'What the hell is this? The contract stated that you had to protect us?' echoed loudly through Luz's head while the latter only smiled slightly. As the loud chatter between the princes continued on, Luz decided to interfere and asked with a grin the question: "Did it say that?"

The five parasites grew silent as they read through the soul contract, realizing which grave mistake they did, as one of them read aloud:

'The host has the right to change the terms of the contract whenever he desires.'

Another short of silence grew before one of the princes stated: "I told you so. But you didn't want to listen to me. The only thing that we can do is, retaliate and grow stronger."

The princess grew in furry as they decided how to retaliate. Fortunately for Gab, they didn't have a real plan at the moment.

It didn't take long before Liv came while carrying a plate filled with food. Slowly she sat down cross-legged while letting the food fly lightly in Luz's direction.

'I need to learn the method on how to control stuff in the air,' Luz thought while staring at his plate, which was filled mainly with venison and potatoes. As he looked closely, the meat and the potatoes were slightly burnt on some sides.

"Thank you," Luz mumbled as he looked for any cutlery.

The smell, as well as the rising steam, triggered his desire to consume food. But Luz tried to restrain himself and instead asked the question, "Don't I get like a fork or any other cutlery? and did you make it yourself?"

The steam from the freshly roasted food slowly rose into the air as his eyes turned slowly red. His breath grew unsteady as he looked at it.

For Luz, it felt like the parasites were trying to convince him to consume. The only problem was that the five princes were busy with something else. Neither were they even communicating with him. Instead, it was he, himself, who bore the desire.

"Yes, I cooked it for you. It's quite easy with magic," she told him with a twinkle and a smile before continuing with: "Give me a moment, let me call Sarah."

Liv shouted Sarah's name down the hall, asking her to bring cutlery for Luz's behalf.

"Why aren't you bringing him culinary?" Sarah cursed loudly with a groan, and Luz had to smile since the interaction between the two awoke old memories of interactions he had with his siblings.

Thinking about these memories of which he grew fond of made him sigh.

'I hope that one day I'll be able to experience such interactions with my siblings again.'

Seeing him sighing, Liv commented amusedly: "On the one hand, the memories of your parasites seem to be potent. They seem to easily influence you, even though you've only consumed like 15% of all parasites."

Luz whipped away the drool that formed earlier on the edge of his mouth before asking with a sigh:

"How do I fight against the influence of such memories? I mean, it'll only grow stronger if I consume more of them."

"You'll get used to it and with a lot of discipline. Once you fasted for like a month while only eating vegetables while having the choice for a steak, you'll have the discipline for withstanding your desires," Liv explained to him.

"But wouldn't it be better if I were too fast now, while I the influence is still weak? Wouldn't I get accustomed to such a desire while also slowly devouring more and more parasites?" Luz curiously asked as he played with his beard stopples.

"Yeah, that also should be possible… I mean, its lethality rate should be lower compared to our way if it doesn't have any complications," Liv commented in agreement.

Luz began to drool again as the food influenced him, and thankfully it didn't take long for Sarah to arrive, bringing a fork for him.

"Thanks," he muttered before savoring the food.

'It's slightly dry, but to be honest, that's enough for me.'

In the end, Luz summoned water with the spell [water], drinking from it gently.

***********************************************************************************************

Somewhere else, two people were seen teleporting in irregular intervals, appearing in different locations each time, before quickly vanishing.

"The situation is strange and more complex than we thought," Master Brian muttered before continuing with:

"The fact that the magical medicine institute is looking for transhumans who are in symbiosis with parasites makes the situation so much worse than we thought. Hopefully, Luz continues to wear the emblem since they wouldn't touch him then."

Francis nodded in agreement before puking. The constant teleporting seems to have taken a toll on him.

Sighing, Master Brian reassured Francis that their constant teleporting will stop soon.

"Anyway, let's find Simon and tell him what happened. He's a cunning fox that probably implanted something like a tracker into Luz. I know that he won't give Luz up so easily," muttered Brian.

"Wait, give me a moment to get accustomed to my surrounding," pleaded Francis.

But Master Brian merely shook his head before stating with a smile: "No."

***********************************************************************************************

Somewhere else, a man with a parrot on his shoulder were arguing with each other as they looked at a small display. The two were sitting in a Roman bath, enjoying their free time from Luz.

As they enjoyed the sight of the beautiful marvel of architecture, one of them felt unease, even after being surrounded by other mages and humans alike, enjoying the place.

There were hours and times for only mages, but the two were cheapskates who weren't willing to pay the extra money for enjoying a bath.

Sighing, Jodoc commented: "Should we visit him? I mean, why the hell is he in the middle of the woods, deep inside the forest for like two days? There literally is nothing to do."

"Yeah, you are right, but he seems to be alive, so should we check up on him or not?" asked Master Simon before taking a sip of a neon blue fluid.

"I don't know, man. Maybe we should enjoy our time here more," Jodoc commented as he cracked a nut with his sharp beak.

"Yeah… I agree with you," commented Simon before he continued to relax in hot water.

Suddenly a portal appeared in front of the two, and Simon merely cursed at the sight of it.

"Shit, please let it be some official from the kingdom and not Brian. Like please, let me enjoy my free time," sighed Simon before using a spell to hide his presence.