“Out of all things, Jaji-boy, an Ancestral Bond. You couldn’t have risked your life, huh? No, you had to go cheat on me with the flat-chested boy. My, my. I didn’t expect that from you,” Epagogia was mostly teasing him at that point.

“To think that I fell right close to your place. I stayed here to cultivate before exploring the world, you know? I also found a couple of roaming pink humans and brought them here. They are cultivating in another room. Honey, you wouldn’t believe how many rooms this underground complex has! It also has lodgings! Imagine that!”

Epagogia could not stay on one topic for more than fifteen seconds, and Jacob wanted to close his eyes and die right on the spot. And given the look Juliet was giving him, he might as well be dead.

“So, your eternal love Helena, Jacob, was she on your mind when you…” Juliet gestured up and down toward Epagogia’s very exposed body.

“Oh my, Helena!” Epagogia just realized that if they were back in time, even Jacob's long-lost love had to be alive.

Can this go any worse? I swear I don’t think I have been in such a position.

“Jacob?” he heard a voice come from behind them and, after turning, he saw Francis.

This has to be scripted. This can’t be happening.

“Frank?” Jacob sounded so tired he wanted to cry. He would have preferred to find a nest of Charybdes to the unimaginable social pickle he had just thrown himself into.

To be honest, he was incredibly happy to have found Epagogia and now Francis, but it had come all so fast, and abruptly he was left speechless.

He started walking toward his old-time friend, leaving behind the two women and hoping they wouldn’t fight.

“Frank, for Christ’s sake, you are alive,” Jacob hugged a frozen Francis.

“You left us in the open, ready to be slaughtered,” Francis muttered.

“I had teams scour the forest to try and find you. But you and your family had disappeared. After you vanished, it was impossible even to find tracks of you.”

“I did that, honey! I couldn’t afford some pinkies to come and find us! I am not sharing these Spiritual Herbs with some stupid tailless humans!”

“Wait a second,” Francis left the hug and looked toward Epagogia. “When you said you had a fantastic boyfriend in your past life, you meant Jacob?! This Jacob?! I thought it was only a coincidence he was named Jacob.”

Great, now my secret is outed with them.

Jacob stared at Francis, slightly offended by the look of disbelief on his face.

“Jacob?!”

The smell of ozone immediately reached Jacob, and he saw Francis’s mother looking at him murderously.

“Epagogia! Why did you let that bastard in?!” Maria Rossi screamed.

“Who? Jaji-boy? Mary, calm down, that’s my boyfriend!” Epagogia answered cheerfully.

Apparently, her words carried much sway with Francis’s mother since she immediately stopped dead in her tracks.

“What?”

“Holy sh*t. Too much is happening at once. Epagogia, please, please, I beg you, let’s go sit somewhere and figure everything out before I go crazy,” Jacob turned toward the Devil and pleaded.

“Oh my, Jaji-boy, you are so cute when you beg me. I missed it so much!” she went over him and gave him a big squeeze.

…

Epagogia had everyone sitting around a table, and she had even prepared some Hellspawn Chameleon meat on a sizzling grill at the center of the table.

“So, you were reincarnated in your fifteen years old body, but you are actually the last human ever to exist. We were best friends in my past life, and Epagogia was your girlfriend,” Francis summarized the main points.

“Epagogia said that her boyfriend, Jacob, was this two-meter tall, muscular hunk. How can it be possible?” Francis was skeptical.

“Alchemy. After you died and I managed to flee St. Peter, I stumbled upon one of the greatest treasures in existence. The Plate. It transported me in a separate dimension where time passed differently. It allowed me to accrue an unparalleled wealth of knowledge. I don’t even know how much time I spent inside that place. There was no need for sleep or eat. There were only books and resources in abundance. I practiced Alchemy and memorized every single Inscription Pattern I found. I learned much more, even smithing. Long story short, I came out of there as a different man. The greatest Cultivation Technique, even though also the hardest to practice I know, was there too. And that’s how I became the person Epagogia met much later.”

“That’s some story,” Julius Rossi said.

Maria was silent, not willing to offend Epagogia. Even though she wanted nothing more than ripping Jacob to pieces, she couldn’t say anything.

“Jaji, so, where are we? You didn’t kiss me before. And how do you intend to explain the Ancestral Bond with that?” Epagogia pointed to Juliet’s flat chest.

“I have no romantic involvement with Juliet,” Jacob stated clearly.

“He’s a bit infatuated with me, that’s all,” Juliet cared to add.

“Oh, is that so? You can read his emotions through the Ancestral Bond, right? What does he feel toward me, then?” Epagogia asked Juliet.

“He is… excited to meet you again. Very excited, if you get what I’m saying,” Juliet winked toward the woman. “But romantic feelings? Some, maybe. I can’t really tell at the moment. He’s shocked by all this,” Juliet pointed toward Francis and his parents and then toward Epagogia.

“Well, still got it,” Epagogia smiled, not worried in the least by Juliet's words. “Then, we need to catch up, sugarplum. I still remember you not wanting to have a baby because it wouldn’t have a future, you said. But if you save the world as you want to do, we might even have triplets!”

“Epagogia, please,” Jacob didn’t know what to say.

“Oh, don’t call me Epagogia! That’s so formal! Where are all our sweet nicknames? Are you shy as per usual in front of other people? Do you want me to tell them what you called me all the time, my little sugarplum?”

Jacob sighed, and Francis laughed at the sheer absurdity of the situation.

“Well, Jake, that’s what you got for getting in bed with the literal Devil,” he patted his friend's shoulder.