VOL 2 Chapter 76: A very dangerous gamble.

After sitting down at the table, Erik began to eat with a voracious appetite, devouring everything on the table at great speed, which slightly angered the wolves, who were still in their puppy forms. They started slapping Erik's legs, demanding food, since he hadn't shared a single bite with them since he started eating, leaving them to only eat from their own plates—a total lack of consideration.

Feeling the pressure on his legs, Erik turned to look at the wolves, who were sitting on the floor, wagging their tails enthusiastically and barking cutely at him. They had plates with small mountains of half-eaten meat beside them, which inevitably made him smile in amusement. Accepting defeat in silence, he began to share his food with them as he ate.

"Thank you for breakfast, Seraphina, as always, it was delicious."

When Erik finished eating, he thanked Seraphina as usual and stretched with a satisfied expression on his face. At that moment, he felt the presence of his masters approaching from behind, prompting him to turn and look at them with a calm expression, greeting them with a smile, though internally, he prepared himself for what was to come.

"Good morning, masters."

"Good morning, Erik, how did you wake up today?"

Eleonora greeted him with a smile as she sat down across from Erik, followed closely by Sigrún, who sat down without saying a word and with her gaze lowered, almost as if ignoring Erik. He inevitably took this as a bad sign and quickly began to strategize his next actions if the worst outcome became a reality, though his expression didn't change in the slightest, maintaining a small smile as he casually responded.

"I didn't actually wake up, I didn't even sleep, hehe"

"That's not good. You're still very young, and at your level of power, lack of sleep can have long-term consequences."

With a hint of concern in her voice, Eleonora commented while looking at Erik's slightly red eyes. Meanwhile, Seraphina cleared the table with whips of darkness and then walked toward the interior of the ship, intending to give the trio of masters and disciple some privacy—a thought that Ignis and Ebonique shared, as they quickly disappeared in flashes of blue flames and black lightning.

"I know, it's just that I got too excited developing a spell and lost track of time."

With a slightly guilty expression, Erik responded while studying Eleonora's face. At that moment, Sigrún, who had kept her head down since the beginning, suddenly looked up, revealing a sad but determined expression, and began to speak with genuine remorse in her tone.

"I'm sorry, Erik. I know it was all my fault. I was the one who made decisions about your things and treated you as if you didn't matter. I didn't even stop to think for a moment about your opinions… I'm truly sorry, but I swear that will change. I'll never do something like that again."

"I also want to apologize to you, Erik. I really overstepped at that moment, and the worst part is that I didn't even realize it until you mentioned it. I feel terrible for having done that, and I hope you can forgive us so we can start a new chapter where we communicate more directly to avoid something like this happening again in the future. We'll do our best to improve." Eleonora quickly added in a serious and sincere tone, looking directly into the eyes of her beloved disciple.

For his part, Erik couldn't help but widen his eyes, filled with surprise at the sincere apologies from his masters. He truly hadn't expected this—in fact, something like this hadn't even been among the possible scenarios he had considered as outcomes of his 'precedent'. It inevitably left his mind blank for a moment.

In his mind, what would happen with the whole 'punishment' for not respecting him had oscillated mainly between two possible scenarios. The first was that his masters would act as if nothing had happened, bury the topic, and try not to do something similar in the future. Or, on the contrary, they would get angry at his audacious act of wanting to 'punish' and set conditions for those who had essentially given him everything he had, with the worst possible scenario being that they would take away everything they had given him and send him back to his home planet for being ungrateful.

Basically, from the beginning, Erik had done everything with the intention of playing a very dangerous gamble, but one that was necessary in his perception. He had no intention of letting his masters control his life, and even worse, his mark—the most valuable thing in his life. So he had to take the risk. After all, for him, it was preferable to be thrown out, have to flee from the Arcane Order, and start over somewhere else than to let someone else make decisions for him.

But the fact that they apologized was something that had never crossed his mind. After all, although he wouldn't dare to call himself an expert on women in his past life, he had interacted with a fair number of them in different ways, and one thing he had learned from those experiences was that the concept of apologizing wasn't something they were particularly good at, to put it mildly—especially when they had a close relationship.

Though it was also possible that he had simply been unlucky and always ended up encountering women who never accepted their mistakes and who, more often than not, twisted things to make him seem like the bad guy and the only one at fault. To the point where they would demand apologies from him, even when they were the ones in the wrong. In reality, there may be women capable of accepting their mistakes head-on, without making excuses.

But throughout his past life, he had met many people with similar complaints, so at the very least, he could determine that it was a relatively common issue and an opinion shared by many. Therefore, the idea that two women who practically lived at the top of the galactic food chain would apologize was not only unexpected but downright surreal in his mind.

"Why do you look so surprised, Erik?"

Eleonora asked with a small, loving smile as she looked at her disciple's adorable, stunned expression. Meanwhile, Sigrún, for her part, was still too depressed to join in the fun and simply watched him in silence with a look of anguish on her beautiful face.

"No… it's just that I never expected this situation…"

His master's call helped Erik recover enough to comment, though he was still a bit off-balance. He quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts and then added with seriousness, feeling deeply moved inside by the simple yet significant gesture of his masters.

"But, getting back to the topic, I'm really glad that you take my nonsense so seriously, and I truly appreciate it. It really means a lot to me."

"So, do you forgive us?"

Upon hearing her beloved disciple's words, Sigrún asked while looking at him with hope, which inevitably caused a warm smile to form on the face of the starry-haired boy. He responded sincerely as he stood up with his arms open in a gesture of embrace.

"Of course I do. How could I not?"

Without saying a word, Sigrún jumped from her seat, hugged Erik tightly, and began to spin around, lifting her beloved disciple from his chair in one swift motion, causing him to spin uncontrollably in her arms. This put a somewhat strange expression on the face of the starry-haired young man. After spinning for a while, Sigrún calmed down a bit and stopped, then commented in a voice full of tenderness.

"Thank you, Erik. I swear I'll never do something like that again, so please don't call yourself shameless or a freeloader or things like that. I don't like it when you talk about yourself that way. I've told you a million times that what's mine is yours, and that's not going to change. I mean it from the bottom of my heart."

"I can't promise anything…"

Erik muttered in a low voice while turning his gaze away to avoid looking at Sigrún, who wore an incredibly happy smile on her face. But his movements were quickly halted completely when he felt a warm and soft sensation on his back—the unmistakable feeling of Eleonora's body pressing gently against his in a hug. At that moment, the beautiful golden-eyed woman gave him a loving kiss on the cheek and then asked in a soft, sweet voice.

"Am I forgiven too?"

"Of course…" 

Erik responded in a calm tone, being hugged from the front by Sigrún and from behind by Eleonora, which inevitably filled him with a comforting warmth. At that moment, Eleonora whispered affectionately in his ear.

"Fufufu, that's good…"

The group of three remained in a silent embrace on the upper deck of the ship, which was near the closest moon to Aranta, in stealth mode, making it invisible and undetectable to anyone below the legendary level. After a while, Sigrún spoke in a serious tone, looking directly into Erik's eyes.

"I almost forgot… Erik, neither Eli nor I think this is nonsense. In fact, it's something very serious that we had overlooked, and we're aware of our mistake. But from now on, I promise we'll improve. We'll do our best to let go of that authoritarian mindset with you. We're a team, and we should act like one."

"I couldn't have said it better. Also, from now on, it would be good if you told us directly about things that bother you. We're far from perfect, and we've lived a long time doing things our way, so we still have a lot to polish for the future. But I'm sure that together, we can do it." Eleonora added in a serious tone while tightening her embrace around Erik, who quickly responded with a warm smile.

"I'm really too lucky to have you in my life. You're more than I could ever wish for, and I'll also do my best to improve."

Erik's words brought a flood of emotions to the hearts of Eleonora and Sigrún, who could only hug their beloved disciple even tighter, trying to contain the overwhelming love that surged from within them. It filled them with an urgent need to take their relationship further, but knowing that now wasn't the time, they had to hold back for now. So they simply remained silent for a while longer, feeling the warmth of their beloved disciple, which calmed their agitated hearts.

…

"Well, since we're on vacation, we still have to have fun, right?" After a while, having managed to adjust their emotions, Sigrún commented with a cheerful smile as she looked at her disciple with sparkling eyes.

"That sounds like a good plan. What should we do?"

Erik asked with a small smile on his face while holding the slender waist of his beautiful golden-haired master in his embrace, feeling quite happy that things had turned out even better than he had expected. Eleonora responded without letting go of her embrace around his waist.

"How does a day at the beach sound?"

"Sounds good." Erik nodded in agreement, to which Sigrún enthusiastically added.

"Then it's decided! Let's go try on our swimsuits!"

"And we can't forget Seraphina." 

Eleonora commented with a small smile as she turned to look at Seraphina, who was standing at the entrance to the interior of the cruiser with a serious expression, giving them the necessary space to resolve their issues.

"That's right, Sera, get your swimsuit ready. We're going to the beach!"

Sigrún exclaimed loudly toward Seraphina, who nodded in a calm and professional manner. But the way she seductively bit her delicate cherry-colored lips after licking them with her small tongue while looking at her young master completely shattered her image of the perfect maid.

***

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