Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Then, Silas saw an immediate golden opportunity.

’Wait a minute...’ Silas realized with the corners of his mouth curling beneath the Oni mask. ’She made me lay my head in her lap for fifteen straight minutes while she laughed and called me cheap...’

It was time for payback.

Silas gave Evelyn a sharp pointed look.

Evelyn slowly turned her porcelain Kitsune mask toward him. Beneath the painted fox face, her posture radiated pure cold dread.

Without saying a single word of warning, Silas reached across the armrest.

He wrapped his massive black-gloved hands firmly around Evelyn’s slender waist, lifted her entire body cleanly off her chair with effortless strength, and pulled her sideways, placing her directly onto his own lap.

’H-huh...?’

The entire room went completely still.

Talia’s dark eyes went wide with pure shock.

The Boss’s silver eyebrows shot up to his hairline with his fingers freezing mid-air over his holographic keyboard.

Even Evelyn gasped beneath her mask, her body going completely rigid as she found herself sitting squarely across Silas’s armored thighs.

She instinctively tried to scramble backward to get off him, but Silas casually locked his thick left arm around her waist, anchoring her firmly in place with the unyielding strength of a hydraulic clamp.

Silas leaned comfortably back into the plush leather cushions of his chair, relaxing completely as if he were sitting in his own living room.

"We are in the middle of an executive business meeting," Silas told her through the mask. "You are my Manager and you handled the wagers so start talking."

Beneath the painted porcelain Kitsune mask, Evelyn’s entire face flared into a brilliant scalding shade of crimson.

’You shameless bastard!’ Evelyn cursed him furiously in her thoughts with her heart hammering against her ribs. ’Doing this in the middle of the Black-Ash headquarters?! I am going to murder you in your sleep when we get back to the Sovereign Realm!’

The Boss recovered his composure, letting out a low amused chuckle from behind the desk.

"Well, well," the Boss mused, his slate-gray eyes glittering with intrigue. "It seems the two of you share an exceptionally... intimate working relationship."

Evelyn opened her mouth, desperate to deny it and salvage her professional dignity.

"We are strictly—"

"We are very close," Silas cut her off smoothly, tightening his arm around her waist. "In fact, we are planning to be officially married in the near future."

Evelyn choked on her own breath with her blush deepening until her ears burned hot against her mask.

The bastard was literally quoting the exact ridiculous cover story she had fed to the mask vendor earlier.

The Boss offered a polite respectful nod.

"Then allow me to offer my early congratulations on a prosperous and bloody union."

Beside the desk, Talia’s sharp jaw tightened.

Her dark eyes twitched in visible frustration as she stared at Evelyn sitting comfortably on Silas’s lap.

’She wants to capitalize that entire magnificent ass for herself?!’ Talia thought with indignity, her manicured nails digging into her palms. ’A holy asset like that belongs to the public! I never knew such greedy hoarding devils existed in this world!’

The Boss cleared his throat again, turning his attention back to the holographic console.

"Now, let us examine the total payout," the Boss said, tapping the glass.

PING!

As the Boss looked down at his screen, Evelyn took a slow breath against Silas’s chest.

The moment Silas had pulled her onto his lap, the suffocating pressure that had been crushing her chest had miraculously vanished.

With her senses cleared, Evelyn’s mind instantly analyzed what had just happened.

’The Boss was using an artifact,’ Evelyn realized with chilling clarity. ’He doesn’t have an internal Lord Core, but he is wearing a high-tier relic pinned beneath his necktie... a Dread-Aura Seal, I don’t even need to use the System.’

It was an item that projected a frequency of psychological terror designed to induce submissive paralysis in anyone with a weakened mind... she had not realized that her mind was that weak.

Maybe because she was comfortable with Silas... she was no longer affected by this.

Evelyn rested her gloved hand against Silas’s broad shoulder plate.

’I will never ever admit this out loud to his arrogant face,’ Evelyn thought with her pulse steadying. ’But... thank you, Silas.’

She needed a long well-deserved vacation after this nightmare of a mission, and she was fully intending on taking three straight weeks off the moment they stepped back into the Sovereign Realm.

The Boss pulled up the official Black-Ash betting logs, and a low appreciative whistle escaped his lips.

"Incredible," the Boss murmured, shaking his head.

He flipped the holographic projector around so the numbers floated in the center of the room.

[Manager ID: 155]

[Account Tag: Black-Lotus-Holdings]

[Gross Tournament Balance: 90,050,000 Spirit Credits]

It was an astronomical sum of wealth.

Ninety million credits was enough to purchase an entire private district in Shogitown, fund a private mercenary battalion for three years, or buy several high-grade territories that were for sale outright.

"Ninety million," the Boss stated, looking directly into Evelyn’s Kitsune mask. "A truly historic payout... Please provide your secure offshore routing coordinates."

Evelyn, fully composed now and operating in pure business mode, reached out and tapped a secure encrypted ten-digit routing code into the obsidian terminal.

It was a dummy corporate shell account she specifically maintained for high-stakes laundering... cleared to receive massive, eight-figure sums without triggering World Council tax audits.

The Boss reviewed the routing clearance and nodded slowly.

Then... a thin smirk spread across his silver-bearded face.

"Everything appears in order," the Boss said smoothly, resting his chin in his palms. "However... as I am sure an experienced Manager such as yourself understands, processing ninety million credits through our underground liquidity pools incurs a mandatory operational clearance fee."

Evelyn let out a quiet tired internal sigh.

’Of course,’ Evelyn thought, looking unimpressed. ’The classic Underworld shakedown. Sleazy to the very end...’

"And what, precisely, is your standard clearance fee?" Evelyn asked.

"Given the unprecedented volume of the transaction," the Boss replied casually, "the Syndicate will require a standard thirty percent clearance deduction. That is twenty-seven million credits. Leaving you with a clean sixty-three million..."

The Boss leaned back, waving his hand magnanimously. "Though, as honorable business partners, I am naturally open to a reasonable counter-negotiation."

The Boss wasn’t desperate for the money.

The Black-Ash Syndicate had just raked in over two hundred million credits from the aggregate betting pools on the final match alone.

But mafia bosses didn’t become mafia bosses by leaving twenty-seven million credits sitting on a table.

He was feeling greedy.

Evelyn shifted slightly on Silas’s lap, leaning forward toward the obsidian desk.

Her dark eyes flashed behind the Kitsune mask, completely entering her element.

"Thirty percent is an insulting amateurish opening bid, Boss," Evelyn countered coldly. "Your standard Black-Ash charter explicitly caps executive clearance fees at fifteen percent for registered Tier-One tournament sponsors..."

She was going to use everything that she had studied about the Syndicates, especially this one for this argument.

The Boss smiled thinly.

"You are not a registered Tier-One sponsor, Manager 155. You are an anonymous outside entity..."

"I am an anonymous outside entity whose fighter just saved you millions of credits in syndicate cleanup costs," Evelyn shot back with surgical precision. "You admitted yourself five minutes ago that Onii-chan eliminated three major internal threats for your organization... If Zarch had lived, he would have leaked your distribution routes to the Northern Cartel. If Goliath-9 had survived, your security schematics would currently be on an encrypted server in the Iron-Core Cartel’s headquarters and not to mention the others."

The Boss’s smile faded slightly.

"Furthermore," Evelyn pressed ruthlessly, "we placed our sixty-million-credit wager through your terminal before the sudden-death rule change was announced. By the official laws of the Shogitown Gaming Commission... laws your own father drafted thirty years ago... any match restructured by the house without a forty-eight-hour notice is completely exempt from administrative taxation."

’I hope he also doesn’t ask about the original 1 million I used to bet.’ Evelyn thought after saying that, that was a free million!

Talia glanced at her father, genuinely surprised by the masked woman’s encyclopedic knowledge of the syndicate’s legal loopholes.

"If you attempt to withhold thirty percent," Evelyn concluded, crossing her arms with authority. "we will simply route the payment through Iron-Bank. They charge a flat eight percent wire fee, and they will publicly flag the Black-Ash Syndicate for liquidity failure... Your stock value will drop five percent by morning."

’I don’t even know what I’m saying at this point. I just want my money...’

The Boss stared at Evelyn in stunned silence.

For three long seconds, the only sound in the executive office was the hum of the air filtration system.

Then... the Boss threw his head back and burst into a loud genuine belly laugh.

"Hahahahaha!"

The Boss slammed his hand onto the obsidian desk, thoroughly entertained.

"Well played, Manager!" the Boss chuckled, shaking his head with immense respect. "It has been at least a decade since an outsider has quoted my own father’s charter back to my face. Brilliant..."

The Boss tapped his interface, adjusting the payout parameters.

"Ten percent," the Boss offered, his tone final. "Nine million credits for standard transaction clearance including the original amount you used to bet, and eighty-one million transferred directly to your offshore shell account. That is my final offer."

’Fuck, he remembered!’

"Deal," Evelyn agreed instantly.

BEEP!

A high-pitched confirmation chime rang through the console.

[TRANSACTION COMPLETE]

[TRANSFERRED: 81,045,000 SPIRIT CREDITS]

[RECIPIENT: BLACK-LOTUS-HOLDINGS]

"Thank you for your business," Evelyn said smoothly, inclining her head.

Down on the chair, Silas just sat there, looking between the two of them with utter bewilderment behind his Oni mask.

’What the fuck just happened?’ Silas thought with his brain spinning. Was that haggling?

The Boss closed the holographic financial tab and straightened his posture.

"Now," the Boss spoke into his desk comms unit. "Bring in the secondary asset."

PSSH-CHUNK!

The heavy ironwood doors hissed open once more.

Two burly syndicate enforcers stepped into the office, dragging a heavily bound prisoner between them.

The prisoner’s hands were clamped behind his back in massive iron suppression cuffs.

He possessed long unkempt silver-and-white hair that hung in greasy tangles around his face and a scruffy patchy beard covered his sharp jawline as he was also wearing stained threadbare prisoner overalls.

The Boss looked at the disheveled prisoner with disgust.

"On your knees, Ryan," the Boss commanded coldly.

The guards shoved the young man down onto the carpet in front of the desk.

"You are a disgrace to the family bloodline," the Boss spat, glaring at his son. "A pathetic, shut-in rat who spends his life hiding behind data screens... These two individuals have purchased your contract however so they are now your new owners."

Ryan... the hacker formerly known as Jax scoffed loudly, tossing his silver hair out of his eyes with a sneer.

"Good to see you too, you decrepit old fossil," Ryan insulted his father smoothly, his voice dripping with venom. "I hope you choke on your clearance fees."

Ryan slowly lifted his head, scanning his new buyers.

His eyes landed directly on the porcelain Kitsune mask sitting squarely on the lap of the massive dark-coated demon in the leather chair.

Ryan blinked.

Then, the young hacker had to visibly bite the inside of his cheek to stifle a loud hysterical laugh.

"Pfft—" Ryan snorted, his shoulders shaking. "Well, well. Look at this power dynamic."

Evelyn’s face flared red again. She frantically tried to scramble off Silas’s lap, pushing against his chest with both hands.

"Let me down." Evelyn hissed under her breath.

Silas didn’t budge. He tightened his arm around her waist, keeping her firmly planted on his thighs just to spite her.

The Boss narrowed his slate-gray eyes, looking suspiciously at his son. "Do you know these people, Ryan?"

"Never seen them before in my miserable life, Dad," Ryan lied smoothly, winking slightly toward the Kitsune mask. "Just appreciating the scenery."

The Boss sighed, waving his hand toward Talia.

"Talia... Release the physical suppression bindings."

"With pleasure," Talia muttered.

Talia walked over to her brother, drawing a small high-frequency vibro-knife from her blazer pocket.

With two clean slices, she severed the reinforced locking mechanisms on the iron suppression cuffs.

CLANG!

The heavy iron cuffs dropped to the carpet.

Ryan groaned, rolling his sore shoulders and flexing his pale scarred fingers in the open air with a massive grin spreading across his bearded face.

"Ah, sweet freedom."

Talia immediately reached down, grabbed a fistful of his greasy silver hair, and violently yanked his head forward, forcing him to expose the back of his pale neck.

"Ow! Watch the hair, you psychotic bitch!" Ryan complained loudly.

On the pale skin directly beneath Ryan’s hairline, an intricate glowing crimson tattoo was etched deep into the flesh... A Slave Rune.

The Boss looked across the desk toward the leather chair.

"I can sense the dormant mana coursing through both of you," the Boss instructed. "Either the Manager or the Fighter must step forward and channel their personal mana directly into the core of the rune. Once your energetic signature binds with the formula, the control of Ryan will be permanently transferred to you."

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