Chapter 130: Contract Market VIII
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Auri did not speak. Her expression remained calm. But her eyes said what her mouth did not.
She believes in her own spine.
Sekhmet returned his gaze to Mira.
"I will not ask further," he said.
Mira’s shoulders loosened slightly, as if she had expected a fight and was relieved to find a man who did not need to win every conversation with force.
Sekhmet’s voice stayed flat, businesslike.
"You want cultivation access," he said. "Protection. Resources. Ten years of service."
"Yes," Mira replied immediately. "In exchange, you get a loyal retainer. I am good at organizing people. I can read contracts. I can manage ledgers. I can remember information that others forget."
Auri’s gaze sharpened again at the word remember.
Ink Memory.
Sekhmet noted it.
Then he let Mira go quiet.
Because he was not here to buy a revenge plot.
He was here to buy a foundation.
And the foundation he needed tonight was not ink.
It was blood.
His gaze shifted to the twins.
Vera met his eyes immediately, unblinking.
Vela’s gaze stayed steady too, but she watched his hands for a heartbeat, as if measuring whether he would reach for violence.
Sekhmet spoke.
"Vera," he said first, guessing.
The twin with the judging eyes answered without hesitation.
"Yes."
"Vela," he said next.
The other twin nodded once.
"Yes."
Sekhmet’s tone did not soften.
"What happened to your family," he asked. "Why are you here?"
Vera’s fingers tightened slightly on her own wrist bands, not tugging, not fidgeting, just a subtle pressure like she was reminding herself she still had control over something.
Then she spoke.
"All of our family members died," Vera said.
The words landed simply, brutally. No dramatics. No tears.
"We do not know why," she continued. "It happened quickly. Some fell sick. Some... simply stopped. Some died in their sleep. Some bled from their mouths as if their bodies forgot how to keep blood inside."
Auri’s eyes sharpened behind Sekhmet.
Bloodline sickness, she thought.
But she did not say it.
Vera’s voice remained steady, but her throat tightened slightly at the memory.
"For some reason," she said, "we did not die."
Vela spoke then, voice quieter.
"We were not spared kindly," she added. "We were spared... randomly."
Vera nodded once as if accepting that phrasing.
"Our family had debt," Vera continued. "Huge debt. Old debt. The kind that grows even when you do not breathe. When our household fell, the creditors did not stop. They never stop."
Sekhmet’s eyes remained calm.
"Your house and business," he said.
"Taken," Vera replied immediately. "Sold. Seized. Broken into pieces by paper and seals."
Vela’s jaw tightened.
"We became two names attached to a number," she said.
Vera looked at Sekhmet directly.
"We have no place to go," she said. "No estate. No guardians. No protectors. The debt collectors would have sold us anyway. Not through clean contracts. Through dirty hands. Through back rooms. Through men who pay less and take more."
Her eyes did not beg.
They warned.
"It is better to find a man ourselves," she said, "than to be dragged into someone’s bed by force under some fake debt excuse."
Sekhmet listened without reacting.
Then he asked the question that mattered.
"Why concubines," he said. "Why not demand marriage."
Vera did not answer.
Vela did.
Because Vela’s eyes were the exit-counting eyes. The practical eyes.
"We do not have anything," Vela said. "Who would marry us?"
Her voice was not bitter. It was factual.
"Three million chaos stones," she continued. "Only someone wealthy pays that. And wealthy men here already have wives. They do not take legal wives with debt and mystery. They take concubines. They take ornaments."
Vera’s lips curled faintly.
"And some would take us as punishment," she said. "Not as partners."
Sekhmet’s gaze narrowed slightly.
"You are not ornaments," he said.
The twins did not react with gratitude.
They reacted with suspicion, because words were cheap.
Sekhmet leaned back slightly.
He studied them again, and the system note echoed in his mind like a quiet knife pressed to his ribs.
Faint Blood God lineage trace confirmed.
Extremely distant.
Suitable candidates.
He did not let it show on his face.
Instead, he spoke in the language of survival.
"I will settle your debt," Sekhmet said.
Both twins went still.
Not hopeful.
Still.
The way prey went still when they heard a predator say something unexpected and had to decide whether it was bait.
Sekhmet continued, tone steady.
"But I will not make you my concubines," he said. "I want you two to be my protectors."
Vera blinked once.
Vela’s eyes narrowed.
Sekhmet’s gaze stayed on them.
"I will train you," he said. "I will provide resources. I will push you to grow. If you survive, if you work, if you do not betray me, you may reach the pinnacle of power."
Auri’s eyes sharpened.
That offer was bigger than sex.
It was the offer most people in Null dreamed of.
A path.
A real path.
But the twins did not smile.
They did not nod.
They exchanged a glance so fast most people would miss it, but Sekhmet saw it.
And then Vera spoke.
"No," Vera said.
Sekhmet’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"No," he repeated.
Vera’s voice remained calm.
"We agree to protect you," she said. "We agree to serve. We agree to train. We agree to fight."
She leaned forward slightly, eyes sharp.
"But you must take us," she said. "As your concubines."
Auri’s gaze turned colder.
The words were not seductive.
They were in demand.
Sekhmet stared at them.
"You want concubine status," he said slowly, "as a condition."
Vela nodded once.
"Yes," she said. "That is our only demand."
Sekhmet’s tone stayed flat.
"Why."
Vera’s expression did not change.
"We do not want to die virgins," she said.
The sentence hung in the rune-silence like a thrown rock.
Auri’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
Mira’s eyes widened faintly, then she forced her face back into neutrality like a professional refusing to laugh at a funeral.