John had to admit that his resolve not to flirt with Magoi’s daughter was shaking a bit when he laid eyes on her. In the eight months since he had seen her for the first and only time, she had developed into a deeply appealing direction. All Magus kids came more after their mother in the looks department and Lee was no exception to that. Long, straight hair a shade of brown so dark it bordered on black, a face full of attractive and symmetrically sorted features, dark eyes and full, pale pink lips, she had all the hallmarks of a beauty. While that had been true then, she had developed quite a lot in all of these departments in subtle ways that elevated her.

What truly appealed to John was the way she displayed herself. Dark clothes that were simultaneously baggy but stuck close enough that he got a good idea of her balanced curves. She wore no unnecessary extras. Her hairstyle was incredibly simple, the most styled thing about it were her bangs and those were clearly the work of whoever cut her hair. When it came to taking care of it, the simple brush treatment seemed to be all she needed. Her skin was appropriately pale for the season, but John had the feeling it came from her spending the majority of her time indoors. In her hand, she held her smartphone and was rapidly tapping away at something that covered too much of her screen to be a keyboard.

To put it plain and simple, she was a gamer girl. Not a fake one, the genuine item and one that happened to be attractive to boot. Previous to his eighteenth birthday, John would have immediately been struck by her. Past his eighteenth birthday, he would have had the confidence to actually talk to her. Today, he managed to suppress his desire to get to know her intimately.

‘You’re way too easily enticed by attractive women,’ John told himself, while bridging the rest of the distance. Magoi, Mabirl, Magnus and his girlfriend Nina were already present to greet the new arrival. They were joined by a few of John’s haremettes, namely Rave, Aclysia and Gnome. “Welcome to the Hudson Barrier,” he said and extended his hand in greeting.

“Yeah, thanks,” Lee responded, looking up from her phone long enough to shake his hand. Somehow that asocial behaviour just intrigued him more. The hasty way with which she sneaked glances at him and how fast she was to retreat her hand, they were suspicious in a way. “You didn’t really need to go through the trouble of giving me my own house though.”

“Well, your father insisted,” John told her and looked up to the recently created accommodation. It wasn’t particularly impressive, a single-story house with a cellar, one and a half bathrooms (one only containing a toilet and a sink), one kitchen, one bedroom and three other rooms of varying sizes. The walls were simple white, the windows squares, and the door a reddish-brown wood. A small green area surrounded it, but nothing had been planted there except grass.

The location was more important than the house itself. It was within throwing distance of the Fateweaver university. To be more exact, it was within throwing distance of the university grounds, which were still expanding through numerous private facilities popping up in the cluster. For a student, it was the optimal location.

“That’s nice, I guess,” Lee said and finally pocketed her phone. “I mean, thanks for giving me my own place, but some random flat somewhere would have done. I don’t need the gifts.”

“I can respect that,” John said.

“It’s not a gift, young woman,” Mabirl chided her way into the conversation. “It’s a token of expectation. Concentrate on your studies and make something of yourself.”

Lee rolled her eyes like only a rebellious child could. “Sure. I’ll keep studying Fateweaving. Whatever shuts you up, Mom.”

“And you better mean it, Lee, or you will never hear the end of it!”

“It’ll be fine, honey,” Magoi tried to calm down his wife. “No need to make a scene.”

John could practically hear how the strict mother pressed her lips together behind her mask. “Fine,” she said and then looked over to the other man John had brought along. “You must be Maximillian. I’ve heard about you.”

“Only the best, I hope,” Maximillian said and bowed elegantly. In doing so, he raised his walking stick for a moment. Despite being a healthy young Abyssal, the gravity mage still maintained a foot injury, caused by Thana during her first awakening. Like the scar close to John’s neck, the goddess of genocide’s power only prevented complete healing. That was, if her will got suppressed long enough for the original wound to be mended. Otherwise, the bleeding would never stop.

“I would call it entertaining,” Mabirl said. “You’re definitely a friend of John Newman, I mean that in all of the complimenting and berating ways.”

“I’m also the reason your son met his better-looking partner,” Maximillian added with a grin. By that he meant that he had picked the strip club Nina used to work at. The Little Whirl was not an establishment John would have ever picked for a meeting between guys. Not while he was sober anyway.

“Let’s not talk about that too much,” the older woman suggested. Mabirl didn’t exactly like that her son had hooked up with a stripper, but she liked Nina too much to raise that point repeatedly. For all of her stringent stances on social matters, the housewife was open-minded enough to marry what she wanted to happen with what had actually happened. John found that admirable, even if he found himself disagreeing with her every so often.

“How about we get inside?” Lee backed up her mother, for entirely different reasons. The Gamer knew the look in her eyes, he had had the same feeling every time his grandparents had come over and he was expected to stay downstairs until they left. There was just so much more gaming to do and the quicker they introduced her to her home, the quicker she could set up her PC in it.

Not that she would need to do that. “Yeah, let’s go,” John backed her up. Part of that was because he was attracted and that made him quick to butter her up, but mostly he said it because he wanted to free her. She clearly wasn’t comfortable with all of these strangers around.

“Hope you’ll like it here,” Rave said and put her hands on Lee’s shoulders. “Let’s go then, go, go!” The Lightbearer must have also sensed the youngest Magus child’s want to get this show over. Either that or Rave was just using her social intuition again. Somehow, Lee didn’t seem to mind the handling and let herself be pushed into the building she wanted to enter anyway. That she seemed alright with the prolonged physical contact was the bigger surprise there. All Lee did was blush a little, but it seemed more of the happy variety.

John got half a view of Lee’s ass in the process of moving into the house. It was rather mediocre. Attractive, as most women’s behinds tended to be, but most comparable to Nia’s before her training. Squats could doubtlessly fix that; Lee struck him as the kind of person that only looked fit because magic allowed her too. Observe reinforced this.

Regardless of whether or not squats could have fixed what little issues John could currently spot with her figure, he was happy to have a reason to be less attracted to her. Even if his Wisdom was high enough to resist temptation, it was easier if she wasn’t so much of what he wanted.

Once they were inside and had all slipped out of their shoes, John started the tour. “As you can see, the house is fully outfitted in terms of necessary furniture,” he said, pointing at a light-brown closet that stood against the red-painted wall. “Enough to store your clothes in. If you want pictures or carpets, you will have to get those yourself though.”

“Eh, wood is easier to clean anyway, so I don’t mind.” Lee kept her eyes away from him, while he guided her from the entranceway to the living room. Once there she looked around the spacious and largely empty room. There was a couch, a low table, a television, some chairs, and a dinner table right next to the counter that acted as the barrier between this room and the adjacent kitchen. “Is that a Roomba?” she asked pointing at a circular robot docked to its station.

“Yep,” John responded and then pointed at a simple desk nearby. “And that’s a gaming PC. I got you two monitors to go along with it. The chair has an integrated massage function.”

“Awesome,” Lee declared, her enthusiastic tone getting her mother to sigh.

“You get a house and the only thing you’re thankful for is the computer? Typical.”

“I mean, I get it,” John told the housewife. “More space is just more space to clean. Most of us gamers are pretty happy to have a bed, a table, a kitchen and a bathroom.”

“They don’t call you the Gamer for nothing,” Lee said to him with the hint of a smile.

‘Exceedingly dangerous,’ John thought, already forming a smooth reply. “Between earning all my money and expanding my political sphere, I do have some time for entertaining things.”

“There’s a pretty big catalogue of articles about your entertaining lifestyle.” Lee’s dark eyes finally met John’s. Their gazes connected too long for a simple look. Was there just a hint of sexuality in there, perhaps? What kind of articles had she been reading? Could she have grown an interest in him since their first meeting? While he had already been impressive back then, as Magoi’s daughter, Lee had probably met her fair share of above average individuals. John was, by now, a supreme entity in terms of power. His Charisma had increased by 200 points as well, which would do one or two things.

Lee Magus’ face started to grow red, but she kept stubbornly staring. John only noticed how small she was now, compared to him. She was bigger than Eliza but smaller than Rave. By nature, she stood at an angle that gave her gaze that adorable upwards angle. John looked back with his natural confidence. For a moment, he forgot who he was looking at and openly smiled.

“E-HEM!” Magoi cleared his throat in a threatening fashion and violently pulled both of them back into reality. John hastily looked away and Lee mimicked the motion. “If you would continue the tour, John,” the High Fateweaver said in a hard tone. Although he was less strict than his wife, the married couple shared a lot of the same views on social matters.

“Yes, of course,” John kept his voice steady. Catching a glimpse of Maximillian, he saw his friend’s mockingly raised eyebrow.

‘Did you not warn me to not do exactly what you are doing right now?’ his expression spelled out.

‘Well, how was I supposed to know she would give me a bunch of signals?!’ he wanted to throw back. After that moment they had just had, the Observe window painted a very obvious picture of whether or not she was interested in him. Rather than dwell on that, he kept going on as if nothing had happened. “Do you want to inspect the kitchen or should we skip that and move onto the laundry room?”

“Ah yes, giving a woman the choice between making dinner or washing clothes,” Lee responded in a dry, deep tone. That her voice was otherwise so perfectly feminine made the sarcasm come across that much cleaner. It seemed her vocal cords had quite the range. “Classic.”

‘Oh my God, she is sassy too…’ John took a pause to digest that. ‘Why do you dream of such a tempting world, Gaia? You’re putting a pudding in front of me that is delicious and filled with poison.’ “I guess looking at a tumble dryer isn’t that exciting,” he conceded.

“I disagree vehemently,” Aclysia stated. “The model chosen is the newest in a fusion of magic and technology. Not only does it dry clothing in less than thirty minutes, it can also scent them in a variety of ways.”

“Really?” Mabirl asked. “That sounds handy.”

“It most certainly is,” Aclysia explained to the fellow housekeeper. “I personally upgraded to a Titan series model recently. It’s not necessary for the normal household, but its increased load capacity and ability to switch from washing to tumble drying in the same session are truly helpful.”

“That does sound splendid. Why have I never heard of this before?”

“They were a small company until a few months ago. I invited them to the Hudson Barrier, promising investment if they did so.”

John was vaguely aware that Aclysia had been undertaking projects like this with her allowance. It had started with the weaponized maid trying to get her own income, so she didn’t have to ‘take’ from her Master. After some talks about investments and revenue streams with Scarlett, she had started building her own little economic realm of advanced household appliances.

“Alright, let’s just say that the stairs are right there,” John said and pointed at a corner of the room.

Lee looked at it and tilted her head questioningly. Not only was there no stairway, there was a sizable lowboy standing next to the wall. “…Is this some kind of hidden room?” she asked and approached carefully. When the sound of her steps turned hollow, she hummed. “Give me a second,” she requested and looked around.

John enjoyed watching her figure out the lock. The design decision existed purely to maximize living space, a second door at the back of the house allowed access with a regular key, not to serve as some kind of riddle. Still, at this moment, it served as a minor game.

First, Lee figured out the dimension of the affected space. Then she looked at the lowboy. There was an odd moment where she squatted down, only to give John a glance and then go on all fours. While she had the clear purpose of inspecting the legs of the lowboy, that she was pointing her rear at him could not have been an accident. The gesture did not miss its mark.

With her slouchy top pulled a bit upwards by movement and her jeans stretching, the form of her ass became more pronounced. John had to upgrade his earlier judgement of ‘mediocre’ to ‘above average’, which still put her below any girls of the harem. The shape of her hips was all that he needed to estimate that a dedicated set of squats and lunges every day would do a lot on that front though. The Gamer had developed an eye for such things.

With a bit of a guilty conscience, John moved his stare away from her behind before Magoi could take offense again. The guilt there was not born from him looking away. Rather, it was because while his eyes may have looked elsewhere, his gaze was very much still resting on her ass. Because his sight came from the Possession of a pair of contact lenses, he could readjust where he was looking without moving anything about his head.

Usually, he kept that magical view straightforward. That was easiest for the human brain to handle. That didn’t just include his, but also that of people he had a conversation with. His eyes just staring blankly ahead would decrease his likeability.

Today, he made an exception to sneak a peek at Magoi’s attractive daughter. She clearly wanted it, but that didn’t make him feel less bad about it.

“So, the legs are fused to the floor,” Lee remarked, getting back up as if she had done absolutely nothing wrong. All of her blushing seemed to come from a lack of experience in sexual matters, not daring. Honest uncertainty and obvious flirtations, an absolutely lethal combo for someone such as John. “Couldn’t let me choose where I put the lowboy, huh?”

‘And she is still sassy,’ he lamented in his mind. “I’m sorry,” he bantered back instinctively. “Does it offend you much? Do you need a cocktail and a massage? I’ll… leave and send someone to provide you both in a hurry, if you need it so bad.” He wanted to offer doing it himself, but there were three pairs of eyes drilling into his backside. Even Magnus was getting bothered now. Maximillian and Rave snickered in the background. ‘Reign yourself in, Newman.’

“A-ha!” Lee let out an uncharacteristically loud and triumphant sound when she found a rectangular button between two segments of the slider. The wooden floor under her began to sink in, each board becoming a new staircase.

“It’s called Shiftwood,” John told her. “We harvest it over at the Guild Hall.”

“What, you do it yourself?”

“Once or twice, I did,” the Gamer said. “It’s a nice break from the paper mines and good for my public image.” He had to raise his voice to keep talking as Lee went further in. “So NOW you are interested in the laundry room?”

“More the room than the laundry,” Lee shouted back and returned pretty quickly. “Barren down there. Do you prefer it that way?”

John had made a tactical mistake. Even if he kept his biggest flirts to himself, the usual banter had obviously emboldened Magoi’s daughter where she asked that with a coquettish smile. There was no way to misinterpret what she meant. The rest of the Magus family first looked at her and then at him.