"Aw, why put it so crudely? What do you mean, picking up girls? He's not like you, seducing and flirting with someone every day. She's his ex-girlfriend, and this is about helping him win back his love, understand?"
"I'm asking you to help him rebuild his confidence and be a relationship coach, not teach him your playboy tricks."
The floor-to-ceiling windows of Stark's private laboratory were bright and clear. Precision robotic arms hung in midair, moving slowly, while an unfinished anti-gravity engine model floated on a light screen.
Tony had just finished checking a round of calculations. Still wearing a loose white lab coat, one hand in his pocket, he froze when he heard Rimuru's request, disbelief written all over his face.
He fell silent for two seconds, then scoffed, his voice dripping with amusement.
"Wait, did I hear that right? You want me, Tony Stark, genius inventor, billionaire, and former number-one playboy in New York, to be a relationship coach for a softhearted reporter who can't talk and has turned love into a grueling exercise in atonement?"
"What kind of new cross-industry venture is this? When did Stark Technologies expand into winning back exes and intensive dating lessons?"
Rimuru stood in the middle of the laboratory, his little face calm as he got straight to the point.
"No one else can teach him."
"Eddie's problem right now isn't that he doesn't know how to woo her. He's completely lost his confidence."
"He thinks his life is a mess, that he's full of faults and isn't good enough for Anne. He doesn't dare pursue her. All he does is apologize, protect her, and back away. If he keeps pining after her like he's atoning for his sins, he'll lose her for good."
Tony raised an eyebrow, switched off the engineering