“A peasant is still a peasant, [Lightbinger] or not,” someone said before he spat on the ground a little too close to his armored feet.

It didn’t hit the metallic feet but the damned pushover was really pushing it. Adrin had even got up on his feet to nod at the poor excuse for a man. Luckily, he had an interesting person who had come with him.

“Young Master, please,” said one of the prettiest maidservants Adrin had ever seen before with her mixed hair colors of white and blue.

The stranger suddenly backhanded the poor maid, “you will address me with my full title in front of other peasants,” the man demanded.

“Yes, Lord Consort Zander,” the red-faced maidservant replied, trembling on the ground, but not in the way it should have been.

Adrin reeled back his remark about the maid.

‘Zander, right, Amberhand’s consort,’ he nodded inside his head.

Unlike the old world though, a consort had a different position in this world. These selected men weren’t husbands but were considered the Matriarch’s official reverse harem.

Yes, the one in power could have more than one if she wanted to but of course, it depended on the person herself. Ana despised the practice but there were a few younger magi families with multiple consorts fighting over their Matriarch’s attention.

The same man also could hold the same title for other families, with mutual agreement and arrangement beforehand. It rarely ever happened but had long ago.

But to put it simply, the consorts were the breeding bull for the sake of humanity and their magical bloodlines. Also unlike in the old world, children born from this practice, or the wombs of maidservants, belonged to the magi family and inherited the family name.

Barbaric practice? Probably. Practical? Maybe, as the child's future was already guaranteed. Let’s face it, men could be great fathers and reliable, steel-hearted protectors but there were too few of them who could find the right balance.

Men also die more and more often in this cruel world. They were the main vanguard meatshields whenever trouble knocked on humanity’s door. Moreover, the wealth and power offered by dungeons were just too lucrative to be ignored, especially for men.

Regardless, the whole slapping thing felt like a drama scene. That was why Adrin withdrew his first impression of the maid. Unique or not, the said woman seemed to secretly enjoy being toyed around and he would rather stay far away from such people.

Adrin sighed inside. He knew it would be headache-inducing trouble when he saw a pompous young man sauntering towards him along with a few mean-looking thick armored guards.

Nothing was more cliche or predictable than this.

He knew this was coming after rolling around in bed with the younger redhead. Pissing on another man’s territory was a good way to raise a red flag, but this was the kind of red flag he would welcome.

The Lord Consort whatever had come here with a personal mission. There was no way Adrin would be leaving this fine meadow without a scratch or two.

But the old him also knew an addict when he was staring at one. It didn’t matter if he had put on heavy makeup to cover the darkened eye or wore pompous clothes to cover the rest. There was something about the man's random twitches that reminded him of drug addicts in the old world and there was no way he was just imagining it.

As for now, he could only wonder what kind of magical drug this man was addicted to. They might have their uses, but he made a mental note to ask around and stay the furthest away from unknown substances.

Adrin turned his attention towards the girls, and as expected, Nerina’s and Emilia’s faces made the look he knew all too well. A good woman could smell a creep from a mile away.

“Let's do this some other time,” Adrin said to the girls and both of them nodded.

The plan of an evening picnic to show off was ruined, but he hadn’t put high hopes in it. He was never that lucky in his life. Adrin was expecting a sudden heavy rain or something, but not this.

“Why don’t you fine girls come with me instead,” the creep said, licking his lips. “I can offer a lot more than this crippled peasant.”

Emilia chuckled, “no thank you, I don’t just go with anyone,” she said.

Adrin chuckled inside. She had just labeled the man as a nobody, and this attitude of hers was her biggest charm if anyone had asked him.

“Sorry, but we have plans after this,” Nerina said more amicably, complete with a slight bow with her palm pressed on the opening of the dress neckline.

Nerina was suddenly more conscious about accidentally exposing herself. The amount of feigned respect offered was also just enough so it couldn’t be taken as an offense. She must have a lot of experience rejecting young masters’ blatant advances on her.

Zander chuckled, “I wasn’t asking, you see, as this family’s consort, I can demand any peasant to please me.”

“In your dreams, maybe,” Adrin shook his head in disbelief and stood up to physically block the man's shameless advance. “These are my guests, they aren’t affiliated to the Amberhand family in any way.”

Adrin never thought he would feel thankful to those men who had made sure these two stayed away from the family and its politics. He would still crush them regardless if needed but thankful nonetheless.

“A crippled peasant with a big mouth,” said Zander with a smirk. “Guards, go and arrest the lovely intruders. We will question them in my room.”

The guards nodded but froze before they could even make a step. That was as far as he could tolerate the other young man’s shenanigans.

Adrin didn’t even need to wave his hand to stop the fool’s goons. They’ve grunted and tried their best, of course, but no amount of strength could overcome a bunch of magnetized metal joints.

An obvious basic counter to any armored threats coming his way. The slotted [Metallurgy] and [MagnaFlux] combination made it almost too easy.

“Someone seems to forget that this lowly crippled peasant has an [Metal] affinity,” Adrin said with a smile and shook his head mockingly.

In hindsight, he should have prepared something for the girls. Maybe a pair of necklaces, and perhaps one for Lily and the baby too.

Yeah, he should do just that.

“What are you doing, move it, you idiots!”

“We are trying, Young Master, but-”

“These are especially enchanted armors, no one can control them, not even a [Metal] mage! I’ve ordered it specifically from the-” the man snapped his mouth shut.

He could feel the disturbance of mana around the armor but he didn’t need to keep the armor pieces under his control. The different magnetic polarities pulled on each other by themselves.

Anyone could have made a compass by rubbing a needle onto a magnet, and he had just done it similarly to the metal armors’ joints. The armor should have been made with non-ferromagnetic metals instead. Titanium zinc alloy maybe?

Too bad this world’s science was left way behind.

By the time the guy finished mumble-ranting, the girls were already far enough from his immediate reach, but not after leaving their lips marks on his cheeks. Adrin was pleasantly surprised by that gesture while the man’s eyeballs almost went out of their sockets.

The girls had done it just to piss off the young master. They had grown a bit at least. He would have rejoiced if he wasn’t concentrating on the rich fool who might pull something out of his over-spent clown sleeves.

The man's red face darkened another tone as he tried to think of his next move. His plan was probably to snatch the girls away right in front of Adrin, one way or the other. It was a classic show of wealth and power.

“I- I challenge you to a duel!” Screamed the man between his teeth.

“Young mas-”

“I accept,” Adrin answered before Bella could finish her words.

He didn’t need to look to know that she was hurrying and bouncing her way toward him, but sadly, the woman wasn’t fast enough. It had bothered him when he learned the lady was silently protecting him from everything. Her ‘considerate’ actions had rubbed him in the wrong way.

“Lord Consort Zander,” Bella said as soon as she arrived at Adrin’s side. “Young Master Adrin doesn’t know that he can’t bring magic tools into a duel between mages, so ple-”

“I don’t care, he had accepted it,” the man cut her off with a smug face. “But I’m not a peasant, I’ll consider it, well, if you are to warm my bed for a few nights, Bella.”

“You are not my mother, Spellmaster,” Adrin replied to the despicable demand. “I can wipe my own ass, now.”

They had agreed that their public relationship would be known as the Spellmaster and her beloved disciple. It was also not rare for these kinds of connections to involve intimacy based on the level of trust it already required.

The silver scales rushed to cover his body in full stage-two deployment. The hidden motorized joints whirled ready and excited for action.

The [Living Armor] was reflecting what he was feeling inside. He was about to show off to the girls and the man had to show up and ruin his day.

And now he was asking Bella to warm his bed. The man was asking for a beating.

Adrin would have already broken the bones on the smug face if the man didn’t have a whole other Magi family backing his sorry ass.

“But his [Lightning] will decimate your [Metal] spells,” the woman said. “Especially when powered by the despicable fruit,” she whispered.

Metal is a good conductor. Tell him something he didn’t know.

“I’ve already told you, Spellmaster, power isn’t everything,” Adrin said. Bella looked at him puzzlingly as he had never told her such things.

“Peasants should know their place rather than going against their better,” the man chastised him with a wide smile on his face. “As a favor to your esteemed Spellmaster, I shall finish this with a single spell, of course, doubted it, but survive this and I’ll consider the duel ended in a draw.”

“That’s… commendable,” said Bella without thinking much about it, but Adrin could see the crueler picture.

‘He is going to put every ounce of mana into that single spell,’ Adrin concluded.

“Sure, give me your best shot,” Adrin offered and Zander smirked.

Adrin already had a plan for this eventuality, of course. He might not have plans for everything, but there was nothing more cliche than a young master trying to teach a peasant his place.

Well, especially when the peasant had slept with the consort’s woman. Adrin is also a man. He knew exactly how it felt when another man got their hands on them.

‘Am I the bad guy here?’ Adrin wondered before tossing the thought away with a shrug.

There was a reason why he could act confident about all this. He had wrecked his brain to prepare for things that likely would happen to him as failure was never an option.

Countering a powerful [Lightning] magic was one of the first. It took him days to figure out how to reverse the runes which empowered [Lightning] spells.

The [Living Armor] body-hugging scales swirled in small waves excitedly as Adrin walked away from the worried Spellmaster. He was excited because this was a huge chance to test the new spell in a real situation. Bella was simply too protective to give her best when he had asked.

Zander also walked in parallel with him until they both stopped in the middle of the field in the large backyard flower garden. Clouds gathered in the sky as more spectators gathered to watch. It was as dramatic as it could be but Adrin could only hope they wouldn’t ruin the nice view of the garden flowers.

Adrin’s palms were sweating cold sweat but the other man’s face beamed. He seemed to love every second of the attention he got. The other young man even spread his arms and took a few bows as if he was trying to appease the growing crowd.

Adrin could only wish he had such a thick face. Goosebumps crawled all over him just from the thought of being more popular than he already was.

He had accepted the fact he couldn’t avoid it anymore but it didn’t change how he felt about it.

“Are you ready, peasant?” asked Zander, mostly because many eyes were watching.

“In a minute,” Adrin said with a knowing grin.

What he was about to do was a sort of suicide.

All in the name of science. Or perhaps, Magitech.

Adrin had to go through the decision he had made inside his head just to make sure his logic was sound. He had offered massive advancement in magic for [Fire] with the easily invoked [Blue Flame], and the surprisingly corrosive [Green Flame].

The [Lightning] also had the same potential as he had experimented in the virtual space with different ionized gas. It made sense because both of them were plasma-based.

His [Crystal] and [Metal] were enough advancement in that category which left him with two last elements. His future work with the half-elves should cover the [Life] element advancement which left him with only one more, the poor, leftover, [Air] element.

Why though, did he want to push or show off these advancements?

It was for his selfish convenience, of course.

He could have done more but it was better to show the doors and let these people open and walk through them. Adrin was sure there were many more people smarter than him who minds only waiting to be freed from old shackles.

He could’ve helped but developing every single element for the sake of the world's advancement was just too much work for him alone. Deligations were the answer to this problem.

His current priority was to minimize the number of enemies and leave this place as amiable as he could manage. However poor that attempt may be.

Ultimately, he just wanted to be left alone in peace.

Using the knowledge of basic aerodynamics, Adrin implemented the [Air] element into his four smaller teardrop-torus-shaped [Shells]. The protective spell was redesigned to become a bladeless fan at the aerospace level.

The air bellowed under him as he floated into the air like a human drone.

The first things he felt were the gaze and disbelief in the air, but then he felt it.

The hair around his neck and everywhere in his body almost simultaneously stood up. It was a sign that a [Lightning] feeler had chosen him as the prime target.

A thick lightning arc jolted towards him, and separated from the ground, his specialized [Shell] took the grunt of the attack. Adrin's [Shell] lit up like an overcharged bulb.

The blinding [Lightning] arc continued for a long few seconds.

It was longer than he thought ever possible, but in the end, it still disappointed him.

‘It didn’t fill even half of it,’ Adrin sighed while looking at his biggest [Crystal] mana battery ever held in both hands.

The crystal ball went back into his [Inventory] on command. The end-game source of power was still not ready and converting pure [Lightning] into a mana battery was still a very long way to go.

Lord Consort Zander was on his knees after the bright lights ended. The man even puked out something purple before his face aged a few decades older.

“Used too much of unlimited power?” Adrin muttered to himself.

Don’t be mistaken, to the pitiful man’s credit, the [Lightning Arc] he cast was no joke.

His [Living Armor] had melted at a lot of places and he also had a few second-degree burns on most of those spots. Adrin wasn’t on the ground writhing in pain like he was supposed to because the numbed nerve ends.

The [Life] essence skill was also working hard to heal him back. The burnt skin was growing very rapidly at the expense of his mana.

“Hopefully this whole thing won’t backfire too much,” Adrin mumbled as he landed.

“Lose the armor and kill him!” yelled the man to his guards.

Adrin cursed inside.