– PoV: Quinlan –
As the evident ringleader, Lucille spoke up for each of them. “Quinlan Noir, we want you to subjugate us.”
I had to double-take the words my brain had just deciphered.
“It was a long time coming.” Ayame murmured with a smile. Evidently, she wasn’t shocked.
“Yeah, being his slave is just too beneficial.” Seraphiel nodded.
“May I know your reasoning?” I asked, curious to see what brought this on.
It was Aurora who replied instantly with a rare instance of jealous fury enveloping her features as she yelled, “I hate it! I hate being left out of the conversations you have with the others through your telepathic ability.”
Lucille chuckled at the animatedness of the plump beauty before she also offered her input. “Yes, throughout the Phenom Trials, it had become very clear for the two of us that we would quickly become liabilities if we can’t hear what you are strategizing about. We often found ourselves surprised by your actions, only to see Ayame, Blossom, and Seraphiel move along with you in perfect understanding. We can no longer in good heart continue as we are.
Furthermore, your new Subjugator class’ spells, namely [Overlord’s Eyes] and especially [Overlord’s Magnanimity] which would let you help us out from a distance are too good to give up on. Who knows when we will separate from you, and the added buffs you can bestow on your slaves are just too good.
I was a bit worried about becoming your slave mostly because of the heavy drawbacks that come with wearing the collar since it getting torn off would instantly see me get paralyzed, and as a Berserker that was a big no go from me, but now even that con had been eliminated, giving me exactly zero reasons not to be subjugated by you.”
“We agree! I don’t know about the other spells, but we want to be able to converse with Lord Quinlan!” Anna chirped in enthusiastically, followed by Beatrice’s fervent nodding.
“I see…” I was lost for words. They lined up in front of me to become my slaves? What a strange dream I find myself to be in the middle of…
I examined their eyes, searching for even a minute amount of something else being at play here – be that them pranking me, or at least being a bit uncertain about their decision… but there was no such thing in their gazes.
“Just to make sure, is this truly what you want?”
“”””Yes!”””” Four feminine voices decreed their consent to be subjugated in a chorus.
It had been a couple of days since I subjugated Lyra, Abudha, Selene, and Cedric, so my [Subjugation] spell had just come off cooldown, allowing me to go along with their plan.
“[Warp Gate]” I intoned and my teleportation spell materialized in front of us. “Cedric, step through. Your first mission is to go home to your mother who should have access to the drug department at least to a degree due to her high position in the Divine Nectar faction. You will have to collect information about Black Fang, her three disciples, and the drug department in general. However, before you do any of that, I want you to ask her about the Consortium’s stance on the Wraithclaws, this baron family that is in bed with them, and how much of a dealbreaker it would be if both the small-time gang and baron family were to… let’s just say, stop buying drugs from the Consortium.”
“Master Primordial, I can do that, but what about Selene? They will ask me about my fiance’s whereabouts if I show up alone.”
Stay connected through empire
Yeah. Our sudden disappearance from the Phantom League battle is an issue we need to solve. I believe that the best lies are the simplest ones. If we hatch up some elaborate tale, it will be very easy to dissect it for the ancient people in charge of the syndicate. “Just tell them that something knocked you out, and before you knew it, you awoke near Braedon.”
It was a flimsy explanation, yes, but what could I possibly come up with that would explain our disappearance better than ‘something supernatural happened, I don’t know’? The reason I was sending Cedric back to the Consortium ahead of me or my ally, Ambition, was to see how they would react.
If the Consortium was adamant about getting to the bottom of things, such as trying to force the information out of Cedric either by torture or by lie-detecting artifacts, I could just order his complete silence or even suicide. I would then know that my time with the Consortium was over and that it was time to look for new opportunities elsewhere.
Once the black-haired swordsman left, I closed the portal and glanced back at the four slave wannabes.
I glanced at their determined gazes one last time before speaking up, “I, The Primordial Subjugator, offer you a place among my subjugated people. Do you accept?” With that, I sent them the contract. It was a lot more favorable than what Cedric and the rest got. If I suddenly turned into an emotionless tyrant and tried to sell them off or something horrible like that, they would be freed from the contract.
[Level 14 Lucille had been subjugated!]
[Remaining subjugation capacity until cooldown: 97/100]
[Level 15 Aurora Lunaris had been subjugated!]
[Remaining subjugation capacity until cooldown: 94/100]
[Level 1 Anna had been subjugated!]
[Remaining subjugation capacity until cooldown: 94/100]
[Level 1 Beatrice had been subjugated!]
[Remaining subjugation capacity until cooldown: 93/100]
I nearly gasped from the shock that hit me. I had 93 capacity left after subjugating four people? Sure, two of them were level one, but Aurora and Lucille were quite strong. Selene took over 25, while the rest were a bit less costly due to their lower levels but over 20 capacity was spent on them even then, thus the theory that subjugating a person costs about their level was officially thrown into the rubbish bin.
Instead, my new theory was that if the person is about as strong as me they will cost ~25 points if I subjugate them against their will, but if they consent, it will be a fraction of that. The outlier here would be Abudha, who agreed to become my slave. However, his case was different as he was held at bladepoint. He either agreed or died. These four on the other hand came to me and wanted to be enslaved.
I couldn’t help but rejoice. “Ayame, Blossom, Seraphiel. I think it’s time you to shed your collars as well.” I said while turning around in my ‘throne’, also known as a comfy sofa, to check their visages.