Returning home

“Mari!”

Right upon entering, Aiju ran up to me and hugged me. “You won! You won!”

I couldn't help but smile as I slowly embraced her. “I did.”

Cassandra was expectantly less enthusiastic about it and Aiju regarded her with wary. “Who is naked lady? Mari has mate already.”

Explaining the situation to Aiju was rather tiresome, but eventually she seemed to get the gist of it. I gave her an order not to hurt Cassandra anyways, just to be on the safe side.

“Well, isn't this lovely?” Cassandra let out a very annoyed sigh. “Now that introductions are out of the way: Can we move to my place, so that I can get fucking dressed again?”

While I didn’t particularly care about Cassandra’s state of dress, there was indeed a reason to visit her room.

We found Fisti Cuffs in Cassandra's dorm room, sitting on the bed in nothing but a white pair of panties and a matching bra. She seemed rather embarrassed to see us in that state of dress.

“Release her”, I commanded while quickly looking away.

Cassandra, who in the meantime busied herself with putting on some spare underwear, rolled her eyes at me. “Can't.”

“What do you mean, you cant?”

“Are you...?” Cassandra took a deep breath and controlled herself. “Surely they told you this when you got the kitty cat. Something along the lines of: “Our obedience spell is hundred percent foolproof , Slaves can never be released! Trust us on this!”

I did indeed remember something of that sort. “In that case, as long as you never give her another order, things should be fine, right?”

That only earned me a smirk. “Yeah, as much as I would love to let you run into that one, my safety orders compel me to inform you that even if I never gave her another order, she would still be bound to me. You know, all that stuff about being in close proximity, ecetera ecetera.”

This was getting rather tedious. “Can't we just uninstall these orders?”

Cassandra let out another deep sigh, clearly her substitute for cursing and slipped in a form fitting black pair of pants. “That's not possible either. There is some leeway, yes, but the whole point of these safety orders is to prevent any such loophole. They are airtight, sorry to say.”

“Why not kill bad lady?”, Aiju casually suggested. She didn’t seem terribly interested in this. “Mari doesn’t need other mates.”

“Yeah, nice try, you bloodthirsty bitch. The moment the master dies, the **** will be compelled to commit suicide. Oh, fun fact: That includes **** of old age, so try to not croak before me?”

I felt sick. This system was utterly vile. Miss Cuffs seemed appropriately horrified as well.

Cassandra on the other hand was rather amused by our disgust as she casually put a shirt on. “You know, the solution is fairly obvious. Simply buy her for me. Then you can hand her over to a family member or whatever.”

I looked at her dumbfounded. “And that works?”

“Usually no, but remember, I’m a slaver. I sell slaves, so I had a special install ready to make sure there are no problems.”

Feels like Cassandra could have opened with that information, but it was something at the very least. “What do you think about it, Miss Cuffs?”

The fist fighter still looked rather shell shocked. “Yes, I...I...have friends back in me town. I...thank ya.”, she stammered out while shyly covering her body with her hands. She looked rather cute like this, but I probably shouldn’t be thinking that.

I nodded. “Alright, Cassandra, how much?”

The huntress laughed. “For fucks sake, boy! I’m your ****! You decide the price. Just give me a gold coin and were good.”

“R-right.” A bit awkwardly I rummaged in my coin pouch and fished out a gold coin, which I then handed to Cassandra.

The slaver nodded. “Pleasure making business with you. Alright, Fisti. This gentleman just bought you. You obey him now.”

...

“Did it work?” There was no indicator or anything of the sort.

Instead of answering Fisti punched Cassandra. “Oh, it worked, alright!”

Cassandra took the punch with a grin and wiped her bloody nose. “Why are there so many fucking hypocrites in this god damn tournament?”

“Yer fooking bitch! You made me run around in me knickers! I kill ye!”

“Miss Cuffs, enough!”, I shouted and straight away the martial artist dropped her attack. Well that at least answers that question. Guess I just got myself another ****. Wonderful.

“Grrr, this ain’t over, slaver!”, Miss Cuffs growled. “Ya better prepare yerself! I’m gonna rearrange yer face, ya slimy Bawbag!”

I coughed one. “Before that, shouldn’t you get dressed again?”

“Oh!”, the girl flushed. “R-right, on it!”, and quickly ran to a pile of clothes. Meanwhile Cassandra merely chuckled.

“I'm sorry”, I quickly apologized. “I...don't intend to order you around. Do you life far from here?”

“Aye”, the fist fighter replied. “The town of Nos in Leazas.”

I actually knew where that was. I traveled through that place on my way to Rasheul. Took me roughly 30 days.

“I am sorry for this arrangement. When this tournament is over we bring you to your friends, alright?”

“Just make sure these friends are actually trustworthy. You never know these days.” Cassandra smirked.

Maybe I should have let Miss Cuffs punch her some more.

“Yeah, I'm...thanks.” Miss Cuffs, now more properly dressed started to sniffle. “This...I thought me life was over.”

“That won't happen”, I assured her. “Your safe now, Miss Cuffs.”

“Ah, stop with this Miss stuff, It’s embarrassing. I’m Fisti.” She tried her best to smile.

“Nice to meet you, Fisti”, I smiled back and shook her hand. “I’m Mari and this is...”

“I'm hungry!”, Aiju announced.

I suppose it was getting close to lunch time.

And with that our next course of action was set. While we technically could order food, it was a beautiful day and so I decided to invite everyone for lunch at the great roof restaurant of the fighter’s dorm. Well, in actuality I was also hoping that Beatrice might show up there. I certainly had some pointed questions for the witch.

From way up here you could technically look inside the arena, but for convenience sake there was also a giant screen present to follow the matches. We arrived just early enough to see the final match of Bracket C.

It featured...her.

And as expected she effortlessly dominated her opponent. I tried my best to act nonchalant but I couldn’t deceive Aiju. “Mari, what’s wrong?”, the catgirl asked.

Perhaps it was mere pride, but I did not want to reveal my status as a lucky loser to the three girls. Or that I lost to this particular contestant. Cassandra would no doubt have a riot with that information.

“Nothing”, I hence mumbled a bit clumsily and focused on my quite delicious burger instead. Luckily, Aiju was too hungry to inquire further and instead devoured her large plate of fish sticks at an alarming pace.

The first fight of Bracket D wasn’t terrible interesting, although Cassandra left some disparaging comments. This changed however when Sylphid appeared on screen.

She was fighting against an opponent covered almost completely in flame.

I couldn't even begin to think how to handle someone like this, but Sylphid simply ignored the flames and punched her opponent until all her flames where extinguished.

This insane strategy actually worked, the flaming girl did not seem to be able to handle pain(or cold) at all and surrendered at the 10 minute mark. Sylphid did got burned badly in the process though.

“Lady Sylphid is so amazing!”, gushed Fisti. “I was hoping on a chance to test me mettle with her, but now I will just cheer her one while she’s crushing the competition! None of these chumps stand a chance!”

Well, I’m part of these chumps, but anyways, I'm happy that she perked up so fast. The back of my mind wondered if this had something to do with these emotion control orders, but I rather not think about that right now.

“The girl is good”, Cassandra conceded while munching on some fries. “But with all the monsters this year she makes it to the semis at best.”

“Ya have no clue!”, Fisti spat back. “Why are ya even here! We should have ya eating out of the garbage can!”

“Mari will beat all the monster, Mari is the strongest!”

“We better fucking hope that Mari is the smartest and drops out before he faces any of those freaks”, Cassandra countered.

Ha ha...yeah about that...

“Speaking of monsters.” Cassandra gestured towards the entrance of the terrace where a knight in shining armor entered. Many other guests seemed to pay attention as well and there was lots of hushed discussion. I had no idea who that was but I did remember the girl knight at his side.

“Over yonder he is, my Lord!”, the girl named Sanakia clamored loudly, pointing towards our group.

The golden knight smiled and marched towards our table.

If she had any reverence, Cassandra sure did a good job of hiding it. “If it isn't the illustrious golden knight himself! What pleasure do we unworthy commoners own this esteemed company?”

“Guard your tongue, slaver!”, Sanakia hissed. “You will show my Lord the proper respect or have me to answer!” She pulled out her sword and slashed it around a bit. Cassandra was not impressed.

“Calm yourself,”, the golden knight chided her before addressing me. “Mari Beta, I presume?”

I tried my best to not let my nervousness shown. Even among the fighters I encountered so far, the aura this knight exuded was something else. “Yes?”

The knight was still smiling, but it wasn’t a smile that reached his eyes. “It came to my attention that you employed the service of a devil in your last fight. Is that correct?”

“I did.”, came my reply. I saw no reason to hide it.

For a moment there was silence. Finally, the golden knight spoke. “It may not be against the rules, but I can't abide. Are you not ashamed to enlist the help of such twisted, evil creatures?”

“Look at Mr. Chivalry here”, Cassandra sneered. “This whole goddamn tournament is a feeding ground for twisted, evil creatures. What does a holy virgin like yourself even bring to such a sinful city?”

“My Lord is on a holy mission to slay a foul beast! This does not concern you! Be silent, wretch”, spoke Sanakia. “And he is NOT a virgin!”

“Can attest to that personally, eh?” Cassandra grinned which immediately caused Sanakia to blush and stammer.

“This is your last warning. Be silent.” The gaze the knight gave her was devastating. “And you would do well to chastise your wenches as well, Mr. Beta. They presume too much.”

“Not wrench, am mate”, Aiju pointed out. “Sparkly guy is weird.”

The knight ignored that. “Now, I believe I asked you a question:”

“I agree that using such an item was shameful”, I cautiously began, trying to smooth things over. “I was given it by the witch Beatrice without explanation. But that is no excuse.”

“It is not”, the golden knight agreed. “I will deal with this witch and her pet devil soon enough, if the Goddess permits it will even be in time to safe your soul.”

That would be nice.

“I imagine, you don't know where Beatrice is right now?”, I asked.

“I do not”, the knight replied. “My prey is of a much higher caliber.” And with that, he seemed to have lost all interest in the conversation. Just as quickly as he entered, the golden knight vacated the premise. Sanakia remained long enough to stuck her tongue out at me, before running after her master.

The moment they went Fisti exhaled loudly. She was on edge the entire conversation. “That was the golden knight, Silvester spartano d'artagan. One of the favorites in this tournament.”

“Sparkly guy big cheese?”, asked Aiju who didn't seem terribly impressed.

“Oh big cheese alright”, Cassandra confirmed. “The guy has a holy shield that's invulnerable to magic. And a blessed spear that can harm even a Dark Lord. He's not all sparkly items either. The fucker is an excellent fighter and can cast holy magic.”

“One of the monsters you spoke of?”, I asked.

“Yep, and not even the biggest one. That honor goes to his target. Probably the Devil Asmodeus or Dark Lord Ithere. Could also be the Crimson Vampire. Bloody hell, there’s even a fucking Valkyrie and Balance Breaker in the lineup. This years tournament is just a nightmare. I did not sign up for this.” Cassandra glared at me as if that was somehow my fault.

“You don't consider Beatrice part of the monsters?”, I asked.

“Oh you want me to talk about the B tier? Sure! Lets see, The Hero Arios Theoman, that cunt Minerva, that Black Swan big shot. And yes Beatrice and Sylphid fit in here as well. Seriously, drop the fuck out before its too late.”

“Lady Sylphid is S tier”, Fisti insisted. “She’ll win this year, ya see.”

“Which tier is Mari?”, Aiju asked.

“Little Shit tier.”

“Oh yeah? He still beat you, I guess that makes you worse then shite!”, Fisti countered.

“I lost against the devil! This stupid fucker didn't do shit!”, Cassandra moaned, loudly, as her insult orgasm triggered.

What a lovely lunch conversation this is. I finished the rest of my burger.

“Eww! Did ya just...wait hold on! Never mind that!”, Fisti suddenly screamed. “Wot was that golden wanker about yer soul?”

“Yeah, get this, this...ugh sold his soul to a devil like a unggghhh!.”

“Ya wot, mate?”, Fisti gasped loudly. “Why would ya to that?”

“Mari. Don’t sell soul.¨Is important.” Great, even Aiju now looks at me as if I’m crazy.

“Speak of the devil!”, I interjected rather awkwardly. “I want to talk with her or rather Beatrice. I was hoping she would show up here for lunch...but since that isn’t the case, will you help me find her?”

The girls agreed(some more enthusiastic then others) and so the hunt for the witch started.