Guilty x Creatures Ch. 70

Pausing for a moment to finish the last few sips of her wine, Olivia glanced at Anton before looking away again.

"All of this will be relevant in the end." she said as she made to refill her glass "Though I do apologize if this part of the story may be boring you..."

"Not at all." said Anton as he shook his head "Please, continue."

"...Very well." said Olivia as she settled back into her seat "As I was saying, once I had my degree, I insisted on taking a more active role during the meetings. My mentor was hesitant about this at first, but I quickly proved that I had been paying attention this whole time. And that I was far more capable at negotiations than I seemed. When this became apparent, he was delighted. And I was given more and more opportunities to prove myself. It wasn't long before my record of success began to surpass my seniors, and eventually even rival those of the owners... Almost overnight, I was a star, a key player in the company. But I wasn't satisfied with just that. Success meant nothing without money after all. And money had always been my goal. So once I had proven just how much money I could bring into the company, I made my move... I still remember that morning, and the look on my mentor's face, when I demanded to be made a partner in the company. There wasn't a hint of surprise in his eyes, he merely nodded, and invited me to sit down and plead my case. And when I did, and was finished, he began to speak... That was when I discovered just how ruthless this man really was. You see, I had always thought that there was some kind of connection between him and the other owners, but that wasn't the case. The other three were merely a means to an end for him. And while he had no ill will towards any of them, profits split four ways was already a stretch, and five ways would be out of the question. Someone, or someones, were going to have to go. And as I was already proving myself to be quite the asset, I was clearly in the staying group. From that point on, we began to have discussions in secret as we developed our coup against the other owners... Unfortunately, at that time I had yet to learn the art of discretion, and so it wasn't long before suspicions began to develop. Not that I cared, of course. I was young, arrogant, and in my own mind, invincible..."

Pausing again, Olivia's eyes went distant and took on a haunted cast as she slowly sipped away at her wine.

For his part, Anton remained patient and merely waited for her to eventually continue. After topping off her glass with a sigh, she finally did.

"It was my own confidence that was my undoing." said Olivia as her expression hardened "As I said before, I was arrogant. And that arrogance clouded my judgment enough that I hadn't noticed just how much resentment was being directed towards me. Nor had I any idea that I was being watched as closely as I was... Again, I hadn't yet learned to be discrete with my life... And so it was an easy task for those bastards to learn everything there was to know about me... They knew where I lived, where I had went to school, and even where I had grown up. They knew that I had been orphaned, and was alone... They knew that no one would come for me... That no one would even know I was gone... And most importantly, they figured out that I was powerless, and essentially harmless..."

Registering the shift in tone that this story was taking, Anton stayed still and said nothing.

"Money had always been my motivation. And so when one of the other owners approached me with a deal that could have potentially been better than what I had with my mentor, I was willing to hear him out... This man was years ahead of me when it came to experience in negotiations, and he played me like a fool... Looking back, the gap in skill between us was so obvious. He would tell me just enough to get me interested, before abruptly ending the conversation for one reason or another. This went on for a few days before he finally invited me to continue the conversation with him in a more discrete setting. He claimed he had a place where we could speak privately and for as long as we wanted to, without interruption. And so we made arrangements to meet there one night. He gave me a preset portal token, and when I used it, I was taken to a house on a private beach that was surrounded by large rocks and high cliffs." explained Olivia as she stared down into her wineglass and let her eyes once again go distant in memory "Still convinced of my own invincibility, the thought that a mere human could ever be an actual threat to me never even crossed my mind... I was stupidly naive... I really did think I was invincible... And I would soon be proven wrong..."

Saying nothing, Anton slowly set his jaw.

"I was annoyed when I found all three of the younger owners there, and even more so when they began to laugh and toy with me..." said Olivia "It took me far too long to realize I was trapped... And by the time I did, it was too late..."

"Wait, Olivia. We don't need to..." started Anton.

He stopped when the dark elf eyed him with annoyance.

"You said you wanted to understand, right? Isn't that what you've going on and on about this whole time!? Well now you're going to shut up and listen until you do..." growled Olivia before dropping her eyes back down and continuing "I was a prisoner now, and the first thing my captors did was try to enslave me... Apparently they found the idea of a dark elf slave to be very entertaining... Fortunately for me though, their curses wouldn't work. None of them did. No matter how many times, or different methods that they tried. Nothing ever worked. So then they gave up on that idea, and did the next best thing they could... They chained me up, and beat me until I couldn't fight them anymore... This happened again and again. Day in and day out... I refused to fully break for them though, so they eventually changed their tactics, and an endless train of elixirs, love potions and mind altering drugs soon followed... They used anything and everything they could get their hands on... I don't think that there was anything that I ate in house that wasn't laced with something... All this in an effort to make me break for them, which I still refused to do... Over time though, the drugs kept getting more and more powerful, and exotic... After a while, they even got desperate enough to start trying weirder things... Demonic things... Things like aphrodisiacs, and even, fertility drugs..."

Staring at the dark elf, Anton paused as the realization of what she just said reached him. His breath became locked in his chest as his heart sank and his eyes widened.

"...Oh no." he whispered softly to himself as he closed his eyes and shook his head "Oh, please no..."