“We refu-” Jae-Hyun began, but before he could finish his sentence, Q snapped his finger and all sound disappeared from the room. Literally, we tried to talk but absolutely nothing could be heard.

  “Ah, it would be best if you all just listened to my words first,” the Admin said with a knowing smile. “It’s unwise to make decisions without knowing all of the facts first.”

  I glanced around and saw that my Aspirant friends had all kinds of annoyed faces. Whatever Q did make it so that they couldn’t speak, and from the strain Vadeem was showing, it didn’t look like they couldn’t move much either. I didn’t feel any of these constraints, but it wasn’t like I was about to let the others know that.

  “Much better,” Q continued, “Now where was I?”

  “You were telling the lowly Aspirants your offer, Administrator,” Xalla added. It was good to see her playing her part.

  “Right!” Q gave the gang a bright, predatory smile. “As I was saying, I wish to offer you my unparalleled support. Under my care, your guild, and Pandora as a whole, will have preferential treatment for all future Trials, along with other allowances. Now, I won’t have the time to go over all of the privileges right now.” A serf came over and handed Q a small booklet, which he then placed on the table before us. “This will go over all of them. Feel free to read them later.

  “But to summarize the most pertinent parts, I will help solve the critical issue with Pandora’s population or the lack thereof. As you know, your numbers are down to the low thousands after the fourth Trial, and I don’t think I need to tell you why that is a problem. Additionally, you will have priority in choosing future assignments, but you’ll understand what that means later down the line. Now for what I want…”

  The Regressor frowned and shook his head repeatedly, or at least that was what I think his jittering motion was trying to convey. With Q's abilities locking everyone down, Jae-Hyun could do little more than that, not that it did any good.

  “Ah yes,” Q continued, “I suppose it’s not possible to have a proper negotiation without the other party speaking.”

  The physical pressure must have subsided as my friends all nodded vigorously. We pointed at Jae-Hyun, indicating that he should be the one to do the talking. Of course, that’s not who Q will pick.

  “Naturally the one who should be doing the negotiating would be the guild leader,” Q started, eyeing Jae-Hyun. The Regressor nodded again. “But…” Q shook his head. “It wouldn’t be fair for the rest of your party if only their leader spoke. What if they’re secretly unhappy about his management, what with you making all of the decisions yourself? No, I think I’ll pick someone else to talk with.”

  Q turned his gaze to the others, deliberately taking his time as he surveyed each of the members of the Abyss guild. Everyone’s expressions paled when he stopped to regard Noel, because if she was the one in charge of talking then we’d all be doomed. That wasn’t my plan, of course, but I had set the mood and made sure that things were properly tense.

  “Hm, I believe you will do,” he said finally, pointing to me. “Aspirant Walter acquired second place in the overall rankings on the last Trial, and his performance in the prior ones has been impeccable as well.” Q snapped his finger and the restriction placed on our ability to speak disappeared. “What do you say, Guild Leader Kim Jae-Hyun, or would you rather Aspirant Noel take his place?”

  The Regressor winced when he heard the redhead’s name but recovered quickly. “Walter is more than capable of this task.” He turned to me. “Just remember what I said ear-”

  And there goes his ability to speak again. Q gestured for me to take the seat opposite him, and I did so after giving Jae-Hyun a reassuring nod.

  Q smiled. “There’s no need to add anything extra, Aspirant Jae-Hyun.” He gave Xalla a quick nod, and she came over to slide a piece of paper in front of me.

  “What is this?” I asked, feigning ignorance after picking up the sheet. I held it just high enough so that the others could make out the contents, or at least the writing that I wanted them to see. It was impossible for them to read the smaller writing inscribed, even with enhanced senses, but they should know exactly what it was that I was holding.

  “A simple contract,” Q explained, “You just need to sign on the bottom and we can have all of this over and done with.”

  I gave him a scolding look. “You think I’m stupid enough to sign a binding contract without even reading it?”

  “I suppose not, but feel free to go over the requirements.”

  I took the next fifteen minutes pretending to read through the thing, making sure that my back was obscuring the contents so that Jae-Hyun or the others couldn’t see that the entire thing was fake. Well, technically it was official Central documentation, but from the few lines that I’ve read, it was an inventory of various goods and services that Q purchased about eight cycles ago. To add to the subterfuge, there was a Sponsorship contract stapled in the front to make it look legit. I mean, we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, so this was the best that we could get in short order.

  “This…” I stammered, doing my best to look baffled and outraged. “This is ridiculous! We’ll be selling off everything we have if we sign this! We’d become your slaves!”

  “Ah, so you saw through that, hm?” Q replied with a shake of his head. “But it’s only for the next five Trials, so it’s hardly forever. Plus, you will be rewarded if you make it out of the given tasks.”

  “That’s assuming we make it out of it alive and in one piece!” I spat. “There’s even a clause that says that we can’t reject any task you send out, and we have no guarantee that you’ll have our best interests in mind when assigning those! This is nothing less than suicide. Do you think us Humans idiotic, Admin?”

  I took a furtive glance back and saw the Regressor all but scream for me to reject the thing. I didn’t need to hear him talk to see how urgent that was.

  Q gave an exasperated sigh. “Well, I suppose that is unfair. This is a negotiation, so let’s change the contract so that only you need to fulfill them, how about that?”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Xalla came over with a new bundle of papers and replaced the ones that I had. My friends didn't fail to notice how everything was already prepared, as if their goal was to bind only me to their services and everything else was just a pretense.

  “And how is that any better?” I frowned, not even bothering to look at the new contract.

  “For one,” Q said, “Your lone sacrifice will benefit the entirety of your guild and Pandora as a whole-”

  “We can survive just fine by ourselves,” I said, parroting what the Regressor would say here.

  “Let me finish,” Q chuckled. “And two, if you accept this contract, then I wouldn’t have to eliminate the two extras that attached themselves to your group.”

  We all froze then, our eyes unconsciously darting back to the twins, then back to me. And there was the bargaining chip that I knew none of my guild members could ignore. Better yet, it also fully legitimizes the twins' presence after, which is just a win-win situation for everyone. Even better-er, I would be afforded more leniency when I had to leave Pandora to oversee the Arbiter side of things if I just had Q come fetch me for some “task” or another. Obviously, I couldn’t exactly let the Abyss Guild know that.

  “What do you mean…” I asked tentatively, pretending to be clueless.

  “You know full well, Aspirant Walter. Those two have fallen under the cracks for a long time, but do you honestly think we wouldn’t notice after two Trials?”

  “But…”

  Q ignored my weak protests and continued. “Worse, since those two are not properly part of the Ascension process, there will bound to be various unforeseen issues down the line, why, I’m just surprised that nothing’s come to them so far.”

  I frowned. “Are you threatening us?”

  Q laughed. “No, dear Aspirant. I am simply stating the facts. I do not need to threaten you, just as you Earthlings do not threaten ants. It would be beneath me. It is clear as day that those two are not supposed to be a part of the Ascension process, thus it is natural for me to eliminate the anomalies infecting my Trials. Would you permit dirty creatures to infest your home, Aspirant Walter?”

  I grimaced and took some time to pretend to mull over the facts. Eventually, I gave a defeated sigh and asked. “So what would happen to the twins if I sign this?”

  “I will personally ensure that they are properly added as members of Pandora, and to show you my sincerity, I’ll even gift them bonus experience to make up for the time that they were not here. I am a generous individual, let no one tell you otherwise.”

  “And I will be the only one bound to this contract? No one else?”

  “That is the case,” Q answered with a bright smile, pushing the contract closer to me. I’ll be honest, he was quite good at acting as the scummy salesman.

  “I…” I hesitated. “I need to speak with my guild members first.”

  “You have one minute.”

  “Walter, no, you can’t do this,” Jae-Hyun said immediately.

  Muscle A: It is fine. We accept our fate.

  Muscle E: It was fun being here. Take care of big Muscle for us.

  “But…” Vadeem muttered, his eyes never leaving the twin’s side.

  “At least let us take some of the burden off you!” Yoona added. “Change the conditions, let me take half of the obligations!”

  “That would be wise,” Marcus added, “No one should bear this alone. I will gladly assist you for the good of the many.”

  “Yeah, if you spread it out evenly, it won’t be so bad!” Noel agreed, showing none of her usual carefree attitude. “Don’t you dare do everything yourself, little bro.”

  “And you’re time’s up.” Q said, and once again my friends were left unable to communicate anything.

  “That wasn’t one minute!” I shouted. "That was hardly 15 seconds."

  “It wasn’t?” Q shrugged. “Sorry, time must pass a little faster here, but I suppose you’ve said your due. Now then, will you sign?”

  “Can I do what the others said and split up the obligations between us?” I asked, but I already knew the answer to that. I had told Q to never deviate from the original plan.

  “No,” he answered plainly.

  “But…” I stuttered, “But the original terms were for the whole team!”

  “And the original contract no longer exists,” Q continued before setting the old paper on fire. “You’re only left with this one, I’m afraid. Terribly sorry.” He gave me another predatory smile, this time ensuring that the others could see it as well. “So what will it be?”

  “I… do I have to choose now?”

  “Yes, within the next ten seconds in fact.” He pointed a finger at the twins, the tips of shining with a lethal light. "I will assume that silence indicates that you reject my kind offer. I don't need to tell you what that would mean. Five seconds now, Walter, and do remember that I am terrible at keeping time."

  I glanced back at the others one last time, making sure that my gaze lingered on the two girls and Vadeem, before turning back to Q with a heavy heart. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

  I quickly grabbed the bundle of paper and scribbled my name at the bottom. Xalla took the contract away from me and nodded at her boss, and that’s when Q's little sound barrier broke again and a cascade of shouts hit me.

  “Walter, wait, there has to be something else-”

  “Don’t, little bro! We can’t trust those scumbags!”

  Muscle E: You don’t have to do that for us.

  Muscle A: We accept our fate.

  "Too late, guys," I said with a forced smile. "It's already done."

  Vadeem gave me a look mixed with too many emotions for even Noe to decipher. “Thank you, Walter… I’ll never forget this. I... never mind. Just... thanks.”

  Man, I’ve always wanted to make a big heroic sacrifice without any of the, well, sacrificing. It felt good, although I did feel the tiniest amount of guilt for deceiving my friends like that. Then again, I’ve been deceiving them since the start, and I was doing this with everyone’s best interests in mind. Maybe there was a different way to have the Abyss Guild accept Q’s help, but this was the fastest method that I could think of, and it didn’t hurt that my standing within the guild grew a few margins in the process. I’m sure they’ll forgive me down the line.

  Q smiled. “Excellent! I’ll make sure to contact you when it’s time to collect, but for now, let’s see if I can’t fix up the two stragglers.”

  With another snap of his finger, a familiar warm light washed over the twins - the same one that Raffiel made when we were all here prior to the first Trial. The change to the twins was immediate. Their scars, while mostly healed, were completely gone now, and tanned, unblemished skin was the only thing that could be seen. I’m pretty sure that they even grew a few inches given that their clothes were not a size or two too small. Maybe it was to make up for the lack of nutrition. But that wasn’t the biggest change.

  “I…” Eva muttered, grasping at her throat. “Wha-”

  “We…” Her sister followed, “We can talk?”

  Vadeem all but broke down in tears when he saw the change and engulfed them in a tight hug. However, he quickly broke that off when he realized what was given to ensure this change. Everyone looked over at me with concern.

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