The Systemic Lands
Chapter 642: Day 5,198 – A Desperate Plea For Help

Dinner was surprisingly not a disappointment. With all the food research we had been doing in Purgatory and my Empire my tastes had risen considerably over the years as well as my expectations for formal events. Salted cucumber just wouldn’t cut it. I still enjoyed the simpler foods, but if you wanted to impress me you needed to do a bit more.

The Holy Kingdom had stepped up its game in the sauce department, with a wide range of different flavors to complement the mystery meat courses that were served. It was a culinary adventure. Besides declining the request for a spar, there was nothing of interest that occurred.

I was treating this as kind of a holiday and fact-finding mission. If the Holy Kingdom did anything to me, then I would respond in kind and wipe out their leadership. Just send everything into even more chaos.

After dinner, we went back to the guest suite and I tossed off my boots and collapsed on the bed. I sunk into it. They really had gone all out on the bed as well. Perhaps I should request to take it along. It was tempting, but it would also ruin me from sleeping out in the wilderness.

There was a knock on my door. “Come in,” I said and sat up. A young-looking woman entered. Really a honey pot, that was nice of Emeritus to offer, but I wasn’t interested. A comfy bed was one thing, falling for the pleasures of the flesh was another.

“Not interested. You can turn right around,” I told the woman. She had a fair bit of stats, around combat level 3 by my estimate. That put her around a thousand stat points in each stat as an average. She stopped and stared at me with her mouth open. “You can close your mouth. You won’t be needing it.” I gave her a shooing motion.

She then sprawled on the floor, pressing her head to the ground. “Please Emperor Michael, you are our only hope,” she said. I could sense the drama coming off this woman.

“Thank you. I already know that. But I really am not interested. I am going to get some rest,” I said while thinking about if Emeritus would try to assassinate me during the night. He hadn’t tried at dinner, so I was curious if he would make an attempt while I appeared vulnerable, or if he had any kind of intelligence.

If he attacked me, then he clearly would keep attacking me. That would be annoying and not something I wanted to deal with. If he didn’t attack me, then there was an understanding between us. This was a big test and I was more than happy to spend an afternoon and a night dealing with him. Better to nip an idiot leader in the bud so they wouldn’t get out of control.

“Please,” the woman said while crawling on the floor towards me. This would be the most hilarious assassination attempt when she finally got on with it. “Name your price.” That didn’t sound like someone trying to honey pot me.

“What exactly are you asking help with?” I asked her.

“The Anti-Pope Emeritus is a hell spawn in disguise. If you can kill him and his Cursed Paladins, we could be free,” she said. I took a moment to process what she was actually saying and got a bit of a headache. This was annoying me now.

“You need to be clear. Is there a monster actually controlling him?” I asked the woman. She hesitated for a couple of seconds before answering.

“Yes, no one could be so evil otherwise. He has enacted crucifixions for those who speak out. And even those who don’t follow his religion. I have endured, and now you, are savior is here,” she said while getting up and began taking off her clothes.

I literally facepalmed at the sheer idiocy in front of me. “Let me get this straight. You want to use your body, which is only a seven out of ten, to get me, Emperor Michael, to kill your enemy Emeritus for you?” I asked as she shed the last of her clothes.

“Yes,” she said and began to approach me. I held up a hand and gave her a stop motion. She didn’t slow down as she lowered herself to put her breast on my hand. “Anything you want.” I reached up and grabbed her lower jaw.

“Whaaaa,” she tried to speak, but when someone is gripping your lower jaw, it is impossible. She began to lick my hand and moved her hands towards my clothing. I stood up and began to walk away, dragging her by her jaw. She began to scream and struggle. Thankfully she had enough Body stat so her jaw didn’t rip off.

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I exited my room. One of my soldiers on guard duty looked at us. “You let her through?” I asked.

“Um, I wasn’t sure,” he said nervously. I let out a sigh.

“You don’t let people bother me. Talk to Captain Francis tomorrow for punishment duty,” I said and then left the suite of rooms. There was a Paladin on guard outside. The woman continued to scream as I dragged her along.

“Who is this woman?” I asked the Paladin. He looked at her and then at me.

“A servant. What has she done?” he asked.

“Several things. Let’s wake up Emeritus.” He probably wasn’t asleep yet, but I wasn’t going to let this go. This was ridiculous to the extreme. Eventually I arrived at Emeritus’ office, with the naked woman still held by the jaw, three Paladins, Emeritus, and myself.

The woman began to struggle more as I took my seat as she looked frantically around. “Did you send her?” I asked Emeritus.

“No. What has she done?” he asked.

“She begged me to kill you and called you the Anti-Pope,” I calmly replied. He frowned heavily at that. “Also tried to seduce me, which is annoying. Are you controlled by a monster by chance?” I asked while carefully watching his reactions.

“No. I don’t know how you would check something like that,” he replied.

“I didn’t think so. Just wanted to ask.” I then moved my other hand to grip the woman’s neck and let her lower jaw go. I wiped off her spit on her naked body.

“Hell spawn! Devil! You will all burn!” she screamed and began to struggle. I tightened my grip on her neck until she could no longer breathe. She tried to resist with her Body stat, but that just meant I had to be slightly more careful in squeezing her throat. Her hands went up and began hitting my arm.

“So, how did this happen?” I asked and Emeritus looked embarrassed. The Paladins standing around also looked uncomfortable. There was a strength of silence only interrupted by the useless struggles of the woman as she tried to move my arm holding her neck. I let up slightly so she could breathe and then squeezed again so I didn’t have to listen to her speak.

The silence continued to stretch on. “Did you want me to assume the worst, that she is a false flag assassin of some kind?” I asked.

“No. She isn’t. Just someone who I thought was not a problem and allowed to serve here, in my home,” Emeritus said. Clearly there was a lot of pointless backstory and drama between the two.

“Well considered her a problem. And me annoyed. I leave her to you and your wonderful Paladins,” I said and tossed her on the floor, away from me. She went sprawling across the gray stone floor and I got up. No one said anything as I made my way barefoot, back to my room.

My personal guards were all armed and ready to go when I got back. “Next time, don’t let people through to my room, unless I give permission,” I said and went back to my room. I planned to catch up on some sleep.

I didn’t need that much with my stats, but I was more than happy to lay on a comfortable bed with my eyes closed while thinking about everything that had happened.

Perhaps I should have helped that woman, but then I would just get more crazy. She was like Ruth, thinking to manipulate me by using her body. Well Ruth used our friendship. I didn’t miss her in the slightest, but we had chemistry. If only she hadn’t gotten controlling, we could have been a great team.

Heck, she could have been my Clarissa instead of the actual Clarissa if she hadn’t gone off the deep end. Regardless, I was no savior. The people on the West side of the Systemic Lands could figure out their own problems. If they wanted to fight, then they should fight. And as long as Emeritus didn’t cause trouble for me, I was content to leave him be. Even if he was a horrible person, there weren’t any better options out there.

Just by being in charge when I showed up, indicated he had mastered the nuances of governing. Since he wasn’t all powerful like me, this really showed some interpersonal skills. Anyone might look at him and think he had an easy job, but he represented the interests of various people supporting his government like the Paladins.

If Emeritus was killed, that wouldn’t solve anything. Instead, there would be a power vacuum and chaos. Neither of which I wanted to deal with. So, the plea for help was disregarded and I threw the problem back into Emeritus’ lap where it belonged and made my position clear. Don’t get me involved with your internal problems. And if you do get me involved, I will just reflect them back. This time he got off easy. Next time I would remove a limb or an eye.

The unnamed woman had gambled and lost. She really should have done her research or been more polite when I declined her advances. She just thought I could be manipulated like that, which was really insulting. If she hadn’t stripped and tried to drape herself over me, I would have probably let her go with just a scolding.

But she had to push it. I had no doubt she was going to meet an unpleasant end. She was good looking, but not good looking enough to keep around for a long period of time with the trouble she had caused. My personal guess was that she was part of Emertius’ secret harem or something like that. Or even a defeated enemy turned into a servant as an act of mercy. Or perhaps Emeritus had her friends killed.

There were a lot of possibilities. Perhaps I should have pressed for more answers? I thought about the question for a bit and then realized that would be opening up a can of worms I didn’t want to get into. I didn’t want to get sucked into the drama of the Holy Kingdom. There was enough drama with my own Empire, that I didn’t need to add more.