When Sera had heard the report she, and everyone else, was considering whether or not she had just had a bout of insanity and heard the whole thing wrong.
She, however, was up to par with who they were dealing with, even if their personal connection was not very intimate. A giant pillar in the sky booming foreign music using what had to be the biggest insult to dragons of the last several centuries? That sounded exactly like Aki.
Instead of sleeping that night, she rushed to teleport over to the town where the music was being directed towards, taking head of the local operatives to form an impromptu rescue team.
They went so fast that the actual rescue team that had been investigating the dense forest afield only caught up to them a couple of hours before they reached their target, reporting a scene that suggested the reason for the lack of beast attacks due to the giant pillar was because all the local fauna had already been pruned to near extinction beforehand.
By now she was already hearing the same music a second time, the ridiculous volume making her bones vibrate at this distance. So it was to her great surprise and relief that after a certain point of their trek through the more sparse parts of the forest.
If not for the international incident it was causing, she might have even enjoyed the music like this. As it stood, this just made them redouble their efforts to get to the source of this problem.
So it was to her great irritation to get there only to find Aki sitting around on a tree, what could only be a harlot in front of him as he played with her flowing brown locks.
"Oh, Sera, you're here. Great. Any chance you guys found my stuff, there's tens of thousands of gold worth of equipment in there, so it kind of is a problem to the country itself if it is lost in the middle of a forest. It should have been somewhere to the west of the giant blood ritual with the decomposing dragonic carcasses." Said the shameless spirit immediately upon seeing her and her steed. And honestly she agreed with the comment about the cost of all his stuff, she'd checked and the equivalent to a small noble house's ancestral armory could not simply…
"I don't know, but you need to turn that damn thing off!" She focused, pointing to the pillar of light coming from what seemed to be a charred tree trunk in the middle of the clearing.
"Sure, you just need to hit it hard enough. I didn't actually program the thing with a on and off switch since it was just a one time thing." He shrugged, still massaging the scalp of the not so smart girl with half closed eyes.
With a twitch in her eyes, Sera put her hand in her magic sword and used it as a focus to cast a big earth spike from beneath the tree trunk, and indeed the thing stopped.
"This is an order, explain why you did this stupid thing instead of returning." Anger obvious in her voice, she ignored as the other mounted scouts arrived behind her.
"Well, the only part of me currently not injured is my body, and that is a not so reliable resource without proper augmentation, so I did not dare miss those looking for me due to impatience. The bug light was a trap for dragons that may take offense, but none showed up, so I should probably augment the palace's defenses as there is little doubt that the potential mates and clutchmates of the one I killed would have come around one way or the other." He shrugged, saying such ridiculous things with a face that once again made her question whether his contract was working or not
Which made her remember that his damned, thrice sworn contract was indeed not working. They had several people going through every possible meaning of the long magic ritual to figure out why their orders didn't work as they should, she herself had spend hours on end simply postulating, both in her free time and as work.
She had to ask.
"This is an order, tell me why the contract only has partial control over you." She felt herself tense, and it was easy to guess that those around her felt the same. This was a crazy spirit strong enough to kill a dragon. Again however, he just shrugged.
"My contract can be summarized to obeying the will and law of the empire with it's best interests in mind. Laws are merely guidelines on morality, culture and taxation however, to all of which I have tactical permission from the ruling body to ignore when it best benefits the state. In much the same way, it is necessary for me to make informed decisions about the best for the future of the country when those in charge would refuse to do so. You want me to repeat that while dumbing it down?"
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"...You! That’s not what the contract says at all! Sure, that is the spirit of it, but the writing should also”
“Not when it is my essence reinforcing that part of the contractual bond.” He refuted, a grin on his face as he stopped playing with the girl sitting on the ground and got up. “You might want to go get your things Mimi, things are going to be bureaucratic for a bit and honestly it’s easier if you don’t have to swear an oath because of it.”
“It is too late for that. Who even is she?” She wanted to add a few adjectives and insinuations, but she could see her situation. Letting her emotions get the best of her was the opposite of what she wanted.
“My new apprentice!” He proudly declared as the girl got up, though she seemed surprised at the way she was referred to as well. Was he forcing her? “We talked a lot yesterday, and since we are so compatible i was convinced to take her with me. I assure you, she will be no problem.”
“Is that so? Then she will have to form a contract as well. After you explain what it is that keeps yours from working.” Her tone and voice had gone cold already, and her bloodline was activated, helping as she displayer her displeasure.
“Sure, so long as i work as her witness then there should be no problem with that.”
“No deal, this is a matter of national security and you are overstepping.”
“Overstepping on what dear? I’m stronger than all your elites, can kill armies and am bound soul and body to this country. If someone has better qualifications to talk about how i take in an apprentice then i sure would like to meet such a shadowy supporter.” He scoffed, the aura released by him absolutely indifferent as it slowly suppressed her own.
“If you have all that power, then why haven’t you become the demon king yet?” She called his bluff, his actions and words simply not making sense to her.
“Because unlike what royalty of a warrior culture that is almost always at war would think, I do not enjoy the idea of being the leader of a country becoming a definitive point in my personality. And so, I am unable to shape my contract so as to easily allow for the detroning of your family. And if you have not guessed yet, the contract does stop me from lying to the governing body so long as there isn’t a problem to be created from telling it to an idiot that will run with the information and cause panic and disorder. So ask away, anything your little heart desires to know is likely at your hand’s reach.”
‘Ah, so that’s why.’ As she listened, Sera realized thanks to the aura practically smothering her why she could never grow to like Aki. It wasn’t just the indifference and annoyance like Kirian, it wasn’t his mean words from before or even all the disrespect he showed to those around him. It was the pity and disgust he hid behind his masks and confusing actions.
“Why do you hate me?” The words left her mouth before she could stop herself. There was also little time to fell the mounting shame however. With a slight tilt to his head, Aki answered.
“I don’t hate you, and honestly, you know too little about me to understand what that means. Isn’t there some… other thing you would like to know princess?” He asked, emotionless words clearly meaning to insult her and yet immediately leaving such notions aside so as to shorten… this.
"Is that so? Then perhaps you wouldn’t mind telling me how to control my bloodline.” She scoffed, something inside going cold, anger at herself and her lack of capabilities rising as the situation devolved.
“Sure, just be a more self centered person focused on making yourself happy. Don’t debase yourself needlessly, but instead seek highs in opportunities and crafted luxuries you put effort into acquiring. Discover what you may desire infinitely and seek it as if you were never going to die.” He answered. As if…
Something in his words resonated with her. Her heart skipped a beat before going faster than before, her mind suddenly focused as if there was a small impediment in figuring out something she truly wished to know.
"That seriously worked? I thought you would just say some other tutor had already said something similar and I was making bullshit up. Just how underdeveloped is you guys' understanding of Sin. Fuck, ok, you guys prepare to carry her around as well. What else? Well, just because lust increases your tactile sensation does not mean it is only useful for sex, it is instead supposed to make it easier to achieve a constant equilibrium of valleys of struggle and peaks of pleasure, increasing the significance and emotional weight of every good moment by also making it easier to remember just how valuable those moments are. That did it, wow she was seriously pent up if just this much understanding helped to the point of elevating her bloodline. Alright boys and girls, steel your groins, this is going to be a very distracting trip back so...”
Already she stopped listening to the fast coming words. She looked upon herself and allowed the wailing disgust and hatred for her person to be ignored. For once, she felt her bloodline resonate and te her how great she actually was. How great she could be.