Chapter 147 (2)Montcalm Manor
Content Warning: Eroticism & nudity
***
Thinking quickly, Alexander threw himself on Elizabeth and kissed her wildly for about thirty seconds, then released his hold.
Elizabeth had become very excited, but was now a little disappointed that he\'d stopped.
Alexander said, "What a pity we don\'t have some good wine to celebrate our meeting!"
Elizabeth, completely under his spell, walked to the room\'s desk—the room seemed to be a small library—and pressed a small red button on its edge. After about ten seconds, a butler knocked at the door.
Elizabeth unlocked it and met the butler, her composure regained after the recent excitement.
"What can I provide for you, Mistress?" the butler asked.
Elizabeth replied, "Bring me two bottles of Romanée-Conti."
"Right away, Mistress." The butler bowed and left.
As Elizabeth turned back to face the room, shutting the door behind her, Alexander plunged his deep blue eyes into Elizabeth\'s and gave her a subtle smile for a long minute.
Elizabeth was on fire! She relished the way Alexander was teasing her, making her wait for the wine! Every passing second was a real pain, and she couldn\'t wait for Alexander to take her with relentless vigor.
Soon, the butler returned with the two bottles of wine. Without saying another word, he placed the bottles—as well as two elegant glasses—upon the small library\'s desk. He uncorked the first bottle and poured two glasses, then left the room, locking the door again behind him.
It seemed he was accustomed to Elizabeth\'s habits!
Alexander picked up his glass of wine and gestured to Elizabeth. "Excellent. Now… Take off your blouse!"
Elizabeth couldn\'t believe how rude and overbearing he was! Nobody had ever treated her like this before! But rather than feeling indignation, Elizabeth realized that this rudeness excited her. She quickly obeyed Alexander\'s instruction while he sipped his million-credit wine.
She removed her white blouse and corset, then her black bra, then turned to Alexander with an eager look in her eye.
Alexander nodded. "Now take off the rest!"
Elizabeth continued her striptease, removing her skirt and her black panties, ending up naked in front of Alexander.
He had to admit that she had a magnificent body, and felt a huge bulge in his pants. Alexander forced himself to concentrate and said, "Come and sit down! Let me bring your glass of wine. It\'s pretty good stuff, I suppose."
Elizabeth walked slowly to the reading couch where Alexander was sitting, sweeping her hair back with both hands as though to show off her form in detail.
She sat down and leaned into Alexander\'s arms, tilting her head back to accept the lip of the wine glass, which he tilted towards her. Elizabeth made a very dramatic show of drinking the wine that dribbled into her mouth, taking several unladylike sips. She even let the last drop drip from her lips and down her chin, which Alexander took care to wipe away with his thumb.
All the while, he stared deeply into her eyes, and neither of them blinked.
Elizabeth smirked. "Well, it\'s not every day that the future Duchess of Montcalm strip-teases like a million-credit escort! You should feel lucky. It\'s your turn now, beautiful male..."
But her last few words slurred in an alarming fashion, and then she collapsed, unconscious, into Alexander\'s arms.
Alexander, of course, had realized that Elizabeth would try to seduce him after she invited him to the party that morning. After some careful planning, he\'d bought a fast-acting sleep drug from one of the drug dealers he\'d bought Neo-Crack from in his old life.
He\'d even practiced his sleight-of-hand skills that afternoon until he could easily slip the drug into a wine glass without anyone noticing.
Once Elizabeth pulled the two of them into a private room, it was a simple matter of ordering the wine, ordering her to strip so that the drug had enough time to fully mix into her glass, and then having Elizabeth drink it.
After all, there was no possible way that Elizabeth actually intended to introduce him to the Celestials who led the SuperGuilds. She\'d only invited him to entertain herself, and perhaps to annoy her brother.
With Elizabeth out of the way, Alexander could actually carry out his mission. But before heading out, Alexander searched the room for possible compromising documents relating to the Montcalm family.
After all, once Elizabeth woke up, she might not appreciate having been drugged. The drug would blur some of her memories of the time leading up to drinking the wine, and if she was naked, there was a chance she would assume that she and Alexander had simply slept together after drinking too much wine.
However, this was far from a perfect plan! Alexander poured out the bottle of very old, very strong, very expensive wine into a nearby potted plant. It pained him to waste so much money, but a part of him felt vindictive that it would only hurt the Montcalms!
But after several minutes of searching the small library, he found nothing. However, he became more and more convinced that he could feel something strange in the library… A kind of current in the air.
Alexander realized that there was a secret door somewhere in the room! After some careful searching, Alexander realized that the red button which could summon the butler actually hid another button underneath it. Holding his breath, Alexander pushed it.
One of the library\'s walls opened in two, revealing a secret passage.
However, it was very dark inside, and Alexander suddenly became a little less sure of himself. \'Oh well,\' he thought. \'Nothing ventured, nothing gained!\' He stepped into the passage…
…And the bookshelves closed up behind him.
Nowhere to go now but forward.
Alexander walked along a narrow stone corridor, and quickly realized why there were no lights in the corridor. Many holes lined one wall at head height, allowing light to pass through.
So this was a kind of secret antechamber to spy on all the rooms of the manor, as the old European aristocracy used to do. It was incredible. If there had been any lights in the antechamber, they would have shone through to the rooms on the other side, revealing the presence of the person spying.
Alexander held his breath and stepped close to peer through one of these holes.
Charle, Elizabeth\'s brother, seemed to be having a very close conversation with a young woman. \'Perhaps she was caught with contraband,\' Alexander thought with a smirk, \'because Charle seems to be doing a very thorough strip search!\'
Alexander quickly moved on to the next room, which seemed to be more of the same. It seemed that Celestial parties were very lively affairs. Nothing to do on the Moon but eat, drink, and fuck, it seemed.
However, Alexander finally found a spyhole which showed him something far more interesting.
Dozens of people wearing masks were sitting in a circle and talking in low voices.
Alexander had to focus hard to listen, but thankfully he could understand the conversation.
"...As agreed," said a man\'s voice, "the hundred billion credits will be paid to you so that you can develop your war fleet. However, despite your best efforts, we are quite disappointed with your results on Cronos I and Era. It is nothing but a pyrrhic victory. And yet you assured us that you had more than enough resources to complete this mission without worries..."
Then Apophis realized who the man was talking to.
A woman in a red mask.
It was Gael, and she somehow looked exactly the same here as in "Horus." A chill went down Alexander\'s spine.
Then Gael answered. "I understand your confusion, dear Shareholder. The simple truth is that the best intelligence in the entire game failed to inform us of Apophis\'s true power. Had we received the proper information, we would have adopted a winning strategy. As we always do. There is nobody in the world who would have succeeded where we failed in this instance. Do you disagree?"
There was a moment of silence, and then another man said, "That\'s not all. The problem is not only the mixed financial results of the operations on Cronos I or Era. The credibility of the whole guild is at stake! Therefore, we have to balance our risks and assets accordingly. The question we are asking is how the best player in the world, Lucifer, who was supported by the most powerful SuperGuild in the game, could possibly fail in a single combat? You say there was a failure of information gathering, but how could this even be possible in the first place?"
Gael replied smoothly and without worry in her voice. "Apophis has simply found other ways to equip himself and to obtain Skills. \'Horus\' is not yet a solved game. There are apparently much more effective sources of power than Dungeons and auctions. This gives us powerful knowledge. We now know to continue looking for more power ourselves.
"Apophis and Eclipse may be important threats to our interests, but our treaty is nothing less than an advantage for us. He is now a member of the Coalition\'s Defense Council. For the moment, he cannot take any hostile action against us. Especially since, after his attack using the Black Sun, something incredible has appeared in the obsidian desert...
"You have read the reports, I hope? So I consider that his attack was not so devastating towards us as compared to our competitors who will also suffer, especially now that, thanks to him, we have this formidable advantage."
Alexander listened to all of this with growing disbelief. What was Gael talking about? How had his attack created an advantage for his enemies? He would have to investigate this quickly.
The man answered,
"Yes, we\'ve read them, Gael… but it\'s not enough. Lord Of War is the best SuperGuild in twenty years. We\'ve supported you in ten different MMORPGs. We\'ve always taken care to recruit the best players, the best coaches, the best strategists… So understand that you must fix your mistake!"
Gael\'s voice turned sharp. "What do you mean?"
The man replied, "You must make this threat disappear permanently, either by recruiting him, or by making him disappear. Virtually \'or\' physically. Either way, he must never be a problem for us again."
Gael said, "Understood, Sir."
The man said, "Well… Now tell us about positive things. What is your plan of conquest?"
Gael said, "Lord Aurel, our warlord, is preparing a massive assault by our guild on the Kalipeussose System, which theoretically still belongs to the Federation. But in view of the civil war, the garrison has been reduced to the bare minimum. Besides, all the big guilds are preparing similar projects of invasion in that solar system."
The man said, "Well, we\'ll trust you on that. Now we\'ll let you go. Charle Montcalm has kindly invited us to participate in his orgy."
The masked men left the room, leaving Gael alone.
She threw a violent punch against the stone wall, cracking it.
Alexander was shocked! What kind of superhuman strength was this?
But he was thinking this as he fell to the ground, as the punch had created a shock wave that knocked him off balance and to the ground.
"Who\'s there?" Gael asked sharply.
Alexander immediately ran away, trying to reach the room where he had left Elizabeth.