Brazen

With a member of the Royal Family dying before things could get fully underway, none of the guests were surprised when Paul's 10th birthday celebration was promptly canceled. However, due to the suddenness of the Duke's death, they were forced to stay within the Estate as the entire place was put on lockdown.

While it was apparent to most that the Duke had 'died of passion,' the colloquial term for a heart attack, Amarant could be tried for treason if he didn't at least consider poison was involved. To this end, the Duke's body was preserved using a special Water Magic while everyone present during the party awaited the arrival of the Royal Family's Coroner.

Fortunately, while the staff of most Estates would have struggled to host 147 Nobles and their retinues for weeks on end, the Notos Estate had no problems whatsoever. There were plenty of guest rooms, and, due to the large number of highly trained staff, meal preparation and waste disposal were a relatively straightforward affair.

The most significant issues with having so many Nobles staying within the Estate were, unsurprisingly, assholes thinking they could freely harass the staff and scheduling time for everyone to take a bath. Amarant settled the first issue by threatening to place people under house arrest for behaving in a shady and disreputable manner during an investigation, but that didn't stop the children of some of the higher-ranking Nobles from trying.

Since Paul was the next Lord of the Milbots Region, the Heirs and young daughters of the other three Greyrat Houses had been in attendance for his coming of age ceremony. From House Boreas, the only family Paul was familiar with from the original series, there was the fifteen-year-old James and his younger brother, the nine-year-old Philip.

While Paul knew nothing about James other than the fact he would one day defeat Philip in a succession dispute, the latter was famous for being the father of Eris, one of the main heroines from the original series.

Since Amarant had ultimately refused House Redcow's offer to wed their daughter to Paul, Hilda, who was also present during the coming of age celebration, had been betrothed to Philip. Unless something happened to either of the two in the interim, their marriage all but guaranteed that Eris would be born.

Though Paul got along reasonably well with Philip, the same could not be said of his asshole of an older brother. Since James was the most senior of the Heirs present, he tried to act like he was in charge when everyone was forced to gather and socialize. Paul tried to teach him some manners by trouncing him in a sparring match, but that only served to make James even more insufferable.

Fortunately, while James incessantly complained about everything and tried to nitpick the behavior of the other Heirs, it only took threatening to break his arms to deter him from trying to harass any of the girls. Before that, the dumbass had tried to pressure Paul into 'handing over' Diona and Minne on the grounds that 'House Boreas was known for its fondness of the Beast Race.' In the end, the only thing Paul handed the arrogant youth was an ass-whooping that caused him to spend much of the remainder of his stay holed up inside his room.

With his match against James being witnessed by several Nobles, no one was surprised to find Paul getting slapped around by a voluptuous woman with short black hair the following day. What did amaze them was the fact that the first training session between the woman and Paul continued well into the next day before the youthful Heir of House Notos collapsed into a snowbank with steam rising from his body...

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"How long are you going to keep pretending to sleep? Your injuries have been healed, and we have already used smelling salts. Don't tell me you intend to play possum until I leave...?"

Hearing the voice of a husky-toned woman, Paul suppressed a groan as he opened his eyes and looked to the side of his bed. There, a somewhat petite yet heroic-looking woman with short black hair, cerulean eyes, and a massive chest could be seen staring back at him with an amused smile on her face.

"You did well to hold out as long as you did. Most swordsmen your age wouldn't be able to fight for more than an hour or two without exhausting themselves. It would appear the rumors concerning the 'stamina' of the Greyrat Houses were not exaggerated..."

Noticing the extra emphasis the woman placed had on the word stamina, an amused smile developed across Paul's face as he muttered, "You have no idea..."

Adopting a smile of her own, the raven-haired beauty remarked, "Cheeky little rogue." before crossing her arms in a way that emphasized her nearly G-Cup breasts as she stated, "I've thought about your proposition. If you really can help me increase my strength, I wouldn't mind accompanying you to the Sword Sanctum. Just know that I'll eventually need to report to the King, so be careful what you choose to reveal."

Though she had seen that Paul's potential was beginning to plateau, the raven-haired beauty, better known as Water God Reida Reia, felt that he would eventually be able to overcome his bottleneck. His techniques were sloppy, at least in her eyes, but there was a palpable conviction lurking in the depths of Paul's. He was also brazen enough to try and barter with a literal God-Level Swordsman, so Reida had a fairly positive impression of the young Greyrat. If his claims proved true, she might even express her 'gratitude' in an effort to set him up with one of her daughters.

Having already discussed the matter with Ningguang, Zhongli, Kusanali, and Ei, Paul pulled out his Electro Vision and explained, "This is a magical tool known as a Vision. This particular variant allows the user to enhance their speed and reaction time using a form of purple lightning. For a user of the Water God Style, there is no magical tool more useful than this..."

Furrowing her brows, Reida asked, "Your method of getting stronger is to rely on magical tools and artifacts? I honestly expected more from you..."

Rolling his eyes, Paul proferred the Vision toward Reida, explaining, "This is no ordinary magical tool. It doesn't require or consume Mana, so it can even be used in areas where Magic is negated. More importantly, each of the Visions allows the user to manifest a weapon perfectly suited to them. As durable as your sword is, I can assure you that the weapon manifested by your Vision will be even more remarkable..."

Though she maintained a skeptical and disappointed expression on her face, Reida accepted the Vision from Paul. She would be lying if she said she wasn't at least a little curious. More importantly, if the gem-like orb functioned as Paul claimed, it could become a very powerful weapon for the Kingdom.

"How do...?"

Before she could ask Paul how the Vision was used, Reida felt a surge of energy flow into her body. Under normal circumstances, she might have tossed it away, but, feeling no discomfort and sensing no hostility from Paul, she continued holding it until the energy had stabilized. When it did, she could tell that her senses had become much, much sharper.

"You weren't exaggerating..."

Flexing her free hand open and closed, Reida felt as those her joints were looser than normal. She could also feel the aches and pain that came with age and overtraining fading away, almost as if she had become ten years younger.

What Paul hadn't told Reida was that Visions could dramatically extend a person's lifespan so long as their ambition remained. Back in the world of Teyvat, even previously ordinary humans could live more than 500 years if their determination was strong enough. The caveat was that the moment their ambition faded, their Vision would become inert, and their life would come to an end.

Holding out her right hand, a pleasantly surprised smile developed across Reida's face as a predominately blue and white longsword with a curved, wing-shaped guard manifested in her hand. There was a motif of a black crow on the pommel, but the two things that stood out to Reida were how comfortably it fits in her hand and how unreasonably light it was. It had a length comparable to her current sword but felt completely weightless in her hand.

Swinging the sword much faster than even Paul's enhanced kinetic vision could keep up with, Reida's smile became even wider as she said, "Okay, I take back my previous comment. This Vision thing is awesome."

Nodding his head in agreement, Paul was about to say something when Reida spontaneously pointed the tip of her sword between his eyebrows and asked, "What's the catch? There's no way a power such as this comes freely."

Though he felt a cold sweat break out across his body, Paul managed to appear relatively calm as he explained, "The catch is that Visions can only be used by people with great ambition. They are also remarkably difficult to make, so much so that I've only been able to produce three within the last five years."

Sensing no overt falsehoods within Paul's explanation, Reida retracted her sword from his face, saying, "Sorry about that. To make it up to you, I'll let you have your way with me once you regain your vitality. If we're going to be traveling together for the next year or two, I'll be relying on you to help relieve my stress."

Smiling wryly in response to Reida's rather brazen words, Paul couldn't help asking, "Just out of curiosity...how many guys have you slept with?"

Raising her brows, Reida countered, "What kind of question is that? You make it sound like I'm some common whore who opens her legs for just any man. Talk about impertinence..."

Despite the severity of her words, Reida didn't seem too upset by Paul's question. In fact, she was actively trying to recall exactly how many men she had slept with. The number wasn't high compared to the more prolific female Nobles, but it wasn't exactly small either. She was, after all, in her early forties. Most people just assumed she was much younger due to her remarkable figure and exceptional beauty.

"Hmmm...I can't remember the exact number, but I'd guess between fifty and a hundred? I calmed down a bit once I became Water God and gave birth to my third daughter, but I used to be pretty free-spirited back in my youth. Not that I'm old, mind you..."

Closing her left eye, a teasing smile developed across Reida's face as she asked, "I wonder how many young girls the Young Master has placed his hands on? I noticed quite a few giving me stink eyes when I carried you back like a sack of potatoes."

Though he shouldn't have been surprised by Reida's words, Paul found himself at a momentary loss for words. He knew powerful women could be just as uninhibited as men, but it was still a little jarring to hear such a beautiful woman mention being plowed by upwards of a hundred men. It didn't diminish Reida's beauty, but it certainly changed how Paul viewed her...

Attributing Paul's reaction to the possessiveness demonstrated by many young members of the Nobility, Reida attempted to alleviate his concerns by stating, "Don't worry. So long as I'm accompanying you, you don't have to worry about me running off or staying overnight in some tavern. I might feel inclined to cut loose every so often, but I take my duties seriously."

"Right..."

Shaking the thoughts of Reida's sexcapades from his mind, Paul reminded himself he didn't actually need to fuck her. He probably would just for the ego boost that would arise from 'conquering' the Water God in bed, but it wasn't like she would become one of his love interests. They walked two very different paths, so the most likely scenario is that they would fuck a few times before parting ways and never mentioning it. Sex didn't have to end in a relationship. In fact, during his college years, Paul couldn't even remember the number of times he had one-night stands.

Sometimes, people just wanted to fuck...

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