Across the room, Grayfia noticed his tense nerves. It didn't take her long to figure out that he had some problems. As strong as he was she doubted her little strength would be of aid to him. But, she wasn't a fighter, she was his maid.
'Should I make something that master enjoys to ease his mind? Although I am not skilled enough to cook at a high level, but if it can bring him a moment of peace, I want to try.' Closing the book in her hands she stood up.
The first hurdle to the plan was to know what he liked. In the time she had watched him, Adam didn't have any dish he particularly favored over the other. He ate whatever he was given or cooked whatever he could. Pickiness wasn't in him aside from him favoring spicy food. But, that was what set this high hurdle.
'There is no way I can ask it directly, I need to figure something out quick.' Her mind raced, but she couldn't find the answer. That was until she looked around.
The Grand Library.
In Adam's own words, it had everything he knew of. So, the chance that it contained knowledge of what he liked and disliked was high. Grayfia had nothing to lose, so she tried it.
'I need books on what Master likes.' Closing her eyes she hoped for the books that interested her.
Unlike her expectations, she felt a connection to several books that had left their shelves to reach her. When she opened her eyes one of such books had entered the floor. However, a problem arose.
The book didn't appear to be a cookbook or one that had his interests written down. The book's title was 'Highschool DXD' something weird and unintelligible. And a familiar person had graced the cover page.
'Is that Rias-sama?' Shocked at the discovery, Grayfia felt a tinge of happiness that she came up due to this query. But, a sense of confusion took over her when a few more books came into her vision.
One book had a blonde woman with a diamond on her forehead, another had one wielding a blood-red sword with long black hair, and another had the picture of a dark-skinned woman whose body was barely covered by lightning. It felt strange as she couldn't understand how these books came out as the names she read made little to no sense considering what she hoped for.
'But if I read them, maybe I'll understand?'
"Nooo! Wait!!!!" Adam's scream made her snap her head in his direction. By the time she looked, he had already reached her to snatch the book from her fingertips.
'These are the manga and novels I made to pass time! How did they come out?' Adam blushed noticing the books.
Being alone for years, he tried to remember the manga and novels he had read back on Earth. Then later he started to write and draw what he could remember of the main story so he could have something for entertainment.
However, his memory of the real stories was foggy and incorrect compared to the original. What he created could only be described as inconsistent and shoddy fanfics using the characters he knew of. All those books now found their home in the library after rotting in his storage for years. But, never in a million years did he think that someone would pull them out.
'For it to bypass the multi-level barriers and shields… just how strongly did she want to read them? How did she even know of them?' Adam couldn't let this dark past of his come to light. The stories filled with cringe lines that deviated so much from the original that they couldn't even stick to the basic settings.
At the time he didn't mind because it kept him distracted from how lonely he was, but he wouldn't let them come up. So, he purged them. All 2 million books that had piled up in the library, not even a speck of them remained now.
However, because of his extreme focus on hiding his embarrassing past. He had forgotten about the moment and where he was.
"M-Master…" Grayfia's whisper brought him back.
Seeing her he was stunned, the silver-haired beauty who sported a cold look had a blush spread across her fair face. From up close he could see her long lashes lowering feeling his gaze as her ears turned rosy too. Her position didn't help either, right there in the middle of the pillar and him.
'Master's so close… Does Master want that?' The big hand that grabbed her wrist had a lot of power and the blush on his face when he leaned so close. She couldn't help her mind going on a spicy path.
'I don't mind but… in here…? No wait, I shouldn't question it. As a maid… I should be ready for it.' The silver lining was that she had forgotten about the books. Instead, she closed her eyes and let herself get pushed against the pillar by his weight.
'No wait it isn't like that!!' Understanding her thoughts Adam had the idea to move back. But, another person arrived.
"Ah…" Opening the door, Darkness was surprised to see them in that position. The master was pressing his maid against the pillar, and the maid closed her eyes to offer her lips to the master. The perfect setup in her eyes.
"Sorry… I'll just vanish." She closed the door with an apologetic smile for ruining the moment.
Darkness woke up a few minutes ago and went around searching for Adam. Seeing Grayfia missing too, she thought of opening all the doors till she found them. And she did find the two by surprise.
'How bold of them to do it in an unlocked area. B-But that's got its own charm… Someone walking in when you are in the middle… Oh, the humiliation~!' Yet, she wasn't surprised to see him all over Grayfia.
'As expected of him, he wasted no time pouncing on his maid the moment he was done with me, hehe~! Well done Darkness, you've got yourself a fine master.' Adam's face went blank hearing her thoughts from the other side of the door.
Regardless, he sighed and looked at Grayfia. She still had her eyes closed as if she hadn't heard Darkness. Stepping back he tapped her shoulder once. Now the red eyes stared at him with visible confusion.
"I am sorry about that. I kind of overreacted there." Adam didn't know if he could bullshit his way through this, but he wasn't willing to try.
"It… is fine, Master." The fair face turned crimson. Her almost inaudible words reached him in the quiet library.
"Hmm, let's go out and deal with her." Adam smiled as Grayfia followed him through the door fanning her face.
Outside, Darkness watched them in surprise after quickly moving back from the door. Before he exited she had pressed her ears against the door.
"Done already? I didn't even hear anything…" Her disappointment was immeasurable.
Outside, Darkness watched them in surprise after quickly moving back from the door. Before he exited she had pressed her ears against the door.
"Done already? I didn't even hear anything…" Her disappointment was immeasurable.
"What were you hoping to hear pervert?" Adam's sharp words made her blush, which in turn made the situation even worse.
So, he decided to move on from this and send Darkness back to her world. But, a problem arose.
"You're not keeping me caged in some small cabinet?" Her shock was imminent, and so was his frustration after reading her crazy thoughts.
She expected him to hold her captive and only feed her watery soup and hard bread. All while taking out his depraved sexual fantasies on her. It would continue till she died from constant physical and mental torture, then she'd be discarded for losing her worth as a sex slave.
'I am not that type of monster, you know?' Although he would've liked to retort with much more. Adam left it alone because Darkness had a special mind, he was aware of that now.
"Anyways, here is the card. If you ever feel like coming back, use it." Even if he didn't want to, such easy contracts wouldn't come back with ease. The chance to get more clients from her world also had high potential. He hoped the other women weren't like her though.
"You mean that if I want to make a contract like that again… I need to come here… on my own?" Adam nodded at her inquiry.
In front of his eye, she gulped as the blush deepened. Her breath started to get heavy and her signature depraved grin made an appearance on her pink lips.
'He wants me to willingly come here to be used? I should've known he would use such tactics... rather than forcefully keeping me caged, he is letting me go after he gave me a taste of pleasure… He already knows that I would fail to resist and come crawling back to him… such evil schemes, such pervertedness… I've truly been hooked by a terrible… terrible man!' Darkness swooned holding the card close to her heart like the most valued treasure, when in turn thinking of it as the key to a slaughterhouse.
"Master…?" Grayfia saw Adam's face and tilted her head. He looked troubled. But, when he waved his hand to reassure her, she chose to stand down.
"Well, that is all. You can leave." He brought Darkness out of her thoughts.
"Oh, OK." She walked towards the door and opened it. But instead of leaving her eyes kept glancing towards him the entire time.
"What?" He asked, wondering what held her up.
"Um… are you really letting me go? Like isn't this when you say 'Letting you roam free? You thought! I never meant to let you go in the first place, ahaha!' Then lock me up in the cabinet?" Her passionate words filled the room with awkwardness.
"I guess I'll do it myself." He smiled making her eyes brighten.
"You'll confine me like a slave?" No one had ever hoped to be a slave with such willingness.
"No, I mean kicking you out." Adam felt so done with this.
"Oh! That sounds great too! To be rejected even when I offer myself… Such humili—!" Yet, he wasn't saying he'd kick her in a physical sense that she thought. Instead, he waved his hand and she vanished from the shop.
'She probably still enjoyed that.' He sighed knowing how close that was to the truth. But, Adam decided to let it go for now.
For a long hour, the living room of the shop had sunk into silence. The two thought back on what a hectic day it had been. But more than that, the recent event weighed on their minds.
"Grayfia, is everything ok?" He turned to his only maid.
"…Yes, everything is perfect on my end. Is there anything that troubles Master?" Her eyes tried to look for anything that worried him with a voice full of concern. Yet, she couldn't see the problem, because she wasn't looking in a mirror.
'She has this look of disappointment on her face. Must be because of what happened in the library… I should've been careful… that is almost assault you know?' Adam thought for a bit before shaking his head.
He had to put this on the back of his mind to deal with the main problem. That was the second Shop owner. Seeing the possibility of them biding their time to prepare against him, he hoped to have a quick showdown with them to end any future troubles.
'It would be better if I didn't have to fight. If they have a shop then they should have importance to the Goddess.' He felt it himself, every time he completed a contract something would pass through him using the contracts as a gateway.
Since the contract came into existence because of the Goddess of Wishes, the shop, and the main point of making contracts.
'She gets resolved Wishes that empower her without having to deal with them.' He felt it himself too after he talked with the other version of the Goddess, the darkness in those wishes was akin to a disgusting swamp.
But, he wasn't affected by them, that seemed like a setup or another reason that he hadn't discovered yet.
'Trying to contact the other Shop Owner has more positives than negatives.' Adam took out the World Hopping ticket which would become the crux of his plan.
This ticket allowed him to travel to other worlds at random. But, if he wanted to he could tamper with it to arrive at his desired location. To do that he needed some specific conditions to meet. A random world hopping ticket, something of a connection to the target he wanted to reach, and a custom locater spell to pinpoint his target.
He had the ticket, and he had analyzed the divinity connected to the contract when he scanned Vult. If he used that as a locator Adam would have a compass that would point in the correct direction. It still wouldn't allow him to search for that person's Shop. But, it wasn't like they'd stay in the shop forever.
'When dealing with contracts, leaving the shop for requests or collection of the payment is inevitable. Not to mention going to help the contractees when they are in danger. Doing that leaves traces, if I can reach a world they had already entered then that would create an opportunity for contact. Entering a world they hadn't entered yet might make them turn away if they want to.' It wasn't a simple spell he planned on making, but the situation was too serious for him to go easy on it.
The chances that he could end up in a world that the shop owner had left behind were also high. That would result in wasted effort. That was why he planned on modifying the ticket in such a way that it took him to a place where the Shop owner had the highest possibility of appearing soon.
'Before a person arrives somewhere, their intention to reach that place is already there. All I have to do is grasp that intention.' What he planned was an elaborate prediction because reading the future wasn't possible. The Shop provided several protections when the operator was inside.
If someone else aside from him tried to do this, they would find themselves in an unsolvable problem. But, he rearranged the spell and rewrote the ticket in 10 minutes flat.
So, the first step of the plan was realized.
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