章 22: An Offer For Lilia
With Alice now passed out and the spider dead, they were taken out of the arena as the Hunters started to clean the place up.
Just as Lilia was about to be taken back to the cages with Alice, she was separated from the group.
'What's happening?' Lilia furrowed her brows in confusion as she should logically be taken back to the cages with everyone else.
Instead, she was taken up a flight of stairs and towards a luxurious room. A myriad of paintings were placed upon the white walls, two large windows could be seen while a chandelier hung above her. There was a round table in the center while two sofas flanked the table. Facing the door, was a single table and a woman sat upon the surface.
Behind Lilia, two masked Hunters stood on either side of the door and guarded the entrance while there was another Hunter besides the woman.
Lilia didn't dare utter a word since she knew who this woman was. She was the VIP that sponsored her and Alice. Any wrong move here and she may as well forfeit her life.
"Welcome. You know, finding information about you was a little annoying Miss Walker. I wanted to find the background of the two who decided to kill my little pet and I must say, I did not expect you to have that kind of past." The woman chuckled as she narrowed her eyes at Lilia who only looked down while biting her lip.
"Mother and father, both AB addicts who turned to gambling so that they could purchase their next dose. Going into debt, they sold you first, then your brother and finally your sister. Brother died in an arena like this one while your little sister eventually begged her new master to purchase you so you two could reunite. But by then you already had that flower growing out of your eye."
Hearing all of this, Lilia clenched her fist and tried her best to block out the words as to not hear them.
However, the woman stepped towards her and grabbed Lilia by the chin. Forcing her to look up, she curled her lips into a grin.
"From what I heard, you stole the master's attention away from your sister, making him only look for you. With your sister losing interest from the master, she got tossed to the tavern for some coin. What a cruel big sister you are. Your little sister helped you from dying to Vampire Lily and all you do is steal her master while she's tossed away." The woman laughed as she touched the flower growing from Lilia's eye.
"Then you found her body sprawled out next to the stables lifeless and took it upon yourself to kill your master in a delusion. Did you think it wasn't you who sealed your sister's fate because you feared the same outcome?"
"What do you want?" Lilia squeezed through her gritted teeth as she didn't want to hear anymore of her past. She didn't want to remember the scene of seeing her sister's dead body in the morning. The results of her selfishness.
Losing her smile, the woman stared at Lilia before slapping her across the cheek, causing Lilia to fall to the ground.
"Don't interrupt me you vile thing. Tsk, I feel dirty just hitting you." The woman glared before tossing aside her gloves.
"Anyways, before you rudely interrupted me, I was going to give you a little task for a new start. We'll wipe out your history, free you of your slave status and even help you get surgery to remove parts of the Vampire Lily. If you do a simple task for us." She smiled cruelly as Lilia listened to the task.
Hearing the contents of the task, Lilia widened her eyes and wanted to deny.
"Don't think about denying. Because if not you, we'll get someone stronger to do it." The woman cut her off as Lilia hesitated for a moment.
A sadistic light filled the woman's eyes as she watched Lilia struggle from the choice of whether or not she should go ahead with the task or not.
Gritting her teeth, Lilia nodded her head.
"Fine, I'll do it."
Hearing this, the woman clapped her hands.
"That's what I like to hear. I'll set things up for an underground match in round 3. You can go back for now. And remember, I have eyes and ears everywhere. So if you decide to leak it, neither of you are going to have a good time." The woman threatened with a smile.
Without replying, Lilia bit her lip and nodded her head before being taken out of the room.
"Do you think she'll be able to carry out that task?" The hunter beside the woman asked as she shook her head.
"I say there's about a 20 to 30% chance that she'll actually carry out my orders. After all, she's already betrayed her family once. Doing it a second time will be difficult." The woman shrugged.
"Then why did you trust her to do this? Wouldn't it be better to get the half white haired girl to do it instead?"
"No chance. We don't know anything about her. We don't know her name, background or where she even came from. We just know that someone found her on the beach and sold her to this place. Without any information to go off, it'll be difficult." She sighed while pulling out a stack of paper.
"But we can dig up a bunch of old trauma for that Lilia girl. There's a few ways we can force her hand but we'll just see how things progress for now. And if nothing happens… well, there's always other ways I can earn some compensation from them."
Hearing his master's plans for the two girls, the Hunter couldn't help but shake his head but made no action to change his master's mind.
###
Standing above the arena, Allura could be spotted sitting on the edge as her hair fluttered from the wind. There was a single cigarette in her mouth as she was contemplating on what she should do next.
She was observing the second round to see how Alice was going to fare but things go more out of hand than she expected. If Alice was in threat of dying, she would've stepped in at a moment's notice.
'She seems to have unlocked more powers than I initially estimated. Her kinetic vision improved and so has her absorption of blood. Though the key is still her obtaining a bounty and getting her first Sigil… I didn't think she'll get this far.' Allura thought to herself while taking a deep breath before blowing out a cloud of smoke.
"Hey Gin, what's the schedule looking like for the next few days?" Allura asked as there was a man standing next to her.
He had medium length grey hair that's been pulled back, a pair of black eyes with a scar over the bridge of his nose, a full beard and wore a rather simple suit with a large jacket.
"A little busy. There's some strange movement with the sailors and Hunters outside of the city. Some of the cargo was… tampered with. There are two new commissions that needs to be urgently dealt with." Gin sighed as he groaned while sitting down.
"You should stop calling me to damn places like this. Do you know how hard it is to climb up with my old bones?" He complained as Allura offered him a smoke but he shook his head.
"I had to keep an eye on a someone today. Plus it's not like I'm calling you to places like this all the time." Allura shrugged but Gin only stared at her.
"What?"
"Nothing. Just admiring how shameless you are without batting a single eyelid. Anyways, setting that aside, which one do you want to handle?" Gin asked while looking down at the arena and noticed the brutalized corpse of the spider.
"Hmm… Give me the closest one to the city while you prepare some funds for me." Allura replied after a short pause.
"Are you planning to buy a slave? Didn't think you were the type to purchase slaves. If you need an extra hand, you got my granddaughter following you around religiously like a fanatic." Gin sighed while massaging his forehead. Just remembering how his granddaughter acted gave him a headache.
"Yeah. Sadly some b*stard from my past decided to drop a brat here of all places and want's me to take care of them. I'll need about 35 platinum pieces since a VIP got their eyes on her."
"THIRY FIVE?! Do you think I'm still in business?!" Gin shouted out in shock.
"It's only seven years worth of earnings for a small family. Isn't it pocket money for you?" Allura smirked while glancing at Gin without turning her head.
"Even so-"
"I'll sort out the mission in one day for you. And you can think the coin as an investment." Allura interrupted.
"An investment in what?" Gin furrowed his brows.
"In me not killing the woman trying to purchase who I got my eyes on. Thought she was pretty important for your city?"
". . . Fine. I'll get the money ready for you while you sort out your mission. It should be ready by the time you get back." Gin sighed as Allura grinned.
"Pleasure doing business with you."
"F*ck off." Gin rolled his eyes while holding a hand out.
"Hm?"
"A smoke. I need one after spending thirty f*cking five platina on you." Gin clicked his tongue as Allura nodded her head with a laugh. Handing him a cigarette, she lit it with a small flame on the tip of her finger.
###
Returning to her cage, Lilia sat down and sighed deeply. Looking towards Alice's cage, she could see Alice seemingly suffering a nightmare as cold sweat filled her forehead.
Leaning against her cage with her back facing Alice, Lilia closed her eyes and sighed to herself.
"Sh*t… Is this karma for what I did before?" She questioned herself softly.
Shaking her head, she laid down and went to sleep. There was nothing else that can be done. If she rejected the task, someone else would do it.
'I haven't even known her for that long…' Lilia thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep, dreaming about the sins of her past.
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