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The Gamer Chapter 1573 – The Confusion of this Metracana
🕑 Added 2023-11-30 18:15:00 +0000 UTC“You expect me to wear this all the time?” Ehtra asked, obviously annoyed.
“I did not expect you to wear it at all!” John made abundantly clear.
Ehtra looked fantastic in the maid outfit. Her bust stretched the white fabric atop her chest nicely, the corset hugged her midriff, and the double-slit skirt showed her crossed legs in almost all of their glory. Her arms were crossed. Her expression radiated disdain. She sat on a wooden stool and leaned against the wall behind her. She was simultaneously relaxed and impatiently moved her raised foot up and down.
All of her body language displayed disagreement with her situation.
It belied the fact that she had picked the maid outfit among all the things John had offered her to wear. He had honestly just done it as a joke. Delicia had certainly cackled, doubly so after Ehtra actually picked it up in favour of the dresses, casual clothes, and even military uniforms he had offered.
“Your contract made it clear: I am your servant. These are servants’ clothes in this age.”
“I said to serve me! As part of my operations!”
Ehtra cocked her head. Her sword, leaned against the wall next to her, seemed to tilt in equal measure. She raised an eyebrow. Her voice dripped with doubt. “Are you trying to say that your operations are meant to only encompass what happens outside your estate? You want me to serve as a weapon and a weapon alone?”
“That was my intention for the contract, yes,” John stated.
Ehtra turned her gaze to Metra. “Is he politically retarded?”
John’s eye twitched at the blatant disrespect. A degree of disdain, he could accept as just being in her nature. This went far beyond. “You get one pass,” he warned her in a dark tone. “Insult me like that again and you will be punished.”
Immediately, Ehtra’s eyes snapped back to him. There was a little spark of interest in her green eyes. She tried to prod his mind for what punishment he had planned. Something that only got her rebuked harshly enough that the slap on her mind made her twitch in real space. Her sword fell over and clattered to the ground.
The truth was that John had no punishment in mind whatsoever. He did not enjoy administering actual punishments. That being said, he understood well enough what age Ehtra was from and what level of harshness she expected kings to use when dealing with insubordination.
“My… apologies.” Ehtra bowed her head, sufficiently cowed. She put a hand on her head and breathed slowly to retain control. An open connection was still a new sensation to her. “I do not understand the intention of our contract. I’m a Metracana, a tool with a purpose. My purpose given is to enact vengeance upon our common enemy and to serve you.”
“You are to serve me in the endeavour,” the Gamer repeated. “Outside of that, as long as you follow the laws of the land, I don’t care.”
“Of… the… land?” Ehtra asked slowly. “Not of… your… land?”
“…This is going to take a while,” Metra sighed. “We’ll go over their remarkably weird government system another time. For now, let’s focus on this ‘modern’ idea of what having a retinue is like.”
“I don’t have a retinue.”
“Precisely,” Metra joked.
“Huh?” Ehtra’s sneer took on a confused character. “Explain?”
John pinched the bridge of the nose, while Delicia just kept on laughing. “I mean what I said,” the Gamer put it as bluntly as possible. “You will serve as part of my operations, specifically the ones against Tiamat and the Lorylim. Beyond that, you owe me no loyalty and can do whatever you want.”
“You would have a Metracana servant…” Ehtra took a deliberate pause, “…under contract…” another pause, “…and have her be free outside of specific circumstances?”
“Yes.”
“Her face is hilarious!” Delicia burst out, her laughter growing in volume.
Ehtra eyed the sword on the ground. The wish to ram it through the throat of the obnoxious shortstack was written all over her features, but she controlled herself. “What’s that creature’s deal, then?” the First of Hatred asked instead, not bothering to hide her disdain.
“This creature!” Delicia snapped out of her amusement only to take offense. “I’m 80% of the reason you got put back together.”
John did not know how true that was. As in, he actually did not know. Therefore, he kept his mouth shut and let the altercation play out.
“And yet you are a disrespectful goblin.” Ehtra grabbed her sword and walked over. Placing the tip of the blade on the ground, she used it as an improvised cane to lean forwards on. “Care to explain what you are?”
“Mine are bigger than yours!” Delicia declared.
“Huh?” Ehtra cocked her head, then glanced down at her dangling breasts. “Who cares?”
“Yeaaaah, you totally don’t.” Delicia smiled through spread fingers. “You totally don’t care about being second in everything. That’s why you are acting all tall. Because you are sooooo secure about sizes.”
Ehtra’s face cast a deeper and deeper shadow while the smug maid poked her. “What – are – you?” she repeated her question.
Dropping the mocking tone, Delicia did an expert curtsy and introduced herself in a melodic voice that would have made Aclysia proud, “Delicia Poor, alchemist of John Newman and full time maid. Also, first Natural Spirit of Earth.”
“So, you do have full time servants,” Ehtra stated, turning back to John.
“On a voluntary basis,” the Gamer made clear.
Ehtra clearly bit back another comment about his unfitness as king. “So let me summarize my situation,” she said instead and headed back to the stool. “I am to be one of your weapons in the fight against Mother Chaos and her spawns. To that end, you will bestow me with additional power. Besides that, I am free to do as I please?”
“Yes,” John let out a relieved sigh. That was harder to get across than it should have been. ‘Ancient weapons and their habits,’ he thought. ‘To be fair, she missed out on the last 700 years of moral development.’
“Then I suppose I will serve as a ‘maid’ between deployments,” Ehtra stated plainly.
“…Alright.” John was just beyond caring at this point. If that’s what she wanted to do, then he would let her. A click of her tongue and a disappointed aversion of her gaze prompted him to do what Aclysia usually did for him. “Why do you want to be my maid?”
“I can hardly let you die,” Ehtra declared, talking as if she totally did not want to explain this. “You seem capable, but I have no need to leave your side and risk that you and these powers you grant me be undone. I shall play the part of the housekeeper. Might as well keep things clean. Dust is disgusting.” She ran a finger over the edge of her seat and checked on it. A little smile played around her lips when she saw nothing. “It’s fine if it is voluntary, right?”
“Certainly,” John confirmed and grabbed a stool himself. Ehtra was simultaneously everything and nothing like he had expected from the First of Hatred. That she was entering his maid force just like that felt… a little too convenient. He also could locate no fault in her mind and she did not have the Mental Stats to keep him from checking her motivations.
He stopped digging, letting her keep her privacy beyond what his paranoia demanded of him. When he backed off from her mind, Ehtra raised an eyebrow. She had not put up any resistance and likely expected him to dig further. Seemed like she was used to serving control freaks with massive trust issues. Not exactly a surprise considering what her Metracana ability was.
Ehtra was most useful to the kind of people who saw enemies everywhere and who HAD enemies everywhere. Problem with that, of course, was that they would then have to trust her. Considering that the average contractor of a Metracana did not have the ability to feel more than the most prevalent emotion from the Metracana, and considering the constant disdain Ehtra emitted, that did not for a friendly work environment make.
Certainly put her view of the world into a more understandable light.
As for the Attribute that had replaced Tiamat’s Chaos Principle.
A useful one for sure. Very niche and less mysterious than Ragnarok Break, but John could live with that.
‘Seems like it pulled her all the way to her natural maximum, then stopped there,’ John considered. His gaze moved over to the window offering him to start the selection of the Monster Girl Perks. Once he was done with that, he reckoned, the system would put her to his level and enable him to distribute her Stat Points. “We’ll talk more about what you do in your free time later. For now, let’s get you actually powered up.”
“Trust me, this part is awesome,” Metra boasted, taking that particular tone that only lovers could when their partners were doing something awesome. It was one of those instances where taking credit for what another person did felt actually justified.
They were a unit, after all.
‘Now, what do I get to distribute?’ John thought to himself and studied the window more closely.
“Alright, so I will read out to you what my system enables to be chosen,” John told the sitting First of Hatred. “The choice, by and large, is yours. Unless there are some truly monstrous options, I’m letting you pick.”
Ehtra’s eyebrows nearly met. Her mind carefully probed through the connection, searching, or rather requesting, access to any ulterior motives he may have. Letting her pass, she was allowed another scan of his mind, this time of a deeper and more specific part.
When she first found his desire for personal gain, there was a sense of grim relief. It was the same kind of emotion John felt when something bad finally did happen after a chain of smoothness. The sensation was quickly dispersed when she found there only the simple notion of him wanting a powerful ally and a surprised happiness of having another gorgeous maid around him.
“Pervert,” Ehtra muttered, a little blush on her neutral expression.
Beyond that personal gain, she only found his honesty and his concern. He really did want the best for her because he was who he was and she was Metra’s sister. It was his duty to help her out, as a good lover. There was concern there for what she may do with that power, but he trusted Metra and so he trusted Ehtra.
“I do not understand you,” Ehtra mumbled. “How much trust do you have?”
“Less than you think, more than you are used to,” John told her. “Although it is easier to trust when I can grind you into dust when you overstep.”
“You really could, couldn’t you?” The First of Hatred turned to the many other contracts he had, then retreated from his mental landscape altogether. “You’re an impressive man, I’ll give you that much,” she stated reluctantly. “I can see why someone of your power is a king candidate even if I remain… unconvinced of what else I see.”
John shrugged. He had no need to convince her today. Living with him and seeing his realm would do that trick. She could hold her views of less trusting societies being the norm. That was not only fine, it would actually serve John if he ever found himself in such a situation. Advisors of varied outlooks were a boon to any leader. The biggest skill a ruler could have was to discern who to listen to in any given affair.
All he really wanted to do was to dispel the notion that he was unwise for acting as he did. Once she understood that she was in a different paradigm, one that worked, then he would have pushed her as far as he wanted to.
“Now, do you want to keep delaying this with talks or should I actually pull up the Perks?” John asked.
Ehtra crossed her legs, placed her sword against the wall, crossed her arms, genuinely contemplated the question for a moment, then let out a long breath through her nose. “Let’s see what you offer me, master.”
He also would try to change the lack of veneration she used that word with.
Comments
barak43
I think she will become his full Time secretary. More useful to him and she'll be by his side all the same
Deighton
Can't wait to see the perk choices! Outside of plot/charecter development chapters, level up chapters are my favorite!
Christian Krueger
Honestly, because of those perks, I think she would be well suited for bodyguard work. but because of how strong John is otherwise, i guess that role is not really needed. I also think there is a bit of a Maid Corp bloat. 5 seems like a good number for now, only increasing it again if the current 5.5 (lee is not a full time member of the maid corp as her main job is the team's fateweaver) need it.
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