859 Conversation

"Yeah. Well, I indeed feel a bit disturbed about this, but I want to see your clear view on this matter. After all, we are building a family, so I want to know your opinion as well. Maybe we can reach a consensus." Alicia nodded with a slightly pained look. "I have been selfish this whole time, so I would like to ask you again. Have you been holding back this whole time?"

"Ehm?" Alex scratched his head, not knowing what to say. He thought for a moment and said, "Look. I already have you, Firia, Sherry, Anna, Anya, and… Lin Xingzhi, albeit I haven't met her yet. I am just afraid that I bite more than I can chew and somehow can't spare any time with all of you. In fact, I have been selfish as well by choosing multiple wives."

Alicia looked upward and sighed. "There is also Letizia… Ahem, there might be more in the future, especially if you are doing world travel."

"Well, I will be asking all of you to accompany me, so there won't be anyone bothering me again." Alex shrugged.

Alicia thought for a moment and recalled whatever she had seen the last time she visited to see Alex's progress through the system.

"You have considered Putri as half-disciple because it was too forced, but I don't really have any complaints about her, considering your relationship was never moved to that way." Alicia nodded, recalling how Putri first considered him a little brother before viewing him as her master. Unfortunately, she couldn't keep up with the progress and was stuck in the Northern Continent.

"Still, there is something amiss with your relationship with Song Yu. I am not talking about her since she has already found her other half but before that. I had seen the record and noticed that you had been distancing yourself from her. It was like you were drawing a line between you."

Alex looked down and sighed. "I have no words. Senior Sister is pretty and caring, but the relationship between us can't really be described with simple words. Like me, I believe she is drawing the line on herself, so yeah, it won't happen, let alone now that she has someone she loves."

Alicia stared at his eyes for a few seconds before accepting the answer. "How about Rose?"

"Don't even think about it." Alex narrowed his eyes, declined the idea instantly.

"Well, you are like her elder brother and her father at the same time, so I won't say much about it. Rose is a good girl, and if you have an option to adopt her as your daughter, will you do it?" Alicia asked.

"I don't know. A daughter, huh… Even though it's adopted, it's a bit weird. I am not saying I am against it, but it is… Ugh, how should I say this? It's complicated." Alex shook his head. "Still, I can understand how my Teacher felt about me."

"But that is…" Before he finished correcting her, she cut him.

"Are you going to say it's only a matter of master and servant? I know that Letizia thinks about it that way, but I am sure that you also feel the fondness coming from her, right?" She asked. "If you want her anytime, she will give everything to you, you know. It's just she is afraid you don't want it, so she never mentions it."

Alex looked away. Her words were completely right.

"And how about Evelyn? She is far above Letizia, you know. She openly showed her feelings, and so on, when you were in the upper world. Don't say anything about her reminding you of your little sister. I know you thought that way before, but when she grew older, you slowly saw her as an individual because you realize that everything was only your perspective and realized yours was wrong."

"Ugh…" Alex had no words to say. He always felt it was enough to have them, but when Alicia said it right on his face, he didn't have any reason to give. "Well, Evelyn will stay there anyway."

"True enough. As innocent as her, she will surely repay that Manness and become the leader of Drunken Pavilion. Albeit, you don't know how scary a woman is… Well, I just hope that the incident about Shelka, that pure wind element Elven Princess, would never happen again."

Alex nodded.

"Then, I would like you to promise you one thing." Alicia grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes. "You said that you wanted to travel to other worlds with us, so no more women come close to you, right?"

"Yes."

"With this, there are still Evelyn and Letizia. I want you to promise me that when the time comes, I don't want you to hold back because of us. No matter how hurt it is to have another sister, it's more painful if we don't have the one we love in front of us. Even the separation of a decade is hurting me, so don't hold back for us. We will also openly protest if we don't like someone."

Alex widened his eyes, never expecting to hear these words from Alicia. "I understand."

Even though he didn't know why Evelyn was included, he decided to show a bit of himself to Letizia when they met again. Despite their first encounter, Alex was indeed fond of Letizia. She is smart to begin with, but her immature personality in the past reduced her to a slave. But he believed that the current Letizia was ten times if not a hundred times better than the past her, and that was the thing that attracted him.

Albeit, everything seemed subpar if one compared it with the affection coming from Evelyn. In the past, Evelyn indeed saw him as a hero who saved her in the past and taught her how to get stronger. But over the years, she saw Alex as someone that she would like to spend time with, and her fondness grew even more from then.

Alex was skeptical about this because of how she viewed him in the past and somehow decided to use it as a line that separated him and her.

In any case, he promised Alicia that he would treat them better from now on, even if they were not his women.

"Fu…" Alex let out a long sigh, calming his head down.

"I am sorry to bring this matter to you."

"It's fine." Alex shook his head with a smile.

Alicia nodded before rising from the bench. "You can rest here first as I call Nelson and Ilumi to discuss our plan against the Green Devil Tribe."

Alex accepted it and sat down for thirty minutes, sorting his emotion and thoughts before going to the main room.

To his surprise, Ilumi was the only one there.

"Master." Ilumi greeted him with a bow as soon as she noticed his presence.

"Where is Alicia?"

"She is contacting Nelson and writing the report because Nelson seems to get something important," Ilumi answered. "Ah! I volunteered to deal with the report, but Lady Alicia told me to wait here…"

Alex couldn't help but smile at how she corrected herself and how… She actually put her hands on her butt as if protecting them from spanking. It seemed Vera's influence was already too deep in her heart. Even though the person in question was not here, she still acted like that.

"Haha… It's fine. I won't punish you just because of that. Besides, Alicia said it herself that she could handle it." Alex nodded and sat in front of her.

"Ehm… Master?" Ilumi was a bit uncomfortable when Alex stared at her this whole time.

"Sorry. I was just curious about Alicia's life when she was in Eulja." Alex apologized.

"Lady Alicia's life?" Ilumi looked down, wondering if it was alright to tell him. If Alicia didn't tell him, wouldn't it mean stepping over their bound to tell Alex about it?

"Alicia has told me some of them, but I would like to know from another perspective as well. How do you feel and so on." Alex waved his hand, trying to fix the misunderstanding.

"Ah! In that case, I can tell you. I was her last instructor before she became independent. The first instructor was my younger sister. She was in charge of her cultivation and such… At the very least, she would discover all the basics.

"The second instructor was an elder from the tribe that taught her about Array Mastery according to her request. Then the last one is me."

"I see." Alex nodded. "What did you teach her then? Something like Battle Experience? Or all the things about Divine Being?"

"It's basically a fighting instructor. Because she fights with her element and array, I train her about all those things in general and how people fight with it."

"Thank you for teaching her." Alex bowed his head.

"No, no. Master. Please don't lower your head." Ilumi panicked and tried to help him up.

Alex smiled before asking again. "How was she? It must be hard to teach her, right?"

Ilumi looked down and replied honestly. "To be honest, it was tough to teach her in the beginning, but Lady Alicia was really hard working. Every time I gave her time to rest, she would reflect on all the matters that happened during the practice.

"I heard from the other instructors as well that she had many notes about herself that she always put all her weaknesses and things that needed to be fixed in that note. You can say it's like Alchemy notes that one put down all their findings from mistake to solution. This one is basically the same, except it's about Lady Alicia herself and her cultivation journey.

"So, I couldn't deny it was hard to teach her, but her determination made us want to teach her again and again. It was like no matter how many times she asked, it would be fine to answer her because we knew how hard she worked for it. And she also had the necessary talent to improve.

"If I need to conclude everything I and the other two instructors within one, then… We are proud to have her under our tutelage."

"I see." Alex smiled.

"Well, there is one thing that I should mention. Because Lady Lin Xingzhi told her to come to the house once a month to see your condition, she worked very hard during the other days. You could say she worked tirelessly, so she could make up that one day different."

Alex could clearly understand why Ilumi told him this, and he couldn't help but feel touched.

Alicia worked hard to match Firia's progress and the lost time when she was sleeping in that Box of Time.

On the other hand, Firia could get all the necessary information because Alex gave her a few books about cultivation, so her time in the lower world was pretty bountiful. That was why Alicia worked this hard to catch up, and her cultivation already reached the peak of Rank 10 God, mostly because Firia stayed with Alex in the Upper World while she was cultivating in Eulja.

"Right. Can you tell me more about it?" Alex asked, wanting to know Alicia more during her stay in Eulja. After all, Alicia had already seen his progress through the system, so he needed to know more about her. Maybe he would ask her again later.

Ilumi was glad to talk about it.

As they talked about her, the person in question finally turned up after sorting all the information from Nelson. She put down a few papers on the table before looking at Alex.

"The situation is a bit interesting, so you can choose what to do during this period." Alicia smiled.

Alex saw her smile and realized that she wanted to do something naughty. He looked at the paper and raised his eyebrows.

"Interesting."