Chapter 20: A Piece that is not Evil

"What exactly do you want from me?"

Tom hummed in acknowledgment of her question but took his time to formulate a proper reply. Before uttering it, however, he reached into his pocket and slowly took out a Black Queen Piece, putting it onto the table, making Natasha confused.

"Devils-" Tom started now that the tension in the air had reached high enough.

But he was instantly cut off, the mood he was going for completely ruined.

"Devils?" Natasha incredulously interrupted.

"Yes, they exist too." Tom huffed, giving her an annoyed look, which made her chuckle, much to his further exasperation and her own inward bewilderment.

Natasha knew she should probably have been afraid and too on the edge to laugh at her captor but his childishly irritated expression was just way too cute for her to keep her calm.

Only after a chuckle left her lips did she realize she was feeling way too comfortable for a prisoner. She was too affected by the nice evening they had together and it was hard for her to properly keep her guard up.

That or she was under some kind of spell. Which caused her mood to sour again, proving that it was not true.

Really, the whole situation was just mental.

"Anyway," Tom nonchalantly continued as if the interruption didn't happen, "devils have something called Evil Pieces, which are magical artifacts in the shape of chess pieces that allow them to 'reincarnate' somebody into a devil who will then in exchange serve them." Tom paused for a bit, giving Natasha a meaningful look.

It was slavery. No matter how this or that group of devils liked to pretty it up.

When Tom scanned the Evil Queen Piece provided to him by Sarael, he saw every function of it. He doubted most devils, even most of the nobles, actually knew what Evil Pieces contained. It seemed like secret stuff that only the higher-ups would know about and that's why he played completely clueless in front of Lord Sitri.

From its inner composition, Tom quickly deduced where and how the difference between houses and their ideologies about peerages were applied. The Gremory Household that liked to treat their peerage as a family had most likely less features active, making their peerage 'more free', compared to Families who treated them like slaves and whose Evil Pieces were more restrictive.

Tom was given a Queen Piece owned by a reincarnated devil who gained it via merits and achievements so he had a 'generic' sample given to the common 'rabble', so to speak.

Even this piece had all the restrictive features but they were simply deactivated for the most part.

And God, some of these features were shuddering, disgusting, and downright nasty.

Let's just say that Tom learned how the stray devils came to existence... and that it was not a coincidence at all.

Desertion was punishable by mutation of body and mind in the most horrific and twisted way. Quite fitting for devils.

Of course, the corruption and even the individual features of the Evil Piece could be resisted in many, many ways. That's also why taking pure-blooded devils into peerages was not forbidden. The Piece reacted to a born devil differently because the reincarnation process was a major part of the whole design.

'Reincarnating' other devils was a clever way to show others that it is harmless since even pure-blooded devils participate in the system. Yet, it was just a scam.

Another major safeguard was sheer power. There was a reason why more powerful people required a more powerful devil or possibly more Evil Pieces to be reincarnated. The Evil Pieces were magical artifacts with their rules and limitations much like Sacred Gears. They were not some miracle-making devices.

An example was Issei himself. As the Boosted Gear host, he required eight pawn pieces despite being just a common human waste at that moment. And future Rias will be able to reincarnate him only because Ddraig's power was not yet awakened within him.

Anyway...

If Tom had any reservations about becoming a devil before seeing the Evil Piece and how it worked, after that he gained a bonafide aversion. Nobody was going to stick that disgusting chess-piece-shaped slavery collar into him. Not even over his dead body. Of that, he made sure.

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And that was not even the worst feature of these Pieces.

Despite all this, Tom had to give the credit to their creator. This was a very simple and efficient way to cater to every possible 'customer' on both the kind and cruel ends of their society. Instead of having to make custom orders for each House, the Evil Pieces could all be the same and all the creator had to do was to configure the Piece and activate features the Lord of a House specifically wanted to be active.

Tom let Natasha consider his words and come to her own nasty conclusions for a reason. Only when her eyes trailed towards the Black Queen Piece on the table in an apparent distaste did the satisfied Tom start speaking again.

"Of course, what you see in front of you on the table is not an Evil Piece." He remarked, causing Natasha to give him an unamused glare.

She had already thought he wanted her to become his slave!

Hearing it was just an ordinary chess piece made her visibly relax and her shoulders ever-so-slightly sagged in relief.

Of course, his reason was to troll her.

"But it is not an ordinary chess piece either." Tom added with an amused smirk, watching how the redhead in front of him tensed again and warily glanced at the piece once more.

'That's what you get for causing me such a shock with your sudden appearance, Miss Romanoff.' He vindictively thought, justifying his heavy-handed teasing.

"I copied the design and while I could not create a proper replica because of lack of materials and magical knowledge, I mixed a bit of contractual magic into it and voila," Tom proudly spoke as he gestured towards the black Queen Piece, "that was the result."

Not that he would make a replica of Evil Pieces. Sure, the generic ones were really lenient and not all that restrictive... to the degree Tom would term them as a bit heavy-handed semi-permanent servitude bonds that did not really have all that much coercion power over its hosts.

"Mhm, that sounds like something devils would not like hearing about." Natasha deadpanned.

She worked in the gritty bits of the dark corners of the human society enough to know the powerful liked to keep their privileges untouched.

"Yeaaah, if they got to know I made a working replica, I would probably have a lot of angry devils wanting to permanently deal with me and other races would also chase me to make them their own replicas tailored to them. It would have been entirely too troublesome so, keep it a secret for me, kay?" Tom nonchalantly winked at her, making her cheeks gain a pink dusting as she dryly rolled her eyes at him in response.

Rather than anything else, Natasha was irrationally a bit giddy that Tom trusted her with this kind of secret despite knowing her background. It slightly improved her impression of him. But it also reminded her of her identity, which made her feel guilty for no apparent reason.

To hide her emotions, she let her body fall back onto the bed, where she bounced a few times before lying still and looking at the ceiling... "Sure. Who would I even tell?" She exasperatedly sighed, "Any other life-threatening secret you want to unload onto me before you finally get to the point?"

By now, she had a general idea of what he wanted from her but... She wasn't sure what to think about it. 'Really, when it rains it pours.' She thought in melancholy.

Tom awkwardly chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Unlike the Evil Pieces, my replica has only two features right now. It will make a connection between us and prevent you from betraying me. There is no mind control, no coercion, no loyalty-inducing bullshit... it will simply stop you from flat out betraying me or telling others my secrets."

He had no way to prove it to her and Natasha was aware of that from the helpless shrug he gave her as he said those words so she didn't pry. It sounded quite sus, though.

"God, your sales pitch sucks." She quietly giggled to herself, easing up as even the last twinge of her wariness evaporated. She was now sure Tom didn't mean her harm and tried to recruit her... and the more he spoke, the less enticing his offer sounded.

It felt hilarious to her.

He was too cute, trying to reassure her he wasn't trying to enslave her but was offering albeit permanent, but a lot less restrictive job offer than what devils usually used.

Hearing her muttering, Tom blushed and turned his head to the side, glaring at the wall. He didn't stop speaking though, despite his tone turning a bit sullen, "Usually, I would look for someone more... well, not mundane," He turned back to Natasha and gave her a pointed look to make her understand his sacrifice. "but I came to like you. A lot." Tom's expression morphed into a nervous smile, "That's why I want you to be my 'Queen'. Not that I have any other alternative right now." He quipped, knowing he only made the Queen Piece on the table so far.

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