Chapter 546: One Woman [Bonus]
"I..."
Sylas didn't press her because he could easily guess what she was thinking.
To him, she didn't need to go so far. He had already been interested in taking her under his wing. Though he had definitely planned to test more.
That said, between her performance and the odd actions of the Greed Seed, he was already leaning toward being just fine with protecting her. He had no issues going the extra mile if someone was useful.
He had saved the shieldman from his military duties and military supervision, he had practically kidnapped Morgan from the Celestial Republic, and he still hadn't forgotten about Archibald. Now that he and Lucius had had a falling out, he was very much interested in taking that man as well.
Although Sylas couldn't and likely would never start a city himself because of all the restrictions involved, he knew that he would definitely have to nurture a force of his own eventually.
Of course, the obvious path was to rely on Cassarae. She had already done much of the legwork. He just had to put the right pieces around her.
Unfortunately, many of those pieces had ended up getting scattered. Morgan was stranded in the Evergreen Territory along with Sunniva, he still had to find a way back to Lone Star to retrieve the kid and Professor Fembroise, and the problem with Nosphaleen was its own tricky endeavor.
From Tasia's perspective, though, she had no idea what his plans were or what his thoughts of her were. Anything he said now would just make it seem like he wanted her to give him the information so he could kick her out.
It seemed like she would have been much more at ease if he actually took her in the way she expected him to.
"You understand that even if I sleep with you, I could still abandon you."
Sylas eventually spoke, trying to get a full picture of what this woman was thinking.
Tasia looked up at him, her eyes still full of hesitation, but her expression calm.
"I don't believe that."
Sylas' eyebrow raised. "Why not?"
"I can feel what type of person you are."
"Can you? It doesn't seem that way."
If she had known what type of man he was, she wouldn't have tried to seduce him at all.
"You are very possessive. If I slept with you, you wouldn't allow me to be with anyone else. That would be a form of protection for me."
Sylas' gaze flickered.
Was this true? Probably. But...
"There's another way for me to make sure of that too."
Tasia paled and looked away when Sylas said these words. She had thought of it, but she didn't want to believe it. If she showed some use, surely Sylas wouldn't kill her. Which was also why she had come with information.
'There's something odd about this woman,' Sylas thought. 'She has no Level, no Class, no Profession... so where is this intuition of hers coming from? And why is the Greed Seed interested? No...'
Sylas realized that it wasn't just the Greed Seed. The Gluttony Seed seemed to have sensed a subtle Destiny as well, so faint that it wasn't until he had truly begun to pay attention to his Seeds that he felt anything at all.
'Then maybe...'
Sylas tried to trigger a System Contract. And as he expected, it worked.
Tasia was taken off guard when she saw the screen. She had just been about to make one final push when this happened. She didn't even know that this was possible, and now that she did, she felt a bit embarrassed about her earlier display.
[System Contract Offered]
[Contract Originator: <Sylas Grimblade>]
[Offer: Working Terms]
[Details: ...]
Tasia felt at ease after reading through things and immediately accepted.
Of course, what she didn't know was that because her Will and that of Sylas' were so far apart, Sylas could terminate or break the agreement whenever he wanted.
Maybe she would be smart enough to figure this out in the future, but in that case, she would also realize that since Sylas was willing to do this "dance" with her, he was at least not interested in killing her just for the sake of doing so.
Now whether or not he would continue to invest in her... that was a completely different matter.
After relaxing, more of Tasia's real personality came out.
"Are you sure you don't want to sleep with me? The offer is still on the table," she said jokingly.
Well, it seemed like half a joke. All things considered, if she was going to have to sell herself, Sylas wasn't a bad option.
She hadn't had such a misfortune during the Summoning yet, but she wasn't a fool. There were probably women all over the world forced to do exactly this. The problem was only made worse by the fact men had been most likely to accept the Trial, causing the population disparity and strength disparity between the two genders to take a turn for the worse. That said, that was only among the common people.
"I'm only interested in one woman." Sylas replied, thinking through his next steps.
"Oh?" Tasia blinked. "Is it Nosphaleen?"
She had done her due diligence and had at least learned Nosphaleen's name. Her instinct was to call her that "alien" woman, and seeing her for the first time had certainly been a surprise she had to suppress. But she was also smart enough to know that calling Nosphaleen that might offend either one of them, and she didn't want to undo all the progress she had made.
"No. Nosphaleen is just my Beast Contract."
Tasia's brows shot up, but Sylas spoke before she could make any more flirtatious jabs. "Now, should we get down to business?"
"Ah, right. Almost forgot." Tasia chuckled for a moment before she too became serious. Sylas nodded inwardly. If she had no off-switch, he might have to rethink this.
"You are right that the Africor Continent is supporting us. What you might not know is that this isn't the only request that was made."