Chapter 1194 – Liberation Campaign 8 – Coordinating with Claire


    Obviously, the Gamer was tempted to show her what she was missing out on. There were just a couple of problems. Her Libido of 5 meant that turning her on would be pretty hard. It was notable that she still had a Libido at all. That was likely more because she stayed in tune with her human (or whatever species she had been) side, not due to the latent nymphomania in women he was interested in. Second problem was that, and he had inquired about this in a respectful way, she did not have the necessary parts between her legs to penetrate. She probably wouldn’t be able to form more than a simple canal either. What would she know about the intricacies of sexual organs if she didn’t even know the pleasure of sex?


    The only option the Gamer had to ‘initiate’ her into the world of debauchery was to have her ingest his cum and that felt wrong on every level as a first time. Even if he was willing to go that route, even if she was willing to try, then it was still a wholly inappropriate waste of their time.


    Instead, their conversation returned to the Iron Domain. With a cooperating Ironborn came access to a wealth of knowledge from this world. Aclysia headed out to continue sweeping the nearby islands – and to give her Master the opportunity to flirt. An intention stated openly by the weaponized maid. One that the Gamer did not fully share. Likely there was a way for Claire to come back with them, since her soul was an object that could be stored in his inventory. Even if it was, this was not the priority.


    “You’re very odd,” the Gamer told her, during one of the many side ventures their conversation took.


    “Oh yeah,” the vampiric Ironborn agreed readily. “Never been part of a group that I fit in with. Either I was smarter, or stronger, or everyone wanted to stab me, or all of that above.” She sounded so incredibly cheery about it, the Gamer could not help but feel a sense of admiration. Optimism of that degree should not be possible to be embodied by a person in her situation.


    “You know you are in for an eternity of torment if I fail, right?” he reminded her.


    “The fact that you exist means that at some point someone else will challenge Arkeidos, and at some point, someone will have to succeed,” Claire responded. “So, at worst it will be uncountable millennia of torment. I was headed there anyway. Silver-lining, you give me the opportunity to deal damage to the Emperor.”


    ‘Bless her golden soul,’ the thought bounced around in Jack’s head for a little bit. The woman with the blood red hair tilted sideways, leaning even further when he looked directly at her again. “What are you doing?” he asked.


    “I like the form of your jaw,” she told him. “You look so... clean. I’ve never seen a creature this undamaged. This body is a copy of your real one, right?”


    “Yes. Do me a favour and don’t use that word again.”


    “Which one? Jaw? Is that an insult where you’re from?” Claire asked, deeply intrigued.@@@@


    “Creature,” he responded. “Where I’m from, we call fellow sapient beings ‘people’. No difference between whether they’re made from metal or flesh.”


    “That’s nice and would be an incredibly difficult switch.” The Archduchess laid her chest down on the table and drew little circles with her index finger. “Misery is the womb of the Ironborn. We’re all steeped in it.” She chuckled and looked at him with her red eyes. Behind her ceaseless optimism was a core of adamant will. “You’ll end that, right?”


    “Yes,” Jack promised with the utmost conviction.


    She straightened back up with the typical, soft smile. “I keep asking you that same question in different words.” She laughed.


    “I would do no different in your situation,” he told her. Following a whim, he got up. “Let’s keep talking outside. I want to stretch my legs.”


    “Sure,” Claire agreed, and the two of them moved outside.


    ‘Aclysia, Beatrice, Claire, Delicia,’ the thought occurred as they moved out of the dark manor. ‘A-B-C-D... is that some sort of cosmic coincidence or did Gaia set me up?’ Realizing what was implicit in that reasoning, he shook his head. ‘Here I am, already counting her AND Delicia as mine.’ As they walked his eyes were drawn to the flutter of her skirt. It was long, yet stretched around her waist with every step.


    “You really keep looking at me in that ‘sexual’ way,” Claire observed. “I wonder what that’s like.”


    “I hate the Iron Domain.” Claire’s tone sounded casual, but something was unnerving about it. She continued talking, head lowered, staring just a metre in front of her feet, as they paced along the most prosperous shambles in the entirety of this Kingdom. “I hate Arkeidos and his women, his monarchs and his nobles. I hate everything and everyone in this empire.” Violent urges trembled in her form. She smirked and grabbed his arm, as they passed closely by a passed-out man. “Do you understand?”


    “Yes,” the Gamer responded. “But I see more in you than vengeance.”


    “There’s the giant void where my heart used to be.” Claire chuckled, each sound lacking in amusement. “All I want to make clear is that I do not want to lead anything. I want to see Arkeidos’ soul shredded and scattered into the winds of nothingness. I want to break every stone of the Eternal Fortress. I want to tear open Meteora’s face. I want to drink Ell’s essence and listen to her shrieks as I tear every last bit of lifeforce out of that banshee’s rotten core! I want to...!” She suddenly stopped and cleared her throat. “Excuse me.”


    “It’s fine,” he assured her.


    A twitch of annoyance travelled over her face. Reflected in her red eyes, Jack saw his own sorry expression. “Do you deem me weak, conqueror?” she asked.


    “Confused,” he responded honestly.


    “I am very confused,” Claire agreed and waved off, burying her embarrassment in self-deprecation. “Don’t know when I last wasn’t confused. I said I was smart, but I was clearly wrong about that. Takes a special kind of idiot to be as confused as I am. Maybe I should get some more sunlight.”


    The Gamer considered whether he wanted to give her an out or to keep peeling back her fac?ade. Her optimism was genuine and so was her deep-seated hatred for the world around her. A combination as fascinating as it was awful. His choice was made when Jack said, “Perhaps I can take you with me, after all of this is done.”


    Wide-eyed, Claire turned to him. For the first time, her veneer of confident amusement was entirely wiped away. “What do you mean?”


    “I mean that I can give you a future,” he told her. “Help me end the Iron Domain and I will take you to a fresh start. A world that you don’t have to hate.” He offered her his hand. “I came to this Kingdom seeking the cure to an ailment. A task I took on primarily to prove to my world that I could do what no one else can. I did it because of pride. I am dismantling the Iron Domain because it is the right thing to do. A path started because of selfish desires can still lead to a better order.” He brought his hand a little closer to her. “Do you want to make the end of this road your end, or the beginning of something else?”


    Claire remained frozen for almost a minute. Then her body started to tremble. She trembled more and more intensely until she threw her head back and laughed loudly. Waiting patiently for her to calm down, Jack kept his hand raised. She kept on laughing. It was remarkably girlish and liberated, as if she was reacting to an entire clown show playing out in a matter of seconds. For a moment it even looked like she would fall over.


    Ghoulish chuckles echoed from the Mettle addicted crowd around them. Without understanding what was going on, these people started to roar louder and louder. The infectious glee of the Archduchess tickled their instincts, made their horribly exhausted and discordant cackles cut through the silence of the night.


    Quickly, Claire’s laughter died down and the crowd followed her example. “I don’t deserve that,” she finally stated and turned her shoulder to him. “What I want is death, John. Death to Arkeidos. Nothing more.”


    Sighing, the Gamer lowered his hand. He knew when to let go of a topic. “The offer remains,” he assured her, to keep it on the table. This was their first day and their mutual Charisma and overlapping goals had brought them far further than was normal already. For now he returned to more leisurely topics. “Why do you avoid the sun anyway?” he asked. “I have my theories, but I’d like to know.”


    “The sun is too bright. I had super sensitive skin when I was a fleshbag,” Claire answered simply, her head still raised to the sky. “Nowadays, I just don’t want to see his world.”


    “It’s not his world,” Jack responded. “People can own soil, they can own oceans, they can even own other people, but no one can ever own a world. The heavenly blue of the sky belongs to everyone who witnesses it.”


    “That sounds so nai?ve.”


    “You’ll understand I’m right,” Jack answered with joking smugness. “Eventually.”


    They returned to the manor.