Free Web NovelChapter 21: Siren Stronghold [ 17 ]
Sera closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, the exhaustion was still there, but something else had taken the front seat. The same cold precision he’d seen when she dissected his identity back at the infirmary.
"There are five Grand Elders. They govern Lumen. Military decisions go through me, but political decisions go through them. They’ve wanted me removed since I took the position."
"Because you’re not from a noble family?"
She raised a brow. "You’ve been paying attention."
"Mm... I heard it from one of your co-workers, I guess. The customers gossip a lot too." Nacho shrugged. "It’s not hard to piece together when half the city worships you and the other half wants you gone."
Sera’s lips twitched. "The meeting’s purpose is to review the failed mission. On paper, it’s standard procedure. In practice, they’ll use the casualties to argue I’m unfit for command."
"And if they strip your rank?"
"Then whoever replaces me will be one of their puppets. Someone who won’t push back on the Empire’s demands. Someone who won’t question why our trade routes are being strangled, or why the Berserker Tide operates freely in waters we used to control."
Nacho drummed his fingers on the table. "So where do I fit in, in all of this?"
"You’re my leverage." She said it without hesitation. "You’re an unknown entity with abilities they can’t categorize. I vaguely told them I have an asset that can infiltrate the Mortal World. That’s the only reason they agreed to this meeting, rather than coming to a decision of their own accord."
"So if you get removed, they’d just look around for me until they find me. Hmm..."
"They’ll try, and if they do find you, a Soul Contract would bind your abilities to whoever holds the contract. You’d be conscious, aware, and completely unable to refuse any order."
[System Alert: Soul Contract detected as a known binding mechanism. Warning: Soul Contracts override free will at the deepest level. No known Talent in your current roster can break one once signed.]
Nacho stared at the notification for a long moment.
Well that’s terrifying.
"How do they get someone to sign one?" he asked.
"They don’t need your signature. They need three of five Elders to approve the binding, and a physical anchor point. Usually a drop of blood or a piece of the target’s body."
"So they could just prick me during the meeting and I’m done? What a shitty contract."
"In theory. In practice, they need me out of the room first. A Grand General’s authority supersedes the Council on military matters." Sera hummed. "If I classify you as a military asset, they can’t touch you without my approval."
"And if you’re not Grand General anymore, that protection disappears."
"Now you understand why I’m here."
Nacho understood perfectly. He’d been on the wrong side of power structures before. Different world, same mechanics. The people at the top didn’t need to be stronger than you. They just needed the right leverage.
"Okay. So the plan is, you walk in looking like you didn’t just get mauled by a kraken, I show up as your military asset, and we convince five old people not to enslave me just so we could get goodies out of them?" Nacho felt like stepping into the light.
"Four. One of them is on my side. Elder Maren. She’s the youngest of the five and the only one who isn’t bought by the Empire." ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
"That’s still three against two."
"Which is why presentation matters. If I walk in at full strength with a weapon they can’t understand, they hesitate. Hesitation is all I need to control the conversation."
Nacho looked at her. The gash was still oozing slightly. Her shoulder was functional but stiff. The bruise on her jaw made the whole left side of her face look like a storm cloud.
I guess I can kind of see where she’s coming from, but this isn’t really awe inspiring... Can she really recover that quickly?
"You know, I could give you a massage, free of charge," he offered.
She narrowed her eyes. "With that tentacle of yours? I’m afraid I’ll have to pass."
"You know about the tentacle...?"
"You shouldn’t take me for a fool. You caught me with that thing when I entered this place. It tells me a little more about the kind of being you are. Regardless, we’ve talked plenty. Can I use this room tonight?"
Nacho stared at her for a moment, then sighed again.
"Fine... Do whatever you want."
He approached the door, opened it, then pointed inside.
"I’ll wake you up in the morning. Go relax now."
As for me, I’m going to be practicing the whole night most likely... The last thing I want is to die because of that meeting.
After all, the only thing he really wanted was to just extort something valuable from these people and go to the Mortal World where he could get even stronger.
On cue, Sera limped past him and slammed the door shut.
He stared at the door, then shook his head, deciding to save his frustration for the morning.
***
(Morning...)
Nacho stood on the roof of the Old Willow Inn, watching the first hints of light bleed through the water above Lumen. The city was still asleep, but his mind had been running laps all night.
He’d spent the dark hours testing his Talents in combinations he hadn’t tried before. Storm Manipulation at 2% power cost him barely 200 MP and produced a spark strong enough to light a candle. Combat Precognition let him predict where a thrown pebble would land before it left his hand. Useless party tricks, maybe, but the control was what mattered.
If things go sideways in that meeting, I need options that won’t drain me dry in one shot. No pun intended. Hehe.
The door to the massage room creaked open below him. His Apex Senses picked up Sera’s footsteps, steadier than last night but still favoring her left side. He dropped down through the window and landed in the main hall just as she emerged.
She looked better. Not good, but better. The bruise on her jaw had faded from purple-black to an angry yellow. The gash under her ribs had closed entirely, leaving only a thin pink line that would probably scar. Her shoulder moved without the grinding wrongness from before.
"You heal fast," he said.
"I had motivation a fair deal of motivation." She rolled her neck. "How do I look?"
