The witch and Zulo (aka Ozul) had been gone for a couple of hours. During the time alone, Dalton made many attempts to break out of the cuffs. The witch had left a lot of things that were in reach for him. The chain was long enough to reach anywhere in the room other than the door.

Nothing he found could break the cuffs though.

He found a bottle of acid but dripping acid on it turned it into water. Striking the cuffs with a knife, turned it into a spoon. Nothing he tried had worked, but there was one thing he had not tried yet.

His thumbs. If he broke them, he could slip out of the cuffs.

Mikoto…or whoever that ninja was, had done something similar to him during their training. He cuffed him with a pair of magical cuffs just like this and threw him in a hole.

“If you want to escape, there are two ways. One, strip yourself naked and give me your clothes for me to frame on my wall. The second one is to find a way to get out of those cuffs.”

There had been no way to break them.

He had given up his clothes for the key.

If only Mikoto or Ingird or whoever was behind the mask was here. They would be able to get him out of these shackles.

He sighed.

“What are you sighing for?” The white ninja dropped from the ceiling, landing right next to him. They tilted their head and looked at him with interest. “Are you crying because you are stuck like that?”

“Mikoto.” Dalton narrowed his eyes. “I was told that you are not Mikoto Kurogane. That you are an imposter.”

“Well that’s not true at all.” The ninja guffawed.

“Why are you here?”

“I watch over all my student’s progress.” The ninja put his hands on their hips. “It is what a master does.”

“Funny,” Dalton said. “Because I heard that you are a money-grubbing maniac, who only teaches for profit. That you would never do anything else out of the kindness of your own heart.”

Mikoto turned their head again. “What do you want me to do?”

“Take off your mask,” Dalton said.

“Or, I can give you the key to the cuffs.” He held it in his hand.

“No, take off your mask first, Ingrid.”

Mikoto sighed, pulling off the mask. Underneath it was the woman that was his boss for this mission. She placed her hands on her hips.

“I was hoping that I wouldn’t need to do this.”

“Why?”

It was a question that made her face twist in pain. It was because that why was no just one question, it was multiple questions. She knew it just from how he had said it.

“Are you asking why I’m Mikoto, or are you asking why I threw you in that department on your first day?”

“All of it.”

“I see.”

She sat right next to him, brushing her hair over her ears. Her face filled with sadness and melancholic that it made his heart hurt for some reason.

Then she spoke.

“Where should I start?” She said. “I guess at the beginning.” She turned to him. “Did you know that I was your fiancée?”

“You were?”

It surprised Dalton to hear that. He had never met the woman his father wanted him to marry.

“I was. I waited for you all day. I was with your father, and we were waiting at a restaurant. The waiters had come to our table a few times and asked if we were going to order soon. The first few times, they were polite about it, but you could tell they were getting annoyed.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Dalton never knew.

“Then, you called your father and told him that you weren’t going to come.” Her smile was sad. “I think you can guess the reason for what I did to you. I was simply angry. You had broken my heart, and it wasn’t the first time you had done so.”

“What? I don’t understand. I have never met you.”

Her smile had become even sadder.

“I see Maya still hasn’t told you about who you truly are. That woman is so selfish. She’s never the bad guy and she always gets what she wants.” Then with a deep breath, the woman looked at him courageously. It was the look of a woman in love. Dalton knew, because it was the same look Maya had given him. “I love you. I have loved you in this life, and your past few lives.”

Again, he did not understand. He gave her a clueless look but she gave him an absolute one.

“Your first life, you were a Demon King, Maya met you then, but did you know that on your second life you were the Hero. I met you then when I was just a village girl. You saved me.”

There was so much there, that he did not know, but he knew she was telling the truth.

“Is that so.” It was all he could muster saying. What else was he supposed to say? He wished he was more eloquent with his words.

Ingrid continued.

“I am a Star Witch. The Witch of the Crimson Moon. I have the power to control my blood.”

“That dragon which told me that you are a battle junkie.”

“I cannot deny that. I do love a good fight,” she said.

“Why did you train me, if you were so angry?”

“Because I wanted you to give up.” She took his hand. “I wanted you to stop this, and leave that company. More than anything, I wanted you to go to your father.”

That made him twitch.

His father?

He gritted his teeth, his voice growing with anger. “So you wanted me to go back to my father? I see now, you just wanted to marry me.”

“Yes.”

He was shocked by her fast and sincere answer. He gathered himself, and anger took ahold of him again.

“I have no desire to ever return! Never! And I will never marry you!”

“You can change your mind later.” Ingrid patted his hand. “For now, let’s go ahead and break those chains.”

“I don’t think you’re listening to me at all, and I think even you would have trouble with these-”

“Here we go.” She ripped the cuffs off of him like they were made from papier-mâché. It made Dalton’s eyes almost fall out of his sockets.

“What in the-”

She reached down and tore the cuffs on his ankle.

“How?”

“Something like this would never be able to stop me from breaking through. Plus Yome’s strong suit isn’t creating seals. He strong suit is more destruction.” She licked her lips. “It’s been a while since I fought that witch.”

He was having a bad feeling about the way she gazed on that door.

“Okay…so, seeing as I am now free, I say we go ahead and skedaddle out of here,” Dalton said.

“Why? I am in no hurry.” She turned to him. “Are you saying you want to go?”

“Yes.”

“Rejected.” She cuffed his hands together with crystalized blood. It felt like this was even harder than diamond.

“What do you mean rejected?”

“Dalton, I am your master, and as your master, I cannot allow you to leave when there is a perfectly good witch ready to fight us past this door.”

“It sounds like you want to fight a Star Witch, but I don’t want to fight one at all. I want to-”

“The Harem Lord is here. Your job is to kill him. So, until then, you stay right here.”

She had absolutely just remembered that right now.

Dalton sighed, sitting back down next to her. “You’re a Star Witch. Of course, you can fight another Star Witch. I’m just a normal human being.” Though he paused for a moment. “I was a Demon King and a Hero? I know you said that, but it feels completely unreal to me.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“No, I believe you.” Dalton turned away from her. “But just because that’s what I was in my past life, doesn’t mean that I will be that in this life.”

“I was an ordinary village girl a few hundred years ago. I became a Star Witch. You can become whatever you want to become if you apply yourself,” she said. “Of course, there was some luck involved, but that is neither here or there.”

“I seriously don’t think staying here and fighting another Star Witch would be ideal,” Dalton said. “I might as well fight a hurricane.”

“You should fight a hurricane. Hurricanes are fun. Did you know that if you hit a hurricane with enough force, it stops.”

This Star Witch was not normal. He used Maya as a baseline for what was considered normal and she was way below the line of what could be considered normal. Thinking about it, she tried to get married to him, threw him in the pits of a very terrible department, and had become his boss again and yet again threw him in the pits of danger once more.

“Say, are you stalking me?”

Ingrid turned away. “No.”

“That was the least convincing no, I’ve ever heard.” Dalton stared at her, holding out his cuffed hands. “If you let me out, I will make you a strawberry shortcake.”

“Dalton, now isn’t the time for such a thing.”

“Then, I will give you, my underwear. The one I’m wearing.”

She whipped towards him. She had the dangerous look of a predator, but she held herself back.

“Now is not the time for that.” Her nose was bleeding. “I have to keep my concentration. If I don’t, then I will probably get clobbered.”

“I will give you my underwear and shirt and bake you a strawberry shortcake.”

Blood wasn’t just dripping anymore. It was a full on river flowing down her lips.

She grabbed his shoulders. Her eyes were crazed, mad with lust, and she was breathing very heavily. “Really?”

“The way you’re looking at me is scaring me.”

A black bar of flame blew a hole through the door and blasted Ingrid through the window. Yome stepped into the room, with a pipe in her mouth, she took it out, and blew smoke.

She looked at very shocked Dalton.

“That wasn’t the Star Witch I asked for.” She took in a drag, and then with intent, blew smoke in Dalton’s face. “Punishment.”

The smoke enveloped Dalton, taking him into its clutches.