'It seems they're using runic magic a lot more freely now'
She thought before she returned to reading her book, her mind not even questioning how she knew about runic magic nor about what she meant by 'runic magic can be used more freely now'
Reniris continued to read the book, learning more and more about monsters, and looking forward to telling him about what she's learned.