Chapter 359
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Rhoda snapped wide awake, her eyes habitually snapping open. She could feel a gust of wind brushing against her bare face, which made her eyes dart around.
She knew that she wasn't in her bunker back at the company, so where was this?
Immediately, she caught sight of her five subordinates' faces staring back at her with looks of relief.
Or rather, three looks of relief with David and Kiel staring at her with strange, undecipherable faces.
Rhoda was stunned. What did that look mean?
She thought back carefully into her memories, and it clicked. She controlled her instinctual reaction to blanch as she thought about her inexcusable and utterly deplorable behaviour.
Despite the control she had over her facial features, her face still turned red in embarrassment. Too embarrassing! How could she still look David and Kiel in the eyes after this?!
She remembered every single thing she'd done earlier, and she almost wanted to look for a mushroom to commit suicide again.
At that thought, she fiercely knocked her head against the wall, getting calls of alarm from her three subordinates that had been spared this form of strange torture. They were shocked at what their cool-headed captain was doing.
She felt like she could die from embarrassment. What had she been doing?! Just what was it that had been so potent it had been able to affect all three of them who were at the advanced stage without them noticing it?
Try as she might, she could not bash the memories out of her head.
Right now, all she wanted to do was dig a hole and bury herself. Luckily, it didn't appear like either David or Kiel would ever bring up the memories of what they'd done in that clearing while searching for their target.
Rhoda's magic instinctively moved as she prepared to use it to get rid of the ropes surrounding her, but the magic dissipated upon trying to leave her skin.
Startled, she looked at the rest of her subordinates.
Nancy nodded, confirming her guesses.
Rhoda fell silent. Her mind whirled as she tried her best to dispel those memories in her head, turning and looking at where they were.
The only thing that she could see were trees. Subconsciously, she looked for the mushrooms, and her face changed subtly.
Come to think of it, didn't their targets have familiars that correlated to the animals that had appeared before them yesterday?
A bunny, a wolf and some form of avian creature that she'd never seen before. The one she didn't know anything about was the mushrooms, but if they appeared at the same time, then it should have something to do with the target.
She had to find a way to get word to the company that they'd been captured. It was too long for them to wait until they were notably missing, so there was little choice for them.
At the exact moment she had that thought, a figure dropped down from above, causing the six of them to tense up.
None of them had noticed that there had been someone there at all.
Alec looked at the six startled figures in front of him and ran his eyes over them. They were all relatively well trained, and they seemed useful enough for him to keep them around in the future.
Of course, he had already taken care of pesky brand that they'd been afflicted with, and with Loeri's control over them, he could ensure that they wouldn't betray him in the future.
With it off, they would be free to move according to their own judgement. It was just that… he suspected that the lot of them were all brainwashed to loyally follow the company's every command.
Such as killing and espionage.
In that case, he would have no choice…
\"Who are you?\" Rhoda asked seriously. She shifted her body a little in front of her subordinates, trying in vain to block them from his view.
Rhoda didn't know why the look in the man's eyes were a little approving, but they were gone in the next second, making her wonder if she imagined it.
\"Smart,\" Alec said instead. \"Tell me. Who do you work for?\"
Rhoda sneered. \"You'll have to kill us first.\"
Alec didn't blink. He could see that from the body language of all six of the bound people here, they were all willing to die to keep the secrets of the company even with the seal off.
They weren't like Sekai, who had railed under the pressure of the brand, and none of them were Sins, who would have been acting against their instincts.
Instead, the six of them would definitely never betray the company that had brainwashed them so thoroughly.
He threw a seal forward.
The moment it landed on the ground, the six people from the company were put to sleep.
Well, five of them were instantly sent to sleep. The last remaining one, the captain, struggled to stay awake.
\"What… do you want…\" she murmured, before she ultimately lost the battle and succumbed to sleep as well.
Alec resisted the urge to let out a sigh.
Instead, he stroked Loeri's cap, instructing it.
Loeri hopped down, sprinkling more spores on each person and strengthening the mind-control spores that it had already left on them.
The Thousand Poison Mushroom… it was a really mystical magical beast. It was said that partners of this magical beast were always blessed with luck.
That was, both bad luck and good luck!
Instead, Alec found that this description perfectly fit the characteristics of a Main Character, with their string of bad and good luck.
He felt a little complicated.
At this moment, Elysia dropped down from above, standing beside him.
She hugged him lightly, smiling at him.
He looked down at her little face, and a faint smile surfaced on his lips.
But he was still feeling conflicted inside considering what he was planning to make Loeri do.
He'd talked about it with Elysia while the lot of them had still been unconscious, but he really couldn't find a way to remove the brainwashing on them.
The only thing he could do was to replace the source of their 'loyalty' using Loeri and treat them humanely.
Yet, there was still a part of him that detested what he was doing. Wasn't this exactly what he'd been combating when he made the Spectre's seal?
Was this not doing the same thing, but in a different manner? This time, it really was control, wasn't it?
Granted, he could just ask them to live lives on their own, but he had a feeling that they wouldn't know what to do without orders.
The captain of the team had seemed a little more resistant towards him, but he read from her body language that it was because she couldn't even fathom the thought of betraying the organization.
Was what he was doing right?
But… he still had goals that he was after, so he hardened his heart.
These six people were now under his control, but he swore that he would never make them do anything that they were uncomfortable with.
He paused slightly, a little helpless. Would they even tell him if they felt uncomfortable with something?
Elysia saw his conflict and hugged him tighter, causing him to break out from the cycle of vicious thoughts.
\"Hey!\" she said, \"Look at me.\"
Elysia took Alec's hand and placed it on her chest.
Alec instinctively wanted to remove it. Why was she placing his hand on her chest!
Elysia glared at him. \"Look. Listen. Feel. As long as you never go against your own moral principals and do right by them, isn't it fine? After all, you're saving them from the company who would likely make them do much worse things. They can even die at any time if they displease the higherups.\"
He wondered… how was it that she could calm him down with just words alone?
Alec's eyes softened, and he softly kissed Elysia's lips.
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Rhoda snapped wide awake, her eyes habitually snapping open. She could feel a gust of wind brushing against her bare face, which made her eyes dart around.
She knew that she wasn't in her bunker back at the company, so where was this?
Immediately, she caught sight of her five subordinates' faces staring back at her with looks of relief.
Or rather, three looks of relief with David and Kiel staring at her with strange, undecipherable faces.
Rhoda was stunned. What did that look mean?
She thought back carefully into her memories, and it clicked. She controlled her instinctual reaction to blanch as she thought about her inexcusable and utterly deplorable behaviour.
Despite the control she had over her facial features, her face still turned red in embarrassment. Too embarrassing! How could she still look David and Kiel in the eyes after this?!
She remembered every single thing she'd done earlier, and she almost wanted to look for a mushroom to commit suicide again.
At that thought, she fiercely knocked her head against the wall, getting calls of alarm from her three subordinates that had been spared this form of strange torture. They were shocked at what their cool-headed captain was doing.
She felt like she could die from embarrassment. What had she been doing?! Just what was it that had been so potent it had been able to affect all three of them who were at the advanced stage without them noticing it?
Try as she might, she could not bash the memories out of her head.
Right now, all she wanted to do was dig a hole and bury herself. Luckily, it didn't appear like either David or Kiel would ever bring up the memories of what they'd done in that clearing while searching for their target.
Rhoda's magic instinctively moved as she prepared to use it to get rid of the ropes surrounding her, but the magic dissipated upon trying to leave her skin.
Startled, she looked at the rest of her subordinates.
Nancy nodded, confirming her guesses.
Rhoda fell silent. Her mind whirled as she tried her best to dispel those memories in her head, turning and looking at where they were.
The only thing that she could see were trees. Subconsciously, she looked for the mushrooms, and her face changed subtly.
Come to think of it, didn't their targets have familiars that correlated to the animals that had appeared before them yesterday?
A bunny, a wolf and some form of avian creature that she'd never seen before. The one she didn't know anything about was the mushrooms, but if they appeared at the same time, then it should have something to do with the target.
She had to find a way to get word to the company that they'd been captured. It was too long for them to wait until they were notably missing, so there was little choice for them.
At the exact moment she had that thought, a figure dropped down from above, causing the six of them to tense up.
None of them had noticed that there had been someone there at all.
Alec looked at the six startled figures in front of him and ran his eyes over them. They were all relatively well trained, and they seemed useful enough for him to keep them around in the future.
Of course, he had already taken care of pesky brand that they'd been afflicted with, and with Loeri's control over them, he could ensure that they wouldn't betray him in the future.
With it off, they would be free to move according to their own judgement. It was just that… he suspected that the lot of them were all brainwashed to loyally follow the company's every command.
Such as killing and espionage.
In that case, he would have no choice…
\"Who are you?\" Rhoda asked seriously. She shifted her body a little in front of her subordinates, trying in vain to block them from his view.
Rhoda didn't know why the look in the man's eyes were a little approving, but they were gone in the next second, making her wonder if she imagined it.
\"Smart,\" Alec said instead. \"Tell me. Who do you work for?\"
Rhoda sneered. \"You'll have to kill us first.\"
Alec didn't blink. He could see that from the body language of all six of the bound people here, they were all willing to die to keep the secrets of the company even with the seal off.
They weren't like Sekai, who had railed under the pressure of the brand, and none of them were Sins, who would have been acting against their instincts.
Instead, the six of them would definitely never betray the company that had brainwashed them so thoroughly.
He threw a seal forward.
The moment it landed on the ground, the six people from the company were put to sleep.
Well, five of them were instantly sent to sleep. The last remaining one, the captain, struggled to stay awake.
\"What… do you want…\" she murmured, before she ultimately lost the battle and succumbed to sleep as well.
Alec resisted the urge to let out a sigh.
Instead, he stroked Loeri's cap, instructing it.
Loeri hopped down, sprinkling more spores on each person and strengthening the mind-control spores that it had already left on them.
The Thousand Poison Mushroom… it was a really mystical magical beast. It was said that partners of this magical beast were always blessed with luck.
That was, both bad luck and good luck!
Instead, Alec found that this description perfectly fit the characteristics of a Main Character, with their string of bad and good luck.
He felt a little complicated.
At this moment, Elysia dropped down from above, standing beside him.
She hugged him lightly, smiling at him.
He looked down at her little face, and a faint smile surfaced on his lips.
But he was still feeling conflicted inside considering what he was planning to make Loeri do.
He'd talked about it with Elysia while the lot of them had still been unconscious, but he really couldn't find a way to remove the brainwashing on them.
The only thing he could do was to replace the source of their 'loyalty' using Loeri and treat them humanely.
Yet, there was still a part of him that detested what he was doing. Wasn't this exactly what he'd been combating when he made the Spectre's seal?
Was this not doing the same thing, but in a different manner? This time, it really was control, wasn't it?
Granted, he could just ask them to live lives on their own, but he had a feeling that they wouldn't know what to do without orders.
The captain of the team had seemed a little more resistant towards him, but he read from her body language that it was because she couldn't even fathom the thought of betraying the organization.
Was what he was doing right?
But… he still had goals that he was after, so he hardened his heart.
These six people were now under his control, but he swore that he would never make them do anything that they were uncomfortable with.
He paused slightly, a little helpless. Would they even tell him if they felt uncomfortable with something?
Elysia saw his conflict and hugged him tighter, causing him to break out from the cycle of vicious thoughts.
\"Hey!\" she said, \"Look at me.\"
Elysia took Alec's hand and placed it on her chest.
Alec instinctively wanted to remove it. Why was she placing his hand on her chest!
Elysia glared at him. \"Look. Listen. Feel. As long as you never go against your own moral principals and do right by them, isn't it fine? After all, you're saving them from the company who would likely make them do much worse things. They can even die at any time if they displease the higherups.\"
He wondered… how was it that she could calm him down with just words alone?
Alec's eyes softened, and he softly kissed Elysia's lips.
Rhoda snapped wide awake, her eyes habitually snapping open. She could feel a gust of wind brushing against her bare face, which made her eyes dart around.She knew that she wasn't in her bunker back at the company, so where was this?Immediately, she caught sight of her five subordinates' faces staring back at her with looks of relief.Or rather, three looks of relief with David and Kiel staring at her with strange, undecipherable faces.Rhoda was stunned. What did that look mean?She thought back carefully into her memories, and it clicked. She controlled her instinctual reaction to blanch as she thought about her inexcusable and utterly deplorable behaviour.Despite the control she had over her facial features, her face still turned red in embarrassment. Too embarrassing! How could she still look David and Kiel in the eyes after this?!She remembered every single thing she'd done earlier, and she almost wanted to look for a mushroom to commit suicide again.At that thought, she fiercely knocked her head against the wall, getting calls of alarm from her three subordinates that had been spared this form of strange torture. They were shocked at what their cool-headed captain was doing.She felt like she could die from embarrassment. What had she been doing?! Just what was it that had been so potent it had been able to affect all three of them who were at the advanced stage without them noticing it?Try as she might, she could not bash the memories out of her head.Right now, all she wanted to do was dig a hole and bury herself. Luckily, it didn't appear like either David or Kiel would ever bring up the memories of what they'd done in that clearing while searching for their target.Rhoda's magic instinctively moved as she prepared to use it to get rid of the ropes surrounding her, but the magic dissipated upon trying to leave her skin.Startled, she looked at the rest of her subordinates.Nancy nodded, confirming her guesses.Rhoda fell silent. Her mind whirled as she tried her best to dispel those memories in her head, turning and looking at where they were.The only thing that she could see were trees. Subconsciously, she looked for the mushrooms, and her face changed subtly.Come to think of it, didn't their targets have familiars that correlated to the animals that had appeared before them yesterday?A bunny, a wolf and some form of avian creature that she'd never seen before. The one she didn't know anything about was the mushrooms, but if they appeared at the same time, then it should have something to do with the target.She had to find a way to get word to the company that they'd been captured. It was too long for them to wait until they were notably missing, so there was little choice for them.At the exact moment she had that thought, a figure dropped down from above, causing the six of them to tense up.None of them had noticed that there had been someone there at all.Alec looked at the six startled figures in front of him and ran his eyes over them. They were all relatively well trained, and they seemed useful enough for him to keep them around in the future.Of course, he had already taken care of pesky brand that they'd been afflicted with, and with Loeri's control over them, he could ensure that they wouldn't betray him in the future.With it off, they would be free to move according to their own judgement. It was just that he suspected that the lot of them were all brainwashed to loyally follow the company's every command.Such as killing and espionage.In that case, he would have no choice\"Who are you?\" Rhoda asked seriously. She shifted her body a little in front of her subordinates, trying in vain to block them from his view.Rhoda didn't know why the look in the man's eyes were a little approving, but they were gone in the next second, making her wonder if she imagined it.\"Smart,\" Alec said instead. \"Tell me. Who do you work for?\"Rhoda sneered. \"You'll have to kill us first.\"Alec didn't blink. He could see that from the body language of all six of the bound people here, they were all willing to die to keep the secrets of the company even with the seal off.They weren't like Sekai, who had railed under the pressure of the brand, and none of them were Sins, who would have been acting against their instincts.Instead, the six of them would definitely never betray the company that had brainwashed them so thoroughly.He threw a seal forward.The moment it landed on the ground, the six people from the company were put to sleep.Well, five of them were instantly sent to sleep. The last remaining one, the captain, struggled to stay awake.\"What do you want\" she murmured, before she ultimately lost the battle and succumbed to sleep as well.Alec resisted the urge to let out a sigh.Instead, he stroked Loeri's cap, instructing it.Loeri hopped down, sprinkling more spores on each person and strengthening the mind-control spores that it had already left on them.The Thousand Poison Mushroom it was a really mystical magical beast. It was said that partners of this magical beast were always blessed with luck.That was, both bad luck and good luck!Instead, Alec found that this description perfectly fit the characteristics of a Main Character, with their string of bad and good luck.He felt a little complicated.At this moment, Elysia dropped down from above, standing beside him.She hugged him lightly, smiling at him.He looked down at her little face, and a faint smile surfaced on his lips.But he was still feeling conflicted inside considering what he was planning to make Loeri do.He'd talked about it with Elysia while the lot of them had still been unconscious, but he really couldn't find a way to remove the brainwashing on them.The only thing he could do was to replace the source of their 'loyalty' using Loeri and treat them humanely.Yet, there was still a part of him that detested what he was doing. Wasn't this exactly what he'd been combating when he made the Spectre's seal?Was this not doing the same thing, but in a different manner? This time, it really was control, wasn't it?Granted, he could just ask them to live lives on their own, but he had a feeling that they wouldn't know what to do without orders.The captain of the team had seemed a little more resistant towards him, but he read from her body language that it was because she couldn't even fathom the thought of betraying the organization.Was what he was doing right?But he still had goals that he was after, so he hardened his heart.These six people were now under his control, but he swore that he would never make them do anything that they were uncomfortable with.He paused slightly, a little helpless. Would they even tell him if they felt uncomfortable with something?Elysia saw his conflict and hugged him tighter, causing him to break out from the cycle of vicious thoughts.\"Hey!\" she said, \"Look at me.\"Elysia took Alec's hand and placed it on her chest.Alec instinctively wanted to remove it. Why was she placing his hand on her chest!Elysia glared at him. \"Look. Listen. Feel. As long as you never go against your own moral principals and do right by them, isn't it fine? After all, you're saving them from the company who would likely make them do much worse things. They can even die at any time if they displease the higherups.\"He wondered how was it that she could calm him down with just words alone?Alec's eyes softened, and he softly kissed Elysia's lips.
