Three’s eyes widened, and Gedo violently struggled against her chains. “I’m sorry, but what do you mean by, serve you?” Three asked.
I conjured another chair in my subspace, but this time it was in front of Gedo. “I mean that Ms. Gedo here will be my instructor, and my maid. I already have a hiring in mind from this country, so why would a second hiring draw any suspicion?”
“And how would you go about doing this exactly, Mr. Faceless Demon?” Three looked skeptical that I would let Gedo have any happiness.
“Firstly, you will surrender your physical body to me.” Gedo started thrashing once again, so I summoned a taser and forcibly calmed her down. “Enough of that. Would you get it through your thick head that you aren’t in control of your life anymore?”
The woman glared at me, and remained limp, hanging from her arm restraints. Three spoke up, “If we give up our location, what’s to say you’ll keep up your end of the bargain, and won’t just hand us in to Emperor Goto?”
I laughed at her, causing Three to raise her eyebrows. “I don’t know if you knew who I was before you attacked, but I’m a pretty important person, if I do say so myself.”
I held out my hand, and allowed my Kingdom Key to holographically materialize in front of Gedo. The Tengu Boss’ eyes went wide, and Three gasped.
“Who- what!? How did you get your hands on something so precious!?” Three asked, and I frowned at her through my mask.
“Why do you automatically think I stole it? I earned this with my own blood, sweat, and tears." I looked upwards as I thought, Lots and lots of tears.
Three shook her head and asked, “So you aren’t trying to become Asahi royalty? Our sources indicated that you were getting frisky with the Emperor’s daughter at Chain Link.”
I smiled and said, “That’s true, but it was more like we both needed to blow off some steam. Did that source tell you that I was with someone else?”
“Please wait a moment to allow me to scan my memory bank.” Three said, and her eyes went a light shade of blue, no doubt running copious amounts of code while she sorted through her ‘memories.’
“Our source indicated that the two of you were with two other women that night. The first split up from you three, and is believed to be a friend or an acquaintance. The second followed you and the imperial princess to the bedroom, and is believed to be a high class courtesan.”
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to stifle the laugh that threatened to burst through Three’s monologue. I took a deep breath and said, “That ‘high class courtesan’ that your source spoke of was Lucina Metron.”
Three’s eyes widened as she said, “Metron? As in, the Metronian royal family?” I nodded, and that sent the A.I. into a fit.
“Haha… ha ha ha! So we were fucked from the beginning! We thought that you’d come to seek asylum, or had gained some whereabouts as to the location of another Judgment, but no! You were on a diplomatic mission all along!” I watched as the A.I. lost her composure, until she took a deep breath and calmed herself.
“Sorry about that. I was just laughing about how we ever thought we could win against someone who had the backing of two different world leaders.” She hung dejectedly from her chains.
“Regardless of how you feel about it, we’ve now established that I don’t need to curry favor with Emperor Goto beyond the territory that we will reclaim from you. So how about it, you could join me, or I could just be done with it and kill your partner here. Your choice.”
Three just looked me in the eyes, and I held her gaze. She was the one to look away first as she asked, “Would you please let me try to explain this to Lilian? That girl is the most stubborn you will ever meet.”
I sighed, but snapped my fingers. The wall holding Three rotated around the inside of the barrier, and soon she was facing Gedo… I guess her real name was Lilian. Lilian glared at Three with contempt, and Three met her gaze with one of sympathy.
“We need to take this deal. It’s the only way for you to live. Plus, even if we don’t receive any Judgment cores, we can still make it into the second round as the one team that survives, instead of being the one of the ones that kill.”
“Ah, my bad, I almost forgot.” I walked up to Lilian, and unstrapped the gag from her head. “Oh, before I take this out,” I said, leaving the shaft deep in her throat as I spoke, “I want you to remember that you are on a trust system now. If you behave, the gag stays out. If you start screaming your head off, it goes back in. Blink once if you understand.”
She blinked slowly, her brows still set in a frown. So to show her I wasn’t joking, I took the gag and slid it out half way before slamming it back in, causing her eyes to widen in shock as she gagged on the tool.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“I’m being serious. Please behave yourself.” She blinked faster this time, her facial expression contorted in pain. I pulled it all the way out, and shook the copious amount of saliva off of the tool before I dematerialized it.
Lilian herself let the accumulated drool spill out of her mouth and down her exposed chest and stomach. She coughed a little before looking at Three. “Do you really think we can trust this guy? I mean, look at what he’s done to me.”
Three sighed and shook her head. “You really need to work on looking at your own actions objectively. Your current state is just reaping what you’ve sowed, although I’m not sure I agree with all of the methods he’s used.”
“Then it’s a good thing I don’t care.” I chimed in. I knew they were technically talking ‘in private,’ but I couldn’t help but to rebut her choice of wording.
Three sighed again, and continued, “The very fact we’re having this discussion right now should be proof enough that he can be trusted. He’s a cost vs. benefits kind of person, and so long as we continue to remain on the side of benefits, we should be fine. As long as you do nothing stupid.”
Lilian scowled and said, “What if he decides to take my virginity!?” The words came out a little louder than she must have intended, because she practically whispered her next sentence, “How am I supposed to refuse him from forcing himself onto me?”
Three looked at me, then back at Lilian. “With all due respect, Lilian, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a man attracted to you when you’ve specifically built your body to look like that of a man’s. Not to mention, this man has a princess on each arm. I severely doubt that he would be needing your services.”
“Well that’s just rude.” Lilian scowled. Seeing that Three was staring directly at her, she finally relented, “Fine, fine! I’ll agree to becoming his servant.”
“Maid.” I chimed in, and Lilian grit her teeth.
“I’ll…” she took a deep breath, “I’ll agree to becoming his maid.”
“Ok.” I turned to X, and spoke aloud, “Can I use the same kind of contract I used on Reya to bind Lilian to her word?”
“Yes, Master. Should I make a draft of the necessary documentation?” X asked, and I shook my head.
“No, just upload a copy of our words from earlier and a video of the process to your archive later.” X bowed, and floated beside me.
“As you wish, Master. Should I use the same contract as the one with Reya, exactly?” X asked, and I shook my head.
“No. Take out clauses 1-9, since those only apply to royalty. The rest are good to go.”
“Understood.” A black chain shot out from X, and wrapped itself around Lilian’s neck. A long leash appeared in my hand, one that ran through X and connected to the chain attached to Lilian.
“Do you accept the contract?” I asked, and the Tengu boss looked at Three, who nodded her head.
“I do.” The leash and chain shot into Lilian’s neck, and she cried out in pain. “Ugh, great. I became a god damned slave after all of that.” Lilian muttered, and blinked tears out of her eyes.
“We’re almost done. Just tell me where you are in the real world so we can bring your body here. I wouldn’t want you to run away if I just released you across the net.”
“Didn’t you have the contract for that very purpose?” Three asked, and I shook my head.
“Yes, but I don’t know how Judgment powers could affect an existing contract. So I’ll have my people bring your body to us, and do a local transfer of your data from there.”
X, be ready to send a message to Lucina and Akahime telling them of Gedo’s whereabouts. Let them know that I’ll be unable to come since I’m preoccupied in keeping this moron here. Also, tell them to take Gedo alive.
---
Akahime was pissed, plain and simple. It wasn’t because she had gotten into bed with a wonderful pe- man, only to have their coitus interrupted before it even began.
It wasn’t because she had been attacked in her own club, and subsequently had to murder hundreds and hundreds of gang members.
It wasn’t even because Joshua had woken her up a mere three hours after her head hit the pillow. There were always energy supplements for that.
No, it was because he had ordered her to take the bastard in alive. She didn’t know what in God’s name the man was thinking, keeping Akahime from getting her revenge like this, but it didn’t sit well with the imperial scion.
The worst part: she couldn’t even fight this decision, as her father had acquired all rights to Tengu members as the Metron Kingdom’s jurisdiction. She felt the anger come to a simmer as she walked into a desolate apartment in Chika with Lucina.
The Metronian Princess also didn’t feel good about the outcome, but she was technically outranked, despite being appointed as his superior in militaristic terms.
But what is the military in the face of politics? Akahime sighed, and Lucina signaled at her to be silent. They walked into a dimly lit room filled with old-world technology like PCs and laptops. Their eyes were immediately drawn to a person lying on a bed, with a headset hooked onto his mask. They walked closer, and Akahime’s heart sank.
She opened a message box and started writing to Joshua, “Gedo’s been killed. A bullet clean through the skull.”
---
A man whistled through the back alleys of Chika, twirling his trusty glock in his fingers. As it turned out, keeping in contact with people from his mob days had helped him immensely get this job done, even if it was a bit touch and go for a minute there.
He stopped at a local ramen shop, of course, his favorite ever since he had been a child. He had always been fond of the slightly expensive beef toppings, truly a taste for the rich. It had been a luxury back then, but now it seemed as cheap as the dirt on his shoes.
He got up after eating and paying his compliments to the chef before heading out once more. He heard the sound of sirens in the distance, and grinned. It was about time his handiwork was discovered. They had scared him with how long they had taken to find the body.
The man made his way to a parking lot, and got into the driver’s seat of his palanquin. Akito buckled up his seatbelt and put his gun gently in the glove compartment of his vehicle. “I did it.” He muttered, pressing his head to the steering wheel. “I’ve finally avenged you, old man.”