I looked at the wicked smile spreading across the vixen of a woman's beautiful visage as she gazed back at my shock-riddled expression.
"Hehehe~, I knew you would find this 'amusing' yourself~," she mocked, her voice dripping with condescension as she reveled in my state of disbelief.
"I can't... take them off?!" I inquired to the silver-haired Guild Master, my voice trembling with dread.
"Nope~," she answered without hesitation, her tone still playful and mocking, "once someone dons a relic, their fate is forever entwined with the relic's essence... and curse."
"You've got to be joking here..."
"No joke, Mr. Isaac~," she responded to my muttering, giving my nose a playful "bop," her words laced with cruel amusement. "Relics are forever bound to the user once equipped."
She then raised my right hand into the air with hers and tried to pull the gold ring off my finger... but it didn't budge an inch.
"You can't take it off, no matter how much you try. It's forever stuck on your finger now~," Guild Master Yunxia explained further, before grasping my ring finger with her palm...!
"…!"
"We could cut your finger off..." she playfully suggested, causing a wave of panic to ripple through my heart, "... but the relic would just equip itself on the next finger~."
"Ugh...!" I groaned in frustration and dread, her revelation sinking deep into my soul. The way she "playfully" suggested cutting off my finger—it felt like something they had done before...
"We could cut off every finger from your two big, masculine hands... and it would just equip itself to your toe~," she continued, her tone still laced with amusement as she found this grim fact hilarious, while my heart kept sinking in fear.
"And even if we cut off every toe..." she trailed off, seemingly enjoying the terror in my eyes, "... your relic would just find another place to equip itself to you~. And it will..."
Her words hung in the air as she placed her free left hand on my chest and began to sensually lower it...
Until she finally stopped right at my throbbing manhood...!
"Ugh...!" I groaned again, not just in frustration, but also in... pleasure, as her delicate fingers sensually rubbed my most sensitive part...!
"It would equip itself even in the most 'unconventional' place~," she added, her sly smile filled with seductive and sexual tension, further humiliating me with her whim disguised as a lecture, "Even if your every limb is severed, this ring will find a way... it will latch onto whatever's left of you~."
The weight of her words hung in the air... as a cold chill ran down my spine. The idea that this cursed relic would cling to me no matter what... no matter how much of me was left... it was terrifying.
But then... she promptly detached herself from me.
"What the...?" I muttered in surprise, not expecting her to let go of me... just like that. I was a bit taken aback, momentarily grappling with myself... not just from the shock, dread, and fear instilled by the very thing she revealed to me... but also...
By the humiliation and denied pleasure she had inflicted upon me.
I slowly looked toward the vixen of a woman who had so abruptly left me... and she stood seductively in front of her office desk... a sly smile playing on her lips.
"Hehehe~," she laughed... as if fully aware of the torment she had caused me.
I was able to move again... but I gritted my teeth in frustration as I finally collected myself, doing my best to calm the storm of emotions welling up inside me...
"Thus... no matter how much you try," she summed up her supposed 'lecture' to me, "that ring of yours will always find its way back to you... until the day you let out your last breath."
I threw a glare at her, my deep frustration evident, her implication of death cutting deep.
"Then... why not just kill me and take it from me...?" I asked, thinking it was the most plausible course of action to obtain the relic from its user.
"We would..." she replied, her tone causing a momentary alarm within me, "... have done that if it were that simple~."
"What...?"
"Here's another funny thing about these relics, Mr. Isaac," she began again, a smile of amusement returning to her visage, "these relics are very finicky in nature... almost as if they're alive~."
"What are you talking about...?"
"These relics... when their user dies, they simply... disappear."
"Disappear...?" I repeated, baffled by the revelation.
"Yes~. They vanish into thin air, along with the very life essence of the user," she explained further, "that's why we didn't kill you on the spot, Mr. Isaac~. We wouldn't get your precious relic anyway, so why bother shedding useless blood~?"
"…!"
I was silent at the revelation, contemplating this unsettling notion... while keeping a hateful glare fixed on her. Her implication that she and her underlings, like the 'snake eyes' woman still glaring at me, could have killed me if not for this fact, only deepened my unease.
I was lucky, to say the least, knowing now that these people couldn't steal or kill me to obtain the relic in my possession. But... at the same time...
I felt conflicted over the curse this relic had brought upon me... the idea that I was essentially stuck with an almost permanent "hard wood" in my pants... for the rest of my life.
I would have to be very careful not to get too excited... or else I might do something I would regret for the rest of my life...
But right now... my concern lay elsewhere. I was now wondering... what was the true purpose behind my supposed 'abduction' and being brought directly to the Guild Master herself...
Unless...
"Guild Master..." I called out to her, my voice steady.
"Yes, Mr. Isaac~?"
"With everything you've told me, Guild Master..." I closed my eyes for a moment, carefully considering my next words...
"... are you trying to recruit me to your cause?" I asked, seriousness evident in my voice as I opened my eyes and stared directly into her amused expression.
"Hehehe~, well aren't you eager, Mr. Isaac~?" she teased, sensing the gravity in my tone.
"Guild Master..."
"But indeed, you are correct~," she finally answered, which only deepened the seriousness of the situation.
She then raised both her arms toward me... beckoning me to her.
"Join me... and I'll grant any desire you wish."