Bunny Girl Evolution (BOOK 2 COMPLETE) (STUBBED!)
114 – Break a Leg

“Wh-what?!” Franz sputtered, jumping to his feet. “Is this some kind of joke?! If so, it is not funny!”

“I’m not joking, Mr… Luger,” said Elise, keeping the blade at his throat. “Though I doubt that’s your real name.”

This is actually kind of fun, she thought as Franz struggled for words.

“Of course it’s my name,” he exclaimed.

A moment later, he was on the ground, screaming as blood poured from the stump of his left leg. The leg itself was now in Elise’s hand.

What?!

[ Another creature has broken a deal created with you by {Fey Bargaining}. They have been cursed. You are now in possession of their left leg. ]

For a few seconds, Elise just stared at the leg in her hand as Franz Luger–or rather, the man whose name was not Franz Luger–writhed in pain on the ground.

This is the condition I set, but I didn’t expect it to be this… bloody.

A few seconds later, she had regained her composure enough to get back into character.

“It looks like that was a lie,” she said.

“ARGHHHH!” said Not-Franz.

“I’ll put your leg back if you promise to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth for the rest of the interrogation.”

Man, I hope this actually works.

“AAARRGHHHHH!” said Not-Franz.

Despite his lack of words, he apparently thought his affirmation strongly enough that the skill activated. Unfortunately for him though, at that exact moment, an intrusive thought entered Elise’s mind. The leg disappeared from her hand and reappeared attached to Not-Franz’s stump… but it was on backwards.

Oh no! she thought.

[ {Fey Bargaining} has leveled up! 52 -> 55 ]

Wait, why did I get more levels this time?

“Wh-what?” said Not-Franz, staring down in horror at his backwards leg.

He no longer looked to be in pain, but he was still panting and pale, and looked like he was about to pass out.

“What are you?” he asked.

“I am Agent Snowberry,” said Elise. “And you are under arrest. Now, answer me. What is your real name?”

He looked around the room, as if hoping for some way to escape, but his eyes settled back on his leg, which he bent forward and back a few times in disbelief.

“It’s- it’s Robert,” he said. “If- if I answer truthfully, will you fix my leg?”

“I will,” Elise agreed.

[ {Fey Bargaining} has leveled up! 55 -> 56 ]

Less levels this time. Interesting.

“So, Robert, what’s your last name?”

“It’s… Robertson.”

“Your name is Robert Robertson?”

“...Yes.”

“By the way, if you lie to me, I’m going to make your arms switch sides, so you’d better tell the truth properly. Understand?”

Elise activated {Fey Bargaining} again, realizing that her previous deal had only been to promise to tell the truth, not to actually follow through with it.

“Yes!” he said, his face somehow paling further. “I am telling the truth! My name is Robert Robertson!”

[ {Fey Bargaining} has leveled up! 56 -> 58 ]

What? Does the skill level based on how messed up the curses I pick are?

“Alright then, Mr. Robertson,” she said. “Now tell me, what exactly were you doing at the Everspring Underground Auction? You drove up the price on numerous items, but you only won a single item. You disappeared during the intermission, which I presume was to talk to a co-conspirator, but to my knowledge, nothing actually happened at the auction.”

He hesitated, looking around one more time as if hoping for someone to rescue him before he sighed. With how loud he was screaming, he might actually have had a chance of being rescued… except that he had purchased a suite that was soundproof, so outside, no one heard a peep.

“It was one of the final steps in a plan four years in the making,” he said. “Four fucking years! This would have shot me straight to 8th tier! Fuck!”

“Mr. Robertson,” Elise said in a warning tone.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “For four years, I’ve been pretending to be Franz Luger, a brilliant young businessman with a few useful connections. I started small with some local merchants and small-time nobility, convincing them to invest in my businesses based on false pretenses. By acquiring those investments, I was able to then go and actually form the connections I lied about having. Once I had that base, it was a long, slow process of building up my reputation and businesses.

“About two years ago, I finally landed my first big fish, Duke Floria of Jelor, and I started setting this final plan into motion. I made many deals, but each one, I hid a small, secret trigger. Something hidden and innocuous that even the most wary businessmen would overlook. Just one man in a strategic position at a shipping company. The leader of the mercenary company hunting the monsters required for the products. The brilliant magic engineer in charge of the blueprints. All people that Franz Luger had never met, so they could never be traced back to me.

“I did business, and I waited. I attended last year's Everspring Underground Auction to observe, and to verify that my plan was indeed viable. I made many public appearances to spread my reputation far and wide. And then, starting about a month ago, I started to pull all the triggers I set. The shipping company’s chief’s secretary suddenly publicized records of the chief’s embezzlement and involvement in an underground drug trafficking business. The leader of the mercenary company, and the only one keeping the group from imploding, retired to live a peaceful life with his pregnant wife. The magic engineer finally got evidence of the exploitation and abuse they had suffered and used it to escape what was practically a slave contract.

“By the way, the embezzlement, the pregnant wife, and the exploitation was all true. And no, I didn’t cause any of it. I just spotted it, contacted the people involved, and convinced them to time their actions in a way that would benefit me. All around the world, Franz Luger’s business ventures are crashing and burning. It will be kept under wraps for a few months, but by this time next year, the name Franz Luger will either be infamous or forgotten. He would take the blame for all the failures, and quietly fade into obscurity, never to be heard from again.

“Of course, I would be fine. All those businesses had lots of money in them, and all the money that was ‘lost’ when they failed is actually in my possession. In a few months, I would re-emerge with a new name, and the brilliant magical engineer signed to a perfectly reasonable contract, and the former-secretary-now-leader of the shipping company in my pocket. I’d be able to rebuild Franz’s lost businesses within a year, and then I would start working on my ploy to reach 9th tier.”

His face was flushed, and he was sweating heavily as he finished, but he was half-smiling and looked quite proud of himself. Elise had to admit, it was indeed an elaborate plan, and if it all worked out, she could see exactly why he thought it would shoot him to 8th tier. She wouldn’t have even been surprised if this was the ploy of an 8th tier to reach 9th tier. It was almost a shame that she had derailed the whole thing.

“How did the auction fit in though?”

“That was the cherry on top,” he said, now smiling. “All those items I bid on? I wasn’t driving the price up. The final prices were almost exactly what they should have been. I was just antagonizing the people I already knew would win the bids. Getting them riled up. They would jump the bids by thousands at once to both flaunt their wealth, and stop anyone else from bidding. And where does that leave me? With the second place bid, a few thousand below the final bid.”

Elise stared at him for a few seconds, confused. Then, it dawned on her. She recalled the words that the auctioneer had spoken at the very beginning of the auction. If anyone purchased on credit, and they failed to pay, “the item will be sold to the next highest bidder.”

“So all the people you antagonized…” she started.

“Yes!” he said, nodding. “They were my business partners. The ones who wanted to flaunt their status and show that a jumped-up commoner was still no match for their wealth. The ones whose businesses are now failing. The ones who can no longer afford the items that they purchased on credit. It now defaults to the second or third highest bidder, which is significantly lower than the highest bid. I get the items at a discounted rate, and any that I don’t want to keep for myself, I can just sell for the price they originally would have gone for and make a tidy profit.

“When I disappeared during the intermission, I was indeed talking to a co-conspirator. It was the accountant in charge of the auction books. The one who kept track of everyone who bid on each item and in what order. I bought her off earlier this year, and I was checking in with her to give her a generous tip and make sure that she switched my name in the books so it couldn’t be traced back to me directly. Of course, there are still people present who would remember that it was I who bid last, but I would simply say that I didn’t buy it either, and it would become a mystery. No one remembers third place.

“And now it’s all fucking ruined because I couldn’t keep to myself properly. My sister always said my downfall would be a woman. I didn’t expect it to be right here at the very end during the final stretch. Can you at least tell me who you’re working for? Duke Larcombe? Was that bidding war all a charade so you could make your final plans?”

“I’m the one asking the questions,” said Elise.

“You can’t even spare me just this small curiosity? I’m sure I’ll find out when you take me in anyway.”

Elise crossed her arms over her chest as she stared down at him, thinking about how to answer. She didn’t actually have any way to take him in, and she didn’t have anyone she was working for. She had already gotten the answers she came for, though now that she had them, she wasn’t entirely sure what she’d do with them. The words came straight from his mouth, but they didn’t come with any kind of hard evidence that she could actually use to report to any authorities. She was sure that Oberon would believe her, and was likely already watching, but she wasn’t sure he was trustworthy for this. There was really only one solution that would work.

Looks like {Fey Bargaining} is getting quite the workout today.

“I’ll tell you,” she said. “But on one condition. When you’re taken in, you need to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, just like you’ve done with me.”

“What kind of request is that?” he asked incredulously. “I’ve already confessed here. What difference does it make? Of course I’ll do it again!”

[ {Fey Bargaining} has leveled up! 58 -> 60 ]

Elise hesitated a second as she mentally double checked that she had resolved everything, then broke out into a smile.

“I lied,” she said. “I’m working alone. You can call it vigilante justice. But, just so you know, if you do end up lying to the actual authorities, your legs and arms will switch places.”

“Alone?!” he exclaimed. “You expect me to believe that? Then who took out my guards?”

Guards?

“Ah, that would be me.”

Suddenly, right next to Elise, Oberon materialized in his full kingly garb. Franz– no, Robert– just stared at him, dumbfounded.

“What the hell is going on?” asked Robert after a few seconds.

“Snowberry, you did some excellent work here,” said Oberon, ignoring him. “In terms of entertainment, you get full marks. However, the actual execution was quite flawed. As you have just learned, Mr. Robertson here had multiple guards following him and surrounding this suite to keep him protected.”

I’m an idiot, thought Elise.

She had never seen any guards around Robert, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have any. She had simply neglected the possibility entirely. It was no wonder he had been looking around for help, even when Elise had him at her mercy. He had probably sent some mental calls for help, and was waiting for his guards.

“I understand,” she said. “But what are we going to do with him?”

“Arrest him, of course,” he said. “We can’t have such impressive criminals running free in my country.”

“Impressive?”

“I mean heinous,” he corrected himself. “Heinous criminals.”

Elise narrowed her eyes at the king. Now that she thought about it, Robert sounded like someone that Oberon would like. His plan sounded like something that Oberon would greatly approve of.

“I’m going to tell Duke Larcombe about him when I meet to deliver the books I promised him,” said Elise.

Oberon’s eye twitched. “Of course! This is an international matter! He may have been caught in my kingdom, but the other nations should also know.”

“What is happening?” asked Robert.

“Ah, I’m very sorry, but you’ve become an unfortunate victim of circumstance,” said Oberon, finally turning to the man on the ground. “I sent my student here out for some experience and you got caught in her whims. And unfortunately for you, I happen to be a king, so…” he shrugged. “While she didn’t have the authority to arrest you, I do. Guards, take him away!”

Two clones wearing armor appeared on either side of him and advanced on Robert.

“And Snowberry, you are free to end your interrogation.”

“Oh, right,” said Elise, glancing at Robert’s still-backward leg. “The interrogation is over.”

There was a squelching sound, and suddenly, Robert’s leg was facing the right direction again. The two guards pulled him to his feet, and he shook out his newly-fixed leg, still half in disbelief.

“Well, now that that’s taken care of, Snowberry, why don’t we head back? You have a guest waiting for you.”

“Erin?”

“Correct!”

Elise sighed.

“Alright,” she said. “Let’s go.”

On the carriage ride back, Oberon went into greater detail about his evaluation of her performance. She half-listened, but most of what he covered was things that she was already aware of. Her failure to anticipate the fact that Robert had guards was her biggest one. He mentioned that the only reason he had resolved that for her, rather than letting her deal with the consequences, was that if he had done nothing, she likely would have died.

Beyond that, he praised her acting, and how well she had played her secret agent role, but it was around there that Elise mostly stopped paying attention. Instead, she retreated into her own mind and thought about what she had just done.

Am I a bad person?

She had blood on the hand that had been holding the severed leg, and her dress was splattered with it, and though she could still see the gruesome sight vividly in her mind, she found herself completely unbothered by it. In the past it would have made her sick to think about, but now, it was just a memory like any other. Was it because of everything else she had witnessed since arriving in this new world, or was it something else?

Even beyond her newfound immunity to gore, she was also mildly concerned about how she didn’t feel bad about what she had done at all. She had caused immense pain, and probably some severe trauma, and had even left a fey pact with him that would leave him disabled if he lied, now, not only did she not feel bad, she actually felt a bit proud of herself.

He’s a criminal, she told herself. He deserved it. And, despite all the blood, I caught him without causing any permanent harm. In the long term, it’s a bloodless resolution.

She thought about it for a bit longer, then decided to just accept that. Logically, it made sense, and clearly, she didn’t have a personal problem with what she had done. She just had a lot of lingering self-doubt.

When she got back to the castle, she still had almost two hours left in her human form, so she decided to stay that way, since it was comfortable. There was a bit of blood on her clothes, but she just willed the fabric to shift around to hide that fact before stepping out of the carriage.

When she entered the dining hall where Erin was, she was greeted by a sight she didn’t expect at all. The playful kitsune who had been so cheerful and carefree before was now cowering in a chair, trembling with her eyes pointed downward. Her eight tails were now visible, but they were all drooping down to the ground like a chastised dog.

Across the table from her sat Irylax with her arms crossed and her yellow eyes boring deeply into the other woman. Sophie sat next to the dragon, doing her best imitation of her master, though the facade vanished when she saw Elise enter and her face lit up.

“Welcome back,” said Irylax. “Your guest is quite an interesting one.”