"Here?"

"A little lower."

Illianna touched her chin with her fingers as she looked up. With her other hand, she held tightly to Sian's hair.

"How about now?"

"No, now you've gone too far down," Illianna complained. "It seems the more we try, the harder it gets for you to get the right place."

"That's easy for you to say when I'm the one who has to fly while carrying a giant clock." With one eye open and the other closed, Sian looked up in dissatisfaction. "And to make matters worse, I still have to keep you on my shoulders. Fly for yourself!"

Currently, dozens of feet off the ground, Illianna was sitting on Sian's shoulders as they both attempted to install a clock on the outside wall of the hotel.

"Standing in the air without any support scares me a little, with this wind, it gets even worse. So I prefer to stay in a place where I can hold on tight."

"But with you trying to cut my neck with your thighs it gets difficult," Sian expressed his dissatisfaction.

"Pretend that's payment for the time you tried to hang me dead."

"I might even take that as an argument, but before we're done with this, I’ll get bald due to you pulling off my hair all the time."

"Just add it as part of the pack."

Feeling indignant, Sian pointed to his closed eye, "But I never tried to blind you!"

"I already apologized for that, okay? Now complain less and work more, we still have 3 more of these to put up."

***

"Well, although I doubted your ability a few times, it seems we really did manage to finish with plenty of time to spare." Back on the floor, Sian looked at his finally ready hotel. "Despite I was against it at first, those clocks added a certain elegance and charm."

"We finished 5 days ahead of the originally planned time thanks to the former mercenary group," Illianna said. "Due to me pushing back the opening day by 5 days beyond what you had scheduled, we now have about 15 days to make the preparations."

"Yeah, they really worked hard, especially those four women."

"How would they not work?" Illianna replied. "You forced them to learn some earth magic spells and still said they had to work hard to alleviate your share of the work, otherwise you would punish them."

"Because of the fear that those poor women had of being raped by you and be used as toys, they did everything they could to not let you get angry."

"But I've said several times that I'm not that kind of person." Sian rolled up his eyes.

"No use saying this when your eyes are always roaming their bodies."

"They have a good figure, I couldn't help it," Sian said as he shrugged. "But anyway, we're officially done with construction, right?"

"Although there are a few small details missing, we can say that we have completed the construction."

"Those details will have to wait until tomorrow. It's already getting dark, let's eat."

Passing through the reception desk, they made their way through the huge hall.

"This is totally different from what I originally expected." Sian looked at the luxurious chandeliers on the ceiling and then at the red carpet. "This looks even more majestic than your uncle's palace."

"This is the VIP wing, so it had to be something grand." Stopping in front of a door, Illianna pressed a button next to it.

"Like many of the things you've done, this elevator is quite convenient."

"They were all common stuffs in my former world, so it was easy to replicate."

"How are the negotiations with the suppliers going?" Sian looked at the light moving downward beside the door, indicating that the elevator was descending.

"It’s going well," she replied. "I am also using them to promote the hotel, I believe we will have a successful opening."

In the last days, besides working on the construction of the hotel, Illianna was also in charge of receiving suppliers. Since Ophilia would have to learn to integrate into high society, Illianna always took her along to learn how to deal with people.

Apparently, despite making a few minor mistakes, Ophilia is quite smart and quickly got the hang of things.

Although Illianna would always brag pointlessly about everything, she really was the main factor in the hotel being completed so quickly. When it came to arranging the furniture brought in by suppliers, instead of going from room to room, Illianna simply made use of her unique skill and everything went into the right place.

With elegant steps, Illianna entered the elevator cab that just arrived and was soon followed by Sian who pressed a button for the elevator to go up.

As it was finally livable, tonight would be their first night at the hotel. Along with them, Fran and Tina also came. They were only convinced to come after much insistence from Sian.

After reaching the eighth and final floor, they got off the elevator and went straight to the roof garden, where Ophilia was having a celebration dinner for the new house.

Although it was always Sian who cooked, in the last few days, this became Ophilia's task. Not because he told her to, but at her insistence.

She stated that she couldn't sit around doing nothing, she wanted to become one of the hotel's cooks. Because of this, she wanted to gain more experience for when the time came.

Sian was against it at first, but that was the day he found out how stubborn Ophilia could be when she wanted to be. Although she always showed a sweet and reassuring smile, somehow, she seemed a bit scary when she was determined to do something.

As it was a sudden junction of fate, at first, both of them knew nothing about each other, but in the past few days, the relationship between Ophilia and Sian progressed by leaps and bounds. With the passing of days and their night adventures, they got to know each other even better.

Walking through the door, Sian spotted Ophilia in front of the stove under the wooden pergola. Even though he was used to seeing her wearing an apron, he always enjoyed admiring her sexy figure in that outfit.

Following straight up to her, Sian hugged her from behind.

"What's wrong, dear?" Remaining in his arms, Ophilia turned to him with a smile.

"No big deal, it's just that seeing you after a long day at work makes my heart throb with desire." Sian kissed her lips lightly. "My Ophi is very beautiful and sexy when she's cooking while making that serious face."

"I need to try my best, otherwise I won't be able to make food as good as yours."

"That's not true, you already cook very well."

"But even though you say my food is good, Emily still prefers yours."

Despite saying that, instead of frustrated, Ophilia looked determined.

"The way you're evolving your cooking skills every day, it's only a matter of time before you catch up with me." Sian looked into her eyes and said with a confident, encouraging tone.

With a gentle look, Ophilia placed her hand on Sian's cheek. "Thank you dear, you are always so sweet to me."

"I'm the one to thank."

Slightly surprised, Ophilia asked, "Why?"

"If it wasn't for me meeting you, I wouldn't be having such a happy time, that is, apart from work, I'm very happy to have met you."

Ophilia looked at him fondly.

"Ophi..." Sian brought his face closer to hers, but at that very moment-

"I think I'm going to vomit sugar." Illianna interrupted them and pointed to Emily and Tina who were sitting at the table not far away, "We have children here, if you want to continue, go get a room."

"Are you two already back?" Fran walked through the door with a few plates in her hands. "Just wait a little longer, dinner's almost ready. Tina, help me wi- Eh? Why are you two with your eyes covered?"

"Auntie Anna said that when Daddy and Mommy were very sticky, we should close our eyes."

"That's just to keep them from learning things they shouldn't at such a young age." Illianna pointed at Sian and Ophilia. "When those two get into the mood, no matter who's around, they keep acting like lovebirds."

"Sorry," Ophilia said apologetically as she lowered her head in shame. "I'll control myself next time."

"My bad, it's my fault too," Sian apologized.

"It's okay, I know how you feel, I've had my moments like that with my husband too." Fran brought the plates to the table. "Tina, help mommy arrange the plates."

Unlike before, Fran was no longer all skin and bone, she had gained more weight and now had a more vivid expression.

"Let me help too!"

Emily grabbed the silverware, but since she didn't know how to organize it, Illianna helped her.

***

"The pudding Mommy made is delicious," Emily expressed energetically.

"As good as what Daddy makes?" Ophilia asked with an expectant look.

"Daddy's is better!" She replied immediately.

Seeing Ophilia's slightly disappointed expression, Sian whispered softly in Emily's ear.

"If you tell that Mommy's pudding is better, I'll give you cookies and strawberry smoothie later."

"But mommy's is better today." Emily said cheerfully to Ophilia.

"You two can't fool me, I have good hearing." Ophilia pointed to her own ears and faked an angry face, "I'm going to have to punish you two for lying to me."

"I-it was Daddy's fault!" Emily immediately snitched on Sian without any remorse.

"To be betrayed by my own daughter..." Sian sighed while showing a downcast expression. "Looks like I'll have to eat strawberry smoothie and cookies alone in the punishment."

"I'm guilty too!" Emily wagged her tail happily as she stood on her chair. "Can we go to the punishment now?"

Having fun with the situation, Illianna joined in on the joke. "Weren't you going to play at the orphanage with me and Tina?"

“…” Looking like she was going through a difficult decision for a brief moment, Emily turned to Ophilia. "Can we get the punishment at the orphanage?"

Not resisting, Sian began to laugh.

"You can go play with your little friends, we can have cookies later."

“Yay!” Emily squealed with happiness as she jumped on Sian who held her in his arms.

Turning to Illianna, Sian said, "I know you might be a bit confident due to your skills getting stronger, but as always, it's better to take the 4 girls with you just to have an extra security."

Doing as Sian said, Illianna left for the orphanage taking the 4 former mercenaries with her, Emily and Tina.

***

"The workers you hired are very hard-working, they are always ready for work no matter what it is or the time." Ophilia said as she washed the dishes.

"Illianna told me that for them, fulfilling Sian's wishes and desires is priority number one for them." Fran dried the dishes and passed them to Sian. "Maybe they admire him a lot?"

Preferring not to comment on anything, Sian just pretended ignorance and continued in silence until they finished putting away the dishes.

Putting away the dishcloth, Fran gave a smile as is she had understood something. "I have to study to learn to read soon, otherwise Tina will leave me behind, so I'll excuse the couple."

Not letting the opportunity pass, Sian and Ophilia set off to try out their new room.