At the Overson Residence, we see a blonde beauty enter the furnished oaken study, about to give her report to an older man who is seated at his rich mahogany desk.
It's Lucy, reporting on her encounter with Valentine at the World Ball to her father, Scroogeux!
"I thought he was just another fraud," she spoke calmly and yet with a hint of something more… a rare warmth. "You know... just like the rest of them. But listening to him speak and speaking with him, I was genuinely impressed…"
"I think Valentine Richést is the real deal."
Scroogeux took in the information with a curt nod.
"I see. In that case let us arrange a meeting. I would like to hear from this Valentine myself."
"Yes, as you wish, father." Lucy inclined her head gracefully.
At this, Scroogeux made a gesture with his hands signaling that she was dismissed. As she left the room however, he cracked a wry grin before muttering and replaying the events in his head.
"As you wish, Father..." he recalled the delightful scene.
"No need for all that Lucy. You're my daughter after all, not my servant..." he muttered to himself.
Scroogeux's impassive facade cracked into what might have been a wry grin, before returning to its former seeming indifference.
That's right. As expected, the old man was in fact… tsundere!!! A bad habit that even extensive therapy sessions had failed to get rid of...
He calmly spoke to his butler Ukan Trustmi, whose chief purpose was to validate his unhealthy tsundere ways until he could rid himself of the disease in its entirety, hopefully at a later chapter in this novel...
"Go. Make sure Lucy is well protected, and increase her resources. Also look into this man Valentine."
The butler Ukan Trustmi bowed his head in acknowledgement of the command.
"As you wish, Scroogeux-sama."
Scroogeux snorted. "And oh Ukan, Stop with the Sama thing. I've told you to stop watching Animu…"
"Yes, Scroogeux-Sam- I mean yes, Scroogeux sir."
They departed with their usual banter, as they were good friends having worked together for years.
"Ukan, I trust… I can entrust the matter of the Trust fund to you...? I can trust you right?"
"Upon my name as Ukan Trustmi," Ukan Trustmi said.
"You can trust me…"
___
As this was going on, in a garbage tip on the outskirts of town in Luxuria, a masked figure groaned.
Broken. A lot of things were broken.
But he wasn't dead yet. The carefully crafted plans, he had to admit, had ended in abysmal failure.
Something weird had happened to his brother too. Itvasme hobbled and gingerly made his way back to Elegans Estate, only to find that his once handsome brother was now a husk of his former self.
"W-what happened?!?!"
Itvashim's hands were shaking as he gripped the bedframe tightly.
"I-I don't know." He said honestly. "It went smoothly. Ice Queen Sally drank the drink. And I thought I would succeed. But then it turned out that she was the one doing the sucking…"
Itvasme was a little confused, but he tried to clarify.
"Okay... but, you managed to … deliver the goods?"
Itvashim furrowed his brow, as his mental acuity was significantly lowered after aging around 50 years overnight!
"Goods? You mean the C2H5OH? Yeah, I think so."
Itvasme clucked his tongue. "Brother... no, I mean... the 'goods'..."
He tried another tack.
"Well... *cough* did your tadpoles successfully swim upstream?"
"Did your fishies get to the delish-y?"
"W-what are you trying to say, brother?"
Itvasme continued undeterred, since despite being a Dark Rizzard, he did still possess an astonishing Rizz Index after all.
"Did one of your 'lottery tickets' hit the jackpot? Did you connect 4? Did your flame reach the fuel? Did the rocket get liftoff?"
"Did you sow your seed?"
"Rockets?!" "Seeds?!" What was he talking about!?" Itvashim's eyes clouded in confusion, whilst Itvasme's eyes darkened in frustration.
Itvasme decided to cut to the chase.
"Dammit, bro... did you c*m inside her?!?!"
"Oh." Itvashim's puzzled expression cleared. "I-I surely did." Then he frowned.
"But that Sally… she didn't seem… normal. It was wild man."
Itvasme looking at his dishevelled wreck of his formerly dashing twin couldn't object to this assessment. Perhaps they had underestimated Ice Queen Sally. She was clearly no damsel in distress…
___
Doris meanwhile had returned to her twenties, and was now a ravishing beauty.
The World Ball had gifted her an unexpected opportunity. Her illusion magic was based on the inherent lust of the other person involved, and they would see her as what they most desired.
At the same time there were specific conditions attached to its usage.
Firstly, it had to have the full consent of her life partner Eli, who of course if given the choice would want his beloved to live no matter what… this was what had led them to found the Church of the Seven Deadly Sins in the first place!
Secondly, the spell itself required significant investment of her own life essence.
Fortunately, the high Rizz Index of that Dark Rizzard Itvashim had more than been enough to not only cover the cost of this - in fact, his Rizz Index was instead converted and absorbed into youth, health and vitality!
The Reverend was in raptures, figuratively and literally.
This is because her conversion of Rizz Index into Life Essence could go both ways.
She was able to convert life essence for herself, and she was also able to impart it as well!
As a result, as his sweetheart, she, now in the prime of her beauty, gave the... 'aged', experienced, mature, seasoned - all right, so he was friggin' old! - Reverend Eli half of what she had drained from Itvashim, leading to them both becoming middle-aged, via a… graphic scene which could not be elaborated upon or described in this - for the most part - PG novel…
___