A week went by after Cornelius' death. Cless read a lot of books but barely left her room, fearing some kind of retaliation regarding the merchant. After some prodding, Karen got her to go on an errand buy some groceries. An obvious ploy to get her out of her room.

Cless got out and back just fine. The world was still the same. She rejoined society in her own limited, careful way. Two days later, she went to the book dealer buy the next book on a series about a troll that became a hero when her world blacked out as she crossed a deserted street.

Cless woke up to find a piece of burlap cloth covering her entire head. She tried to move her limbs, but they were bound by ropes that dug into her flesh. Her body was over some hard smooth surface. A stone slab or a wooden table kind of surface. She screamed for help and heard footsteps coming closer.

She tried to remember what happened. She ate soup, read a book and went to sleep. Was she kidnapped?

"Rise and shine, Princess!" A mocking male voice spoke from nearby. She turned her head in the direction of the voice but she could see nothing but the burlap sack covering her head. A few dots of light through the fabric but that was all.

"Who are you? Where am I? What do you want?"

"Me? I am just a man in search of justice! And you are in the 'altar of justice', monster bitch!"

Cless fought to keep her fear in check. She had to think if she wanted to get out of there. She heard a door being thrown open, and the shuffling of several footsteps entering the room. Yes, now that she could hear the reverberation of the sound, she knew they were in a large room, probably some warehouse.

"Hector, what is this?" Another male voice asked.

"Shut the fuck up, you moron! Don't use names in here." The first mocking voice, Hector, answered.

"Wait, are you Cornelius' nephew? I am sorry for your uncle's death but I had nothing to do with that! Let me go!"

Cless struggled a little more and felt stinging wetness on her wrists. The rope broke her skin.

"You murdered my uncle! How dare you speak his name so casually!" Hector punched her ribs, drawing a scream of pain from Cless. "You even stole his stuff and branded me a Thief! Thank God for the constable finding the truth and setting me free!"

"No, it was I that told him to release you," Cless answered crying. "I don't want trouble, please let me go!"

"Liar!" Another punch. "Don't talk bitch. Unless you like pain, and we are going to give you a lot of pain, aren't we, boys?"

Shouts of "yes", "fuck the bitch", "Let's do the monster girl" and others in the same spirit echoed in the room. Cless figured out what these men intended to do with her and her effort to break free doubled.

"No! Don't touch me!" She desperately implored. She felt her wrists and hands bloodied and tried to slip her hands through the ropes. It only broke more skin.

"Rip off her clothes!" Hector commanded.

Hands covered her body. They groped and roughly caressed her body, her breasts, her thighs, and crotch. Cless felt sick. Disgusted. These hands found purchase on the fabric of her clothes and ripped them away. She felt the cold air of the warehouse mixed with the breath of the men.

"Eww, she is disgusting!" One man said.

Cless tried to close her legs, but a sudden tug on the ropes binding the ankles forced her open.

"Whatever, man. Pussy is pussy. And these breasts are not bad!"

She was groped once more, this time directly on the skin. Cless gagged. She wanted desperately a way out.

"Get off, you idiots." Hector, the ringleader of these men, shouted. "I'll have her first."

Cless knew she was about to be gang-raped by these men. She had to do something. She knew she was too weak to escape these ropes. She couldn't fight. All she could do was scream and talk.

Talk. Cless could talk.

She could use her Skill. Maybe force these men to enter a contract.

But she had to offer something of value. The gold in the bank?

How would she get them to agree to the contract? They wouldn't. She would have to trick them.

They were going to take her virginity. According to the nuns, a woman's most precious thing. More even than her life. She had trouble accepting that but the nuns were adamant. Cless had to protect it over her own life. Better be dead than disgraced.

An idea came to her. If she was going to be disgraced by these men, she would demand their lives. She formulated her contract in her mind and spoke it out fast, lest they interrupt her. As she thought of the terms, her Skill gave her the feelings of what was fair and what was not.

"If even one of you touch your dicks on me, every one of you that remains here and is not trying to stop the others from raping me will become my servants with absolute obedience for fifteen years."

A trade offer was made. Cless' chastity in exchange for fifteen years of servitude with absolute obedience for all the men present.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch!" Hector was cradling himself over her when she spoke. He slapped Cless in the face over the burlap sack. Cless felt him lifting her hips and something warm touching her. She tried to clench her muscles, to avoid what was coming but she felt Hector starting to invade her privates. The bastard was taking his time. He pulled back and spat on Cless' pussy before he returned to his rape attempt.

He was at her atrium. Cless tried to climb higher on the surface she was at, but the ropes were already stretched taut. She tried to move sideways but he was holding her waist. He forced himself inside her.

The offer was accepted. Joe, Lyle Serrano, Edward Hensley, Johnnie Graham, Andre, Jerry Fuller, Alan Dunn, Hector Simmons, Gerald Lindsay, Arnold, Jimmy Carter, Elmer Love, Don, Lance Benson, Martin, Douglas Jones, Alan Wood, Collin York, Eugene O'Brien, Herbert Kramer, Matthew Pratt, Lawrence Paul, Samuel Wilkins, Brett Randall, Brendan Hunt, Shane Scott, and Kevin Sanford are now Cless' servants for fifteen years. Cless earned 9,333 Experience Points. Cless advanced to level 10. Cless can select a second profession.

"Stop and get off me! Now!" She immediately ordered right when the notification's voice played on her head. Hector got off. "Everyone stop moving and say not a single word. Make no noise. Close your eyes. Do not speak, move or open your eyes until I say so."

The whole room suddenly became quiet. Cless tried to remember the boys. She needed to command one of them to release her. In her blind outrage, they were all scum. She felt like telling them to kill themselves but that would be against what she believed. No.

"Hector get down to the floor and lie on your belly. Stand still and silent just as previously ordered."

'Seize the opportunities presented to you,' The words once again came to her. Was this one of them? She had an army of boys that would obey her every order. She needed to get out first.

"Which of you have a cloak with you? Say only the word 'me' now."

"Me." Three of the boys answered.

Cless knew they would try to subvert her orders. Well, she doubted any of these idiots had over twelve Intellect.

"Of these three that answered my previous call, say your first names."

"Lyle", "Douglas", "Andre," The three boys said at once, but she was able to get their names.

"Lyle. Take off your cloak. Walk to me slowly looking at the ceiling. Slide your feet slowly. Do not look down. Do not trip."

Several minutes passed and the boy bumped into the surface Cless was tied on.

"Close your eyes and hear my voice. Throw the cloak over me like a blanket." She felt the cloak covering her breasts and legs. "Good. Lyle, you shall be rewarded. Now you can look down and around as you need to complete your tasks. Gently undo the bindings of my hands. Cut only the rope without injuring me further if you have a dagger or a knife."

Pain struck as Lyle sawed the ropes but his weapon didn't touch her. Once her hands were free she removed the burlap sack from her head. She undid the knots and removed the rope from her wrists, taking a good look at the skin of her wrists. It was both burnt and flayed. Blood still dripped.

"Lyle, be a dear and cut the ropes binding my legs too. To all of you, try to subvert my orders and it will be your doom." Completely free, Cless gave the boys one last order for the moment. "All of you, open your eyes. Turn your backs away from me, take three steps away from me, and stand still and silent until I order otherwise."

They marched in unison, compelled by the power of Cless' Skill. With the crisis averted but the damage is done, Cless finally let the tension go and did what she wanted most.

Cless cried her heart out.

She wept for her lost virginity. She wept to relieve her from the loathing. The scorn she had to endure every day. At her weakness in depending on the generosity of others. At her own worthlessness. Her predicament in life. The fact that everyone thought she was evil.

She cried until she had no more tears to shed to an audience of twenty-seven servants that could only stare at the walls of the warehouse. Cless calmed down. She looked around and saw it was already night. And she had no clothes. Whole clothes.

Cless donned the cloak and tried to make herself somehow presentable. Her shirt was torn in the front but she could wear it backward. The Skirt could be tied up and also worn with the torn part pointing backward. She noticed she was on a table made of half a huge log and climbed down. After searching she found her shoes, covered in her own blood. Nice.

"Alright, boys, by now you know that you screwed up big time and you are doomed. And it is all Hector's fault. You can all turn around and look at me." They did. She was surrounded. "No. All of you move around and line up in front of me. Do not attack anyone or get near me. Move!"

She wanted to vent her anger. She wanted to make them bleed. But she swallowed her hatred. It was time to make use of her opportunity, as God wanted.

"For the next fifteen years, you all will serve me. And you will never forget it is because Hector is an asshole." She was surprised at her own vocabulary. "You could've tried to stop your friends. You could've just walked away. You didn't and let him hurt me. Blame him, blame yourselves."

"Fuck you, Hector!" One of the boys realized he could speak if it were to blame Hector, so they all did. One of them even cried "Stupid me."

"Enough. Now I'll lay some ground rules. You are not to enter any contract or long-term employment. You won't select a class or profession or spend your stat points until I say so. And now the permanent rules. I'll say three... no, five rules you will have to follow all the time. Never forget them.

"The first rule, you will never speak of what happened in here today or of my Skill. You will always address me with courtesy and in an adequate voice. You will call me Cless only. No other treatment like 'master' or pretending I am nobility or something I am not.

"The second rule, you will never through action, inaction or negligence, allow me or another of you to come to harm. You will protect me with your lives if needed.

"Third rule, you are not allowed to speak about what you can or cannot do or say regarding our contract or our orders. You will always answer with 'I cannot say anything'.

"The fourth rule, if I die you will disband and walk into the wilderness, never to return to civilization or band with other people until the end of the contract. As long as I am alive, you will never attempt to get away from me.

"The fifth rule, you will never look at a woman anywhere from the neck down. You will also never again masturbate or lay with a woman unless I grant permission.

"Nod if you understood all five rules."

The boys grimaced mostly over the fifth rule but all of them nodded.

"I will grant you an amendment of our contract. Who among you want to shorten the term of your servitude by two years in exchange for never ever talking about what happened, my orders or my Skills?"

An amendment to the contract with Joe, Lyle Serrano, Edward Hensley, Johnnie Graham, Andre, Jerry Fuller, Alan Dunn, Hector Simmons, Gerald Lindsay, Arnold, Jimmy Carter, Elmer Love, Don, Lance Benson, Martin, Douglas Jones, Alan Wood, Collin York, Eugene O'Brien, Herbert Kramer, Matthew Pratt, Lawrence Paul, Samuel Wilkins, Brett Randall, Brendan Hunt, Shane Scott, and Kevin Sanford is offered. Trade two years of servitude for never ever talking about what happened in the warehouse today, Cless' orders or her Skills.

Most of the boys nodded and were obviously messing with the notification. Cless was astonished as she saw their blank gaze. If a notification popped during combat, they would be dead.

The amendment was accepted by Joe, Lyle Serrano, Edward Hensley, Andre, Jerry Fuller, Alan Dunn, Gerald Lindsay, Arnold, Jimmy Carter, Elmer Love, Don, Lance Benson, Martin, Douglas Jones, Alan Wood, Collin York, Herbert Kramer, Matthew Pratt, Lawrence Paul, Brett Randall, Brendan Hunt, Shane Scott, and Kevin Sanford. Their servitude will be shortened to thirteen years.

Cless noted that four of them didn't accept, including Hector. She would drive these four the hardest. And fifteen years from now was a long, long time. At least she'd have them two years more than the rest.

"Hector, lie on your knees and press your face to the ground." The boy's body jerked and he moved into position. "Now, who among you agree to give Hector a suitable punishment?"

All the boys nodded except for Hector himself.