Talia had been surprised when she found out that they finished school at noon the Friday. She had looked at the school schedule and it seemed that the workload per day was less than average, but they instead had a bit fewer holidays than most countries. From her point of view, this was not a bad way of doing things. The students had more free time after school to do extra activities and the period between one year and the following was not too long, meaning they would not forget everything that they had seen previously.

So, Talia and the other girls were now in the schoolyard. They had already had lunch, but when they were about to leave, Talia had told them somebody was waiting for her.

Akim was there, standing in the middle of the yard. Even the hot sun rays coming from above were not enough to bother him. His gaze, filled with hopefulness, was focusing on the blue-haired girl. “So, can you please tell me your decision?”

Talia crossed her arms and lightly lowered her head. She then spoke up. “I can help you with your training.”

Akim’s face brightened in response. He had been ready to receive a refusal since the day he had asked her. And a refusal meant that he would have to find another way to become stronger by himself.

Sanya closed her eyes when she heard Talia’s words. After having heard what happened with Prince Hyl’t, she knew that there was a high possibility that she would accept. Beside her, Zesty heaved a sigh of relief. She seemed happy for the young man. However, a strange feeling welled up inside her heart. She brought her hands in front of her chest and weakly frowned. She at first wanted to deny what this feeling could have been. But, she knew. After all, it was something she had felt many times since she had been young.

Meanwhile, Ellen’s head turned right and left with a clueless expression. ‘? What’s going on?'

Akim was obviously happy about her reply, but he still needed to ask for the details. “About the remuneration, do you have a set price?”

Of course, he knew that having a trainer would cost money. Even more if she really had the capabilities to make him reach a high level. Even though the price was still unknown, Akim didn’t plan to use his family’s money. He might not be able to succeed his father as the head of the company, but a place could still be open for him in the future if he had the intellectual capabilities. To ensure a plan B, he had also put his studies in high priorities.

One might think that he was all brawl due to the amount of muscle, but he had still been smart enough to study how to run a company and some administrative aspects of it. It had been more than a year since he had started working as a part-timer in his father’s company, accumulating some sparing money if needed. Even though he was just doing simple work and was not getting privilege treatment, this was more than nothing.

However, Talia’s answer betrayed his assumptions. “Mmh? Ah, don’t worry about this for now. You still don’t know what I am capable of, so it is too premature to set it. More importantly, do you have a place where we can train?”

Akim nodded. “Yes. At home, a room had been built for training. It’s likely not used this afternoon. I believe it’s big enough.”

“Then, it’s perfect.” She then turned her attention toward the three other girls.

“Hey, do you want to come too? If it’s ok with Akim, of course.”

“Huh?” The girls looked at each other, not really sure of Talia’s intention. Nevertheless, Ellen raised her arm, full of spirits.

“YES! Is it ok hunky big brother?”

‘...Hunky? Even my sister never told me this.’ Akim smiled at Ellen’s choice of words. He still answered the initial question.

“No problem for me. The more the merrier. And it would be an honor to have Ellen Euriel visiting our family’s house.” Akim was half joking by saying this. There were no real problems with having schoolmates come over. It was not like they were too dangerous to bring back home. Well, Talia’s case was another thing, though. Still, making connections with potentially influential people, like Ellen or even Talia, was important. Akim knew that Talia was definitely not a normal person.

Ellen grinned smugly. She began to walk in the direction of the school gate. “Hmph, if you insist, I don’t mind coming.”

In the end, everyone was going to the Ayms' house.

--------------------------------------

“So, you take the bus to go to school. Quite simple for the heir of a rich family.” Talia was talking to Akim while riding one of the numerous buses driving all around the Union City. The city was huge, so public transportations had been a given during the construction plan. The bus and metro networks were definitely bigger than in most cities of the same size.

Even more, to push people to use them, the government paid a part of the annual fare if a person decided to take one. The result of this was the small utilization of individual vehicles, bringing down the level of pollution. One of the major fields of research currently was energy storage for batteries. At some point, fossils fuels would disappear meaning vehicles would have to run with something else. The main focus right now was on electricity.

The inside of the bus was not too crowded at this time. It was not like all students finished at noon on Friday.

Talia and the others were sitting in the back of the bus, four seats facing each other. Talia was beside Sanya, facing Akim on one seat and Zesty on the other. Ellen was on top of Zesty soft tights, the oldest girl’s arms around the youngest’s body to keep her settle down. Zesty was, of course, embarrassed to have her body used as a cushion, but she had still accepted under Ellen’s plead.

Akim took his eyes off the two snuggling girls and looked at Talia, opening his mouth to answer her question. “My father was born in a normal family. From his point of view, he succeeded in life thanks to the possibilities that he got during the time when he was your everyday man. So, he hammered these principles into me and my sister, his children. Even though some might raise an eyebrow to this way of thinking, we don’t think this is bad. It lets us stay connected to reality...Unlike some fellows that I know.”

His expression turned a bit bitter at the end of his words. Talia was not too aware of the different influential families in Pacifica, but she was sure that they must have been at least a few spoiled brats here and there. And as a fellow young heir, Akim had to know some of them at least. She nodded as she perfectly understood.

After a dozen minutes, they got off the bus and walked for a few minutes before arriving before Akim’s house.

“This is not a house. It’s a mansion at this level.”

“Say this to my mother. Even my father can’t keep up with her sometimes.”

The ‘house’ was surrounded by a four-meter-tall wall made of white and grey stones. The main entrance was a spiked iron gate at the front with a camera on each side, pointing to the street. A smaller entrance was present next to the mass of metal. The group was in a rather normal neighborhood, even if it looked like the people here were quite well-off. Nevertheless, Akim’s house stood too much out.

Akim seemed to understand what the girls were thinking because he had a wry smile on his face. Still, he continued forward and took out a card from one of his pockets. He presented it against the surface of the wall next to the small entrance. There was nothing there, but a bip sound still came out. He opened the door and turned to face the girls. “Please, come this way.”

They followed him inside. As they made their way through, they could have a better view of the mansion and the garden around. The wall was about a bit less than a hundred meters in wide and something around fifty meters in depth. The mansion itself was taking two third of the space. The rest was covered in greenery, like trees, neatly-cut bushes and so on.

The mansion was on the modern side architecture-wise. The main color was a silvery white with touches of crimson here and there. From the outside view, the building had three storeys. Glass panels were present to bring the warmness of the sun inside.

They followed Akim while eyeing the unusual scenery. Suddenly a man came out of the house. His age must have been in the late twenties. He was dressed in a jet black suit with fancy glasses on. The showing skin from it was tanned, a perfect match for his ruffled black hair. He was on the thin side, but Talia’s eyes determined that he was instinctively leaving no opening, despite his frivolous looks. His wild smile was brimming with energy. “Young master! I got your message! The training facility is free. Nevertheless, I never thought that you would be able to bring home such young beautiful ladies!”

“...Allow me to introduce him. He is Lionel Taheri, the head of the security here.” Akim had a troubled face as he somehow introduced him. Nonetheless, Lionel was not even a bit fazed by it and moved closer to the group. He put his hand on his chin, observing each of them with an everlasting grin. The girls had different reactions in response.

Talia put herself in front of Sanya while still keeping an eye on the lad. Sanya seemed lost by the events as she tilted her head. Zesty used Ellen as a pillow shield as she lowered her gaze.

Akim frowned at Lionel’s unusual actions. He had known him since quite a while now, but he had rarely acted like this. Akim knew that the girls were being gauged. He was not the only one, though. Talia had also noticed the subtle change in the frivolous man’s aura.

The next moment, a finger was pointed in her direction. “Strong. Too strong.”

Lionel’s casual words made Akim gasp in shock. It was true that he never had a full grasp of Lionel’s capabilities, but he knew for sure that he was an A-ranked battle-oriented ability user. If his words were correct, it meant that even himself could not beat her. Lionel continued after spinning once on himself. “The others seem to be normal, except for the blue-haired kid. Young master, if the tutor that you talked about is her, then you found a crouching tiger.”

Akim understood the meaning behind his words. Basically, he had underestimated Talia’s strength. She was not strong for an abilityless user, she was just plainly strong. He showed his gratification for the information with a nod. “Thank you, Lionel.”

The raven-haired man just waved it off. “I’m just doing my job. Now, you should go before the mistress come back from work and faint because her dense boy brought back home several girls.”

“Dense? Me? Anyways, I apologize about what just happened. We should go now.” The group resumed their walking under the watchful eyes of the head of the security. When they had entered the house, Lionel snickered, a playful smile on his face.

“The master and the mistress are both not here, but the young miss sure is. Ahh, I would have loved to see her reaction when she will see her caring and training-freak brother come back with female guests.”

The moment they entered the house, pairs of eyes wandered everywhere, looking curiously at the surrounding. The inside was on the same level as the exterior, mainly classy. Most of the buildings and such in Pacifica were simple in design. However, the interior was still something was varied from one to another. The multiples cultures had simply made it possible. Nevertheless, Akim’s house was neatly decorated. The white wooden furniture was sublime, without being too overly present. There were some statues and paintings here and there, but nothing too excessive. Talia had already visited several rich families’ mansions in the past, but this one was still of good taste.

The entrance led to the main stairs. The second floor was visible from where they were standing. Akim turned to his right. “The training room is this wa-”

“Brother!” A high pitched voice was suddenly heard from upward. The feminine voice was accompanied by footsteps sounds. Akim froze, unsure of what he should have done in this situation.

After merely a second. The body of an angelic being was visible from behind the railing preventing people from failing. Her small-framed wheat-colored body was holding a husky plushie in her arms. A silvery strand of hair was amongst her obsidian hair on the right of her face. As she made her way closer to the railings, her outfit could be seen through it. It was a white and pink sleeveless one-piece dress with cherry blossom patterns. Her clothes were suited for the hot weather.

A sunny smile showing her white teeth, minus one on the top left, was covering her face. “I got a puppy plushie from Lionel today. Look at-”

All of the sudden, she stopped. Her eyes were glued to her brother with a group of high school girls. The blue-haired girl was releasing a confident aura, bringing a cool atmosphere around her. The blond girl was a bit short, but this enhanced her cuteness. The big girl was, well, big. She had what could be called assets for herself, even though she seemed quite shy. The last one was certainly too small to be called a high school girl. However, she had learned that one should not judge a book by the cover.

The little girl switched her gaze between her brother and the girls several times, her eyes wide open. She then lifted her arms before shouting at the top of her lungs. “BROTHER GOT A HAREM!”

The husky plushie dropped from her hands, followed by the temperature in Akim’s body.