"Yes! I win!"
Goddess Zeta celebrated as soon as the 11,000th ring was completed, marking the end of the contest.
It only ended because the crystal that Ember was given got used up completely. If we got some more of it, then the fight may have continued even after we had already passed the required amount.
Everyone around us clapped heartily, celebrating her victory. Even I participated and clapped my hands for her. She then smiled smugly, as if saying, "See? I am the best!"
However, a few seconds later, her face became calmer and then turned solemn. Lastly, she turned bright red from the neck up as she hid her face behind her arms. Without saying anything else, she entered a crack in space and vanished from the room.
She must've realized how embarrassing it was to pick a fight with someone who's not even an artificer and act smugly after winning with an overkill final ratio of two-to-one.
"..."
Silence ensued for a moment before God Zeshion pretended to cough, letting the earlier scene pass.
"Congrats, Will! With all these rings completed, this building has officially lost its purpose."
Hearing this, Guren clicked his tongue slightly in irritation. Well, he did name the building "Debauchery Hall" to spite me after all. I, too, felt relieved that I wouldn't need to stay here for a long period of time.
However, Guren turned to me, his frown slowly transforming into a cocky grin.
"Too naive, Will! You thought I hadn't taken that possibility into consideration?"
He then walked to a nearby wall and knocked on it three times. As he did, the wall opened up, sliding to either side and into the wall, and revealed a similar office setting to the previous Seimei clan head office. No, it wasn't similar, but rather the exact same!
I turned to Guren, realizing what he had done.
"You moved the entire office to this building?!"
I knew that Guren was a man of action, as could be seen in how he resolutely passed the clan head position to me after learning about my bloodline. But I didn't think he'd go this far just to pull a fast one against me.
The entire building would probably end up deserted most of the time, so it's not necessarily a bother. Rather, isn't this like having an entire building to myself? Slowly, my negative thoughts turned to positive ones, making the situation not as bad as it seemed at first.
With how private the building would end up, I could probably flirt with Ember and the others without bothering about the surrounding eyes. I mean, I was basically left alone for more than a month, other than the last day just before the coronation. To be exact, I haven't done "it" for a long time!
Well, I technically did it with Ying Yue and the Wan sisters about a week ago, but that's beside the point.
"Aherm... Master, please mind those connected to you through the link."
Ember suddenly whispered from behind me. When I turned around, not only Ember, Fang, Igni, and Fina, but even Ying Yue, Julia, Wan Li, and Wan Er were blushing madly as they glanced at me.
Not to mention them, there were literally thousands more that were connected to me and able to pick up on my feelings and thoughts. I panicked slightly as I tried to calm my emotions, removing the pink thoughts that I was having earlier.
"Ah, ehem... By the way, God Zeshion, can I ask something?"
Finding the situation a bit awkward, I quickly tried to act like nothing happened and steered the conversation once more.
"When those three got into a Servant Contract, why didn't you offer us to use this ring? Wouldn't everything be solved by it back then?"
"Oh, that?"
God Zeshion raised his brows as he sighed.
"Well, Alpha told me not to. She said that doing so would cause irreparable damage to future events, which she didn't explain, so I didn't."
"Alpha?"
Other than the knowledge that she was his first tamed monster, I recalled her name from a previous conversation with God Zeshion a short while ago. If I recall correctly, he said something about Alpha predicting a battle centered around me. That did happen, though a bit too early after her grand warning; the Demon Tamers did kidnap me, which ended up bringing all the god tamers into the equation.
Given how accurately she predicted such an event, I guess I could place a little bit of trust in her prophecies. So if she said that doing it before would lead to irreparable damage, then it probably would.
However, then was then, and now is now. I turned to Wan Er, Wan Li, and Ying Yue, walking toward them with three of the client rings in my hand. I reached out, holding the rings on top of my palm, and offered them.
"With this ring, it would mean that there's no need for you to stay close to me anymore. What'll you do? Would you stay? Or return to the Luo?"
I asked with the calmest tone I could muster. The three of them grabbed a ring each and didn't even wait for a second to pass before giving a resolute answer.
"""We will stay!"""
I was genuinely surprised by their synchronized answer. Honestly, I somewhat guessed that the Wan Sisters would stay, given that they're pretty strict regarding commands and such. However, Ying Yue's decision to stay was something I didn't expect.
I stared at them, scrutinizing their expressions, before asking for confirmation, "Are you sure?"
Instead of answering, Ying Yue came forward and pulled my scruff, bringing my face to the same level as hers. Her eyes wavered nervously as she frowned deeply.
"Doubt my decision again, and I'll get angry."
She then planted a soft kiss on my cheeks before running out of the room. I just stared at her fading figure as I wondered just how she had changed so much in such a short time.
When she left, I shook my head and decided to move on to the main event.
"So, girls, take a thousand rings from that pile and distribute them to everyone on each floor."
With this ring in place, I wouldn't need to worry much about those under a servant contract with me. With hundreds of rings left over after distribution, I'll have a backup in case I need to contract another tamer through force of events.
Well, I do hope that such a situation wouldn't happen. But who knows?
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