I turn to the woman who guided me here and gently graze her cheek as she stares at me in slight surprise. Moving a lock of her hair behind her ear, I lean closer to it while my fingers travel down her neck and caress it gently.

“Make sure that whoever can leave this part of the building does so until I’m out. I don’t want to hurt you or any of your friends by accident if anything happens. And thank Gloria for me again,” I whisper softly.

Her eyes widen briefly but she makes a faint nod so I withdraw my face from hers.

“Susan,” she whispers back, looking at me with a tiny flush.

“Hm?”

“My name. Be careful.”

I nod with a warm smile and wrap my arm around her waist, turning Susan around. I escort her a few steps back towards the outside of the room, sneakily sliding my fingers into her short skirt. She sighs gently when I tenderly brush against her slightly leaking slit and shoots me one last glance over her shoulder as I back away. I close the door with a small wink.

My enhanced hearing easily picks up her hurried steps so she thankfully sees to my advice without delaying it. As I thought, she does care about her coworkers greatly. It was easy to deduct from how anxious she was when Gloria brought me in.

But, unfortunately, I can’t let my mind wander around kind and pretty girls right now. There are some quite undesirable matters to resolve first.

Feeling the gazes on my back, I turn around to see all five men looking at me. Fixing my collar, I start slowly walking forward.

“No welcome? I thought this was supposed to be one of the high-class establishments but it feels like I’ve walked into some third-rate pub.”

“You are lucky to still be alive after crossing the doorstep, bastard,” Duke growls in response.

I raise a brow at them, stopping. “Oh? I was pretty sure I came here with an invitation to join, not to lose my life. Did I perhaps mistake the buildings? I’m not interested in your suicide circle.”

He opens his mouth to bark something back but one of the other men raises a hand, which instantly silences him. I move my eyes to its owner and they land on an older guy with greying hair combed back into a samurai bun and a short, spiky beard growing down from his chin. If this was a movie set, he could easily play a kung fu master with that face. The only lacking part is his clothing. The expensive fabrics don’t really match him.

“Our guest is right. We’ve issued this invitation and it’s our obligation as hosts to welcome the visitor,” he says slowly and then stands up. “Welcome to the Travelling Tit, Mr Carter. I hope you can set aside any personal conflicts for today and join us by the table.”

Figured out he is the boss here. As Gloria said, there are two older men here and he certainly exudes a more dignified aura, even though it isn’t the best word to describe someone like him. The other, heavily balding dude doesn’t seem to be willing to stand at the front that much.

“Since the president himself has asked me to, I’ll respectfully oblige. Thank you, Mr Vonhof,” I reply and make a courteous nod, resuming my walk.

“Oho. It looks like I’ve been easily recognized. You’ve come prepared, Mr Carter.” He chuckles softly while pinching his beard.

I nonchalantly wave my hand. “It’s not an achievement to figure out that the head of the association would be the first one to greet me, nor is it to know the names of its members. I’m afraid that I’m not able to correctly place them amongst everyone here.”

Observing them, I arrive at the little lounge and take the spot the furthest from any of the dudes, dropping myself onto the curved sofa. I cross my legs and throw my arms behind me to let them hang over the backrest. It just so happens that I sit across from the president, with Duke located to my right.

Krizdian claps his hands and a different door opens. A servant rushes in with a silver tray and places one more glass on the shelf in front of me, quickly picking up a nearby wine bottle and filling it up. He then bows and escapes the room without a word.

I raise my gaze from the wooden panel running around the entire stage at a convenient height to serve as the table and realise that the girls going at it on top of the platform have switched their positions.

A woman with light chocolate skin leans forward on all fours with her ass right in my face while another one with more common, light skin lies under her on her back in a sixty-nine. She lazily licks her friend's rosy flower from below while alluringly spreading the woman’s petals aside to display more of the delicate, pink flesh to me. She shoots me seductive glances as they both moan quietly. The third girl seems to be rubbing herself on the side in the meantime.

It’s painfully obvious what they are trying to do here. This is nothing else than a planned distraction to keep my thoughts in shambles while we talk about various matters. What man could ignore two or three beauties exposing themselves to him in such an inviting manner?

Well, this one, I guess.

They are beautiful and sexy, but thankfully, they are nothing but background images and noises to me. I’m sorry ladies, but I’ll have to disappoint your masters today. No amount of pussy will save those pussies from their fate.

~Don’t intervene unless I tell you to, alright?~

I glance up towards a specific corner of the ceiling and feel a hesitant confirmation reach my mind through our bond.

~They aren’t even worth considering a threat so don’t worry. I want to handle this myself, at least as far as it’s possible. Thank you for watching over me,~ I add to reassure Hecate a little and return my gaze to the play unfolding in front of my eyes.

The president picks up his glass and everyone follows.

“Let’s make a toast to welcome Mr Carter and move to the proper introductions.”

Really? Can’t they be more obvious? We haven’t even started talking and you want me to drink this clearly spiced-up wine? The balls on this guy. I guess they think I’m an idiot or something.

Fine by me. That only plays out in my favour. It’s certainly not a poison but I wonder what they used…

Picking my own glass with my right hand, I inconspicuously weave the fingers of my left to navigate the menus by my thigh. Since no one can see them, it goes smoothly. In a flash, I borrow Ailish’s Eyes of the Lust Demon passive. I don’t really need offensive skills to defend myself today and I’m confident that my quite lustful body won’t even notice me taking whatever is in the wine.

I feel slight warmth in my eye sockets while activating the ability and instantly spot weird, swirling traces in the scarlet liquid. Pinkish lines float around in the wine and even emanate some weak fumes into the air.

It seems that Ailish’s experience carries within the skill as I recognize the substance in a flash. As expected, it’s a quite strong aphrodisiac with slightly mind-numbing effects, basically a drug meaning to let them have an easier way of talking me into whatever they want while I stare at the lascivious display in front of my face.

A quick glance confirms that no one else has such a thing in their glasses. Since I don’t feel any danger from the substance, I take a few sips with everyone. In the corner of my eye, I spot a smirk on Duke’s lips as he places his own glass down.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be so fast to jump to conclusions. The president might not be aware of everything either.

The wine itself is very tasty and I swear that I can easily distinguish the sweet aroma of the drug. I don’t think it’s thanks to Ailish’s sight so it has to be just my body taking it in quite well. There are no weird sensations or anything. It feels like I could drink entire barrels of it and just enjoy the taste.

“So, I’m certain that you already know me, Mr Carter, but let’s start from the beginning,” the president begins and I glance at him lazily. “I’m Krizdian Vonhof, the association’s president and the owner of this place. To my left is my right hand and vice-president, Albertus Nogh.”

I exchange a simple nod with the balding guy and move my eyes to the first man from the younger side of the association.

“Then, we have Quinfey Longhorn, the third in seat.”

I do the same with the slightly chubby man. He wears blue robes and small, round glasses. It’s pretty obvious just from his face and general appearance that he likes to indulge himself in various pleasures of life, not just women as Gloria mentioned.

“After him, we have Todd Fush.”

The skinny guy in a greenish tuxedo waves his hand at me with a friendly smile. He looks nothing special and that clearly stands out. Simple, short, brown hair and eyes of the same colour. Some freckles decorate his happy face. There’s an aura of airheadedness around him with how gingerly he handles himself, acting somewhat anxious from a social perspective. Yet, from my experience with actual idiots, I can tell that he might not really be one like my black-haired, voluptuous friend suggested.

“And finally, I think you’ve already had the pleasure to meet our newest member—if you don’t join us, that is—Duke Gloomveil,” the president finishes at another fatty, in white-purple fancy robes this time.

“Yes, pleasure is the perfect expression to describe it,” I reply with a smirk.

“You dare to mock me after what you have done?!” Duke shouts and slams his fist on the curved bar counter. “I’m still not fully healed after your barbaric treatment! You have no idea how grievous of an impact your actions had on my business!”

“I thought you ran a brothel, not worked in one.” I raise a brow at the man.

Duke turns a shade redder and slams both fists on the table this time, toppling one of the wine bottles, which then rolls off the edge of the short counter and shatters on the wooden floor.

Shame. It was one of the clear bottles. Such a waste.

But, while everyone glances towards the source of the noise, I act as if I’m supporting the wooden panel in front of me and swap the places of the drugged bottle with a clean one just next to it. 

Now, I wonder if the servants have a way to differentiate them. If not, this meeting might actually be fun.

I glance at the fuming guy to see why no more insults followed and find him gritting his teeth while under the gaze of the president. It looks like Krizdian has stepped in before more of his precious beverages get unnecessarily wasted.

“Gentlemen, please,” he says, looking between the two of us. “I know that there’s a fresh feud between you two but I hope we can resolve the issue without any bloodshed. Everyone makes mistakes. I’m sure we can make some amends and move on. If you are going to be joining us, Mr Carter, we can’t have any open conflicts amongst the members.”

“Fine.” I switch my legs over and lean back again. “What’s your offer?”

“Pardon?” Krizdian blinks at me a few times while furrowing his brows.

“I’m asking what form of compensation can you offer me,” I clarify while raising my brows and tilting my head a little.

“Preposterous!” Duke explodes and the skinny, wimpy guy barely holds him down so he doesn’t completely wreck the stage. “Me compensating you?! Are you out of your damned mind?! You should be begging me to accept everything you own!”

“Why?” I ask calmly.

“W-What?” Duke pauses in confusion and shakes his head. “What do you mean why?! You tortur—”

“Why should I be the one compensating you when it was you who arrived in my establishment, read through the rules, signed your agreement to follow them, chose a girl to spend a moment with, and then intentionally ignored them to openly abuse her for your own satisfaction?” I interrupt the man while staring straight at him.

“T-That’s not—”

“The rules clearly state that all girls have the right to defend themselves whenever they feel threatened or in danger, without holding back. You have agreed to not hold them accountable for any acts taken in such a situation, even resulting in death. While you should have been dead on the spot, you were spared only thanks to her kind heart. It doesn’t look like you made good use of that mercy.”

“Although I’ve heard a few rumours similar to this, it doesn’t really match the report you made earlier, Duke,” Albertus speaks up for the first time since the start.

“Obviously! They are just rumours that he is spreading throughout the city to save his skin and face!” the angry bastard replies, crossing his arms over his chest.

I wave my hand and bring a piece of paper out of my storage ring. Everyone glances at the faint, violet flash accompanying its appearance and I push it onto the table, sliding it towards the other fatty to my left. Quinfey picks it up and starts reading.

“What’s that?” Duke asks.

“The very document you have signed,” I answer calmly.

After just a moment, Quinfey passes it to Albertus and the balding guy glances at it with the president. They then pass it to the supposed idiot, who makes a few weird faces while examining the parchment, and flicks it towards the angry guy.

Duke starts tearing it into pieces immediately. “You dare to conspire against me?! This is clear evidence of forgery and framing! Don’t think that we can be fooled by it!”

“And that’s why you are destroying that evidence?” I raise my brows at him again.

“These rules are utter nonsense and bullshit anyway! There’s no way you can enforce something like that and even execute people in the capital! It’s either an empty threat or you think that you are above the King!” He promptly switches the topic.

“I see. And which one do you think it is?”

“Both!”

I let out a laugh while shaking my head, spooking the others a little.

“Sorry, sorry. That was just so you to say something like that. Do you even have any speck of a brain? These two practically contradict each other.” I sigh heavily and summon another piece of paper, a slightly fancy scroll. “Here’s an explicit acceptance and permission to enforce the rules signed by the captain of the knights and the King himself. Do I have to remind you about the punishment for ripping apart the royal edict?”

I throw the scroll to my left again and the four men cuddle up close to check it out together. They murmur something about the seal being clearly real and the royal sigil certainly being authentic. My ears easily pick everything up.

The furious Duke steals it from their hands, gives it a single glance, and prepares himself to tear it into shreds. But, he stops himself in time and his eyes lock on the royal sigil next to the King’s signature, most likely. He hesitates for a moment, considering the risk, and rolls the scroll back.

I flick my wrist towards him, snapping my fingers, and he hisses in pain. The edict floats through the air back to my hand and I store it inside the ring again while everyone stares at me in utter confusion. 

Not my problem if they can’t even see the invisible threads which carried it. Scrubs.

“So, are we going to calm down and discuss this or should I act according to the rules that you have broken the last time you came to visit?” I give Duke a curious glance.

He grits his teeth and sits down at his previous spot, sending me deadly glares. The president claps his hands again and a few servants rush inside, hastily cleaning up the mess and refilling everyone’s glasses. I watch as one of the butlers pours a full one for Duke straight from the drugged bottle. The pinkish traces flow into the glass he holds for the servant and I barely hold back my grin.

Sadly, they take all the bottles away after Krizdian whispers something to one of them, most likely the head honcho of the group, and the butlers scurry away. I guess the president doesn’t want to risk Duke getting even more riled up through the alcohol.

He’s in for a rude awakening, if so.

“Alright. Now that things have slightly calmed down, let’s share another one and discuss this matter in a more civil manner,” the kung fu guy suggests.

I grab my glass first and the overweight idiot follows instantly, showing a half-smirk on his face. Everyone else joins in and we empty our glasses together. This wine is quite fine but I already miss the sweet taste of the aphrodisiac. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to switch them.

“So, let’s take a short break from this small conflict and talk a little more about you, Mr Carter. I’m sure we can reach a satisfactory consensus regarding it soon,” he continues.

“Sure. What do you have in mind?” I join my hands together and place them on my lap with my legs still crossed over each other.

“Since you have accepted the invitation and came here, I assume that you are in fact interested in joining our ranks.”

“President! You can’t really be still thinking about—”

“Your turn is over for now. Let the president talk now,” Albertus jumps in to silence the unfilial member with a stern glare.

I ignore him completely and bob my head to the sides a little. “You could say that, yes. Depends on what's in it for me.”

“A lot,” Quinfey answers instead so I look at the other fatso. “We exchange women, money, strategies, advertisements, and many other things. Knowledge of the market is of course part of it too, and there’s a lot of collective wisdom gathered amongst our ranks. There’s a reason why our businesses can flourish while no one else is able to penetrate the starting barrier.”

Yeah, because you nip any attempts right in the bud. There’s not much else to that.

“I don’t really need any of that, though. I’m well on my own, as you have seen. Plus, I have connections in quite high places to assure that everything runs smoothly. My girls and services are quite special and peculiar. There is no point in really considering it.”

“There still could be ways to improve things,” the pushover Todd joins in. “You would have five more heads to think about it after you share your findings with us. As we all have learned here, an outsider’s perspective is often very beneficial.”

That doesn’t really seem like a thing some random lucky idiot would say, to be honest. He might make it look like such but he is obviously luring me into sharing my secrets with them under the guise of help and advice. Quite cunning, even if too obvious.

“Association this, association that. What even can he do for us besides talking nonsense about his non-human whores?” Duke says, slurring a little.

I give him a glance and notice that his expression is now slightly more flushed than before while his eyes are locked on the three ladies fornicating alluringly on the stage. They must have realised that I tuned them out completely and abandoned any ideas of distracting me, returning to pleasuring each other in general.

Too bad. I was curious if she would have started fingering her chocolate-skinned friend if I waited long enough but I guess it’s my fault for not paying attention.

In any way, besides the red on his cheeks, Duke pitches quite a tent down there so the aphrodisiac must be doing its work properly. Perhaps we’ll wait a little more and he jumps at the pussies in front of him without being able to hold back. That would be a sight. Although, I would rather cut him down before he laid his dirty hands on these girls.

“I think I’ve already done plenty, though.” I shrug.

“Plenty? What exactly do you mean?” The president turns to me.

I move my gaze to Albertus. “How’s May doing?”

The bald man’s brows rise while the others frown in confusion. “How… do you know that name?”

“How else? It’s basic manners to introduce yourself when you are staying at someone’s home to receive proper treatment.”

“There’s no way…”

A weak violet flash surfaces again and I show my hand with a big, round white pill between each of my fingers. It feels a little weird displaying them like that while knowing what exactly has been used for their creation. Perhaps the girls should have added some herbs or reagents to end up with a different colour other than white.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to check on all the ladies kidnapped by Lord Jericho’s flippant son but they should be doing as well if not better than May and Gloria. The latter certainly seemed very vigorous and eager a while ago.” I glance at Krizdian.

His eyes narrow in an instant and I raise my other hand too.

“Relax. I’m not him.” I gesture with my head at the quite distracted Duke. “She’s fine. Just resting after passing out from pleasure. I was surprised to learn that she could withstand four of my special hand techniques. The cure we have prepared really strengthened the girls.”

“Then it is true,” Quinfey says, capturing my attention again. “I found it hard to believe but it seems that those women weren’t lying about being saved by you. I can vouch for their well-being and greatly raised libido myself. Dora and Jewel are practically inexhaustible now and wet twenty-four-on-seven.”

I smile wryly at his testimony. I didn’t really need to know that he had personally checked, even though it was easy to figure out from what Gloria said about this guy. I bet he runs checks on all of them. 

But, all Jericho’s girls were informed that they could expect more help from us than just getting cured and they still chose to return to their workplaces. As long as they are happy, it’s not really my business. Cornelia and Elea made sure to investigate if none of them was threatened or blackmailed into coercion and they found no evidence of such.

“Did you do that while anticipating the invitation to gain a favour with us before the discussion?” Todd asks, reminding me again that he is sharper than he appears, even if he is wrong. “Every single member of the association is in your debt now. Each one of us not only reclaimed a lost girl or two but they even came back in a better state than before the incident.”

“No. It was just pure chance. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know about this entire thing until I received the letter. Lord Jericho is one of my valued connections so I naturally helped him out, treating the girls alongside it. I wanted to see them healthy again, that’s all. But, it is true that you guys benefited from it too.”

Everyone nods faintly while exchanging glances with each other. Except for Duke, who leans forward so much that his nose almost plunges into the pussy of the girl whose butt peeks over the edge of the stage floor. After she repositions herself due to finishing off another woman through oral, he blinks a few times and scrunches his face in mild anger. His muddled eyes lock onto me as he slams his fist into the table once more.

“Enough! It’s clear that he’s been fucking with us for a long time! I do not approve of his candidature! He should be dealt with instead of accepted!” he shouts in fury, standing up with a little wobble and an obvious stiffy.

During his rant, I flick one of the pills his way and nail it right into his open mouth. The small marble rolls into his throat and he starts coughing while his hands shoot to his neck. As he is fighting for his life to push the medicine down, a slightly stained spot begins spreading at the tip of his noticeable tent.

Ewwwww. Did he blow while choking on a tablet made from my cum? I guess survival instincts really are a thing.

“You!” the throat-play enthusiast screams at me while pointing his finger my way. “You are going to pay for this disgrace a hundredfold! I will butcher you alive and then fuck all your bitches in front of your barely living body!”

“Eh. Dunno. It seemed to me like you enjoyed it quite a bit.” I shrug while raising a brow at him.

I can literally hear the grinding of his teeth as he turns into a rage-filled tomato.

“Fuck waiting! I’m going to end it all right now! Meeeeeeeeeeeeen!”

All the doors except for the main entrance burst in and quite a lot of dudes in various armours and with different weapons barge inside. They quickly spread throughout the room, standing with their backs to the walls. They point their blades towards the centre as the frightened women scream and hug each other on top of the short stage.

“What is the meaning of this, Duke?” The president stands up and looks at the drugged guy with wide eyes.

Duke spits in his face but thankfully it doesn’t hit the man's mouth. I can see traces of the aphrodisiac in his saliva.

“I’ve had enough of being your fucking lapdog! From now on, I’m the association head and all your assets belong to me! Try anything funny and I’ll kill you right after I deal with that fucker! Actually, I might do it anyway. It’s easier to replace all of you rather than endure your shit.”

“Think it over one more time,” I say coldly, throwing my arms over the backrest again.

“You shut the fuck up! I’m going to tear you apart in a moment!” he shouts back and an emerald-coloured rapier materialises in his hand.

My brows rise as I examine the blade and the handguard. “An enchanted weapon?”

“Finally starting to realise how fucked you are?” Duke laughs maniacally and waves his rapier a few times. “You like it? Want it? Don’t worry, I’ll give—”

“Pass.” I wave my hand from side to side while looking away. “Sirgia would literally divorce me if I brought such third-rate trash back home and we aren’t even married yet.”

He blinks in confusion for a good five seconds as silence envelops the room. Then, he turns even redder and lunges at me with his rapier gaining a slight, orange glow signalising an ability.

“You dareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

~Let me have some fun,~ I send a Whisper to Hecate and raise my leg.

The moment Duke arrives in front of me, I kick him square in that fat barrel of his and send him flying towards the opposite wall. He smashes into two thugs or whoever the fuck they are and they fall to the ground together while groaning.

“G-Get him!” he stutters from under his men and the other guys brandish their weapons at me.

“This is your one and only warning.” I stand up, put my hands in my pockets, and move my gaze all around the room while letting some of my killing intent out. “Throw your weapons down and get the fuck out or die a dog’s death.”

I see a bunch of them tremble under my glare but they share a look to reassure themselves and no one leaves. Sighing heavily, I bring out my draconic hilt.

“Alright. It’s time to party.”

The mercenaries—let’s just call them that from now on—throw themselves at me as one mass, to the accompaniment of valiant shouts. I shape my trusty, old whip in a blink. Not even a strand of dark purple mist envelops my arm anymore. The artefact feels more comfortable in my hand than ever. I bet it’s connected to my meeting with the remnant of Lilith’s soul.

Raising my hand above my head, I spin my wrist in circles. The purple cord flails around my body, forming a cone of protection. All the blades bounce off the vicious tongue and a bunch of thugs end up whipped from getting too close, receiving some minor wounds. It makes the others hesitate but that’s enough for me.

I summon the Void Chains and tightly seal all the exits, noticing that one of the doors is open and that four members of the association are missing. They must have used me as a distraction to slip away, thankfully, taking the girls with them. 

Not a problem. I’ll chase them after getting some exercise here.

“Surrender! You are surrounded!” one of the men shouts.

“Surrounded?” I chuckle at him. “All I'm surrounded by is fear and dead men!”

While I can launch spells and abilities anywhere I want, I should somewhat limit myself in doing so. I don’t want to hurt some poor girl doing her job past a wall or two. Thankfully, I don’t have Shino’s sword arts on me so I don’t have to worry about obliterating half of the capital.

Perhaps also thanks to Lilith, or just me growing so much stronger, my understanding of the artefact grew exponentially. With a single thought, I activate a completely new ability from the Formless Blade Arts and send my whip forward.

The scaly rope wiggles through the air like a living serpent and coils around the throats of about seven mercenaries. Then, I notice that the tip has actually turned into the head of a snake just when it sinks its fangs into the neck of the last guy it wraps itself around.

I yank it back and all the heads fly into the air one by one as they end up decapitated by the sharp, living whip. Lots of blood sprays from the headless corpses as they fall to the ground. Some of the other dudes look in horror at their comrades.

“I did warn you. Should have listened.” I rest the hilt on my shoulder and shrug with the other hand.

Immediately, a few more opponents decide to throw themselves at me and I focus on the battle again. I guess this is an excellent opportunity to test my control of the artefact a little.

Spinning around, I flick my wrist forward and the tip of my whip strikes some poor dude straight into the nuts, shattering them to bits. He bends over with a high-pitched screech that sends shivers through the others and falls down.

Grabbing the hilt with both hands, I spin it around and a purple mist reforms itself into an evil-looking scythe. Stepping to the side, I continue to spin it and cleave through three different men without an issue. I’m pretty sure the blade grew even sharper than it was in the past.

Avoiding a swing from each side, I jump backwards and cut off the hands of the recent attackers. They scream in agony so I hastily grant them mercy and stab through their hearts with the scythe, nailing both of them in one move.

The rest has started keeping their distance so I spin the scythe and lower my posture. After the third rotation, it changes into a long and deadly glaive. The closest enemies don’t even get a moment to scream as I cleave through them with a wide, all-around swing. Ten halves drop to the ground, sliced cleanly at the height of their belly buttons.

There are still around fifteen thugs spread around but half of them are desperately trying to break through my chains blocking the exits. Unfortunately, they can’t even scratch the spiritual metal, wounding themselves in the process as the sharp spikes hurt them back.

Parrying a handaxe to the side, I headbutt a guy so hard his neck literally snaps and he thuds to the ground like a log.

“My bad. I forgot I’m fighting basic Humans.”

“Group up! We can only kill this monster by working together!” One of the remaining mercs tries to gather his peers.

I chuckle to myself. “I guess I’ve finally become the last boss.”

Firmly holding the pole with both hands, I pull them apart without a sweat. My glaive splits into two, one crimson red and one dark sapphire, each of the same, initial size. The warriors in front of me pale greatly as I lower the weapons to the sides.

“You are not prepared!” I shout at them with might.

They look at each other in confusion and I shrug.

“Just wanted to say it at least once. Now you can die.”

I lunge forward faster than they can perceive it and mutilate six bodies on my path. Screams erupt all around me as the others realise that they blinked and over one-third of their forces have disappeared. The valiant leader rushes at me while drawing a group of seven with him and I meet them head-on.

He turns out to be nothing much and manages to block only one of my strikes before my other glaive splits him in half with a vertical swing from below. I spin around like a ballerina imitating some cheap whirlwind technique from an aged MMO and turn half of his underlings into plastered ham.

The trio that somehow escapes such fate, tries to block my rotations by stabbing their polearms into one point together, but their weapons get shoved away with incredible force, effectively injuring each other rather than doing me any harm. Stopping the small tornado, I grant them quick death too.

Five guys remain. I glance their way and raise my brows in confusion. They struggle with each other while pushing someone ahead, I guess to hide behind them while that person fights me. It looks kinda comical as they argue, until one gets stabbed and thrown aside. The rest don't even pay mind to what they have done and continue the squabble with one less member.

“I considered sparing some of you but I’m now regretting even thinking about it. I’m sure the world will be a better place without you in it.”

They freeze and point their faces at me. I can clearly see their eyes go as wide as they can at the sight of me positioning both glaives above my shoulders and drawing my arms to the back. Before they can react, I hurl the weapons forward like two merciless javelins.

Each one nails two guys and plunges deep into the wooden wall. Nodding to myself at the perfectly calculated move, I walk up to them and pull my glaives out, letting them merge back into one and then dematerialise. 

Then, as the four bodies fall to the ground, I notice the fat guy behind them, with two big gashes on his chest, and I suddenly remember the pig which started all of this. He must have hidden himself behind his men all this time, to the very end, most likely offering them money to stand in front of him. That could explain the weird commotion.

Oh well. Not like I expected anything from this utter waste. A random street whore would pose more threat than him and his toothpick.

With the hilt still in my hand, I recall the chains and move through the door which has most likely been the escape of the association members. I follow the corridor while looking around. It doesn’t seem like they got into a fight. At least, nobody is bleeding. Therefore, I continue forward while listening out for any hints of movement or footsteps.

After passing a bunch of doors, I notice some noise from a clearly muffled room. Holding onto my hilt firmly, I shoulder the door and open it partially, avoiding swinging them fully inside to let them serve as my cover in case of an ambush.

Looking through the quite wide gap, I find two people on the bed in the middle of the room. Some young guy lies on his back while holding his knees to his chest and a pretty girl kneels behind him as they both stare at me with shock. From how her waist is somewhat connected to his bottom, I can pretty much guess what is happening. And, it doesn’t look like she’s using any props.

“Nice cock.” I give her a thumbs-up and slowly close the door.

Well, whatever rows your boat, as they say. And she was quite sexy.

Nevertheless, I continue on my path without being swayed by the obvious nature of this place. Reaching an intersection, I put my hands on my hips and look both ways.

“Now, this might be a problem.”

“Sir Carter!”

I look over my shoulder after someone calls my name and notice the topless madame jogging my way, with her delicious breasts bouncing out in the open. She reaches my side and takes a few deep breaths.

“What are you doing here? I told you not to get close, didn’t I?” I ask.

“Someone reported a big commotion and many screams so I had to check it out just to be safe. Those men…” She winces a little but returns her eyes to mine. “I didn’t see your body anywhere so I assumed you either escaped or actually dealt with them. What is happening?”

“Looks like a hostile takeover to me. But, the initiator doesn’t seem to be with us anymore.”

“Duke Gloomveil? So he wasn’t assassinated?” She raises her brows at me.

“Nope. He got done alongside his own men. I’m now on my way to find the others. Do you maybe know where they could have run to hide?”

“Definitely our master’s office. It’s this wa—”

I grab Susan’s waist and pull her towards myself as she lets out a surprised squeal. A thin blade bursts out through the door next to us right where she has been standing a moment ago. I slam my foot into it with full power and breach it with enough force to obliterate it into splinters.

Shoving my free arm forward, I grab the disoriented thug by the throat and crush his windpipe with one squeeze, releasing a loud crack into the air. His lifeless body slumps to the ground while Susan watches it with wide eyes.

“T-Thank you…” she stutters out.

“It seems that Duke had some guys lie in wait. We should quickly check on the others. Can you lead me to the office?” I ask her with a calm, soothing voice.

“Of course.”

“Great. Don’t leave my side and stay close.”

Susan nods and lets me wrap my arm around her waist with a tiny flush on her face. She then points to the left and we move out. No more surprises await us as she guides me through the short maze of hallways. We finally reach quite fancy double doors and I kick them open without an issue.

A scream instantly escapes my female companion’s throat as the room becomes open to us. Krizdian and Albertus hide behind a massive desk of bright wood while the other two stand in the middle of the chamber together.

Todd pulls his hand away and Quinfey’s chubby body falls to the ground with no life in his eyes. He stands there with bloodied clothes and a dagger in hand, staring at us with a neutral expression.

“How peculiar…” I mutter to myself with a smirk.