Are You Compromised?

Ophelia's POV:

Long ago, I dreamed of a star. Surrounded by many like her, she whittled with time and eventually burst into a nebula. Through the glass looked a young man of big ambitions, his eyes dead set on gathering the remains of a dead star. Following its light trail through the atmosphere, he camped near the site of the projected crash. Days went by, and the star approached him like a cannonball, and though he lost an arm he was a happier man with the trade-off. 

Brought back to his workshop, the star spent ages dormant in her form. Until eventually, the young man breathed life into that rock of bronze. And yet something was missing, something far more valuable, and impossible to craft.

'A soul.' He struggled to accept it.

A man of science begging for a miracle? How could he? Why would he? There must be a way to craft the very crux of conscious existence! Or so he thought…

Spending his remaining days, madden in his pursuit, the man turned the bronze rock into a vessel befitting the soul he so hoped to craft. She would be pretty, she would be mighty, but most of all, she would be his daughter. But alas, one day the man knew that it was time for him to give up. It was time to rest and time to bury his ambitions.

Sitting his daughter on a dining beside him, he popped open the last wine bottle from the cellar. And oh he drank with his daughter's cold hands clutched between his fingers.

"I–" With great grief, he looked at his child. "I'm sorry, I thought I could have my daughter back."

And with those words, he let go of his soul. Not realizing his death would breathe life into his creation.

"Advisor Genji," letting go of those memories, I brought my attention back to the present. "Long time no see."

As I walked closer to him with the injured woman's appearance, the look of terror in his eyes was more than apparent. Transfiguring my box wax into a blob, I turned my body back to my real form. The moment I changed my appearance, the dirty clothes of the woman I'd turned into fell right off my shoulders.

"Eyes up!" Noticing the old man's gaze strolling down my nude form, I jerked my hand to the side, revealing a bronze pipe with a hollow, sharp edge. "Are you compromised?"

"What?!" Crawling away on the ground like some squirmy caterpillar, Genji kept trying to get as far away from me as possible. "What the hell are you talking about?!"

Jerking my other hand to the side, I took out another weapon—a sword of bronze and an extension of my own body much like the pipe. Walking closer to the advisor with each passing second, I decided to ask him one last time.

"General Markus sent me, the reports mention a coup," dragging the weapons' tips along the tiles, I cornered him further towards the closed door. "Again, were you Advisor to the embassy planning a coup for power and influence?"

"I! I didn't! I wasn't!" Hitting the wall on his back, he began climbing back up on his feet. "It-it must be the manager! He put a spell on me! Said they'll cripple me if I do anything against the monsters at the embassy!"

"Hmm?" Having him corned, I mused with my head tilted to the side. "The young boy cast a spell on you? With what magic, he's a human through and through."

"THE ELF! SHE AND THE OTHERS ARE HELPING HIM! EVEN THE GIRLS THAT I BROUGHT HERE ARE WITH HIM NOW!" He was getting more desperate by the second. 

Eyeing him down, I tried drawing a conclusion from the gathered information. General Markus couldn't have known about the treason by the boy without my report, and yet he sent me here not long after advisor Genji arrived. The answer was simple, and given General's reputation for being reckless, I was sure of what needed doing.

"It appears you've fallen out of the Enforcer's favor advisor," a smile crept up my lips as the look of realization appeared in the advisor's eyes. He held his hands in my direction in protest and opened his mouth to speak. "You've spoken enough!"

Raising the hallowed pipe, I plunged it down the advisor's open mouth. It pierced through him like a spear and emerged out through his spine. His guts drained down the hollow part as his body writhed and squirmed in a desperate attempt to get it out of him. Nailing the weapon and my arms, his strength waned slowly.

"I specifically avoided your vitals advisor," chuckling to myself, I watched the light in his eyes slowly dimming down. Keeping him an inch from death, I drew the pipe out of him and slashed his head clean off of his shoulders with the blade. "Glory to Huma–"

The door abruptly cracking open made me jump away from the body. In the brief moment it was opening, I glimpsed through the gap and saw the faces of the monster girls as well as Ken who was the one opening the door. 

"What the…" As the door opened completely, the blood from the advisor drenched the carpet underneath Ken's shoes. Apart from the vampire and demon, the girls shrieked in horror while looking at the body. Peering up at me standing before him with blood-stained weapons, Ken spanned his arms wide and began stepping back to keep the girls safe.

"Heroics? So, it could be true that you're helping these monsters with vengeance?" Drawing my weapons back, I let my hands fall to the side. Walking closer to him, my bare feet imprinted the carpet in blood as I walked. 

There was fear in his eyes, but more importantly, he was a threat brave enough to even try to face me. Looking over his shoulder at the girls cowering behind him, a crooked smile crossed my lips.

"Say manager, are you compromised?" His answer would determine his fate.