"THIS IS TYRANNY! THIS IS TREASON! YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THIS TO ME, YOU BASTARD?!!? YEAH, I KNOW IT WAS YOU, HANDSOME EMPEROR!!! CURSED BE THY LINEAGE FOR A MILLION YEARS!"
He slammed his desk.
"All the Chronos I spent unlocking videos! I even applied to work at McDonaldâs to gather the sacred funds! Me! At work at McDonaldâs! I watched fucking tutorials on how to flip burgers so I donât get fired for my extreme amount of incompetence!"
Then, like a final slap from the gods...
[Awakened Media Platform Notification]
Lapdog of the Empress, Valhallaâs Sinners have offered you a refund of 3 Chronos.
His soul cracked.
Three Chronos. Thatâs what he spent, so he got a full refund, but...
He fell back onto the floor, mumbling incoherently under his breath: "I donât need your money, Handsome Bastard! I NEED my Luna videos!"
But his desperate pleas would not be answered.
Furthermore...
*Creak...*
"Oh shit."
â
A group of five walked down the city street. Theyâd left their twin bodyguards behind at Vesperaâs mansion, wanting no surveillance, no witnesses.
Nyx grinned ear to ear. "Oh, the chicks are gonna love this. Exclusive access? Thatâs some top-tier fangirl bait."
Luna looked smug as she nodded. "Itâs a good start. But we need to optimize our approach even more. Events, responses, personal messages, everanything. Letâs refine it."
Aria glanced sideways at Kaiden, worried. "Weâre going to get attention now... more than ever. We somehow deleted files from peopleâs personal drives, Kai."
Kaiden met her eyes, and seeing his calm expression, the Moon Valkyrie couldnât help but feel as though her worries had been lessened even before he opened his mouth.
"I know, Aria. But this was necessary because we needed solid ground to build on. Letting that filth linger wouldâve undermined everything we do from now on."
He smirked, glancing at the Ra-Blessed Felinid nuzzling against him. "Besides... the worldâs still buzzing about the boss monster subjugation. Thatâll stay on the front page. In comparison, I think this is just some background noise. But even if it isnât, all we can do is move forward."
Their steps echoed along the tram platform.
Bastet was the one who broke the silence, her voice a velvety purr against Kaidenâs shoulder.
"Mmm~ Master," she cooed, nuzzling into him, her long nails tracing down the fabric of his shirt, "Speaking of my subjugation... how do you feel about subjugating me... again~? Iâve been well-behaved lately... but I canât promise Iâll stay that way forever~"
Kaiden laughed hearing what the seemingly always horny felinid had just said. He appreciated her honesty. Bastet was a woman who didnât like repressing her desires; she was a go-getter type of girl.
"After we get back from the Ashborn place," he said, brushing his knuckles along her jawline, "Iâm all yours. All four of yours."
Bastetâs tail flicked behind her in clear satisfaction, her golden eyes glimmering. "I canât wait~" she purred. Then she turned her head. Not toward Kaiden, but toward Aria.
This was a first.
Bastetâs tone softenedânot sultry, not mockingâjust calm.
"You worry too much," she said to the Moon Valkyrie. "This little data deletion thing or whatever it was... Itâs going to make him even more desirable."
Aria was visibly confused, so the tanned feline continued her explanation.
"Iâm not very well-versed in the inner workings of human women, so correct me if Iâm wrong. But my logic is telling me that women donât worship a man they can see from every angle. Mystery, rarity, power... aura. Thatâs what makes him addictive. Upload too much and he becomes accessible. Accessible means boring. They want someone with mystery, a man who is beyond their understanding."
She turned back to Kaiden with a dreamy sigh. "This keeps him suspended in their minds. A fantasy that breathes."
Kaiden reached over, gently stroking the space between her feline ears with practiced fingers. Bastet instantly began purring thanks to the affection, nearly tripping thanks to how eagerly she leaned into his touch.
But Kaidenâs smile wasnât just amused.
It was proud.
Because this wasnât just some playful comment. Bastet had never willingly spoken to the other girls like this before. She didnât do interaction. Her entire existence was about herself and her master. The others, to her, had been distractions. Clutter.
And now she was showing signs of that changing.
Maybe, he thought, it had something to do with the Q&A Stream. The one where sheâd tried to answer a few questions about her life before becoming his, only for her to collapse from a violent headache mid-answer.
Back then, Luna, Aria, and Nyx had rushed to her side, held her down, shielded her, and soothed her with no hesitation. Even though Bastet hadnât asked. Even though sheâd never thanked them.
Maybe that mattered to her more than she let on.
Luna gave a very surprised sideways glance at Bastet, then let out a low whistle.
"Well... The horny feline somehow has a better understanding of human nature than most of us do. I donât know how thatâs possible... But letâs leave that aside for now."
Bastet looked at the purple-haired Valkyrie surprised, and then oddly pleased despite basically being called a depraved catwoman. Thatâs what she was when it came to her thoughts about lying with Kaiden, so she found it a perfectly reasonable thing for Luna to say.
"I agree!" Nyx chirped from the side, bouncing up and down happily. Her large breasts moved with such impossible velocity that a nearby street vendor dropped his kebab onto the pavement with a greasy *splut.*
"How dare you?!" his wife shrieked, eyes wild. "Pick it up! Youâre going to eat that or youâre sleeping on the couch for the next three decades!"
But the man didnât move. Couldnât move. His gaze was fixed, glassy, helpless, locked onto the divine bounce.
She turned to glare at him, only to spot their young son beside the stand... just as paralyzed. His little fingers hung limp at his side as his ice cream fell, unnoticed, from his cone and splattered across his shoes.
The woman stared at them both for a second.
Then sighed like a woman whose fate had been sealed long ago.
"...Iâm going home."
And she did.
Nyx wasnât even aware of the family drama her grand feminine assets had caused. "If we gatekeep just the right amount, the fangirl candidates and those who are already full-blown fangirls wonât get bored. Theyâll double down. Theyâll go spiraling down the rabbit hole, completely obsessed. Soon, theyâll be combing through interview timestamps and zooming in on reflectionsâspeculating, theorizing, simping. And when they uncover even a shred of the mystery we created today..." She clapped both hands against her cheeks with a delighted squeal. "Itâll only make the thirst worse."
Kaiden glanced at her, then at Luna.
"Yup. Thatâs how you farm online bitches in the age of information," she mused out loud.
Kaiden grinned.
And just like that, the group turned the corner.
It wasnât more than a few hours before they reached their destination.
The Ashborn residence. They came to pick up the bodyguards they left behind and also to say goodbye to their loved ones as they rushed out when Kaiden got the quest.
But something was wrong.
A high-pitched, unhinged voice.
"Kai... Kai... Kai..."