Silence descended. Aelia blinked with surprise, as did her three female comrades. The two women who'd been slammed against the wall were now standing again, even as they still clutched their sides and groaned.2

Finally, Aelia reacted with one hand on her hips, and the other pointing at him accusingly, while a disgusted scowl graced her face, "Serve you?! We don't serve anyone! If we wanted to serve, we'd be toiling for the magisters in Castrum, or the royals in Feralis! I'd rather die!"

Once again Kane was hearing terms he didn't recognize, but he figured asking such a question right now would undermine his momentum, so he stored it away for later. Regardless, since this woman was ready to choose death before service, he needed to convince her.

So, he raised a curious eyebrow and pointed down to the corpse of their previous leader, "Oh? So who was this then?"

Aelia scoffed defensively, and crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Every group needs a leader…"

"But we didn't serve!" she snarled. "Everyone keeps their own spoils, and any large profits are shared among the group!"

"I see…" Kane nodded thoughtfully, before shrugging casually. "That's fine. You can keep that system, so long as you ultimately serve me."

"You…!" Aelia exclaimed angrily as she pointed at him again but wasn't sure how to continue.

Meanwhile, Luna was casually playing with her short swords, the brown-haired hareling was nervously fidgeting, and the other two bandits, a human and a ramling, glared at Kane angrily.

The ramling angled her head, so that the horns coming out the side of her head were pointed in his direction, while the human seemed a little more timid and nervous, but still defiant.

"Don't listen to him, Big sister Aelia!" the human exclaimed.

"Yeah!" the ramling nodded, full of fighting intent. "Let's just go down fighting! We don't need to take this guy's shit!"

Both women readied their weapons in preparation, but still waited for Aelia's word. Even if their chances were already low, they were definitely zero without the strongest of them.

Kane, however, ignored them, and kept looking at Aelia.

He sighed, "You're overthinking this. You've already seen what I can do. Not only am I powerful, but I can offer various other benefits, and I have an extraordinary technus on my side."

Surprisingly, the hareling's bunny ears twitched when he talked about Ella, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. Still, she managed to withhold the question lying on the tip of her tongue.

Kane ignored her, however, and continued, "Under me, you can soar. Serving anyone has bad connotation, but all you need is the right master."

Before Aelia could react, he shrugged, and casually kicked the corpse of their former leader, "Besides, you can't tell me you actually cared about these people. I saw the glee on your face when they died, and I can understand."

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

He smiled confidently, "I'm sure you and the other women here have not been having the best time living with these men, right? They seemed like a rough group. Your leader was a man, that Ian seemed like a wonderful person, and I've seen more men than women throughout this base."

His smile turned into an enticing smirk, full of promise for the future, "I'm sure you've wondered what it would be like to run an all female crew, haven't you? Well, here's your chance!"

Aelia blinked as his words sunk in. Kane's lust shard was also doing it's work in making persuasion easier on women, but it wasn't enough to convince her just yet.

"I—" she stammered, as clear interest shone in her eyes. But then she shook her head and frowned, "What the hell are you talking about! It wouldn't be all female! You'd be there!"

But Kane denied her allegations, as a grin played on his lips, "Of course it would be, because I wouldn't actually be a part of it. I'd be above you. The gang would serve me, be directed by me, but I wouldn't be involved in the day-to-day. You'd be allowed to run it however you like… for the most part."

Aelia frowned, her interest increasing. Next to them, the two women who protested earlier also gained thoughtful, and hesitantly curious expressions. Aelia wasn't the only one who'd considered the option of an all female crew where they wouldn't have to sleep with a knife under their pillow anymore.

But, although Aelia's interest was quickly rising, she still wasn't convinced. "Okay… but why are you doing this?" she asked with narrowed eyes. "You say you have no intention of forcing yourself on us, yet you're planning to form an all-female gang to serve you? Why?"

Kane smiled mysteriously, "I have my reasons… but we can talk about those later. Either way, forced or coerced sex is simply not my thing." Then, he thumbed to the catling next to him, "You can ask Luna."

Suddenly, everyone turned their attention to Luna, who'd so far been patiently playing with her swords until Kane finished his business. Now having become the centre of attention, Luna blinked, not having expected that.

But, she played it cool and sheathed her swords, before shrugging calmly, "Master despises rapists, he's killed plenty of them himself." Then, she winked and grinned playfully, "Although, I'm not the best person to ask. If he ever changed his mind, I'd happily hold his target down for him."

Kane couldn't help but flinch a little, despite her display of loyalty. the catling's comment also didn't exactly endear her to these women, most of whom now looked at her with a hostile scowl.

But before their reactions could go beyond that, Luna snorted with disdain, "Don't look at me like that! Before Master and I managed to escape, I was getting dragged through these halls by two men who made no secret of where they were bringing me, or what was going to happen there!"

She pointed to Ian's corpse, "They mentioned his name, and don't you dare try and tell me you didn't know what he was up to, because I doubt it was the first time!"

Before continuing, she narrowed her eyes, and smirked with confidence, "At least I would help my master out of love and devotion, while you all ignored this guy's behaviour out of base cowardice, so don't try and pretend any of you are better than me!"

When Luna claimed to care about no one but Kane and her parents, she meant it. She did have her limits, but when it came down to it, Luna's morals were even lower than Kane's.

At the end of Luna's rant, an uncomfortable silence descended, as the four female bandits suddenly didn't know what to do with themselves. Meanwhile, Luna now looked at them smugly, before turning to Kane with a victorious grin, as if demanding praise for the way she'd handled that.

Kane grinned slightly. "That's my girl," he praised her telepathically.

At the same time, he turned to the equally uncomfortable Aelia, and smiled softly as he decided to make use of that discomfort, "Such things wouldn't happen with an all-female crew, headed by you, would it?"

Aelia grumbled a little, but still nodded. Surprisingly, this event had pushed her a little closer to accepting his offer.

Before they could continue talking about it, however, the strawberry-blond hareling suddenly spoke up with a soft voice. "Did you… make a blood oath with him?" she asked Kane's companion in a cautiously awe-filled voice, after finally noticing the blood red tattoo on Luna's lower arm.