DD 204 Ch 4

Chapter 4

King Albar stared up at us as we walked into his office. Two pretty women lounged behind him as if begging for his attention that he took power in not giving them.

"You are aware that I have more important work to be done. I cannot clear my schedule every time you wish to barge in, Crimson," he spoke as if she were insufferable. Part of it made me want to punch him in the face. Perhaps when we were done with our encounter, I would do just that or far worse. 

"Sorry, you're dealing with me today," I said, stepping up. "Your late son had a substantial bet with me, notarized, and I have my victory notarized as well." I began to pull the evidence up on my CID, only for King Albar to wave his hand dismissively. 

"And that's important to me. Why?" He asked.

"He used SJS Financial to back the bet, and it was a substantial sum," I continued. "Besides, your son's dead. To be frank, I killed him." I smiled at the older man, only to watch his composure break.

This was never going to work being honest with him. The way the prince acted told me all I needed to know about how his father would view the rules.

He snapped his fingers at all of his men in the room, standing up straight.

The two women that had been seated behind him also stood up. Despite them lounging around in rather scandalous attire, both of them were just as strong as the other bodyguards. 

"I think you're mistaken that you can barge in here at all, and further mistaken that you can make demands of me. Seize his CID," he gestured for the two women behind him. 

I pulled my sunglasses down my noise a smidge so that I could look over them. "Are you sure you want to do that?" I hit both of the women with a greater charm.

They froze up, pausing momentarily, their eyes unfocusing as they seemed to be struggling to move.

If I had to guess, they were likely in the upper forties or possibly lower fifties in terms of level. They were higher level than me, but it wasn't an insurmountable gap. I watched as they both struggled, but then their eyes glowed faintly, hearts growing in their pupils, and they stopped struggling. Now they were underneath my power.

Satisfied, I slid my sunglasses back up. 

"Do me a favor and smash his head into the table." I instructed, doing my best to stay serious and not smile at the situation.

The woman closest to King Albar grabbed him by the back of his head, before smashing it so hard into the table that the thick wood cracked. The rest of the guards shouted in surprise. 

But Crimson stood facing the other guards, her whip now out as she played with it in her hands. "I think you should all stay right there. After all, King Albar is decently high level and he has two guards with him. We haven't lifted a hand." Crimson could barely keep the laughter out of her tone. 

"Yeah, I haven't done anything," I said. "I think these two ladies have just seen a reason to be angry." 

King Albar growled something as his face was still being held against the table.

"Sorry. I couldn't hear you." I stepped up and tilted my ear closer. "What was that again?" 

"I will kill you for this." The man slurred around the wood pressed against his face.

"Oh, I'm sure you very much want to, but I think I'm outside of your striking range. Let him up," I gestured for the two women who were now under the effect of my charm. 

King Albar snapped forward with considerable speed and strength. Somebody had helped power level him up to the upper 40s.

I smacked his hand away effortlessly, striking him in the throat and sweeping his legs out from under him. "I’ll give you a minute to warm up. You seem pretty rusty," I chuckled at how weak he was comparatively.

Of course, he had the levels and some of the stats, but quite frankly, he had none of the real combat experience to give any of it an edge. He was now grasping his throat, wheezing on the ground. I used my foot to roll him over. 

"Ladies, I'm currently owed 20 billion Ren," I said the number slowly, a grin spreading across my face. "It seems your employer is having some trouble accessing his systems. Would you be willing to help me?" I smiled, pushing on greater charm. 

Both of them beamed at me like two love-struck fools. "20 billion," one turned to the other. "To move that much might be difficult." 

"Oh, I'm sure SJS can manage. They move great sums all the time." I offered.

The two giggled and pulled up his laptop, eager to impress me. Greater Charm was terrifying indeed.

"We're going to need a facial scan from him," one said as the other began typing. 

"I'm sure we can manage that." Grabbing the King by his collar, I held him up, noting he was missing a few teeth and blood dribbled out the edge of his mouth. Much of the fight had left him.

"You can't steal that much money," he said through his broken teeth. 

"I'm not stealing," I shot a quick glance at Felin, telling her with my eyes this was not the time to speak up and claim to be robbing them. "We're simply ensuring that we get our due. Consider it more like repo men, just a higher level and a lot more money." I chuckled to myself, enjoying my jokes as I held him in front of the computer.

The two charmed guards tilted the laptop screen until it aligned with his face and the next page unlocked. Then they began typing again. 

"Why don't you add another 10 billion as... we'll call it an apology," I said after a moment of thoughtfulness.

King Albar choked on those words. "I order you all to stop," he slurred through his shattered teeth. But they didn't look at him for confirmation, instead glancing at me. 

"Oh no, please continue," I waved my hand and they went right back to work. 

King Albar looked absolutely miserable as his money was quickly siphoned from various accounts. His fingerprints and facial scan were used, and the two guards clearly knew all of his passwords, and those that they didn't know were being authenticated after they unlocked his phone. 

"Really now, you should have had more security in this," I chided him, causing him to glare angrily at me in turn. 

"Laugh while you can," he mustered up enough courage to threaten me. 

I leaned down on his face and gave a quick hearty chuckle. "I can. Because the truth is, Mr. Albar, I hope you find that address acceptable. You're completely toothless in front of me. There is literally nothing you can do to stop me. Sure, you could be like your son and send more assassins, but I don't think you realize that while being stuck in the dungeon, I have gained significant levels. Enough levels, that once again, you simply are no longer a concern. I charmed your guards, not because I fear them, but because I didn't want to have to bloody this whole office. My fight is solely with you," I said, patting him on the cheek before glancing at the two charmed ladies. "Are you done yet?"

"Almost finished, Master." They both bowed before resuming work at a steady clip. I twiddled my thumbs, watching as numbers spun on his screen. 

"So, Grandpa, what are we going to do with 30 billion rin?" I asked, checking to make sure everything was in transfer.

Grandpa adjusted his sunglasses. "There are many things we can do, especially once the elves are reconnected. We could take up so many trade opportunities, not to mention we could expand the Silverfang compound and attract lots of talent from all over the world. Heck, I have half a heart to recruit those two ladies," he pointed at the charmed guards. 

King Albar laughed. “They're dead as soon as this is over.”

 “You’ll have your own problems as a member of this company when they realize 30 billion is missing. Especially if you try to sue me for it, because then I just have to take the defensive position, you know, delay, show the evidence that I have. I'm sure we can tie it up in court for decades. All the while, you'll never see the billions. You see, that's the whole point. That's why we're coming here and we're taking it first and playing the legal route later." Sometimes you couldn’t play by the rules and win, so you had to set the board first.

"Done." One of the charmed guards bounced on the balls of her feet while showing me the laptop and moving through the tabs, mentioning where all of the money was coming from.

The blood continued to drain from Mr. Albar's face as he watched with horror as personal and company accounts were used. 

"Wonderful," I clapped my hands together. "Keep King Albar's head on the table." I took a step back. "The two of you, would you happen to have any grievances against the King? I'm sure two lovely ladies like you must have something." 

As I asked them that. I never took my eyes off Mr. Albar, which was good, because he pulled himself off the table with more speed and strength than he had shown since I knocked his teeth out.

A dagger appeared in his hand, going right for my throat.

I put as much astonishment on my face as my own short sword came out, swinging to block while using dark strike.

His angle was poor and easily deflected my strength carrying my sword through the attack and into his neck.

As his head rolled on the floor, I stepped back, my eyes wide, doing my best impersonation of being shocked. 

"I was just defending myself," I said, before glancing at the rest of King Albar's guards, "right?" I could see several of them swallow before glancing at Crimson and intelligently nodding along. "Great. And if you would, get the video of his office?" I gave my sweetest smile.

"There is none," one of the guards replied. "He would never record the conversations in here." 

I glanced at the two charmed ladies, one of them moving over to the bookshelf before pulling apart several books to reveal a hidden camera. "He kept this for blackmail." One of them handed it to me and it disappeared inside my CID. 

"It's a standalone device. He doesn't want it on the network," one of them said, "but I guarantee it was recording. He turned it on before you came in." 

I smiled. "Wonderful." I was completely prepared to defend myself if need be.

The Albars couldn’t be left at my back, not after their repeated attempts at me and those close to me.

"Now, are you going to stand in our way or would you please call the authorities and politely explain that King Albar grew irate over the perfectly legal situation and overreacted?" I dusted my hands off and motioned for my group to follow. As we walked straight towards the elevator, I twirled the badge, taking it with me to ensure that I could get out of the building without trouble.

"How'd that feel?" Crimson asked as soon as the doors slid closed. 

I glanced at her. "Actually, better than I expected. I know they say that crime doesn't pay. And of course this was not a crime. But being a little forceful in this situation, really did make the whole situation far easier." I spoke as if we were talking about the weather.

Elysara glanced at the two charmed guards still following me like lovestruck puppies. "And what are we doing with them?" 

I shrugged. "They might make good workers. I'm not sure how long this ability will last on them." I said, turning to both of them, "Would you both be willing to submit your accounts to the police officers as they arrive and then lead them up the elevators? Once you're done with that, you're welcome to join the Silver Fangs or frankly the Nagato Clan. I doubt you'll be welcome here. Sorry about that."

"We'll follow you anywhere," they replied dreamily. Serious conversations would have to wait until they were out of the charm. 

Felin walked up between me and them, waving a hand in front of their faces. They only shifted their heads so they could keep their gazes on me longer. 

"It's kind of creepy," Felin wrinkled her cute nose.

"Kind of hot," Crimson disagreed, rubbing her thighs together. 

"Of course you would think so. Sadly, the ability won't do anything to you, Crimson. I think you're already just as bad as them." I laughed, and so did everyone else in the elevator.

The tension from the situation eased off my shoulders, but surprisingly, more than anything, I felt unburdened after dealing with the Albars. 

Sure, this will probably cause a little trouble, but being defensive while we held the money was going to be a far easier situation than trying to pry it out of their hands. It was something a few hired lawyers could manage rather than taking my personal attention.

The elevator dinged at the bottom, and we walked out, sunglasses back on.

Before we stopped in the lobby, I gestured for the two charmed guards to wait and not follow any further. "Here is my number. I'll happily give you a portal when you call." 

I waved my hand, and turned back to Crimson. "Can you bring us to the estate? I assume no one's going to be left at Haylon." 

Crimson opened a portal, and before we left, I smacked the broken gong for good luck, leaving the two lovestruck guards behind.

As soon as we stepped out of the portal and into the Nagato estate, Grandpa summoned money from his CID and started fanning it out while simultaneously throwing it all over the place. 

"We're rich!" He screamed and rolled in the pile of money. 

"Weren't you already wealthy?" I scowled at him.

He popped back to his feet, dusting off a few bills that were sticking to him. "We were wealthy, and we had plenty, but now we're loaded as fuck. I could build a whole library."

Several of the people in the group were nodding along with his words, however, they did not know him well enough to realize smutty magazines were far more likely to fill that library than any academic books.

I could only slap my face and drag my hand down. "Alright, Grandpa. I think it's time we reconnect with the rest of our group." I shooed him away.

He was completely lost in his sudden delusions of extreme wealth. 

I snatched up Elysara's hand. "Let's go see if we can't find Neldra.” I assumed that Neldra would still be with Grandma Yui. Hopefully, she was not under shackles and being experimented on. Yui was precarious. In public she typically made sure she resembled gentle healers. Most were a softer persona.

However, in private, Grandma Yui was nothing other than a sadist. I had shivers when I remembered her training. 

Walking with everyone to the central area of the Nagato Estate, Neldra was already outside, swinging her sword in fluid motions before blurring across the yard to strike an invisible enemy. The older elf had her gleaming Censor breast plate on and her silver hair pulled pack in a tight ponytail. She was completely focused on her motions, indulging in being able to move again.

Each movement stirred the winter frost on the grass, making the ground at her feet glitter. It was like it should be a painting.

"Ah, Broken Blade. I see you've got one that's still put together," Crimson shook her head as she pulled out a bag of chips and started munching on them loudly. 

Neldra's eyes narrowed at the bag, but said nothing as she hid her sword into her CID. "I'm not inside a house. I can have my weapon out." She said defensively.

"Yeah, those are the rules. Just no weapons in the house," Crimson nodded along. "You're fine. Seems you have some energy back." 

“Thank you Ken.” Neldra nodded and bowed to me.

“What about me pulling your ass out of the dungeon?” Crimson huffed, before stuffing more chips in her face, chewing them angrily.

Neldra tilted her head like she was confused. "Ken's really the one in charge now, isn't he? And so it's only deserving that he gets my praise." 

Crimson rolled her eyes and began to crunch loudly on her chips again. "Whatever, Broken Blade. We need to get ready for when everyone shows up."

"When they show up?" I asked, glancing at Crimson, "who are you talking about?

 She snacked on a few chips, swallowing before speaking. "You do realize that news about Star City is about to spread. The UG is about to go absolutely mad learning about it. And then, every high-level guild is about to swarm the Nagato clan." She munched another chip as if it was just another day, and not a big deal. It made absolute perfect sense, but I hadn't thought that far ahead.

"Well, shit," I said, glancing back at Felin and Elysara. "We should probably get ready for that."

Crimson nodded and pointed at my CID. I must have had it on silent because messages were flashing across the screen from Des, Charlotte, Penny, and many others in rapid succession.

I quickly brought up a larger screen from the device and began typing replies.

Most of them contained the same questions. They were asking either where I was, what I was doing next, or more information about Star City. Some of the people more distant from me also included questions about Crimson’s location. However, anyone from Haylon didn't ask that question, knowing she was likely by my side.

I quickly began to invite everyone to the Nagato clan. It would be easier to answer all their questions at once, and besides, I wanted to rejoin my party, and furthermore, those of my class, so that they could venture back to Star City and deeper into the dungeon with me.