3rd person POV
"Red jade and Perseus is immune to it?" Rex asked for confirmation as he inspected the stone "And the one with jade colored eyes and creator of the key are different?"
"Yes, that's what I said, I'm leaving now." Etha said as he turned away.
Etha briefed Rex of what Perseus told him and based from the fact that he confirmed that Catherina's appearance was not there before as he spectated the tournament, it means that Perseus didn't lie.
He finds Perseus very mysterious, he even thinks that Perseus is a spy for a moment, but he never failed the task they gave him, usually spies would fail a few to test the waters and to make it not look like they're trying too quick to get to the top, but Perseus did all his task perfectly to the best of his abilities.
And unlike regular spies, he questions his order, maybe it's because he's strong and only 2 people or a certain division and hold him down, but he set rules to what he can and can't do and none of them can abuse it, children, pregnant woman, a sole guardian to someone who can't take care of themselves...he has a list, a spy would do it without question.
He trust him to a huge extend, but he does question his background a bit, he's too special.
"Is this all we have?" Rex asked
"That's all your division is getting." Etha corrected "I'm giving the rest to the others "Perseus also divided up some for the other side to get more heads into the case in order to study it further, but it's confirmed to be quite fragile to people of our capability, so be careful."
As he was leaving, he was stopped.
"Wait, how did the guy know that the 2 are different people?" Rex asked
"He asked an anonymous source who accompanied him there and left, I don't know anything else." Etha answered "Have fun."
*****
Perseus POV
"Did you not get any sleep?" Valentina asked as I showed up yawning and stretching for the job.
"I cried myself to sleep, don't worry."
"Why?"
"My sword broke."
"You're impotent?" she questioned and earned some snickers among my clan and her royal guards
If I am, you won't be pregnant, luckily unlike the author's world, we got pills and medicine to cure any disease, some that can make you drink alcohol and not harm your child, which hid the fact that she's having my child well.
"No, my SS ranked one."
"You should rank it higher, it's very effective in the pleasure aspect." she joked which the guards now choke on wither air or their own saliva.
"Sexual jokes still aren't my thing, your majesty."
"How did your sword break?" Decker asked and opened his hands which implied that he wants to check the damage which I then gave to him "I got the best of the best to made this."
"A cat did that."
"A boss or a beast folk?"
Your mama-
"Long story, anyway, I'm thinking of an upgrade, an SSS ranked one."
"Well we can only get an SS+ ranked at most, further than that, you find them yourself." Decker said as he then kept my sword "I'll take this to the repairs, as for your wish, you're going to have to climb further up the tower."
"Damn."
*****
3rd person POV
Catherina woke up in her large mansion in in large pristine bedroom, she sees both her husband who must have been worried sick because as they're sleeping by her side, their eyes were sunken and they look a bit pale, they probably haven't eaten.
She looked around her room and used mana to detect her surroundings and the whole building, and Arlon isn't there apart from her servants. One of her lovers woke up when they felt her awake and moving and she just rested their head back to sleep as they described what happened.
"I'm sorry." she apologized and a tear leaked out "Before they shoved that activated red stone down my throat...one of them...forced me..."
"What did they make you do? Was it-" one of them frantically asked
"I only had to use my mouth...if Perseus didn't come on time...I would've been assaulted, I'm sorry..."
"It's okay, you're home now." he hugged her as she cried into his chest
*****
Perseus POV
Arlon who later got an update from Cat told me what she described, even Alice is pissed to hear that. Alice maybe the master of the red light district where she knows people with certain and strange fetishes, but all of them are consensual and none are forced to work there against their will, everything has a line.
"As bad as it sounds, it's fortunate that they sent us those coordinates and you chose to not stick to the plan." Arlon sighs in a bit of relief since we didn't want to expand on what other things they forced her to do in order to humiliate her.
And what did the admin who sponsored her do as she was forced to do all that? Did he just fucking sat back on do nothing? Luckily, she got people close to her to help her heal herself mentally and help repair her pride a bit.
"We should hold an informal meeting ahead of the mandatory meeting between rankers." Arlon suggested "And we're all meeting in the 13 directors' room, with the presence of all of us at once should ward off these people no matter how strong they are."
"But by doing so, people will easily deduced that there is something dangerous going on that we all have to have one outside our mandatory and more formal rankers meeting." Alice argued "Let's just bring it up during the formal one, it's like in 2 months anyway."
"Yeah, having one ahead isn't going to do anything good, but at the same time, this red jade isn't going to do anything good, if you can't find anything out no matter what you do...destroy it all and leave only one for yourself just in case, this is too dangerous, your loyal subjects may turn on you...power corrupts after all."