(MC POV)


    Of course the winner of our littlepetition was Brendan, so he gets the prize of spending the night with me.


    At first Brendan didn''t want to ept the prize but I pointed out that this would be an insult to both the girls and myself if he refused, thus he finally epted it reluctantly.


    The girls didn''tin either, seeing that none of them actually managed to do this properly and Tsuki''s was too traumatising for me even if she did not know it. They merely gave Brendan a pat on the back and wished him good luck for some reason.


    With that, Brendan followed me to my tent for the night, just the two of us alone inside that small, enclosed space.


    And then the two of us slipped into bed, both of us gettingfortable before my hand reached below to grab the phallic object and tugged it out of the covers.


    I took a good long look at it and turned to Brendan, "This is quite impressive, Brendan."


    He blushed a little, "Umm… Thank you, Master. But it''s still notparable to what you can do…"


    "Oh stop underselling yourself, this is really impressive and that''s the truth."


    "Umm… If you say so Master. But there is an issue with it…"


    I raised an eyebrow, "Let me guess… The size?"


    Brendan nodded, "It''s a little on the small side and quite inefficient. I''d prefer it if it was bigger."


    "Hmmm… I agree on that point, so should I help you make it bigger?"


    "Umm… If Master doesn''t mind?"


    "Ahaha, isn''t that what I''m here for? Stop trying to do everything yourself, Brendan or you''ll make me sad."


    "I apologise, Master."


    "Umu, now let''s see what we have here… Still, I have to say this again, good job on making this concoction."


    We are, of course, talking about the vial of corrosive liquid that Brendan had made to corrode gold, not sure what else you might be thinking we were talking about.


    The main problem with it was that he only managed to make such a small amount which would only be effective in a small area. The threat of using it to corrode all the gold in the city was just an empty one since it wasn''t possible to do it with the amount he currently has on hand.


    Of course, this is where Ie in to help him increase that amount. I won''t just will them into existence in case you were wondering, I''m simply going to teach Brendan an easier and more efficient way of making it.


    Brendan wouldn''t be able to improve further if I were to just hand the solution to him after all, although if he asked to be made a god right now I would just grant it to him in an instant. The same goes to any of my disciples, naturally.


    I went ahead and told Brendan a few new ways to refine and concort potions which he listened to attentively. That ended up spiralling into a discussion that dragged on for the whole night since we were so absorbed into the topic. We only stopped when the sky started to brighten up.


    Well, I don''t actually need to sleep but Brendan does. At least he can sleep inside the carriageter on.


    Which was exactly what happened when we set off in the morning; the poor boy immediately knocked out on the couch as soon as we set off.


    "Ara, ara? It seems like Master and Brendan had a really long night didn''t you?" Manami giggled.


    "Well, we may have spent the entire night talking," I admitted.


    "Just talking?" Diao Chan asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.


    I gave my Witch a flick on her forehead and she obediently refrained frommenting any more. The other girls also giggled but refrained from giving anyments.


    In the afternoon, we found ake by the roadside and figured it would be a good spot for lunch. Brendan was still sleeping so I decided to let him rest in the carriage, we''ll just set aside some food for when he wakes up.


    I did a check on theke and announced to the girls that the water was safe to drink and also safe to swim in.


    That prompted the girls to drag me into theke with them for a bit of frolicking in the water while Alpha and the rest set up our camp and made preparations for our meal.


    Naturally, that led to some… Intense hip exercises in the water.


    With my girls thoroughly satisfied, we stepped out of theke and dressed ourselves.


    As if on cue, a single traveller showed up on the road walking past us. He looked like a normal traveller and not like the bandit or arrogant merchants that we have be ustomed to seeing.


    That was a little weird since he was travelling alone with just that travel pack on his back. If he wasn''t strong, this would be tantamount to suicide with how dangerous the roads are.


    He turned to look at us and gasped, "Stay away from thatke! Don''t touch the water!"


    I raised an eyebrow at him, "Eh? Is something wrong with it?"


    He shook his head, "Did you not see the sign that said not to go near theke?"


    There was no such sign and I told him so.


    The traveller raised his hand to point at a nearby tree but stopped when he realised there was no sign on it.


    His eyes widened, "Eh? Oh no… Why would anyone steal that sign? It was supposed to warn people not to even approach thiske in the first ce! This is not good!"


    "Why? What''s wrong with theke? Is it being used for something?"


    He shook his head, "No, no. Theke is cursed, anyone who even touches the water in it will die!"


    I looked at my disciples who shrugged to show me they felt nothing wrong.


    I turned back to the traveller, "Err… Is the effect instant or does it take a few days to happen? Because all of us actually bathed in it just now."


    His eyes narrowed, "You… Bathed in it? That''s not possible! The moment you touched the water would have caused you to shrivel up and die! If you guys were to even dip your finger in it, that would have been the end of you!"


    "Well, we really did bathe in it and we''re fine… Maybe it lost its power?" I suggested.


    The traveller frowned and went up to the edge of the water. My disciples were understandably still cautious of him and Gamma had moved to my side with her hand resting on her sword.


    He knelt down and slowly reached his index finger forward until it touched the surface of the water.


    Nothing happened… Is what I''d like to say but his body instantly shrivelled up and copsed into theke, his body disappearing into the depths in a ssh.


    …


    We waited for a bit but he showed no signs ofing back up and theke returned back to its normal condition.


    Ummm… Ok… When I checked it was definitely safe and there weren''t even any corpses in it. Maybe I should go and try poking it too?