The task at hand

John was a bit confused about the entire situation. Not the topics covered, but rather how he first had stated to be on a short timer and now decided to literally tell him stuff about Jesus and world politics. However, John did sit down and waited for the following explanation. He wouldn't stop the guy from giving him the main reason he came here in the first place: information.

"Oh just a little something... What I am telling you now is forbidden knowledge and if you ever let someone else in on it they will most likely kill you just so you don't tell others. Also you will forget about it due to some artifacts later. Don't bother writing it down or anything, it all gets erased. Now to the topic at hand." The Hero Maker casually dropped this stone on John's plan to gather info and run. Memory deleting artifacts are dick moves, John decided.

"First of all a little explanation. The Auction is something like abyssal amazon. You buy stuff from them and they sent drones to you with it. Mostly magic artifacts or stuff. The Fateweavers are barrier masters. They are the only people to know how to make barriers with multiple rules, settings or time dilation or some shit." John raised an eyebrow. If he remembered correctly, he himself had already made a barrier with 5 rules, as the Hero Maker very well knew since he had taken it over somehow.

"Wait. Before you say anything John, let me correct myself. They are the only people who know how to make affordable barriers. What you did would have collapsed in less than a second if I wouldn't have jumped to your aid and paid the energy cost for it. And even for me that took a lot of my power. If a Fateweaver would have done the same thing, it would probably be even affordable by you to do it, energy wise. Not affordable with money tho, they are quite expensive." John swallowed. He really had to test out what barriers he could and couldn't do by himself sometime. Well at least this explained why Henrietta had just entered his barrier with no problems on her mind. She assumed him too weak to make a dangerous barrier in the first place. That bitch! Served her right what she got.

"The last ones are the Apothecary. They are healers and body reformers. I assume you are familiar with shadow run?" John was but he was surprised that the Hero Maker knew the science fiction pen and paper game. "Just imagine them as the masters of all biotech. If someone knows how to clone, create or change a biological mass, it's them. Nowadays they are mostly just leading overcharging hospitals. Or selling **** as doping for abyssal fights." Okay. So Amazon, bio tech and reality warps. John could manage those ideas, not too much to deal with so far.

"Now to come back to the dangerous info bit: I very recently remembered something. That was not due to me having bad memory or anything, but that memory is as I stated earlier deleted from everyone's mind unless they want you to remember. So listen closely.

The three institutions I just told you about are nothing but a facade. They are all being lead by one guild. The strongest and mightiest members of all three are being absorbed into the mother guild. I wish I could tell you more than this, but due to their incredible protection, I don't know their goals nor their ambitions. What I do know however is the reason they gave me and apparently quite some people back their memories." He looked around expecting some reactions to his next words.

"The royal family that is leading that super guild is having a daughter who has come of age and they are looking for a husband." The wish for gasps or whatever else he expected was not fulfilled, since most people present only shrugged it off.

"Come on that is big news. Give it up a bit for this. You should be like 'oh Hero Maker will you try to marry her?' Or 'God, I wonder what she looks like!' Or even 'is she powerfull?' Anything would be fine. Girls we need to work on this!" To John's surprise it was Layklé who spoke up next.

"Do you think she would be okay with a lesbian marriage? Cause I would be."

The Hero Maker's eyes went wide in glee. "Sadly not but thank you for asking. A good question coming from you." He put his hand on her shoulder and John would have sworn she tried to hug him, but quickly stopped herself as he pulled back his hand again. What was going on with her?

"Now for the other boring people here... I want to tell you the problem. As I just said, they are requesting a male. We happen to have exactly two males in our group of heroes who are not knowingly associated with me. One is gay and refused, the other... is busy with something else." The looks that were exchanged spoke more than enough. Most people here knew who that was, and noone seemed to object to the fact that he was unsuitable. John had to step up now.

"Rat's ass. I will not marry some mafia daughter for you just 'cause you don't have enough secret guys in your group." He wanted to make this clear early. Sure he could jump out at any time anyway, but he liked these people. So he wanted them to not rely on him before he was certain to stay.

"Marry her? John are you crazy? If I thought I could get you to marry her, I would have trained you personally since the second I met you. No offense but you are hardly a candidate. But that doesn't matter as long as you pretend to be one. All we need is for you to play the interested candidate so we can stick around. It is bad enough that such a powerfull guild exists, given that she represents an entire pillar our world rests on, but we can't do anything against that now." He breathed a few times, obviously displeased with his own words and statements.

"What we can do though is trying to find out what their abilities and limits are, what they try to achieve and most importantly, if the guy who will be the husband and future leader of that guild is potentially a chosen one. Because I am certain they will send some of their men in there, the situation is just too good for them not to. Just think about it. They are trying to take over the five stars for years. If they manage to control the outside pillar and the democratic pillar, it would only be a matter of time till they just get a seat in the ten seats. They don't even need to take over one." He sighed again.

"Anyway, John. I need you to play interested in marrying her. I dont know how she selects the one she wants in the end but I whole heartedly believe that it will be the family's call in the end and you, a newcomer in the abyss and noone worth mentioning behind you besides the most wanted man on the planet, whom you won't even mention... yeah sou won't be pick #1." John nodded. This seemed easy enough.

"Easy there, tiger. Before you agree, I need to tell you something. If you apply as a candidate you need to do so by abyssal law. That means you wouldn't be ever allowed to marry anyone else after, even when she denied you." His eyes went wide.

"You demand that I become a technical eunuch? Unable to fuck anything?" The Hero Maker laughed.

"No, no, don't worry. You can still use your dick as before. Just no marriage. At least none in the abyss. That means you can't marry into a powerfull family, or anything. If you do marry in the abyss, it must be someone who takes over your status. Everyone may only ask one family for inclusion through marriage in the abyss. So if you ask them, Gaia won't let you ask someone else. But girls can still ask you. That will be hard because you will also lose your memories about even asking her. So I apologize to ask this of you but, please, John, can you do..." With the biggest smile John cut him off for once.

"I am okay with it. I assume you will train me as a payment or just make me stronger somehow? Sorry to say this, but I want something to stand alone on in the abyss if you demand of me to give up the chance to gain power through marriage." John hadn't even thought about marrying up in the abyss before, so giving it up was easy. Especially if there was a power boost in it for him.

"Yes, of course," the Hero Maker quickly agreed. "But... based on the kind of relation you have to your team, I think we need their agreement as well. After all, your power is connected to each other's, so if you give up some of yours, they should be included."

Now John was in a pinch. On the one hand they were more slaves than comrades to him, so their opinions on this wouldn't matter much if he made the call. On the other hand a reveal of this relationship dynamic would probably ruin every chance of ever forming a contract with any hero who heard of it. And John planned on contracting them all.

Before he could find a good way out of the dilemma though, one of the three spoke up and replied to the question.