Lady Clara's fingers tightened on his chin, nails pressing into the tender skin just below his jaw. "Did you hear me, boy? I said to forget about the sword."
Alex swallowed. The motion dragged his throat against her thumb, which had settled into the hollow where his pulse hammered.
"Please, my uncle will be back any moment… You can talk to him." Alex said, though he wasn't sure what he was begging for.
"Oh, I like that word on your lips." Clara released his chin and stepped back.
She pulled her glove back on, tugging each finger with deliberate slowness. "But I didn't come here for a commission today."
"I came because I smelled something extraordinary the moment I walked past this district." Her nostrils flared. "And now I've found the source."
"I could make you vanish tonight," Clara whispered against his ear, her breath hot and threatening. "Drag you screaming to my estate, chain you in the dark, and no one would dare ask questions. "
"But I prefer my toys to crawl to me willingly. You will submit, Alex. You'll beg on your knees to become my personal slave, my warm, obedient little whore who exists only to serve my every whim."
She clapped twice. The sharp sound echoed off the stone walls.
From the shop entrance, a figure walked in, a young man, perhaps mid twenties, barefoot despite the coal-dusted floor. "My lady?"
He wore simple linen trousers and nothing else.
"This is Remy," Clara said, not looking at him. "One of my new slaves. Show our new friend how we greet guests, Remy."
The man dropped to his knees on the stone without hesitation.
"Watch carefully, my future toy," Clara said, turning her attention to Remy.
She ran her fingers through the slave's hair possessively, then down his neck in the exact same teasing path she had used on Alex.
Remy shivered violently, a choked groan leaving him as her nails scraped hard enough to leave faint red lines.
"You see how I 'care' for what belongs to me?" She tugged Remy's chest, and dragged her bare fingertips across it slowly, circling, pinching sensitive skin until the man gasped.
"Remy serves without question. He warms my bath, kneels until his knees bleed if I wish for it, and thanks me for every cruel indulgence."
Her hand drifted lower, palming over the front of his trousers in a slow, deliberate rub that made Remy's hips jerk forward helplessly while his face twisted in humiliated pleasure. "He knows refusal means the dungeon. He knows I own every inch of him."
Remy's voice was hoarse and broken. "Thank you, my lady… for your mercy…"
Alex was stunned by this. "What the hell is this?" he whispered.
"You could kneel at my feet and enjoy my favor," Clara slid her gloved fingers into Remy's hair, gripping the dark strands at the crown.
She pulled his head back, exposing his throat. His eyes were glassy, pupils blown wide, but not with fear.
Something else entirely. "Remy was a street urchin when I found him. Starving. Dying. Now look at him. Well-fed. Protected. And so very grateful."
"The choice is yours, little blacksmith… but you will choose to submit. Willingly. Or I'll make sure the breaking is slow, painful, and very public."
Alex's face burned.
He fought to keep his expression neutral, biting the inside of his cheek hard enough to taste blood.
She's an Evil Spirit host… just like the Empress warned.
His body, traitor that it was, responded to the heavy atmosphere and her commanding presence despite his terror.
The Empress laughed softly in his head. "She wants to devour you slowly. How delightful. Try not to cream yourself in front of her heheeehe…!!"
Clara finally released Remy with a dismissive, almost painful slap to the cheek.
The slave bowed deeply and stepped back, breathing hard but obedient.
Her full attention returned to Alex as she closed the distance again, pressing him back against the edge of the forge with bruising force.
"Decide quickly, my sweet little thing," she murmured, fingers dancing along his thinning waist, slipping just under the apron strings and digging in possessively. "Submit to me right now…"
CLANG.
Lady Clara reached into her storage ring immediately and pulled out a heavy pouch.
She tossed it onto the iron anvil next to them.
The sound of heavy gold coins clinking together rang out through the silent shop.
"There are five hundred gold credits in there," Clara said, not looking away from Alex's trembling lips. "That's enough to buy this entire miserable shop three times over."
Before he could answer.
"Lady Clara?" Some were around, Uncle John appeared and stood in the doorway connecting the shop to the house.
He was wiping his hands on a rag, his face full of confusion. He then looked from the bag of gold to the noble woman holding his nephew's face.
"Is... is there a problem with the equipment?" John asked carefully.
Clara didn't let go of Alex. She turned her head slightly to address the blacksmith, a cold, arrogant smirk playing on her lips.
"No problem," she said, her thumb stroking Alex's lower lip, pulling it down to expose his teeth. "In fact, I've found something else I wish to purchase."
She gestured to Alex with her free hand, treating him like a piece of livestock on display.
"I am taking the boy," Clara stated, her tone leaving no room for argument. "Pack his things. He is coming to the Azure Estate with me. Immediately."
"I... I can't go," Alex managed to choke out, trying to pull his face from her grip.
"Hush," Clara scolded him, tightening her fingers on his jaw until it hurt. "I wasn't asking you, my little pet. I was telling your master."
She looked at Uncle John, her eyes narrowing. "Well? Take the gold. It's more than a cripple like you can earn in a lifetime. You should be thanking me for taking a mouth to feed off your hands."
"You fucking crazy bitch, please leave the store!" Uncle John responded, grabbing a pair of heavy iron tongs.
He stepped between Alex and the noblewoman, his broad back acting as a shield.
Lady Clara didn't even flinch. She just sighed, a look of bored disappointment crossing her beautiful features.
"You lowborn trash really don't know when to accept a gift," she muttered.
She flicked her wrist.
WHOOSH.
A blade of invisible wind slashed through the air. It struck the heavy tongs in John's hand, slicing the solid iron clean in half as if it were butter.
The force of the blow knocked John backward, slamming him hard against the tool rack.
"Uncle John!" Alex screamed, scrambling forward.
John groaned, clutching his chest. Blood trickled from his lip.
He tried to stand, but Clara raised her hand again, her palm glowing with a swirling, pale blue light.
The air pressure in the shop dropped, making it hard to breathe.
"Pathetic," Clara sneered, wind swirling around her hands, forming invisible blades.
She looked at John with cold indifference. "I suppose I'll have to kill the owner to take the pet. A shame. He was a decent smith."
She turned her hungry gaze back to Alex. "Now, little fellow. Stop making this difficult. Come here, or your uncle dies."
Alex trembled. He looked at John, who was wheezing on the floor, then at Clara, who looked like a goddess of death.
I can't stop her, Alex realized, terror gripping his heart. She's going to kill him.
"Help me," Alex whispered, his voice cracking. He wasn't talking to John.
"Oh?" The Empress's voice slithered into his mind, sounding amused. "Now you want my help? I thought you hated me. I thought you wanted to be a man."
"I don't care!" Alex screamed internally, tears stinging his eyes as Clara took a step closer, her eyes turning deep red, like a monster, the wind whipping her hair around her face. "Save us! Please! I'll do anything!"
"Anything?" The voice purred, thick with anticipation. "Careful, little vessel. A promise to a demon is binding. But... I do hate it when others touch my property."
She laughed, a dark, resonant sound that vibrated in Alex's very bones.
"Open your eyes, Alex. Let them see what you really are."
Alex felt a burning sensation erupt behind his eyes, hotter than the forge fire.
His spine arched, and a hiss escaped his throat.. not a human sound, but the warning of a viper.
He snapped his head up. Lady Clara, who had been reaching for his arm, suddenly froze.
Her arrogance vanished. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks.
In her vision, the small blacksmith's shop dissolved into darkness. Behind Alex, rising from the shadows like a titan, was a phantom.
A colossal, spectral snake with silver scales as thick as shields coiled around him.
Its head scraped the ceiling, and its eyes… two burning, vertical slits of molten gold, stared directly into her soul.
"KNEEL," a voice thundered.
It came from Alex's mouth, but it was layered with the Empress's terrifying, harmonious command.
Clara shrieked. It wasn't a scream of pain, but of primal, biological terror.
Her mind crumbled instantly under the pressure of a High-Level Spirit Soul on all spirits.
To her, a massive pair of jaws was opening wide, ready to swallow her whole. The predatory aura was so intense it triggered a physical reaction.
Immediately suppressing the Evil Spirits influence on her. "Monster! A monster! Ghost!!!" Clara screamed, her face twisting in horror.
She hit the floor hard, her legs kicking frantically as she crab-walked away from him.
A dark wet stain spread rapidly across the crotch of her silk trousers as she lost control of her bladder in pure fear.
She scrambled to her feet, slipping in her own mess, and bolted for the door, tearing it off its hinges in her desperation to escape.
"Monster!" Her screams faded as she ran down the street like a rushing phantom, leaving a trail of terrified wind behind her.
Silence returned to the shop.
The phantom snake vanished.
Alex stood there, panting heavily. His eyes dimmed from gold back to black, but the vertical pupils lingered for a few seconds.
His body felt incredibly hot, like he was boiling from the inside out.
He fell to his knees, clutching his chest.
"That was... delicious," the Empress whispered as she absorbed the Evil spirit's essence inside Lady Clara's body, sounding breathless and satisfied, as if she had just climaxed.