"Ahhh~ hm~"
Within her living quarters, dark pink hair matted by water lay sprawled over the bedding as two large pink eyes stared up with the echoes of sharps gasps filling the room. Commander Hilda Strob shuddered, penetrated by a dull ache with a palm centered between her arced legs.
She panted, gasped, and moaned for what seed like hours before her body jerked, stiffening with the arc of her back.
"Hells." She cried, breathing heavily, pulling her wet fingers from between her legs. "That…That was nice."
"Commander!" A hardened voice echoed from her Comlink
"Damn it!." For a few monts, Hilda lay there before she found the strength to stand up and approach her datapad mounted on the wall.
"What is it?" She calmly asked. Fuming by the interruption.
"Lieutenant Vincent Wendell is seeking a word with you."
"Today is my off day, Weiss." Hilda grimaced with a botherso expression.
"I know… But Vincent said that Altair wished to et you. Said it's about Jor."
'Was he planning to confess?' Hilda wondered, frowning. She leaned her head against the wall and sighed. "Fine… Set it up… Send him to my quarters." She said, disconnecting. Hilda growled and begrudgingly got into uniform.
Three minutes later, a knock echoed at her door as she stared into the vanity of her quarters to ensure all was set.
"It's open."
The doors to her chambers slid open, and the familiar smile of the devil welcod her. "Commander Hilda, I'm so glad you accepted." The Young Lord said, with long jet-black hair, it seed to fold night itself. He stood neatly, his hair tied in a ponytail, fitted in his pristine white uniform. He stepped forward, making sure to close the door on the way in.
"I'd hope you would have allowed this eting in your chambers."
Hilda's small nose pursed at his aning. "What is it? Are you here to confess to killing seven of my officers and Jor?"
He chuckled. "Did I catch you stepping out of the shower? Your hair's still wet."
"Answer the question, boy," Hilda said outright. She was in no mood.
"I will," Altair said, scanning her room devoid of habitation. He took a seat on a nearby chair beside her vanity and gave it a twirl before stopping. "It's just… I'm wondering. Did you send Jor to my room to retrieve my pup?" He asked, touching his chin. "It's just when we t… you barely even glanced at my Ren."
"Pup? The Cute Baby Wolf?" Hilda tilted her head, wondering why it was so important. She had ntioned his pup was cute in passing, but that was the full extent of her interaction on the matter. She had barely recalled it when Inspector Lue interrogated her.
"She is cute, isn't she," Altair said, moving along the conversation. "And do you like cute things?"
"The Hell are you talking about? Boy, I've no—"
"By your flush," He said, cutting in with a teasing smile. "I'll take that as a yes. And I suppose your fascination with cute things is not a big secret. From what I hear…" He paused as his smile deepened to such a degree that Hilda glimpsed a fang. "You once had a teddy bear the size of three n."
"Y~Y~You! Where did you hear that!" Hilda squealed, her cheeks flushed like crisp apples. "I have no such thing! See! Look! Nothing." she pointed about her room, a little fidgety.
Altair gasped, finding his white lie to be so flat on the nose he laughed. "Well… Aren't you kind of cute?" He said, recalling how he compelled a few people to spill so of Hilda's most open secrets after his assassination.
"I am not!" Hilda cried. "Bloodstain, Hilda! They call ! Torntor of—
"Of Teddie Bears." he finished for her.
Two plump cheeks puffed, and Altair laughed. "Ok. Ok. Look. I only bring this up… because it's not really a secret. So of the officers know you are a dog lover.
So of them even caught you scrolling through social dia about dogs and such. Which brings back to Jor… If you didn't order him to steal Ren, why was he there in my room?"
"I…" she stopped herself, finding she had no answer. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind, strangely enough.
"Let's put aside the death of the seven officers for a mont. Jor then attacked and found himself jailed, to which he died soon after. Call stupid, but how do you suppose I killed a Third Circle Junior Lieutenant without any commotion?"
Again, Hilda found herself unable to respond right away. "If anything, you seem to be the killer."
"I don't kill fellow—"
Altair raised a palm, silencing her with his almost seamless control over the conversation. "I know. I know. You have a stellar record. Perhaps a little scary to most recruits, but no one seed to hate you or have anything bad to say about you. But what really made suspicious was your lack of interest in Ren last week.
So I want to know why you think I was the one who sohow killed Jor?"
"i… " She stopped, once more unable to give a reason. "I… I don't know."
"You don't know," Altair said with strained patience. Twice, he'd received the sa answer. "Interesting."
"I…" Hilda shuddered and, without warning, rushed into her closet to her suitcase, already packed for her next destination. Rummaging through her luggage of trinkets of pandas, turtles, and more, Altair rely smiled.
Before long, Hilda pulled out a small necklace that imdiately turned red, blistering with nodes of light.
"Hells…"
"What is it?" The Prince asked.
"Sorcery. A spell of sorts… no, a hex!" She muttered before pushing her perception to its limit. Webs of viens seed to protrude from her temple, stretching across her cheek as she tried—
"In the ceiling, nodes of mana are silently being absorbed," Altair said, pushing mana into the Eyes of Sacrilege. He pointed directly above her bed.
Hilda lept up, plunging her fingers through the tal, snatching out a bag bearing the crest of a sigil. "A hex bag. Shit," she growled.
Calmly, Altair continued to scan his surroundings until he stared at the small sack in Hilda's palm. "How long do you suspect it's been there?" He asked, wondering how she didn't notice such a thing.
"Probably when I was assigned this room." Hilda spat, so furious a flash of mana caught the hexing bag ablaze. She trembled, glaring at the azure flas billowing from the parchnt until it was no more. "Bastards."
"Yes…" Altair agreed. "Who handled your bedding?"
"Weiss," she answered.
"Trustworthy?"
Hilda, with an icy expression, narrowed her eyes and scuffed. "This is the military boy. We are trained to follow every order to the letter. Weiss is a bastard conditioned since birth by the military." she flopped to her bed, growling. "I'm so screwed."
Altair couldn't deny it. For a conditioned soldier to do such a thing ant his orders ca from on high from a captain or commander of greater rank.
But from whom? And who would have the capability to hex a sixth-circle commander?
He smirked, ready to sink his fangs into her. "Would you like my help?"
"Huh?" Hilda frowned, turning to him. "How could you help? No, why would you want to help ? We aren't friends." she said, sensing a sche.
"But neither are we enemies. At least not yet." The Prince mused, standing up, giving his bones a light stretch. "Soone is trying to kill and using you to do it. Your na will be dragged through the mud. And with both the ans and opportunity, I'm sure in ti, 'evidence' will miraculously appear. You be court marshaled, jailed, and possibly killed.
That's how I would do it. And I'd use the tournant to bring forth said evidence."
Hilda shuddered, biting at her lips, feeling the blood drain from her face. 'Surely it wouldn't be so,' she told herself, but as her eyes landed on the ashes of the hex bag. She couldn't deny the reality of her situation. There had already been roors of her unable to control her people.
"What do you want?"
"Cooperation." Said the Prince. He had her. "I need allies. Access to dungeons, resources, and weaponry. And most of all, bodies."
"So you want to be your little bitch, your slave," Hilda said in a vaguely condescending tone.
"Call it what you want. I don't really care. So you can aid , and I help you and your little problem, or you try to solve the problem yourself, fail, and lose everything." Altair darkly looked her over. "But seeing how you didn't even know a hex bag was within your room, tainting your mind, I presu. I'd say there is much you didn't know."
Hilda felt her cheeks sting at his comnt.
He was right… she a sixth-circle warrior was caught unprepared and attacked by not just her lieutenant but one of her junior Lieutenants, who died under her watch. Her image was all but tainted already. The thought made her stomach drop.
She looked up at him, to the boy who seed to have figured out everything and gritted her teeth together. "What do I need to do?"
"Simple. Submit," He said, and Hilda's eyes went wide.
"Are you kidding ?" she snapped with a blazing red fire in her eyes.
The Prince shrugged, but a grueling presence filled his eyes, staining the air with a rciless spiritual pressure. "I don't care what you say. Just make sure you co off like you're on my side."
"Anything?" Hilda spat, clenching her fist, resisting the urge to kill this boy with a snap of her fingers. It would be so easy. "Can I say anything?" She said after a while.
"It's your survival. I'm sure you have a better understanding of how bad your reputation is." He replied, unsure where this hesitation he was sensing was coming from.
"Then… what will you say if I… I said we slept together."
~(>_
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