"Hmmm"
"You bastard! you did what?!"
The right-hand Ret Raf screamed at his subordinate, while his boss remained comfortable in his sofa, eating grapes women brought him to his mouth, watching everything go down.
"Are you telling me 'Gaia'. The! Gaia! came here?!"
"Well, yes..."
"What the hell are you here for then?! Get out and buy us time to escape!"
Having Gaia hot on your tail was practically a death sentence, they wouldn't be able to escape. Under normal circumstances.
'Right now, we are in imperial soil, they must have detected the Archmage's immense mana, especially just a few minutes before when that pressure was released'
They still had a shot at survival, as long as they make Gaia who for some reason was after them fight the elite warriors of the Empire, they'd be able to escape using the secret path only the leader knew about.
"Well, what are you waiting for?! go fight and buy time! you need me to repeat it again!"
The old man walked off and commanded the rest to barricade themselves and to cast barriers of the highest level to at the very least buy enough time.
Though, it proved to be futile.
Since, the Archmage.
"Oh, that is quite delicious"
Was eating their food supplies without a care in the world.
"Move! Move! Move! We can't let Gaia in no matter what happens!"
Quite the busy bunch.
I walked towards another crate where someone sharpened their knives.
"Hey, what are they so on edge about?"
"Huh? Who hell are you? A new recruit?!"
Screaming for no reason, don't they have manners? Well they look like thugs, so maybe no?
"I-AM-ASKING-WHAT-THEY-ARE—"
"I heard you the first time damn it!"
The thug clicked their tongue and spoke to me more formally than expected.
"They are preparing to defend against a raid"
"...?"
A raid? Who would do something as reckless as that?
"Against whom?"
Personally, I'd blow it all up, if there was a hostage....sir or ma'm, rest in peace in the afterlife, your sacrifice was well worth it.
"Against an Archmage and potentially an elite team of mages, sword mages, Holy priests from the Goddess of Virtue and Holy knights from Catholic Academy 'Vera'"
Oh? that is quite the roster for an organisation like this one here, wonder who the Archmage is out of everyone else here.
"Okay? does that answer your moronic questions?"
"Yes, yes. It very well did answer them"
Now where are the good stuff? Perhaps he knows.
"Say, where is the stuff the leader gatekeeps to himself?"
"Tch, what the hell kind of stuff are you on about? Be a little more specific will ya"
I sighed slightly, before speaking again, my patience ran a little thin.
"Tell me where the 'vault' is"
"Ah"
The man snickered and a wide grin etched on his face.
"I see, you wanna double cross us now that we are doomed, right?"
He chuckled more and more, before tossing a document to me.
"Here, it has a map of the most important stuff, and don't tell anyone else this, but that document also has a secret emergency escape path drawn"
Ohh, quite the generosity he is showing.
"Why give me this though?"
The man hopped from his crate he sat upon and tapped my shoulder.
"Maybe because I want to help out a newbie, get me?"
"No"
His face twitched slightly, it wasn't a comment he liked very much.
"Just go, at least I get to do something not associated to this pathetic organisation"
"Ahah, I see"
Folding the document, I put into my suit that looked more like rags than anything else.
"Good luck"
I waved of the man and started following the map.
"Ah, it was still in the document..."
I fumbled and took the document out again, taking out the map which was surprisingly well sketched and began following it.
My boots rocked against the hard stone, the flickering lights illuminated my surroundings occasionally.
Rattle
A faint rattling occurred behind me, but I ignored it and walked straight ahead.
"Let's see"
I eventually stopped at a forked path.
"The middle one is the entertainment district, the right one is a 'masochist only duel'"
Whatever that meant.
"The one on the left is where all the illegal experiments occur"
All in all, pretty average evil crap.
"Could have made it harder by like making it more complicated"
I spoke the obvious, before trudging forward.
Towards the entertainment district.
*
*
*
Should I...feel happy?
"Hello there, you look like quite the strong, and burly young man with lots, lots of energy"
A woman appeared out of nowhere and started forcing herself onto me....even trying to give me a drink that was obviously spiked.
'Should I slap her? you know, this isn't something a woman should be doing, like is it that hard to get a life?'
"Move"
"A-Hah?"
She widened her eyes. Almost surprised I would turn her down.
'Pretty sure she is cursed'
I clutched my head at the wild fantasies sparking the moment I laid eyes on her.
The client did say that they all the woman here were cursed with the blood of a demon.
'It's like all I can think about is her'
The reason for why I was here started to fade the more my eyes were exposed to her figure.
Drip
A drop of blood fell down to the ground, my eyes bled the more I resisted the cardinal desire that settled in me.
"..!"
"Oh, you shouldn't resist my charm that much you know? The ones who did"
She glanced at her right, where all the kidnapped men had their sanity shattered from trying to resist their lustful desires.
"Didn't end up well"
She kept forcing herself onto me, hugging me at the waist, her black hair kept itching my lust the more it rubbed itself on my chest, even though the fabric didn't allow for physical touch. It was still stimulating.
'This, I realise why the client was hesitant about talking about this place'
I wondered how he remained sane without any artifacts mentally protecting him.
'Would be quite troublesome to deal with'
While I prepared my hand to shove her away. I, couldn't bring myself to do so.
I felt guilty for just thinking of pushing such a beautiful and seducing woman away.
Her cold-obsidian eyes kept whispering desires into me, the more I stared, the more I felt myself slipping away.
I wanted to look away, yet no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't look away from her.
It felt like she was everything I needed to see in this world. Nothing else.
Her bandaged hand moved and caressed my cheek.
Ba-Thump!
The mere physical touch made my heart race faster.
My eyes cried blood, and she caressed my bleeding eyes too.
She closed in, mouth right next to my face.
"look"
She said, in a soft, innocent voice.
"see how much you are suffering by keeping those feelings and desires of lust bottled up?"
Her breaths kept nibbling at my sanity.
"you don't have to do that, do you? just let yourself go and swim in its rightful desire it should have been satiated long ago"
All sound disappeared when she spoke, it felt like my ears and brain were telling me that her voice should be the only thing I should be allowed to listen to, I mean. What else could I need aside from this? Was this not Paradise!
My gloved hand raised itself, to touch the most beautiful figure my eyes laid upon.
She caressed my arm with her fingers, as if finally seeing me break under the sight of her.
She smirked innocently and brought her face to my palm.
BA-THUMP!
My heart raced till each beat it made hurt me.
I felt like I was going crazy by the second that passed, finally as if seeing my pained expression, she whispered quietly.
"What. Do. You. Want. To. Do. With. Me, mister?"
As if finally allowing my voice to be set free, she allowed for my speech to screech against her angelic voice.
"Well, it's really simple actually"
"Oh? go on, I am listening to what you want to do to me"
I smiled, closing in on her face, the movement strangely made my heart skip a beat or two.
"For you to sleep peacefully in a carriage I prepared right outside"
"....?"
Puk!
"....!"
Her eyes widened, at the small syringe I suddenly stabbed her with in her thigh.
Then, her pupils rolled back, her body spasmed at the foreign substance injected into her, before finally tumbling down.
Grab
I grabbed her by the waist before she could fall down and hit her head to the hard floor.
Wiping my eyes with a handkerchief, I wiped my blood stained face and put it back in my bosom, along with the document.
Then, I took out a picture that sat inside my suit.
"Miss...Asfip was it?"
I look back at the young woman.
"A knight in shining armor couldn't come due to the tight schedule.
Putting a plastic bag over her face, I shoved the picture back in its place.
"So you got a Mercenary Mage"