Bronsen and Cassy:

With the door of their boat cabin safely closed, they were sitting on the deck, knees to knees. A big cheesy grin from Cassy;

"You poor thing, all of that action with holes, but you just can't get it up, can you?"

"So cruel, Cassy, so cruel. Do you think anyone else was aware of the double meaning?"

"This lot? Not a hope in hell. Being a slave doesn't appear to allow for much subtly or nuances in their language usage." said Cassy.

"I suppose not."

There was a contemplative silence for a while.

"That was amazing, wasn't it?" said Bronsen.

"Yes. I never thought I'd be doing a comedy skit for a bunch of grey-collared slaves," said Cassy.

"Especially since the last bunch of Greys we met were trying to kill or enslave us without the slightest room for any compromise or bargaining."

"Yeah, because once a Blue orders them to do something, they have absolutely no choice."

"Creepy to think that if a Blue had appeared just then, with a single order, he could have had that lot trying to kill us without the slightest mercy," said Bronsen.

"Those collars are an unmitigated evil. Although, remember, that hypothetical Blue would have needed to activate all the collars before ordering them to kill us," said Cassy.

"Whatever."

"Hey, System san, why the fuck did you create slave collars in the first place?" said Cassy, sounding extremely annoyed.

Ding! The System did not create slave collars directly. A hero was created who was granted the necessary powers for some other specific purpose. However, he used them to make the collars instead.

Both Cassy and Bronsen were surprised by this unexpected announcement.

"Bloody hell, that's, that's all kinds of messed up. Why couldn't you have stopped him when he started to go off the tracks?" said Cassy.

Ding! ...

"Err, hello? You still there?" said Bronsen.

"I think we broke it. Again," said Cassy.

"Again?"

"Ah, yes, I mean Drayden and I managed to break it before, kind of."

Hello from the System Administrator!

Sorry, System-san is having a bit of a moment here, so has hinted I might like to fill you in on a few details.

While the System has its own ideas on what it would like to happen, it is generally not allowed to act directly. It can only select a hero or heroes and hope their actions will lead to the desired conclusion. Naturally, it selects these individuals very carefully. And it grants a very carefully curated selection of powers to such individuals. And, unfortunately for such heroes, they have to struggle to achieve their goals. System-san isn't allowed to grant overwhelming powers and make the heroes overpowered.

"Right. So that's why we have to struggle. We were never going to be some overpowered anime protagonists, were we?" said Cassy.

She sounded a little bit wistful.

Err, it's slightly more complicated than that. Not all reincarnated people are heroes. Some are just reborn and live their lives. And there are other possibilities. But, once System-san had granted that particular hero the ability to access certain System Programming Interfaces directly, it was out of System-san's control.

Unfortunately, that so-called hero went bad in a spectacular way and went on to invent the slave collar system.

"But surely System san should have taken more care in selecting this so-called hero!" said Bronsen.

It did take care. But, you know, nothing is perfect. Except, maybe, the perfect storm of incidents, one after the other, that propelled the hero in the exactly wrong direction.

That's why System-san couldn't answer couldn't your question, Cassy.

System-san is ashamed.

"Oh. Poor System-san!" said Cassy.

"So, all of this horror is because some smuck decided he'll be the first-ever Slave Emperor?" said Bronsen.

Not quite. The first action that the hero made when he got the slave collar stuff to work was to make someone else the emperor. His second action, and his last action of free will, was to turn himself into a grey-collar slave.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

There was a long silence after that. Cassy sputtered and tried to say something coherent, but she could not. Bronsen merely sat there, silent, with his mouth open.

After a while:

"Oh, right," said Bronsen.

There were no further messages from either the System or the System Administrator.

"This is stuffed up in so many ways," said Cassy.

"What the fuck hell happened to make someone turn out that way?" said Bronsen.

There was a short period while they thought about all of this.

"Bronsen, let's just mellow out for a while? Lie down with me and hold hands and, you know, listen to each other breath?"

"For sure."

And that is what they did until Hestia's not quite so timid as usual voice called out to them from the other side of the door.

At this meal, the people were even more animated than before. There was even some actual laughter. Not very much and not for very long, but the slaves were learning how to socialise with each other. As before, after the meal, they all cleared up the area, taking all tools, cooking implements, and supplies inside. When the hatch was dogged shut, the sand around the boat was deserted, with only piles of tree logs and lumber and the cooking fireplace left behind.

They were back to sitting in their cabin, knees to knees, with the door safely closed.

Bronsen breathed in deeply.

"Cassy, I know things are difficult, like from you being stabbed to death by Drayden and all of that, but I think I need to bring up a few things."

He got back a level stare, medium strength.

"Oh? I get this feeling you're going to tell me off?"

"Not really! You haven't done anything wrong or anything!"

"Then, what?"

"It's only a minor point!"

"And?"

"Well, you see, you tend to get a bit carried away when some slaves disagree with you."

"You mean, like when the ex-Red bloke was trying to rape Frannie?"

"Well..."

"Well, I think it is perfectly reasonable to get a little bit angry in such cases!" said Cassy.

"I'm not saying it's not reasonable, not at all. It's just that you tend to get angry a lot more than is called for. I mean, tossing that slave three metres across the sand that could easily get out of hand. What if he had tripped and fallen and slammed his head against a rock and killed himself?"

"But he didn't, did he."

"But throwing people around like that, who don't have our strength abilities, could easily lead to such accidents. Remember, back on Earth, there will be the occasional media report about someone tripping and falling and hitting their head something chronic."

"Is that what you're worried about? That I might accidentally kill some creep?"

"Ah, in the case of the ex-Red, I'm not all that worried, I must admit..."

"So, what's the problem, Mr Bronsen?"

He frantically waved his hands in front of her. "It's not just the potential of accidents; it's just that you get worked up and start losing control much more than you should. Like, for example, right now."

"You want me to calm down, do you? It's only a couple of days since I was enslaved, and Drayden ran a sword right through me, remember? Don't I have a right to be a bit upset?"

Bronsen leant forward and caught her hands in his.

"Of course, you have a right to be 'upset'. Bloody hell, that's traumatic enough for anyone! But you mustn't let it interfere with your life! And, particularly, with trying to get this mob of inactive slaves to cooperate with us. Right now, they are evenly split between being scared of you and admiring you for your fighting powers and for giving out ability points."

"Cassy, perhaps you could sit on my lap, and we could share a hug..."

She sat there, eyes looking suspiciously moist, a trace of anger and defiance on her face. But also hurt and longing.

So he reached forward, took his hands off hers and onto her waist, and hoisted her forward. She was now facing him, on his lap, her legs around his waist.

Initially very stiff, she relaxed and wrapped her arms around him. He reciprocated, and they also wrapped their tails around each other.

"I'm sorry, my dear," said Bronsen, "But I was beginning to think that you weren't coping very well with things."

"Sniff, sniff" from Cassy.

Bronsen patted her back and pressed his face into her shoulder.

"Sorry, I'm sorry," she said, "It's all too much. Especially having to deal with a whole lot of Greys right after those other Greys tried to kill us all."

"Don't I know it."

"And I worry about my sister. I tried to suppress it, but it keeps on coming back."

"That I can perfectly understand. After all, I worry about my little brother."

"I've always been a bit hot-headed, haven't I?"

"Hmm, back on Earth, I suppose your family situation mostly caused that?"

"Yeah, it comes back to my sister, doesn't it?"

A sad sigh from Bronsen.

"Nothing we can do about that. We can only do our best with our current situation."

Having such high-strength abilities, they could maintain their current position indefinitely. So they stayed there, enjoying each other's warmth and company, making the odd random comment for half an hour or so.

Finally, they separated. They lay down next to each other.

" OK, I'll try to be a bit more 'gentle' in my interactions. Don't want to frighten the natives, do we?" said Cassy.

"Thanks. Remember, you always have me if you need me. And, also, I have you. You do realise that I was slightly freaked out by the whole invasion thing, also?"

"Yeah. That whole Ashrend-type effect after I died, Eleanor kept saying that the old King went mad from doing the ritual twice. Was it really as bad as all of that?"

"Oh yeah, it was. My abilities were greatly boosted, but the mental effects were overwhelming. I shudder to think what it felt like to the last of us that died."

"Either Alice or Drayden. I hope they are now all right," said Cassy.

"Remember they made that supplementary vow about Veronica. So they must both be reasonably OK at the very least."

"It's getting late; how about we sleep now?" said Bronsen, "However, tomorrow, we must have another talk, this time about planning how the hell we are going to be interacting with these slaves."

"That we must. Up to now, we've just been acting on the fly without the slightest idea of what we are doing."

"That's because we don’t have the slightest idea."

Alice and Drayden:

In contrast to the exciting times that Bronsen and Cassy were having, Drayden and Alice had another relaxing meal. Reggie delivered it to their little house and took away the used dishes after they had eaten.

"Alice, my dear."

"You're up to something, aren't you?"

"You bet I am. How about we lock the door, retire to our room, and have a cuddle or something? After all, we've had a relaxing day, and it is still too soon to sleep, so we might as well do something."

"Hmm. Do you think my Bronsen is doing the same with your Cassy?"

"Assuming they aren't running for their lives, then yes."

"Well, If Bronsen can do it, then it can't expect me not to, can he?"

After an hour or so of 'cuddling' each other, they slightly separated.

"Drayden"

"Yes?"

"Exactly, what are we going to be doing for the foreseeable future?" said Alice.

"Beats me. We wait for the Order Lock period to expire, but apart from that..."

"It's almost like a holiday. It's pretty close to being relaxing. As long as we ignore that fact that we are surrounded by Greys who will slaughter us without the slightest hesitation if some Blue comes along." said Alice.

"Remember, System-san will be turning on our libidos at some stage."

"I'm sure you are looking forward to it," said Alice.

“Aren’t you, also?”

“Shut up!”