[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 422 & 423. (Patreon)

Chapter 422: Frey’s take.

Once again, I was expecting this to happen. A night visit from my patron spirit, Ms. Frey as soon as sleep took me on my bed. However, I took the initiative this time.

“You know, these interactions are getting very unilateral lately,” I told her with a groan. “You call me whenever you want but I can’t talk to you when I need to? I could’ve used your input earlier today, you know?”

Frey blinked her eyes, or the lights that suggested her eyes in her shadowy figure, and stared at me. She then sighed dramatically, slumped forward and shook her head.

“My little man is growing…” She sobbed. “Now he’s demanding things from me…”

I frowned and crossed my arms. “I don’t think asking for proper communication is demanding anything outrageous. You talk to me when you want and even make me forget things in the morning. I’m starting to get annoyed at the holes in my memory.”

“Ugh, fine! First of all, I didn’t want us to have a more direct connection because I don’t want to get in your way. I like watching you do your thing, even if it’s frustrating at times because it’s not how I’d do it. I still don’t want it, but I’ll see what I can do. You want to continue growing, right? That’d be harder if you could run away to me for advice whenever you’re faced with a problem.”

Shit. She got me there.

“I do admit that being able to talk about supernatural matters during key moments is important, though. Which is why I’m here now, see?”

“So… What do you think?”

“That you handled that as well as you could have. I had to try really hard to get a reading out of him, so I’m glad you decided to listen to it. Sorry for the headache and thanks for the recharge.”

I nodded. “Do you think we can trust Mr. Allen?”

“A Spirit of Greed… A dragon, even. It’s a tough call, since you never know with dragons. They can range from the biggest self-centered assholes you will ever meet, to wise, kind old beasts who enjoy watching humans run around. So go the stories I’ve heard, at least.  I’m not familiar with any dragon named Danglars, and considering how rare dragons are, that already says something.”

“Hm?” I tilted my head.

“When you think about dragons, what comes to mind other than physical descriptions?”

“Mmm… Powerful, legendary creatures, right?”

“Correct. Dragons tend to make a name for themselves whether they want it or not. Bahamut, Fafnir, Tiamat, Vritra, Ouroboros, the red and white ones… They are forces of nature that inevitably end up stirring the world in one way or another. If I haven’t heard the name of a dragon, that means he’s either very young or weak for dragon standards, possibly both. The fact that he became a spirit and possessed a human makes me lean more towards the latter.”

“So you’re saying we might be on equal ground with him?”

“What? No! Do you think you could fight a malnourished lion even if you had a knife? That’s what we’re dealing with here. I’m nowhere near the level of a dragon, even a weak one.”

So Frey said, but I thought she gave herself very little credit. “You got through his… magic resistance to read his mind, right?”

Frey blinked again. “I… only followed his sexual desires to their source and his nature, but… Haha… Ahaha… I guess I did.” She looked surprised at herself, even a little proud. That got a smile out of me, too.

“So we’re not defenseless,” I told her.

“Not against mental interference, at least. Still, the situation itself isn’t pretty. Money, power, connections… If he wanted to extort us, he could. It’s not just a matter of magic, but of someone with resources who wants something we have. But remember, Oliver. You have powers, too. If you wanted, you could be a threat to him as well, and I think he knows that.”

“Me? A threat?”

“Yes, you’re harmless, but that’s just your nature. You still carry something capable of hurting him. You have the potential to take away something he loves.”

“...Which is?”

“That you haven’t even thought of it shows just how harmless you are…” Frey sighed. “His girls, Oliver. We know he cares about them, he loves them and wants to share pleasure with them. If you wanted, you could take them away from him, you know? You have the power to do it.”

My jaw dropped. “You mean… Oh no. Hell no! I’m not doing it!”

Frey flicked my forehead. “I’m not telling you to! I’m just reminding you that you’re also someone with power, that you have ways to defend yourself, not as retaliation, but as a deterrent. This Luke guy knows his stuff. He knows that you can’t compete with a Spirit of Lust when it comes to sex. Hell, even if he did have the potion he wants to make, he still couldn’t. I think that’s part of why he wants to deal fairly with you.”

I had a bad taste in my mouth, but I understood what Frey was saying. It… also made me relate a little more to Mr. Allen. I had power but wouldn’t be caught dead using it to take a woman from someone else. Mr. Allen had abilities to take what he wanted, too, but preferred to deal fairly.

“I do think you’re similar,” Frey agreed. “You give off a similar vibe, at least. My take on this is that we hear more of what his proposal is and work with him.”

“I thought you wanted to keep us away from more supernatural stuff.”

“I do, but if it’s gonna come find you like this instead, then I’d rather you had people to support you if things ever get bad. People with power and connections, and I suppose the money doesn’t hurt. I think it’ll pay to be on this guy’s good side.”

Frey made a sound argument I couldn’t refute, but I think I wasn’t trying very hard to refute it. “Can we even give him what he wants, though?”

“Sure, but it’ll take a bit of… let’s call it meditation on your part.”

“Ah?”

“This might creep you out a bit, but if you weaken your own mental defenses for a bit, I could take control of your body just enough to manipulate the magic and do what he wants us to do. I was a bit relieved when he asked for magical energy itself, actually. Did you know that you can extract sexual energy from blood and semen? He could’ve asked for that, but it would’ve been A LOT shadier.”

Oh fuck. It would’ve. Selling him blood and/or semen… “He could use that for anything else.”

“Yeah, but with magical energy, we can make sure it’s going directly into the potion he wants to make and nothing else.”

“Alright… I don’t know how comfortable I am with the idea of you controlling my body, but I’m not uncomfortable enough to reject it.”

“Give it some more though, see how Luke responds to the waiting time and make your decision. At the end of the day, it’s still your life. I’m going wherever you are.”

“Thanks, Frey. And… Hey, before I forget. Why DO you make me forget things when I wake up?”

Frey clicked her tongue and crossed her arms. “I guess there’s not much point to that anymore, is there? I… did it because then you would’ve been an accomplice. If you had known it was my powers helping you from the start, I bet you would’ve avoided women just to not get them involved in any potential danger. Or out of feelings of inadequacy and impostor-syndrome.”

“I…” I swallowed. Yeah, that sounded like me. If I’d known Frey was altering people’s perception of me and helping me be capable of things I knew I hadn’t earned… I wouldn’t have been able to go through with things like I had.

“It was nice seeing you work hard,” Frey said. “I mean, it still is, but that you started working out and putting yourself out there to try and earn the powers you were given… I admire that. Don’t stop, okay? It’d break my heart to see you get complacent, so I’ll give you an earful if I ever catch you slacking.”

I felt my chest warming up. I smiled at Frey. “Please do,” I told her.

************

Chapter 423: Hints of what to do.

I woke up that morning with my memories intact. I remembered my conversation with Frey vividly like it had happened while I was awake. It was an awkward feeling because it almost felt like I hadn’t slept the full eight hours, but I’d take the trade off.

I went through my usual morning routine with a cat behind me as always. I knocked on Isabelle’s door to wake her up, I took a shower, put on my uniform, gave Cake her breakfast and got started on our own. Throughout it all, though, my mind was busy pondering on what we should do about Mr. Allen’s offer. Frey said to go through with it, but I still wanted to talk about it with the girls at school. And also…

“What is it?” Mom asked me from across the breakfast table as she put down her coffee. “You look like you have something to ask.”

Isabelle was still half-asleep, eating her breakfast on autopilot, but her half-lidded eyes turned to me with curiosity.

I nodded. “Mom… What if I got a chance to make money doing practically nothing?”

“Hm? Is this about your music channel? Is it going that well?”

“N-No, but… let’s say it eventually does and Isabelle and I started making a living with very little effort. What would you think?” It wasn’t the scenario I was picturing, but it was the best I could compare it to right now without risking details leaking.

“Mmm… I don't think success like that would come without effort, so I’m more worried about how sustainable it would be rather than your commitment and hard work. But in a more general sense… Yes, it would worry me if you made money doing nothing.”

Isabelle tilted her head at mom, puzzled.

“I mean, of course I want you two to have a secure livelihood,” mom continued, “but if it’s a choice, I’d rather you be good people rather than rich people. Success without effort makes you conceited, you stop trying and take everything for granted. Then, when you find yourself in a difficult situation, you realize you’ve lost the means to fight back. I don’t want that to happen to you.”

“...Didn’t grandma make all her money through gambling?” Isabelle asked.

Mom winced. “Yes… Yes, she did. But you need to realize that was a desperate situation. We were very poor, her husband was useless and she had two little girls to feed. She had to drop out of school to work when she was younger, too, so there were only so many jobs she could take. It was a literal gamble, but… I’ve said this before, right? Your grandma believed our family was cursed to be ‘lucky at cards, unlucky in love’, meaning we were cursed to have bad relationships but great success in gambling. She took her chances and slowly made a fortune through horse races.”

Isabelle narrowed her eyes in disbelief and stared at me with disgust. “Unlucky in love?”

“Yes,  I have a feeling your brother might be the opposite,” mom agreed, nodding solemnly. “Oliver, I’m not saying I believe it, but never enter a casino, or any other gambling related places, okay?”

Isabelle groaned and shook her head in defeat. “I believe it. I’ll buy a scratch lottery ticket today.”

“Don’t get hooked,” mom warned her. “Your grandma was desperate.”

Now, I’m not sure what to believe about this ‘curse’. On the one hand, if magic was real, it was possible we really were cursed and my ‘bad luck’ in love was offset by Frey’s powers. On the other hand, I think Frey would’ve noticed if there was any other magic on us, right? Then again… Isabelle did win $50 on her ticket that afternoon.

Regardless, mom’s words about easy money stuck with me. Would I become complacent if I started making good money by working with Mr. Allen just… giving him magical energy? You might think I’m stupid for even thinking of passing up the chance, but… it really did scare me. I don’t want things I haven’t earned, I don’t want to stunt my own growth.

Those are the thoughts of a young man in a good place in his life, however. Refusing was, without a doubt, a luxury. It was knowing that which made me hesitate so much. And then there was the supernatural aspect to this that Frey spoke of…

Gah! It was too much! I wanted to talk about it with the girls, with people I could tell everything to. I wanted reassurance and support, so I rushed to school to see my girlfriends.

I didn’t tell them anything.

With everything happening, I had forgotten about a little something we seniors had to do that Thursday: Career counseling.

The girls looked… down, off, distracted. All of them did. Sarah and Noelle weren’t taking it anywhere near as bad as Mila, Grace and Alice, but they were still very, very quiet. The atmosphere in the club room was heavy that morning, so I pushed away my issue in favor of hearing the girls out.

“Time is running out,” Grace said, throwing her head back and staring at the ceiling.

“There is… so much to consider,” Alice said. Her voice was weak, almost a whisper.

“...” I might not like what I was going to hear, but still I asked. “Forget about everything for a moment. Forget about… us, about limitations, about distance. If you could do anything after school, what would you do?”

Sarah bit her lip. “Even then, I’m still conflicted. I love sports and physical exercise, so I can see myself doing something along those lines, but… I feel like I want to get into mental health.”

“Oh!” Noelle and I both exclaimed in excitement. That seemed to give Sarah some more confidence.

“Is it because all your family works with something health-related?” Grace asked her.

Sarah shook her head. “I mean, maybe it influenced me, but I’m not considering it because I think I have to. I just…” She turned her eyes to me. “Since we started going out, I’ve felt… happy. Truly happy. It’s something I notice, something I can say with confidence. I want… I want to learn to help those who can’t say the same.”

A smile forced its way into my face and I even got a little teary-eyed. “I think that’s amazing, Sarah.”

The athletic blonde blushed. “E-Even if it is, I don’t have the smarts for it, so it’d be safer to become a personal trainer or something like that.”

I shook my head to vehemently deny that. “What? That’s not true! Sarah, you know more about the human body than any of us here! And not because it’s something we have to study for school, but because you have a genuine interest in it. You can seriously dedicate yourself to the things you’re passionate about, so I think you could become a therapist if you really wanted to.”

“He’s right,” Mila said. She giggled, but… it was a little weak. “You could totally do it. You really understand people. You just don’t give yourself enough credit.”

“You can only ever study about things you like, anyway,” Grace said, throwing Sarah a playful jab.

Sarah’s face brightened for a moment before it soured again. “But… Where should I study?”

“That’s the biggest question, isn’t it?” Noelle said, looking down.

Grace clicked her tongue. “If only my parents stopped meddling, this would be so much easier.”

Noelle nodded in quiet agreement. “We could just all just stay here, but…”

“Our school’s university isn’t as good as high school,” Alice said, grimacing.

Yeah. Ours was a private escalator school, meaning it offered education from middle school all the way to university. If we wanted, we really could all stay here and go there without even taking entrance exams. Problem was that the university here wasn’t as prestigious as high school. They offered a wide variety of courses and degrees, but excelled at very few. They did offer music courses, for example, but from the research I’d done, they… weren’t very good. It was the same for most other courses. For those who wanted the best education and prestige from their chosen path, there were other, better options. And ours was already a school that parents chose for their kids due to its high level and prestige.

Alice made a sour face, crossed her arms and held herself so tightly her knuckles went white. “I’d rather not even go to university. Either a mechanic or try to go for professional racing… I’d be happy with either, but my dad doesn’t want me to.”

“Doesn’t your brother work as a mechanic?” I asked her.

Alice nodded. “And they had a big fight over it. Dad says working on cars and racing are hobbies, not jobs. My brother just blew him off, went independent and opened his own shop with what money he had saved.” She pursued her lips. “I don’t know if I can do that. My dad wants me to go to law school… somewhere far from here.”

My chest tightened and froze. Alice… going away?

“That’s why you went for the school council president spot, right?” Mila asked her. “To get a letter of recommendation to that place?”

Alice nodded. “My dad lets me work with my brother because I practically have a spot secured wherever he chooses to send me.”

“I’m in a similar situation,” Grace said. “My parents only care about my studies. I can do whatever I want, but when it comes to academics… I have to do what they say. Surprisingly, they both agree I should be an engineer.” She snarled. “I’d do it if not for the fact they picked where I should study, also far from here.”

“They want me to go into medicine,” Noelle said weakly. “They want me to become a surgeon and work at my dad’s hospital.”

“...” Mila’s face soured, too, but whatever it was she had in mind, she was keeping it inside. All she said was, “I just want to stay with you all.”

That we all agreed with.