Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1860: He Lost the Very Reality He Had Ever Loved: Part 2

By the time Jonathan finished investigating the gift, Allen had arrived. He stood beside his wife, calmly recounting everything that had happened between him and Aether, including their conversation and the strange change he had noticed in Aether.

“Hmm… Interesting. He seemed not to care when Jonathan told him the truth, but now…” The Voice trailed off, its tone thoughtful.

There was no surprise in it, only the quiet curiosity of someone examining an unexpected flaw in an otherwise predictable equation.

“Something has changed.”

It knew everything, and suddenly, it felt the voice didn’t know anything about Young Aether, as if something had interrupted its fun.

“He was different, President,” Allen said with a serious expression. His brows were slightly drawn together as he recalled Aether’s eyes.

“I saw it in his eyes. I’ve seen that look before, when Penelope broke up with him. It was the look of a man who had lost something he could never recover. But this time…”

“…”

“This time, it wasn’t grief. It was emptiness. As if something inside him had simply… stopped caring.”

Allen paused, his fingers tightening slightly at his side as he struggled to put the feeling into words.

“Something happened inside Hell’s Gate. I don’t know what, but whatever came out of that place with him… it wasn’t the same Aether who went in.”

The Voice remained silent.

For several seconds, nobody dared to speak. The Voice appeared to be pondering Allen’s words.

“What about you, Jonathan?” The Voice finally asked. “Have you found anything in the gift I gave him?”

Jonathan swallowed hard. His throat felt painfully dry, and a thin layer of sweat had formed along his temple. He lowered his gaze for a moment before forcing himself to speak.

“The… All the footage was corrupted, President.”

“…” The hologram went dead silent.

Everyone was too surprised to react immediately. Emily turned toward Allen, her expression filled with disbelief, silently asking how such a thing could have happened. Allen shook his head slowly.

“It’s impossible,” he said. “The recording is stored inside the safety guidance system of the mech-suit. Even if he somehow discovered it, it would take hours to manually locate the files, bypass the security protocols, and corrupt the recordings. There is no way he could have done that so quickly.”

Jonathan clenched his fists.

“Do you think I’m lying?” Jonathan snapped. “Then go check the suit yourself. I’m telling you, the recordings were corrupted. Every last one of them.”

Allen did not answer immediately. He merely lowered his head, his expression becoming unreadable.

“Allen,” The Voice said.

The single word was quiet.

Yet Jonathan felt the temperature of the room drop.

His eyes widened, and whatever confidence remained in him immediately began to crumble.

“P-President…” Jonathan stammered. “You don’t believe me?”

There was no answer.

Only silence.

Jonathan’s breathing became heavier as he stared at Allen. He understood the meaning of that silence better than any accusation.

The President had already chosen who he trusted.

Allen simply walked past him.

Jonathan watched him disappear toward Aether’s mech-suit, his fingernails digging into his palms until the skin began to redden.

‘You fucking bastard… I will kill you one day!’ Jonathan thought furiously, forcing himself to remain still as Allen went to inspect the suit.

Then The Voice spoke again.

“How did he know about the aphrodisiac?”

The question was delivered with such coldness that Maiuri and Sasha immediately flinched.

Neither woman answered.

Their heads slowly lowered.

Sasha hurriedly stepped forward, her voice becoming strained. “W-W-We really don’t know how he was aware of the drug. We made sure it was odourless and colourless. We even poured it only onto the food, not into the water. There was no way he could have noticed it.”

The Voice remained silent for a moment.

Then, calmly, almost casually, The Voice said, “Perhaps one of you developed feelings for him and decided to warn him.”

“Or perhaps…”

A pause followed.

“Both of you did.”

Maiuri and Sasha’s faces instantly turned pale.

Their knees weakened beneath them, and both women dropped to their knees.

“President, we did not!” Maiuri hurriedly said, her voice trembling.

“Please, believe us!” Sasha pleaded. “We would never betray you!”

The Voice said nothing.

It simply watched them.

The President was not asking whether they had betrayed him.

He was deciding whether they were still worth keeping alive.

Both of them begged for their lives as if death could descend upon them at any moment. Their faces had turned pale, their bodies trembling uncontrollably beneath the weight of The Voice’s presence.

Neither dared to raise their heads. They knew better than to mistake its silence for forgiveness.

“Then do tell me,” The Voice said coldly, “why haven’t you gotten impregnated?”

Maiuri’s lips parted, but no words came out.

She swallowed nervously, searching desperately for an excuse that might satisfy him.

“President, I—”

“Don’t.”

The single word silenced her instantly.

“Don’t give me a lame excuse, Maiuri.” The Voice’s tone remained calm. “You not only failed to get impregnated, but worse…” A brief silence followed.

“You didn’t even put in an effort to seduce him.”

Maiuri’s entire body stiffened.

“You were given an opportunity that others would kill to possess,” The Voice continued.

“You were placed beside him, given his trust, and handed every advantage necessary to accomplish a task that should have required nothing more than patience and obedience. Yet you returned to me empty-handed.”

His voice grew colder.

“So tell me, Maiuri. Was your failure caused by incompetence… or did you simply decide that my orders were beneath you?”

“N-No, President!”

Maiuri immediately lowered her head until her chin nearly touched her chest. She swallowed hard, her throat painfully dry, before nervously glancing toward Jonathan.

Jonathan merely lowered his head and shook it in disappointment.

That small gesture made Maiuri’s heart sink even further.

“Disappointment…” The Voice said quietly. “That is all both of you have given me.”

“I gave you responsibility because I believed you could accomplish it. Instead, you wasted my time, my resources, and the opportunity I placed directly in your hands.” The Voice paused.

“Failure is tolerable when it is born from circumstances beyond one’s control. But incompetence disguised as failure?”

The hologram flickered faintly.

“That is an insult.”

Maiuri and Sasha immediately lowered their heads even further.

“And Jonathan…”

Jonathan’s body stiffened.

“Yes, President,” he answered, bowing his head.

“Your toys… aren’t doing their job.”

Jonathan’s expression twitched.

“If they fail me again, Jonathan…”

“I won’t need to find better toys. I’ll simply find someone better to use them.”

The words were spoken without anger, yet Jonathan felt a chill run down his spine.

“Do you understand what I am saying?”

Jonathan trembled as he nodded.

“U-Understood, President. I will retrain them.”

His voice shook despite his attempt to hide his fear.

The Voice remained silent for several seconds.

“See that you do.”

Soon, Allen returned. His footsteps echoed through the room as he approached the hologram. He stopped before it and bowed his head respectfully.

“It was indeed corrupted, President.”

Jonathan gave a quiet snort, a faint smirk forming on his lips as though Allen’s confirmation had finally vindicated him.

Allen continued before Jonathan could savour it.

“It was simply impossible for him to do this in less than a few hours. Even if Aether had discovered the recordings, locating the files and bypassing the security protocols would have taken considerably longer.” Allen’s expression became grim.

“Someone must have helped him.”

“…” The voice turned silent then, “There are also a few irregularities in our data,” The Voice finally said.

“Small ones. Easy to overlook individually, but when placed together… They form a pattern. Someone has been protecting him.”

“Someone has been interfering with us from the shadows, erasing traces, concealing information, and moving pieces whenever we approach him.” Its voice became quieter.

“And whoever they are, they have become confident enough to believe we won’t notice.”

A pause.

“That confidence will be their mistake.”

The Voice turned silent for a moment before issuing its command.

“Postpone our current plan for the time being. We need to find the one who helped him. Investigate this first. I will not tolerate another failure while an unknown variable remains inside my territory.”

Its voice hardened.

“We cannot leave loose ends.”

Then the Voice gave its final order.

“Find the black sheep.”

Everyone nodded in unison.

Jonathan remained silent for a moment before slowly raising his head.

“President… since I failed, how about using Lily now?”

A wicked smile slowly curled across his lips.

Allen and Emily’s eyes widened.

“…”

The Voice remained silent.

For a moment, Jonathan’s smile lingered.

Then the answer came.

“He is not as degenerate as you… She won’t fit for this job.”

Jonathan’s smile disappeared.

His face twisted with humiliation, anger flashing across his eyes.

“But… Emily.”

Emily immediately flinched when she heard her name. She turned toward the hologram, her posture straightening.

“Yes, President?”

“Seduce him.”

Emily froze for only a moment.

Then she lowered her head.

“Understood.”

The President continued, his voice calm and merciless.

“If you succeed in seducing him and become pregnant…” The Voice paused deliberately.

“I will give you the gift you have always wanted.”

Emily’s eyes widened.

The fear that had occupied her expression slowly disappeared, replaced by something far more ambitious.

A wicked grin gradually appeared across her lips.

“Understood, President…” she said softly.

Her eyes gleamed with anticipation.

“I will do my best.”

Maiuri and Sasha gritted their teeth as they clenched their fists, their nails digging into their palms. Neither dared to speak. The anger they felt was swallowed by the fear of what would happen if they displeased the President again.

“And…” The Voice paused, its tone becoming colder.

“If he truly gets out of hand, kill him.”

Everyone went still.

“Because of his intervention, we failed to conquer the Aquarius Naiadia Empire,” The Voice continued.

“An entire Division was ruined because one variable escaped our control. We cannot allow the same mistake to happen again.”

The hologram flickered faintly.

“You both understand?”

“Understood, President.”

Both Jonathan and Allen nodded with serious expressions.

The Voice continued, its words carrying the weight of a personal grudge that had been buried beneath years of calculation.

“I don’t know what My Goddess sees in him… But whatever it is, it ends here.”

The Voice fell silent for a moment, and when it spoke again, there was unmistakable anger beneath its controlled tone.

“She promised herself to me.”

“And I will not allow some insignificant creature to stand between us.”

“If killing him once is not enough…”

“Then I will erase him so completely that even death will have nowhere to return him.”

Everyone nodded in unison.

The small square box flickered once before the hologram abruptly disappeared, leaving only the faint electronic hum of the device.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Jonathan finally stepped forward and pressed his hand over the small square box. A faint mechanical sound followed as his ring flowed out from the device and formed around his finger. He examined it briefly before slipping his hand down.

Then he turned toward Allen and the others.

A wicked smirk slowly appeared across his face.

“Now…” Jonathan said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “What should we do with him?”

His eyes shifted toward Emily.

“Since you’re our only hope now, how should we start?”

Allen nodded with a faint smirk as he walked over and sat down in one of the chairs.

“How about this?” he said. “We’ve already known that he only seems to show interest in women who are… rather unstable.”

Allen glanced toward Emily.

“And considering she’s my wife, he might not take action. But… He said his face attracts women… how about using that to have her crazy about him?”

Jonathan’s eyes narrowed as he considered the idea.

“Indeed…” He leaned back slightly, a wicked grin spreading across his face. “Then perhaps we make it appear accidental. We somehow force him into a situation where Emily can see his face, and then… she raped him due to his face. Haha… after all, he said they would seduce him once they saw his face, right? Hehe~”

Jonathan’s grin widened.

“We’ll make sure it was his fault! Make him fucking eat his own guilt until it rots him from the inside out. Haha! It’ll be worth seeing his face when he’s too ashamed to even look us in the eye. He’ll walk with his head lowered like a pathetic man who betrayed the very people he trusted. We’ll make him carry that guilt everywhere he goes… until he can’t even recognise himself anymore. And he had no choice but to obey us. Ahahaha!”

Emily shook her head.

“I don’t think that will work.”

Jonathan glanced at her.

“Why not?”

“Because he’s too fast,” Emily replied. “You’ve all seen it. If we deliberately create an opportunity for me to get close enough to see his face, he’ll probably run away before I can even see.”

Allen leaned back in his chair, resting one hand against his chin.

“Hmm… You’re right.”

His expression became thoughtful.

“Then we shouldn’t make him approach you.”

Jonathan raised an eyebrow.

“What are you suggesting?”

Allen’s eyes narrowed.

“We make him believe that approaching Emily was his own decision.”

Emily looked at him.

Allen continued calmly, “A trap is obvious when someone is being pushed toward it. But if we create the circumstances around him and allow him to believe he’s acting freely, he won’t see the trap until he’s already inside it… That’s how his father always does it anyway.”

Jonathan’s eyes gleamed with interest.

“That’s better.”

Allen looked toward Emily.

“Once you manage to take away his visor and see his face… make it look as though you’re entranced by him. If he tries to run away, turn the situation against him. Make him look guilty. Make him feel like he has nowhere to hide, nowhere to run, and no one who would believe his side of the story. Keep tightening the noose until he finally comes to you.

And act like Yandere… who knows he might fuck you right then and there…. ahaha”

Emily grinned, already imagining what she needed to do.

Sasha clicked her tongue.

“I don’t think that will work. I already showed myself naked to him, and yet he kept himself together. Why do you think she will succeed?” she asked with annoyance.

Maiuri nodded with a serious expression.

“Yeah. I’m more gorgeous than her, and yet… he never touched me.”

Allen giggled and shook his head.

“I think you two have forgotten something.”

He slowly turned his gaze toward them.

“You’re in a land filled with lust. And the one who rules that lust is my dear Governor… the manager of this brothel division!”

His eyes shifted toward Emily.

“Emily Hatcher.”

Emily folded her arms, her gaze turning ice-cold as she stared at the two women.

“I know what to do, unlike you two, who only know how to force people.”

“…”

Maiuri and Sasha clicked their tongues in irritation.

Emily stepped closer to Allen, resting her folded hands over his shoulder before whispering,

“Once he’s in my palm, everything will be mine…”

Her cold eyes remained fixed on Maiuri.

“His trust. His weakness… His secrets~”

Maiuri stared back blankly for several seconds before a faint smirk appeared on her lips.

“We’ll see… once you succeed.”

Emily’s smile didn’t disappear.

“Oh, I will.”

Jonathan nodded in satisfaction.

“Good…”

Then his expression suddenly twisted into something deranged.

“But how about this?”

His grin widened.

“While you’re fucking with him, what if I strike him from behind? Haha… It would be worth seeing his face. Dead by snu~snu… Hahaha! He’d probably make the most hilarious expression.”

Allen burst into laughter.

“Haha! Bro, that’s so vile! Why kill him like that? Instead, how about cutting off his dick first? He’d be crying while holding it!”

Jonathan slapped his knee, laughing.

“Now that’s cruel. Hahah”

Emily’s expression immediately twisted in disgust.

“Pfff! That’s so fucked! I ain’t fucking him while you cut his dick! I don’t want his blood in my pussy, Allen!” Emily said with utter disgust.

“What if his dick gets stuck inside me? Fuck, that thought alone gives me chills.”

The very thought sent an unpleasant shiver through her.

Jonathan laughed even harder and patted Allen on the shoulder.

“Hahaha! That’s fucking ridiculous, man!”

Allen wiped the corner of his eye from laughing.

“Imagine spending all that effort trying to control someone, only for Jonathan to turn the whole thing into a slaughterhouse.”

Jonathan’s grin widened.

“What’s the point of catching a monster if you aren’t willing to become something worse?”

“Me! Me!” Sasha jumped into the conversation, licking her lips wickedly. “Since he has such a big cock… I want to enjoy it too. So how about, after you’re done with him, you give him to me? More the merrier, right?”

Her body shuddered at the memory of how big and thick it had been, and she could already feel herself becoming aroused just thinking about it… she was already wet!

Jonathan looked at her and burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! What a bitch!”

Sasha merely smiled.

“What? You’re the ones planning his fate. I’m only asking for my share.”

Emily rolled her eyes.

“You’re all insane.”

Jonathan laughed.

“And you’re pretending you’re different?”

“Hahahah!”

“Hahahahahaha!”

“Hhahahahahahahahaha!”

“Hahahahaha!”

“Hahahahah!”

The room erupted into laughter again.

They laughed together, casually discussing how they would torment Aether, each person adding another cruel possibility to the conversation. Their words became increasingly callous, their amusement completely detached from the human being they were discussing.

To them, Aether wasn’t a person anymore.

A target.

Something they could break, use, and discard.

Their laughter echoed against the walls, reflecting the ugliness hidden beneath their smiles.

At the same dining table where Young Aether had sat before, a small circular device was hidden beneath the table.

It remained completely motionless.

Then it transmitted another wave.

And another.

And another.

The waves travelled silently through the air.

Outside, thunder rumbled beneath the cloudy sky. The signal passed between the towering buildings of the city, slipping through layers of technology and security before finally reaching a modest wooden house surrounded by the high-class buildings.

The wave struck a black ring.

Blue particles immediately flickered across its surface.

Then the ring’s built-in speaker crackled.

“Hahaha… What a bitch!”

“What? You’re the ones planning his fate. I’m only asking for my share.”

“You’re all insane.”

“And you’re pretending you’re different?”

“Hahahah!”

“Hahahahahaha!”

“Hhahahahahahahahaha!”

“Hahahahaha!”

“Hahahahah!”

The voices of people he once considered beloved friends echoed through the room.

And then…

Drip…. Drip….

Tears flowed down from Young Aether’s lifeless, unblinking eyes.

He sat on the edge of the bed, perfectly still.

His shoulders didn’t move.

His expression didn’t change.

He simply stared at the wall in front of him as another cruel burst of laughter emerged from the black ring.

“He..Hehe…”

Drip…

Another tear rolled down his cheek.

He didn’t wipe it away.

He didn’t even blink.

The laughter continued.

And Aether listened to every word.

Every joke.

Every disgusting promise they made about what they would do to him.

“Hehe… HEHEHEHEHE…WWWAAHaehehe…HahahAHAHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEHEHEEEEHEHEHE!”