Warlock of Oceans: My Poseidon System

"Hey, Cyrus, I got a question," Elora suddenly spoke up, taking off her mask and staring me down in the eyes as we dashed across the train tracks leading back to civilization. She seemed very serious about it, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt and listened intently. "What exactly happened before you came to the warehouse? You all of a sudden went silent, uploading information to our masks that allowed us to see the enemy… but then you came back with five heads? What really happened?"

"The technology I was using was immediately picked up on. It was more of a hunch rather than an actual fact, but it turned out to be correct. So, I hid in the shadows and waited for them whilst also turning our technology into a bomb. So as soon as they tried to touch my computer, it exploded, killing one of the six by blowing his body to bits. Then, all that was left was to kill the other five who I had taken by surprise. They were weak… so extremely weak to the point I got suspicious, so I immediately came to check up on you guys and, well, the rest you all know."

"Hmm… So, what will you tell the Boss then? You'll take full responsibility, right? I don't feel like getting scolded for your own sole mistake even though you did save us. So, I'm not going to help alleviate any of the punishments you'll be receiving."

"That's fine with me. I was going to take the punishments head-on anyway," I smiled beneath my mask, looking at the other group members who looked as guilty as Elora. Clearly, they had no intention of helping me take the blame for the disconnection and massive risk put to our group, but it's not like I was begging for their assistance anyway. I could handle myself against that woman… maybe… hopefully.

And just like that, after a few hours of running in the early morning and catching a passing train, we finally arrived back at school, where the presence of a demoness was awaiting my audience.

Of course, I went straight to her office, making sure to mitigate the damage I had done on our relationship. But, once I arrived at the twin wooden doors and felt a demonic aura so dense it could suffocate me, I began to rethink my options.

"Maybe I should just leave-"

The doors flung open, and a pale hand grabbed the collar of my shirt. I was immediately dragged deep into the den of this demoness. Her aura was keeping me in place as she pulled out a chair and slammed me down onto it, tendrils of darkness threatening to kill me if I even so much as moved a muscle.

She swirled around her desk, her feet seemingly floating across the ground before she sat down gently in her chair. One leg crossed over the other, folding the tight leather pants she currently had on. And as she unbuttoned the top knot in her white button-up blouse and loosened the vanta-black tie, bringing everything together, I gulped down a large drop of saliva.

"Ay, boss… It's just a joke. Nothing more than a silly joke. I mean, we all came back in one piece, and we even accomplished more than the intended mission… so can't you cut me some slack-"

She interrupted me with a long sigh. Her minty fresh breath almost seemed to manipulate all the way to my nose, stimulating my brain to pay even more attention. "I can't control you. Also, you're not my child, nor are you even my student. You're more of a co-worker than anything, but also my employee at the same time. So, I hope that we can come to some kind of agreement where I don't have to fire you, but you can also listen to my requests more often."

Her approach to this conversation was much more diplomatic than I initially thought. I anticipated a beating or at least a verbal beating to put me in place, but I guess she realized none of that would work. In fact, that might make me want to quit this little side job more than anything else.

"I would also like to apologize once again. I apologized before and was actually very sincere about it, but some things came up. They were stronger than the information we were given, so I was forced to step in… also, I will admit there were some selfish reasons involved at the same time. So I would like to apologize for that again."

"No, I understand," the woman sighed, leaning back in her chair, mulling over whatever was swirling in that abyss of a mind she had. "I won't punish you, but I won't accept your apology until you do something more for this group. So, I have a proposal that you might be interested in… do you like books?"

"What? You want me to be some kind of librarian to make up for all I did?"

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"Hmmmm… That's actually not that bad of an idea-"

"Woah, woah, woah… I was just joking," I quickly interrupted her while nervously laughing. Reading and writing weren't really my thing. I mean, literature, in general, was something I could hardly comprehend. When it came to fighting, sure, I was smart, but book smart and general knowledge was something I wasn't the greatest at. It took me weeks to just get through a single book, and especially if it's something I'm not interested in, like monster encyclopedias or anything related to the system… then it might take me longer than just a few weeks.

"Pffft… I was just joking as well," the woman smirked at me, making fun of me with just her smug expression. "You're not gonna be a librarian, but I will give you access to the higher levels of the library within the school. Normally, you would have to take a test to access the free skill books, but if I give the school my word, then I'll let you access them… how does that sound?"

Is she serious? She's basically letting me rob the entire school if that's all there is to it. I could stack out my status almost instantly if I wanted to… but there must be something more. There is no way this woman would just let me infinitely power up without there being something more to the deal.

"Seeing how you're smiling so much, you must be thinking you can stack out your status, right?" The boss smirked, reading my expression even though I wasn't really trying to hide it. "Of course, it'll be a one-time thing. And you will only get to select three skill books out of the mid-tier section. You'll have as much time as you need, but I'm not just giving this to you for free."

"That's a given. So what is it? Want me to kill somebody? Steal something for you? Depending on how hard it is, I might have to negotiate the prize."

"No, I want you to teach the four other assassins in your group," The boss smiled as if knowing I was going to have a salty reaction to this horrible proposal. Although, she didn't let me speak up as she quickly cracked open her vibrant pink lips. "But, before you say anything else, I hope you can teach them properly. Teach them how to control their emotions, and it might sound cruel, but you need to teach them to see our targets as nothing more than things. They can't see them as real people; otherwise, they will hesitate, and that hesitation could be the difference between a successful mission and a failed mission. Maybe even life or death."

I sat in my chair, staring into the woman's eyes as I mulled over this deal. It was definitely a good growth opportunity for the four, but the thing is… I couldn't give any less of a shit about their well-being. They're nothing more than co-workers in the slaughterhouse. If this was with my siblings, then I could maybe agree to this deal just as it is.

"Raise the prize. Five mid-tier books or one high-tier book. I don't mind either, but that's the only way I'll agree to the deal. But I do have a question… why doesn't your brother, or whoever that other guy is, teach them? I don't see him around here."

"Hmmm… I guess I didn't tell you, but he's the one who put together the blades of this academy. He's me but for the blades. He's my position, but for the strongest students in our academy, so I hope you can see that's a difficult process when he has even more work to do than myself."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Bullshit, those blades are on their own. They handle their missions by themselves and proceed with them however they see fit. Don't try to lie to me to excuse your brother's laziness…."

"*sigh*... whatever. We'll do one high-tier book... Anyways, come in. Let's proceed with the next part of this meeting."