Aria
I wake up with a start, jumping straight out of bed and summoning my pistol from my storage ring when I feel a sensation of something else in my room that shouldn't be there, only to surprisingly find what appears to be an illusion on the other side of my room. One of the First General tilting her head at me after looking around my room with curiosity.
“First General, ma’am!” I exclaim while rushing to stand up straight and in a salute. “What brings you here?” My eyes flicker to the clock then back at her. “And at such a late hour?”
She taps her arm with her finger, her arms folded under her chest. But she doesn’t say anything for a few seconds, instead just looking around my room.
Why is the First General in my room?
I know this is her, because the specific rooms within the base should all be enchanted against infiltration like this. With the only people allowed to bypass those protections without setting off an alarm being the nine generals.
But why is she here? Did I do something illegal or something? Did she realize who I am?
Or… maybe…
Her gaze finally locks onto mine as she starts speaking, “Major Aria Crimson, last surviving member of the Crimson family and true immortal known by the name of Crimson Eternal, I have an offer for you.” A smirk stretches across the older woman’s face. “A tantalizing one, if I know you well enough.”
I frown on instinct, only to straighten my face again.
“Do as you please here,” she says while waving her hand. “This is your room after all, and I’m the uninvited guest.”
That… surprises me. But I remain stiff anyways, because trust is hard to earn.
“What sort of offer do you have?” I ask, trying to keep my voice as polite as possible.
“Hmm…” she hums while tilting her head again, letting her black hair move over her shoulder. “What would you say if I decided to give you the emperor, bound and gagged, for you to do whatever you want with him? If you do a little favor for me, of course.”
My eyes go wide with shock as I lose my composure and blurt out, “What?!”
“I have covered us with an illusion so no one can hear, record, or see us,” she says while gesturing around my room. “All they’ll see is you sleeping in your bed like you were when I arrived. So don’t worry about any attempts to trap you or me.”
I frown at her, pursing my lips for a bit.
Trusting the First General with a topic like this… doesn’t feel like a smart idea. Not when she could use it to trap me as well.
“If you want, we can sign a soul pact,” she says with a smile, shocking me again.
A soul pact. Something created by an ability user with a very specific ability called soul bond. They can create a bond between two people or even a written contract where the two parties must obey by the terms lest their souls be removed from their body. Which, from what we’ve heard from the other worlds, basically just means they die, and their soul is sent to the void.
Although it’s different from the body pact I was forced to sign with the former emperor. A pact that has to have a lot of clauses to make the ‘pact’ even with both sides, but absolutely forces the two parts of the pact to obey no matter what.
With one of the terms of our pact being that I had to listen and obey his every word while I’m a subordinate of his. A term that was voided after I was moved out of his chain of command.
Even if the part about me not being able to tell others about the contract is still there.
But most people believe a soul pact to be a lot harsher since it can be completely one sided and is usually used for vows. Just that it doesn’t really work on me thanks to my immortality so I’m immune to any negative effects. Hence why the emperor used a body pact instead.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
So if she’s willing to do a soul pact for this, she must truly be serious.
“You don’t have to answer now,” she says while raising a soul pact contract that she has already signed, but with the secondary party not having been signed yet. “I have already signed this contract. Look it over if you wish.”
I look between the real contract in her illusion’s hand before looking at the illusion, then the contract again. And completely ignoring the fact that her illusion is capable of physically manipulating objects like a contract, I reach over and grab the thing before reading it over.
The contract is a rather simple one. Neither party will speak of this contract to a third party. The First General, Elara Crescent, will give the Former Emperor of the Republic of Albaria, known as Lysandre de Pyre Voltaire, over to me should I succeed in either assassinating the Emperor of Arteria or being a part of the team that assassinates the Emperor of Arteria. I will then be able to do whatever I wish to him for three hours, including killing him if I so please. And if Elara Crescent breaks this agreement by not handing Lysandre de Pyre Voltaire over to me, not letting me kill him, or attempts to skirt the rules of this contract in any way, her soul will be forfeit. Meanwhile any attempts at all to bend the rules of the contract through word manipulation that are not understood by both parties upon the moment of the last person signing the contract will result in the soul of the offender being forfeited.
The contract is ironclad.
She seems to have done that strictly to reassure me.
It directly blocks any attempts she could possibly make to save the emperor if I succeed, and the contract has no requirements of me whatsoever. I could sign it and then ignore it if I so pleased.
There aren’t any demerits to signing it. Not that I’d have any requirements in the first place regardless.
So I quickly move to my desk to grab a pen before signing the contract, making it burn in crimson and black flames.
Afterwards, I turn back to the First General to see her smiling while nodding her head. And having already lost my composure, I decide to just discard formalities and ask, “You realize this mission is incredibly dangerous, don’t you? I can’t see the other members of the team going along with it.” I pause for a second and tilt my head. “Unless you expect me to do it alone?”
The Emperor of Arteria is different from the former Emperor of our Republic. The Arterian Emperor, Ashur Kaelar Valan, is a Category 5 Ability Holder. Class S according to the other worlds. And he is quite difficult to kill.
Assassination attempts have taken place numerous times over the years, but they’ve never succeeded. Because the man’s ability is called Shadowborne. An ability that lets him enter and travel through shadows.
It makes pinning him down almost impossible.
The only way to kill him is through surprise attacks. And he’s always nervous of that happening so he has his closest nobles always near him with a permanent barrier set up over his body.
So even if someone ambushes him with an attack, the attack will be blocked by the layers of barriers, letting him turn into shadows and escape before it hits him.
He’s the very definition of a cockroach in Albaria, which is amusing.
“Don’t worry, the others will join the mission,” she says with a smile, clearly implying that she’s going to be making a deal with the others as well.
Which leaves me briefly wondering just what she’s offering them that they’d accept such a mission.
I frown, but her illusion vanishes, leaving behind her voice echoing in my room for a few seconds, “The briefing for the mission will be at noon tomorrow. If you wish to join the mission, merely show up and I’ll take that as your agreement.”
Then I’m left all alone again in my shirt and shorts, not having bothered changing into a nightgown tonight.
I stare at where she had left from before eventually sighing and walking back to my bed, pausing only briefly when I get to the alarm to make sure I wake up before noon.
And without any hesitation, I flop back down onto my bed and go back to sleep.
----------------------------------------
The next morning, I arrive at the meeting room fifteen minutes before noon. And lo and behold, every one of our team members is in the room, none of whom look surprised in the least to see me. Although they are a little surprised to see each other.
Except Vargas. We all know Vargas wants something.
He’s similar to me after all. We’re both being used by the military, so I can easily see the First General offering him something.
But for the others?
I don’t have a clue what they could be offering Snow, Rogers, or Harvey to risk their lives like this. As for the commander, I wouldn’t be surprised if they just told him that the rest of us were likely to go, so he decided to go as well just to lead us. Since there wouldn’t be much of a team without our leader.
The six of us wait for the First General to arrive, and she does so immediately upon the clock striking noon.
She looks between each one of us with a smile, then clicks her boots together and salutes, stating, “Attention!”
We all follow suit.
“Starting from here on out, everything you hear in this room is top secret intel,” she declares, her eyes passing over each one of us. “Any word of this getting out, and you will all be severely punished. And depending on the severity of the leak, we may even be forced to extreme measures.” Then a slight grin cracks that seriousness as she adds, “But I doubt we’ll have to worry about any of that.”
We’re all being bribed here, so I would be shocked if someone did leak it.
“Now, let’s begin the briefing,” she states, her face growing serious once more. “On the mission to assassinate the Emperor of Arteria.”