Delilah

The day for the knights' entrance exams has begun and everyone is prepared and ready to go for the exams. Opal had packed up and was ready to go but only one problem. Noam.

"Please don't leave me here alone!" said a sad Noam. "Most especially 

"It's only for six weeks…!"

"It's six weeks, not six days or six hours. What if I'm… horny…"

"Noam. I will be back for you when I am done with the program." Opal reassures Noam with a peck on the lips. "If you do feel horny, there is an incomplete sex doll of me in the secret box next to my medicine cabinet and some other instructions I have given you. I have to go. Bye!"

She leaves Noam speechless. She takes the airline that everyone is taking to get to the capital of the Empire. She is sitting next to Buttercup. Both of them are chatting about what they would see. After some time Opal gets up to use the toilet. When she got to the ladies' room just as she was about to leave, someone from one of the stoles grabbed her and forced her to the wall. Opal tries to defend herself but she is all tied up. She looked at who it was the same person she saw that the underground match a couple of months ago.

"Gaius?!" exclaimed Opal. 

"Not so loud." Said Gaius in a low tune. "Do you want people to know that there is a guy in a lady's washroom?"

"S-sorry. How did you find me?"

"I saw you leave a building at the city's capital market. You and some strange people dressed in dark suits carrying you. You were bleeding so I followed your blood to where you were taken. I didn't know you were sent there."

"I live underground for another reason but that is a story for another reason. How is my favourite sugar knight?"

Gauis couldn't say anything, he just stared into her eyes.

…

Everyone is gathered at the airport. Those who were sent to get the underground people were mostly the ones there, also known as the second in command of all knights in the empire. To each knight a hundred and fifty persons each. Opal goes with the knight in white while Buttercup goes with the knight dressed in green but Gaius is nowhere to be found.

Everyone was escorted to where they would stay for the night, where they would eat and train. Everyone was mesmerised by the breath-taking view of the city most especially the holograms'. But Opal did not sim amused. Buttercup noticed Opal's expression and asked her a question Opal did not expect from her.

"Opal have you been here and what exactly do you do as your job?" asked Buttercup looking straight into Opal's eyes. Opal was speechless at first then broke the silence.

"Yes, I have been here before. Why do you ask?"

"Well, you told me about some parts of the city before time and time again most especially stories of your life here in the city." Said Buttercup with a gentle smile. "So what do you do for a living? I use my body for money, as a service to both men and women. So what do you do?"

Opal goes closer to Buttercup leans down to her ear and whispers.

"Promise me with your life never to tell anyone what I am because I wouldn't want to die in embarrassment."

"Don't worry I won't tell. Even if you do illegal things that are also legal back home."

"…I work for an illegal set of people…"

"The Mafia?"

"…Y-y-yeah s-something like that. But…"

"Have you met with the boss before? Or have had a one-night stand with any of the top-ranked bad boys or should I say Big Bad Zaddies with their sadistic…"

"Buttercup. Shut up before I make you my Bloody Baby Girl." Threatened Opal. "Before we came for this test… I gave up being part of them but also still part of some terrible people. It is a life contract."

"Miss Opal and Miss Buttercup were you listening to me?" said one of the Knights assigned to their resting place. They both apologize and continue their tour.  

Back in the underground society deep into the cave, the chains of the monster that lives inside have been broken. The beast still stays asleep. No one knows who might have been there to do such a thing. All everyone can do is pray to God that the beast does not wake up and go on a rampage. 

Meanwhile, in Opal's home, Noam is sitting down watching a show on The Real House Husbands of New Alda Flynt. Just as he was getting to the best and dramatic part of the show there was a knock on the door. Noam remembered that one of Opal's instructions was 'do not look through the peephole to see who it was' so he asked who it was, rather than a friendly response he got several gunshots to the door. Noam hides from the bullet range behind the bed Noam and Opal share. 

A tall and slender woman busts the bullet-hole-covered door open. She has a buckskin complexion and a scared-coved face that starts from her right ear to her right eye down to half of her neck leaving only her left eye which is grass-green in colour. Noam doesn't move to not get caught.

"Oh Opal!!!" said the big lady. "I see she's not home. Too bad I was hoping to get to see her again." She says to Noam as she brings out a vape. Noam remains quiet no matter what. "I can smell you, baby boy. Come out I won't hurt you. I promise." 

Noam steps out but is still on the floor. The big lady walks up to him and swats to his level making them meet eye to eye. She poofs out some vape on Noam's face. Noam tries not to gag. She picks up a flier that is on the floor and takes a look at it. It was the flier for the knight entrance exams.

"When she comes back tell her that. I 'Delilah' came looking for her and we need to talk or you will be my little reward if she fails to show herself at the entrance of Zombito at midnight."

She gets up and goes through the door but before she leaves she tells him one last thing. 

"If you do become my reward…just start praying that you don't end up six feet under the earth. Cause I love to play rough."

She leaves him nothing but fear. All he could do was wait for Opal to come back home.

The very next day, it was time for their exams. First, everyone was to enter a circle which was made by the Sages of the capital. The sages use the circle to punish those who might be cheating with magic or are witches. Those who were caught as witches and using magic were arrested or executed for the sport.

It was Opal's turn. One of the sages was to test Opal. The sage noticed something about her, she did not know whether to call a guard or let her go. The sage lets Opal go but passes her results to the Royal Guards.  As soon as everyone had been checked, the exams had begun.

During the whole six weeks of the exams, Opal has been doing well. Finishing in first place by speed, strength and level of superpowers, while Buttercup gets third place. Among the Royal that are attending the exams, the princess whose father had passed away is looking at the records of the exams. She noticed Opal's and Buttercup's profiles. She opens up Buttercup's profile first then jumps to Opal's.

"Sir Wilder." Said the princess.

"Yes. Me lady." Said her male royal guard.

"Were you among the men sent to get the underground people?"

"No." said the guard as the princess stood up. One of her husbands burst into her office drunk like King Paul. He stops in front of her, places his head on her right shoulder and inhales her scent. She decided to call it a night as she proceeded to her chambers. Before leaving she tells her guard to tell the judges to reject Opal and do as they like with the rest. When asked why she did not want Opal to be part of the exams anymore she simply said:

"I just don't like her and she feels like bad news."

The following week Opal gets rejected and is sent home but before going home she goes to a bar to get wasted and gamble her shame away. She lost to the gamble, and now the only thing she is going home with is a bigger shame.

When she got home she was greeted by Noam. When they locked eyes Opal was not happy. 

"What happened here!?" she says.

She walks towards him as she closes the door behind her. Noam is covered in bandages, deep cuts and bruises. She observes his body like a caring mother would do with her child.

"Who did this to you?"

"It was a strange woman…" said Noam hissing in pain from Opal's touch. "…s-she came a couple of days after you had left. She said that she and you have a biff to settle. Since you were gone for longer than she expected she constantly came over to see if you were around, but instead, she decided to beat me up as a way of satisfying her hunger for a fight with you."

Opal stops what she is doing as she checks the damages done to her apartment. She looks at the wall and sees a handwriting that says: 'I know that you are alive and not dead. We both know. I want a rematch. In the land of Zombito.'

"What was her name?"

"Delilah…"