"Hopefully Kei awakens an extraordinary magic. I myself used a Grimoire, and obtained my unique magic, Aithra Athanatos."
"The type of magic developed by a user has nothing to do with magic affinity or magic statistics. Magic obtained from Grimoire depends on the user's beliefs, desires, personality, and fighting style."
"Well, considering Kei's life experience surviving in an apocalyptic world for a year before meeting me... I don't believe the magic she awakens will be as simple as just Fire Bolt."
In front of Twilight Manor, Charlie stared at an ancient book emanating a magical aura in his hand, which was none other than a Grimoire!
This was the main reason he came to see Riveria at Twilight Manor.
Grimoire was a magic item that allowed anyone to instantly obtain magic just by reading it, but it could only be used once before losing its power.
Its price reached at least 100 million valis. However, Grimoire wasn't something that could be obtained just with money. Its rarity came from its very difficult creation process.
The creator must have the Development Abilities Mystery and Mage, as well as be at least Level 3. In Orario, where the majority of adventurers were stuck at Level 1, individuals with such qualifications were very rare. The Mystery ability was even only possessed by six people in the entire city, including Charlie himself.
However, although Riveria Ljos Alf couldn't make it herself, her position as a Loki Familia executive and the strongest mage titled Nine Hell guaranteed her private collection had several unused Grimoires.
Through Ais's help, Charlie successfully negotiated with Riveria and secured one Grimoire for Kei.
"With this, the total amount of money I spent as initial investment for Kei reaches around 350 million valis." Charlie calculated in his heart. He smiled thinly imagining the comparison. "That's far more luxurious treatment than this world's protagonist, who was only given the Hestia Knife worth 200 million valis—and that was bought in debt form by the poor Hestia."
In many ways, Charlie felt Kei got a far more promising start than Bell Cranel.
"Kei is my woman, it's only natural I want the best for her." He whispered in a very low voice.
He was careful that his words weren't heard by anyone, especially since Ais didn't yet know that he was having affairs with several other girls.
His purpose had been achieved. Without wasting more time in front of Loki Familia's headquarters, Charlie immediately turned around and walked away from Twilight Manor, quickening his steps back toward Empyrean Citadel to give the Grimoire to Kei.
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In a neatly arranged room at Twilight Manor, Riveria and Ais stood side by side in front of a large window.
Their eyes were directed at the same point: Charlie's figure slowly shrinking in the distance until disappearing, swallowed by the bustle of Orario's streets.
"Charlie has bought a Grimoire from me before. He should know very well that Grimoire can only be used once for one individual. Most likely, this time he's using it for someone else." Riveria muttered with slightly furrowed brows, trying to analyze their brief meeting a few moments ago.
She paused for a moment, thinking of various possibilities.
"Could he have bought it for a new member of his Familia? Has Hera-sama accepted a new member and ordered Charlie to take care of them? Do you know anything, Ais?"
For Riveria, the reemergence of Hera Familia was not reassuring news.
She worried that Hera Familia's rise would shake the hegemony that had been held by Loki Familia all this time.
After all, when Zeus and Hera Familia were at their weakest period, it was Loki Familia and Freya Familia who took over Orario's stage and exiled them from Orario. If Hera Familia returned to its glory days, major conflict would be inevitable.
"I don't know. Charlie didn't say anything about who the Grimoire was for." Ais answered while shaking her head slowly.
Her expression remained flat and hard to read, even by Riveria who had raised her since childhood.
"Haaah... Maybe I'm just overthinking." Riveria sighed trying to calm herself. "Even if Hera-sama accepts new members, sending them to Orario now seems futile. Without the presence of a Main God to update Status, an adventurer's power will stagnate. Charlie is a special case, probably the only one in history who can update his own status without a Main God's help."
Thinking about that made Riveria feel more relieved. She didn't believe there would be a second person who had a miracle similar to Charlie's.
"Yes, Charlie is different. He is indeed special." Ais answered in a softer tone, agreeing with the statement of the woman she already considered like her own mother. "In that case, I want to return to my room. See you later, Riveria."
Ais said goodbye and turned toward the room door. However, when the blonde girl stepped away, Riveria's gaze caught something unusual on the floor where Ais had previously stood.
"Hm? What is that?"
Riveria noticed a white fluid stain left on the floor. Driven by curiosity, she crouched down and touched the fluid with her fingertip.
"This is sticky... and smells fishy." she muttered softly. "Bird droppings? No, the texture doesn't look like that."
Although Riveria had lived for 99 years as one of Orario's most influential adventurers, her knowledge about matters of sexuality was actually very minimal.
The very conservative and closed Elf culture often made them have naive understanding about reproduction; even some of her kind still believed that kissing could cause pregnancy.
Although Riveria was far more knowledgeable than Elves who settled in the forest, this was the first time she directly faced a man's biological traces in real form, though she might have read about it briefly in literature.
Without suspecting in the slightest that it was semen that had just seeped out from behind Ais's dress, Riveria innocently played with the fluid between her fingers and brought it close to her nose to sniff its distinctive aroma.
"This is strange, why does my body feel hot just from smelling the aroma of this unknown substance? Could this be some kind of poison?" Riveria said with slightly heavier breathing. "But that's too careless. Placing poison on the floor is a very illogical action."
Riveria stood up, trying to calm her heartbeat that suddenly raced faster.
Twilight Manor was Loki Familia's safest headquarters in Orario, she didn't believe there was an intruder so idle as to place dangerous substances in a location that was completely unstrategic and easily noticed like this.
"There's no use thinking about it too deeply. This must not be something dangerous. Maybe I'm just too tired from continuously teaching Lefiya magic lately." she thought trying to find logical justification.
However, her body couldn't lie. Instead of subsiding, her body temperature actually increased, creating a strange hot sensation spreading from her chest to her lower abdomen. There was an itching and strange throbbing in her groin that made her legs feel slightly weak.
Because she felt very uncomfortable with her suddenly unstable physical condition, Riveria decided to immediately take a cold shower to cool her head before resting.
The grand mage who was the pride of the Elf race had no idea at all that the biological phenomenon she was experiencing was what was called being in heat.
For almost a century her feminine instincts had slept soundly, not once touched or awakened by a man's presence. The natural response Riveria felt right now was just a pure reaction from her body responding to the essence of life she had just touched—the very strong seed of a man from an High Class Adventurer.