I was standing on a rooftop, and across from me was the very body guard I had been searching for to protect me. However, when the time came, she had tried to kill me. I had spent two years tempering my emotions. I had thought I had a good rein on them now and would be able to handle everything this world threw at me. Yet, shock after shock had assaulted my system ever since I had been let free.  

My father hadn’t died the way I thought he had died. My best friend was murdered. My sister was submitting her profiles to sex catalogs. Dia was shot in front of me, and those bullets came from Brooke, who assuredly had been aiming at me! It was a miracle that I was even able to keep it together. I wanted to break down and cry. I wanted to throw magic around in a violent rage.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Brooke said the first words she had spoken to me.

It was unmistakably her voice. It wasn’t an illusion or a woman who looked similar to her. I had already felt for magic, and there was none of the sort. Brooke wasn’t a woman who trusted in magic. She used to say the only thing she trusted was her own two hands. She didn’t even usually use weapons, which made it all the more shocking she had pulled out a rifle. I’d like to have thought that her definition had expanded over time to include me as well. We had been through so much together.

It was Brooke who was by my side as I searched for Hannah. It was Brooke there when I went to that club. She was there with me on the Day of Wrath. She was there when the pirates came. She was there in that mine. She was there in the embassy. We had been through and seen everything together. She would have been the one I called best friend if not for the two years where we had grown estranged. Only part of the reason I wanted Brooke back had to do with being able to trust her in my isolated state. The other reason was that I missed being able to chat and hang out with her, and I hoped to rekindle that friendship.

“Brooke, I’m not letting you go,” I said.

She looked pained for a second, taking a half step toward me, but then her eyes darkened. “I’m not the same woman I was two years ago.”

“I won’t let you go!”

“You don’t have the skill to stop me.” She sighed.

“Clyburn! We’re coming!”

“Don’t run off!”

I instinctively looked back to see Syph and Brianna desperately running to join me. When I looked back, I could see Brooke four houses down. She already jumped off the roof and was climbing down. I could probably continue to chase her down, but there was no saying I could stop her. If I used magic, I’d be just as likely to hurt her as stop her. The broken ground I left behind showed that I didn’t have that level of control on the fly.

That’s when another thought came to me. What if I caught her? She would go to jail. That was the only end if I stopped her. Instead, I waited for the two girls to catch up with me. Syph was holding her back and breathing hard, but Brianna was able to catch her breath quickly.

“Master, did you get a look at who it was?” Brianna asked.

I glanced away from the direction the figure had fled. Brooke was already out of sight.

“No.” I shook my head. ”She managed to get away.”

With me saying nothing else, Brianna turned her attention to Syph, who was getting a few more breaths in.

Once Syph recovered, Brianna gave a loud snort. “You need to get in better shape if you want to keep up with Master! How he jumped up three stories, that was amazing!”

“It’s not about shape! It’s about these things!” Syph gestured to her much larger chest and then looking at Brianna, she smirked. “Not that you’d know about that kind of thing.”

“My breasts are just the right size! Thank you very much! Besides, what do your big cow tits have to do with being a bodyguard! They’re only an obstruction!”

“Breasts have many protective purposes!”

“Like what?”

“Well, naturally, if Master is in danger, then I can hide him protectively between them!”

“That wouldn’t help!”

“Plus, as a bodyguard, it’s my job to jump in front of danger for Master. These large things obscure more of Master, so I could better protect him. Why just look at Dia! If her breasts were as small as yours, those bullets would have all hit Mast- ahhh!”

Dia might be dead, it was a pretty insensitive thing to say. She just realized what she said as she spun to me. Brianna did the same thing. Both girls were looking at me to see my current mood. I was barely paying attention to them though. My thoughts were on Brooke.

“Let’s go back,” I said simply.

I walked past the two girls and started heading for where I had jumped to.

“Dummy!” Brianna hissed at Syph.

“I-I’m sorry…” She looked genuinely remorseful and about to cry.

The memory of Dia being shot only started to return to me on the way back. I hastened my step as anxiety coursed through me. She had taken all of those bullets for me. She might very well be dead. I felt immensely responsible for this mistake of mine. Had I been paying attention, maybe… what? Would I have been able to dodge the bullets? Cast a spell in milliseconds? Take the bullets myself? That was about the only other option.

When I reached the end of the housing units, I found a ladder propped up against the house. That was how Syph and Brianna had gotten up. You couldn’t truly fault them. They truly had been fast in keeping up with me. I grabbed the ladder and climbed down. As I reached the bottom, I noticed Cornelia waiting there with her hands on her hips. I ignored her, walking right by, heading in the direction I had started without a word.

“H-hey!” She chased after me. “Clyburn!”

“What!” I turned and shouted at her, the fury panted on my face causing her to freeze with her mouth open, and even the girls climbing down the ladder to stop in place. “What! What! What do you want to say to me? Do you want to say I fucked up? Don’t you want to say I get people killed? Do you want to say I don’t follow your fucking protocol? That I don’t do what you’d rather have me do? That I’m not your mindless little boy drone who follows you like a momma duck and her little ducklings! Tell me. TELL ME! What do YOU have to say to me?”

I realized I had reached my limit as soon as I finished yelling. My hands were shaking, and I was breathing hard. Cornelia’s mouth closed with an audible click.

“Clyburn. I’ll be fine.”

A call from down the street caused me to turn. I was closer to the dojo than I realized. There was already an ambulance there, as well as cop cars. When I had screamed out, the entire crime scene had frozen, making the place oddly quiet. Every eye was on me. It wasn’t until Dia spoke that people started to move again. She was lying on a stretcher which was being rolled from the dojo into the ambulance.

The paramedics who were taking care of her had frozen just like everyone else when I started yelling. I forgot about Cornelia for the moment and ran over to Dia’s side. Only when I reached her did the paramedics seem to realize they were frozen.

“You’re alive!” I said, nearly crying as I grabbed her hand.

“I was lucky,” Dia responded simply. “I take it you didn’t catch the culprit.”

I refused to look away as I lied. “No, she got away.”

Dia nodded as if this was just a matter of course.

“You saved my life,” I responded.

“I’ll be fine, Clyburn.” She said again. “I have the best Spellmen in the city, and this isn’t the first time my life has been threatened by an assassin. I’ll be out before you can blink.”

I squeezed her hand, my eyes tearing up a bit. “This is my fault. I will get to the bottom of this. I will…”

I stopped, feeling choked up as I spoke.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to take a raincheck on our night together.” She said.

“Anytime…” I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing as I leaned forward and kissed her.

The paramedics gasped and looked on enviously. For a boy to fret over a girl and even kiss her, in this world, that was something you only saw in movies. The one who seemed to react the least was Dia. She put on a very subtle smile.

“It’s strange, seeing a boy fret over me so much. I can’t say the feeling, a warmth inside, is one I dislike. You’re still intriguing to me, Clyburn Bonholdt.”

“Um… mister, we need to-” One of the paramedics reached to touch my arm, but stopped short as if she was afraid to.

I nodded and stepped back, allowing them to finally load Dia into the ambulance. She was alive. Even though it was multiple gunshot wounds, she was conscious and could even smile. This was a world with magic. Even things like cancer was easy to cure. A gunshot wound might as well be a splinter. As long as you survived the initial incident, being cured was just a few spells away. I had no doubt she’d be completely back to normal without even a scare after just a week, just like she said.

At least, I hadn’t caused someone else to die. At least, Brooke wasn’t a murderer. Although, I was pretty sure she had killed people before when necessary.

“Ah… Mr. Clyburn, you’re here.” I glanced to my side to see a familiar face.

It was a young police officer I had seen before. “Ah, hello… um… I don’t think I got your name last time we met.”

“Haaah? It’s Grace. My name is Grace.” She puffed out her cheeks unhappily.

Grace had been the woman in the car with us when I was waiting on the detective. She was a cute girl, and a bit young for a police officer. Her hair was done in a ponytail, which only added to her youthful appearance. She seemed a bit bubbly too, which juxtaposed the violent scene I saw her in.

“Hello, Grace.”

“Grace!” a less welcome voice barked, causing the younger woman to jump. “Get your ass over to that roof and see if you can lift any prints.”

Roxanne, the detective who I least wanted to see, was approaching us at a rapid pace.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Clyburn, I must go!” Grace bowed twice before turning and running past Roxanne and in the direction indicated.

As for the hard-faced yet beautiful woman in the long coat, she walked up to us, she looked me up and down with an expression that was just as displeased to see me.

“Clyburn, what the hell are you doing at another one of my crime scenes?” She asked in a throaty voice.

“Those bullets were meant for me,” I said flatly, answering directly so she wouldn’t pull me in for some annoying questioning.

“That’s a possibility.” She responded.

Seeing her there, a thought suddenly struck my mind. “The shooter… they… weren’t responsible for Rigor, were they?”

She turned to Cornelia without speaking to me. “Annie.”

“Someone fired… it hit Dia. It all happened so fast. It’s hard to say…” Cornelia explained.

“They were meant for me. Someone tried to kill another male. Is this related to the last one?” I demanded, letting the anger from earlier tinge my voice.

Roxanne turned back with a displeased expression on her face. “Other than you, the motif isn’t even remotely similar. A violent attack in an alley at night using a hand tool compared to some shots in the middle of a busy place in broad daylight? I don’t think they’re related.”

I felt my shoulders relaxing a bit. Deep down, there had been a deep fear that it was Brooke who was the one who murdered Rigor. I supposed she did shoot at me, but even now, I couldn’t seem to bring up anger for her. If she had been that person who killed Rigor though, I wasn’t sure if I’d say the same thing.

“Witnesses say you chased after the gunmen. Did you get a glimpse of them?”

“No.” I didn’t even pause.

“Anything that could help identify them.”

I shook my head even more ferociously. “Absolutely not!”

She narrowed her eyes consideringly, but it was impossible to say whether she believed me or not. After a few more tense moments, she let out a sigh and shrugged.

“You can go. I’ll be sending someone to check your place and make sure it is secure.” Roxanne explained. “If you remember anything, it is best to tell her then.”

“Understood,” I responded flatly.

“Go then.” As I turned to walk away, she called out. “Annie!”

I kept my back to them, but I stopped as Annie turned back to speak to Roxanne.

“What?” Cornelia asked.

“Do your best to keep from showing up at any more crime scenes.”

“Ah… yes…” Cornelia responded.

“I mean it, Annie, if it happens again, I’ll be filing a report with the MPA suggesting you’re unfit to keep your charge safely in your care. Understand?”

“Understood.” This time, her tone was exceptionally icey. “And it’s Cornelia, now. Try to remember.”

“Hmph…” Roxanne turned away, dismissing Cornelia as she spoke to some others.

Cornelia shook for a second and then walked right past me. As she walked, she muttered to herself. I was able to pick out most of it.

“That bitch… she’s had it out for me ever since the Academy.”

She continued to mutter until we reached the car. Syph and Brianna were waiting there along with the two other bodyguards. They looked despondent and beaten, and I guessed that they also had experienced a tongue lashing from the other two who were currently acting as their superior. When we got into the car, Cornelia had closed her mouth, but she didn’t speak either. Before we took off, the bodyguards split up. This time, Syph was in the car with me and one of the other girls, while Brianna was with the other guard in the other car. As we drove, the car was very quiet.

“Charlene,” I spoke up suddenly.

Cornelia who seemed lost in thought raised her head. “What?”

“My head of security. Since Brooke isn’t an option, Charlene used to be my bodyguard. I’d trust her as well. You’d like her. She’s very by the book.”

Cornelia didn’t react much. She only nodded slightly.

“I will look into her.”

With that, the car descended into silence again. With Syph beaten down, and Cornelia unhappy, the car ride seemed to take forever. Eventually, we managed to return to the apartment I shared with Cornelia. I had nothing else planned today, so home was as good of a place as any. I didn’t want to visit the mansion today given everything that had happened. I would likely scare my kids with a sour expression on my face. I’d rather them know their father as a happy and easy man.

The bodyguards met outside, and I went indoors and slipped right into my room. I pulled out a book from my bags and started to read it. I had already read this book before, but I wasn’t against rereading it. It was a story about a woman who ended up in a world of all men. It should be obvious why the story resonated with me so well.

An hour later, Cornelia walked in with an apron on and a tray of food. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and now it was nearly dinner time. I ate the food, but for some reason, Cornelia stayed and watched. She seemed to blush whenever I expressed any happiness over the food. However, at the end of the meal, when I push the tray away and lay back down in bed without saying anything to her, she seemed to have a displeased expression on her face.

Another two hours passed, and the sun was set now. I still wasn’t sure when I’d start feeling tired. My dreams had been troublesome of late, and it caused me to start to grow into an insomniac. The door opened quietly this time. I looked up to see Cornelia step in. She was wearing black underwear and a see-through negligee. It revealed just about everything and caused me to raise an eyebrow.

She stood there shyly, her hand grabbing her arm and her head down. There was a deep blush on her cheeks. It was Cornelia at her absolute most alluring. She was wearing makeup. She had her hair up. She had just taken a shower. There was a faint scent of flowers emanating from her body. The look in her eyes held a cross of both reluctance and excitement.

“What are you doing?” I asked flatly.

“Clyburn… don’t make me say it.” She breathed.

“…”

“Since you won’t have Dia tonight, then the first woman you will have is me.” She said and then blushed again.

“Is that in regulation with the MPA?”

“That…” She looked away sheepishly. “The MPA may frown on this kind of thing, but they don’t forbid it. After all, there may be reasons for an agent to form a sexual relationship with their charge.”

“I bet…”

“Clyburn…” she walked over to the edge of the bed, sitting down next to my leg.

Her hand reached out hesitantly, and then she touched my leg gently. Her hand slowly moved down my leg.

“Why?” I asked.

She looked away sheepishly. “Clyburn, ever since I’ve seen you, I have found myself strangely attracted to you.”

“…”

“You’re interesting, funny, and unique. You’re not like any man I’ve ever met.”

“I’m not?”

She shook her head. “I thought I had known men from my previous duties, but you… you’ve shown me what a true man can be.”

“Really…”

She blushed. “Ah… I’m being so shameless… Clyburn… please… I recognize you as a man. Please… show me what it means to be a woman?”

She looked at me with big eyes filled with moisture. Pure love and affection were built inside them. It was enough to make any man’s heartbeat frantically over her look. She started to lean toward me.

“Cornelia…”

“Oh… Clyburn…” She breathed out, her lips just a few inches from mine as she closed her eyes and leaned in.

I sighed. “Can we cut the bullshit now? I’m not in the mood.”

She blinked, a look of surprise on her face. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“I’m just not in the mood for your fake waifu bullshit right now. I’ve been letting you play your game the last few days, but it’s growing pathetic now.” I said bitterly.

In the past, I had overlooked her actions, but today was not the day. I had considered letting her carry this on for a while, but after everything, I just couldn’t stomach it anymore.

“F-fake! I’m not… what’s a waifu?”

I leaned back. “Ahhh… I guess you wouldn’t know what that is. No men, no male culture, right? Then, that makes sense. I always laughed about how unprepared women were for dealing with a man in this world. It was easy to manipulate them and make them fall in love, right? I suppose I never considered the opposite must be true too. It’s really easy for a woman to seduce a man too.”

“C-Clyburn… you’re confusing me…” She looked away awkwardly. “I have deep emotional feelings for you. I want to give myself to you.”

“And just how many of your previous charges did you give yourself to?” I asked with a vicious grin.

The look on her face finally slipped, turning into the cold expression she wore when we first met. No, even then she tried to look like there was a glimmer of light and passion in her eyes. These eyes were more like that of a dead-fish, completely devoid of joy. It was enough to cause even me to recoil.

“Where did I go wrong?” She asked, pulling away.

“Yesterday, you were already laying it on thick,” I explained. “But two days is far too unreasonable to fall in love.”

“After what you experienced these last two days, you should be in a compromised emotional state. You should have easily accepted me in your bed to comfort you. I considered this carefully before making my move.” She said, her voice sounding icy and passionless.

“Even if you took a month to reach this point, it wouldn’t have worked on me.” I shrugged. “But, at least I can now understand why you have such a success rate. You convince those men you fall in love with them. You convince them to fall in love with you. I suppose a lot can be accomplished just be stroking someone’s ego enough.”

“All of my research suggested that you bed women quickly, and grow attached easily. This should have worked.” She seemed a bit irritated at her failure more than me.

Her plan might have worked. The problem was that the person she faced was me. I had the memories of another world. I knew what it was like to be manipulated and pandered to by a woman. Too many times, I had flirted all night with a bar skank only to realize they were a prostitute who wanted to charge me double, or dealt with a girl just looking for free drinks. Furthermore, there were the media that I had consumed. Media had conditioned me to all of her tricks, to the point where in my world they were considered clichés. Cornelia had been acting like such a textbook infatuated girl that at first. I had thought it was a joke.

It was only after observing her for a bit that I started to realize the truth. This world had no concept of seducing men. They didn’t have wish-fulfillment fantasies where men expressed what they wanted from women. Most women advanced on men with inexperience, desperation, or longing. Cornelia was different though. She had figured it out on her own. She had broken the guy code.

So, she created a fantasy. She’d play the agent that slowly became infatuated with her charge, who was more incredible and more special than any other man. The irony was that just by being a man, these men already were special. I supposed she had to lay it on thick because she had to make him feel even more special than other men. Men were used to flattery, but those women always wanted one clear thing from them, their seed. Cornelia gave them something else.

She made the men fall in love with her, and then she used their hearts to get what she wanted. First, she’d ask for simple favors, and then steadily, she’d encourage them to be with other women until they became the perfect man in this new system. That was how she had succeeded so completely. How many men had she reformed? Five? Six men? That was six people she had successfully seduced and then whipped.

However, for a man who came from another world, her techniques were transparent and laughable. Girls in this world might find her techniques profound, whether it was her home wife act in the kitchen or her embarrassed bathroom trick. For me, they felt like clichés and pandering.

“I will begin my transfer tomorrow.” She said.

I blinked in surprise. “What?”

“Since my method seems to have been seen through, there is no point in continuing. You will be given a new agent.”

“And you’ll be on to the next guy?’

She looked at me, and for the first time, I saw her. Her eyes were on me, but it felt like she didn’t even see me as a guy. I was just a thing that happened to be in the same room as her. It wasn’t just that she didn’t have any affection for me. I realized that she didn’t have any affection for anything. Just… what had happened to her to make her this way?

“Stay…” I said

“It is a waste of MPA time. My technique has always worked in the past, although I was warned it may fail with you. I suppose I overestimated my abilities.”

“Or underestimated my own.”

She shot me a look that seemed to suggest she didn’t think that. Even after I blew her ruse, she was still looking down on me.

I sighed. “Look, I promised you four women, right? I still have four women. Until I’ve squared away that debt, how about you hold off leaving.”

She gave me a flat look, to the point that I didn’t know what she’d say until she said it. “Very well. You will have a woman every night from now on. Four days. In four days, I will leave.”

I scratched my chin. Maybe, in four days, she wouldn’t want to leave. Now that I saw the true Cornelia, for the first time since I met her, I was just a bit interested.