Nick didn't have much time to analyze his surroundings as they were brought near the bed and one of the old female servants took out few flasks from her bag.
"Alright, princesses, please enjoy this drink on the house! Hahaha!" She laughed her creepy laugh again and was about to feed it to the panicked Conny, when 'Isabel' clumsily stumbled and almost fell on her.
"Can't wait, huh?" The servant got annoyed and forcefully poured the whole bottle in the 'Isabel's' mouth. 'Isabel' coughed twice and weakly knelt where she stood, her unfocused gaze directed straight ahead, and remained unmoving.
"Works like a charm." The servant smiled happily and fed the drinks to the other girls as well.
To her surprise they didn't resist at all, but she figured the girls had given up and were ready for their fate. Even the wild one was obedient and after she drank the potion, her limbs were untied and all of them were neatly put in a row besides the bed.
The guards left and both servants stood in front of the kneeling five girls and enjoyed the results of their work.
"Not bad. I guess we have fifteen or twenty days off starting today." One of them said, "Do you have any plans?"
"I'll visit my daughter. From what I hear my grandson might get married soon, hahaha!" The other gossiped merrily.
They continued to spout nonsense while checking the room one more time, then tidied up a little and closed the door behind them. Nick quickly got up and changed his position to be the first in line according to his prior experience and hoped that the emperor would pick him first the way his brother did with the girls back then. Otherwise, even if the emperor was weakened, it would be hard to make a surprise attack on him.
There was nothing more to his plan. He infiltrated the castle, pretended to be the captured girl, and, as soon as the emperor attacked him, he would kill the old creep in a similar fashion how he killed the other brother. A simple, but very risky plan.
"No matter what happens next, don't move a muscle!" Nick whispered through his teeth and froze.
A minute later someone arrived, the door closed and soft, but leisure steps approached the bedside where the five girls were kneeling.
Emperor Osman sat on the bed in front of them for a while while holding chin in his hand and watching.
"Sigh, it has been decades since I had a princess and now there are three at the same time! And the daughter from the Evans family, and the heir from Daren family as well." Emperor sighed as he got up, "You little princesses will have to wait a bit, I'll go from the bottom, hehehe!"
Emperor patted Conny's cheek and went over to Nick.
"Well then, let's get started!" He said.
Even though Nick was morally preparing for this moment the whole night, his heart still was beating so hard he thought it might jump right out from his chest. And then something happened that almost made his poor soul leave the body.
The emperor suddenly undressed while standing right in front of him and 'his imperial majesty' was majestically dangling right in front Nick's eyes. The only thing emperor wore at this moment was the wristband Nick knew so well. It took all the willpower Nick had to remain in his position unmoving.
But it didn't last long, the emperor 'saved' him by grabbing his neck and throwing him on the bed. Nick didn't resist and landed on his back like a 'paralyzed girl' he was at that moment.
'So he's even bigger pervert than his brother. This bastard rapes the girls while absorbing their lifeforce. And from what I can tell, he does the replenishment for fun, not only as a necessity!' Nick thought to himself while patiently waiting for the emperor to come closer while getting ready to pull out Wakizashi.
The emperor managed to surprise him again. He slowly climbed on the bed, pulled Nick's legs apart and positioned himself between them with 'his imperial majesty' already proudly looking in the sky. Then he lowered his body supporting himself on elbows and deeply inhaled Nick's scent.
"Aristocratic girls are still the best." He said and got up on knees and pulled Nick's dress off with an exaggerated motion of his left hand just to widen his eyes in disbelief.
At that moment Nick had already Wakizashi in hand and was preparing to slash the old freak in halves, but when the emperor got back up on his knees, Nick only managed to cut his stomach open and the guts with the other organs spilled right out on him.
But Nick didn't stop. He wasn't done with one move and few more slashes followed the first despite his target moving further away and the renowned Qi master in his weakened physical state with a weakened mindset in a weakened position was cut apart like a piece of butter and decapitated at the end before he could even say a word.
When he was finished, in front of the terrified eyes of the girls, Nick stood half naked on the bed, covered in gore and organ parts while pieces of the former emperor were scattered on the bed.
"F*ck! Not again!" Nick cursed as he noticed himself colored in blood, red and sticky all over.
"You … you mean this happens to you regularly?" Kate's stupefied voice reminded him there were others in the room.
"Sigh." Nick shook his head, got off the bed and started cleaning himself up with a piece of clothing the emperor threw on the floor, "Its just that his brother passed away in somewhat similar fashion." He pointed at the emperor.
"Alright, let's clean the room up and remember to keep quiet at all times. For the next ten days no one should disturb this place so we are safe, at least for now." Nick commanded and went over to the barrel filled with water near the bath tub to clean himself up.
The princesses finally stood up as well and hugged each other while sobbing. Kate stood there a bit lost, thinking what to do.
Just a moment ago Nick killed allegedly the strongest person on the continent and in a brutal fashion at that, and now he acted as if nothing happened. They were still in emperor's castle in the middle of the Nestri empire's capital, but he behaved exactly how he did back in Aurora.
She shook her head to get rid of the unnecessary thoughts and patted Conny on her shoulder.
"YunYun, it's fine now, you can get up as well." Kate noticed that the fourth girl was still kneeling, "YunYun? Are you alright?"
When she saw that the girl continued to kneel with the lifeless look on her face, Kate anxiously rushed towards her, "Nick! Something's wrong with YunYun!"
Nick was cleaning himself up and didn't pay attention to the others, but when Kate cried out, he immediately darted over.
"Damn it! She has been poisoned!" He cursed.
He was absolutely certain he put the antidote in her mouth, but for some reason she didn't swallow it. What he didn't realize was that the cloth in her mouth was there for days and the servants took it out only to let her drink a bit of water and soup. Her whole mouth was numb and she couldn't really move her jaw at all. Thus when the time came, she wanted, but simply couldn't swallow the antidote.
Nick put her down on the floor and checked her vital signs. The last time he did this was when he passed the divemaster course with his father back in San Francisco.
"F*ck! No pulse and she's not breathing!" He cursed out loud, "The spotted jungle spider's venom has paralyzed her every muscle, but she's still alive, at least for few more minutes."
Then he opened her mouth and took out the little antivenom ball.
"Why didn't she swallow it?" Kate was worried and even panicked. They have been together through a lot and could be considered close friends.
"No idea, but we have to save her. Do you know how to perform CPR?" He glanced at Kate, but instantly realized the stupidity of his own question. These were medieval times, even in his previous world CPR was developed only in the twentieth century.
"Alright! Make space!" He pinched YunYun's nose and blew two times in her mouth, then interlocked his fingers and did few chest compressions.
The other three girls looked at Nick's 'perverted' behavior in shock.
"What … what are you doing!" Conny almost shouted. The girl lied helpless on the floor, dying, but Nick was doing such audacious things to her!
"I blew some air in her lungs, so she does not suffocate and, because hear heart had stopped, I am artificially helping it to keep going." Nick explained primitively while trying to count the heart compressions he performed. He did loose the count while explaining though, but after what should be around thirty he made two more 'rescue breaths'. His explanation was reasonable, only the girls had never heard of anything like this before.
"Kate, do you know how to use this?" Suddenly a mortar and pestle appeared besides Nick.
"Yes … I guess." Kate stuttered.
"Good. Grind these herbs quickly, say when you're done." This time few herbs appeared out of nowhere while Nick continued with the CPR, currently trying to infuse his Qi in the YunYun's body as well.
"Done!" After a minute Kate said.
"Good, add about hundred grams of water. Around half a cup. Then stir it nicely!" Nick commanded, "Now feed it to her!"
He stopped the cardiac massage and lifted YunYun up a little. Kate poured the dark green mass from the mortar directly into the small mouth. Then Nick put his both palms on her chest, one above YunYun's heart and other around the solar plexus, and, using Qi, tried to guide this primitively made antidote into her digestive system so it would enter the blood flow.
Immediately he felt three hostile gazes on him once again. Nick opened his eyes and sighed, "What is wrong with you three? I'm guiding the antidote through her organs so it starts working as soon as possible! She even might not be out of the immediate lethal danger and there could be severe complications if I don't do this! Her organs might fail permanently and there will be no way for us to bring her back!"
After shaking his head he stopped paying attention to the other girls and concentrated on YunYun again. He was confident that the antidote should start to work, he wanted to start CPR again, but noticed how the wig with the long hair that was still glued to his head made every movement inconvenient. Wakizashi appeared in his hand and with a swift motion he quickly cut off most of his fake hair and then returned to the CPR while still infusing Qi in YunYun's heart.
After two more minutes, he stopped.
"Her heart is beating again!" But before he could sigh in relief he saw she was not breathing.
"YunYun, I know you have been awake all this time, please bear with me for a bit more. Your heart is already beating, but I still have to give you air, otherwise you'll suffocate to death." Not expecting to hear any answer he gave two more rescue breaths and explained, "Poison was in your body for too long and many of your muscles are still paralyzed. But you'll be fine."
The other girls felt relieved, it just was a bit strange for them to see how Nick kept on kissing YunYun over and over.
After few more minutes she finally moved a bit and coughed a couple of times. Nick immediately picked her up and brought to the big bathtub at the other end of the room.
"Kate! Hold her so she doesn't slip in fully and can continue to breathe."
After Kate took YunYun, Nick grabbed the mortar and pestle again, rinsed it in the nearby barrel and ground more herbs in a lightning speed, threw the freshly made powders and pastes in the tub where the weak YunYun lied with all her clothes on.