"..."
Rose stood with her hands behind her back, leaning forward slightly, chin tilted up, her smiling eyes locked on Leon's from mere centimeters away.
"?"
He held her gaze. Slowly, a playful edge crept into his expression, the corner of his mouth lifting as he reached out and caught her chin between his fingers.
"Rose, you sure you want to play this game with me?"
"Oh..."
The instant his fingers touched her chin, Rose flinched back two steps like she'd been shocked, her cheeks flushing scarlet.
"Hmph. I just wanted to see what kind of person you really are."
Watching her flustered, bashful retreat, Leon grinned. "So? Did you figure it out?"
"Not at all! You're exactly the same as every other man!"
She puffed her cheeks, rolled her eyes, and delivered her verdict without hesitation.
"Bingo! Correct answer. Though you did get one thing wrong."
Leon's gaze swept over Rose from head to toe with undisguised intent, and the sheer boldness of it made her skin prickle.
"That's right, Rose. This guy Leon is a certified heartbreaker. Be careful around him, and don't go falling into his traps."
Jeanne's voice drifted in from the doorway. She was leaning against the frame, arms crossed, head cocked, wearing a teasing smile.
Her sudden appearance startled both of them, especially given the charged atmosphere.
"Heartbreaker???"
Rose latched onto Jeanne like she'd found backup, darting over and hugging her arm. The two of them turned matching stares on Leon.
"Heartbreaker?! That's bullshit and you know it!"
He didn't miss a beat. Chest out, voice full of righteous indignation.
"Okay, fine, maybe I've been a little close with a few ladies. But when have I not taken responsibility?! I paid them well every time, didn't I?!"
Laurier lost it. She'd been sneaking glances the whole time, and that was the line that broke her. She doubled over laughing, clutching her stomach, rolling around on the carpet.
Even Aura's composure cracked. Her shoulders shook, her face twisted into something that was trying very hard not to be a smile. One more second and her whole ice-queen act would've been done.
"Shameless..."
Jeanne grabbed Rose and walked away without another word.
Leon puffed out his chest with pride.
You couldn't get by in this world without a thick skin.
Still, the thought that the women in his household were edging dangerously close to forming an Anti-Leon Coalition gave him a mild headache.
Whatever. There are still the elves to win over. I'll let Jeanne and Rose be for now. They're already in the net. Where are they going to go?
The moment that thought landed, his confidence returned in full.
...
The living room.
Leon took a leisurely sip of the black tea Jeanne had brewed, sank into the sofa, and pulled out the notebook he carried everywhere.
His grasp of Fireball, he had to admit, was still shallow. He'd burned through far too much Mind in actual combat.
In a duel, that kind of reckless spending was fine. PvP was all about burst damage in a short window.
But Dungeon exploration was the opposite. That job demanded precision in how he channeled his Magic and controlled his Mind, squeezing out every drop of efficiency to maximize his endurance and margin for error.
He flicked a finger and opened his Falna panel, skipping past Basic Abilities and Development Abilities to lock onto his skill slots.
Demon Lord's Crest gave him a hundredfold Mind amplification, but that came with a side effect: a pool that massive was brutally hard to control with any finesse.
Scholar's Heart and its refinement effect patched part of that gap, at least enough that charging a spell wouldn't cause a magical blowout.
But the root cause was simple: his level was too low, his abilities too underdeveloped. Once he leveled up, the problem would solve itself.
For now, though, he didn't have a real fix.
The silver lining was that it hadn't caused major issues yet. His current spell was fire-element, volatile by nature, and usually didn't require delicate manipulation.
Long-term, though, he'd need to shore up that weakness.
Arcane Ward posed a similar challenge. Because of its drain-on-contact effect, he had to keep his Mind below maximum capacity at all times. Only then could he make full use of the incoming energy without letting any go to waste.
Fortunately, he already had a plan: if he could unlock a sustained defensive spell that passively consumed Mind, the whole problem disappeared.
"Man, being too powerful has its own downsides. What a nice problem to have." Leon let the humble-brag float across the room. Aura, in particular, nearly broke composure again.
"Ignore him, Aura," Jeanne said, utterly unfazed. She'd long since developed immunity.
By now, with Rose's permission, the three women had gathered around her to look over her Falna.
"Wh-wh-wh-wh-WHAT?! What kind of ridiculous Falna is this?! Two... two... two spells AND four skills?! Rose, that's insane!!!"
The instant Laurier's eyes hit the parchment, she sputtered out the words in a voice that kept climbing octaves. Her eyes went perfectly round, jaw hanging open, brain visibly short-circuiting as she stared at Rose's calm smile.
Even Aura, fighting so hard to maintain her elegant elven composure, had her mask of indifference crack wide open, a storm of shock raging behind it.
Compared to the two younger elves, Jeanne took it in stride. A flicker of surprise crossed her face before settling into a warm smile. "It seems our Familia will be gaining a very reliable vanguard. Congratulations, Miss Rose."
"Thank you," Rose said, tilting her head with genuine confusion. "But... is my Falna really that unusual? Laurier, why are you making that face? Spells and skills come with a Falna, don't they? Everyone who has one should have those, right?"
Laurier opened her mouth. Nothing came out. She stared wide-eyed at Rose's innocent bewilderment, unable to tell if the woman was sincerely clueless or pulling the most deadpan flex she'd ever witnessed.
Jeanne glanced at Leon, who was still buried in his notebook, completely absorbed in his studies, and shook her head.
"Rose, let me walk you through the basics. Gods, Falna, Familias, and how Orario works."
Rose straightened up immediately, giving Jeanne her full attention.
Most of what Jeanne covered, Leon had already mentioned. But neither of them was a native, so gaps were inevitable. Whenever Jeanne hit the edge of her knowledge, Laurier or Aura filled in the details.
The lecture ran so long they nearly missed dinner.
Luckily, Leon's devotion to good food never wavered.
To celebrate Rose joining, he pulled out every trick he knew and threw himself into preparing a full spread.
"Alright, ladies, dinner's ready!" Leon called toward the living room, an apron still tied around his waist, fishing drinks out of the icebox with his free hand.
"Wow! It smells amazing! And it looks incredible!" Laurier was first to the table, eyes darting across the array of dishes, throat bobbing as she swallowed hard.
"We've got orange juice and chilled white grape juice today. The grape juice is one of Lady Demeter's test batches. I tried some earlier and it's phenomenal. Give it a shot." Leon set the bottles down. For himself, of course, he'd prepared a cold orange wheat ale. He loved the stuff. He was already scheming about picking up some blueberries next time and trying his hand at a batch of blueberry ale.
Once everyone was seated, Leon raised his glass.
"First, a welcome to Rose for joining the Hart Familia!"
"Before we knew it, our little Familia's actually starting to grow."
He paused, looking around at the beautiful faces and the adorable ones gathered at his table, and broke into a wide, genuine smile.
"Now then! Forget everything else and just enjoy tonight's food!"
"To the meaning of life... cheers!"
"Cheers!" came the chorus from all four.
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