It was now the twenty-fifth of Decina. Since then, Xiao had not made mention, even once, of what had occurred in Paradiso. he simply decided to act like it never even happened, continuing his training and looking forward to the next big event that was supposed to happen to him.

Shu kept on performing odd jobs for Edrick, which included serving as a sparring partner nearly every day. But it was also for his own good. A little bit of experience in fighting could not hurt, and it was safe to say that the inner disciple was making some good progress with his cultivation technique. Every day, Anoteros would make sure to hammer in the point that it was by improving in this way that he would eventually have a chance with Yin.

The little merchant was eating it up without question, unaware that nearly every day, for several hours, Edrick would be spending time with the blonde tomboy in the woods. Not just because he was helping her find some sasquatches to fight, but to also subtly attempt seducing her.

Yin was certainly not unfazed by Edrick’s manly charms and natural strength, but that girl was just too good at maintaining a stoic expression, which fit with her fighting style. After observing her in action plenty of times and discussing, he had managed to discover two of the three techniques she cultivated. The third one was harder to guess and seemed to be something she was less willing to speak of.

In any case, she was quite the competent fighter. They sparred together a few times, and Edrick was simply unable to get past her absurdly high defences- Be it physically or emotionally. She was fully capable of resisting Anoteros, which only made the chase more exciting for the noble scion…

Though it seemed like they were undeniably growing closer, he even managed to get her to come to his residence a few times. Though he did so by having Hui invite her. Before, Yin wouldn’t have wanted to go there at all, but after becoming more familiar with her friend’s husband, she felt that it would not be so bad.

Naturally, Edrick made sure that the aspects of his household that might put off guests were not displayed during these visits. Such as making absolutely certain that Yin did not run into the little sasquatch or Muxing. The mother-son duo was always together, and like pretty much all mothers in existence capable of speech, Muxing would always inevitably end up speaking of her son, going on and on about how smart and cute he was… She was very enthusiastic about it. So much so that Anoteros was not willing to trust her not to reveal that her son was a sasquatch, or as she had decided to call him- That Deormann was a beast and not a human child.

As well as making sure that she did not run into Lisha or Yifei. Although thoroughly transformed, someone who knew them well enough might still recognise them.

But his household was fully under his control, so everyone worked harmoniously as per his orders without deviation. In any case, he was currently sitting on a branch in the woods, overlooking as Yin was letting two skunk sasquatches barrage her with attacks. The beasts were doing their best to abide by their lord’s orders and keep fighting despite knowing full well that the correct course of action would be to retreat…

Anoteros had been mulling over the quests he had left in this area, including some which had only been recently added, and it had to do with the dinner invitation he had yet to make use of with the city lord.

Edrick could afford not to go immediately, since the one who really wanted to meet the other party was the lord. After all, that was a perfect occasion to try and create a direct connection to the Elt clan, so naturally, the lord was not going to say anything about Anoteros not saying a thing about the invitation.

The system, however, had cooked up a few quests that strongly hinged on what Edrick would do during his time inside the city lord’s mansion.

In fact, three quests had to do with the city lord…

Sneak into the mansion of Oie's City Lord and commit adultery with his wife

Sneak into the mansion of Oie's City Lord and deflower his eldest daughter

Sneak into the mansion of Oie's City Lord and deflower his youngest daughter

They were rather straightforward, but far from simple to accomplish. First of all, sneaking into the mansion implied rather strongly that Anoteros needed to get inside without the approval of the lord, which, even with his impressive stealth skills, was hardly feasible without an ample amount of luck.

Although Edrick possessed ample status, if it were found out that he had gotten into such sort of relationships with any of those three, he would definitely get in trouble.

As long as he only used his charms, he could probably get away with deflowering either of his daughters. Which might even please the lord, as that would give him leverage to make a marriage happen. But he definitely could not get away with touching his wife. That would land Edrick in hot water if it were discovered.

Galdon Oie was a high noble. One needed to be greatly trusted by the crown to be in charge of a satellite city of the capital. Neither too close to be heavily monitored, but also not too far to be out of reach… The Oie family basically benefited from the protection of the crown, but without having to be too deeply involved in the affairs of the court.

And as the name implied, the family had been in charge since the conception of Oie itself, so they wielded authority within the kingdom, and could most certainly ask for favours from the crown.

‘The rewards are probably incredible though…’ he rubbed his chin, not even needing to inquire with the system to know that completing all three quests would certainly result in even greater rewards.

Edrick would really need to put on his best performance at that dinner when he chose to go...

Since going for the hard route was a terrible idea. He would need to exert the full limits of his charisma to get three women interested in him, including a married one.

“By the way, Edrick, have you ever heard any legends about this forest?” Yin’s voice rang out from below. The two skunk sasquatches had been turned into headless corpses already, seemingly in a single motion.

‘Oh… She was waiting for them to line up? Nice…’

“I have not” he replied.

“It is said that an old beast is roaming these woods. No one has ever actually seen it, but it is based on an old story- This area used to be at war, and one of the attackers was a beast master who had tamed an exotic creature from far away. During the war, the tamer was killed, and the creature he controlled decided to flee into the forest rather than continue fighting” explained Yin with a wry smile.

“Is that so?”

“Indeed! Would you mind accompanying me to search caves and other unexplored areas?”

“Sure, when?”

“Thirty-first of Decina, starting early in the morning!”

Edrick just nodded at her.

The thirty-first of Decina was actually the date of his birthday, so coupled with her rather crisp attitude about it, he swiftly figured out what the real point of this venture was…