"We need a maid."
Lira looked up from her plate. "That was fast."
Yuki gestured at the house around them. Three stories. Ten rooms. A courtyard, a basement, a kitchen big enough to host a banquet. The four of them were sitting at the eight-person dining table and it felt like eating in a ballroom.
"This place is too big for us to maintain on our own. Cooking, cleaning, laundry — and someone needs to watch the girls when we're both out."
"I don't disagree. I'll start looking tomorrow — I know a few domestic staffing agencies in the merchant quarter."
"Good." He reached into dimensional storage and dumped a pile of gold on the table. Coins clattered and stacked and rolled. Kana's eyes went wide. Hana tracked a rolling coin with laser focus.
"Hold onto this," he said. "You'll be handling the house expenses — furniture, supplies, the maid's salary. Whatever you need."
Lira looked at the gold pile. Then at him. "You're making me your treasurer."
"You're already my treasurer. This just makes it official."
She started to respond, then stopped when he pulled out a small pouch and set it beside the gold.
"And if you need more—" He opened the pouch. Three dragon scales gleamed on the velvet interior. "—sell these."
Lira choked on her drink. Coughed. Wiped her mouth. Stared at the scales.
"You just — you keep — those are worth—"
"I know what they're worth."
"You carry national treasures in a pouch."
"It's a nice pouch plus I have the rest of the dragon so a few scales is not much of a dent."
She closed her eyes. Took a breath. Opened them. Scooped the gold and scales into her magic bag with the brisk efficiency of someone who'd decided that being shocked was no longer productive.
"Fine. I'll handle it. Anything else?"
"After tomorrow's hunt, I want to take all three of you to the homestead. Show Kana and Hana the place. And the fruit's probably ready for another harvest."
Lira's expression softened. "They'd love that. And yes — we could use more stock. The sunbloom citrus alone would cover expenses for months."
"Then it's a plan."
Kana tugged his sleeve. "What's the homestead?"
"My home. Before this one. It's got a big garden, a pond with fish, and more fruit trees than you can count."
Both sets of ears went straight up. Tails wagging.
"Tomorrow, though," he said, "I have a quest. Lira's watching you two while I'm gone."
"Nooooo," Kana said. "We want to come."
"It's a Gold-ranked subjugation. Too dangerous."
"We're dangerous too."
"You're six."
"And a half."
He looked at Lira. She shrugged. "They'll just follow you anyway. At least if they're with you, you can keep an eye on them."
He opened his mouth to argue. Closed it. She was right and they all knew it.
"Fine. But you're only allowed watch. You do not fight. Understood?"
Two vigorous nods. Two wagging tails.
He did not believe them for a second.
Morning.
Yuki was lacing his boots in the front hall when he heard footsteps on the stairs. Small. Quick. Metallic.
Kana and Hana appeared at the bottom of the staircase in full battle gear.
He stared, nodding his head in approval.
The outfits were his work — he'd made them during quiet moments on the caravan road, unable to resist the urge to give the girls proper protection. Light armour, fantasy-inspired, crafted from dragon scale plates layered over gravity-lightened metal mesh. The scales were obsidian black — harvested from the dragon he'd killed months ago — trimmed and fitted to two very small bodies. Underneath, mana-woven underarmour that was flexible, breathable, and tougher than steel.
Kana's set had silver accents that matched her hair. Hana's had dark blue trim. Both had short capes fastened at the shoulder — because Yuki had spent his formative years watching anime and capes were non-negotiable.
Every piece was enchanted. Barrier spells for impact absorption. Temperature regulation. A passive mana shield that would deflect low-level attacks automatically. Speed enhancement on the boots. Durability reinforcement on every surface. A locator enchantment keyed to Yuki's mana signature so he could find them anywhere on the continent.
He may have gone slightly overboard.
Kana drew her ironwood practice sword and struck a pose. Hana stood beside her with both daggers on her belt, looking up at Yuki with an expression that said we are coming and this is not a discussion.
"Ready," Kana announced.
Lira appeared behind them, leaned against the doorframe, and raised an eyebrow at Yuki.
"I still can't believe you designed battle armour. For children. With capes."
"The capes are functional."
"The capes are fashion."
"Fashion is functional."
She rolled her eyes with her entire body, holding back her laugh at how dorky this man was to the best of her ability. "Go. I have interviews to conduct and furniture to buy. Try not to let them fight anything."
"They won't fight anything."
They were absolutely going to fight something.
The city gates were busy. A queue of merchants, travellers, and farmers stretched from the entrance, slowly filtering through the guards' checkpoint.
Yuki showed his Gold tag, got waved through, and walked out onto the road with Kana on his left and Hana on his right. The quest target was a monster nest about six hours on foot — tempest serpents harassing farmland to the east.
Six hours on foot. Or —
He scooped both girls up. One in each arm. They grabbed on instinctively — Kana around his neck, Hana clutching his jacket.
"Hold tight."
He cast his flight spell and lifted off.
The crowd at the gate saw everything. Soldiers mid-inspection looked up. Merchants craned their necks. A farmer dropped a crate of turnips. Dozens of faces tracked the young man rising into the air with two fox-eared children in his arms, accelerating over the fields and canals toward the eastern forest.
Yuki didn't notice. He was focused on the flight path and on making sure neither girl slipped.
Kana noticed. She always noticed.
The farmland blurred beneath them. Irrigation canals glinted. The forest edge approached.
"Ground rules," Yuki said over the wind. "You watch. You learn. You do not, under any circumstances, attack anything. Clear?"
"Clear!" Kana shouted.
Hana nodded against his chest.
"Promise?"
"Promise!"
He landed at the forest's edge and set them down. Cast his detection web. The nest pinged immediately — a cave system about two hundred metres in, packed with mana signatures. Large ones. Aggressive.
Tempest serpents. The guild file described them as electrical predators — snakelike, capable of generating and discharging lethal voltages. Adults could grow to fifty metres. A nest of them explained the livestock deaths.
His detection counted fifteen.
Fifteen fifty-metre electric snakes. Gold-ranked for a reason.
"Stay here," he told the girls. "Behind this tree. Don't move."
He walked toward the cave.
The entrance was a wide crack in a rocky hillside, big enough to drive a wagon through. Dark inside. The air smelled like ozone and reptile.
He formed a fireball — small, bright, fast — and lobbed it into the cave.
The reaction was immediate. Hissing. The crack of electrical discharge. Movement — massive coils shifting in the dark, scales scraping stone.
The first serpent burst from the cave mouth at speed — twenty metres of scaled muscle, jaws wide, sparks crackling along its ridge.
A dagger caught it between the eyes. It dropped.
The second came right behind. Dagger. Dead.
Third. Fourth. Fifth. They poured out of the cave in a fury — drawn by the fireball, enraged, discharging bolts of electricity that scorched the ground and split trees. Yuki's daggers waited at the cave mouth like a gauntlet. Each serpent emerged into daylight and died in the same breath. Clean kills. Precise. The daggers punched through skull plates that should have been impervious and the serpents dropped before they cleared the entrance.
I'm so glad I crafted this magic dagger fighting style - its lethality and efficiency is just out of this world.
The electricity was the only complication. Bolts arced in random directions, striking trees and rock. Yuki threw a barrier over the girls' position without looking — a dome of force that absorbed two stray bolts without flickering.
Fifteen serpents. Maybe two minutes.
He threw them all into dimensional storage. The cave was empty.
He walked back to the girls. Both were exactly where he'd left them — behind the tree, inside his barrier, eyes enormous.
"That was so cool," Kana whispered "You are the strongest person in the world, Yuki!!"
Hehe.. Their praise feels quite rewarding
Yuki crouched in front of them. "Good. You listened. You stayed put. I'm proud of you both."
Two tails wagged.
Then he smiled. "Now — I found something for you."