Chapter 123: Chapter 123: Irena Krol

Irena

Irena Krol, the head of the Krol Family of Europe’s Five Family Alliance, was widely considered one of the top five humans on Earth despite having been in her late sixties when the integration started. The key to her success? Knowing how to pace herself.

According to her clan’s ancient records, Law comprehension more than anything laid the foundation for becoming a powerhouse, and the key to Law comprehension was the right state of mind.

To this end, every morning, without fail, Irena walked out to a gazebo in one of the gardens of her estate outside of Warsaw and made herself some tea using a hotplate. This was a practice she used to share with her daughter, and then with her husband after her daughter’s untimely death. With her husband now dead as well, killed by one of the plagues five months before the start of the tutorial, it was a practice which made her both emotional and relaxed at the same time, the perfect mental state for coming to better understand the universe.

It was also a time she wasn’t to be disturbed, yet one of her guards, a man who’d married into the family over thirty years before the start of the integration, guided a young woman to her without saying a word.

“Thank you, Aleksander.” The young woman, a pretty half East Asian who looked to be somewhere between 17 and 28, smiled at the guard as she sat down on one of the three unoccupied pillows on the gazebo floor. “Please leave now.”

“Aleksander, stay and explain.” Irena glared at the young woman as she gave the order, but, while the guard turned to look at her with shame on his face, he didn’t follow her command, instead giving the young woman a quick look, shivering slightly, and quickly leaving.

“You have a lovely home.” The young woman was looking around with an interested expression on her face, yet, as far as Irena’s magical senses were aware, she didn’t exist, and it didn’t seem to be from a skill, but instead resource and aura control combined with a high grade stealth focused Law Larva, which was far more impressive. “It’s a lot more peaceful than I imagined as a child.”

“Who are you and what do you want?” Irena’s tone was very far from polite. Yes, the woman seemed powerful and skilled, capable of making the quite strong Aleksander terrified of her, but she was also sitting in a seat no one had dared take since Irena’s husband had died.

“You don’t recognize me?” The woman frowned slightly.

“Should I?” Irena looked a bit closer at the woman and felt she had seen her somewhere, maybe on television before the tutorial.

“My name is Li Mila.”

“Ah.” Irena still glared at the young woman. “The Chinese spy who’d been living with Diana Alvaro’s little brother. I’d heard reports you were dead.”

Ms. Li’s expression changed, becoming one of obvious anger, and the stealth effect on her aura and resources disappeared, her aura expanding to cover the entire garden, suppressing Irena’s aura like an avalanche taking out a lone climber. “That bastard. That utter bastard.”

Irena got the distinct impression the young woman’s anger wasn’t directed toward her, but just being in the presence of the woman’s rage was terrifying, like standing in the middle of a hurricane, and Irena now understood why Aleksander hadn’t been willing to go against the young woman’s orders.

“Is there something I can do for you, Ms. Li?”

Ms. Li took a deep breath and her aura retracted, no longer suppressing Irena’s aura completely, but still showing rage even through its obvious power. Ms. Li then took another deep breath and her aura completely stabilized.

“The Krol Family is the last of Earth’s major families and clans I’ve visited over the last few days.” Ms. Li’s voice sounded completely controlled, but it was more dispassionate than the tone she’d been using at first. “I was expecting to make your contract different than the others, either better or worse depending on your reactions, but we’ll just go with the same contract as everyone else.”

At that point, a System message appeared in front of Irena’s eyes.

 

Li Mila has sent you a contract request.

 

Terms:

1. You may not reveal any secrets about Li Mila, Diana Alvaro, or the Heavenly Spark Soul King to anyone for any reason
2. You may not take any actions with the intention to harm Li Mila, Diana Alvaro, or the Heavenly Spark Soul King
3. You must accept a slave contract with Diana Alvaro
4. You must select the top 12 cultivators from your family’s forces and travel with them to Sydney to join Diana Alvaro’s force within one week
5. You must give up all of your family’s Territory to Diana Alvaro

 

Punishment:

Extreme Pain

 

Do you accept?

Yes/No

 

Irena found herself getting angry again, even if the woman in front of her was almost certainly more powerful than she was. “Who would accept such a one sided contract?”

“Everyone.” Ms. Li looked at her, expression placid and almost certainly not showing her true emotions. “The head of every other major family and every other native force with Territory.”

Irena took a deep breath. “And what did you threaten them with?”

“Nothing.” The woman’s expression turned somewhat derisive and her brown irises changed to a bright pink. “They all fell in love with me with a look and couldn’t wait to do whatever I asked of them.”

So, Irena realized, the woman had a charm skill and, if she could be believed, she could make contracts with people under the charm skill’s influence even through the normal natural protections a soul had against such things.

“If you have such an ability, why aren’t you using it on me?”

Ms. Li just looked at her for several seconds, seeming to be thinking on how to answer. Then she appeared to come to a decision. “My skill is called Evil Eyes - Lust, so it seems kind of icky to use it against my own grandmother.”

Irena stopped breathing for a second. Before her daughter had gone to college, they’d gotten into a big fight, something about Lidia not wanting to continue combat training while in the United States, or maybe about what type of major she was going to pursue. It was nearly thirty years ago by this point and Irena honestly couldn’t remember. But they hadn’t talked much after that, Lidia mostly communicating with her father instead.

Irena remembered Alfred being worried during those last six months, though, thinking Lidia was hiding something from them, and they’d bought the plane tickets to visit her, but then Lidia had come back in a body bag, having died in a car accident while driving her boyfriend to class.

Thinking back on it, Irena remembered Lidia’s boyfriend had been Chinese with the surname Li, and, from what Alfred knew, the two of them had been living together, but there had never been any news about a baby. Thinking about the American legal system and how quickly Lidia’s body had been flown back, though, along with what she now knew about Li Dai-Zhao, what the young woman in front of her was saying wasn’t impossible.

Gods above, the girl’s name was Mila, a short form of the name Ludmilla, her own mother's name.

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It was at this time another System message appeared.

 

Destroy the Invasion VI (Epic) Completed!

 

Personal completion percentage: 0.03%

 

There were no escapees among the invasion’s forces.

 

Calculating.

 

Rewards:

Base stats +1

One choice of F rank skill orb up to Common grade

One choice of F rank artifact up to Common grade

 

Invasion 6 was the Psionics, purple humanoid aliens with six eyes, and Irena had earned a small amount of contribution when she’d killed three of their number when they tried to assassinate her. The last she’d heard, they’d barely had any losses and were steadily gaining ground in northern Asia, but now it seemed they’d been completely wiped out, none able to flee back through their Pillar of Conquest.

“It seems Diana is finally done playing with the Psionics.” Ms. Li—no Mila—didn’t sound surprised at all, seemingly also getting a notification. “So we should finish this fast, allowing you to go join the other families in ending the Ultra Impressive Golden Legion.

“Will you accept my contract, or will I have to force you?” Mila looked at the teacup sitting on the gazebo floor by Irena’s side and it suddenly shattered into millions of pieces, the entire ceramic structure crushed into dust. “I’m in a bit of a rush.”

Irena wanted to ask more questions, and she didn’t want to accept the unfair contract, but she was quickly able to comprehend what had just happened, so she understood just how outclassed she was. Her cup had been within her own aura, yet Mila had used a high grade version of the Telekinesis skill to crush it. This meant Mila’s effective Aura stat was more than 12 times her own, and, given the limits on advancing the Aura stat, even if Mila had abilities which boosted her Aura stat’s effectiveness, her base stats were likely far beyond Irena’s as well.

The contract also had Irena becoming the slave of Diana Alvaro and not Mila or whoever the Heavenly Spark Soul King was, while, from what she knew of Diana Alvaro, Diana wasn’t the type of person to abuse such a contract.

“Can I—” She began to ask for a delay to think things over, but Mila interrupted her.

“No. Accept the contract within the next 10 seconds or I’ll start destroying your home. Don’t accept the contract within the next 30 seconds and I’ll move on to injuring your people. I have a healing Law and it would be a good chance to practice. Wait for ten minutes and I’ll instead start taking lives. My offensive death Law has just advanced and I could use a few more killings to help consolidate my understanding.”

Mila’s tone was cold and relaxed, completely controlled, and Irena was pretty sure it was a genuine threat. She was also pretty sure Mila would much prefer she just agree so the threat wouldn’t have to be carried out, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t do so.

This type of contract was what she’d expect from any of the native forces who actually gained the sovereign position of Earth, as her clan records recommended such an approach for dealing with former rivals when taking control and it was probably the same for every other major force on Earth as well.

Not seeing any better option, Irena thus agreed to the contract.

Then, with a speed quite a bit faster than Irena’s own, Mila moved, some type of magical seal artifact appearing in her hand out of the subspace in the fingerless glove she was wearing on her left hand, and Mila placed the seal up against Irena’s forehead.

 

Li Mila has offered you the position of slave on behalf of Diana Alvaro.

 

Will you accept?

Yes/No

 

Due to the previous contract, Irena was forced to accept or feel a type of pain her clan’s records described is ‘unimaginably terrible’, so she did so.

“Alright. Thank you, Family Leader Krol.” Mila summoned 24 array disks on the gazebo floor. “These array disks have been marked by Diana and will allow your clan to help increase the size of her Territory, each disk claiming 17 square kilometers after a 24 hour process. Monsters will attack while the claiming occurs, so it should be a good training experience for your forces.”

Mila then disappeared, completely vanishing from Irena’s senses, and Irena just sat there for over ten minutes, at least half that time thinking about everything she knew about Li Mila and pondering on the awkwardness of the young woman during the latter half of their conversation. Then, having to travel to Sydney anyway due to the contract, she resolved to put having a chat with Li Dai-Zhao very much at the top of her itinerary.

* * *

Mila

“You’re really not good with this family stuff, are you?” Nana Xara sounded like she was almost laughing. “First you toss your grandfather off a building. Then you threaten your grandmother with the destruction of your own extended family.”

Mila just ignored her teacher, running towards Pakistan to help Diana’s force against the Flameborn.

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