Thirty-odd women were strewn about the king suite. Some slept on the bed, some on the couch and some on the fluffy carpet on the floor. Even though quite a few of them were in uncomfortable positions they all had slight smiles on their faces.

Maybe I should change rooms every three or four girls? Wolf thought, looking at the aftermath.

After making the mental note, he entered his Mind Hall to check his gains.

“This batch was better than the previous one,” Wolf concluded after a casual inspection. “I got almost two months worth of Soul Force out of them.”

Then he checked his Mind Palace in more detail and noticed something odd.

“It’s happening again,” Wolf’s Mental Aspect exclaimed. “But why?”

The youth had finally noticed his Mind Palace was growing faster than usual. He immediately went to check something else. He approached the half-finished ninth column and tried carving it.

“I’m not imagining it,” Wolf concluded after a couple of strokes, letting the chisel dissipate.

“Why didn’t it work yesterday, but now it does?” Wolf’s Mental Aspect rubbed his chin, musing about the randomness of Conceptual art.

“It worked for six women, but not for thirty, then it worked again for thirty-two,” Wolf tried to find a pattern, but it didn’t appear to be in numbers. “I guess I’ll need a bigger sample to figure it out. Maybe after visiting four or five… That means I have to take a break until the effect wears off every time it kicks in…”

“Wait, Silver’s been around and knows when this effect began,” he realized after trailing off several times.

“Silver,” Wolf said with a beaming smile, but the egg snored in an overly loud manner, obviously faking sleep.

“Silver, I know you’re awake,” the Mental Aspect continued loudly as he approached the egg and began fondly scratching a scaly paw which ended in vicious talons. “Do you know when my Mind Palace’s expansion quickened?”

“Master, do you mind if I don’t answer?” the melodious voice asked, trying not to giggle like a little girl at being tickled.

“I would really like to know. Why wouldn’t you answer?” Wolf’s Mental Aspect asked, still irritated by the whole Master thing.

“Since you insist,” Silver said, yet hesitated for a moment. “When you drank, Master. That is when power flooded into you.”

“When I drank?” Wolf repeated, confused. Then, realization slowly dawned on him.

“Want some?” a dirty drunk, all wretched smiles, said a long time ago.

“Come on, have a drink.” He shook the weird wineskin at Wolf during their second lunch.

“Just a bit, it’s good for you.”

“As for your soul, I’m already helping…”

“… you’re as dumb as a doornail.”

Various random words South had said over the years echoed in Wolf’s mind. Finally he remembered the weirdest one.

“If I told you that I’d stolen them in passing, while looking for this flagon, would you believe me? I picked them up while exploring the palace of the demon world’s overlord…”

“No wonder he claimed that the wineskin was stolen from a demon emperor,” Wolf’s Mental Aspect shouted. “If I were an emperor of demons, I’d want to have something like that wineskin too!”

Wolf wanted to curse his big brother for keeping this secret from him, but the drunkard offered him wine with every meal they shared. Finally, Wolf’s frustration culminated in strange words.

“I can’t believe I wasted so much money on potions of Clarity,” he grumbled before waking up and going to visit the wanderer.

***

Wolf materialized inside the dirty alley. He’d used Merge With Wind, kicking up a storm as he dashed through the Merchant District.

“Hey, Big brother! I want to drink,” he shouted in the early hours of the morning, barely a moment after condensing from a gale.

“Here, catch,” South said, effortlessly throwing his wineskin as he rolled his eyes at the way Wolf acted.

It hadn’t even been a full day since he’d told the child to act with moderation.

The elongated flagon struck Wolf with the force of a huge rock. It was impossibly heavy, immediately staggering the youth. However, with his reinforced Star Body he managed to grasp it.

The container was truly magical. It had no stopper, yet not a single drop was spilled. And yet, when Wolf drank, the tonic easily flowed out. After a couple of gulps he closed his eyes and entered a meditative state.

“You know—” South started, but Wolf had already entered his Mind Palace.

*Sigh*

“Well, if that’s how you want to play,” South said, all mischievous smiles.

***

Just as Wolf had expected, the effect which was wearing off, had once again kicked in at full strength.

“Son of a bitch,” Wolf laughed and cursed once he confirmed he wasn’t imagining things.

“You know, it’s not nice to curse your big brother where you think he can’t hear you,” South’s voice echoed inside Wolf’s Mind Palace.

“And if you really want to be technical about it, that moniker suits you far more than me. Doesn’t it, child of Wolf?” South continued, smiling lightly with his eyes.

Wolf’s spiritual body was busy, investigating the rate at which his soul expanded in the corridor. The unexpected words startled him so much that his Mental Aspect almost jumped out of his metaphysical skin. He snapped his head towards the source of the sound.

Through the open door he saw South sitting sideways on the throne. He blasphemously petted the backrest while cheerfully dangling his legs over the armrest.

“What are you— How did you get here?” Wolf stuttered as he slowly walked back into the Mind Hall of Death.

“I should be asking you the same thing. Tsk, tsk. Brat, didn’t anyone ever teach you that you shouldn't do stuff like this in front of other people? It’s considered impolite, not to mention suicidal,” South had a despondent expression as he shook his head at the rudeness of young men of this new generation.

“I— No— How did you get in here?” Wolf still couldn’t wrap his head around this sudden change.

The vagrant dangling his legs on what Wolf believed was his throne looked like he owned the place.

“Huh?” he asked. “I thought I gave you some shitty books on the subject. Well, they are shitty, so no wonder you know nothing. Once you unlock your second Mind Hall you’ll have enough authority to use telepathic speech. You know that much, right?”

Wolf nodded while approaching the throne. His father had mentioned the concept years ago.

“When you unlock four Mind Halls, you’ll know the general state of a soul you focus on. However, it’s limited to this world’s denizens. I told you a hack on how to do it with a weaker soul though—” South spoke slowly, but Wolf didn’t have that kind of patience.

“But, how did you get here?” the youth asked again.

“So impatient,” South sighed and took a swig from his wineskin.

“He even brought his wineskin along,” Wolf’s Mental Aspect said, revealing his thoughts. “Isn’t my body holding it?”

But before he managed to check, South continued his choppy soliloquy.

“Once you unlock your sixth Mind Hall you’ll have enough authority to move your Mental Aspect into others’ temples. But you should avoid that. It could be dangerous and costly.”

“And how did you bring along your wineskin? How do you know all these things?” Wolf asked.

“What, this thing? I’ve had it before you even came to be. It’s become a part of me,” South said, then after a moment corrected himself. “Well, not yet, but I’m working on it.”

Saying those words, South hopped down from the throne as agilely as a feline. Seeing him jump onto the stairs Wolf realized something.

“Watch out,” he shouted out a warning. “Silver is around there somewhere and might attack you!”

While Wolf gave the warning, the light sneaky footsteps suddenly turned into a scurrying of clawed feet against the bony ground. He turned around just in time to see the silver egg’s six limbs moving frantically as it ran out of the room. Then a tiny scaled hand closed the door from outside for good measure.

“Silver?” Wolf blinked in disbelief.

“Just leave her-him be. She-he’s not even hatched yet. You shouldn’t have such high expectations, now should you?” South said relaxedly.

South traced his finger on the first column, apparently amused by what he was seeing. As for those aggressive creatures, which attacked Lonely Eagle’s remnants with everything they had, they were docile under the hateful fellow’s hand.

“They’re more interesting up close. Very lifelike. Very novel,” South said with an infuriating smile, then walked over to the second column.

He looked like a guest at an art gallery as he examined the plants depicted on the second column. After a while he nodded in approval.

“You know,” South started and then made a dramatic pause. “I think you’re the first one to add your own touch to these pillars. It kind of completely goes against the primal nature of this place.”

He paused, as if thinking, but said nothing.

“Have you tried teaching anyone else how to do it? How to refine their Mind Palace to suit them, I mean,” South asked with curiosity.

Wolf could tell that there was some appreciation in the bum’s voice, but failed to notice the hint of mockery.

“I tried. But people acted as if they didn’t hear anything,” Wolf said, confirming South’s guess.

“Don’t take it too hard,” South said. “The way this place was set up, one can only discover such things. Even if you shout it out in front of millions, nobody would take you seriously. In fact, if you let yourself get distracted, you might miss out on important discoveries.”

“South, can I ask you something?” Wolf asked gingerly.

“Sure thing, Little Brother. You’ve been asking plenty of things ever since we first met,” South said, all smiles.

His mental projection was somehow even shabbier than his physical self. Yet unlike South’s physical self, the gaze of his mental projection was so sharp that Wolf was afraid it would bite him.

“Who are you really?” Wolf asked with a furrowed brow.

“That’s the second time you ask that nonsense question, you won’t like it when you ask for the third time,” South warned. “Fine, I’ll repeat myself, so listen carefully. I’m your big brother. You can call me South because I come from the land down under.”

South smiled his signature friendly smile nobody really wanted to see. Looking at his big brother, Wolf felt his skin crawl.

For the first time he noticed that South’s teeth looked extremely inhuman. His mouth was filled with rows upon rows of densely packed thin, insanely sharp stakes. They looked like a bottomless pit filled with an ocean of needles.

Wolf knew South intentionally let him see that sight. He didn’t know that by asking for the second time he was the one who forced the vagrant to reveal a part of himself. A moment later the vision was gone and the drunkard went back to looking like a regular manling.

“If your luck is good, you’ll understand everything in due time,” the bum said, flashing a pearly white smile of perfectly human-like teeth. “At that time, I would like you to keep considering me your big brother or maybe just a brother. What do you say?”

South looked reliable, serious and half a dozen other things which didn’t really suit his true nature. He had many things to say, but left them unsaid, not wanting to burden the frail fledgling.

And that frail fledgeling was now aware that his gut feeling up until now was true. South was a monster wearing the skin of a manling.

“I knew it. But, so what if he’s a monster?” Wolf’s Mental Aspect said aloud, not knowing how to think quietly. “Big brother treated me with care, and never once tried to harm me.”

Wolf’s thinking was mostly true. While he was unaware of it, Wolf felt a genuine bond of brotherhood with this creature he called Big brother. As for South, these thoughts did not offend him, or at least he didn’t show it.

After giving it a thought, Wolf nodded his head. “You will always be my big brother. I don’t think you’d ever do anything to hurt me.”

Wolf had an innocent and trusting smile, which made South feel a bit uncomfortable.

“Well, I must admit that I’ve felt like slapping you silly from time to time. Can’t you grow up a bit faster you lazy bugger—” Suddenly South shut up. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I know you’ve been doing your best all this time.”

Wolf’s mind blanked out. He had no idea which part of his development was slow.

“No, that’s not quite true,” Wolf’s Mental Aspect said hesitantly. “Compared to how I was back when Dad was alive, I’ve slowed down to a crawl.”

He blinked and looked at the drunkard.

“Right! If you wanted me to grow faster, why did you hog that wine of yours? Why didn’t you give it to me right from the start? I would’ve grown much faster with it,” he said, pointing out how his slowness was South’s fault.

“I offered it to you the first time we met. Then I offered it to you every time you came here. What did you want me to do? Shove it down your throat? Oh, no, wait, I’ve done that as well, but you still failed to figure it out,” South said with a sly, amused grin.

The maddening visage was completely gone and rapidly faded from Wolf’s memory. What took its place was the face of a harmless neighborhood drunk.

Wolf nodded, then a thought struck him. “Should I start using that toilet paper?”

“It does have a deeper meaning, but you’re an idiot. As for its practical value. Well, it’s very soft and useful. Especially if you don’t have anywhere to wash up. I mean just think about going around unwiped—” South started seriously, with that face which begged for someone to give him a beating.

“Stop it. Please, have mercy, Big brother,” Wolf begged. “I was wrong. Just please stop talking.”

Wolf sighed.

He wondered what he expected asking that question? This was South after all. His kooky, if not outright insane, Big brother.

Instead, he decided to change the topic.

“Hey, Big brother, could you pour me a couple hundred liters of that wine?” Wolf tried his luck.

He guessed the effect of a single cup lasted roughly a quarter of a day, so he wanted to stock up for a long mission or maybe a year. South, on the other hand, was just as megalomanic as always.

“Sure thing, but what are you gonna do next month?” South asked, seemingly worried Wolf would run out of booze.

Wolf stared at him blankly. “How can anyone drink that much? How much wine do you drink daily? No, I don’t want to know.”

He’d originally thought that he was being too greedy and that his request was excessive. His big brother apparently scoffed at anything below a swimming pool’s worth of wine.

“I think I’ll somehow manage,” Wolf said, and the pair left Wolf’s Mind Palace.

“I’ll bring more tomorrow,” Wolf said after handing over five large waterskins to South.

Unfortunately he didn’t have any more among his miscellaneous items, and he had to go wholesale shopping for barrels and other large containers which could store South’s wine.

As Wolf left, he felt a joy from the depths of his heart that South was the one doing the boring manual labor. Quite odd, considering the death row inmate look he had when he was making toilet paper.

As for South, he didn’t care. He finished his chore in a jiffy and then went back to drinking.