4 days after the midnight meeting.

Alfonso was lounging on a soft bed with one of the women from the Red Herring, who had a reluctant smile on her face, as he was known to be capable of using magic to cause pain if the women didn’t appear ’happy’.

If Daneel were here, he would have recognized this woman as the ebony-skinned one that had stood beside Jessica and asked her that question.

With one hand over the woman’s shoulder and idly groping her assets, Alfonso closed his eyes and thought about the vicissitudes of life.

Although he had been never that talented, he had always been capable of doing everything that was necessary to move forward. This differentiated him from his peers, allowing him to obtain more resources in order to gain power faster while leaving them behind.

Never one to not resort to underhanded tricks in situations where they would work, he had used a perfect plan to get this position that he was proud of to this day.

By accumulating piles and piles of money and using it to ask a Champion whom he had picked due to their ruthless nature, he made sure that his opponent got injured because he had ’disrespected’ that Champion.

Although fights between sect members were banned unless it was in the official dueling ring which was also used for challenges for posts in the Central Tower, such matters where a valuable Champion and a mere Warrior were involved were usually ignored.

Hence, when he fought his opponent, the man could only output half his strength and had been beat.

After that, Alfonso had madly trained in order to become strong enough to beat that man a second time when he had come back for revenge, by using his rage against him and continuously taunting him using personal matters.

In other words, Alfonso wasn’t someone who would only rely on others. Instead, he prided his own power over all else, but wasn’t against using any and all means necessary to get what he wanted.

Right now, he was just one step away from being a peak Warrior, which would allow him to claim the special resources meant for nurturing those who might become Champions.

He had been stuck at the Warrior-8 level for far too long, and the problem was his talent.

Talent allowed one to get more done with fewer resources, and because he didn’t have that luxury, he had always had to scrounge for each and every bit of money in order to push himself forward.

There were only two things he loved: power, and women.

In fact, no, he only loved the latter: the former was just a means to grow strong enough to protect himself, while also obtaining a longer lifespan.

He knew that the woman he was groping was uncomfortable, but he liked that.

Hence, he began to do so harder, but to his surprise, the woman let out a chuckle before frowning deeply in pain.

Why had she chuckled?

"Margeret dearie, why so happy, all of a sudden? Did Sammy get a raise or something?"

Sammy was her brother, whose fee Alfonso was withholding in order to have his way with her.

"N-no."

historical

Wait...she was hiding something.

Alfonso could tell. He had once been in the torture wing of the Sect, and he had seen the way people spoke when they didn’t want to reveal something they were holding deep in their heart.

"Tell me what you chuckled about, or I’ll make sure Sammy also gets fined a few Ker Gems, which you don’t have."

This usually made the women beg, but he looked on with startled eyes as Margaret just felt afraid for a second or so before appearing to remember something.

"Pl-please don’t."

No. She was only begging as that was what she was supposed to do. There was no real fear in her voice.

Over the years, Alfonso had gotten addicted to the cries of mercy and the desperate begging from people whose fate he held in their hands. Hence, when he saw that it was missing, it infuriated him to no end.

Casting a spell that used both metal and fire elementary particles, Alfonso conjured a red-hot metal rod before pressing it onto Margaret’s hand mercilessly.

As she screamed in pain, he immediately made the rod vanish and cast a healing spell, while Margaret watched with tears as her skin slowly began to heal itself.

If marks were left, it was always possible that someone might be able to testify against him to the Sect.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened, and as Margaret still kept her mouth shut, Alfonso repeated this for 4 more times on different places before she finally shouted, "PLEASE, ENOUGH! I’LL TALK!"

"That’s more like it. Why did we need to go through all this? I really do like you, Margaret."

As Margaret shrunk into the bed like a defenseless new-born turtle, Alfonso chuckled and resumed his groping while using his other hand to twirl his mustache.

With a stutter, Margaret said, "Th-there was this kid who came in yesterday to me. He visited a lot of women in the past 4 days. He’s just an Amateur Warrior! We couldn’t figure out how he had so many Ker Gems! We finally managed to worm the information out of him after a lot of coaxing. He found a large Ker Gem mine outside the sect, bigger than any discovered in recent years. He knows it’s a crime to conceal the information, b-but he said that they wouldn’t notice a few missing Ker Gems, so he plans to mine a few hundred before reporting to the Sect. 4 days ago was his first time with the new-found money...and he will be a regular customer, and he pays a lot, that too, directly to us. Th-that’s why I...Please don’t do anything to him!"

By the time Margaret was done, Alfonso was almost foaming at his mouth with excitement.

Could he...really be this lucky? To have found out about something like this before anyone else?

No. He had to stay calm and verify it with the other women. What if she was just saying things to escape?

Without a word, Alfonso took the key and unlocked the room.

However, just as he was about to step out, he calmed himself due to a thought.

If he went around to all the women now, it might arouse suspicion. He had to do it slowly.

So, walking back in, he said in a threatening tone, "Speak with no one else about this. If you do, I’ll know," before leaving while whistling a tune, as if everything was normal, and as though he wasn’t planning to kill all these women after he confirmed everything.

Margaret heard these words with an expression of fear on her face, while her frizzy hair was in disarray.

However, as soon as his footsteps faded away from her earshot, a proud smile came on her face as she relaxed and lounged back on the bed, stretching her body while putting on her clothes.

She was just slipping on her dress when Jessica appeared at the door, asking, "Is it done?"

Gesturing at Jessica to close the door, Margaret waited until she was done to laugh out loud before saying, "Of course! The pig bought it. He only sees us as nitwits who are only good for one thing. I bet he can’t even imagine that we are all very good actors. We need to act when we get nice boys like Travis in here, after all."

As Margaret said the last sentence with a chuckle, Jessica smiled and replied, "Good. And I’m glad you and the others didn’t go through with your plans. I knew what you were thinking the minute I saw that gleam."

This made Margaret frown slightly before saying, "We just wanted to tease him! You know, see if he cracks when he gets a real, hard look at what he’s missing? A slip here, a tear there...it would have been so much fun! You’re such a spoilsport."

"No. He’s sure about what he wants. Maybe it would have been fun for us, but it definitely would not have been for him. Instead, it might even have driven him away. All right, I’ll go tell the others to prepare themselves. Take care."

Saying so, Jessica was about to leave, but she turned around when she heard Margaret ask a question in a tone unlike the confident one before.

"Hey...do you think he’ll really do it?"

Seeing her shoulders shake, Jessica could tell that she was probably crying.

That confident side was just a veneer that all of them put up in different ways, just to mask their suffering to the outside world.

"I sure hope so," she replied, before praying to the heavens and closing the door.

....

3 days later.

As a blonde-haired kid walked into a remote clearing inside the Sect of Hedon where an anti-eavesdropping formation was set up, he frowned and saw the bald man in front of him and said, "I’m here, Mr. Alfonso. Why did you say you wanted to meet me?"

"Travis, Travis, Travis. You’ve been a really naughty boy. You-"

"Is this about the Ker Gem mine?"

What the heck? Aren’t you supposed to deny all knowledge of it?!

Having his ’you have no way out, reveal the truth’ speech ruined, Alfonso sputtered for a bit before regaining his calm.

"Yes, I wanted to-"

"Oh, I was going to report it to the sect anyway. I guess you can do so, sir-"

"NO!"

As Alfonso shouted this while imagining his riches going away, he realized how implausible this situation was.

Why wasn’t this kid clinging on to such a massive amount of treasure?

He got the answer in the next second, and when he heard the kid’s response, it was accompanied by the strange feeling that nothing was going as he had expected.

"I’m not confident at all in keeping it a secret, I’m too afraid. It’s also a pity to tell it to the sect. Wait...here’s an idea! Will you take it, sir? There must be, like, 200,000 Ker Gems in there, at least. In return, can I have your post in the Central Tower? I can’t do it for free, right."