Help, I'm in Another World and All the Men Are So Hot! [BL]-Chapter 206: Bridges and Boundaries

One afternoon.

While out for a post-lunch stroll, Damien noticed Leonide, Ithnan, and the others gathered together in the courtyard.

What were they doing? They weren’t supposed to understand each other’s language, yet they seemed to be conversing. At first glance, it looked like they were chatting and laughing together.

"What’s everyone doing?" Damien called out as he entered the courtyard. The group immediately turned their attention to him, surrounding him.

Huh? Theo was here too. Apparently, Theo had been talking with Ithnan in a corner that was out of view.

So... was Sebas acting as an interpreter for them? That seemed likely—until Damien noticed Sebas sitting a little farther away at a table, engaged in a serious conversation with Elyon. So, that wasn’t it.

"Master, we were just talking about you," Leonide said with a bright smile.

"Yes, we were all talking about you, Master," Arba’a added cheerfully.

Everyone else nodded their heads in agreement.

W-What? They were talking about me?

"It seems the idea that a shared topic can bridge language barriers might be true," Theo said with a smile. "Talking about Damien seems to make it easier for me to understand Ithnan."

"Yes, discussing our Master somehow makes even Theo’s words make sense to me," Ithnan agreed, laughing alongside Theo.

They... they were managing to communicate.

Damien had hoped they would slowly pick up each other’s languages over time, but it seemed that even without that, they were finding a way to connect. It was reassuring—though the fact that he was the main topic of conversation left him feeling slightly conflicted. Still, if it helped strengthen their bonds, he was fine with it.

Meanwhile, over in another corner of the courtyard, Lorenzo and Sitta were arguing. From the snippets Damien overheard, it sounded like they were debating whether Damien’s scent was better from his head or his neck.

He decided to leave them be, chalking it up to their way of bonding.

...Although if it looked like the argument would escalate into a real fight, he’d step in. Just as he thought that, the two seemed to reach a consensus: the scent from his groin was the best.

Please stop.

Using gestures to fill in the gaps, everyone seemed to be communicating quite naturally.

While that was nice to see, Damien found it difficult to stay in the group given the nature of their discussion. Since he could understand everything they were saying, overhearing snippets of conversation left him feeling embarrassed in more ways than one.

In situations like this, it was best to retreat to Sebas’s side. Deciding to escape the overwhelmingly pink-hued atmosphere of the courtyard, Damien headed toward where Sebas was speaking with Elyon.

At a table in the courtyard, Sebas and Elyon were looking over some papers as they talked. Were those... architectural plans? 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"Oh, we were just discussing your mansion," Sebas said as Damien approached.

My mansion, huh, Damien thought. It wasn’t just Leonide and his group anymore—now Zima, Ithnan, and others were staying as well. The original plan for something small, like a one-room setup, had long since become impractical.

"Wait, I thought the basic design was already finished?" Damien asked.

Not long ago, Theo and Sebas had mentioned that the design was done and had asked him to review it. Since Damien couldn’t make heads or tails of blueprints, he’d left everything to Theo. Did something go wrong?

"That plan got scrapped—completely rejected," Elyon interjected. "The garden design was all wrong. It needs more... a forest. A real forest."

Interrupting Elyon’s burgeoning monologue, Sebas provided clarification. "My Teacher raised objections, so we’re redesigning to incorporate the back forest into the layout."

I see, Damien thought. He understood the situation now, but was it really okay to change the plans just because of Elyon’s whims? Sure, keeping Elyon in a good mood was important, but this was Damien’s mansion. Even if Elyon sulked, it probably wouldn’t be that bad, and Damien could just spoil him until he felt better.

Damien glanced at Sebas, silently conveying his thoughts. It was an unspoken plea: We don’t have to cater to Elyon’s every whim, do we?

Despite Elyon standing right there, Damien trusted that Sebas would understand. And he did.

"My Teacher has offered full cooperation in construction as a condition for the design changes. With his assistance, the mansion will be completed much more quickly," Sebas explained.

Ah, that makes sense. Using Elyon’s mysterious powers, the mansion could indeed be finished in record time.

"Still," Damien said, "do we really need to rush? I know managing my retainers is tricky, but lately everyone’s adjusted. It doesn’t feel like there’s much urgency anymore."

Initially, there had been confusion among the household staff due to the overlapping command structures of Theo’s estate and Damien’s retinue. To resolve this, they’d decided to establish a proper domain for Damien and his followers. But now...?

Perhaps because Damien had given everyone loose instructions to "basically follow Sebas’s lead," they all seemed to have adapted quite well to the current arrangement. At this rate, Damien wondered if he even needed his own mansion anymore.

"That’s not quite the case," said Theo, who had been walking alongside Ithnan and joined the conversation.

Ithnan pulled out a chair for Theo, who thanked him with a warm smile before sitting down. Seeing his partners getting along so well made Damien happy.

Wait—no, this wasn’t the time to get distracted. Theo was talking about something important.

"Um, what do you mean by ’not quite the case’?" Damien asked, wondering if some new issue had cropped up.

"This is all your fault, Damien."

What?! Had he done something wrong?

"Because you played big role in loosing the relationship between Caius and me, Caius now needs a place to visit," Theo said, smiling brightly despite his words.

Ah, so that was it. Damien had to admit the situation with Caius was indeed his doing.

"A place to visit?" Damien asked.

"As it stands now, with you staying at my estate, any visit Caius makes would officially be to my home. That causes a bit of... friction with my stepmother," Theo explained with a wry smile.