Chapter 87: 81: Family Intervention

After several excruciatingly long and audible seconds of the ‘goatee’ guard choking on his own blood, he slumps powerlessly a few inches lower, dead but still attached with the webs to the other guard, who watches the remaining signs of life fade from his comrade.

“Alright,” you say, satisfied with the effectiveness of your [Submission] spell on the mayor.

Finley stands in front of you, left hand on the diamond pummel of his sword, not showing the slightest hint of remorse or grief about killing one of his entourage. Alicia seems more grief-struck about the killing than Finley.

You grab a wooden chair by the back, plant it in front of you and sit on it, legs wide open, leaning on the back of the chair with your crossed arms. You look at Finley for a moment, trying to guess what his altered mind is thinking and ask, “Did you know that guy well? For how long?”

“Well?” Finley asks and grimaces as if you insulted him. “I do not need to know my guards “well”. Only that they are good at their job, and I have people who are qualified in their field to judge that and for me. Not even a week has passed since he was assigned for this duty.”

There might be some truth in his cold words. After all, one man can’t possibly be proficient and knowledgable in all skills and crafts. Better to rely on the council of experts than make a fool out of yourself just to feed your ego.

“Are there any more guards I should know about?” you ask.

“No, I brought only the two with me,” Finley answers.

“How long was your visit here supposed to be? When are you expected back?”

Finley takes out a round golden pocket watch, attached by a golden chain to the doublet pocket on his chest. He flips it open, glances at the time and casually closes it with a single thumb, putting it back into his pocket like he must’ve done a thousand times before.

“I have a meeting with the captain of the Town Watch in forty-two minutes.”

“I’ll keep it short then,” you say and stroke your chin while you think about how to approach the subject. What is there to think about? “You’re not sending your daughters away to Elemia.”

“Elamia,” Finley corrects you.

“Yes, that,” you nod.

Silence.

You raise an eyebrow and repeat, “You’re not sending your daughters away to Elamia.”

“There are other options,” Finley says and pauses in deep thought.

“You’re not sending them anywhere,” you clarify your statement. “I’ve grown fond of them. Also, why would you even want to send your own daughters across the entire world?”

“Did you not hear anything I said? They’re a menace! An embarrassment! They actively try to spite me! And now, they do this? I’ll never be able to get that image out of my mind for as long as I live!”

“It wasn’t our fault!” Alicia sobs through tears.

“Is it ever?” Finley asks.

“Enough!” you demand silence, feeling the argument go in circles once again. “While I’m not sure if that’s the same excuse they use every time, this incident might not be entirely the fault of your daughters.”

“Y-yes! I told you daddy!” Beth is quick to grab onto any strand to get out of this predicament.

You roll your eyes at how transparent Beth is but, power on to try and mend this whole strange relationship. “If I understand correctly, you’re hiding the fact that they are your daughters, correct?”

“Of course! How can I not?”

“And despite how you constantly berate them, how you say they are out to humiliate you, neither of them have actually revealed that secret?”

“Because I’ve made it clear what fate awaits them, should they ever do something so foolish.”

And what fate is that? you wonder and almost ask, but feeling that the answer cannot be anything even remotely pleasant, decide against that. After all you’re trying to defuse this situation, not bring up past threats.

“Sounds to me, like they actually care about you,” you say. “Otherwise they’d have done anything and everything to hurt you.”

“Haven’t they done enough?” Finley shouts. “Who are you to suddenly appear out of nowhere and barge into my family’s affairs? What could you possibly know!? What right do you have to judge me!?”

You pause. You are trying to help them. After all, he was about to send his daughters into exile. And you’ve turned Finley into basically your slave, shortly after fucking and embarrassing his daughters, so how much consideration for his feelings could you possibly have? You could drag out of Finley any information you want, but is it your place? Isn’t it already too late to back off?

You sigh and cast [Submission] on Alicia and ask her, “Alicia, did you ever want to hurt or humiliate your father?”

“Of course not!” Alicia cries out. “Please, believe me, father!”

You cast [Submission] on Beth and ask her the same question, “Beth, what about you? Did you ever want to hurt or humiliate your Finley?”

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Beth doesn’t answer at first, and looks up from the floor into her father’s eyes, “… Sometimes. For how many times he made Alicia cry.”

And now, kiss and make up, you think, but, realistically, how the hell are you supposed to fix decades of fucked-up relations in twenty minutes, without literally brainwashing them into forgiving each other?

“It’s probably not my place, but I think you shouldn’t give up on your two daughters just yet,” you say to Finley. “Though it might be a good idea for them to spend some time out of this town. I have my hands full as it is, but once I take care of a few things, I’d be willing to… show them what is beyond these walls.”

“The sooner, the better,” Finley says begrudgingly and you feel like this is the best possible response you’d be able to get out of Finley without outright ordering him.

“Alright, we’ll have to continue this some other time,” you say and recast [Summon Spider]. Even with the surprise re-summoning, she manages to avoid hitting her head against the ceiling. “Free everyone here. And as for the unfortunate demise of our ‘goatee’ friend… Attempting to murder the person he was meant to protect… He was probably paid off or perhaps it was a deeply held grudge?”

“What?” Beth gasps.

You cast [Submission] on the remaining guard and say, “If anyone asks, you will collaborate that he attempted to murder Finley, and the mayor simply protected himself.”

“Understood,” the guard says just before your spider frees him.

“Finley, go back to your duties and don’t mention anything of what happened here,” you say to the mayor. “Your guard tried to murder you, that’s the only thing worth mentioning. Deal with his body however you would normally. Oh, and when you meet the captain, ask him to be on the lookout for bunnykin. I’m searching for a couple of girls. I’ll come by later.”

“Very well,” Finley says and then turns to his remaining guard and commands, “Drag this scum down and outside to the street. I want his head on a pike outside the barracks.”

“And one more thing!” you call out to Finley, who was about to leave. The main reason why you came here. “Who do you know in this town that has teleportation items or spells?”

“Hm, Anthony Star is the first one that comes to mind. We’ve been trying to catch the little thief for the past month. Other than that, you’d have to try your luck with some high-ranking adventurers.”

Disappointing! You can barely hide your frustration. This guy is the mayor of this town and he doesn’t have a single teleportation user on his payroll?

“Thank you for the advice,” you say with a crooked smile and wonder why are you even bothering being polite?

“Wait… Dad?” Beth calls to her father. At first timidly, then louder, but Finley ignores her. “Father!!”

The two men leave the room, the third one is dragged out, leaving a red smear at the door and beyond. You turn around and take a step toward freed Beth. She recoils, gets up, runs to Alicia, and hugs her tightly, backing up into a corner. For comfort? To protect her? Well, their father did just leave them with a mind-controlling monster-summoner.

“What do you know about mind-controlling spells?” you ask Beth.

“I-I heard stories,” She answers, clenching her sister tighter.

“Back when your father first entered, you cried that I’ve used some spell on you, but that was a bunch of desperate lies, wasn’t it?”

“There’s no way you’re our friend! How could I forget about father coming—"

“You’re just horny girls who would try anything to weasel out of trouble.”

“But you can control the minds of others! My father—EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!”

Beth lets out an ear-piercing scream. You close your own ears instinctively, at first, but cast [Submission] at Beth and shout, “Shut up and obey me!”

Beth covers her own mouth in tears. Alicia looks at her, but you’re not letting the same thing happen twice and cast [Submission] on Alicia as well, ordering, “Obey me!”

You hear a commotion outside and say to Beth, “Open the window, apologize to everyone and say Alicia just had a horrible dream. Everything is fine. Spider, move out of sight!”

Beth does as you command with a fake but convincing, apologetic smile.

It always works on them so perfectly. Is it just that being discovered by their father in such a state snapped them out of it? I suppose I was kind of loose with the wording the first time around. Anyway, I can’t afford to waste any more time here. Brothel, sister, teleportation, adventurers, bunnies.

“Stay out of trouble!” you order the two naked women. “Be on your best possible behavior until I return. And put on some clothes!”

Ah, shit! I forgot to get some cash from the mayor! That golden watch alone must’ve cost a fortune! Tsk, can’t be helped now. Take some money from the twins? That’d be basically robbing them! To be fair, you’ve killed for less, but after what they’ve gone through, you feel a little sorry for them and leave them be. With your abilities, you can just walk into the store and get whatever you want for free, so why even bother with money?

You don’t waste time and leave the house, leaving the spider in the house to avoid a scene. It’ll disappear in a couple of minutes anyway, so it’s fine. You try not to stand out as you walk down the same paved street that you came by yesterday. You see several people walking in your direction. Calling them ‘people’ is… how exactly are you supposed to call a party of a bipedal minotaur in plate armor, a goblin in leather clothes, and an old wizard-looking guy in a gray robe and with a long, wooden staff?

It doesn’t matter, because further ahead you see a pair of long white ears sticking out of a black military visor cap. Straight white hair, reaching all the wait to the fluffy bunny tail, a black waistcoat, struggling to contain two watermelons masquerading as breasts. A black whip rolled up and hanging at the side of the white sailor skirt. You see Epsilon, walking across the street you’re on.

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