To be Happy Ever After: It's all about Control (ch. 2)

The first order of business, Renner said, was finding Hestia.

Not to bind her, no, but because once we found Hestia we would be certain about the timeline. There would not need to be many changes, else we would have ventured out sooner, but enough to be important to verify.

Before that though, I savored the feeling of flying.

“You’re enjoying this are you not your Grace?” The soft voice of my gothic maid made my heart beat faster. The memory of her sucking my cock with a passion that bordered on the unreal, was permanently engraved in my brain. The fact she now stood behind me, her face impassive as always, as if her mouth had not been dripping with my cum but a scant few hours ago was stupidly arousing.

“In the boundless realm of human potential, man soars on the wings of ingenuity. Yet, let us humbly acknowledge that without the embrace of technology, the heavens remain an elusive sanctuary beyond our reach.” I looked at Alice. What a wonder it was to be able to look at her without needing external aid. I could not notice it, but I knew that thanks to Body Tune-Up my cornea was now a perfect sphere capable of seeing as far as the apex of my species. That my metabolism had been perfected into something athletes would kill for. “Do you know who said this?” My voice too, had gained quite a baritone.

“Ah…” She squirmed lightly in place. One second ticked by, two, before she slowly shook her head. “I’m afraid not your Grace.”

The image of her biting her lower lip in disappointment was enough to make my trousers feel several sizes too small. The thought that a woman like her was afraid of disappointing me was almost funny enough to make me break down laughing.

“Hm. Me neither. Whoever he was though, I take pleasure in proving him wrong.” Let us humbly acknowledge. Humble. The word, that word, it annoyed me to no end.

I was no longer human, not wholly. Thanks to Deep Weave, one of the augments of the Shroud binding method, I was no longer limited in the ways I could use said power. The Shroud was me, I was the Shroud. My Shroud was Primal. It was Fauna. Ergo, I too -

“Your Grace, Lady Renner asked me to remind you, in case you attempted to experiment with your own powers in a way that affected your body that -” She said no more. The power I was invoking receded until I was simply floating in the air once more.

Alice’s head was lowered as she looked at the floor far below her feet. I had stopped invoking my power that was true. However, that was not the reason she had gone silent.

“Let’s go.” My tone was clipped as I answered her.

I found Hestia’s location easily as it was marked on my Bounty Tracker. The only thing left was to actually get there. It would take longer than expected even if I flew because Orario was a lot bigger than I expected.

The silence between me and Lendrott continued for a while. It was not even her fault to begin with, it was mine. It was my brain’s fault, because it associated Renner’s warning with danger, associated danger with fear, associated fear with death, and from death it slammed that fucking line into the forefront of my mind, completely souring my mood.

“Lady Renner did not wish to -” Lendrott could not finish what she was about to say. I scoffed, loud enough for her to hear, as a part of me - a very ugly part - considered that the best way to forget my own suffering would be through the suffering of others.

My lips pressed against each other as that damned line rebounded through my head. If the one about loyalty, love and all the good shit served to calm me, then this one was hand made to annoy me. I had been too tired these past few days to think about it, but I suppose that only meant the impact would be multiplied now.

R.I.P.

In the event that something so unfortunate happens as your death, your retinue will have three days (72 hours) to revive you before they gain their freedom.

Freedom.

Gain their freedom. There was only one thing such a statement could mean.

I was under no delusions that I could have purchased them with no bindings and been perfectly fine. I also had no problem with the mind control itself. I was about to enslave this entire world, worrying about mind controlling some girls so I could drown my dick in their wet snatch would be the height of hypocrisy.

Yet, there was no denying too that I’d like to believe that they were now indeed, truly in love with me. That, should I die, they would grieve my death for more than seventy-two hours before they cursed my name and spat on my grave.

There was no denying, that I was perhaps the biggest hypocrite to ever grace these lands.

#

Self-consciousness. Crippling anxiety. An overdose of self-doubt. All of those culminated into what her lord would call the most cowardly man in the multiverse.

Renner had to control herself very hard not to laugh in an undignified way when he had told her he was and she quotes ‘perfectly stable psychologically’. Control herself very, very hard. The princess wished she was at a stage where she could freely laugh when her master said such things, but for now she needed to make sure her actions were measured so he would not think that she too was no more than another vixen. Another Jezebel or Delilah who would inevitably betray him.

The binding stood there, she could feel it, directly above her labia. A binding that should stop him from worrying about those kind of things. Yet Renner knew that would not be enough. Nothing would never be enough.

Her lord wished for something genuine. He yearned for it. Yearned with a passion that burned brighter than a thousand suns. Yet at the same time he had likely been born into a family that did not see fit to instill in him the habits that would allow him to gain the confidence for such. From her research, Renner discovered that he had been born in an era where it was somehow easier for humans to communicate with unfeeling machines and delude themselves into thinking they were real than to establish dialogue with an actual person.

Renner pitied her lord. She loved him, was loyal to him, wanted nothing more than to be his friend and pursue a romantic relationship with him. Which was exactly why she pitied him. He, who was unable to feel how she herself did. It was an amazing feeling, an incredible feeling. She did not have the memory of ever feeling this much happiness and it was pity that she was unable to share such emotions with him.

If things continued as they were, her lord - not Unum, never Unum, the name those fucking disgraces had forced on him - would go forth. He would follow Renner’s plan, he would hold Freya in his grasp, a being capable of charming an entire city, this entire city, and he would ask her:

Make everyone love me.

Don’t let anyone betray me.

Make it so they obey all my orders.

He would request such things from her, and Freya would do it, and her lord would go forwards. He would indulge in books, plays, and mindless entertainment, seeking trivial pleasures devoid of meaning. He would get lost in the pursuit of temporary satisfaction and start thinking solely with his lower mind, and use the fact every woman in the city loved him in order to drown his dick in pussy.

Elven pussy, dwarven pussy, prum pussy, human pussy, cat-girl pussy, divine pussy… until he stopped, looked down at the girl he was fucking, looked back at all the girls he had fucked, all he had done, all the meaningless entertainment he had consumed for the past ten, a hundred or perhaps even a thousand years, and he would ask himself one simple question.

Now what?

He would ask himself that, and he would feel empty. Devoid of purpose, devoid of will, devoid of all that spurned humanity to continue living on, there was only one possible outcome.

Renner would do anything, sacrifice everything, to stop that from happening.

First things first though, she had to ensure he understood the differences. That he understood what made entertainment entertaining. That he understood pleasure. The carnal one especially, was all the more enticing the deeper you knew the person you were laying with. When you were not simply having sex as a means to achieve pleasure, but as a way to share in the affection one felt for each other - and Renner would be more than happy to be the one to teach him that.

Zanac, her brother, would wonder if the world had finally gone insane - the fool, he did not realize it was insane since the beginning - upon hearing her say such a typically naive thing. However, there was nothing Renner could do. She was a romantic at heart after all.

Still, Renner wondered why The Company would choose someone like her lord to become a Contractor? Why did the First One get interested in him of all people? It was an area of study that she did not have the time to dedicate herself to currently, but that she felt would aid her greatly in proportioning the help her lord sorely needed.

“I wonder what you think of so much sometimes.”

The voice of the singer erupted from those perfect vocal cords of hers. It was cute, how she thought she was worth explaining anything to. Cute, how broken she had become at being forced to love, care for, and be loyal when all those feelings eluded her before. Cute, how Renner knew exactly how to play with her buttons, how to mess with her love-starved heart in order to make her move, a puppet whose strings led back to her.

Renner was a master at breaking and rebuilding things in her image. However, she did not consider herself good enough to bet that attempting to fix her master would not simply make matters worse. So instead, Renner did what she had always done best.

When ones' current knowledge isn’t enough…

“Psychoanalytic Semiotics: Symbolic Signification and the Unconscious; Embodied Cognition and the Philosophy of Mind: Exploring the Embodied Self; The Hermeneutics of Self-Esteem: Unlocking the Narrative of Worthiness; Poststructuralist Discourses on Self-Identity: Deconstructing Boundaries… ugh. How can you stomach reading any of this? Just the titles alone are giving me a migraine.” Hoshino Ai threw the book she was holding aside and Renner couldn’t help the sneer that came over her face. However, she knew Hoshino was necessary and as such tolerated the presence of the ‘idol’ - and what an interesting concept that one was - wannabe.

Renner considered that it may be fate in truth, though perhaps not, - her lord was a lot smarter than he believed himself to be after all - but every companion that her lord had bought was tailor made to aid him in a unique way.

Alice Lendrott, would be his beacon of solace, offering unwavering support during moments of languor when the desire for tranquility was overflowing and he retired for rest.

Ai Hoshino assumed the role of an ardent temptress, coaxing him away from that sanctum, guiding him towards the radiant outside, ensuring he enjoyed every second of it.

Lilly Aquaria was the one that would heal him, in more ways than one. While Alice would offer silent support, Lilly as a clergy - an actual clergy, not the myriad of fakes that compromised most religious organizations - was specialized in listening and absolving one of their sins. Thanks to the binding she would always feel compelled to listen and forgive her lord no matter the sin he had committed, and the understanding of a woman like her (even if it was enforced) would ease his conscience. He would find it easy and freeing to confide in her.

Rindo Kobayashi… her lackadaisical and wild attitude was not rare per se, but it was unique among their current entourage. At first sight it may seem she should not be able to carve herself a place in her lord’s heart, however, she held absolute dominion over the first way to guarantee a man’s love and attention (the stomach), and was not lacking in womanly qualities too which ensured she would not be unsatisfactory in the second.

Valac Clara was an interesting one. If it was possible to quantify one’s sex appeal from 1 to 100 then Valac’s would surely be in the single digits. However, that was as much her weakness as it was her strength. Since she was the least intimidating, the demon would become his cherished confidante, the conduit he would use to indulge in juvenile proclivities, a partner with whom he could unabashedly revel in his childlike whims, free from the subconscious constraints of social perception.

And then… there’s me.

Her intellect frightened him, she knew. She did not begrudge him for it. It was normal, for humans, to fear the unknown. And there was nothing more unknown to a man than the mind of a woman. A smart woman especially.

The princess turned to the idol, and started working.

“I told him, before, that I loved him. All of him.” It annoyed Renner how it was useless to put up the princess persona in front of Ai Hoshino. Grated on her nerves. Even so, it was not as if she was devoid of avenues to manipulate the idol. “From his most impressive aspect to those he considers his most pitiful ones, all of it. However -”

“He does not love himself.” Renner clicked her tongue in annoyance at the interruption but nodded in agreement.

“Our lord is a man that despises taking risks, who flees notice, who yearns for actual immortality, who scorns his own cowardice and wants to make a grand show of things but is unable to withstand any actual threat.” A sigh escaped her lips as she closed the book she had been reading. “If there ever was a God in this forsaken reality then our lord would be proof that He was not in the side of rainbows and unicorns.”

“Yes yes, that’s all well and good. More importantly though,” Ai Hoshino grasped Renner’s chin, ensuring that the shorter girl shifted her gaze away from the weighty books resting on her lap and focused on her. “What are we going to do about it?” At that moment, Renner felt - though she would never admit - that the idol’s gaze was the slightest bit frightening.

She lightly smacked the offending appendage away and got up. However, she was surprised by the sheer zeal the young girl was exuding. This chick, Renner thought, she may prove to be more useful than I expected.

Lendrott was a lost cause. She would willingly sacrifice herself for their lord but she would never go to the lengths Renner was planning to, even if it was all for her lord’s benefit. As expected, a maid would never compare to a princess. Beyond her, Rindo was too dumb and Valac too childish to be of use. Lilly too, held a naivete in her that did not beget her age or station.

However, this one…

“I am not sure yet of what the root cause is. It could be that he cannot truly connect to us because of the binding. It could be that he simply does not desire to open up because of past suffering. Or it could simply be that he does not believe himself good enough and that interferes with his ability to enjoy himself.” The yellow haired girl flew. She flew until her eyes were at the same height as Hoshino’s, and then placed her hand on the idol’s chin, before slowly elevating herself some more with the help of her Shroud while forcing the starry-eyed girl to look up.

There was a mischievous glint in the girl’s starry eyes as Renner gazed at them.

“You’re quite petty aren’t you?”

She did not deign to answer her.

“If I ask him questions he will simply retreat into himself and start evading. I want you to discover what ails him, to cradle his head against your chest and say that it’s okay, that you will never judge him, and convince him that he can confide in you. It shouldn’t be very hard since that is all true.” A delicate purple-ish eyebrow rose and Renner huffed in response. “Do that and I will be capable of correctly diagnosing his problem and solve it.”

Ai narrowed her eyes and Renner could feel the gaze of the girl boring into her. “Did you not say you loved all of him? Did you lie?” It was in moments like these that the princess was reminded that this girl in front of her had enough charisma to put an entire nation on the back-foot.

“No. However, I have no desire to preserve the things my master hates. Even if I love them.”

They stayed like that, the two of them, for a bit. Starry-eyes gazing into empty ones. Lies into deceit. Water into ice. The idol broke first, as expected. She lightly smacked Renner’s hand away and the princess rolled her eyes at the reaction.

And she dares to claim I am the petty one.

Ai Hoshino prepared herself to leave their apartment but, before she could, she heard Renner saying one last thing.

“If possible, discover what happens to us, to the bindings, should our master ever die. Or if there is any way that they could somehow be deactivated. I have a feeling that would prove… extremely enlightening.”

Thanks to the Shroud’s power, Renner could feel her lord. She could feel his desires before he even spoke them. Could sense his needs before he even found the will to utter them. As such she, more than anyone else, knew. Because she had immersed herself in the feeling, had delved deep into their connection, had peered into her lord’s most deep and profound desires.

Please save me.

And save him she would.

No matter the cost.

#

Alice Lendrott felt bile rising on her throat.

Her Grace sprinted ahead, his back the only view she had as he soared, faster than prudence allowed, toward his target's whereabouts.

Her Grace was mad, she knew. Not at her, not at princess Renner, but at himself. At his reaction to the princess’ warning. She had seen him, as she went down to her knees and started pleasuring him, how he looked at her. Like what was happening was not possible. He looked at her as though he were a man within a dream, observing the surreal elements it contained. That in itself was not exactly alarming - his situation was pretty much bordering on the unbelievable after all - however when coupled with the rest… it did not paint a pretty picture.

The sound of the occasional passerby yelling in terror as his Grace blitzed past them only made him go faster. Faster, faster, that seemed to be the only thing on his mind. As if by going as fast as he could, he could run away from what ailed him. It deeply hurt the maid that he did not feel he could use her, could confide in her.

She lacked the razor-sharp intellect of the princess, who undoubtedly had already deciphered the tumultuous thoughts plaguing his Grace. The princess, in her brilliance, probably had plans set in motion to aid him. Yet...

Too long.

Waiting was simply not an option when his Grace was suffering at this very moment. Any approach that demanded patience was unequivocally incorrect.

“Alice, what are you doing?”

They stopped. His Grace felt her pulling on his Shroud and slowed down until she could finally do what she wanted.

“I did not remember ordering you to do this.” She laughed as she rested her face on his back and placed her arms around his torso.

“You did not need to.”

Alice could feel it. His stomach tensing under her hands, his back becoming more rigid against her breasts. She could feel him drawing breath, opening his mouth to say something and then promptly closing it. She did not comment on it, just like she did not comment on him closing his fists, or the slight trembling of his body.

“I love y-”

“You don’t.”

Oh. It seems I have now discovered what ails him too.

Alice felt pleased with herself, at the fact that she managed to discover something even the princess seemed to find hard to.

His Grace is clearly delusional.

“Oi oi, I just felt that you thought something pretty fucking rude about me.”

Alice let her head fall to the side as his Grace looked back at her before, slowly, she removed her body from him and with her index finger, she began to lower her neckline, showing more and more of her cleavage by the second.

She was not wearing any underwear this time too.

“For fuck’s sake woman, you were literally su- sucki-” His words seemed to get caught on his throat every time he was about to remember Alice of what she had been doing a few hours ago. His Grace was too cute. “…you were literally naked a few hours ago, you think that this is going to distract me?” His Grace rolled his beautiful eyes but Alice could tell that he was amused with her antics all the same. “I am not your fucking du…” There was a sudden pause in his speech and his Grace suddenly became unable to look her in the eyes.

Ah, and now it's back to sulking once again. He was about to say duke was he not? Hmm.

“You’re… jealous?”

He clenched his teeth and averted his gaze. "No."

He totally is. Adorable. Incredibly adorable. Almost overwhelmingly adorable. The charm of his jealousy is too much for this humble maid's heart to handle.

"In that case, your Grace, perhaps you should ponder suing your face for libel."

Alice gracefully lowered herself onto a nearby set of steps, strategically positioned in an alley where the likelihood of encountering anyone was slim.

“Stop patting your lap, we have a mission to fulfill.” Alice's hands, however, continued their rhythmic motion. His Grace’s face scrunched, seemingly unsure of how to respond to her disobedience. “Did you not hear me? This is an order.”

A smile played on her lips. Her body quivered, as if she was attempting to get up but her legs were failing her. “The fact, your Grace, that I am able to resist this much means that you don’t actually want me to move.”

Still, even as she said that, the order seemed to overpower her will and she started to get up. Before she removed herself fully from the stairs though, his Grace placed his hand on her head and forced her back down.

“So, what do you want?” Alice's smile radiated warmth as her fingers delicately ran through his Grace’s hair. “Hurry up.” He huffed and puffed as he talked, like the prideful man he was clearly trying to pass himself as. However, the more Alice gazed at him, the more he seemed to squirm on her lap. It took a moment for her to connect the dots, but even she could piece together the answer from such obvious evidence.

He struggled with how to communicate with her. Alice was just now realizing, that his Grace was woefully inept at conversation. Even within the confines of their apartment, he seldom spoke much. The most she had witnessed was when he engaged in conversation with Miss Clara, but even then, it always seemed as if he held himself back.

She had believed that was just his personality, but it seems that his curt responses were not because he disliked talking. They were that way because he was afraid of making mistakes. Of floundering some answer or appearing inept. Alice found this inexcusable; all she wanted was to hear his Grace speak to her with his beautiful voice. For him to even for a moment believe that she would ever think less of him for speaking his mind was inexcusable.

"Why do you think I don't love you?" She didn't beat around the bush, as that wasn't her style. Subterfuge and secretive plots had never been her approach.

"The binding... no, that's not it." He shook his head, attempting to dispel the lie he was about to tell both her and himself. Alice patiently waited for an answer. Nothing was more urgent than this. "There might be circumstances where your bindings can be removed. If that happens, you'll stop loving me." The words flowed from his mouth incredibly fast. As if he didn’t want to spend more time proclaiming them than absolutely necessary.

Preposterous, Alice wanted to say. Impossible, she wanted to argue. However, she wasn't exactly aware of how her binding worked. The only thing she knew was that she couldn't envision a world where she didn't love his Grace. It was simply unthinkable. However -

"That does seem worrying," Alice responded, feeling his Grace's eyes snap open and lock onto hers. He clearly didn't expect her to agree. "All I know is that I can't fathom the possibility of ever stopping loving your Grace. However, if your Grace say it's true, then I believe it." A soft sigh escaped her. She wasn't meant for this; the princess would be much more suited for such matters. However, she wasn't here right now, so Alice would have to make do. "Is there no way to avoid such a thing?"

His Grace shook his head. "The binding is under the purview of The Company. I can't simply wrestle control of it away from those monsters."

"Hm. Is the binding the only method they use to ensure our loyalty?" As she had said, Alice could not envision herself ever willfully disobeying his Grace, however if it proportioned him peace of mind she would subject herself to any and all bindings he desired.

"What?"

"Well, from what I understand, there are infinite worlds out there, right? And correct me if I'm wrong, but The Company only controls their binding, isn't that so? So..."

She watched as his Grace opened his mouth, then attentively observed as he closed it. With lightning speed, he sat down on the step and retrieved from his right pocket the strange device he used to summon her. His fingers trembled as he pressed some buttons, and a few distinct beeps emanated from the device before a robotic voice emerged.

“Company’s Help Desk hotline, what can I help you with today prized contractor?”

#

The people of this city lacked faith. Men and women alike were never supposed to meet God, their creator. The divine was supposed to stay distant, an existence one could scarcely imagine. A being that would make criminals tremble in fear and martyrs cry in joy. That would promise a bright future for those who did good and a dark one for those that forsook their humanity and fell to their most base desires.

They were not like that. Even worse though, these so called Deusdea did not think it important to hide from the population what would happen after they perished. No, they simply told them that after their demise and their souls ascended to Heaven, they would be scrubbed clean, and they would be thrown back down again.

One’s actions did not matter. One’s deeds? Insignificant. One’s choices? Worthless. A murdered, a rapist, a king and a hero had all the same chances of being picked by a God who would be kind and be reincarnated in a peaceful land, or a God who would be cruel and toy with their soul for uncountable years before dumping it carelessly back down to the Lower World. It was a wonder that this place had not collapsed into pure anarchy yet. For if even God itself, the epitome of purity, was tarnished by sin, what course of action was left for mere mortals?

Lilly Aquaria felt disgusted by this world, she could not stand it.

When Unum had told her how this realm worked she had not believed it. When, upon hearing the reasons for her disgust, he had started talking about The Euthyphro Dilemma and asked her if she believed the Divine Command Theory, there was really only one answer that she could give. It was somewhat saddening that the answer seemed to displease him though.

"You're wearing that expression again," remarked Valac, as the sound of a lollipop popping out of the girl's mouth reverberated through the air.

A demon, the green haired girl said she was. For Lilly, the Gods of this world were much closer to the demons she believed in than this little girl would ever be.

“Oho! Holy shit, is that a nun? An actual legit nun?! Hey! Hey, girl! Whose familia do you belong to? I need to meet the fellow man of culture that is your God!” The voice came from a most disgusting form and it took every ounce of her willpower to not just punch it away with her magic.

Its body lacked blemishes, its musculature was perfect, its voice was melodic, a hundred and one qualities could be attributed to the being before Lilly, and she would recognize them and utter that they did not come even close to making up for the disgusting thing that lay underneath.

“Ah! That look, that disgusted look! Superb! Did he teach you how to do that too?”

It continued yapping. The affront to all that was divine and pure continued yapping, and no one else could see how wrong that was. People looked at what was happening and simply shook their heads in exasperation or smiled, smiled, as if the situation was amusing. The nun was usually not an angry person. She was calm, understanding and patient.

However, however -

Unforgivable. These beings were simply unforgivable.

‘You know, when the divine itself is found lacking…’

The voice of the princess echoed through the nun’s head. Renner scared her to be quite honest. It was somewhat shameful to admit that such trepidation arose due to a girl clearly younger than her, but it remained an undeniable truth.

Lilly was more scared when she found herself agreeing wholeheartedly with the terrifying younger girl though.

‘If it is lacking… perhaps it is high time for it to be replaced.’ The nun silently concluded the princess's unfinished statement in her thoughts.

Lilly Aquarius had no intention of becoming a Goddess. To intrude upon the divine was not her calling. She humbly guided the flock, but never sought to command it.

However, there is one that she would not mind elevating to such stature…

First though, before she could lose herself in any more plans for the future, Lilly had a job to do, in a place someone of her occupation had no business finding themselves in.

The Pleasure District, and the Goddess within, waited for her.