19 If only

After Scarlett's question, Alex remained silent for several minutes, a heavy silence that hung in the room. Scarlett began to notice something was amiss and decided to press further.

"Why aren't you saying anything? Speak up! How do you get points?"

Seeing that he was still silent, she continued, her voice growing impatient. "Don't tell me you can't get any points?"

Alex finally sighed and replied in a calm tone, "No, it's not that."

Scarlett, growing more curious by the second, pressed on, "Then what's the issue?"

With another sigh, Alex decided to reveal the truth, "To earn points, I need to have intimate relations with women."

Scarlett's eyes widened slightly, and she responded with a simple, "Oh."

Following Alex's unexpected revelation, Scarlett was momentarily stunned. Her eyes, however, quickly regained their sparkle, and she looked at Alex with fascination.

"Is that all? This artifact is truly mysterious," she exclaimed.

Alex, slightly taken aback by her nonchalant response, asked, "What do you mean, 'is that all'?"

Scarlett, maintaining her cool demeanor, replied, "What? Were you expecting me to tell you it's wrong to earn points by being with women?"

Alex, emphasizing the distinction, retorted, "It's not about being with 'women,' it's about being with 'a woman.'" He referred to the fact that he could potentially earn points by being with Lilia alone, even though he wasn't obligated to do so. However, given the number of points required to copy a power, being with just one woman would be too time-consuming for too little gain.

Scarlett, seemingly unfazed, calmly remarked, "It's not like you've always been faithful to Mom anyway."

Hearing this, Alex shot Scarlett an annoyed look and said, "You'll never stop talking about that, will you?"

Scarlett didn't respond verbally but simply smiled, making it clear that she had no intention of letting the topic rest.

"Damn mouth," Alex thought, slightly exasperated.

Remember when Alex said he talked to Scarlett like a friend and not like a daughter? Well, one day, while chatting with her, he inadvertently mentioned that he had slept with one of the maids. Immediately after saying it, he clamped his mouth shut, but unfortunately, the damage was already done.

Since that day, Scarlett held onto this information like a sword of Damocles over him. She went so far as to coerce him into buying her things she needed for her experiments, or else she would spill the beans to Lilia.

What he didn't know was that Scarlett had never intended to tell Lilia in the first place. After all, in this world, it was more common for nobles to have multiple wives than just one.

For instance, Alex's grandfather had three wives. Alex and his father were the exceptions with only one wife each. Furthermore, when Alex married Lilia, she already had three children, and he had raised them as his own. From Scarlett's perspective, his affair with a maid could be understandable.

However, if that extramarital relationship were to harm their family, Scarlett would have been capable of taking drastic measures, even going as far as killing the maid if needed. That's how much she despised anything that could threaten her family.

After a moment of silence, Scarlett asked Alex, "Do you earn the same number of points no matter which woman you're with?"

"No, it depends on the power level of the woman I'm with and the nature of our relationship," Alex replied.

"What do you mean by the 'nature of the relationship'?"

"By proximity, the closer my relationship with a woman, the more points I can earn," explained Alex, but this time he decided to not reveal the fact that he could earn more points by sleeping with someone he was related to.

"Do you have any points? If so, how many?" Scarlett asked.

"I have ten points," Alex replied, hoping she wouldn't inquire further about how he earned them.

Fortunately, Scarlett didn't press the issue and moved on to her next question.

"Most importantly, have you ever used the artifact to increase one of your abilities? If so, what were the results?"

"I've never used it," Alex admitted.

"I see... So come with me," Scarlett said.

"Where to?" Alex asked.

"What do you mean, 'where'? Let's test what effect the artifact will have on you if you increase your abilities," Scarlett replied.

"Now?" Alex inquired.

"Yes, right now. Come on, follow me," Scarlett said, heading towards a room in the library.

'I hope that increasing my abilities won't hurt,' Alex prayed as he followed Scarlett.

Alas, If only he knew.