Chapter 2457: Honest And Hardworking Mules
Date: Unspecified
Time: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Way Beyond, SSS-rank Titan Forest Field Dungeon.
"Quite," I willed aloud, turning the misfits dumb.
Unable to speak, their eyes almost popped out of their sockets in horror. Finally, they stopped arguing among themselves and gave me their undivided attention. However, I couldn’t help wondering if these fools forgot that they could communicate mentally or through soul whispers. Soul Whisper wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but as demigods, communicating mentally should come naturally to them.
’Young man, if you want to kill us, then get to it. Stop playing with us!’ Kiren mentally complained to me.
’Ah, I almost began to think that you guys couldn’t communicate mentally,’
I remarked, eyeing Kiren.’No, stop. You will wake up others in Cam’s mind. Just speak normally. Trust me, you don’t want to wake them up. The last time they woke up, they started the Way Beyond Massacre,’ Kiren hurriedly warned, helping me understand why they didn’t dare to communicate mentally.
However, the fact that they weren’t even willing to awaken the ’Others’ in Cam’s mind even when they thought they could die made me curious about the ’Others’ Kiren spoke of.
About a few decades ago, at the Way Beyond, an unknown entity descended from the sky and began to kill Card Apprentices and Supreme Beings indiscriminately. Making the Way Beyond Massacre the only incident in history when the Card Apprentice and Supreme Beings worked together to fight a common enemy.
It was announced that the unlikely alliance managed to kill this entity into oblivion and might be the first step in Card Apprentice and Supreme Beings living in harmony. However, according to Kiren, the entity wasn’t dead and was in Cam John’s mind. I couldn’t help but wonder if the ’Others’ in Cam were similar to Adriene’s Trait: Inner Goddess.
No, the fake Goddess was leeching off Adriene’s incredible soul, hiding from the Card World and the Myriad Realms, but Cam was a favored one and surrounded by favored ones. It was impossible for a foreign entity to hide in his mind without the Card Celestial knowing. Either the entity originated in Card World or Card Celestial knew about the foreign entity and chose to do nothing about it, these two possibilities were more likely.
"Unmute," I willed, allowing the Misfits to speak in the Celestial Blood Fate Domain.
Kiren looked at me in astonishment, and couldn’t help but ask, "You believe me?"
"Yes. You four are the most idiotically honest group of people I met in a while. That’s why I have another proposal," I said, ready to get me four of the hardest working and honest mules for next to nothing.
"Wow. I don’t know whether I should take offense or thank you. Anyway, we are out of ideas here, so let’s hear it," Kiren said, glaring at her bestie grudgingly. However, the latter rolled her eyes at the former, summoning her hand mirror to fix her hair.
"But first," I said, retrieving my celestial blood rule domain as a show of my sincerity. Honest and hardworking people were suckers for sincerity and respect. They will help even if it hurts their interests.
"Ah, finally!" Ollie cried out, an exaggerated sigh of relief leaving his lips. The misfits rose to their feet, their bodies eagerly absorbing every last bit of soul energy and rule power they could. After just a few minutes of being cut off, they had felt suffocated, as if they were suffering from withdrawal. As Card Apprentices, soul energy and rule power were as essential to them as the very air they breathed.
Putting the mirror away, Princess Christina locked eyes with me and signaled, "You can begin."
"Bitch, this is not your royal palace. Pull that shit again, and honest to God, I will skin that face of yours and infect the flesh underneath with the most resilient parasites the world has to offer. Good luck, regrowing your face again," Lois threatened, appearing right before Christina in a blink of an eye, so close that they could feel each other’s warm breath on their skin.
"I’m sorry, old habit," Princess Christina calmly apologized, her friends were impressed by her calmness until the horror in her eyes gave her away.
"That’s more like it," Lois uttered, appearing behind me.
"You folks look like good people who believe in second chances—" I began only to be interrupted by Christina, who cut-in, declaring, "I would rather die than let him live another second..."
Christina wanted to add more, but feeling Lois’s glare on her, she trailed off. Shaking my head, I asked, "Do you guys have to be that extreme?"
I glanced at the misfits, my gaze stopping on Christina, who appeared to have a lot to say. But under Lois’s glare, she didn’t dare to speak up. So, I continued, "I know Redfall is guilty of a lot; I’m not here to defend him. I’m here to ask you to give him a second chance, to allow him to spend the remainder of his life trying to make up for his crimes."
"All I’m trying to say is, don’t be in a hurry to kill him. Give him—no, give me a chance to prove that despite his past, Redfall can still contribute to society," I pleaded. "You wanted to join the Criminal Rehabilitation and Reintegration program, right? Well, you’re hired. You will be responsible for Redfall. Are you still interested?"
I knew Kiren and Christina were skeptical of the Criminal Rehabilitation and Reintegration program, so I handed them the perfect excuse they were looking for to investigate the program without stepping on any feathers.
After all, the Southern Royal Family had shown its support to program by sending prisoners from the capital to participate in it. If they were to blatantly throw accusations and investigate, they would upset the political relations between the Southern and Western regions because of Princess Christina’s origin.
Now, with a legitimate way to monitor Redfall and the program’s results, it would be much harder for them to refuse me. Not to mention, joining the program was their idea to begin with.