Shadow of the Abyss

Chapter 106: Tourney II

"Ahhh~ hm~"

Within her living quarters, dark pink hair matted by water lay sprawled over the bedding as two large pink eyes stared up with the echoes of sharps gasps filling the room. Commander Hilda Strob shuddered, penetrated by a dull ache with a palm centered between her arced legs.

She panted, gasped, and moaned for what seemed like hours before her body jerked, stiffening with the arc of her back.

"Hells." She cried, breathing heavily, pulling her wet fingers from between her legs. "That…That was nice."

"Commander!" A hardened voice echoed from her Comlink

"Damn it!." For a few moments, Hilda lay there before she found the strength to stand up and approach her datapad mounted on the wall.

"What is it?" She calmly asked. Fuming by the interruption.

"Lieutenant Vincent Wendell is seeking a word with you."

"Today is my off day, Weiss." Hilda grimaced with a bothersome expression.

"I know… But Vincent said that Altair wished to meet you. Said it's about Jor."

'Was he planning to confess?' Hilda wondered, frowning. She leaned her head against the wall and sighed. "Fine… Set it up… Send him to my quarters." She said, disconnecting. Hilda growled and begrudgingly got into uniform.

Three minutes later, a knock echoed at her door as she stared into the vanity of her quarters to ensure all was set.

"It's open."

The doors to her chambers slid open, and the familiar smile of the devil welcomed her. "Commander Hilda, I'm so glad you accepted." The Young Lord said, with long jet-black hair, it seemed to fold night itself. He stood neatly, his hair tied in a ponytail, fitted in his pristine white uniform. He stepped forward, making sure to close the door on the way in.

"I'd hope you would have allowed this meeting in your chambers."

Hilda's small nose pursed at his meaning. "What is it? Are you here to confess to killing seven of my officers and Jor?"

He chuckled. "Did I catch you stepping out of the shower? Your hair's still wet."

"Answer the question, boy," Hilda said outright. She was in no mood.

"I will," Altair said, scanning her room devoid of habitation. He took a seat on a nearby chair beside her vanity and gave it a twirl before stopping. "It's just… I'm wondering. Did you send Jor to my room to retrieve my pup?" He asked, touching his chin. "It's just when we met… you barely even glanced at my Ren."

"Pup? The Cute Baby Wolf?" Hilda tilted her head, wondering why it was so important. She had mentioned his pup was cute in passing, but that was the full extent of her interaction on the matter. She had barely recalled it when Inspector Lue interrogated her.

"She is cute, isn't she," Altair said, moving along the conversation. "And do you like cute things?"

"The Hell are you talking about? Boy, I've no—"

"By your flush," He said, cutting in with a teasing smile. "I'll take that as a yes. And I suppose your fascination with cute things is not a big secret. From what I hear…" He paused as his smile deepened to such a degree that Hilda glimpsed a fang. "You once had a teddy bear the size of three men."

"Y~Y~You! Where did you hear that!" Hilda squealed, her cheeks flushed like crisp apples. "I have no such thing! See! Look! Nothing." she pointed about her room, a little fidgety.

Altair gasped, finding his white lie to be so flat on the nose he laughed. "Well… Aren't you kind of cute?" He said, recalling how he compelled a few people to spill some of Hilda's most open secrets after his assassination.

"I am not!" Hilda cried. "Bloodstain, Hilda! They call me! Tormentor of—

"Of Teddie Bears." he finished for her.

Two plump cheeks puffed, and Altair laughed. "Ok. Ok. Look. I only bring this up… because it's not really a secret. Some of the officers know you are a dog lover.

Some of them even caught you scrolling through social media about dogs and such. Which brings me back to Jor… If you didn't order him to steal Ren, why was he there in my room?"

"I…" she stopped herself, finding she had no answer. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind, strangely enough.

"Let's put aside the death of the seven officers for a moment. Jor then attacked me and found himself jailed, to which he died soon after. Call me stupid, but how do you suppose I killed a Third Circle Junior Lieutenant without any commotion?"

Again, Hilda found herself unable to respond right away. "If anything, you seem to be the killer."

"I don't kill fellow—"

Altair raised a palm, silencing her with his almost seamless control over the conversation. "I know. I know. You have a stellar record. Perhaps a little scary to most recruits, but no one seemed to hate you or have anything bad to say about you. But what really made me suspicious was your lack of interest in Ren last week.

So I want to know why you think I was the one who somehow killed Jor?"

"i… " She stopped, once more unable to give a reason. "I… I don't know."

"You don't know," Altair said with strained patience. Twice, he'd received the same answer. "Interesting."

"I…" Hilda shuddered and, without warning, rushed into her closet to her suitcase, already packed for her next destination. Rummaging through her luggage of trinkets of pandas, turtles, and more, Altair merely smiled.

Before long, Hilda pulled out a small necklace that immediately turned red, blistering with nodes of light.

"Hells…"

"What is it?" The Prince asked.

"Sorcery. A spell of sorts… no, a hex!" She muttered before pushing her perception to its limit. Webs of viens seemed to protrude from her temple, stretching across her cheek as she tried—

"In the ceiling, nodes of mana are silently being absorbed," Altair said, pushing mana into the Eyes of Sacrilege. He pointed directly above her bed.

Hilda lept up, plunging her fingers through the metal, snatching out a bag bearing the crest of a sigil. "A hex bag. Shit," she growled.

Calmly, Altair continued to scan his surroundings until he stared at the small sack in Hilda's palm. "How long do you suspect it's been there?" He asked, wondering how she didn't notice such a thing.

"Probably when I was assigned this room." Hilda spat, so furious a flash of mana caught the hexing bag ablaze. She trembled, glaring at the azure flames billowing from the parchment until it was no more. "Bastards."

"Yes…" Altair agreed. "Who handled your bedding?"

"Weiss," she answered.

"Trustworthy?"

Hilda, with an icy expression, narrowed her eyes and scuffed. "This is the military boy. We are trained to follow every order to the letter. Weiss is a bastard conditioned since birth by the military." she flopped to her bed, growling. "I'm so screwed."

Altair couldn't deny it. For a conditioned soldier to do such a thing meant his orders came from on high from a captain or commander of greater rank.

But from whom? And who would have the capability to hex a sixth-circle commander?

He smirked, ready to sink his fangs into her. "Would you like my help?"

"Huh?" Hilda frowned, turning to him. "How could you help? No, why would you want to help me? We aren't friends." she said, sensing a scheme.

"But neither are we enemies. At least not yet." The Prince mused, standing up, giving his bones a light stretch. "Someone is trying to kill me and using you to do it. Your name will be dragged through the mud. And with both the means and opportunity, I'm sure in time, 'evidence' will miraculously appear. You be court marshaled, jailed, and possibly killed.

That's how I would do it. And I'd use the tournament to bring forth said evidence."

Hilda shuddered, biting at her lips, feeling the blood drain from her face. 'Surely it wouldn't be so,' she told herself, but as her eyes landed on the ashes of the hex bag. She couldn't deny the reality of her situation. There had already been roomers of her unable to control her people.

"What do you want?"

"Cooperation." Said the Prince. He had her. "I need allies. Access to dungeons, resources, and weaponry. And most of all, bodies."

"So you want me to be your little bitch, your slave," Hilda said in a vaguely condescending tone.

"Call it what you want. I don't really care. So you can aid me, and I help you and your little problem, or you try to solve the problem yourself, fail, and lose everything." Altair darkly looked her over. "But seeing how you didn't even know a hex bag was within your room, tainting your mind, I presume. I'd say there is much you didn't know."

Hilda felt her cheeks sting at his comment.

He was right… she a sixth-circle warrior was caught unprepared and attacked by not just her lieutenant but one of her junior Lieutenants, who died under her watch. Her image was all but tainted already. The thought made her stomach drop.

She looked up at him, to the boy who seemed to have figured out everything and gritted her teeth together. "What do I need to do?"

"Simple. Submit," He said, and Hilda's eyes went wide.

"Are you kidding me?" she snapped with a blazing red fire in her eyes.

The Prince shrugged, but a grueling presence filled his eyes, staining the air with a merciless spiritual pressure. "I don't care what you say. Just make sure you come off like you're on my side."

"Anything?" Hilda spat, clenching her fist, resisting the urge to kill this boy with a snap of her fingers. It would be so easy. "Can I say anything?" She said after a while.

"It's your survival. I'm sure you have a better understanding of how bad your reputation is." He replied, unsure where this hesitation he was sensing was coming from.

"Then… what will you say if I… I said we slept together."

~(>_<.)?

"Eh? Ehhhhh!" Altair mind went blank for but a moment as he jerked backward, covering his chest. "You-You-You pedo~ Begone, you pedo demon!"

Tasting blood filling her mouth as her clenched teeth tightened, Hilda seethed where she stood, glaring.

"First off, I'm a catch! Ranked in the top ten most beautiful women on earth," she adamantly said, folding her arms over her chest, snorting. "Secondly–" She stopped, startled as Altair suddenly began to measure her height.

"top ten? But you're so short." He said, peering down at her pink hair and large red eyes looking back. Her lips, while curled down, were plump, while the rest of her remained hidden beneath her uniform. "You're barely above five feet. Then again, what does height have to do with beauty?" He laughed.

"You!" Her cheeks went plump. " How rude! How would you like it if I did this!" She snapped, clutching his crotch with a cheeky smirk. "not very comfortable, is it."

Altair went red, feeling his back shoot up straight like a spear. "N-n-no ma'am"

She snorted, licking her cherry lips, feeling the bulge enlarge within her small hands. But she never looked down. She kept her stare as she said: " Good now, get out."

"..."

"What?"

"I need to wait for the swelling to go down… And for you to let go." Altair admitted, fascinated by the pleasurable sensation her palm brought.

"..."

Unable to hold back, Hilda burst into a gale of laughter, slowly pushing him out the door. She leaned into his ear, grinning with a seductive smile. "And If anyone asks you. Tell them I have a mole down there. Ok? Mr.

Virgin."

She pulled back, hitting the control pad to her door to close it.

"... Damn it," he said, pushing down his Warhammer before it tore through his clothing.