They found Sera in the spacious living room, lazing around on a sofa in front of a warm fireplace and chatting with Xilia.

"How much did it cost?!" Gerald loudly questioned coming in.

"What? What do you mean?" Both Sera and Xilia were startled by the sudden loud shout.

Gerald advanced with quick steps coming to the sofa, pulling Sera up by her ear. "How much did the freaking flag cost?!"

"Ow! It's not a flag, it's a banner! Let go, it hurts!" Sera winced in pain while standing on her tippy toes.

Gerald released his grip and frowned, "Same thing, how much?"

"Fifteen gold…" Sera answered meekly, holding her red ear.

"Fifteen!" Gerald almost wanted to explode. His face became red and his breathing accelerated as his blood pressure skyrocketed and Mana started to chaotically swirl around him. "Explain yourself!"

Everyone could feel his anger solidifying the air in the room, making it hard to breathe.

"Wait, Gerald, it was my idea too!" Xilia shouted.

His head turned at lightning speed and his eyes seemed to pierce through her.

"Eek!" Xilia felt startled by his gaze and quickly went to explain herself, "We just wanted to make this place nicer and more home-like. Since we are a part of the Black Onyx we thought we should at least have our own coat of arms…"

Gerald stared at Xilia without speaking, making her start sweating nervously. He then glanced back at Sera…

"It's true, we just wanted to surprise you with something nice…" she said.

"Hmm," Gerald exhaled through his nose and started to cool down. "I'll let it slide this once because I do like the design… But don't let it happen again! Buying stuff purely for their aesthetic value is from now on forbidden!"

With his anger mostly extinguished the girls were finally able to relax.

"Um, should I come back at another time? You seem to have some stuff to talk about…" Elly broke the silence. It was only now that the two girls noticed her.

"Who's she?" Xilia questioned and scrutinized her from top to bottom.

Fancy robes, a nice figure, and face, an expensive-looking staff… 'Definitely a wealthy person! Did Gerald find a rich lady from a noble family to marry? He does like money…'

"This is Elly, she will be joining us and will also be my student. Speaking of students… You two will also be joining the lessons. Your magic is too weak and you need to advance it if you want to be worth something!"

"Eh?"

"What? But what if we don't want to…? I got stuff to do!" Sera and Xilia protested.

Gerald looked at them coldly and said, "This is not up to a discussion! You can consider it as a tiny punishment for your recklessness if you want. We will start tomorrow at ten."

Then, remembering Elly was new here, he said, "Oh, one more thing! Get Elly here a room and show her around, you can become friends or enemies, I don't care. Just don't be too loud, I need to rest!"

With that being said, he left the room and went to find a maid to prepare a bath for him. It was quite a while since relaxed in hot water and he needed some alone time to remove the accumulated fatigue.

While Gerald was relaxing, the young ladies exchanged greeting and introduced themselves. They started off slowly, but soon their conversation picked up and the conversation shifted to Gerald.

"How did you two meet?" Sera asked curiously.

"Well…" Elly thought for a while and then told them about the Minecrawler extermination expedition.

"What! But he said he wasn't going to hunt anymore!" Sera exclaimed in frustration, but then she realized something. "Does he consider me a burden?"

"Well, you are kind of weak…" Xilia heartlessly stated. Even she was at least twice as strong as Sera, being at Iron-3 Rank.

"But he is even weaker than me!" the poor girl screamed with tears forming. "When we first met a few months ago he hasn't even entered the Iron Rank!"

Elly listened to their conversation and then asked, "Are you two also forbidden from speaking of things he does?"

Sera sighed loudly and covered herself with pillows on the sofa. Xilia also threw herself on her back and stared at the ceiling. "I don't remember him explicitly saying that, but I got the feeling it would be extremely ungrateful and unwise talking about it… He did help save my sister and I, and now he is taking care of us all…"

"Are you aware of his magic capabilities? When we came here I noticed he wasn't using any Crystals for his spells," Elly probed further.

"Hah!" Sera jumped up in anger, "He's just lucky he can use all Elements! If I had such talent I could also play around with magic as he does!"

Elly opened her eyes wide, "He can use all Elements? Is that how he is able to fly?"

Both Sera and Xilia turned to her with a piercing gaze after she said that. They made her feel uncomfortable. "What? What did I do?"

"Did… Did you just say he can freaking fly?! Fly like literally... Fly like a bird?!"

"Well… Y- Yes… Did I say too much?" Elly stammered.

"Buaaaaaaaah!" Sera burst into tears and buried her face into the pillows, "I want to fly too! It's so unfair!"

The Dark Elf and the new girl looked at each other and gave a wry smile. It was already late and maybe it was time to go to sleep.

Gerald woke up early and devoured a piece of the Queen's heart raw right after waking up to satisfy his hunger. It was a weird kind of sensation, somewhat similar to the Eternal Hunger he had once before, just this time he was craving flesh instead of blood.

Luckily a kilogram of meat was enough to satisfy that craving for a few hours.

Anyway, after dressing up, he went on a short walk through the city, visiting many metal workers and blacksmiths, and ordered small silver objects to be made. Since he had to pay for the raw material and for the work, it came to cost him a few dozen gold coins in total.

Luckily though, he had gathered quite a bit of wealth on his last expedition. After finishing his orders, he returned to the mansion to get a proper breakfast and then start with school.

Qiona was advancing nicely, her potions already reaching a quality similar to his own, and the first batch was already delivered to the merchant guild a few days prior. It was all going along nicely.