“I agree.”
The sound of footsteps followed the familiar voice as a woman, wearing her signature maid uniform, emerged from the night.
“She’s a sweet girl. Even I can’t help but want to hug her and store her in my pocket.”
Julius chuckled. “I think she'd bite the hand trying to pull her back out.”
Bea giggled as well, arriving next to him.
“Do I hear your approval then?”
The maid smiled. “Naturally. I can’t wait to coddle her and treat her as a younger sister.”
“Heh, she’s definitely someone that would trigger your tendencies. Speaking of which, I can also see Severa absolutely adoring her.”
The woman narrowed her eyes. “It’s your fault, master. All of your other wives are so prideful that it’s impossible for us to spoil them.”
He tilted his head, pointing at himself.
“...I do enjoy being spoiled, though?”
“That’s because you’re a big baby. And sometimes, we'd like an interaction that doesn't end in sex."
Julius grinned, hugging her waist from the side. “So you do want that the rest of the time?"
“...I exercise my right to remain silent.”
“There’s a law for that now?”
Her silent stare was filled with words.
“Still,” she glossed over his question, “I definitely didn’t expect you to fall in love with a Japanese woman.”
“I thought your type was strictly European women with a huge ego, a traumatic past, and the tendency to murder you.”
“Hey.”
That was slander.
He had a perfectly reasonable taste in women.
“Caly doesn’t have a huge ego.”
“Yes, but her past is the definition of traumatic.”
She crossed her arms. “And so is Cassy, before you mention her.”
Her smirk seemed to convey, ‘Try harder.’
“Anna—”
“Wants to murder you for always disturbing her.”
As he racked his brain, he unconsciously walked forward.
Every name that appeared in his mind somehow fit one of her three categories.
His face slowly warped in realization.
Was he attracted to…problematic women?
“Told you,” Bea nonchalantly said behind him.
His eye twitched.
Then, a memory flashed through his mind.
“Come to think of it…I have several grievances with you, my dear maid.”
Footsteps echoed behind him, approaching him.
“What are they, master?”
She definitely knew.
He exhaled.
“For starters…”
Julius flipped. “Why didn’t you tell me the cave was under a lake?”
The corners of her lips raised slightly.
“If I had known, I would’ve asked something else to take me here.”
He lifted the hem of his robe, a few drops of water still dripping down to the ground.
The man stepped closer. “I was drenched when I arrived and had to wait there for an hour for the air to dry me.”
“Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be if Mio entered earlier? She’d see a miserable cat fresh out of a bath!”
Bea coughed, and then covered her mouth. “...No, she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t have been able to see past the shadows.”
“But she will see it soon.”
“...What?”
“I took some good pictures. Wanna see?”
Julius’ mouth hung open at her revelation.
“No, I don’t! In fact, delete them!”
Despite his words, the maid still retrieved her phone and began to fiddle around with it.
“This one’s nice,” she flipped her phone and showed it to Julius. “You look like a wannabe witchcraft practitioner.”
In the photo, Julius was sitting on the couch, his expression serious and menacing. At least, there was an attempt to look like that, which was not helped by the fact that his hair drooped down and covered half of his face, and that his wet robe was sticking to his body.
Before he could respond, Bea took her phone back and scrolled through her library of his embarrassing moments, giggling to herself.
Julius growled.
At first, he had been fascinated by humanity's ability to preserve memories in perfect detail. Althea, in particular, would have loved this back in the day.
Now he understood the drawback.
Some memories were never meant to survive the moment.
“Oh, come on, master,” she finally put her phone away. “You got yourself a cute wife at the end of the night. All’s well that ends well, no?”
“...That’s beside the point.” He looked away, grumbling.
Then, Julius raised a brow, an object behind her entering his view.
The fountain.
His lips curled.
“...Don’t you dare, Julius,” Bea warned, noticing his line of sight.
Immediately, he shouted. “Shadows, restrict her!”
Tendrils of darkness shot from the ground, coiling around her arms and legs. A few of them also wrapped around her torso, leaving her breasts between them, while some went around her inner thighs, raising her skirt and revealing her black underwear.
Bea gasped at his audacity.
“You dare use my own spells against me, Julius?!”
“...What?”
“...Nothing. I’ll explain some pop culture references for you later.”
“Anyways,” she shot him a glare. “Release me, Julius!”
Julius laughed exaggeratedly like an evil conqueror. “Prepare to face my wrath!”
“Water! You know what to do!”
In the next moment, a surge of water blasted from the fountain, pillaring skyward before heading down towards the helpless maid.
“Kyaa!!” Bea shrieked as her body was drenched in what he liked to call, poetic justice.
Her beautiful, obsidian hair seemed to shrink as it stuck to her face, a few strands entering her mouth. The shadows immediately dispersed when the water made contact, as though making sure that every part of her uniform received equal treatment from the wet onslaught.
With her restrictions gone, she sat on the ground with her knees together and her feet tucked to either side of her hips, supporting herself with her hands behind her.
Julius smiled satisfiedly as Bea pulled away the strands in her mouth.
“Master, you made me wet.”
“That was the intention,” he said flatly.
She feigned wiping her tears, though the water was definitely present.
“Is this how you treat your loving and devoted maid?”
“Yes, when the loving and devoted maid pulled a prank on their master.”
“...How cruel.”
Bea pouted, unable to refute his words.
The sight made him chuckle softly.
“Alright, that’s enough playing around.”
Julius looked in a random direction and nodded knowingly, as though addressing an invisible figure.
Suddenly, warm air began to gather around Bea as all the moisture on her skin and in her clothes began to vaporize.
Soon, even her hair had completely dried, returning to its previous luscious look. It was as if time itself had rewound to when Bea first materialized a few minutes ago.
Bea scanned her body, patting all around to make sure that nothing was out of place.
When she noticed no imperfections, the maid rose, brushing the dust behind her even though they were all cleaned already.
She then formally bowed at Julius.
“Are you satisfied now?”
He narrowed his eyes. “...What if I decided to leave you like that for an hour as well?”
“I knew you wouldn’t.”
“...”
The cheeky maid rose and smirked mockingly at him. “You’re too soft and gentle when it comes to us that you could never punish us.”
“It makes you so easy to exploit.”
A vein bulged on his forehead.
“You really want to be punished, huh?”
In two large strides, he arrived in front of her, seemingly towering above the maid when she was not by any means short.
Bea looked up at her master’s face. “So what are you going to do about this naughty maid?”
Her hands wandered to his chest, feeling his sculpted body.
“...You perverted woman. Is this what you’ve been planning from the beginning?”
She grabbed his hand. “Why don’t you find out for yourself?”
The maid lifted her skirt as she guided his hand beneath it.
The thin fabric covering her entrance was wet.
“...Didn’t I just dry your entire body?”
Bea giggled, and then leaned in, whispering next to his ear.
“I’m always wet for you.”
She leaned back, staring at his face with a seductive smile.
“...You’re so cruel. Are you trying to steal the night from Mio?”
The maid smiled.
“Perish the thought. I simply don't think she's realized she's joining a harem yet."
“Ah.”
That might be true.
“...Come to think of it, she never actually reacted when I said multiple wives.”
She seemed too eager to marry a man with many wives.
Bea smirked as the realization dawned on him.
Then, she slowly knelt in front of him, licking her lips seductively.
“Shall we show her our family?”
Julius exhaled.
“...You just said you don’t want every interaction to end on sex.”
The maid simply wasn’t listening anymore.
Oh, well.