My Scumbag System Chapter 642: The Honeyed Trap

The morning sun found us tangled together in her sheets, sticky with sweat and thoroughly exhausted. Natalia’s head rested on my chest, her breathing slow and even. Her fingers traced lazy patterns across my stomach.

"Tell me about Seraphina’s offer," she murmured. "The real details. Not the summary."

I ran my fingers through her hair, working out the tangles that had formed during our activities.

"She wants me to help her find a file my father hid. Something containing the details of how he acquired the consciousness that was transferred into me. She thinks it’s the key to understanding whatever entity caused the Rupture."

"And in return?"

"Protection. Resources. Information. Legal cover for the inevitable complications that arise from being whatever I am."

Natalia was quiet for a long moment.

"It’s a good deal," she said finally. "Better than we could have hoped for. But you know she’s planning to betray you eventually."

"Of course. She’s a politician. Betrayal is literally in the job description."

"So what’s your plan?"

I stared at the ceiling. At the faint cracks in the plaster that spider-webbed across the white surface like a map of roads leading nowhere.

"Become too valuable to betray. Build enough power that turning on me would cost more than keeping me as an ally. And find that file before she does, so I have leverage of my own."

Natalia propped herself up on one elbow. Her violet eyes studied my face with an intensity that always made me feel like she could see straight through every mask I wore.

"You’re planning something specific. Something you’re not telling me."

"Always."

"Satori."

I sighed. "My father didn’t just stumble onto some cosmic secret by accident. He was looking for it. Specifically. Deliberately. Which means he had a reason. A goal. Something beyond altruistic concern for the poor, downtrodden Zeroes of the world."

"You think he was working for someone."

"I think he was working against something. The same something that Seraphina is afraid of. And I think he left breadcrumbs. A trail for someone to follow if they knew where to look."

"Someone like you."

"Someone exactly like me." I sat up, dislodging her from my chest. "He knew, Natalia. He knew that whoever he transferred into me would eventually wake up. Would eventually start asking questions. Would eventually need answers that only he could provide."

"So the file isn’t just research notes."

"No. The file is a message. From my father. To whoever I used to be."

The pendant pulsed against my chest. Warm. Steady. A reminder that I was never truly alone. That every secret I learned, every truth I uncovered, was shared with the woman lying beside me.

"Then we find it first," Natalia said. Her voice had shifted. Hardened. The vulnerable lover from moments ago replaced by the cold, calculating warrior I had spent months forging. "We find it before Seraphina. Before whoever stole from Finch. Before whatever cosmic horror is lurking in the shadows. And we use it to secure our position."

"Our position?"

She smiled. A dangerous expression that reminded me exactly why I had chosen her as my Queen.

"You said I would be sitting beside you on the throne. That makes your problems my problems. Your enemies my enemies. Your secrets my secrets." She leaned in and kissed me softly. "We’re in this together, Satori. For better or worse. Until whatever end we find."

"That almost sounded like a wedding vow."

"Maybe it was."

The morning sun streamed through her curtains, painting golden stripes across her pale skin. She looked like something out of a painting. Beautiful. Powerful. Absolutely, completely mine.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand. I ignored it.

It buzzed again. And again. And again.

Natalia groaned. "Check it. Before whatever crisis is happening escalates."

I grabbed the phone. Six messages from Reyna, four from Emi, three from Skylar, and one from an unknown number.

The unknown number’s message was simple.

I stared at the screen. At the string of numbers that represented a location somewhere in the vast wilderness beyond New Vein City’s borders.

"Satori?" Natalia’s voice carried a note of concern. "What is it?"

I showed her the message.

Her face went pale.

"That’s a trap."

"Obviously."

"You’re not actually considering going."

"Of course I am."

"Satori, that message could be from anyone. The third party Seraphina mentioned. The VHC testing your loyalty. Julian Valerius trying to lure you into an ambush. Anyone."

"Or it could be my father."

She grabbed my arm. Her grip was tight enough to leave bruises.

"Listen to me. Please. For once in your life, think before you act. We just survived a meeting with the most powerful woman in Valoria. We have resources now. Protection. Time to investigate properly before walking into an obvious trap."

I looked at her. At the fear in her eyes. At the love that drove that fear.

"I’m not going alone."

"Satori—"

"I’m taking Maki. And I’m keeping our bond open so you can monitor everything that happens. But I am going. Because if there’s even a chance that my father is actually out there, actually alive, actually waiting to give me the answers I’ve been searching for since I woke up in this body, then I can’t ignore it."

Natalia’s jaw tightened. Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

"You’re going to get yourself killed."

"Probably." I leaned in and kissed her forehead. "But not today. Today, I’m going to find out the truth. And then I’m going to come home and let you yell at me for being reckless."

"I hate you."

"I know."

"Come back to me."

"Always."

I stood up from the bed and began gathering my scattered clothes. The pendant pulsed against my chest. The Dragon Witch’s Ring hummed on my finger. And somewhere in the back of my mind, Nel’s voice drifted through with the warm amusement of divine entertainment.

I pulled on my shirt and began buttoning it. Natalia watched from the bed, the sheets pooled around her waist and her expression a complicated mixture of anger and acceptance.

"When this is over," she said quietly, "we’re taking a vacation. Somewhere with no Gates. No VHC. No cosmic horrors or mysterious fathers or experimental consciousness transfer protocols."

"Sounds nice."

"I mean it, Satori. A real vacation. Just you and me. Maybe Emi and Skylar. Definitely not Reyna. I need at least six months before I can look at her without wanting to freeze her hair off."

"Noted."