The way she held out the spoon to him, close to his mouth as if waiting for him to open it, made it clear that this was, indeed, her intent. Did this mean that spring had finally come for him? Wait. Should he really be this happy? Gabrielle was eventually going to leave him. Maybe he shouldn’t accept this gracious offer.

  But… I really want this. Even if this moment is fleeting, I’d like to enjoy it.

  His decision made, Alex was just about to open his mouth—

  “Oh ho ho ho? What do you think you’re doing… trollop?”

  —when Jasmine interrupted them.

  “What am I doing?” Gabrielle tilted her head. “I’m feeding Alex.”

  “Yes, I can see that you are attempting to feed Alexander. What I mean to ask is: Why are you feeding him?”

  Gabrielle’s face was a reflection of her bafflement. “Because he’s hungry?”

  “Don’t answer my question with another question!” Jasmine snapped. She then coughed into her hand, and, in a much calmer voice, continued. “Since Alexander is hungry and may not have his full strength back, I shall be the one to feed him.”

  “Oh, did you want to feed him? Okay!”

  Alex almost cried when Gabrielle handed the plate off to Jasmine. He wouldn’t say it, but he had really been hoping she would feed him. On the other hand, it wasn’t like he minded being fed by Jasmine, but he also didn’t want her doing something that might make her uncomfortable. Gabrielle had already proven that nothing bothered her, not even walking around the house naked.

  “O-oh ho ho ho! Very well. Since it appears as if you cannot feed him properly, I, the Queen of Hand Feeding, shall feed Alexander his breakfast.”

  Picking up where Gabrielle had left off, Jasmine grabbed the spoon and held it out to him. The spoon shook in her hand.

  “Oh ho ho ho! Here you go, Alexander. Open your mouth and say, ‘ah.’”

  “A-ah.”

  Alex opened his mouth just like Jasmine asked. He closed his eyes and waited for the food to reach his tongue. This… was kind of nerve wracking. Sure, it wasn’t Gabrielle who was feeding him, but Jasmine was still a really pretty girl.

  I wonder what’s taking so long? Should it take this long to feed someone a single bite of food?

  Maybe his sense of time was skewed because his eyes were closed from nervousness, but it felt like hours had passed. Was it because he was so nervous? It was true. His heart was beating rapidly, and his palms had become sweaty. This experience was a lot more nerve wracking than he thought it should have been, but surely that couldn’t be the only reason time had slowed down so much.

  He opened his eyes. Jasmine was sitting there, her hand outstretched. The spoon that she held was shaking. It looked like someone had lit a bonfire on her face.

  “It’s just a little more… just a little more… a little more…” Jasmine mumbled under her breath.

  Finally, as if screwing up all her courage, Jasmine thrust the spoon forward—right into Alex’s left eye.

  “AAAHHHH!!!! MY EYE!”

  “KYAA!!!!!”

  Alex grabbed his eye as he fell backwards, falling off the bed and spilling onto the floor. It hurt! He could feel hot oatmeal stinging his retina, burning his eye. The grains were rubbing against him, irritating his eye further. It also felt like his eye might be bleeding. Jasmine had shoved a spoon into it, and while a spoon wasn’t a knife, being jabbed with it still hurt.

  While Alex rolled around on the floor, a frightened Jasmine squeaked and leapt from the bed, tossing the tray and causing the food to splatter all over the carpet. She apologized, rushed over to the door, yanked it open and ran out, slamming the door shut behind her.

  A hushed silence fell over the room, save for Alex’s screaming.

  The door opened again and an angry, red-faced Jasmine poked her head back in. “Don’t think that this means you’ve won, Gabrielle! One of these days, I will defeat you! Oh ho ho ho ho!”

  The door slammed closed once more. Alex grimaced as he crawled back onto the bed, one hand covering his eye, the other clenching the sheets as he tried to keep his tears in.

  “W-what was all that about?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.” Gabrielle poked her lips, which had turned downward in a thoughtful frown. “I thought she wanted to feed you, but maybe I was just thinking too hard.”

  Alice gave them both a look that said, “Are you two stupid?”

  “Huh, you two are pretty naive, you know that?” Nicolas said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Alex asked, frowning.

  Nicolas waved a hand dismissively in front of his face. “Nothing. Anyway, hurry up, wash that eye out, and eat. We’ve still got to figure out what to do with our new prisoners.”

  “What do you mean eat? In case you haven’t noticed, my food is all over the floor!” Alex snapped. Then he paused as the rest of Nicolas’ words penetrated his brain. “Wait. Prisoners?”

  “That’s right.” Nicolas grinned. “A pair of VIP prisoners.”

  2

  Al-lāt laid in bed, covered in bandages. Laying on the bed next to her, her brother, Ibn-Al Kalbi, complained. Loudly.

  “Damn it! I can’t believe we’re being held prisoner like this! It’s bad enough that they defeated me, but for them to also beat you and Manāf and take both of us hostage? The old bastards on the council are going to have a conniption.”

  There was some truth to what her brother was saying. However, Al-lāt tried not to think about that. It wasn’t like either of them could actually do something in this condition.

  She didn’t know how she had gotten there, though she could take a few educated guesses. The last thing she remembered was her opponent, Alex, being engulfed in a red aura, and then she woke up in this bed. Honestly, she was surprised that she was still alive.

  “What do you think we should do, Sis?” Ibn-Al Kalbi asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that we attacked a princess and failed. I’m sure they’ll have our heads for what happened. Shouldn’t we try to escape or something?”

  Al-lāt looked at her brother, who was covered from head to pincer in bandages, making him look like a mummified husk. “Do you really think you can escape in your condition? You can barely even move.”

  “W-whatever. Just wait until I recover. Once I’m back to one hundred percent, escaping from this place will be easy.”

  “Do you even have a puppet to help aid in our escape?” When Ibn-Al Kalbi said nothing, she nodded. “Exactly. You’re all out of weapons to use, and I’m useless without sand to manipulate. There’s nothing that we can do right now.”

  “What about Manāf?” Ibn-Al Kalbi asked.

  “I don’t know where he is, but I doubt he can do anything.”

  “So, we’re stuck here, then?”

  “Seems like it.”

  “Man, this blows.” Ibn-Al Kalbi grumbled some more, and then he looked at the only other person in the room. “By the way, Sis, who’s the weird human, and why does she have antennas sticking out of her head?”

  Al-lāt was about to answer—

  “My name is Madison. I am not human, but a specialized android nanny trained in the use of two hundred different weapons and unarmed combat techniques,” Madison answered before she could. “I have been tasked by Mistress Jasmine with guarding you two, to ensure that you don’t try anything dubious.”

  “Dubious?” a flabbergasted Ibn-Al Kalbi asked. “What can I do while wrapped in a cast like this?”

  “I don’t know,” Madison replied. “That is why I have been ordered to stay here.”

  “Oh, for the love of…” Ibn-Al Kalbi descended into incoherent grumbling.

  While her brother seemed more intent on griping, Al-lāt tried to figure out what these people’s angle was. They must have had a reason for not killing her outright. Her first thought was that they wanted to use her as collateral or hold her for ransom, but Jāhilīyah was a small planet that offered little in the way of resources. The whole reason she’d had her brother go after Gabrielle was because their planet was so weak.

  The council was also unlikely to care. If she was held for ransom, they would tell her captors to screw themselves. Of course, they would do so politely, claiming that they didn’t negotiate with terrorists or the like, but that was all they would do.

  Lost in thought, Al-lāt barely noticed the door opening and closing. Ibn-Al Kalbi, who wasn’t as distracted as she was, looked over first and began shouting. “You! What are you doing here?!”

  Al-lāt looked at the door. Alex was walking inside, along with Gabrielle and several people that she didn’t know. There was a tall man with white hair, a woman in a skirt and collared shirt beside him, and a younger girl with brown hair and bored-looking eyes.

  She focused on Alex. “Are you here to negotiate the terms for our surrender?”

  “Surrender?” Alex frowned as he walked further into the room, stopping once he reached the bed. “I’m not sure what you mean by that. You’ve already been beaten, so as far as I’m concerned, this issue has been resolved. I’m only here because I wanted to hear more about your plight.”

  “My plight?” Al-lāt frowned. “I have already told you everything that you need to know. What more is there?”

  “Let’s start with why you tried to do something like force your brother over there to marry Gabrielle.” Alex nodded in Ibn-Al Kalbi’s direction. “There has to be an easier way to acquire water, so why go through all the trouble?”

  “Why should we tell you that?” Ibn-Al Kalbi sneered. “You’re just a—”

  “Peace, brother.” Al-lāt held up a hand, silencing Ibn-Al Kalbi. Her eyes never left Alex. “You wish to know why I tried to make my brother marry Princess Gabrielle? Very well. As the defeated party, I will accede to this demand.”

  “But Sis—”

  “Be silent, Ibn-Al Kalbi.” When her brother snapped his mandibles shut, Al-lāt began speaking again. “The most obvious reason is simply because acquiring water for our people would be easier if one of our own was the Emperor of the Galaxy. As emperor, others would have to listen to him. We would be able to have water transported to us with minimal cost, and it wouldn’t take months to arrive.”

  “And the other reason?” Alex prodded.

  “Do you really need to ask?” Al-lāt gestured to herself. “Take a look at me. I am sure you’ve already reached this conclusion, but I am not a full Jāhilīyahn. I am actually half-human.”

  “Yeah, I kinda got that from your appearance.”

  “I didn’t know Jāhilīyahns and humans were genetically compatible,” Gabrielle said thoughtfully. “By the way, what does ‘genetically compatible’ mean?”

  Even Alex deadpanned at her. “You mean that you don’t know what ‘genetic compatibility’ is?”

  “I know that, at its base, genetic compatibility refers to the way genes from different peoples, races, and species interacts. For example, humans are seventy-three percent genetically similar to angelisians. That seventy-three percent makes them ‘genetically compatible’ with each other. However, angelisians and daemons only have a five percent compatibility rating, which means they’re not very compatible.” Gabrielle tilted her head. “That’s all I know, really. Genetics aren’t my strong suit.”

  So it was just as Al-lāt had heard. Gabrielle Angelise, hailed as the galaxy’s foremost genius inventor, was useless at every other form of science. It really made her wonder about what kind of education the girl had received.

  Shaking her head, Al-lāt elucidated. “It’s because of how incompatible humans and Jāhilīyahns are that I am considered a curse among our kind. My mother, the former empress of Jāhilīyah, fell in love with a human sometime after my second brother was born. During that time, she had me, though my mother died from childbirth. The strain of having me was too much for her body to take due to the genetic differences.”

  “I imagine that caused some problems with your council?” Nicolas asked, his arms crossed.

  “Problems would be putting it mildly,” Ibn-Al Kalbi said. “The entire council hates her guts. There have been multiple assassination attempts on her life ever since she was born.”

  “That sounds pretty bad.” Gabrielle frowned. “Assassination attempts aren’t fun.”

  “You say that like you’re speaking from experience,” Alice joked.

  “Of course! I’ve had several people try to kill me.”

  Gabrielle’s words made Alice trip over her own two feet, falling face first to the floor. Even Alex was surprised.

  Al-lāt nodded. “Indeed, it is commonplace for royalty to have several assassinations attempts throughout their lives. Being the daughter of King Lucifer means that Princess Gabrielle has many people who would want her dead.”

  Recovering from her fall, Alice massaged her bruised forehead. “I regret saying anything. So troublesome.”

  “So, you’re saying that your own council has tried to have you assassinated?” Jessica prodded.

  “Yes, though none have come forth and admitted it, and I do not have the evidence to pin the blame on anyone.” Al-lāt returned to her story. “Thanks to my brothers, I have survived and was able to take the reins of our planet. However, we are a fragmented kingdom. With so little natural resources, our people are constantly fighting each other when we should be seeking help. In order to quell the strife on my planet, I made a declaration that Ibn-Al Kalbi would become the Emperor of the Galaxy to help us procure the resources that we so desperately need.”

  Al-lāt felt a moment of despondency. For a single second, she fell into despair at knowing that she had failed. Alex had proven to be too much. He might not have killed her, but he had defeated her. If they fought again, surely the outcome would be the same.

  Then she regained her strength, her bearing straightened, and she looked Alex right in the eye. “I know that I have no right to ask this of you, but if you could spare my people and brothers from your retribution, I would be grateful. If you must punish someone for what’s happened, then please punish me and me alone.”

  “What the—sister?!” Ibn-Al Kalbi shouted. He was silenced by her glare.

  “I alone made the decision to try and force Gabrielle into marrying Ibn-Al Kalbi. The blame lies with me, not him,” Al-lāt said.

  “Whoever said we were going to punish you?” Alex asked. Al-lāt blinked. He must have seen how confused she was, because his next words were: “Look, I never said that anyone was going to be punished for what happened. I understand why you were trying to have your brother marry Gabby. I’m not going to punish someone for trying to save her people.”

  “You would let your enemies go without punishment so easily?” Al-lāt didn’t know what surprised her more: that Alex was willing to let what happened go, or that she actually believed him.

  “It’s not like I’m just letting you go scot free,” Alex said. “You have to promise to not go after Gabrielle anymore. If you do that, then we’re good.”

  Considering that she had lost any rights after her defeat, this sort of agreement was a dream come true. She’d still need to devise another plan to get her people the resources they needed. However, that was a small price to pay in exchange for not being killed, in exchange for being allowed another chance to save her people.

  “Besides, you don’t need to worry about your water problems anymore,” Alex continued.

  “I beg your pardon?” Al-lāt asked.

  “I said you don’t need to worry about your resource problem.” Grinning, Alex pointed at himself. “Because I’m going to become the Emperor of the Galaxy, and once I do, I’ll create a formal alliance with your planet in exchange for sending you the resources that you need.”

  “You… you would do that?”

  “Of course I would! A hero always helps people who are in need!” Alex said passionately.

  A hero? Al-lāt didn’t know much about heroes, but if this man said he could help her people, then she had no choice but to trust him. The fact that he hadn’t killed them, or tried to bargain with their lives, was a strong point in his favor.

  “If you do become Emperor of the Galaxy and help my people, I will forever be in your debt,” Al-lāt said, bowing her head.

  Humans are a strange but amazing race, Al-lāt thought to herself.

  She completely missed the agonized expression that crossed Alex’s face as he realized what he had just agreed to.

  3

  “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”

  Alex slammed his head against the wall. He was in his bedroom. Everyone else had gone off to do their own thing; Gabrielle was with Alice, Jasmine had run off some time ago, and Nicolas and Jessica were doing whatever it was they did in their free time. Madison had likely gone in search of Jasmine.

  Alex? Well, he was currently cursing his own stupidity.

  “I can’t believe I just said that! ‘I’m going to become the Emperor of the Galaxy, and once I do, I’ll create a formal alliance with your planet in exchange for sending you the resources that you need!’ What the hell was I thinking?!”

  Alex couldn’t believe he’d had the gall to say something so asinine. He and Gabrielle weren’t really engaged, and yet he’d just gone and said the first thing that popped into his head. What was wrong with him? Had he suddenly developed a case of Tourette’s syndrome? Had he received brain damage during that last fight?

  As Alex continued slamming his face into the wall, the door opened and Nicolas walked in. He paused upon seeing what Alex was doing.

  “Is this a bad time?”

  Alex stopped after the last smash, and though his face remained plastered against the wall, he released a muffled, “What do you want?”

  Nicolas grinned. “‘Because I’m going to become the Emperor of the Galaxy, and once I do, I’ll create a formal alliance with your planet in exchange for sending you the resources that you need.’”

  “GYAAA! You, shut up! Why do you have to bring that up?! Can’t you see I’m already beating the crap out of myself over this?!”

  “Sorry, sorry. The opportunity was just too good to pass up.” After chuckling some more, Nicolas settled down. “Why are you freaking out about this? Aren’t you and the princess already engaged?”

 

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