The Mage of Primordial Chaos

"Alright, you guys… give Lorelei a break…" I muttered, and at last, the girls moved away from her—although unwillingly. Lorelei walked over to me, then transformed into her fox form.

"Aww…!"

"She\'s even cuter in this form!!"

Naturally, the girls were hyped, but enough was enough for the day. Luckily, it was good to see that time in the Death Realm was the same as the Living Realm, unlike the Void Realm. It was only midday, but I was feeling tired as hell.

"Anyway… we should decide on what we\'re going to do for the next couple of days until school starts up again. How long do we have?" I asked.

"Nine days starting tomorrow, I believe," Feng Mian replied. "A little over a week."

"Hm… what can we do that\'s fun and relaxing in nine days…" I fell into thought.

"I have a proposal," Qing Yue said. "Every day, you take one of us out on a date. We\'ve already had sex, yet we haven\'t gone on a single one-on-one date yet, Big Brother Xuan Kai. Isn\'t that kind of… unusual?"

I shrugged. "I\'m no expert on dating, but if that\'s what you guys want… I\'m up for it."

"I think that would be… um… nice…" Lan Xiao Su inputted, which was rare. She had a deep flush on her face, showcasing just how much effort and courage it took for her to say those words out loud.

"Me too," Feng Mian said. "I think I\'ve had a mini-date with you in the past, when I told you all of the girls\' feelings for you, but that doesn\'t count since it wasn\'t strictly one-on-one. On the date, you have to focus on the girl you\'re taking out, not anyone else."

I nodded, like receiving orders from my manager or something. "Er… sure."

"Mm… but what about… the final day?" Yu An Xue asked timidly.

"Heehee, don\'t worry, I have that planned out as well," Qing Yue said, beaming proudly. "I heard there was going to be an event on the last day of June, and the end of our break. It\'s called… the Summer Festival."

"The Summer Festival…?" Yu An Yan tilted her head. "So… like, to celebrate the coming of summer or something?"

Qing Yue nodded. "Something along those lines, yes. On that day, we can all go together to the festival, and have fun!"

"Sounds good," Feng Mian said. "Any objections?"

"Hold it," Lin Luo cut in. "If the ninth day is the festival… that means there are eight slots for the one-on-one date. Who will go?"

"I\'ll be going first," Qing Yue said. "Since I was the one who proposed this idea. Next can be Feng Mian, then An Yan, then An Xue, then Xiao Su, then Mei Gui, and finally… well, there\'s one slot left. Since Axilia and Ling Xin have both spent a considerable amount of time alone with Big Brother Xuan Kai already… I think we should leave the last spot for you, Lin Luo."

"E-Eh? Me…? H-Ha! Who are you kidding? You think I want to go on a date with him?!"

"Ah, okay, then…" Qing Yue turned to Axilia, who was watching with delight. "Do you want to go instead?"

"H-Huh?" Lin Luo blinked in surprise as Axilia cheered.

"Yes~! A date with darling~!"

"W-Wait!" Lin Luo suddenly called out, biting her lip and cheeks as red as tomatoes. "I-I\'ll… go."

"Heheh, that\'s the spirit!" Qing Yue giggled. "Can\'t hide your true emotions after all, huh?"

"Tch…! J-Just for the record, this isn\'t because I like you or anything, got it?!" She screamed at me, to which I nodded and muttered back \'yes, yes\'.

Classic tsundere line. I didn\'t think I would actually hear something like this being said to me in my lifetime, but life was full of surprises, wasn\'t it?

"This is just… uh… it\'s a good chance to explore the city! Yes, that\'s it!"

"Right," I said flatly. "Well, in any case… I\'m fine with everything you just said, Qing Yue. But before tomorrow, I still have some things I need to take care of. Where\'s Long Lu and Ming Hao?"

Ling Xin giggled. "Fufu~ they should be out in town right now. A very touching friendship you have developed with them… but is it really worth abandoning us for it?"

I smirked. "Bros before hoes—basic Bro Code."

Feng Mian rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes… we\'ll leave you be for now, Xuan Kai. But when you come back…"

She met Qing Yue\'s gaze, then smiled mysteriously.

"We\'ll have a surprise for you ready."

"Uh… a good one or a bad one?"

"Well, who knows?"

The two girls smiled at me happily, and I didn\'t quite know how to feel about it. Instead, I just chose to depart and enter the city of Fragment. Mei Gui wanted to follow, but she heard my words earlier and it was clearly hinted that I would be going alone. Being as obedient as she was, she remained with the other girls quietly. Lorelei, on the other hand, was in her fox form and rode on my shoulder, while Yami, still mentally scarred, was resting in my soul.

After some thought, I smiled and responded:

"I\'ll have a surprise for all of you as well."

*****

Naturally, going to see Ming Hao and Long Lu was just an excuse.

Of course, I was going to actually go see them sooner or later, but my main purpose in coming out here to the city was that I wanted to convert all the treasures and gold I got in the Death Realm into usable money in the Living Realm. The \'surprise\' I mentioned earlier was obviously going to be all the souvenirs I bought for them in the Death Realm, along with some alchemy tricks.

Speaking of alchemy…

"Hm? What\'s all the noise over there…?" I tilted my head at all the commotion to my right, where a large crowd of people had gathered, appearing to be… waiting for something, or someone.

"Master, that is the headquarters for the Ascended Alchemist Association, otherwise known as AAA. Lorelei believes it is a good idea to inspect it, given your skills."

Hm… you gathered that info by reading the souls of that crowd, huh? But… Ascended? That must be related with Fragment technically being up in the air and everything, meaning to reach here, people had to \'ascend\'.

Of course, the name wasn\'t all that important. I just wanted to see what was all the ruckus was about. 

"Apparently, there is a competition being held today in roughly fifteen minutes. If one passes, they can become a registered alchemist with the AAA—a large and prosperous business that is the only official, recognized alchemy group in all of the Living Realm."

Once again, Lorelei had gathered this info by reading the souls of these poor onlookers. They didn\'t even have any idea their thoughts were practically being spilled out onto a book for me to read, but at least we didn\'t have any harmful intentions, so all\'s well that ends well, I suppose…?

After some consideration, I decided to first head to the bank to see where I can trade all this stuff, then come back here later. Fifteen minutes was more than enough for me to finish doing what I had to do.

*****

"Hi! Welcome to the Royal Bank of Fragment, directly authorized and backed by the International Magic Foundation themselves! What can I do for you today?"

That tagline was kind of long and unnecessary, but I decided not to comment on that and instead just get to straight to the point.

"I would like to sell some things. Some… very expensive things. And… a whole damn lot of them. Where can I do that?"

"If you have found any treasure or something of the sort, mister, there is no reason to go anywhere else. If you could let me inspect the treasure, the bank can buy it off of you right here right now for a very reasonable price!"

"Oh, is that so?" I smiled. Luck was on my side today, it seems. "Well… uh, here."

I reached into my Space Locket and took out just one of the couple dozen million mordai I got from the Death Realm, and handed it to the receptionist. She inspected it carefully, then took out some sort of handheld device and scanned it.

"Hm… this is… quite the rare material. It appears to be mainly gold, but also some unrecognized mineral that… apparently doesn\'t match with anything ever found before. This is quite the treasure, mister! The bank is willing to buy it for… how about $100,000?"

"PFFT-!"

I nearly choked on thin air. $100,000?! For one mordai?! But I had dozens of millions of them!

"I-Is there something wrong, mister? If you find that price low, how about… $150,000?"

"U-Uh, yes, that\'s fine," I quickly said and composed myself before the price went any higher. Yes, I wanted money and could be greedy at times like any other human, but this would just make me feel guilty.

"Great! Then could you please tell me your bank account, and I will transfer the funds over right awa-"

"Uh, just hold on a minute," I said, scratching my hair awkwardly. "Actually… I have more of the same item. Tons… more."

The receptionist blinked. "Eh?"

I gulped.

"… Prepare an empty vault room, as big as possible, and I\'ll show you what I mean."