“Emperor Goto, I’d like to make a deal with you.” Reya’s eyebrows raised and Emperor Goto leaned back in his chair.
“Oh, what kind of a deal, exactly? Were you aware that the crown princess and I were discussing our own deal?” He gave me a knowing smile that made me roll my eyes.
“The kind of deal that will benefit you greatly, although I don’t think you’ll enjoy where the conditions come from.” I stepped closer to the throne, but Reya stood in my way.
“What are you doing?” My eyes narrowed and I let some venom into my tone, and looked up at her. However, the Metronian princess remained steadfast.
“Preventing you from screwing up the alliance between the Metronian Kingdom and the Luong Empire.” She walked down the steps to the throne and leaned in for a whisper. “Listen Joshua, we’re on the brink of striking a deal that will lead to untold prosperity between the two nations.”
I smiled, and strolled up the stairs, sitting in the seat that Reya had been occupying moments before. “Good. Then you won’t mind if I sit in and add some more stipulations.”
Reya’s eyes widened as she looked at the Emperor, and then at me. The telltale signs of a pout showed on her face as she said, “You can’t be serious. How can you so blatantly try to steal my credit?”
Despite the bad mood I was in before, and Akahime’s face still annoying me from the door of the throne room, I couldn’t help but laugh.
Reya looked stupefied as we stared into each others eyes. Of course, Reya had been doing her own thing all along. Of course she was still following her goals, ah, how ignorance is bliss.
My laughter continued a little longer, and eventually, I calmed down enough to get out a sentence. “Please. I don’t care about feeling validated by your parents. I have enough shit on my plate already. I just have some information that might be beneficial to your side of the discussions.”
Reya looked skeptical, but the added prospect of more profit must have convinced her to at least hear me out. “Ok.” She sighed, and tried to sit on my lap.
It caught me by surprise, and she almost sat down successfully. Fortunately, I got two hands on her back and prevented the unwanted contact. I looked to the emperor and said, “Emperor Goto, may we please have an additional seat?”
Gotoshi, still with a smile on his face, pressed a button on his desk and an additional seat was lowered from the ceiling by a crane, before retracting into the ceiling once more.
Now a little less eager to start the meeting than before, Reya sat down and crossed her legs. Meanwhile, Emperor Goto looked over at the doors to his office, and shooed away his daughter.
“Why don’t you go keep Lucina company, my dear? I’m sure she’ll want to spend some more time together.”
A stiff smile came from Akahime, and she worriedly looked my way before pulling herself away from the door and leaving.
With the door closed, the tension in the room rose. Well, for the two members of the respective royal families, at least. “Something just crossed my mind: why hasn’t Lucina been with you at any of these meetings? Sorry for being blunt, but she seems far more experienced at negotiations than you.”
Reya simply smiled at my observation, and pointed down at the table to a piece of paper. “She has been helping me. She helped me draft some of the deals that I’ve brought forward to the emperor. However, Lucina doesn’t have much attachment to the throne, so she’s been helping me step into my role as the crown princess.”
The rare display of sisterliness from the elder Metron seemed unnatural, but I didn’t question it. “I see. Regardless…” I turned to Goto, who was smiling brightly. “We have some additional things to talk about.”
“Don’t even bother asking, lad. I know what it is you’re going to say.” I looked at him skeptically as the smile grew on his face.
“Do you know? I had assumed that only Akahime was in on it.” Gotoshi merely nodded his head at something, and took a deep breath.
“Yes, and I’ve been preparing myself for this day for years. I knew that at one point, someone was going to steal the heart of my daughter, and I couldn’t be happier that it is a young man as capable as yourself.”
By now I was wholly confused, and a look of similar shock was plastered on Reya’s face. “So it is with a heavy, yet joyous heart that I give you my permission to marry my daughter, Akahime Hoshizora.”
The room went silent at his declaration. I turned to look at Reya, but she was just staring back at me with a raised brow. “No… that’s not what I want at all. I guess you didn’t know then.”
This time it was the Emperor’s turn to look confused, and he gave a very pointed look to Reya, who shrugged. My next words made his eyes widen, “Are you aware that your daughter gave a virus to a Metronian diplomat?”
Goto frowned at me and rested his head in his massive hands. “I hope you have proof to go along with that claim. That is a serious offense you are accusing my daughter of. Which diplomat was it?”
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I pointed a solitary finger at myself, and the emperor’s face paled. He rubbed his chin and sighed. “Very well then. Please show me the proof you have. After that, you can tell me what you want in exchange to keep this swept under the rug?”
I nodded, and said, “Before we begin, I should mention that I must show you this offline only. That means being disconnected from Judgment’s mainframe for a brief while so that the system doesn’t pick up on said virus.”
The emperor nodded stoically. “Very well. I’ve seen firsthand how deeply the system can copy information and report it back to the mainframe, after all. There was a small beep and the room turned a dark blue color.
“Master, you have been forcefully disconnected from Judgment.” X’s voice rang into my head.
“Emperor Goto, what did you just do?” Reya asked nervously, no doubt having gotten a similar notification to what X told me.
Goto grinned and said, “When you’re a family that’s been in power since the days before Judgment started regulating the world, you try and develop a few tricks against it. I trust that you will keep what you’ve seen a secret?”
I nodded. Only until the point where I stop benefiting off of keeping my silence. I directed X to send Goto the virus via infrared connection, and a beam of light pulsed between our Judgment Panels.
“Thank you lad.” Goto said, and started reading the properties of the virus. I leaned back in my seat and took a deep breath, but a tug on my shirt led to a break from my relaxation.
“Joshua, may I take a look as well? I’m sorry about earlier, I’m just on edge because this is my first real chance at meeting other leaders in a professional setting.”
She smiled sadly. “It’s like you said, I just want my parents to be proud of me, and not because I was lucky that a Fallen appeared in my room. I think understanding the severity of the virus would help me better in my negotiations.”
I stared at her for a second. X, this is the same Reya that came on the flight with us, right? “The very same one, Master. It appears that she has matured in the short time you’ve been apart.”
What the fuck is it with Asahi? We should get out of here as soon as all our business is done and over with. I linked with Reya, and shared the virus specifications with her as well. It took a while for Emperor Goto to read the entire thing, but when he was finished, a very upset look was on his face.
“Please, please do not take this public. I assure you that I will correct her behavior as soon as you leave.” His jaw was clenched so hard, that it made me smile.
“So you admit that she fucked up then? That’s good.” I thought for sure I’d have to threaten action to get him to admit fault.
“This was a gross miscalculation on my part. I thought that letting Akahime have the freedom to do things on her own, and invest her time into her own projects would help her grow as a person, as it had to me when my parents did the same thing. Unfortunately, I now see that I was giving freedom to a child who believed she was untouchable.”
The lights returned to normal, and X notified me that the connection to the mainframe had been reestablished. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, regardless of what happens from now on. Please, tell me your demands.”
He gave me a 45 degree bow, taking me aback. I honestly hadn’t expected him to be so… down to earth? I thought it was just an act, but upon seeing how both Goto and the Metronian Royal Family had acted when in the presence of others, I could say for certain that Goto was a good man, and nothing like them.
Perhaps I had been too harsh too hastily when I had called him a bad parent. “Please, don’t think of it as a demand. Think of it as an equivalent exchange. Reya may use these otherwise, but all I want is one thing.”
Goto gave me a long and deep sigh before sitting up straight in his chair. “Just tell me already.”
“Before I tell you, let me preface this with a question: does the Phoenix System allow for a transfer of consciousness from one body to another?”
Reya gave me a look, and Goto rubbed his temples with his hands. “Ms. Metron, what you are about to hear does not leave this room, or we will be forced to take drastic measures. Do you understand me?”
Reya nodded to the elder ruler, and he started speaking. “Yes, it does. That is how we register new users into the system. Why? Are you interested in using it yourself?”
My eyes widened. The thought hadn’t even occurred to me, but now that Goto had brought it up, it would be a good failsafe in case I ever came closer to death than I had yesterday.
“Yes, but there was another reason. I would like to bring someone who was reduced to a program back to life.” If this works out, it will be such a better idea than the one that I originally had for her revival.
“What was that, Master?” Ah… the plan was to download her consciousness into a comfort android. I shrugged at X who rolled its eyes.
Goto stroked his chin and looked off into this distance, contemplating my statement. “I have no problems with you, as I had always planned to have you inducted into the Phoenix System, so that’s no problem. However, whether the other person is allowed to use the device depends on who they are.”
I smirked as I answered, “Would you say yes if I told you that it was my maid?”
---
Lilian had been wandering aimlessly for days inside the subspace of the Faceless Demon. She had expected to feel something, either the need to eat, sleep, or defecate, but the loss of all senses was just another reminder that she was stuck as a program in a small device on one man’s forehead.
Three, her personal Judgment, followed behind her, occasionally speaking to try and cheer up the woman. For all intents and purposes, Lilian had become a ghost. She bit her lip and thought about trying to tear open the subspace once more, but knew that like the last three times she had tried, she would be met with resistance from X.
Instead, Lilian just took a seat on a piece of semi-destroyed concrete and curled up into a ball. “What, given up already?”
Lilian looked up at her captor, who had visited this place for the first time since her… death. “What do you want, asshole?” She said with venom. She took the electric shock that came with the insult in stride, determined not to crumble under the contract she had signed.
“First of all, at least remember the name of your master. You will either refer to me as ‘Master,’ or ‘Master Joshua.’ One or the other. However, since you're taking that attitude with me, I don’t suppose you want to be resurrected?”