The two women were entangled by shadows, wrapping and coiling around their bodies like snakes and wyrms. While I usually did not like rough handling of my prey too much, it was akin to a ___ being shaken, turning fizzy and exploding in my face, there was not much of a choice.

“Are the two of you finally willing to listen?” I asked… paused then turned to look at Rose trying to bite off the shadows. While they were powerful bindings, the shadow was something that manifested as one form of my powers as a creature of the night, so I was rather disturbed.

Eleanor looked positively embarrassed.

She must have realized that I could vaguely ‘sense’ what Rose was doing.

“She’s acting like a dog,” I said.

“Rose, please stop.” Eleanor whispered to no avail, but Rose refused and continued to put up a fight. So much willpower and yet it was put to this kind of effort. A complete pity, she would have been a great weapon, but a sword was useless if sheathed.

“Come now, listen to your master.” I smirked. “If she tells you to sit, you better sit and behave. And when she says fetch, you should very much do as she says.”

Eleanor stared at me with a look as if she was slapped, but I didn’t pay much heed to it. If she said I had a heart of gold… then it was time for her to realize that she was mistaken.

Instead, I focused on her servant who refused to give up.

Rose looked me in the eye as she chewed. “If you think a simple [Shadow Bind] will be enough to keep us trapped, I’d like to see your back turned away. Even someone like you will wither underneath a silvery dagger.”

She presumed it was a Spell, and not my own shadows manifested. Would she have stopped if I said it was an extension of me? No doubt.

More than that, I was not entirely sure why she was threatening me and even revealing her weapon of choice to attack me… it was better to keep those plans to herself, but I had already lost my patience.

We had played this cat and mouse game for far too long.

Would it be far better to use hot iron to burn her tongue? She would have problems with those. I smirked and addressed her. “I could gag and fill your mouth with something far harder to swallow, but I’d prefer to have you swear allegiance with your lips and do this without any problems.”

“You lecherous perv!” Rose immediately spat out the shadow tendril from her mouth and shuddered. Her dark brown hair fell over her face and covered her features.

What an odd woman.

I raised a brow and leaned down, tucking away some of her hair behind an ear and avoided her attempts to bite off my fingers. She really wasn’t docile and there was such a fierce look on her face that made me wonder how she would be like if she was vulnerable.

But there were other matters.

“Alright. I’m in need of someone who will renovate the Blackwell Manor for me.”

“Do we look like workers to you?” Rose frowned.

I shrugged. “If I tell you that I do not distinguish anything from beneath me, would that suffice as an answer?”

“I…you monster!” Rose screamed. “I do not know how you deceived Her Highness, Eleanor, but I will not allow you to—”

“There is nothing for you to do so I insist that you give up,” I coldly said. “I could have killed the two of you a thousand times over while you writhed in those shadows. Behave, grovel if you wish to survive.”

This time, Rose finally fell silent.

Reality has struck in.

Good.

“Now what I wish is for you to acquire lovely logs in—”

“Why can’t you just magically repair your house if you’re all so powerful?” Rose said.

I paused.

I could technically do that.

Creation Magic was difficult, and required something taken away from me, equal exchange. It was not as easy as performing miracles like gods. However, no self-respecting tyrant who practiced magic didn’t learn all the branches of magic or familiarize themselves at the very least.

However, I had just awoken… and this new world was frightening. Not frightening, as if I feared death, but I was unsure of how the world had changed and now my place was no longer secure as before.

“Materials,” I said.

“Huh?”

“I need wood, stone and metals.” I explained. “Instead of anchoring the repair of the house with my magic and mana to create, I’d rather use good materials. That is why I wish for you to use your Wind Scythe spell and cut logs over there in Eldes Woods.”

“Eldes Woods no longer exists,” Eleanor said.

“...any other place nearby with good lumber then.”

“Do you really think I’ll be your lumberjack?” Rose frowned. “How dare you ask me to stoop low and use my abilities, the magic I’ve trained so hard, for that purpose.”

“Then you must understand why I will not use my own magic to repair the manor when you are around.” I smiled. “We think alike, don’t we?”

Rose spat at me. “Do not compare me to you, fiend.”

“I presumed that you would do anything for your princess.” I glanced over at Eleanor. Compared to her servant, she had simply stayed put in her position and didn’t speak much. “Was I mistaken? Perhaps it’s far better for me to pluck one of her eyes and understand her Seer abilities. It might give me more use than you’ll ever do.”

Capturing people and testing them was the lowest of the low. It was a sick thing to say, because evil also had standards, but those words left my mouth easily. As if I had rehearsed those lines countless times over.

“How will I even know that you won’t hurt my princess while I am away?” Rose said. “What if I ran away too? You don’t know what could happen if I leave this manor.”

“I sincerely doubt that you’d attempt to escape and risk Princess Eleanor’s safety.”

“...”

“See? No need for contractual magic or anything else.”