Chapter 14: Please Trust Me

It was the first time she had seen Kenzo like this. It was horrible, so horrible. The punishment she had received had been easy to take compared to this.

Was this the same man who had taken her in his arms out from the mansion of the mayor? Did he really want her to be his subordinate? Emerald wondered.

The prisoner finally confessed his crimes.

Kenzo signed and threw away the reports, then stood up slowly to look at Emerald, who had been silent for a long time.

It was unclear what he was thinking behind those dark eyes.

"Who allowed you to come here?" He asked flatly. "Only two kinds of people come here, military police and criminals."

Emerald immediately walked to him and lowered her head, "My Lord, I'm sorry. I want to be loyal to you."

****

Kenzo looked at her quietly. Even though he had never clearly expressed who she was, there were a lot of brown-nosers in the city sending jewelry and clothes directly to her. The butler had picked some clothes for her from the presents since no woman had lived here before.

Right now, she was wearing an elegant, straight long blue dress, which made her look plumper. She looked tactful and quiet with her long hair simply tied up, a picture so different from the processing factory covered in blood.

He sat down again, asking. "Why did you set Freedom City as your destination when you ran away?"

Before Kenzo had come to Hope City, he had been the director of Freedom City, which was supposed to be his base camp, and Emerald had chosen none other of all possible places as her destination.

Emerald's countenance changed a little as she looked up at him timidly.

"The most dangerous place is the safest place." She responded in a low voice, "Besides, I have never seen your families or friends from Freedom City contact you."

He was staring at her as she continued shamelessly, "I think maybe you have some sad memories in Freedom City, so..."

"So, you think there is something I fear in Freedom City?" He smiled surprisingly, "That's rather unexpected."

She didn't respond.

His voice was low but dangerous. "Have you considered that maybe there is another possibility why everyone in Freedom City is afraid of me?"

Emerald trembled. What did it mean when a whole city was afraid of one person?

Kenzo stopped talking, but she instinctively believed that he was telling the truth, making her shiver.

Hiding her surprise and fear, she says obediently. "My lord, I ran away because I thought you would give me to President Henry."

Kenzo looked at her. "Where did you hear that?"

"....Wade Sterling."

Kenzo smiled coldly. "Emerald, I chose you because I think you are very interesting, but there is one person you misjudge."

Emerald shrugged her shoulders, questioning.

"Wade Sterling is the so-called good guy. Upright, generous, and benevolent." He lit up a cigarette, "If you had called for help on him, I would have given you to him, and you would breathe the fresh air in some city and be safe right now. However, you didn't trust him."

Emerald was shocked, but she smiled at him after thinking for a moment.

"I don't regret staying, my lord."

Kenzo raised his eyebrows and stared at her through a smoke ring.

"It was the least risky decision not to trust him in that condition, but any decision comes with a consequence, which I must undertake." She looked at him more firmly than she ever had before.

"Besides, the freedom on the ground is low-level freedom, while the freedom in the sky is the real freedom. My lord, you have seen that I can fly through debris belts in that condition... Please trust me. I will try my best, I'll be loyal to you and never betray you!"

He suddenly pulled her up and put her on his thighs, with one hand holding the cigarette and the other one pinching her chin.

"Never?"

"...Never!"

His handsome face was close to hers. His black, sharp eyebrows and dark eyes reminded her of a sharp dagger.

"Harvey will arrange for you to stay in the air force for a year."

"Air force?" She had thought that she would be trained under his watch.

He didn't stop to answer her but continued. "If you can't become an excellent pilot in a year..."

"...I will be at the mercy of you, my lord. You can send me to President Henry." She answered quite confidently, even though she had no idea what being an excellent pilot meant.

He glanced at her and pinched her even harder until it started to hurt. "Remember, I don't like my things touched by others."

"...Yes, my lord."

He nodded, "The Cheetah fighter outside will be yours after training but don't try to run away before I give you my permission. You can't run away from me in the range of three thousand light-years."

Emerald couldn't believe her ears. Three thousand light-years?

Kenzo was only the safety director of a planet in the Eternity Galaxy, no matter how magisterial he was. How could he say that he controls the range of three thousand light-years?

But she knew that his words were always worth consideration.

So... Three thousand light-years was the size of his cage?

"Before my words become effective, answer me one question." His fingers slid from her soft chin slowly to her slender neck, making her itch.

"Yes, my lord."

Sliding his hand down her neck slowly to her chest, she heard his hoarse voice.

"What is the Earth?"

She looked up at him in shock, his fingers still moving across her chest. She felt that if she gave a wrong answer, his hand would break in her chest and rip off her throat.

"My lord, the Earth lives in my memory." She said slowly. "I remember that I come from the Earth, but now I can't tell whether it's a memory, a vision, or a dream."

Her words seemed half true and half false, so Kenzo couldn't tell whether she was being honest. The torment was not going to end that easily.

"Oh?" He said in a low voice as he kept staring at her coldly. "There are only two kinds of people with no identity."

She was taken aback that the topic had finally been raised.

"One is a military force who give up their identities and fingerprints. No matter how bad they were before, no one can question their identity now. Apparently, you are not a military force."

She nodded with blushed cheeks.

"The other kind of people are spies from other galaxies or species." He said slowly. "They hide among human beings, and sometimes they don't even know whether they are human beings or not themselves."

Emerald was shocked, and she felt her blood freeze in her body. His voice was low but sounded so loud in her mind.

Really? If there were this kind of "human beings," then was she one of them?