Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 1106: Deal

"Our answer was quite clear," Bastet said.

Edmund put his bag down beside his shoe. He raised his face toward Kaiden, trying to stand straighter while Rook asked the receptionist to preserve the documents and contact the original applicants.

"Mr. Grey. I’m Edmund Hensley. I believe your mother has told you about me."

"She did not."

"..." the old man’s expression turned wry.

You are a brave man." Kaiden regarded him coldly from the roof. "Or a desperate one."

"I apologize for the intrusion," Edmund said. "But this is too important for us to give up. I hope you’ll consider what it means that we were willing to risk even the Shadow Monarch’s anger to be here."

"I see it for what it is."

Edmund managed a wry smile.

"We all came prepared to stay," the woman in the cardigan added. "I put my home on the market. I’ve begun transferring my business interests. I am serious about leaving, whatever your reviewers may have decided about me."

Her voice shook with the effort of making him understand. Beneath the expensive makeup, she looked exhausted.

"I want to live somewhere I can stop being afraid of getting sick. Of waking up and finding something else wrong with me. You said you were offering people a new life."

The silver-haired man had been looking between the roof and the entrance. While the others appealed to Kaiden, he edged toward the gap beside Bastet.

She stepped into his path.

"Oh, for God’s sake. Move."

Bastet looked at him, her ears turning toward his raised voice.

"You heard me. I’m speaking to your owner, you overgrown alley cat. Get out of the way."

Kaiden’s fingers curled against the roof’s edge.

Only moments ago, Bastet had been leaning against him, smiling as he stroked her thigh. Now this man was looking at the woman he loved as though she were something to be kicked away from a door.

"You want a chance, huh?"

At the change in his voice, the silver-haired man finally looked up. Whatever objection he had been preparing failed when he met Kaiden’s eyes.

"Then let’s make a deal. I’ll permit you to enter. If the dungeon finds you eligible, I’ll authorize your evolution, forgive this attempt to deceive us, and receive you as lawful residents. You’ll have the same protection as every other Dungeon-Born in my care."

Edmund reached for the woman beside him, overwhelmed with relief. She caught his arm while staring up at Kaiden herself.

"You would allow it?"

"Yes, of course. But if you’re denied, your attempt to enter under false identities remains unforgiven. Once you’re inside, I’ll leave your fate to Bastet and Calypso."

Edmund’s relief faded as Calypso smiled at him. Beside her, the silver-haired man recoiled from Bastet and caught his heel against the discarded bag.

"You would put human lives in the hands of those monsters?"

"Yes."

"That’s illegal!"

"Illegal?"

Kaiden glanced toward the headquarters doors. Beyond them waited the guarded passage down to his gate, the boundary between this country and the world he ruled.

"My dungeon is my sovereign territory. Once you cross that gate, you’re in my world, under the laws I make there."

"You swore to protect people!" the woman in blue snapped. "To not act as a tyrant!"

"I swore to protect my Dungeon-Born. You came with other people’s names and faces after my people refused you admission. What would you call that if not an attempt at invasion?"

Kaiden turned his attention to Rook, who still held the purchased documents.

"Confirm which applicants knowingly sold their identities and places and blacklist them."

"Yes, sir."

A woman in the queue drew her little boy closer. Kaiden met her eyes before addressing the waiting families, his voice gentler now.

"Those of you who came honestly have nothing to fear from failing to qualify. You’re welcome here as our guests, and we’ll take you back to where you came from safely. That hasn’t changed."

The woman nodded to Kaiden, her hold on the boy easing. She had expected the wealthy visitors to get their way once their disguises came off. People like that could always find someone important enough to listen.

Kaiden had heard them, held them to his terms, then paused to reassure her and her son. She had come with a child and a worn bag, and he had taken her fear seriously.

"He means it..." she whispered to the boy. "We’re welcome here."

Around her, relief spread through the queue. The masters of the old world were being judged for what they had done, their fortunes buying them no more consideration than any man or woman would receive.

Parents began smiling at their children. Conversations grew warmer, and people looked toward the entrance with a happiness that had seemed difficult to imagine while they waited on the buses. They wanted to see the world this man was offering them.

Kaiden looked back at the impostors, his mouth curving as the silver-haired man glanced at Bastet again.

"You’ve been so certain. You came all this way to tell me my people were mistaken about you. That you’re ready to give up everything on Earth and accept my world as your own. Surely you’re telling the truth?"

"I’m not agreeing to that," the silver-haired man snapped.

"Neither am I," the woman in blue said, turning toward the bus.

Edmund lingered, staring at the entrance.

"I’m running out of time, Mr. Grey."

"The offer is there, Mr. Hensley."

His mouth worked before he managed an answer.

"I... cannot accept those terms."

"I accept."

The woman in the cardigan released Edmund’s arm and stepped clear of the others. She faced the entrance, then lifted her gaze to Kaiden.

"I’ll take the chance."

’Interesting...’

Kaiden had heard her promises about leaving Earth and seen only another demand for an exception. Looking at her now, he understood that she was prepared to go. She was terrified, and she would take the chance anyway.

For someone already terrified of growing sick and dying, having this door shut in her face could have been devastating. The rejection itself might have broken her attachment to the life she knew, pushing her to embrace the possibility of another.

’My people assessed her before she went through that,’ he thought. ’Even if she qualifies now, it doesn’t mean they were wrong then.’

"Then you’ll have the chance I promised."

The woman bowed to Kaiden before disappearing through the entrance.

The woman in blue returned to take Edmund’s arm, helping him toward the bus while the other man strode ahead.

"Detain them."

Vespera spoke from behind Kaiden, watching the trio stop at her words.

"What?!" Edmund shouted.

"You bought other people’s identities, used their documents, and concealed your faces," Vespera replied. "Identity fraud is illegal in this country. You can explain your arrangement to the American authorities."

At Rook’s signal, Eclipse fighters intercepted the three. The silver-haired man slapped away a hand reaching for his arm.

"How dare you! Ashborn, call these people off!"

When he tried to shove past, the fighter caught his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back, drawing a cry of pain.

The woman in blue let go of Edmund to swing her handbag at another fighter, who caught her wrist and forced her arm down.

"Get your hands off me!"

Edmund tried to retreat toward the bus, but a third fighter caught his upper arm and steered him after the others. Vespera watched in silence as they were marched toward the guardpost by the perimeter gate.

Bastet lifted her hands beside her cheeks as the silver-haired man passed, curling her fingers into little paws. Her ears tipped forward.

"Goodbye, nya~"

A father waiting with his daughter burst out laughing. The man who had called her an overgrown alley cat turned crimson as others joined in. He tried to stop, but the fighter holding his arm kept him walking.

Calypso jumped back to Kaiden’s side while the staff resumed admitting the waiting families to reception. Bastet followed, landing with a chime of anklets before stretching out along the roof’s edge with her head across his lap.

"Thank you for protecting me from those cruel people, Master..."

She brought his hand to her hair, gazing up at him with enormous, grateful eyes. He stroked between her ears.

"Stop playing."

Bastet’s tail swished across the stone as she smiled beneath his hand.

"Never."