Dominance

Being a CEO since he was 15, Ed had learned an important thing as a leader, to make others follow you and do your bidding, you need to either gain their respect or their fear.

He was too young when he started, he naively tried to gain their respect but they would only show respect from the outside but the truth was they looked down on him.

"The best way to have someone under your palm is to make them fear you, I can have their respect later," he thought.

"How should I punish you girls?" He asked.

"Should I make you act like an animal and bark like a dog? Or should I cut some part of you? A hand or a finger maybe?" he whispered while tracing both of their necks with his finger.

Aya turned at him with anger on her face, they were so close that their noses almost touched each other, but Ed did not blink from her burning glare.

He choked both of their necks in each arm; he looked at their eyes one at a time in silence.

They could feel his hand tightening around their neck, it suffocated them.

Dea held her friend's palm in her own, she squeezed it to tell the girl to calm down; she feared that the girl would say something to anger Ed.

Rather than continue to pressure them, Ed let go of their neck and took a step back with the most gentle smile he had.

"Well, I'm not a monster, I can forgive you girls for what you did. Now go get changed into proper clothes." The smile never leaves his face as he tells them to change.

It made both girls tremble on their feet, even though they could see his smile and feel his sincerity, but after knowing how cruel he was, his kindness became even more terrifying than his anger.

Seeing both girls did not move, his gentle smile turned into a grin, "Why don't you move? Do you prefer to be half-naked? If that is what you want then you may stay like that," his word was kind but the girl got even more scared by it.

They scurried away in a hurry; they were terrified by him as they did not know what he was thinking and what he wanted, control was slipping away from their grasp.

The shallow pond they thought he was, turned out to be a bottomless sea of mystery.

Their plan that seemed about to succeed suddenly crumbled. It made them despaired, greatest despair came not when there was no hope but when they realized that they were clinging to false hope.

"Aya, what were you thinking, you almost got us killed!" Dea complained to her friend, "We have been friends since childhood so can you at least spare my life?" she begged.

"Ah, I'm sorry Dea, I was angry, I didn't know that he would not fear my family," Aya apologized.

"What should we do now? He actually is not as stupid as we thought, he is a devil in human skin! We have been tricked." She continued to ask.

"I don't know, I can even understand why he has let us do as we please these last few days. It was a mistake to think that there was actually someone that stupid." Dea lamented.

"For now, we can only do as he pleases, don't fight back yet, we need to know what he wants," She suggested.

"But what if he asked us to do that? Are you willing to serve him?" Aya could not swallow the thought of serving a criminal.

"Listen Aya, which is more important? Our first time or our life? If we wait just a few more days than people from home will arrive to save us, at least endure it a bit," she tried to persuade her even though she was unwilling as well.

In the cockpit room, Ed leaned on the empty piloting seat, he was checking his system on how much progress he had made in his mission.

'Current progress: Aya's Favorability= -100 (Intense Fear), Dea's Favorability= -100 (Intense Fear)'

"Hmm... there is no progress, only the remark changed from mortal enemy to intense fear," he analyzed.

"Well, it would be easier I think, hate is something very hard to be forgotten but people always forget their fear given some time." he grinned in amusement.

As a former CEO, Ed took pride in his ability to read and manipulate others, playing with their emotion was his strong suit, he just never used it to woo a girl.

"How hard can it be to manipulate some girls?" he thought as he played with the system trying to check the shop tab.

But to his disappointment it was locked, he tried to check some more but the cockpit hatch opened behind him and interrupted what he was doing.

He saw the girls come into the room in skin-tight anti-gravity suits, although he had seen almost everything, seeing them in the suit with their beautiful face made his heart rate increase.

Aya has long red hair and crimson eyes while Dea has shoulder-length black hair and blue eyes, while the latter looked like an elegant beauty, the former looked charming with her liveliness.

"What are you looking at?" Aya asked while covering her body as Ed was ogling them from his seat.

"Eh? What did I do?" he thought as her voice pulled him out of his daze.

"it seems the original body owner's personality has some influence over me." He reasoned.

Once he recovered, he straightened his back and pulled out a knife, "never mind that, come take this," he offered the knife to the red-haired girl.

"Wha..." the girl got startled.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked fearfully.

Ed squinted his eyes at her, "Don't overthink, as I said I won't punish you, come help me cut my hair," he said.

"Ah..." She was about to take the knife when Dea held her hand.

"Be careful," she whispered.

Aya nodded and continued to take the knife, of course, that did not pass Ed's attention, he knew that they were wary of him and feared him at the same time.

She took the knife and stood behind him about to cut his hair, she could see his reflection on the cockpit room glass window.

Ed was sitting there with his eyes closed, he looked vulnerable that she thought about killing him then and there, but before she could finish her thought Ed opened his eyes, she could see his reflection staring at her sharply.

"Don't you think of anything funny," he said in a low voice, it made her hand pause.

"As you know the collar won't let you harm me in any way, If you can somehow bypass its restriction and hurt me, it will punish you twice as worse so you better behave," he added.

That made her gulp, "I will never think about it," she said as she started to cut his hair with the knife.

"That's good then," he replied with his eyes closed once more.

Time felt so slow in the silent cockpit room, no one talked, they could only hear the sound of hair being cut.

Ed's long hair got trimmed shorter, his criminal-like appearance was nowhere to be seen and the handsome CEO started to show in him.

The girl got a bit surprised by his young and handsome look but they did not dare to make any voice.

Sensing the awkward and silent situation, Ed tried to start a conversation as he would need to start increasing their favorability soon.

"Anyway, You girls look good in those clothes," he suddenly said, it startled Aya.

She accidentally cut his neck because of it, she hurriedly pulled the knife back but blood already started to flow out.

He winced from the cut but he was shocked by Aya's screaming voice, she had let the knife go and pulled at the collar in pain.

Turning around, he saw Aya on the ground writhing in pain, her friend was kneeling beside her trying to help her out.

"Ahh... Ah... Ah..." She screamed painfully as tears ran down her cheeks, she clawed at the collar, trying to take it off.

"Aya, what happened? Aya!" Dea tried to help, but she did not know what to do.

Ed hurriedly gets to her side, "System, what is wrong with her? Is she acting?" he asked the system with a whisper.

'Answering to Host, Harem member is getting punished by her obedience collar for hurting Host... Beep...' it answered with the usual robotic voice.

He did not have time to bother with the system that got back to its previous way of answering his question; he got panicked from the girl's scream.

"How to deactivate this?" he asked in a hurry.

'Answering to host, it's possible to be deactivated by unlocking the collar... Beep...' it said.

He hurriedly got down and picked the screaming girl close to him, he pressed his finger on the back of her collar, deactivating it.

Aya had stopped screaming, but she still trembled in fear and trauma from the punishment.

Ed put one hand behind her shoulder while another under her legs and picked her up from the floor.

"Where are you taking her?" Dea asked him in panic.

"To rest," He told her simply.

"You stay here and take care of the ship, tell me if anything went wrong, and don't do anything stupid," he instructed.