Chapter 21: Arc 2 Ch. 9: Hearts and Minds, Part II (Dark)

“Have I told you how beautifully your hair shines in the moonlight?”

Before I realized what was happening, Ciedrich was already right in front of me with a hand reaching to stroke my head. I quickly retreated several steps back.

“Uh, I-I’m not really interested in that sort of thing. I mean, you know, just not right now.” Or ever with him!

A shadow fell over his face. “I see… Then, it’s back to the usual again.”

He started to reach a hand into his suit’s front pocket. Yeah, time to fucking go!

I retreated further while casting Recall as fast as I could. I ran my finger through the symbol’s squiggly lines and semicir—

Ciedrich lunged forward and grabbed my wrist. “Going somewhere?” he said with another bone-chilling smile.

Shit!

I struggled to break out of his grip and reach my free hand for the dagger. Before I could unleash it, one moment of curiosity watching Ciedrich pull his other hand out of that pocket made me waver, then his eyes lit up with a faint pink glow and my body went… my body…

Huh?

“How do you feel about me now?” he grinned, revealing a ring on his finger lit up by a tiny intricate diagram.

Suddenly, I felt the sensation of a tickling, feathery presence begin invading my mind, growing with intensity by the second. I almost lost my balance and fell over as I panicked to fend off the magical mental attack. When I tried to turn and run, that horrifying foreign sensation wormed its way into my mind for a moment, sending a hot wave of butterflies through my stomach before I instinctively channeled mana to my head and strained to repel the invading sensation again. I grunted in frustration, just barely able to keep that presence from taking over with every bit of focus I could muster, but I could hardly even move my fingers. My body just wouldn’t…

Damn it, move already!

Ciedrich’s face took on a puzzled expression as he stared at me. “Out of all who resisted my charms, no one has ever resisted my Charm.” He paced back and forth in front of me, scratching his chin. “You’re no noble, not in this world or any other, that’s for sure. And you shouldn’t know any manner of defensive spell against this. So… who are you really?”

“I could ask you the same fucking thing!” I shot back, that momentary lapse making me redouble my concentration to repel the magical pressure weighing down on my consciousness.

He frowned. “After all this time… You’ve never really looked at me even once, have you?”

Ciedrich brought his face right in front of mine. Behind the ethereal pink glow in his eyes, I found something that made me break out in a cold sweat. A sense of dizzying vertigo came over me as though I feared falling down into the deep, endless, infinitely dark pits of despair I saw within his eyes. Did he always look this creepy?

“What the hell happened to you?!” I blurted out.

Ciedrich sighed, stepping back and debating whether to answer for a painfully long minute. “I can still hear their screams at night. Every night. That’s not something you would ever understand.”

He paused, staring wistfully at nothing in particular before continuing in a soft, chilling voice.

“My family used to be one of the most respected noble houses. Used to. But many years ago before my time, there was that damned ‘blood feud’ between all the major houses, a stupid, pointless war that threatened to tear the whole capital apart. No one knows how it really started; all that matters is that the losers took all the blame. And we were part of the losing side. My parents, they made no shortage of enemies trying to restore House von Brauer to its former glory… by any means necessary.

“I never cared about any of that nonsense. I was always afraid something terrible would happen, and then one day it finally did: an assassin who came and went in the night, their two lifeless faces frozen in agony, not a single drop of blood upon their clothes. That kind of killing has never happened since the feud, not once. They discovered something they weren’t supposed to know. I’m sure of it; there’s no other possibility. They stumbled upon a truth they had to be silenced to hide!”

Ciedrich finished with a furious snarl, breathing heavily before he composed himself. Then he held up his ringed hand, giving the ring a little twist.

“When I first discovered this clever inscription my parents left behind, I only thought to use it for revenge against those who tried to use me for my house’s fortune.” He paused again, staring at me. “But then… it changed. My control over the spell grew every time, and lingering aftereffects started showing up, even after the Charm spell was supposed to wear off the target. A stronger and stronger effect, every time.” A sickening laugh escaped him as he grinned again. “Ah, if only I’d realized it sooner! You see, with enough practice on different targets, I finally figured out I could make the spell last… forever.”

“A permanent Charm spell? You’re out of your goddamn mind! Do you actually think something like that is possible?!” I shouted.

“Thanks to magic in this world, anything is possible,” Ciedrich retorted, grinning a little wider. “Magic, it grows with you in ways you’d never believe. I’m so close. So close! And you… The way you are resisting it, you’re the last piece I need. I’m sure of it!”

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“You’re insane!”

He held nothing back as he threw his head back in maniacal laughter. “To dream of avenging my parents with this unrivaled power and learn the truth they were killed for? I won’t deny it! But I’ve come too far to turn back now, don’t you think? Beryl, Beryl, it hurts to see you glare at me that way! I only need you to succumb to the spell, just for a minute. It won’t take long.”

“Not happening!”

I regathered my focus for another counterattack against the spell pressing into my mind, but to no avail. A new fear gripped me as I watched Ciedrich produce a small knife with a flourish.

“I saw that look in your eyes while you pored over all those dresses yesterday, like you were searching for the most expensive one of them all. You covet what I can offer, don’t you? I can give you whatever your heart desires. Or…” He tapped his knife against his fingers.

“Do you really think that’s going to work?”

“Everyone has a price. Name yours.”

“You seriously need some better pick up lines, man!”

He snorted. “A joke at a time like this? You don’t even know what this world is really like, not yet. But you are different. You just might have what it takes.”

Ciedrich looked me up and down while tapping his knife, over and over. For some reason, he eventually shrugged and put the knife away.

“This world doesn’t give a damn about either of us. You’ll see that sooner or later. So consider this carefully: I’ll make a deal with you. I don’t blame you for your greed; on the contrary, ambition is to be admired, no? You obviously desire my resources, and I could make use of your… abilities. If it’s magic you’re after, I can even get you into the Magic Academy, or whatever else you require—if you swear to fight by my side when the time is right. And the ones we’ll be after will have it coming; you can be sure of that.”

As far as I could tell, he wasn’t actually trying to bullshit me this time. I didn’t want to admit it at the moment, but I mulled over his offer. This was basically the closest opportunity to my ‘shortcut to the top’ I’d been looking for since I came here. And to think that I could get that only for the cost of a side quest with a psychopath?

I might have even been morbidly curious what the hell he was on about, and this was probably the best offer I was ever going to get. But still, after all that, he wouldn’t drop the effects of that damn spell. There was only one answer.

“Go to hell.”

He frowned. “I see. I’m no stranger to rejection, but it still hurts to hear.” A chill ran down my spine as I watched a new terrifying smile creep up his face. “Then, it’s back to the usual again.”

With one swift motion, Ciedrich tore loose the ribbon tying my ponytail and tossed it aside. As my hair came free and fell to my back, a renewed panic made me launch a mental counterattack against his spell one more time, but my body still wouldn’t…!

“You just have to let go,” Ciedrich said. “I even gave you a head start in this world. If that’s not enough, think of this as a favor for my parents.”

“Fuck off!”

Suddenly he grabbed the top of my dress, pulling it down and exposing my bare breasts. “Are you certain? Even your pretty nipples look hard right now.”

Jesus this is fucked up! I’ve got to do something, but that ring, it’s that goddamn ring…!

“Wait, you really don’t want to do this!” I said. “I was a guy before, you know! I, I had… I had a dick!”

He stopped as a troubled look spread across his face, evidently perturbed by the implication. After an unbearably long silence, he reached a satisfying conclusion, grinning again.

“Had. Past tense.”

SHIT!

He started reaching a hand down to grab my skirt. As much as I hated how it came to this, I did just about the only thing left I could think of.

I shouted at the top of my lungs, “John, I could use some fucking backup right now!”

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