Read Novel Full Chapter 277: Father-Daughter Contract
Chapter 277: Father-Daughter Contract
Villy ran across the cobblestone street as they reached the final cluster of fog machines located near the church.
The fog was thinning down now, though it was still present in the air around them, clinging to the buildings like ghostly fingers that refused to let go completely.
"I hope Lucius catches that ghost before it causes even more damage to the set." Arianne muttered under her breath as she ran as well, hiding a shiver that ran down her spine.
The fact that a perverted ghost actually existed and was amongst them made her skin crawl quite a lot.
She’d dealt with handsy fans before at conventions, but a literal ghost that could strip people? That was a whole new level of violation.
"Same here." Lala said as they reached the cluster finally and they split apart to cover more ground efficiently.
Each cluster had about seven fog machines positioned in a semi-circle, so they needed to turn down the valves individually.
The machines were still pumping out thick white fog at maximum capacity, obscuring the cobblestones beneath their feet. "I’m sure it’s an Awakened from a rival group but what could be worse than attempting to spoil the fog machines and harassing the cas—"
There was a sudden boom that echoed across the entire set, reverberating through the air like thunder, and even through the receding fog, Villy and the girls could see as the massive fan detonated several times in succession.
Each explosion lit up the sky with bright orange flashes that painted the fog in hellish colors. The parts came crashing down toward the land below, spinning and tumbling through the air in a deadly rain of metal and machinery.
Lala bit her lip as veins popped on her head and she willed the wind around her desperately, raising both hands toward the sky.
At the end of the day, she was just a D-rank Wind Awakened, but if she could use her wind to keep these parts in the air, then the set would not be destroyed.
Her mana reserves were already lowered from clearing the fog earlier, but she pushed herself anyway, feeling the strain in her chest as she forced more power out.
However, her worries were small as the parts suddenly stopped mid-air, suspended as if they were held by invisible threads that caught each piece perfectly.
Some parts hovered just meters above the rooftops while others floated higher, completely motionless despite their previous momentum.
It was clear that Lucius had used space manipulation to prevent any further damage, and she breathed a sigh of relief, her shoulders sagging as the tension left her body.
"Thank you, Master Lucius." She muttered under her breath gratefully and continued turning the valves for the fog machines with renewed focus.
The metal wheels were stiff from being forced to maximum output for so long, requiring her to use both hands on some of them.
If the set had been destroyed completely, the movie itself would have been postponed indefinitely. The insurance claims alone would have bankrupted the production company, not to mention the careers that would be ruined.
Arianne moved to the next machine, gripping the valve tightly. "How much do you think the damage will cost?"
"The fan alone was worth about three hundred thousand royals though we have a spare... we’ll need to get another," Lala said grimly, wrestling with a particularly stubborn valve. "And that’s not counting labor costs for installation or the delayed shooting schedule."
Villy’s eyes widened at the number.
...
The girl grunted as Lucius still held her by the hair as all the fruits of her labor were suspended mid-air above them.
Her dark green hair was tangled in his fingers and her scalp burned from the grip, but she refused to cry out or show weakness.
"I don’t particularly like beating children up... but you’re no child." Lucius said as he looked at her face carefully, studying the hardened expression that no eleven-year-old should possess. "However, if you answer my questions, I’ll give you a chance to change your li—"
The girl spat in his face with as much force as she could muster, however the spit was stopped by Infinity and it shot back into her face, staining her forehead with her own saliva.
The droplet slid down slowly, mixing with the dirt that was already there.
"Feisty, huh? I like it." Lucius said with a slight grin, and she reached her hands up with desperate determination.
They had become ethereal and translucent, shifting from solid flesh to ghostly energy in an instant.
The moment they phased through his hands like smoke passing through air, he felt the nerves there shut down for a minute, the sensation spreading through his fingers like ice water.
The numbness forced him to let go of her head reflexively, making her fall.
’Interesting.’ He thought, genuinely impressed by the tactical use of her ability. Just as the girl was turning ethereal to escape into the fog by becoming transparent and intangible, Lucius landed a strong kick across her face before she could complete the transformation.
She shot downward to the ground like a cannonball and created a crater there, the cobblestones cracking in a spiderweb pattern from the impact.
She coughed up saliva and blood as well, the metallic taste filling her mouth.
He hovered down casually and grabbed her by the leg this time instead, hoisting her up into the air by her ankle. Her body dangled limply, too dazed from the impact to resist immediately.
"I may like feisty people, however if you stress me out... I’ll kill you." He said calmly, his voice carrying absolute certainty, and she gulped when she looked up at his face.
There was no remorse within those eyes. "So are you ready to talk?"
The girl gulped again, her throat was dry, and gave a small nod despite the blood dripping from her nose and lip.
She’d seen that look before in Father’s eyes when she failed their tests.
Lucius smiled warmly at her compliance. The murderous intent in his eyes had vanished completely and was replaced with a warm smile that reached his eyes. It was like the devil becoming an angel in the span of a heartbeat.
"Your name?" He asked conversationally, as if they were meeting at a café rather than him holding her upside down by the ankle, and she coughed a bit, using her hand to cover her mouth as more blood came up.
"I..." Her voice sounded a bit hoarse from screaming earlier and the impact that had knocked the wind from her lungs. "I’m Subject 01."
Lucius’s eyes widened with recognition at the designation.
"Oh, subject 01 from Aribio Industries?" He asked with sudden interest, and the girl’s eyes widened in genuine shock, then she nodded slowly, confused about how he knew.
It had been a sub-plot of one of the future arcs in the novel, though one that Lucius had mostly forgotten about until now.
Aribio Industries were taking little children and turning them into Awakened weapons through forced experimentation. After all, everyone awakened naturally when they were 18 years old.
There were a few rare situations of awakening beforehand at 16 or so, but it was mostly 18 across the board, so a child of 12 being able to awaken showed that it was a forceful awakening using artificial methods. "How many subjects have been created by the Aribio Industry right now?"
There were about a hundred test subjects initially in the novel’s timeline, and the whole arc had just skipped his mind until this moment, as well as most of the arcs that weren’t that interesting or relevant to the main plot.
He was having too much fun in this world after all, enjoying the freedom rather than stressing about every minor subplot.
She let out a small scream of pain as the collar on her neck grew red hot suddenly, the metal heating up against her skin and leaving burn marks.
’Oh?’ He thought with interest and reached for the collar with his free hand to examine it more closely.
The girl immediately placed both her hands around his desperately to prevent him from touching it, her eyes were wide with terror.
’This collar prevents them from spilling secrets about the Industry and self-destructs... How could I forget this detail?’ Lucius realized. It was a classic move for these kinds of organizations.
"If you touch it, I DIE!" She screamed out desperately, her voice cracking with genuine fear, but he touched it regardless of her warning and the girl closed her eyes tightly, bracing for the explosion that would decapitate her.
Only for the pain to stop completely and suddenly. The burning sensation vanished and the feeling of the collar around her neck was gone too, as if it had never existed.
She opened her eyes slowly, reaching up with trembling fingers to feel her bare neck in disbelief.
"Now answer my question." Lucius said patiently, still holding her upside down by the ankle.
She dangled helplessly and gave a small sigh of relief, the tension draining from her small body.
"I am currently the only test subject... since my awakening was a success, Father wanted to get more children to experiment on after I finished this mission successfully."
"Father? You do know that this man wanted to use that collar to kill you, right?" He asked seriously, and the girl averted her gaze, staring at the cobblestones below rather than meeting his eyes.
If she didn’t call him Father, then he would beat her up severely. It had been practically beaten into her over months of conditioning and punishment. "Well, I see... the situation isn’t helpless then. You know the location of their base, right?"
"Yes. If you could help me stop Fa... him and the rest of the researchers from doing this to other children, I would be very grateful." The girl said carefully, still struggling not to use the title she’d been forced to adopt, and Lucius let her dangle while stroking his chin thoughtfully.
If he handled this situation now, that was one less competitor in the way of his peaceful retirement in the future.
He planned to retire by 25 at the absolute latest. He couldn’t be that old and still in the game, grinding through dungeons and dealing with organizational politics.
"I see, do you have any way to pay me?" He asked practically. "Going out of my way to attack people for free is against my personal code of conduct."
The girl bit her lip in frustration, knowing exactly where this was going.
"I’m broke... but if you manage to take down that man, you can blackmail him for a lot of money." She pointed out with surprising business acumen for an eleven-year-old, and Lucius hid the urge to smirk. This girl really thought like him, cutting straight to the practical benefits.
"Unfortunately, the money of the owner of the Aribio Industries doesn’t belong to you legally." Lucius said, poking a hole in her logic. "How about I give you my own contract instead...?"
"Huh?" She looked at his face with confusion, her upside-down perspective making it harder to read his expression.
"Yes, I planned to give you a regular employment contract, however you are obviously below 18, right?" He asked for confirmation, and she nodded quickly.
"I’m 11..."
’Aren’t children at her age supposed to be in school learning math and making friends...’ He thought with some annoyance. That man really needed discipline and possibly several broken bones.
"Okay okay, I have a new contract for you then. We’ll do a Father-daughter contract." He said while placing his other hand at his chest even while dangling her upside down by the ankle. "I’ll become your legal guardian and I’ll protect you as well as ensure that you live comfortably, however you’ll let me use your power however I see fit for content creation and dungeon streaming."
He wasn’t interested in the girl herself on a personal level. Her power was more or less her selling point right now from a business perspective.
He couldn’t hire her like that without it being listed under child labor abuse or whatever legal complications existed, so she would just have to become his adopted daughter legally and then he would get to delve more into what her powers were capable of and how they could be used on stream for unique content.
Everything he did was for profit at the end of the day. Sentiment was expensive.
"Do we have a deal?" Lucius asked directly, and she bit her lip before nodding slowly, weighing her options and realizing she had very few. "Good, I’ll make a very lengthy contract with proper clauses when we get back with the girls... Now we just have to go stop that man from creating more subjects."
"Master Lucius!" Lala ran over to Lucius with the two girls behind her, their footsteps echoing on the cobblestones.
The fog had cleared enough that visibility was almost normal again. The fire had stopped surrounding the suspended parts and they were lowered carefully to a pile in the corner of the town without much issue, stacked neatly to avoid further damage. "Is that the ghost?"
"Oh ghost?" Lucius raised the girl up by her ankle for them to see better, and she didn’t resist or try to escape anymore. "Yes she is... however calm down, she was forced to do this against her will and I’ll be going to have a chat with that person about forcing a child to do labor and targeting you as well."
Lala, who had been fuming with righteous anger just moments ago, calmed down immediately at his words.
"Ma... Ma..." Her face was a bit red with embarrassment at his consideration. "Master Lucius, you don’t have to do this for me..."
’For you?’ Lucius raised an eyebrow in confusion. He was going to extort money and eliminate competition. Where did she fit in all that motivation?
"I’m sorry about your fan. How will that be fixed?" Lucius asked, changing the subject and gesturing at the debris pile with his free hand.
Lala shrugged, though there was visible relief on her face. "Don’t worry about it, Master Lucius. We already had a spare on the ground in storage and I’ve called the engineers to mount the spare fan tonight. Please don’t get hurt during your mission."
She bowed a bit respectfully.
"Thank you." He said and leaned forward, patting her head gently with his free hand and making the dwarf blush even more deeply, her cheeks turning bright red.
Then he turned to Villy with a reassuring smile. "I’ll come back in a while to pick you up... wait for me, it won’t be that long. Maybe an hour or two at most."
Villy nodded enthusiastically, though she looked disappointed at missing the action. Lucius suddenly disappeared in a blur of movement, leaving Arianne’s expression trembling with barely contained frustration.
He hadn’t even given her the time of day or acknowledged her presence beyond a glance.
She fell to her knees on the cobblestones, making Villy and Lala look at her with concerned looks on their faces.
’What went wrong...?’ She thought desperately, replaying every interaction in her mind. Had she not been ignoring him enough? Too obvious? Not impressive enough?
"Miss Arianne, are you alright?" Villy asked worriedly, kneeling down beside her and placing a hand on her shoulder.
...
Lucius now floated above one of the warehouses of the Industry and smiled with anticipation.
The building was massive, easily the size of three aircraft hangars, and completely unmarked. The girl looked at him from upside down, still dangling by her ankle.
"Is this place important?" Lucius asked, surveying the structure below with his spatial awareness ability.
The girl nodded eagerly. "Yes... this warehouse stores the usual things he stocks with but below, there is a portion of experimental equipment, research data, forced awakening serums, and subject containment units prepared for the next batch of children."
Lucius nodded with satisfaction and raised his hand toward the sky, releasing several orbs from his Inventory that materialized in the air around him glowing with different colors.
All of them were releasing concentrated elemental energy, raining down several elements on the warehouse in a coordinated barrage of devastating power.
Fire, ice, lightning... all descended simultaneously in a beautiful display of destruction. What followed was an explosion that blew caution to the wind and lit up the entire district with a mushroom cloud of destruction that could probably be seen from anywhere in New Avalon.