"What an odd woman."

　　Observed the system as Konrad walked out of the pavilion.

　　"When you think of it, it's nothing surprising. Those women are trapped in the palace for years without the chance to have a relations.h.i.+p or to even see a real man. Developing some odd fantasy is only natural. In any case, it's not like I haven't seen worse."

　　"To be roughly taken from behind every night by a man I yearn for, yet, can never see." That was her core fantasy. Needless to say, it didn't quite match the aloofness with which she usually portrayed herself.

　　"Women are natural dreamers. The more you try to restrain them, the more their thoughts wander."

　　"That aside, why didn't you use the purple bead on her? That would have made everything a lot easier for you. It's very likely that you could have even taken her on the spot."

　　To this, Konrad smiled with his usual touch of mischief.

　　"And miss out on such a fine challenge? It is not every day that I find worthy opponents. I should at least give her a chance to fight her way out of my clutches."

　　For three seconds, the system was rendered speechless, but afterward, it burst into laughter.

　　"Bwahaha! Did you think yourself cool and fancy?"

　　"You have less than three days, and you want a challenge?"

　　"Hehehe, you better believe that when the time comes for me to administrate punishment, you will have no chance to find your way out of my clutches."

　　Black lines crept on Konrad's forehead, and all his excitement went to the gutters.

　　"That aside, how do you plan to obtain the High-Grade True Spirit Restoration Pills."

　　High-grade True Spirit Restoration Pills were priced at "8000 exp" in the system. Konrad couldn't afford one, to say nothing of two.

　　While he could gain exp with intercourse, Faidra and Aliki were, on one hand standing too close to the Holy Consort and on the other hand, he wasn't about to go burst six nuts into them just to get the required exp.

　　All good things required some moderation, right?

　　"Naturally, I will go make money!"

　　The official currency of the Holy Flame Empire was crystals. One purple crystal was worth a thousand red crystals which were, in turn, each worth a thousand blue crystals.

　　The average commoner household's yearly income was one hundred blue crystals.

　　A True Spirit Restoring Pill was priced at one hundred red crystals. As for High-Grade True Spirit Restoring Pills, they were between seven and eight hundred red crystals.

　　Even imperial knights couldn't afford that.

　　Konrad first regained his real appearance and made his way back to his quarters. Once inside and sure of being far from prying eyes, he sat cross-legged and entered the system to look for the cheapest low-ranked True Spirit cultivation method he could find.

　　"Clear Heart Scripture: low-ranked True Spirit Cultivation method, 1000 exp."

　　He exchanged it for the "1000 exp" and exited the system. His exp count then dropped down to 4515.

　　The system made no distinction in prices between martial and spiritual cultivation methods, so their costs were similar. In the outside world, however, that was not the case. Spiritual cultivation methods were by far rarer than their martial counterparts and were thus priced much higher.