"What did you say?" Flora and Selena widened their eyes.
Nathan smiled wryly. "You heard it right. I'm planning to leave the group for a while."
"Are you insane? Have we done something wrong? Or have we annoyed you in any way?" Flora panicked. This just happened after meeting with her father, so she thought it was her fault. Was it because of her forcing him to meet her father? Although it was for Selena, he met her father even though he didn't want to get entangled in it.
On the other hand, Selena's eyes glinted as though she had noticed something. She frowned before asking, "Are you trying to do something important?"
"As expected, you're the only one who can see through me." Nathan nodded to Selena.
"Something important? What are you trying to do?" Flora frowned.
"I'm thinking about my horizontal growth. In other words, more familiars." Nathan raised one finger. "I'm thinking about summoning a lot more familiars during this period. Unlike other familiars, my familiars are strong individually, so having a lot of them increases my battle power while the burden of having a lot of familiars won't be as significant."
Selena pondered before agreeing with his statement. "That's true."
"I'll tell the rest of the girls once I have a concrete plan ready, so there's plenty of time." Nathan waved his hand, trying to calm them down.
Selena crossed her arms with a solemn expression. "Well, I don't really want to restrict you. It's true that if we hunt together, we can gain a lot more cores, but it also doesn't change the fact that we have to share with each other.
"In addition, there are things that can be better finished alone than together. So, I don't plan to stop you or anything.
"Instead, I can take charge of the group and ensure that we won't lose to you."
Nathan felt relieved. Selena was indeed the right person to ask. She understood him and knew what to do. Sometimes, it would be Selena doing a reckless thing, while another time, it was Nathan making a selfish decision.
However, both of them supported each other understandingly instead of stopping each other.
The conversation would have been peaceful if his talking partner were not Selena.
Selena's expression darkened all of a sudden as she asked coldly, "I won't stop you, but can you answer one question of mine?"
"Yes?" Nathan tilted his head in confusion. "Why do you ask me ?"
"You said you want to summon familiars. It's a good idea, but I want to confirm one thing. Among these familiars… are there any females?
"Well, I don't think you will find animals attractive, but it will be different if they have a humanoid form.
"And knowing you, it must not be something like Anubis' humanoid form, which still has the body of an animal. It will be closer to the animal-people who have the human body but animal parts. Let's see… if we're talking about familiars, there must be a divine beast that has a shape-shifting power, right?
"I want to confirm this one thing. Is there a shape-shifting female familiar among them?"
Nathan's heart sank. Yes. Selena definitely understood him. But the scary part was that she understood him too well.
He was already busted before it even started.
Among the familiars, there was a Tenko, a celestial fox, who had the tale about their shape-shifting power and illusion ability. And the legends about Kitsune were mostly about turning into women.
Flora was completely speechless. She first panicked about Nathan wanting to go away, but that panic turned into an understanding after Selena's explanation, but that understanding turned into laughter because Nathan was busted.
"I can't… I'm sorry. Hahaha." Flora couldn't contain her laughter.
"Stop laughing." Selena glared at Flora this time.
Flora froze as she heard Selena saying, "It won't be funny if we can't control this guy's lust. Are you going to let him become Asmodeus' previous summoner? If we don't do this right, he might end up with hundreds of concubines. I can tolerate him having several wives, but I don't want him to get too many.
"After all, having too big of a family will cause more chaos than harmony. And there are also a lot of problems coming with conflict of interests. You should know about it since you are from the royal family."
Flora couldn't refute her. "Ehm. Being free is good, but being too free is not good, Nathan."
Selena pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well, we can somehow not count familiars since it has been proven that the familiars can't give birth. If not, I wouldn't have accepted Risa doing it with him.
"Just do it in moderation, please." Selena squinted her eyes.
"I'll do my best." Nathan smiled wryly.
"Anyway, back to the topic. We'll keep this a secret for the time being. However, the girls have the right to know… or at least Sera. Then again, before long, I'm afraid that Noelle and Alavenya would have fallen for his claws as well.
"Nevertheless, you can go. I'll lead the group in your stead. Just tell us the plan later, like one or two weeks prior to the departure, so that we can devise a plan for our growth as well.
"Without you, we only have five people in the team. So, I guess we can't split into two groups easily." Selena pondered.
"We can think about it later. Why don't we punish this unruly man, Selena?" Flora grinned.
"Why do you look like you're enjoying this situation?" Selena let out a long sigh. "Well, we certainly have to punish this guy for not being able to restrain himself. I will just tell you here. If there's anyone trying to harm the family, I will kill them even if you're going to hate me."
Nathan scratched the back of his head. "I know. I have told you about my principles regarding family and I still believe in those principles."
"That's good then. We'll go to meet Duke Sullivan tomorrow. But tonight, don't expect any mercy from me," Selena harrumphed.