Ehka was a member of the Knights of the Podlezl republic. The Knights were essentially an elite police force. Having hailed from an impoverished household, she worked very hard to be able to enter the Knights. She was very proud of her achievement and rightfully so.

“If it wasn’t for that fucking witch…,” she grumbled in a shuttle. This was after she had been let go, or fired in other words. It could have been much worse for her because the original punishment was court martial. The leader of the Knights, Wemer, went easy on her since she had served the knights to the best of her abilities for over ten years. He was fully aware of what exactly happened, but a scapegoat was needed for the incident. What incident? It occurred on the trading outpost of Ayse’s low orbit.

image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/4889/i53FfW.png]

There was a report that Sae the Witch was present on the station. She was sent to investigate and, if true, call for reinforcement. She was not expected to survive a fight against her. No, no, she wouldn’t survive, not a chance. As soon as she arrived at the station, it was clear as day that Sae was there because the whole station was trashed by the time she arrived. She could even hear the distant hysterical laughter that was echoing through. There were several guards in her vicinity who looked hopeless. She showed her badge and declared.

“I am Ehka, a member of the Knights. I am here for the witch.”

The guards gave her a lukewarm welcome.

“You are not capable of arresting her, are you?” One of them asked.

“I am here to assess the situation.”

“What a waste of time…,” he said, shaking his head. “Well, here you go. Call for someone capable unless you want to get ripped off and die.”

Sae the Witch was a class S ESP. She was unstoppable and wouldn’t die in a vacuum, either. The only way to stop a class S ESP was another class S esper or a group of highly skilled class A espers. Ehka was a class B esper specialized in physical enhancements. In other words, she was unable to use magic-like abilities. Instead, her physical abilities were boosted. Regardless, the bottom line was that she’d get killed in a matter of seconds if she fought the witch. Therefore, she could not refute that her visit was indeed “a waste of time”. At the same time, she was simply following the protocol. If a highly wanted criminal was found, it had to be verified first by a member of the Knight before someone more capable would be sent.

“I will need to ensure that she is indeed here. Excuse me,” she said, indirectly asking the guards to make a path for her since they were blocking the only exit that led to the station lobby.

“Be our guest,” said the guard who was clearly blocking the way. “Just come back alive. We don’t want to wait for another one of you to arrive.”

She had no intention to die anyway. After giving him a firm nod, the guy moved aside for her to pass through.

“What a fucking mess…,” she remarked as she flew into the lobby. The aluminum walls had nail scratches everywhere as if some wild animals had gone nuts clawing the walls. “That’s her alright, Sae the Witch.” This wasn’t her first time running into her. The Witch was notorious for causing havoc mostly in the Podlezl system. It was understood that her base of operation was the Freedom colony, AKA Noman’s station. She knew something else as well. Wherever she appeared, there was deep corruption somewhere in the chain of the command. This uncanny trend was something she did report to her boss, which was blatantly ignored. The authorities wanted the public to perceive the Witch as a chaotic serial murderer, and the media gleefully accepted such a request after being bribed handsomely. This was insider information only some were aware of. In fact, Ehka wasn’t supposed to know this much but she was able to make the connection after investigating her personally throughout the years. She flew deeper, navigating through passageways until she entered a commercial deck where it was an open space with building-like structures present, representing independent shops. From there, she could finally spot Sae who was running around with what appeared to be a head in one of her hands. Blood was still splattering out of its severed neck as well as its spine sticking out of its neck. The way the head’s eyes were wide open, he probably never saw coming and died instantly. The key point here was that she was “running” around where there was no gravity. She was creating her own sphere of gravity to be able to run around. This was something only class S espers were capable of, defying the laws of physics. She was a midget girl, looking more like a pre-teen 10 year-old girl. She did look quite pretty, however. If it wasn’t for her short stature, she would have been considered very beautiful. Her hair was brown and was long enough to reach her shoulders. Wearing a pale-yellow hooded sweater, checkered mini skirt of red and black colors, and light brown thigh socks, her dressing code was quite provocative for her perceived age of a pre-teen. She even had light makeup on which was red eyeshadow. Ehka had no idea why she would put on makeup to begin with…

“Except for the fact that she is over 800 years old…,” She mumbled. Yes, Sae the Witch was that old. Nobody really understood how she was able to live that long. But then, the Asperger, another class S esper, was over 1,000 years old at this point. Those class S espers defied laws of everything.

“Oh, hey!” Sae’s high-pitched voice startled her. She was right in front of her, and Ehka didn’t even see her coming. The gap in strength was too wide.

image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/6480/lgsa2n.png]

“You…!”

“Oh, I recognize you. Ehka, right?” Sae said with a smile. She did really look like a child from the way she smiled. It was hard to believe that the child standing in front of her was a cold-blooded serial murderer.

Gritting her teeth, Ehka asked her, “Just how many have you murdered this time?”

With her index finger on her lips, she looked up as if trying to count. “Oh, I don’t know ~, maybe a few hundred?” Her tone was completely unconcerned as if it was not a big deal to her.

Gritting teeth, Ehka growled, “I wish I could arrest you and make you face justice.”

“Justice, ha! Too young, you are. The whole system is crooked.”

“The system is not crooked. I wish I could show you that.”

A corner of Sae’s lips lifted up. “Well, you will see what I mean soon enough. I’ve seen you a few times now. There is a reason that they sent you specifically more than once.”

“Why have you not killed me then?”

“Because you don’t yet deserve to die. You are too naive.” Then she shooed Ehka away. “Go, girl now. Leave. Inform your boss. This will probably be the last time we will meet.”

Ehka had no idea what she was saying at this time.

“I will give you some advice as a parting gift. Never trust anyone until you have gathered enough evidence to be able to trust them. And never ever trust journalists, the media, and politicians. I mean, why would you trust professional liars?” Sae shrugged. “Fools never learn.”

Gritting teeth and clenching her first, she was forced to withdraw. After making her report that Sae the Witch was indeed spotted at the station, she was ordered to return to New Earth. She would find out what Sae meant soon after. Somehow, the blame of the incident was placed on her. The media reported that she was partially at fault for not being able to prevent the incident at the station. She was to be court-martialed. The whole event occurred within a span of just two days, not giving her any meaningful time to make any defense for herself.

“A scapegoat…!” Ehka grumbled in jail. It all made sense now. Since they kept losing the Witch, they had to find a scapegoat and lessen the public anger. An election circle was coming close by as well. They needed to do something to quell public resentment.

“There is a reason that they sent you specifically more than once.”

It turned out that they were going to sacrifice her sooner or later. They were simply waiting for the right moment.

……………………..

…………….

………..

She cried her eyes out for a moment in the shuttle. How her career went downhill to this point was just unbelievable for her. The amount of effort she had to put in to become a knight of the Podlezl republic... and then all crashing down because of the witch… She had to cry; she had been holding back her tears for almost a year, which was how long she had been prosecuted. She hoped for a breakthrough that never came. It was about time to cry indeed. Once she regained her composure, she had to accept the reality.

“Could have been worse, a lot worse," She said to herself as she washed her face and sat down at the cockpit of the shuttle. It was indeed true that it could have been worse.

“I don't even want to think about it," She said to herself again. She was given a shuttle and was told to leave the Podlezl system ASAP. Logically, she had two designations. One was the Solar system. The other was the Freedom colony. Since she was a citizen of the Podlezl republic, she could not enter the Solar system legally, leaving the Freedom colony as a safe choice. However, she wanted to go to neither of those places because she wanted to stay close to the Podlezl system to plot for revenge if possible. If the system was indeed crooked, then it deserved to go down in flames.

“Wait…, there is another choice…”

There was the Cassandra belt, also known as Rocksea locally. It was a lawless zone, meaning the authority of the public did not reach there. Additionally, she had good knowledge of the asteroid region. As a knight, she had infiltrated several known outposts and knew a place to go for drinks.

“Drinks, I could really use some," She muttered.

There was a small outpost in the region. Its name was the Duchess' boobs. The whole outpost was a bar, plus a brothel. She knew the owner as well whose alias went by "Duke". As a knight, she knew his profile. He was an ex-murderer who accepted a plea deal and moved to Rocksea. His job was simple in concept. Become a resident in the area and be an eye for the republic. Being forced to reside in Rocksea was as good as house arrest, but it was better than a prison, thus he accepted, reluctantly. He wasn’t chosen randomly. He was chosen because he was a resourceful man, and his crime was somewhat justified because he murdered a man who killed his wife, Duke’s sister, after a fight.

“Is that you, Ehka? Long time no see!"

A bald and big-boned man dressed in a dark red turtleneck shirt and dark gray pants casually greeted her entering the bar. His facial features were refined and she could call him decently good-looking. His clothes were also very tight fit on his big body, exposing his masculine shape.

“Hey, Duke, how has it been going for you?"

He shrugged. "Could be better, but then could be worse."

The Duchess' boobs was a rather desolate place to be, mainly due to the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere. She looked around and saw a single guy sitting in a corner, drinking, and the place could hold hundreds. Regardless, the status of his business wasn't her concern. She needed a place to stay for the time being.

“I'd like to rent a room, Duke."

“An agent business?"

Obviously he didn't know that she was no longer a knight.

“Something like that."

“Sure thing, lass. I've got a luxury room for 17,000c for 90 days."

If she was a knight, the money would be paid by the budget. Obviously, that wasn't the case anymore.

“I'd like the cheapest room please."

He raised his eyebrows for a moment and gave her a stare. He didn't say anything though and offered her the most inexpensive room which ran at 5,000c. After making the payment, she immediately went to her room.

“My word..."

The room was a mess. Walls had scratches all over and the bed was in a questionable state. Yes, there was a bed which was meaningless in zero gravity. However, it had a pair of straps to tie oneself down.

“Does it have a shower? Please tell me it has a shower."

Thankfully, the room did have a basic shower system. After taking a shower, she had some time to sulk over her life once again. Her reality was that she needed to make a living somehow. She had some savings but that wasn't going to last more than a year. She even thought about selling her body at the Duke's place but that seemed just wrong, so she ditched that option. She didn’t work hard to become a knight just to end up becoming a whore. The only other options she could think of was becoming a debt collector or a bounty hunter, both of which would require combat skills which she in fact had.

After a few days of sulking and calming down, she confronted Duke and confessed her situation. Needless to say, he wasn't too surprised.

“I sort of guessed that you got fired. I mean you always picked luxury rooms," He explained with a tint of grin. He wasn't mocking her or anything. He was indirectly pointing out that she loved luxuries.

Sagging her shoulders, she sighed. "So, I am looking for a job now. I was thinking of either a debt collector or a bounty hunter. You got any leads, Duke?"

Stolen novel; please report.

“Those are physical jobs. You have any experience? And what are you? An esper?"

“Class B. I do have some experience in enforcing writs. I was a knight after all."

“I see." Then he fell silent for a moment, looking around his nearly empty, but large, bar. There were three people at the moment. His brothel wasn't working too well, either. He said with a sigh, “Listen, I can't really help you here. I am barely hanging on here myself. But, if you want to move on, I can certainly refund you the money for the room."

“No, no, that's fine. I do plan to use the room. Here will be the base of my operations for the time being. I was just wondering if you had any jobs."

“Well, I could certainly use a stripper." He beamed a crooked grin. "But you ain't fit. No offense intended."

“No offense taken."

Ehka wasn't a pretty woman. She neither had the body nor the face. She was slightly average looking in her best days and she was somewhat chubby. Besides, earning money that way had never been her intention. She was fully aware of how unattractive she appeared to many men. Therefore, she really took no offense to Duke's comment. She remained jobless for weeks and eventually took up a position as a waitress for Duke. It was this moment that she realized the reality of his business. The bar really had too few customers to stay afloat. The brothel had some regulars but those customers didn't translate into the bar. The brothel was what kept his business afloat, barely. And her first real job finally came from one of the customers from the brothel. Apparently, Duke recommended her for the job upon hearing the customer's complaints.

“I have this guy who I loaned a fair bit of money to. The sum is like 10 million credit," He casually spoke while caressing a naked woman's hip on a bed. He was naked as well. The woman was drugged and was drooling. She was basically unconscious. "Now, I've been pursuing this guy for long enough to believe that getting the money back is no longer an option. If you beat the crap out of him, I'd be happy."

Ehka listened to him professionally, standing firmly with both of her hands held on back. It was how she used to receive orders as a knight.

“Am I allowed to kill him?"

The man laughed out loudly. "I don't mind him dead. If you don't mind a murder charge on you, why not. Kill him. I will need proof though, so some photo and his severed head will be required. I will give you a bonus for killing him."

“And if I can get any money out of him?"

The man appeared quite surprised to hear her. He raised his eyebrows for a moment before smirking at her.

“You know what? I've sent numerous men after him. Couldn't get out a dime. If you get any amount of money from him, I will give you 50%. Deal?"

Smiling brightly, she gave him a firm nod. "Deal."

She was quite experienced in chasing down criminals and, as she stated before, she was very experienced in enforcing writs. This job was pretty much her backyard play. Once it was verbally agreed upon, she was quick to begin her work. Locating the guy wasn't as hard as she thought it'd be. She was without the knight's network, but it was still relatively easy to locate the guy. It turned out that the guy had a history of not paying loans and his traces were everywhere. In fact, it was so easy to locate him that she felt like it was a trap. It wasn't even that far from the Duke's outpost. However, she knew it wouldn't be easy. If it were easy, it wouldn't have fallen to her hands to finish it after all.

Armed with two laser pistols, she paid a visit to the outpost he was staying at and covertly made her way to his quarter. Gaining an entry to the outpost was a breeze due to it being a free-for-all entity for temporary stays. Such a place was common in the area. Many mining outposts were constructed in the early phase of colonization. After generations, many were abandoned or were sold cheaply. Some renovated such abandoned outposts and transformed them into a form of motels where one could stay as long as they liked once a payment was made, which was a nice passive income for some. The Duchess' boobs was similar to such motels except there was a lot more effort being put into running and maintaining the place. Once she made it onto a floor that the guy was supposed to be on, she understood why nobody had yet to get the guy. He had apparently rented the whole floor and armed it with security drones. The safety circle was just two steps away from the elevator she had just taken off. The drones had already detected her and they were on alert, tracking her movements. Their servo motors made distinct whirring noises as they tracked her movements. She was seeing two kinds of drones. The first kind was a levitating one which looked like an armored box with a lens on front and a gun attached on its bottom. The second kind was a more dangerous one, which was a ground unit that had a red ball with a lens and four legs. It had a concealed needle gun which shot neurotoxic poison. It was nicknamed “the assassin drone” for that reason.

"The whole floor is full of drones," She remarked while inspecting the scenery. If she were an esper, which she in fact was, she could have attempted a brute force entry. Alas, her class was only B and she was well aware of her limitations. She knew she wouldn't be able to break through. But she had another trick up in her sleeve. When she docked at the outpost, she immediately recognized the model of the structure. The thing about these old structures was that people wouldn't update its mainframe since it cost credit and due to a possibility of breaking stuff. What was more important was that its engineering password would remain the same. An engineering password was to be used by companies to override a master password. It had some restrictions compared to a master password but did have access to what she would need in this situation. Being a former knight, she knew such passwords. Accessing a console right next to the elevator, she entered the password and hoped that it would be accepted. In her experience, 99% of times such passwords worked. A positive beep sounded and a grin surfaced on her face.

"Bingo," She said gleefully. Raising her voice this time, she spoke to vacant air in front of her. "Computer, cut the power to this deck."

"Access denied," A computerized voice replied right back.

"Crap," She blurted. After a short moment, she spoke again, "Computer, restrict power to this area based on my position."

Lights in the area dimmed and the drones began to act weird. That was because they were being wirelessly powered. Their power wasn't completely cut off but there wasn't enough juice for full functionality, either. Grabbing some random junk out of her pocket, she threw it forward where drones were jittering. It bounced off a drone and floated in mid air. There was no violent reaction from jittering drones. Having determined that it was safe enough to traverse, she carefully made her way through the area. Where she eventually ended up was a short corridor with two doors on each side. The light wasn't restricted in the area, indicating that she was on a different grid zone. Pulling out a small device from her belt, she turned it on; it was a bio-scanner.

"Two people," She whispered to herself. "One in each room."

She pulled out her pistol and made sure that it was in a working order as well as making sure that it was set in stun. She pulled a backup pistol and checked it as well. She was nervous and for a good reason. If she was a knight and this was a normal mission, she would have backups standing by who'd rush in to assist her, should things go sour. This time though, there was no such a thing. If something did go wrong, it could end badly for her. She could be tortured or even raped. Alas, she had to do it.

Inhaling deeply to prepare herself mentally, she dashed to a console next to the first door and entered the engineer password which worked and the door slid open at once. Without hesitation, she flew in and pointed her pistol at the only creature in the room, which was a completely naked guy on a bed who was jerking off with a porn being displayed on the ceiling. Startling from the sudden intrusion, the guy glared at Ehka and barked, "What the fu-" Before he could finish though, she shot him, knocking him out. Taking a good look at his face, she confirmed that it was indeed the guy she was after.

"It's him. Good."

After handcuffing him, she was casually dragging him out of his room. It wasn't a hard task, given the gravity of the station was less than 0.01. However, just as she was coming out of the room, the other biosignature in the other room apparently peeked its head out to see what was going on and saw Ehka. It was a young woman.

"The hell?!" She uttered and dashed toward Ehka at once with a dagger.

Ehka uttered as well in frustration, "Ugh, give me a fucking break!" Letting the man go, she aimed her pistol at her and fired at once. One of the shots hit her shoulder. However, she was wearing shoulder armor. Thus, the shot, set in stun, had no effect.

"Crap," Muttering, she quickly set her gun to lethal and blocked the incoming slash with her gun. Not wanting to drag on her visit for too long, she attempted to negotiate.

"Can we talk?"

She shouted back as she continued her offense. "We have nothing to talk about!"

"This dude has a large bounty on it. How about we share that?"

"I am his sister!"

However, Ehka seemed unfazed. "So? He won't die, and I will get the bounty. I will give you 20%."

The sister halted her attack and asked, "How much is his bounty?"

Since the bounty part was a lie, she had to come up with a figure quickly. She was going to torture him to extort money out of him and she had to guess how much she could possibly get out of him.

"His bounty is 2m, so you will get 400k."

The sister whistled. "What has he done?"

"You don't know? He borrowed a large sum of money and hasn't paid back along with interest."

The sister folded her arms, sighing. "I guess that's where his seemingly endless credit has been coming from."

Seeing the sister seemed to be a rather reasonable person, Ehka slowly lowered her pistol.

However, the sister kept her blade aimed at her and demanded, "How do I know you aren't scamming me though?" It was a genuine question.

"I will give you 100k right here right now and you can follow me to my hideout. If I do that though, I want you to sign a contract with me as a bodyguard."

A legally binding contract was something criminals avoided at all cost because they would need to reveal their names to receive money. Forging identities was certainly possible. However, that wasn’t the case when a payment was involved. Ehka knew this and hoped that she would just take the money. She had full intention to pay back the rest however.

While looking skeptical, the sister told Ehka, "Give me 100k now and just tell me where your hideout is."

Taking out a small device that was the size of her thumb nail, she asked, “Let me scan your memory chip.” Memory chips were usually located right below the left ear, thus scanning it without permission was extremely hard. This also required lowering the guard. Thankfully, the woman complied, and she was able to scan her memory chip, obtaining her one-time security token to deposit any money to her banking account.

"I am staying at the Duchess' boobs,” Ehka said while transferring the funds. And the sister chuckled.

"The duke's place? I know where that is. Can I call him to confirm that you do stay there?"

"Not a problem. Go right ahead."

But the sister didn't call. Ehka's reaction seemed to be good enough to satisfy her. Once the credit transfer was done and confirmed, the sister told her, "I will visit you in 30 days to get the rest of the payment. Does that sound fine with you?"

Ehka nodded at her.

"And how long do you think he will serve?"

"He could be out in as short as 10 days if he somehow settles the debt quickly or comes up with a payment plan or something. He won't die. That is for sure."

"Will he be tortured, though?"

Shrugging, Ehka beamed a crooked grin at her. "Obviously, do you even have to ask?"

The sister chuckled. "Just making sure. The kid got away with a lot of stuff. I just wanted someone to knock some sense into him. I guess he will learn a lesson this time." She, then, turned around, casually waving, and went back to her quarter. Ehka rolled her eyes and exhaled deeply in exhaustion. She made it, somehow.

“Never again,” she whispered. It was a very dangerous moment for her. It worked out somehow, yes, but she had no backup, let alone anyone assisting her. If the sister had anyone else backing her up, she would have been in real trouble.

“Never again,” she repeated as she entered her shuttle.

Duke clapped slowly three times when he saw Ehka return with a handcuffed naked man. The guy was sedated.

"Grats, you did it," He told her as she approached the counter.

"It's been a long day. Give me a drink please, something strong.”

"Sure thing. It’s on me. What about the guy though?"

"Do you have a room where I can tie him up and torture him?"

He beamed a crooked grin and handed Ehka a key card labeled 666. She grinned back, catching the joke.

The interior of room 666 was pitch black with a water pipe sticking out of a wall with a valve on it. She assumed it was for water torture. The only light source was on the ceiling where a single, dim, light was present. There was also a pole in the middle of the room where she chained the guy onto it and slapped him hard to wake him up. As soon as he regained consciousness, he immediately demanded her to release him.

"I will if you hand over 10m you owe," She told him.

He laughed at her sarcastically. "You think I have the money on me? I am fucking naked, ugly bitch! At least give me a blow job or something!"

Seeing that he wasn't taking the situation seriously, she went on to torture him. Taking a meter-length lead metal stick, she got behind him and opened his buttchicks and shoved it right into his anus. The guy tried to jump up and down and panicked. He was prepared for a torture, but this was certainly a different kind of a torture. Alas, this was standard torture for Ehka. What was worse for him was that she did not speak at all while she was literally abusing him sexually. After the butt stick, she went onto insert a pair of wires into his penis, and the wires were connected to a power source.

"Fuck! FUCK! FUCCCCK!" He shouted while struggling. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! SAY SOMETHING GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!"

To which she finally said something in response, "Just let me know when you wish to make a payment. I am not expecting a full payment, but I expect at least half."

For the next few hours, the guy experienced literal hell, followed by lead poisoning. He was almost electrocuted via a wire that was shoved into his penis and he began to feel unwell due to the lead pipe in his rectum. Additionally, she pumped salt water into his mouth, resulting in him vomiting more than 50 times. It wasn't just a physical torture. It was also a mental torture. Genuinely fearing the worst, he began to beg for mercy to which she did not respond. She wasn't going to respond until he was willing to make a payment or come up with a payment plan. At the fifth hour, the guy's body and spirit were in tatters. His anus was bleeding and the blood was black. His penis had burnt to crisp. He had vomited so many times that his mouth was swollen. Regardless, she went on to keep torturing him at which point he cried out.

"No more... F, fine... f-...fine..."

She paused and softly asked, "How much?"

"Three mil...."

"Not enough" And she proceeded for a new torture, grabbing a strange looking object. He saw it and had no idea what it was. It looked vaguely similar to a wine opener.

"It's an eye extracting kit. Don’t worry. I won’t kill you. Feel safe," She told him indifferently. And that was the final straw. In the end, he made a payment of 6 million credit and was set free once the payment was verified. The client was pleasantly surprised when he was informed that Ehka was able to extract 6m and kept his word on giving her half. And, while she did not inform him of the torture, Duke did and the client was very pleased, giving her an extra million.

Duke congratulated her. "Hah, nicely done. 4 mil earned easily." He slid a drink to her which Ehka took and sipped it once.

"This kind of job is dangerous though. You know the saying that karma is a bitch. You do this sort of stuff long enough, it will bite you in the back."

He laughed pleasantly. "Good to know that you are grounded enough. Trust me, some will keep doing that shit for money until it's too late."

"Oh, I know. Just so you know, I am not doing this again. I can't afford to keep making enemies."

"So, if you aren't going down this route, what do you plan to do? You know you can't live on forever with 4m."

Indeed, she had been thinking about her future while she was on the job.

"Duke, are you interested in a business partner?"

It was a not-so-subtle statement, and he wasn't sure how to respond to the sudden question, but she continued on anyway.

"I will invest 3m into this shithole and you make me a shareholder or a co-owner or whatever. I will work my due and you share some of your profit, just so that I won't die starving."

She thought about going on a bounty hunter but taking such a dangerous profession alone was going to get her killed sooner or later. Actually, death was one of the better outcomes. She could be captured at one point, drugged out, and be sold as a sex slave to some random outpost in the middle of nowhere. Even if she found a partner, finding someone she could trust her life with was certainly easier said than done.

"Hah." Duke chuckled briefly. "Sounds like a hostile takeover to me."

She sagged her shoulders while faintly "Well, if you want to see it that way, that's fine as well. I ain't got anywhere to go. Will you take me in, please?"

He was silent for a short moment. Soon enough though, he beamed a smile at her. "You know what, I haven't been doing too well with this biz. Perhaps, I need a second opinion as well. Welcome aboard."

With that done, she finished her drink.

“I owe you one,” she told him.

“Oh, I do know.”

This was how this man and woman got together, and a new beginning would unfold for the Duchess’ boobs.