Side Quests for Harem and Powers 11: Refit... Later (Patreon)

Side Quests for Harem and Powers

Chapter 11: Refit… Later

-VB-

As much as I wanted to rush back to the ship and its engineering bay to get some juicy UNSC tech, I had more important things to do. In the end, I asked Cortana to leave me recommendations for personnel and ship UNSC technology. 

So what did I do after that? I prepared for the party.

“You’re cooking?” Cortana asked me, and I shrugged while ignoring the sweating pouring down my forehead. 

“I thought it was the best way to go about doing this-!” I grunted as I flipped the stir fry of ridiculous ingredients. 

Asari physiology and taste buds were thankfully not too different from human ones, and Steven - before I took over - had tasted a significant number of ingredients from across the galaxy for the sheer fact of his reality: being rich. Having this experience under my belt, I decided that cooking the food myself would be best for the most optimal result.

Why only tame myself one Benezia when I could tame myself an entire system?

I was fine - more than fine! - with cooking for the sake of obtaining a conglomerate of corporations and an entire star system. How could someone of shifty morals discard such an opportunity? 

Why aim so low when you could take everything?

“I still find it hard to believe that you can use regular food to force an addiction,” she grumbled. 

“I cook for the greater good of the galaxy,” I rumbled sarcastically. 

Cortana snorted. 

“But seriously, I don’t understand how that works. I certainly can’t see the appeal of it.”

Despite being focused on cooking the best meal I could with ingredients I was only passingly familiar with, I couldn’t help but gasp dramatically to show my faux pain at her accusation. “You wound me!” I moaned as I flipped the stir fry of dark green gunjio meat - something like a cross between an otter and cow - from Hanar Illuminated Primacy and hullin’o vegetable from Elcor’s homeworld of Dekunna.  Gunjio was soft and broke apart easily after being cooked, and hullin’o looked like a pink lettuce that had a hint of sweet vanilla and had the consistency of a brocoli. 

Along with a bit of soy sauce from Earth, the combination created a stir fry of blue and pink with a sparse and thin coating of dark brown sauce. Now, it didn’t look appetizing to me, but apparently most Asari foods had color schemes closer to blue and pink rather than brown and green. 

I let out a sigh of satisfaction as I slowly and meticulously arranged the stir fry unto a dish. 

“Done,” I said as I set the dish down next to the twelve others I’ve cooked in the past four hours. “Okay, I need a shower before the private party. Clean up, please,” I said to the kitchen staff, and the Asari moved quickly to set up the dinner party fit for the a hundred thousand credits I spent to have it arranged.

...

When I finished cleaning myself and arrived at the party/meeting room, the guests had begun to arrive. Lo and behold, the first person I encountered was none other than Benezia. 

“Matriarch Benezia,” I greeted her by the Asari’s title and a little bow. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She looked me over once before gracing me with a smile. “Greetings, Host LeClarent,” she replied in kind, speaking in High Thessian, the “high class” and “politically correct” language among the Asari in the Asari Republics. “It is wonderful to finally meet a human capable of thinking beyond their own space and the Citadel itself.”

I straightened up, facing her eye to eye.

Robed in red and purple finery contrasting only mildly and thus accenting her blue skin tone favorably, Benezia looked like a high nobility, if not a royalty, which was emphasized by the small retinue of servants that followed her, all of whom were wearing expensive uniforms. Of the six following her, three were bodyguards that looked more battle-hardened than most veterans. 

‘Commando? No, more than that,’ I thought before moving on. As interesting as they were in their skin tight suits, I had a bigger fish to fry.

“As much as there are opportunities to grasp within the Alliance, it wouldn’t be pragmatic or particularly smart of me to disregard the rest of the galaxy,” I replied with a smile. “After all, the universe cares not for my bias or wants.”

Benezia nodded in agreement. “Who else did you invite?” she asked bluntly as me as footsteps echoed in the large lobby. She looked away from me for a second, saw the approaching second guest, and hummed.

“Only the best conversationalists,” I replied with ease. “Wouldn’t be a dinner party without some good conversation, now would it?”

Benezia walked in after that, and I was left to greet another big name: Solara Fugynou. 

“Welcome to my party, Miss Fuynou,” I greeted her with the same short bow as I had greeted Benezia. She gave me a curtsy in return, but it was obvious to me that she was feeling less than comfortable in this situation. 

“I’m glad to be here as well, Contributor LeClarent,” she spoke up. “I hope we can enjoy the party.”

Her gorgeous round face, soft-demeanor, and not a matriarch made her something of an outlier among the corporate giants who would gather here today. 

The fourth biggest shareholder of the Alkanias Corporate Holdings, she was also the CEO of Noverian Shipyards, one of the twelve corporations within ACH. If acquiring Benezia allowed me to discuss long term plans and wield political power on the same level as the Systems Alliance, then Solara would give me shipyards to make the necessary military power.

She was here, more or less, because her position demanded it. 

And then the third guest, fourth, fifth, and so on… They all arrived at their own pace no more than fifteen minutes early and no more than fifteen minutes late. I greeted them all with a smile and a bow. 

By the time they leave, they would be my slaves.