"Come, let's sleep! The right side is mine, so you stay in the middle!" Lupa energetically exclaimed.
Vincent smirked. He went and lay in the middle of the bed. His strength started to wane upon the touch of the heavenly mattress. Sleeping on flat and sometimes uneven ground with a layer or two of fabric underneath made Vincent think he was on a goddess's bosom and not a bed.
"Vincent about what you what you agreed in the caveee..." Lupa licked her lips while thinking of their agreement about mating at an appropriate time. However, she was soon interrupted by Vincent's snoring.
Vincent, "ZZZZZZZZ..."
"Hehe." Ester giggled. She sat on the left side of the bed and placed Plow on Vincent's stomach to sleep on. Then she continued with a smirk, "You lost this time."
"But, but. Mate, mate..." Lupa suddenly became devastated.
Ester felt bad teasing Lupa and reassured her, "Vincent is very tired. We all are tired. It's been a long day of doing our best to hide our identities. I think we all deserve a good night's sleep without the need to fear danger."
"Thank you, sister. You are right. I'll make sure to win next time, though." Lupa decided to accept the outcome and lay next to Vincent like she always does.
This time, however, a female fox was already occupying a part of Vincent. With a hint of jealousy, she wrapped her arms around his right arm and closed her eyes. Similar to Vincent, Lupa joined the melody of snoring a few seconds later.
"I'm a bit nervous to sleep beside the man I love on a bed. But it's not that bad since you are already asleep. I wonder what would happen if..." Ester abruptly stopped when she remembered of Kazumi's unseen presence.
Ester's face flared red from embarrassment, and then she quickly tried to sleep. She hid her head under the pillow until falling asleep a while later. The bed is almost full, with not much space left. Two humans, one beastman, one fox slept happily and had a wonderful dream that night.
[This view feels pleasant. After suffering to the brink of becoming deranged, you can finally rest on a bed in peace. I hope this will be our reoccurring future. A safe rest without worrying about danger.]
[You almost died more than a dozen times, but your resolve to stay alive saved you in the end. I won't do it tonight, but I will speak with the girls about the future. I hope they choose to become stronger and grow, both in experience and personality.]
Kazumi felt happy for the three. They earned a good night's rest, and so, she decided to keep an eye out for trouble. She used Soul Export and checked the nearby bedrooms with her wisp-like body only Vincent could see.
In the twin's room, the twins Lenn and Renn had tears trickling even in their sleep.
In the adjacent room, Tula was sleeping on the bed while Yula was on a stool. Her arms were on a nightstand, and her hands were covering her face. She was quietly crying while everyone in the house fell asleep.
As the days passed, Yula tried her best to remove any negative thoughts and harden her will. Yula even quit her job as she couldn't take the waiting much longer. Sometimes, the worrying of the missing family members kept her up at night.
Kazumi felt sad about the loss Tula's family suffered. She doesn't have memories of her past life. Only her ego remained in the last bit of her soul. Kazumi could understand the sadness of a loss as she experienced it in Vincent's memories.
Kazumi then decided to look outside the house before returning to Vincent's side. Her range seemed to have increased, and the distance she could travel away from Vincent extended.
Looking around from the yard, she noticed a man wearing ordinary-looking clothes. The man sat on the ground, but he didn't look like he was doing anything.
[Aha. You sneaky rat are using magic. Hehe, you can't fool my eyes. It looks like the soldiers are keeping an eye on us after all. Well, it's a blessing in disguise since they might protect us if we are about to get mugged.]
Kazumi used Mana Sense and understood the sitting man was channeling magic in the ground. She believed it was to track the movement of nearby people and follow Vincent, Ester, or Lupa if they went out of the house.
[Having a mage unintentionally protect us is convenient, but I hope he wasn't here when Vincent materialized the corpse. Well, there's nothing else eye-catching, so I'll return to the uneventful sleeping harem.]
Kazumi returned to Vincent's side and rested with an eye open, just in case of an emergency. Being cautious became second nature to her.
In another house, Ben and his wife drank and mourned for the people they treated like family. Ben and his wife were devastated. Only doing this could ease their pain.
The table was covered with aged wine and on the ground were many gifts they received from Koss's family and the bachelor Kass. The gifts ranged from fighting equipment to drawings made by Tula in her younger years. In a way, the old Tula is still missing.
*Day 50*
*Thud, thud, thud... BAM!*
The door quickly slammed open with a strong kick. The loud thud of the door colliding against the wall woke Vincent, Ester, Lupa, and Plow from the scare. Kazumi, however, never said a word.
Lenn, "You! I What did you do to my elder sister!"
Renn, "You pervert! Have you even seduced my elder sister!"
Lenn, "How many women do you need to satisfy you? Leave our elder sister out of it!"
Renn, "I've never thought a bed could get this full... Ahem. I won't forgive you for what you have done!"
Lenn and Renn barged into the spare bedroom in an irritated mood. After saying what their tounges couldn't hold, their eyes red from all the crying of the previous day lowered down and stared at a particular spot.
*Yawn*
"Ahh... morning, big brother, hehe." Tula lay on the bed between Vincent's and Ester's legs. In her hands was Plow getting caressed for being clean and soft.
Tula was in a great mood. So much that she wanted to play with Plow before waking Vincent, Ester, and Lupa up as her mother asked to do. The deep sleeping Plow that kept sleeping even if its fur was getting brushed opened its eyes, all because of Tula's twin brother's misunderstanding.
A couple of minutes earlier, Lenn and Renn woke in the morning with a pair of sore eyes from all the crying. However, a smile managed to rise at the thought of their precious sister's return. The twins idolized their sister along with their father and uncle.
The two brothers looked up to their sister for choosing to become a combat soldier instead of a support soldier. Combat soldiers fought and trained while support soldiers would help higher-ups with their work, such as messengers, cleaners, and secretaries.
Unfortunately, their sister wasn't in her room. She wasn't in her mother's room either. The two then hurried for the kitchen, but only their mother was there.
"She went to wake the others up. I let them sleep in our spare bedroom since they have done so much for us. It's the least our family can offer." Yula weakly said. Her face looked exhausted, and her throat sounded sore from the crying she did last night. Yula didn't look like she slept that much.
"Aren't two enough!" Lenn angrily stated after noticing Tula ignoring him.
"Elder sister is ours. Keep your hand off of her!" Renn added in a menacing tone.
After hearing this, Ester and Lupa chuckled at the two jealous sister-loving teenagers. Kazumi tried her best, but frantically giggling was the minimum she could do.
[Hehe. You stole their sister, you playboy, hehe. I hope the bed is strong enough, hehe. I wonder how you slept comfortably with so many women sleeping beside you, hehe.]
Kazumi couldn't help but tease.
Yula hurriedly entered the room after hearing such a loud commotion. She moved her weak gaze on Tula, but Tula was happily petting the little blue fox as if she was in a world of her own. Yula raised a light smile and remembered how the young Tula would love to sleep with her parents and sometimes sneak into their bed in the morning.
"Tula, why don't you help me make breakfast. Your friends gave me some fruit yesterday." Yula waved her hand at Tula to come over.
"But... but I want to play with big brother and big sisters." Tula wanted to stay. She wanted to have fun with Vincent, Ester, Lupa, and Plow.
"Your mother needs you. She needs to eat something healthy from yesterday's news. You are her daughter, Tula. It would be best if you stayed strong for your mother, so go and help your mother out. Don't act as we will run away." Vincent acted as an older brother, impressing Yula with his behavior and kindness.
Yula could now fully understand how her daughter could come to terms with her father's and uncle's loss. She thought it was a blessing for her daughter's saviors to be the three in front of her. She saw them as kind, warm, and friendly individuals.
However, the same couldn't be said for the jealous sister-loving twins. Lenn and Renn twitched their eyes at this eyesore turn of events. Their sister was appreciating Vincent and not them. Furthermore, the two were being treated similarly to strangers.
"Okey. Plow will stay with me, hehe." Tula got up and went to her mother with a bright childish smile. She showed Plow to her mother, and then the two left for the kitchen.
Plow looked confused, but it didn't try to attack or run away. The little blue fox might have given up on running entirely. However, it glanced one last time at Vincent, or more specifically, on his stomach where it slept before Tula took Plow with her to the kitchen.
The tension in the spare bedroom didn't stop nor diminish. It erupted instead. After Tula and Yula left for the kitchen, Renn and Lenn challenged Vincent to a duel.
"We challenge you to a duel to regain our sister from your brainwashing and then kick you out. We are thankful for what you did for us, but you won't take our sister with you." Lenn said while Renn nodded and then added, "We are very strong for our age."
[Oh my, these sister-loving fools are up for a good beating, I suppose, why don't you show them who's the boss?]
However, Vincent was of a different thought. He possesses two classes. They are strong, yet their limitations are a burden to such power they provide.
Both classes are dependent on the midnight soul reset, while the only class that could boost his power simply lasts for ten minutes each day. The two classes owned situational abilities that needed to be saved instead of used frugally.