A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing
Chapter 686 - 686 - I figured you might

"M— Master, I— I've been trying to keep a low profile…" Nora muttered uncomfortably as she looked up at Erik. She didn't like disagreeing with him, but she didn't want to give away the existence of her religion so easily, either. Not yet, anyway.

"Oh?" Erik chuckled, glancing at her with a hint of intrigue. "Are you disagreeing with me?"

"N— No!" she immediately cried out with wide eyes, flinching backwards. But then she crumbled a little and looked miserable. "W— Well… I mean… N— Not exactly, but… m— maybe we could do something with their memories before sending them out?"

Grinning, Erik leaned to the side, took Nora's chin between his fingers, and kissed her lips. Instantly, the young blond werewolf's body relaxed and leaned into his touch. Around them, practically everyone looked at the exchange with mixtures of surprise, desire, and even jealousy.

Erik pulled back, leaving a messy, lustful Nora to try and catch his lips again. Unfortunately, Erik held her back and smirked at her. "I feel like I've told you before that I prefer my people to speak up when they disagree with something, Nora. So, tell me, what do you think we should do with them?"

Nora, her mouth opening and closing a few times, fought to gather her thoughts. "W— We should keep them here, Master…" she gulped, a little nervously, but growing increasingly confident and excited. "If— If you help me keep their families busy, I know I can convince them to see the light with enough time! They should serve repentance for their crimes!"

"Never!" Enkai growled and took a step forward angrily. "I won—"

"Shut up," Erik calmly interrupted him, but with an amount of gravitas and power that practically slapped Enkai in the face. "I'm talking with my beloved servant, Enkai. You will not interrupt your Emperor, or we will have a problem you won't easily walk away from."

"Am I understood?" he finished, never looking away from Nora's eyes. The latter's breathing had become heavier, her gaze now overflowing with lust. As with most of Erik's women, she loved when he exercised his power…

On his other side, Anne was no different—she looked at Erik hungrily, her body trembling a little. She and Nora were the only ones in the room, unaffected by the oppressive aura.

An oppressive silence settled on the room. Everyone held their breath as they turned to look at Enkai. The room filled with Erik and Enkai's pressure, but everyone could feel the former easily overwhelming the latter. The acolytes in the room trembled and sank to one knee, honouring their Wolf-Sire.

Enkai's eyes widened. He felt the genuine threat in Erik's words, as well as the oppressive power in his aura, and scowled. Defiance rose inside him. The only man he served was Ankhur and no one else! Even if he was about to get beaten up by this child emperor, he would die before backing down meekly!

Parting his lips, he was about to bite back… when he noticed Leki glaring at him from the corner of his eye. Enkai flinched a little. His mind flashed back to the way Leki greeted him before: 'What a surprise. Nothing has changed, old man. You still cling to outdated beliefs with no good arguments to defend them. Think of some, or stop embarrassing yourself.'

Then he remembered how Erik encouraged Leki to reconcile with him… and Enkai realised he was about to lose this new chance he'd gotten with his son. For a moment, his stubborn desire to push back against Erik battled with his desire to reunite with Leki… and then he stepped back, reluctantly, his head bowed.

The oppressive energy in the room lifted, and Erik continued talking with Nora, as if nothing happened.

"I would let you do as you wish, Nora, but it's a little late for that," he sighed helplessly. "The old man over there is a stickler for such things, and it'll be hard to shut him up at this point."

Undeterred, a grin spread on Nora's lips as she parted them to answer. "The—"

"I'm not killing him, Nora," Erik chuckled with a little more amusement than Enkai would have liked. "He's important to Ankhur, and especially Naeku. I can't lock him up or anything, either."

Nora pouted like a child who had their candy denied to them. "I understand, Master…"

Sighing, she reluctantly accepted the fact she wouldn't get exactly what she wanted. But, she quickly moved on. "But Mistress can alter or erase their memories, right? Can we do that, at least?"

Erik nodded slowly and smiled. "Technically, yeah. It would take a few hours at least, because there are a few second rankers in there, but we could. I'm sure I could keep Enkai quiet about this as well, so long as these troublemakers were actually returned to their families."

Enkai scowled behind him. He didn't like being talked about like he wasn't there, but he kept quiet, having already been put in his place once…

"Ah!" Nora grinned happily. "So—"

"But we're not doing that," Erik shook his head, interrupting her with a smirk.

Nora deflated and quickly appeared miserable again.

"Hehe, don't look like that," Erik chuckled as he pulled her a little closer to him. "I'm not trying to ruin your work, but think about it. There's about two dozen troublemakers tied up over there, so what if we release them all into the public? They'll talk about what happened here, right?"

"Yeah!" Nora complained, now feeling more emboldened to resist her master. "And that's bad!"

"Is it?" Erik asked mischievously, while doing nothing to stop the troublemakers from hearing every word. "What if they talked about being kidnapped by a religious sect worshipping me, but… they were the only ones talking about it? What if I can keep Ankhur, Enkai, and Naeku quiet about this, while you stay hidden and change locations?"

Cocking an eyebrow, Erik glanced to the side and looked at Nora's kneeling acolytes. "What if your dear acolytes go out there and spread word that actually, they and the troublemakers spend the last 24 hours partying to celebrate Naeku's marriage to me?"

Slowly, Nora blinked. Realisation set in, and her eyes widened. "T—That…!" A wide grin appeared. "That would spread rumours about your religion without actually confirming anything… so news would spread without having to leave the shadows. Few people would believe the unrepentant, and they'd know we could get to them anytime we liked… It will help the religion spread, and also punish them."

Her grin widened, she looked up at Erik with love and devotion. "That's so devious, Master! I love it!"

Looking back at Nora, he finally released her chin and chuckled as he leaned back. "I figured you might."

Over in the corner, the troublemakers all went pale.