“I have decided to accept the terms and conditions of your contract. From this day forwards, I shall follow you as my boss.” Viina was blushing as she spoke, and her hands had a death grip on her dress.

I smiled, and snapped my fingers. Winter in her dress, Un in his combat suit, and Three in her assassin’s gear appeared by my side.

Viina took up a defensive stance, and her red Judgment appeared behind her. “Calm down, calm down.” I said. “I’m just putting all the pieces on the table so you know what I have up my sleeve. I want this to be transparent, after all.”

That seemed to settle her nerves a bit, and she returned to her standing position. “I just wanted to tell you that the terms of our deal will need a little changing before I send you the Judgment contract.”

“W-what?” Viina’s voice was small, almost nonexistent amongst the murmur of the people in the arena’s lobby on the other side of the wall.

“You heard me. I’ll be requiring your Judgment as payment. Please, you don’t think you could really have the same benefits as before we did this whole war game, did you?”

Her mouth hung open momentarily before her brain processed what she had heard. “No! Are you insane!? You can’t take back an offer you already made!”

“Oh, of course I can.” I walked over to the crate, and took a seat on it, looking down on Viina. “What makes you think you have any leverage in this discussion? Your family certainly doesn’t hold any sway over me, or anyone anymore.”

X floated forward next to Viina, and her Judgment stepped in front of her, seemingly ready to duke it out. X sighed and snapped her fingers, making the Red Judgment freeze in place.

“See? If I wanted to hurt her, I could have.” She snapped her fingers once more, and the silent entity shuddered. X turned to Viina and said, “Have you been reading about your mother’s failures coming to light online? It’s a fascinating read.”

Viina looked like she just had a realization, and moved her fingers like she was navigating a web browser. “No, no! She-! That idiot! If you can’t even see this through until the end, how am I supposed to forgive you for being a terrible mother!?”

I pulled up the articles on my own device, and a headline of Laina Secela claiming mental disability was the first thing I saw. “So, shitty parent, huh? I know what that’s like.”

My memory became filled with the disapproving stares of my father, and how he’d always put himself before my mother or his children. Viina stared up at me, an indignant look in her eyes.

“You cannot claim to have had your parents claim mental disabilities from shirking their responsibilities.”

A smile played out on my lips and I replied, “No, you have a point there. Although I’m pretty sure my father was suffering from something, and sometimes trying to parent in a bad way is more destructive than not being parented at all.”

Her forest green eyes ran over my body, searching for an answer to an unspoken question. “I… I suppose that can be true. Why are you sharing this with me?”

I wanted to lie to her. To tell her that it was because I wanted her friendship, or that I wanted to build trust in our budding working relationship, but instead I remained silent.

When I spoke, I answered, unapologetically, “Because I want this to be a smoother transition. We all have secrets, and things in our past we’d rather not dwell on. I just want you to realize that, and acquiesce to my demands.”

This had the opposite effect of what I was intending, and Viina started to chuckle to herself. “You never were good with smart women, Master.” Un laid a hand on my shoulder.

Shut it. I watched as her laughing fit died down, and she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Ok, Paladin Cole. I’ve thoroughly lost this one.”

She started to pull down her sundress, revealing her white bra and a moderate amount of cleavage. My eyes fell on the beauty mark on her left breast before I pulled them back up towards her face.

“What are you doing?” I asked, in the most deadpan tone I could muster. For her part, she seemed confused.

“What do you mean? I had heard that my new lord is insatiable when it comes to his carnal desires, so I merely wished to offer what you were going to demand of me.”

This time it was my turn to laugh, and Viina put her breasts away after being thoroughly offended.

“Did anyone ever tell you not to believe everything you hear?” I said between breaths. Her mouth went agape, followed by a blush that covered her cheeks and nose.

“You- how dare you! How could you make a maiden do that based on your lies!?” I finally stopped laughing, and looked straight at her.

“They were pretty convincing though, right? It’s pretty easy to make people underestimate you when you have an information network as comprehensive as mine.” She seemed to think of something, and folded her arms.

“Ok, well, if you aren’t after my body, what are you after?” I began to walk up to her. She flinched, but stood her ground as my armored feet took me closer to the princess.

I eventually got right up to her, and lifted my finger. My target was standing behind her, and Viina turned her head to look at her Judgment.

“I want that.” I told her in no uncertain terms. “The rest of the deal we can hammer out later, but that is a prerequisite to joi-”

“No!” She screamed, and held her arms out in front of the A.I. “I will give you my virginity, I will try to give you my heart, or my knowledge. But I will never let you have the Prime!”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I wasn’t asking.” I said, separating from her. “I will have that Judgment, but whether I have to take it by force, or you use it as a bargaining chip is up to you.”

She bit her lip, but her eyes widened immediately after. “Wait, you called it a Judgment? Does the Prime have to do with the system!?”

“Who knows?” I sat back down on the crate and looked her in the eyes. “If you want to know, I can tell you after you sign your contract.”

“No! I still won’t let you take him!” My fingers flexed, and I started to reach for the photon pistol attached to my hip when a spark crackled against my forehead.

“Honestly, you’re so bad at dealing with people, Master.” X sighed and floated down to the ground, where she stood in front of Viina.

“I’m sorry he scared you, Princess Secela. When he says that he wants your Judgment, he doesn’t mean that your… Prime is going to disappear. He’ll merely switch from a main program to a subprogram. You’ll still be able to interact with him like you do today.”

Viina stared at X, and then looked back up at Un and Three. “Who are you, Joshua? Why do you have three of them, when the only people I know have only ever had one?”

“Well isn’t that a long story.” I sighed, and took my finger off of the pistol. “Let’s just say I got them from people like you. People that are still working for me today, and in pretty prominent positions I might add.

Viina tilted her head, so I took that as an opportunity to elaborate. “You’ve done your research on my team, right? Do the names Winter Strafe or Lilian ring a bell?”

Her eyes widened as she looked at the Judgments once more. “Don’t bore a hole in me, girly. This old man has mixed feelings about a girl as young as you.” Un said.

“Ugh, gross.” Replied Three. “Don’t listen to him. No matter how sexually harassing he can be, at least he can’t actually touch you.”

“That sounds like a challenge!” Un laughed merrily, while Three just rolled her eyes.

“How are they so… human-like? Aren’t they earthbound spirits trapped inside a program?” Viina continued staring at them, so she didn’t notice Winter’s gaze narrow.

“Well, some of them, maybe. Un here is a historical figure, but I won’t get much further into it than that. As for Three… think of her as an alter-ego of a shunned girl.”

Un puffed out his chest with pride, while Three shrugged her shoulders. “Lastly X…” I started, when I felt a pain in my chest. I guess some wounds don’t heal with time.

“X is a manifestation of my desire for a friend, combined with my loneliness and melancholy for my girlfriend back home.” I said, much softer than I meant to.

X floated back up to me on the crate, and gave me an intangible kiss on the cheek. “I knew you’d admit that you love me sooner or later. I just didn’t expect it to come like this.”

“Bite me.” I said, prompting her to laugh. Seeing the somewhat carefree conversation between us all must have relaxed Viina somewhat, but she was still curious.

“Then… What do you think about the Prime? Where did he come from?” I shrugged, and shook my head.

“That’s none of my business, and right now I’m not too invested in finding out your past. Of course, that will be different if you come to work for me.”

Viina bit her lip. “One last question. How do you get them to talk on a regular basis? This entire time, the Prime hasn’t said a word to me unless I call him, or replied to anything I asked it.”

I raised an eyebrow, and looked at X. She nodded and floated down to the red Judgment. “It’s ok, big guy. I won’t hurt you.”

She put a finger to his head, and closed her eyes. A moment later she pulled back, grinning. “Viina, did you ever talk to him other than when you were trying to give him orders?”

The princess’ eyes widened, and she began mumbling to herself. “Surely I must have! I must have asked him about his origins, or what he was capable of, but-”

“Really?” X replied skeptically. “In his memory banks you went straight to the national library to try to figure out what he was.”

Viina looked at the Judgment sheepishly. “So you’re telling me that it’s my own fault?” X nodded, and tapped the red Judgment on the shoulder.

“Yes. In fact, you’ve severely hampered his growth by just treating him as a tool, and not a person. He learned some simple phrases, but that’s about it. If you took proper care of him, perhaps this war game wouldn’t have been so lopsided after all.”

Viina frowned, but X chimed in, “You along with that Civil Union House boy, of course. He treated his Judgment the same way.”

“It doesn’t fill me with joy to be compared to an awful human being.” She said, and sighed. “Speaking of which, what happened to his spi- Judgment anyway?”

X pulled out a blue orb from seemingly thin air and threw it towards the ground. It shattered in midair, and the blue judgment from before appeared, only, a bit different. His left arm was white, and instead of a ram’s skull for a head, there was a knight’s helmet. White angel wings sprouted from it’s back, and a staff was placed in it’s right hand.

“What code is it?” I asked, and X turned to me with a grin.

“The fifth in the series. May I suggest Five, Fifth, or Go?”

“You can suggest all you want. That doesn’t mean I’m going to take it.” X pouted and floated over to inspect the new member of our team.

“X is the main program.” I explained to Viina, who was staring at the new arrival with wide eyes. “The rest are bound to her will.”

I walked up to the blue Judgment, and smiled. “You’ll be Cin.” A white light expanded from under him, and black tribal markings appeared on his white arm.

“Sin?” Viina asked, her eyes still glued to the spectacle.

“Yeah, Cin, like the first part of Cinco. It’s spanish for five.” X sighed at my choice of names, and floated back up to sit on the crate with the other Judgments.

Cin bowed, and looked up at me. “It… honor… Master.” My smile faltered a bit. Neglect indeed. He doesn’t even know how to make a proper sentence.

“I look forward to your service.” I replied, and watched him disappear from sight. He returned to being a blue orb, and floated back up to X, remaining in orb form.

“... Fine. I accept that demand, under the request that you give me a contract here and now to sign.”

“Fine by me.” I replied. “X, send her Lilian’s contract, the third draft.” X did as she was told, and I watched as Viina read the contract carefully.

“That’s your base contract. You’ll get a better one after the first month, as stated in the contract. Here is the one you’ll receive in a month.”

I sent her the second file, and waited until she had read everything until the end. “The shock therapy is cruel and unusual.” She sighed.

“Eh. Maybe. It builds character though.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose at my response, and turned to her Judgment.

“Thank you, my Prime. The time you spent serving me will not be forgotten. I hope that you felt positively about our interactions as I did.”

“Of course…” The red Judgment replied. “It made me happy… to see… you, Viina.”

I was about to instruct X to absorb him when I saw the look on Viina’s face, one of shock and confusion. “I know that voice.” She said softly.

Soon, the black skull mask of the Prime crumbled and fell away, revealing the face of a middle aged man.

“Father?” Viina’s voice was shaky. Feeling a change in her mind coming on, I gave X the signal, and she absorbed the Prime. Viina gasped and looked up at X, before falling to her knees.