Reincarnated as a step-dad in a fantasy world

"This is our home, and for as long as you wish to stay with us, it will also be your home," Freya said with a welcoming smile.

"Thanks for having us," Amelia replied in a grateful tone.

Freya nodded. "Come with me. I will show you your rooms," she said before considering something else. "By the way, will you be sleeping in the same room, or would you prefer different rooms?"

Without hesitation, both Alex and Amelia replied simultaneously, "The same room."

Freya made note of this and gestured for a woman dressed in maid attire to approach. A few seconds later, the maid departed to prepare the room.

"A new room will be prepared for you, so please wait," Freya said. "In the meantime, we can sit and discuss your adventures together," she suggested.

The three of them looked at each other before shrugging in acceptance.

Soon, the four of them were seated in a luxurious and spacious office, with Alex and Amelia sitting in front of Maya and her mother. In front of them, on the table between their respective couches, steaming hot tea was placed before them.

For the sake of privacy, Freya had decided that it would be better to talk in her own office, so here they were.

"So, where do I begin?" Maya said as she thoughtfully rubbed her chin.

"From the beginning, sweetheart, commencing with your kidnapping. Don't leave out any details," Freya instructed.

"Okay," Maya nodded. Her expression darkened for a moment before she disclosed, "About my kidnapping, it was actually Uncle Stanis who kidnapped me."

Freya's own expression darkened before she relaxed. "I have deduced as much, seeing that he disappeared at the same time as you," she said a moment later.

"Well, after that, I'm afraid to say that I don't remember much," Maya coughed, embarrassed. "After my abduction, the last thing I remember was opening my eyes in a dark room with him staring at me," she said as she pointed at Alex.

Alex's lips twitched as he heard her. She wasn't wrong per se, but the way she phrased things might lead to confusion. After all, saying that he was the one she opened her eyes to could make one suspect that he might actually have been her uncle's ally.

Ignoring the teasing grin on the young woman's face, Alex cleared his throat and said, "I actually found her unconscious in one chamber of the Night group's base. From what one of my allies had heard, it seemed that her uncle had given her to some mad scientist to use as a lab rat."

This time it was Maya whose lips twitched. 

Crack!

Meanwhile, the teacup in Freya's hand cracked, a net of fine lines spreading across it, but it still held firm. At that moment, a furious expression that could easily frighten grown men appeared on her face. "Lab rats?" she repeated in a dark and icy tone.

Not really scared or even disturbed by Freya's enraged expression, Alex simply nodded his head. 'She is cute when she is mad. She greatly resembles Maya in that part,' he thought.

"Where is that bastard Stanis!" Freya said with pure hatred on her face. "I will kill him!"

"I doubt that's possible anymore," Amelia interjected. "He is already dead."

"Oh," Freya muttered, her expression softening slightly. "Did he suffer?" she asked, her tone hinting at the fact that she was hoping it would actually be the case.

"As much as someone would suffer after having their throat slit and watching their blood pool," Amelia replied.

"That's still too light for him, considering what he did to my baby, but it's still better than him being alive," Freya mumbled to herself.

'Damn, she is pretty defensive of her daughter,' Alex thought, feeling a slight chill as he remembered all the teasing he had subjected Maya to. 'Let's hope it won't affect her to the point of not wanting to have anything to do with me.'

After a moment, Freya had finally calmed down and, looking at Alex, she asked, "Did you say that you found her in a Night group base?"

"Yes, from what I have been told, she had been directly brought there by Stanis while she was still unconscious," Alex explained.

"So he indeed had some link with the Night base," Freya said with a frown. "I was suspicious of him colluding with that group for some time, but I still felt that he might not have stooped this low. Apparently, I was wrong. If this is known, it might jeopardize the whole family's integrity."

In the end, Freya was the family matriarch, and the well-being and integrity of the family rested in her hands.

"I think you are forgetting something here, Mom," Maya interjected. "If Uncle Stanis was colluding with the Night base, there is a chance that other people in the family are doing so as well."

"You are right," Freya nodded with a dark expression. "But let's not jump to conclusions yet."

Maya nodded and continued, "In any case, I signed a soul contract with Ale—Arcanor here. If he released me and accepted to escort me here, I would do my best to have his products added to our annual auction."

"A soul contract? What are the clauses and penalties?" Freya asked in concern.

"You can see for yourself," Alex said as he retrieved the contract he had signed with Maya and passed it to Freya.

Quickly glancing over the soul contract, Freya read its clauses and penalties before sighing in relief. For a moment there, she had feared the worst.

Focusing on Alex, she inquired, "What products are we speaking of here?"

Alex had planned to at least wait until tomorrow before talking about his products and possible future partnership with Freya, but since the latter was inquiring about his products, he decided that he might as well adjust his agenda.

He retrieved three glass bottles and placed them on the table. The first bottle had a yellowish smoke swirling inside it, the second one had a beautiful, opaque white smoke swirling inside it, while the latter bottle contained a yellow liquid.

The bottle with the yellow smoke was obviously the healing smoke, while the bottle with the yellow liquid inside was the original healing potion from which Alex's healing smoke was derived. On the other hand, the opaque white smoke came from the hot lake in the treasure room of the lizardmen dungeon. Since this lake water had the ability to wash off exhaustion and could restore one from tired to peak condition, Alex had decided to use it to make a sort of potion that regenerated one's stamina.

After Alex had enhanced the attribute of this smoke, although the potion's effects weren't as exaggerated compared to the soothing water of the lake, it could still make one rapidly regenerate from exhaustion. However, it wasn't because it was able to make one recuperate from their exhaustion that it was as effective as a good rest, and Alex could attest to this after observing his condition after resting compared to after washing in the lake for hours.

"What do those two bottles hold?" Freya inquired curiously as she pointed to the bottles with the smoke swirling inside them, having already recognized the healing potion in liquid form.

"They are potions," Alex declared, "potions in a smoke state."

"Oh, interesting," Freya exclaimed, her orange eyes twinkling with stars. "What can they do?" she inquired.

Taking the bottle containing the yellow smoke, Alex explained, "This one here can heal. I understand that for now, you can't determine the full capability of this smoke, but its healing capacity is even more potent than this healing potion here."

The more Alex spoke, the brighter Freya's gaze became until her eyes were practically shining as bright as gold. As the matriarch of a family whose main source of income was selling things, she had a keen eye for business and could sniff out money from kilometers away.

In fact, it was actually because of her talent in management and her ability to generate large sums of money that she had been designated as the matriarch after Maya's father's death. After all, when she was the head of the second branch, the amount of income her branch accumulated over one year was four times that of the income the principal branch could accumulate over the same span of time.

Taking the original healing potion from the table, Freya inspected it for a moment before she said, "This is a rank three healing potion. It could heal quite a lot of wounds, even major ones such as third-degree fire burns, though it can't regenerate a severed limb. It can also dull pain to a certain level. It's a potion that's actually quite rare and expensive."

Placing the potion back on the table, she elegantly placed one leg over the other and continued, "All in all, it's a potion that only well-off nobles could afford, though sometimes even if you have the money, you might not be able to find one because not every witch is capable of creating such a high-rank potion."

'Oh, I didn't know all of that,' Alex thought as he marveled at the Drazen family matriarch's knowledge. 'Well, I guess it's expected that she knows so much.'

Meanwhile, Freya took a sip of tea from her cracked teacup and continued, "If your claim about your potion being more potent than this rank three potion is confirmed to be true, then it will be with pleasure that I will add your healing potion to our annual auction articles."

'Jackpot!'