“Good evening, Lord Rachel. You look as dashing as we remembered you at your last public appearance. This is my daughter, Kristabelle. She’s not very familiar with social parties, so we thought perhaps we could get her acquainted with more familiar faces.”

Rino forced a smile. Ah, yes. He was forced to attend the social parties once every three months as part of his agreement with his butler. The nobles were very bored and usually threw a huge gala every quarter to celebrate the end of each season. It was usually hosted by more influential nobles like Earls and up.

The daughter of this esteemed noble was from the Lance house, an Earl’s daughter. Rino tried not to roll his eyes at what Countess Lance was trying to do. He was not a stranger to marriage proposals from houses offering their daughters to a talented magician like him to utilise the power of the magicians’ tower for themselves.

Their tricks were too tasteless, and Rino was well-versed in the art of turning down ladies.

Kristabelle Lance was a charming young lady of sixteen, and Rino was well into his late twenties. Nobody seemed fazed by the huge age gap between them as Rino exercised his rare gentlemanly etiquette to offer an arm to escort the young lady. As they left to a more private side of this party, Rino wondered what he should do to disgust this young lady.

Kristabelle was the envy of many other young unmarried ladies at the gala hosted by Earl Lance. Rino was known to never behave appropriately, and nobody could tame him, not even the royal family. Despite his low rank, the baron was a strange man who acted out of line, even during court. He did not respect hierarchy and avoided interaction with others like a plague. If not for the most capable retired royal butler who raised the current king who offered to manage Baron Rachel’s household, the eccentric court magician’s household might have fallen to ruins by now.

When the king first decided to award a commoner with a noble title, there were many objections from the noble families. While it was unheard of for wealthy commoners to buy a title, nobody has ever been awarded the title of a baron. Even if it was low, it was still something that came with the importance of deciding the empire’s future politically.

Sure, it was merely something convenient to assign the court magician for his services. Everyone knew that Rino would rather be holed up in his tower than entertaining the kingdom’s affairs. However, after realising that there were only certain things this genius could do, the king brought up the topic of awarding Rino an official title as a form of shackles to his duties for the empire. Rino initially refused, but when the magicians’ tower became a topic of discussion that the empire wished to ‘claim’, Rino stepped in and accepted his new role.

The rest was history, and the empire worked him like the dog they saw him as. If it wasn’t for his influence over the magicians, these nobles would not look his way.

Forgetting all the proper mannerisms of the upper class the moment he escaped that stuffy atmosphere, Rino shook Lady Lance off and slouched. Instead of grabbing a plate and tongs, he walked over to the nearest tray of food and started using his hands to pick the cakes off the tray.

Shocked by his rude behaviour at the gala, the countess’ daughter gaped. Rino deliberately licked the chocolate off his fingers and offered her a cake he swiped from the tray with his hand.

“Want some? It’s good.”

If it were the orphaned helpers in his magic tower, they would have knelt gratefully and accepted the sweet treat with big smiles. However, for pesky nobles like this lady, it should be enough to offend them. He was nice enough to not offer her cake with the hand that he licked, but Kristabelle wouldn’t notice.

As expected, the lady left to return to her mother, looking pale and a little sick at his manners. For commoners, this was not a big deal. For nobles, it was like the greatest insult ever. Rino hoped that she would be the last person to approach him tonight.

Up above, Stephanie and Ace watched as Rino polished an entire tray of desserts alone in his dream. It was the first time the gods interfered with a dream, and they were curious to find out what kind of lady or man Rino fancied. The tree of fertility could produce an heir to Rino’s empire. It was not surprising that Rino’s final request would be exactly what Ace predicted.

Eternal rest wasn’t difficult to grant. However, Rino was much too useful to just lay to rest in the void after his job was finished. If possible, they wished that someone like him could continue serving the cycle of life.

“I can’t believe he turned her down. I made her perfect for any man!”

Ace smirked as Stephanie fumed. This wasn’t the first creation, but the dream kept repeating in a similar fashion. It didn’t matter what Rino was doing or where he was. In the sixteen hours of sleep Rino redeemed from the sleep wallet, Stephanie kept trying to create an ideal partner to test his reactions. However, all her attempts ended up in failure.

“I told you. This man only lives for coffee, books and cats. The females and males you sent his way aren’t even in his vision.”

Unwilling to admit defeat, Stephanie recreated a dream and introduced a new marriage candidate she bet Rino would like.

The innocent type did not work, the sexy kind failed, and the unattainable kind was rejected. Ace was right when he suggested adding more to a person’s traits than their appearance. For the ideal types of lovers a man could want, Stephanie only succeeded in having Rino glance their way once out of duty and not curiosity.

When Stephanie modified these types to Ace’s personality traits of a curious mind, a non-conformist and a cat-lover, Rino started to pay a little more attention to them, but he showed no more interest in them in the romantic aspect.

Even with all those good opportunities for romantic developments, Rino shot them down cleanly and walked away as if he was allergic to such scenes. It baffled Stephanie so much that she added men, children and older partners to see if Rino was truly not capable of romance or simply had weird interests.

To her horror, Rino was simply unreceptive to anything relating to romance. That man might be able to form emotional bonds with others, but he could not create any sort of chemistry in a sexual manner.

“Is he impotent?!” Stephanie shrieked and pulled at her hair. 

Even if Rino was impotent, he should be able to sire children if he had the slightest desire in procreation. Yet, the only thing Rino wanted to procreate was alchemy. Oh, Rino also supported an army of cats in his fantasies when Stephanie allowed him to create something from his deepest desire which confused her a lot.

Ace refrained from commenting. He never came across a mortal with no desire for lust. As gods, many of them still continued to live in debauchery because it was probably the only entertainment they had. Ark had many flings, and Stephanie enjoyed playing with her suitors. Phil had a fair number of names in his past, and Ace was known as an oddball for not taking an interest in those games.

If anything, Rino and Ace shared a common interest in discovering new concepts and experimenting with how they could make the impossible possible. They sought intellectual stimulation more than physical ones, and while Stephanie could not understand this, Ace could.

For Rino, the sixteen hours of sleep that he thought he would come to enjoy passed painfully. Each time he was thrown into a familiar and nostalgic setting, something unpleasant would happen, killing the joy he could have experienced.

If he was back at the magicians’ tower, he would be interrupted by a new magician apprentice asking for advice on a subject during his lecture. Then, she would proceed to put her hands on him and undress, burning his eyes with her indecency.

Why could nobody appreciate books the way they were meant to be appreciated?! Rino did not understand.

If he was brought back to a place that he enjoyed very much during one of his travels, the peace would be interrupted by a cry of help. As a kind-natured person who wouldn’t leave innocent people in the lurch, Rino would rush to offer assistance, only to be repaid by crappy third-rated erotica of having a maiden pay it back with her body.

Something was terribly wrong and by the time sleep wore off, Rino felt more tired than he did before he slept. It must be the doings of the gods. There was no other explanation. Even if it wasn’t, that tree of fertility must be the cause.

Rino wondered if there was a way he could get rid of it permanently after his population reached the amount stated in his side quest.