Pov Donovan.
I woke up in the back of a car with my hands tied up behind my back, blindfolded; even my legs were nicely tied up. The ropes weren't tightly tied so that they wouldn't leave a mark once I was freed.
I was woken up by a speedbump, and from what I managed to gather squirming around the car, I was put on the floor of the car, and there was some sort of wall separating the back seats from the front seats.
"Hey! I think I just woke up!" I shouted.
No one responded.
I tried to slowly peel away the blindfold by rubbing my face against the floor.
"Is this really necessary? I mean, tying me up like a sausage roll and escorting me left and right like I'm some sort of criminal."
Behind me, a female voice spoke. She spoke in a really acute tone, almost imitating the voice of a child.
"Madam said that lately you've been acting stridently." She spoke in the most emotionless tone possible.
'That's it?'
"You're a weird warrior." She said while putting a blade in between my hands.
"In what way am I weird?"
"You're a coward with no pride."
"Is that your nice way of telling me I know when to back off from a useless fight?"
"No, if you had those characteristics, you could've found a way to get back up on your own two feet."
That was probably an irrefutable truth; I heard that even great hunters were able to hunt using only one arm.
"I think I've heard before something about being chosen as a warrior; can you explain to me what that means?"
She remained silent for a while before answering, then finally spoke.
"The lady, she loves collecting talents to add to her personal army; so far all the warriors we trained were women; you're the first man the lady chose."
"So the maids back at the mansions were all..."
"Most of them are warriors who swore their allegiance to the lady."
As I turned around to face her, I noticed that she was one of the masked maids.
"Why did she marry that man?"
"Why would I tell you that?" She responded in a very cold and mean tone.
Immediately after, she covered her mouth and started clearing her throat.
She handed me the blade she used to cut the rope and then pointed at the many ropes that were binding my legs.
"What's your name?" I asked while I was freeing my legs.
"It would be useless to tell you; you wouldn't recognize me anyway around the house." She responded while lying down on the backseats.
"I'm sure I'll be able to recognize at least the voice."
"Are you going to bother every masked maid of my height?" She changed her voice to a very deep one.
"Maybe."
She got closer; she seemed to want to whisper something into my ears, but when I got closer to her, she started pulling my right ear.
"Don't disturb the people that are working hard for the lady." She said in her cute voice before letting go of me.
*Click*
That was the sound of the doors unlocking.
"Oh, it looks like we've arrived at our destination." She spoke in a new tone of voice; this time it was her normal voice.
She immediately opened the door to the left and waited for me outside. Once I got out of the car, the maid grabbed me by the tie and started guiding me to the hotel.
She was very small, barely 160 cm, and she didn't seem to have much in the way of a body.
The hotel looked more like an all-inclusive resort than a hotel. The main building had only five floors, and it was connected to at least three other tall buildings that probably hosted all the living rooms.
From the smell, I could tell we were close to the sea, plus, even when the sun was setting, there were still a lot of women there showing off their great bodies.
Once we reached the entrance, we encountered a maid without a mask who was waiting for us. She wasn't wearing a mask, and the reason was obvious. To make it as simple as possible, she looked like a man.
If the maid before me didn't tell me I was the first man to ever be chosen, I would've 100% believed that was a man, a very bulky and muscular man. Not only that, but the veins... The first thing I thought when I saw her arms was, "One paper cut and you're done for."
I started shuddering at the thought of all the blood that would come out; maybe I was exaggerating the scene a bit, but that was still a lot of blood.
"Clarissa, I didn't expect you to be the one that—" I burst out laughing as soon as I heard that name. Even after I started sensing her killing intent, I couldn't stop myself.
"You're very lucky indeed, scammer." Said the masked maid before dragging me towards the elevator.
The elevator ride was an awkward one, as the laughter was gone and a sense of doom started to kick in. Whatever the lady proposed to me, I had to accept it, or else this mountain of a woman would gladly hunt me down through hell and heaven just to make sure I would suffer indescribable atrocities.
She was also cracking her knuckles in sync with the elevator music.
"Are you sure I'm the first man the lady chose?" I asked the small maid.
"Yes!" responded the other maid in a clearly threatening tone.
Once we reached the designated floor, the angry maid guided us to the room where the lady was resting. Once she opened the door, I saw that they had prepared a divine feast for me. There was a table in the living room filled with food.
"Thank you, maids 11 and 34, you can retire now." said the lady without even showing herself.
They both bowed, then headed out and shut the door as loudly as possible.
Then the lady revealed herself; she was only wearing some lingerie; she also was wearing thigh highs. She had dyed her hair red in the meantime and seemed a lot younger than usual.
"Welcome to heaven!" She said this while giving me a wink.
"Nah, that was a bit too cringey, anyway... How am I now?" She said this while bending forward and crossing her arms to highlight her cleavage.
"Still too much." I answered before sitting at the table.
"Do you have any idea why you're here?" She asked while sitting on my lap.
"I heard a few things here and there."
"Are you going to refuse my proposal?" She asked, grabbing my tie and pulling me closer.
"Well... it depends on the conditions."
"What if I told you, I can heal your arm... would that be enough?"
"I would ask gladly for my left eye as well."
"So you're accepting my proposal?" Her tone was extremely serious.
"I would like to know first why you're building up such a strong army; the aura I saw coming off their body was comparable to a mid-ranking hunter." That was a lie; I can't feel auras, and she probably knew it, as I hadn't mentioned it in the past few months I spent as her guest.
"They are bodyguards; they are there for my safety, of course."
"You need that many soldiers for safety?"
"Of course!"
"For what other reason would I need a bodyguard?"
'I don't know; you tell me.'
"So, are you accepting my offer?" She said this while feeding me some grapes she found on the table.
'So sweet.'
"I'm thinking about it."
"Should I call back maid 34?"
My survival instincts were telling me maid 34 was the muscular one, so I politely declined.
"I'm glad to be at your service, my lady."
"Now that the boring stuff is resolved, we can finally enjoy ourselves, can't we?"
She leaned closer but stopped inches from giving me a kiss.
"Now, you're just being cruel." I noted.
"I learned from the best."
Pov Ben (original)
Once we reached the house, we found some brats inside; three of them were probably around 12 if not older, while the other one looked like a 7-year-old hybrid.
'I didn't know they would raise orphans.'
"Ah, I hope you're not bothered by them." Said the soldier that guided us there.
He guided us through a portal to some sort of magical forest; the trees were massive, as tall as a skyscraper, and the leaves on top were emitting light. The house was built within one of the massive trees and had several floors that were both upwards and downwards.
"Welcome to my house!" He said while opening what looked like a fridge.
"The name's Kane, by the way." he added before taking a glass bottle from the fridge.
"Want some?"
I didn't know what to say to him, and neither did Aisha, so we all just stood in front of the entrance, trying to figure out what was going on.
He was one of the soldiers that were attacking our planet; at first, I thought they were evil, but after witnessing them saving citizens, I started to look at them from a new perspective. But no matter what, Kane was still terrifying.
When the sudden wave of mana hit us, Aisha's power had already begun rampaging, and when all hope seemed lost, he arrived on the scene. He was able to effortlessly break through the many barriers she had put in place and make quick work of both her and me in a single attack.
'That thing is not a human; I refuse to believe a human could fly and beat down our mana so effortlessly.'
She had stored enough mana to nuke an entire city within me, and that was not enough to even slow him down.
"The curly-haired kid is relatively harmless by your standards, but the two other older kids may be problematic to handlesaid this In case they try to attack, you're allowed to do anything in your power to put them in their place except killing them." He said while pouring the orange juice into a couple of glasses.
"The little ones… There's a little girl that locked herself in one of the rooms on the third floor; make sure she eats, at the very least; the other child... he's a good kid, so you won't really need to be wary around him." He was constantly moving around, rummaging through the varius shelves in a hurry.
"Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean by "problematic to handle?"
"They're most likely stronger than you; they surely know how to fight better than you and have good teamwork; if they ever gang up on you, don't stay on the defensive; target the male one; he's the one that leaves his guard open the most."
"Why would they fight me?"
"It's a possible scenario, and I don't want you to blame me if something happens and I didn't warn you." He said before drinking directly from the bottle, he would drink the rest of the juice.
He then got closer and put the glass full of orange juice in my hands.
"For the girl," he said.
"Your girlfriend can study from the books the kids use; I'll return around 6 p.m. to train the kids, then we'll discuss more about your wage and bla bla bla bla." He went upstairs.
"MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE!" He shouted.
In the midst of it all, we were still standing in front of the entrance. He just never stopped talking or moving.
We barely managed to take a couple of steps inside before he returned; he had changed his clothes to something more casual.
"Anyway… I've gotta go now; sorry for the hurry; see you later!"
"Wait we haven't-"
"CIAO!" and he slammed the door.
I immediately opened it back up, and he was gone.
'What did I drag myself into?'