Carefully, I searched for Karl’s room. Although he was a guy who may have caused our destruction, I was feeling a little bad because I was thinking about using his feelings to save my skin. But I was in that situation because of him, it wasn't entirely his fault, but I wouldn’t hesitate.
Even though it seemed Karl knew the crazy bitch from a long time, he wasn’t receiving any good treatment like her toys. So, his room wasn’t near her room, and that part of the hotel was crowded with survivors. They were sleeping on the floor or on improvised beds. But at least he had a room to himself, thanks to it, I would be able to talk to him without worrying about being discovered. Well, only if he accepts to talk.
Slowly, I opened the door of his room. Fortunately, no one noticed me, the survivors were too tired, and Karl was too busy crying for the crazy bitch. Seeing a grown-up man crying for love was somewhat unnerving, but he didn’t look much older than me, so I thought that wasn’t all that pathetic.
For a moment, I hesitated. He was an enemy, and he gave plenty of information about us to that crazy bitch. My chances in succeeding talking to him were close to none; my best chance was to use my speed to cross the lobby and use the momentum to open the door before the guards could notice what had happened. The crazy bitch put other two guards near the entrance door, and he was still on her throne in front of the statue and with a clear view of the entrance door. But even if a succeeded, what would I do? I didn’t know the effective range of the crazy bitch’s skills, the chances of me dying outside the hotel were too big.
‘I have to collect more information about her; half-assed plans will only lead me to my demise. And the only one who can give me the necessary information is him.’
However, I couldn’t just start the conversation saying anything; I had to grab his attention with a single sentence to make him not start a commotion. But what kind of thing would grab his attention?
“You really love her, huh.”
Karl suddenly got up and looked around his room, but he saw nothing. He recognized my voice but didn’t shout. Instead, embarrassed, he cleaned his eyes and face.
“What are you doing here?” Karl asked, showing a lot of anger on his face and voice.” Just give up and surrender, you won’t escape from this place.”
“Maybe I will do that, but let’s talk a little bit.”
“I have nothing to talk to you,” Charles said, and then he headed toward the door. “I’m going to call the guards.”
“Let’s not make a scene, okay? I don’t want to kill you.”
“You can’t kill me here,” Karl said.
“No, but my small army of assholes can. I can give them the order to buy hundreds of grenades and make them destroy this place. That woman may survive, but I don’t think you will.”
Karl looked astonished; she didn’t expect that I had such skill. He thought I was just useful in finding monsters and collect information about other survivors.
“However, I don’t want to kill you. Until you and that woman don’t cause us any damage, you aren’t our enemies.”
“Are you sure of that?” Karl said while frowning. “You are very naïve.”
“I don’t think so; when we arrived at this place, you gave the guards the order to arrest me. Besides, you tried to convince that woman to stop with her actions. Just like us, you want to avoid any more deaths. You and she may have caused the death of many other survivors, but our objective is to survive, we aren’t here to deliver justice. Like I said, until you don’t attack us, you aren’t our enemies.”
I was speaking for myself, and I was pretty sure the others wouldn’t agree with me. But they weren’t stupid enough to attack the crazy bitch knowing that they don’t stand a chance. Probably.
“Let’s just talk, alright? If you help me, we may save many lives. We don’t need to attack each other, the hell broke loose, and the last thing we need to do is to make the remaining survivors kill each other.”
Karl didn’t like that prospect, but he didn’t trust me either. I could clearly see that in his eyes, but in the end, he just sighed and sat on his bed.
“I will cooperate,” Karl said, showing a grim expression. “But at the very moment I think you are going to cause any problem for us, I won’t rest until I see your dead body.”
So scary… his threat would be very effective if I didn’t have saw him crying because of his crush a few moments ago.
“Alright, do you know anyone who can put some reason in her head? Or is there any way to do it? Like family and friends, or perhaps a memory?”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“She is an orphan like me,” Karl said, looking a little sad. “I’m her only friend, and I don’t think there’s a thing like that which can make her change her mind. She is beautiful, but she doesn’t have any good memories because of it.”
“Are you serious? She looks like she is having the time of her life because of her power and looks.”
“Did you take a close look on her bodyguards?” Karl asked.
“No, why?”
“If you look at their eyes, you will understand it,” Karl said, showing a pained expression. “They idolize her; for them, she is the most important thing in the world. But it is not because they truly love her; it is because she altered their memories.”
“Did she do that with the skill goddess of illusions?”
“Yes,” Karl answered with his head down.
Holy shit… that skill was even crazier than the skill domination. It was probably even pricier than the telekinesis; by using that skill, she really could become the queen of the entire world. No one would try to disobey her, by altering the people’s memories, she could really become a goddess in their eyes.
“That sounds scary… when can she use that skill?”
“When the targets are sleeping,” Karl answered.
Oh shit… she already had the skill to make anyone sleep, and I didn’t have any idea how I could counter that effect. I wondered what would happen with her bodyguards if she dies, but I couldn’t ask that to Karl. She was a crazy bitch, but he loved her, and they were probably childhood friends. I couldn’t make him notice that I was considering that.
“Do you know why she is acting like this? I mean, is there any explanation why she wants to be surrounded by good looking guys? Why there’s no children and women here?”
“Ann always has been beautiful,” Karl said, showing a small smile. “Even in the orphanage, as a child, she received many jobs to pose in those fashion magazines. Because of that, at an early age, she already knew what she wanted to be: a model. But the world is big, you know. While I had never seen a woman more beautiful than her, other people have their own opinions. She participated in many beauty contests and many fashion shows. But she never stood out as much as she wanted. Because of it, in recent years, she got obsessed with getting other people’s attention. And when the monsters appeared, she obtained the necessary skills to do what he wanted: to be the only person on everyone’s eyes.”
An egocentric person, huh. That was a pain in the ass. Maybe I don’t have the right to judge, but her reasons seemed very petty. She was already beautiful, but she didn’t accept to be in second place. She always wanted to be in the spotlight. But that didn’t explain why there was no children or women there. But I was pretty sure she couldn’t use her skills to make children love her, I mean, children can love their parents, but it’s not the kind of love Ann wanted. Maybe she could do that with women, but those women had first to prefer women over men.
Because of her greedy and lust, she lost sight of the most important things. She always had what she wanted, Karl loved her more than anything else, but she didn’t notice it.
‘What a pain in the ass…’
I have no idea how to deal with her; she wouldn’t listen to me. I only had two options, kill her or control her using the skill domination. But she was too prideful for that, even if I put her into a corner and completely defeat her, she would rather die than obey my commands, I was sure of it. However, I didn’t have the means to achieve any of those. Even with the help of others, I wouldn’t succeed.
‘Probably, half of our survivors won’t become fighters. So, the crazy bitch’s army outnumbers us in three to one. Maybe her overall army strength isn’t bigger than ours, but our side will hesitate in fighting against other humans.’
We only had one option, run away from her. It was unnerving to run away from someone like her, but we didn’t have much choice.
“She changed the memories of how many survivors?”
“I’m not sure,” Karl said. “She couldn’t use that skill frequently, but she had plenty of time to recover her MP in this place. Besides, she demanded ninety percent of all survivors’ evolution coins, so she had the chance to buy a lot of potions. At least, fifty percent of the survivors here are under her control. Will you try to start a rebellion?”
“Not a violent rebellion, but if half of the survivors here join our side, she maybe will hesitate a little.”
I was really considering a violent rebellion, but too many people would die, so, I couldn’t risk it. The death of innocent people would drive me crazy; my mind would suffer much more damage than the time when I killed those criminals and Ken’s gang. I didn’t regret a single time my actions against them, but I couldn’t sacrifice innocents just to save my skin. If I do that, then I would truly become a monster.
‘What a pain… why is it so hard to try to be a reasonable person?’
The enemy can change the memories of their minions, but I have to keep worrying about things like good or evil. Why can’t I defeat the enemy using the same dirty tactics? I didn’t have any reasons to keep playing that stupid game. But in the end, I was a person who couldn’t let myself to become like my enemies. It was only an excuse to make me feel good about myself, but I couldn’t become as bad as my enemy.
“I guess there’s nothing we can do about this whole situation.”
“Is that so,” Karl said, showing a sad face.
“Unless you offer your life to stop her.”
“What?” Karl asked, surprised.
“I mean, talk to her and say that you will join the enemy’s side our suicide if she doesn’t stop. You are her childhood friend, right? There’s a chance that will be enough to make her stop.”
“She won’t listen to that,” Karl said. “She will kill me if I try to stop her even a little bit more.”
I figured as much, once a person obtains grand things, she won’t care about the small ones. Karl was just a tiny thing for Ann. For her, someone so average like Karl didn’t matter; she instead preferred her good looking bodyguards who obeyed all her commands. Although they were no more than puppets, they were even less than dolls, after all, they lost their free will.
She was living a life full of lies, she didn’t truly love her bodyguards, and she refused the love of someone who always stood by her side, even when she did unforgivable things. In some aspects, we were alike. I was also running away from many things, and I also was lying to myself. So I decided to do to her the thing I would hate if someone did to me: rub the truth on her face.
I deactivated the invisibility, and then I left the room, it was time to make a bet.
“Where are you going?” Karl asked, confused.
“I’m going to do the thing I’m most talented at, I’m going to piss off someone.”