We received an update from Yuki the next morning, the CEO requesting us to meet with her in her office when we were available.

I went to find her with Mara and Yumiko accompanying me, the former to help me read her mind in case she had something that she wasn’t telling us.

Surprisingly, I did not receive any contact from Kaito. I was half expecting him to try and get into contact with me to find out whether I was still on his side or not. But I guess he didn’t want to leave any traces of being in contact with us or something.

Either way, it didn’t matter to me since I have no intention of helping that guy anymore.

I showed up at the building that housed her office and surprisingly, the guards were giving me a wide berth when they saw me.

I guess they knew I was the one who was controlling the animals yesterday and they’re basically treating me like I’m as dangerous as those animals...

Well, at least we had an easy time getting to the elevator that brought us up to her office.

When we stepped out, the sound of dogs barking came from the side and we turned in the direction of the noise.

Incidentally, I was looking in that direction in anticipation while Yumiko and Mara were looking out of fear instead.

Three golden retrievers bounded across the room to run towards me, skidding to a stop right in front of me and sitting down to wag their tails at me.

So cuuuute~

I couldn’t help myself and went ahead to start petting all of them and giving them belly scratches.

"You truly are something else..." Yuki commented from the side, the CEO watching the entire thing unfold from where the dogs had come from.

I gave the dogs a final pat before turning standing up to face her, "Umm... Hello. You called for us?"

She nodded, "Yes, let’s talk while we sit down. Also, don’t worry about the dogs, you can keep patting them if you want."

Ohhh~ Don’t go back on your word!

We sat down in front of her table and I continued patting each of the dogs as they sat down beside me.

So fluffy~ Ehehehe~ Fluff fluff~

Yuki cleared her throat, "Ahem... As you might have guessed... The attack last night was perpetrated by that bastard Kaito despite his efforts to hide his involvement. His goal was clear, to discredit me by unleashing those creatures and hoping that the owner of the Pleasure Station would get hurt and cause me to lose the contract. Obviously that plan was thwarted thanks to you."

"But it’s still a fact that an incident happened right? Won’t the participants of the event hold you responsible for it?"

She scoffed, "I already expected him to try something so I had told all the guests that there would be a surprise performance later on and their participation meant that they will be ok with being in close proximity with the creatures. So everyone, or at least most of them since I believe some managed to figure out that it wasn’t actually part of the performance, thought that the creatures escaping was part of the show."

I raised my eyebrow, "They really bought something like that?"

"Honestly, I doubt they would have believed it if it weren’t for you. Seeing someone controlling all the creatures like that... There’s no way anyone could believe that it’s nothing short of fiction."

I guess that’s true... It’s like going to a zoo and suddenly all the animals break out, only for some random person to jump out and start commanding the animals to move around like obedient soldiers. I would think it was some kind of performance too.

Although... I wonder how they could explain away the fact that there were thugs who blew open the wall and started shooting into the crowd?

Hmm... Then again, it seems like thanks to her security’s fast response, none of the guests were hurt anyway so it played well to the performance idea.

"So what did you call us for? Surely it’s not just to brag about how well your plan went right?"

She steepled her fingers in front of her, "There’s a lot of things I want to ask... Especially about how you are able to control so many creatures... But I doubt I would get an answer from you about that so I will just settle for my purpose here. While I have managed to thwart his plan on discrediting me, this has merely stopped him from succeeding in disqualifying me for the contract. It has not made me any closer to obtaining the contract since my act of defending the crowd was merely treated like a performance instead."

I raised an eyebrow, "So you want us to do something to that Kaito guy to disqualify him or something?"

"Yes. And I already have a plan for that."

"Huh... I thought you were going to leave it to us?"

"If you have a better idea than what I have in mind, then I’m all ears. But after what he pulled last night, I now know that he’s not beyond using drastic means to get what he wants and I can’t afford to play by the rules anymore."

For someone who literally smuggled in a dangerous creature here... I don’t think she was playing by the rules from the very beginning... But of course I wasn’t going to tell her that...

I nodded at her, "So what do you have in mind?"

"He attacked me directly... So of course we would retaliate using the most straightforward method as well. We shall attack him directly as well."

I blinked at her, "Wait... What? You want us to attack him?"

"Why are you so surprised? You’ve witnessed him doing it to me so why can’t I do the same thing back to him? After all, he was the one who fired the first shot, I am just responding in kind."

"What do you plan to do then?"

"You already know where his office is, right? Go in there and kill him."

I stared at her, then I turned to Yumiko and Mara who were both giving me the same look, before I turned back to Yuki.

"You want us to kill him?" I asked.

"Was I not clear enough?"

Yumiko then cut in, "Do you intend for my Mistress to take a fall for you in order to get rid of the competition? We are not going to be your sacrificial pawns."

She waved her hand, "Please, I do not have the guts to do something as suicidal as that. Hear me out here. We’ve shown that we can control most, if not all, of the creatures in my collection, correct? At least, to the public, they would believe that all the creatures that broke out from the exhibition were fully under control."

Yumiko frowned, "You’re not saying to use them to attack that guy, are you?"

"No. That would be too obvious. They would know that I’m related to the attack right away. I cannot use a creature that has been shown in the exhibition before."

"So you’re really planning to use a creature to kill that guy?" I asked. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"That’s right. I’ll just go ahead and tell you that I have another delivery coming soon. This one is also being smuggled in and there will be a dog on board. My plan is to make it look like Kaito got jealous of my exhibition and wanted to start his own so he got himself a dog, only for him to lose control of it and then have that dog slaughter his entire company. Then I will swoop in with a talented Biotamer Mercenary who helped me bring the dog under control and prevent further damage to the rest of the Pleasure Station. And with Kaito gone, there will be nothing stopping me from getting that contract anymore."

She took a moment to pause before pointing a finger at me, "Your role is to get that creature inside and get it to kill everyone else mercilessly."

...

"You are a very devious woman..." I commented.

She scoffed, "I would take that as a compliment. Did you think I got to where I am right now without coercing or scheming my way here?"

"Fair enough... What kind of dog is it that you are smuggling here?"

"What do you mean? It’s a dog. What else can it be?"

"I meant what breed is it?"

She paused, "I’m not sure? I just know that it isn’t the breed that I can control," She shrugged, gesturing to the golden retrievers that I was still patting.

"When is it going to arrive?" I asked.

"Tonight at the earliest, three days from now at the latest."

"Fine... I guess I’ll bite. I can do this job for you."

"Don’t worry. When you’re done, I will have a reward for you as well."

"Well... Putting that aside for now... Could you tell me what you know about a certain person named Vieretha Iceborn?"

Might as well see what she knows, right?