Thomas Prest: A Simple Magician

Coming back home, Tom sullenly flopped onto the couch and started brooding while switching the TV on, deciding to watch some anime to unwind.

In his past life, watching anime and reading fanfiction was Tom's joy but after his second childhood, these things lost most of their shine. Nowadays, Tom was too engrossed in real magic to read some fantasy stories about it.

But... that didn't mean his interest waned in its entirety. He still occasionally enjoyed good anime or movies. As for written stories... he didn't have the time to spend on that. Animes and movies were a surprisingly good inspiration for new spells too so watching them was not only enjoyable but also educational. After all, human imagination was limitless. Tom only needed to figure out how to change that imagination into reality.

Fullmetal Alchemist was a massive influence on his alchemical progress. And while recreating the alchemy in the anime was simply not gonna happen, many of Tom's alchemy circles were inspired by that anime.

Another reason why anime was still interesting for Tom was that... it was different.

Many franchises from his past life simply did not exist and new popular franchises he never heard of replaced them. Stories that existed in both Tom's previous life and his current one didn't have to be the same just because they shared a name.

Fairy Tail, for example, was a very dark anime in his current world with a lot of gore, blood, magical combat, and... more. Let's just say the scene of Erza being tortured was very vivid, descriptive, and gut-wrenching.

Not all of them were different but some had a completely unexpected twist that changed the whole story in the middle. That's what made it interesting and enjoyable for Tom.

A fleeting idea of creating the manga, anime, and stories from his past life that were missing in the current one flashed through Tom's head once or twice too... but he didn't need the money, and doing so would be a huge time-sink. After all, it took a lot of time to make a story.

In the end, Tom put that idea to rest. It was sad that the weebs in his current universe would not be introduced to the real culture but Tom didn't have the time to enlighten them.

"Hmm? One Punch Man again?" Natasha looked at the television and raised her eyebrow. Sighing to herself, she continued, "Well, it's definitely better than School Days but not my cup of tea." She frowned.

'Blasphemous.' Tom thought while rolling his eyes at her, his bad mood getting a lot lighter thanks to their small byplay.

Yes, Natasha usually watched anime with him. It was relaxing to just cuddle with each other while watching stuff on TV in the evening after a day of hard work. They both enjoyed it immensely.

"What's with you men and loving to see things smashed with a punch." Natasha shook her head in exasperation.

In answer, Tom just mock-scoffed at her before he gave her a smile to show her he wasn't serious, "What's with you women and loving romance?"

"Aw~, do I really need to remind you how you bawled your eyes out when Erza and Jellal finally kissed?" Natasha cooed, poking Tom with her pointing fingers, making him disgruntledly grunt.

"Stop it, woman!" Tom exasperatedly exclaimed, trying to fight off her vicious attacks in vain, "I was crying because the bastard took away my waifu! My dear Erza-chan was defiled!"

Natasha chuckled and with an eye roll teased, "Sure, she was."

The only reason why Tom was spared from much worse teasing was that Natasha clearly remembered him saying that Erza reminded him of her. She also remembered how Tom was glaring at the screen while possessively hugging her when the scene of Erza kissing Jellal was played.

Natasha almost expected Tom to destroy the television and it both exasperated her and made her feel happy.

But while Natasha would not bring out the big guns to this argument, she still wasn't done with her light teasing, "Is that why you so quickly changed the ship from Erza to Mirajane?"

Knowing this game, Tom donned a haughty expression. "Hmph! I already have one gorgeous redhead in my future harem! Don't need another! This Harem Lord is satisfied with his Natalia!" He smugly stated, trying to appear as dignified as possible... and failing hard, causing Natasha to giggle.

Tom also started chuckling, his facade completely breaking. Harem... really.

Until recently he had problems lasting longer than Natasha in bed. Thinking about other women while he struggled to make Natasha content both physically and emotionally was off the table.

Sure, he was just a guy too.

In his imagination, he would like to have multiple women as any other man. But imagination and reality were two different things. Realistically, after he took into account the effort necessary to make multiple women happy, Tom kinda didn't see the appeal. It was too much work.

As for just collecting them as dolls... that was not gonna happen. If Tom took a woman as his own, he would damn well make sure she was happy being with him. That was one of his core principles.

"Future harem, eh? Should I start being worried, my Harem Lord?" Natasha quipped, her eyes mirthfully sparkled with amusement.

Inwardly, she felt weird. She hoped for a firm 'no' but wanted to hear a firm 'yes' too.

Since Tom started with his Life Energy Absorption, he was starting to outlast her in bed, and... simply put, Natasha started having problems handling him alone.

As a woman, she wanted to be his one and only but her pride was hurt. Not even after using all the techniques she learned in the Red Room was Tom defeated in the sack and most of their recent love-making sessions ended with Natasha falling into the pillows unconscious. She realized she seriously needed some reinforcement and started to pay attention to how Tom looked at other women to choose a good candidate they both could accept.

But much to her dismay, Tom had an utter disinterest in every woman they met in the past two weeks. It flattered her immensely to see his interest directed only at her but it also frustrated her to no end.

Not that she would tell him this. Not yet, at least. Not until she was fully mentally acclimated to the idea of getting her clueless lover a second girl.

"As if I had time for another woman when dealing with you already takes so much effort." Tom quipped back in a feigned sad voice but his words were quite honest.

Both delighted but also disappointed at that answer, the smiling Natasha leaned down and gave Tom a tender kiss before slightly pulling away and quietly asking, "Anyway, wanna hot chocolate?"

She really needed to change the topic. It was getting into a dangerous territory she didn't want to tread upon right now.

"Sure." Tom nodded, clueless to her inward struggles, and turned back to the TV, starting his show.

Shaking her head in amusement, Natasha turned around and went to the kitchen. At least he was no longer brooding...

As Tom watched the One Punch Man, he suddenly noticed an unopened mail on the table. He instantly tilted his head in confusion. They never got mail. Ever. Neither of them had anybody who would write them so what the heck was this?

"Natalia, dear?" Tom shouted toward the kitchen, "What is the envelope on the table?"

"No idea!" Natasha's reply came from the kitchen. "I just found it in our mailbox today so I brought it inside!"

Furrowing his eyebrows, Tom reached for it and the first thing he did was to read the name of the receiver, only for his eyebrows to rise in silent shock.

The letter was addressed to Tom's long-deceased mother.

To Grace Granger.