He’d fucked it up.

Not the dragon, he did hate those both because of his own prejudice and Lea’s emotions relating to the species spilling over through their bond, but everyone had been able to notice the way he’d tortured it. Apparently his spells to make the place go unnoticed were eroded by the dungeon quite quickly because the place he’d chosen was simply meant to not be ‘camouflageable’. He had thought that perhaps he’d have to explain that he’d been harvesting the dungeon boss for materials and so he’d caused quite a bit of damage, creating that river of body fluids, but that was also when he noted that he’d been far too absorbed into his… he didn’t really have a way to call it, but he hadn’t really paid attention to his surroundings after a certain point, so most of the screams were actually heard through the dungeon.

The only consolation was that he had chosen not to keep any monster alive to ruin the pleasures of the flesh through their help instead of just using burning needles and blending blades, so perhaps no one thought he’d used the chance to have his way with the thing?

Then again, the acid bags made it’s torso look like it had boobs, and it was entirely naked, so some humans would certainly think that one way or the other.

The only sound coming from outside was that of flames suddenly bursting through the tree lines, Lea still silently grumbling and burning through all the annoyance, anger, fear and grief that’d spilled over their connection. Considering he’d managed to obtain a hundred seventy nine levels in a yellow ranked version of the torture skill, he had apparently been botling a lot more than he’d thought he was.

Aki had never been one for screaming or crying when he was sad after all. Crying was for hopelessness and disappointment, screaming was for intimidation. Effectively extinguishing a consciousness had been rather terapeutic and very enjoyable, but it was also… too much.

He should have done something like this by himself before throwing several people in the dungeon, but the annoying limitation of only one group per day had gotten to him and he didn’t want to wait even more to get on with what he knew was going to be one of the only chances he’d get to just relax after he put the proper preparations in place.

The damned lizard had been annoying him for a while then, but he’d thought it just some animal without fault, being instigated by the dungeon, a proper dragon on the other hand, was not something worth it to let live, and his feelings ended up finding the perfect target.

This had been an entirely new level of outburst, and Aki did indeed start to fear that his tendency for violence and murder had finally caught up with his emotions, turning his control over what he wished into something twisted and hopeless, much like when he was a little and simply tried to cause the most problems possible unless he was busy chewing or drinking something sweet.

Just that now that problem baby could cause genocide at will.

Sighing, he could only be happy that his newfound emotional weight hadn’t been enough to have him forgo making all those around him enter one kind of restrictive contract or another.

Lea would not judge him, at least for long or seriously, and it wasn’t like he had been one of those that needed to exist inside some kind of social group, but it still felt nice to be accepted and to share happy moments with someone that looked at him as an equal.

He’d always dreamed of a romance where he could just be all of himself and support another to do the same, perhaps raise some children to their best potential of happiness or whatever.

His family was nice and supportive, if he’d been able to go to university and ended bringing a boy home or something they’d likely just cheer that he’d found his first lover or something despite claiming plenty of costumes from cristianity, but showing any part of his mind or mannerism that wasn’t that of either a bored teen or a worried little angel would destroy his mother and likely make his grandmother have a fit which would actually kill her, as show by small spurts of violence he had through the years.

That had left him ‘neutered’ so to say for a long time, and the situation was just.... very conductive to the opposite of that in most of its extremes. Still, the now relatively weaker control he had over himself was still enough to stop him from simply committing mistakes he’d actually regret most of the time, but something like this had been coming for some time already.

He’d honestly been expecting it to be some promiscuous tirant from another zone or a middle eastern who provoked him with the wrong kind of thoughts and kept at it till the point where he could actually keep himself civilized and conscious of his own faults, and he’d probably still do both with much the same treatment as the dragon, but the problem had shown it’s head much sooner than he’d actually imagined it would.

Robert had always been suspicious of him, so there was no real problem with all this, and he could probably salvage his reputation with the other elites by keeping to more ‘humane’ behaviour, giving a few signs that he cared for them here and there while pretending he wasn’t trying to claim credit for them until people did notice him.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The real problems would be the human Huang, Septima and Karta. He was half sure about what the demon would actually think about his ‘prowess’, but he certainly wasn’t very interested in her, so at most that part would be a bother and at best she’d fall in line for some more time.

Lin Huang on the hand might start thinking of him on more unfavorable terms, creating possible mistrust and dishonesty from his part, and as someone who had ridiculous luck, Aki didn’t doubt that he might one day break free from his non-aggression pact and come back with the intention to deus vult him after some bullshit lucky encounter if his impression of him wasn’t fixed.

Septima… He couldn’t tell. Her story was practically that of a black widow with bunny ears, a penchant for excess and a surprising resistance to said excess no matter the kind, though he knew for a fact he did not know all of it. What he did know was that she would likely act the same way around him and hide her real thoughts. There wasn’t a proper contract between them, he just gave her some aether and they kept a mutual level of respect, but he wasn’t very worried about that, as she knew well enough that she could leave and he would not pursue if not asked to.

Karta… It was going to be hard looking at her terrified face. He knew for a fact that she had a better sense of danger than others and wasn't nearly as used to the level of terror and existential dread that his actions kept causing her.

Maybe this was why those protagonists in stories didn't even try to enter relationships at this stage of the apocalypse? Most weren't actually as crazy as him, but they generally did end up being feared for one reason or another.

Even as he pretended that everything was normal and started another day of training in the camp while ignoring the looks of fear with some even holding disgust in them, Aki couldn't help but hope that this had been the only mistake he'd walked into like this.

Later, during a small break for eating and resting, he approached the gorgeous hunting mistress, and it was rather hard not to notice how she was trembling in place. He'd promised her not to pursue her anymore and assured the woman that it would not affect the prospects of neither her tribe or herself inside of his community. The brief moment of relief she showed was… hurtful to say the least, but expecting otherwise was above even his own level of hypocrisy. After a brief back and forth, he left after signing a contract, which actually took plenty of the available time to draft. Not that he'd been planning to let out his frustration on those she cared about, but he understood the importance of the contract even if it was basically useless against any other reason he might develop to attack her people.

Lin Huang could not really wait though, so he joined the young man on his weighted run. He was one of those that didn't just fear him more because of the incident after all.

Their talk ended up being a lot like that of a parent telling a teen that what they had done would be understood after the teen grew up, but Aki also assured him that even if he didn't enjoy the whole thing, it would eventually be necessary, and even by then, he would try not to involve the young hero on this kind of thing.

That got him a bit of trust back, but he could see he had not suddenly awakened to his bloodline's more sadistic tendencies, so he'd still need to work hard to restore his image before him.

When he finally reached Septima though...

“Need coffee?” She calmly offered despite it being so close to bedtime. He just accepted and sipped a mouthful of the bitter death wish he’d bought her. For some ‘unknown’ reason several blends had been added to the list of human commodities in the town shop. They just sat there at her bed for a while, surrounded by a transparent barrier that stopped sound, so he decided to start the whole thing already after tasting the moment.

“I blew up. Without my family to hold me down and with all the violence I could wish for… I think I'm starting to lose to my desires.” He admitted.

“Were they good people?” She asked after a while.

“...If i you had somehow come around while our house wasn’t a giant hole in the ground, my grandparents would be pestering to get to know you, my uncle would be smiling while making sure you didn’t try to steal or break anything and my mother would be telling me to try and be a good influence on someone that clearly needed it.” He snorted after thinking about how to answer it.

“No offense, but she sounds like a bitch.” Was her immediate reaction, to which she then frowned before he even started nodding.

“She did not understand subtlety, compromise nor how to incite progress despite her ideals. Were she alive I'd have built a church with her as the figurehead to be venerated, and I'm pretty sure she’d somehow develop skills that would make her snobbish tone of voice and bland sentences sound like that of a divine emissary in no time. To many a definition, she would become a bonafide angel.” He scoffed before chuckling despite Septima’s confusion.

“Aki, were you perhaps normal before the system or something?” Tilting her head, she asked with apparent surprise.

“Obviously not. I’ve always been like this, though generally less unhinged and interacting with less people or a daily basis. Except my face and hair, that’s soul fuckery." Sighing, he rolled his eyes at the comment, which he didn't really see the relation with their current conversation.

"It's just… You're a bad person, but you’re trying to do good and are actually worried that you will just tip over and become like scum you’ve only read about. That’s ridiculous.” She exclaimed.

"And you're an addicted super spy with a penchant for helping random people in suffering. Mine honestly sounds more normal than yours." He shrugged. “I value my restraints and balance and think of them as good ways to actually perpetuate a happy life. Only someone special would be able to enjoy constant extremes of something without changing their view about it, and I am far too prideful to allow myself to become a beast enslaved to its own desires.”

“...Maybe, just maybe, it’s fine to really be your friend.” After much thought, this was what she very seriously proclaimed, to which Aki just stared into her face as if asking if she was an idiot.

“You owe me an apology then.” He proclaimed after sighing. “I’m putting your reward time forward to this moment and adding some other experimental stuff to it.” Aki did not mention anything else, but his tone did say that he was definitely a little pissed at her answer, and Septima could only regret her words a bit before owning up to it and going along.