A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

As Erik took a few seconds to switch from domineering Daddy to wholesome father, Alice felt the silence drag on.

"Dad?" she asked again, her voice now tinged with both concern and impatience. This time, she used a moniker that was uncomfortably closer to the 'bad word' Erik never wanted to hear from her. Still, it wasn't the same word, so he'd come to live with it.

Erik coughed and quickly finished his compartmentalisation. "Y— Yes! Alice, sweety! What can I do for you?" he asked, smiling as he sent warm emotions through their bond.

"Weren't you secluding yourself until your breakthrough?" he continued before she could answer, then immediately became excited. "Don't tell me you already reached second rank?! I'm so proud of you!"

As he talked to Alice through their bond, he hurried along the palace hallways, wanting to get just a little further away from Leia…

He knew he'd have to get a little more used to this in the future, but for now, being both a wholesome father and a sexualised Daddy to different people remained… a mental challenge.

"Ugh, calm down, Dad," Alice groaned as she rolled her eyes at his embarrassing enthusiasm. "I didn't break through yet. Mother Elora contacted me about something she'd figured out. She wanted to see if I was in a state where I could interrupt my training for a moment, before getting you involved."

A soft chuckle followed from her side of the bond. "When she found out I wasn't at an important moment, she immediately did that thing where she becomes all absentminded and focused on something else, but still talking to you, you know?"

Knowing exactly what she was talking about, Erik chuckled along with her. When Elora's mind was occupied with some project, she'd focus on you just long enough to get whatever important information she needed from you, then get straight back to it.

Neither Erik nor anyone else in his family took it personally, however. It was just who she was, and usually her projects were centred around improving their lives anyway.

"Anyway," Alice continued with a mental shrug, "she then asked me to talk to you about bringing her into the dimension. From what I gathered, she needs us both for some experiment that will increase my and others' training speed."

Erik grinned slightly. He could hear Alice's barely suppressed excitement at the idea of growing stronger faster. His adopted daughter wanted nothing more than to fight alongside the family to brutally disembowel as many hunters as she could—and he fully approved.

'I guess Elora must have found something interesting in those libraries,' he realised inwardly, brimming with curiosity.

"Alright, Alice," he answered warmly in the meantime. "I'll get on that right away."

"Awesome!" she answered brightly, then turned more curious. "In the meantime, could you tell me what's been happening while I was training? I can't help but notice the portal is gone…?"

Hearing that, Erik was reminded about the portal and immediately decided he might as well use this chance to put it back in place. He'd removed it so he could have full access to the dimension everywhere again while dealing with the Maghreb trio and the facility beneath them.

So, he started moving to his room in the palace, which was usually empty and only occupied by the portal, while filling Alice in on everything that'd happened in the last week or so—starting with the Maghreb trio's first attempt to kill him.

***

A short while later, Erik, Elora, and Alice were gathered in the centre of the training room. After Erik reopened the portal, he'd asked Eira to teleport him to Elora in the facility to make sure she was ready. Then they both teleported back to his room before entering the dimension through his portal.

Currently, Elora was busy recording things and seemingly preparing some sigils, so Erik looked around. They weren't alone.

There was one black isolation sphere in one of the training spots, which was occupied by Emma—who was busy breaking through—and over at the Runebound training area, Seraphina was exercising.

The vampire servant he'd picked up after she came with them following the events in the UK and then almost caused them to be killed by a giant squid was as obsessed with strength as Alice was.

Anytime she wasn't needed anywhere else, she could be found training here, or—occasionally—she'd hang out with Emily. The two remained friends, but they both had a lot on their minds. Plus, Seraphina was notably a little uncomfortable with Emily's changes, only worsened by Emily occasionally suggesting a threesome with Erik.

Erik glanced at her elegant, pale, and beautiful form—once again, realising he still hadn't decided what to do with her.

She was definitely a desirable addition to his harem—not only being talented, but also possessing a powerful fourth-rank affinity in gravity. The problem was in his approach... because he didn't have one yet.

On the one hand, her desire for strength was an obvious way in. Not only did sex with him provide many benefits to strength growth—through his Elorium and the sexual cauldron sigils he'd allowed Elora to inscribe on him—but Seraphina's current stay with them would end when they returned to Europe, meaning she'd lose access to all the other benefits his dimension offered.

Theoretically, this would make her more willing to create some kind of long-term relationship with Erik, either as a servant or something more.

Yet, that's where the other hand came in, because Seraphina's pride and willpower were incredible. She refused to be overly dependent on anyone else for her strength, no matter how much she desired that strength.

Right now, she'd already become dependent on his blood. Although Erik and Elora had promised to fix that issue before she returned to Europe, it only made her more wary of becoming dependent on him even more.

Plus, having spent several months around Erik already, she was perfectly aware that sex with him would probably be just as hard a habit to kick as his blood was.

The fanatical devotion to Erik showed by her fellow servants—Nora and Anne—also scared her. Sometimes, in rare moments of weakness, Nora's ridiculous theories about Erik's divinity started making a little sense, and she was afraid she'd end up as one of them if she started having sex with Erik as his servant.

As for the other option, well… she didn't love him, so she'd definitely fail the heartfire test.

For all of these reasons, Seraphina was very wary of becoming more involved with Erik. She desired what she offered, but she wasn't willing to pay the price. At least, not yet.

Erik knew all this from Emily's conversations with Seraphina—none of which remained private, obviously—as well as passive observations by his entire family and all his servants for the past few months.

Now, Erik had two options in front of him.

For one, there was Nora's power as a proselytiser. This was a more ruthless option, as it essentially involved brainwashing Seraphina into worshipping him over time. He had no doubt Nora would gleefully do the work, but did he want her to?

Letting Nora slowly do her work on people who willingly came to her was one thing, but forcing it on someone was something else entirely—at least when it involved someone who'd never been his enemy.

So far, he saw no reason to take such a morally bankrupt approach, even if it meant losing Seraphina down the line. She'd never really done anything to earn such a fate, and she simply wasn't worth compromising his values to that level.

His other option was to get Seraphina to fall in love with him, thus allowing her feelings to overwrite her concerns. He preferred this option, but was stumped on the approach. Seraphina had a good opinion of him now—at least, somewhat—but she remained incredibly wary and fully focused on training.

Thus, for now, he simply let things lie. Perhaps he'd get an opportunity in the near future, or perhaps his opportunity would only come when they returned to Europe, or maybe it would never come. Time would tell, and since he wasn't interested in the Nora option, he wasn't in a hurry.

Suddenly, Elora interrupted his thoughts. "Alright! Let's get this started!" she cried enthusiastically.