Ayaka went quiet after the question; she knew she had to stall the growth of the Oni so she was looking for a weakness in the contract. Although Conqueror’s Word used intentions to make terms it could do nothing about situations the contract didn’t make provisions for that the both parties also didn’t think about.

Sadly the Oni had thought about her trying to stall so a countdown suddenly started counting at the back of Ayaka’s mind. She instantly knew that if she didn’t answer before the counter ended it would be considered as her refusing to answer.

She sighed and said “Individuality is a quality or behavior that you have that makes you different from others”. The Oni closed his eyes, he was deep in thought, it said “Answer the second question”.

But Ayaka shook her head refusing to answer; her plan now was to stall by only answering one question per day. She would always have one day without harm. After refusing to answer she suddenly felt a sense of loss that indicated to her that she had lost one day.

The Oni looked confused after sensing her rejection, it wanted to ask why she refused to answer him that particular question but it knew that would just increase the amount of harmless days she had. The Oni frowned and said “Why should I pay when I’m stronger than my spawns? Answer me!”.

Ayaka shook her head again but she suddenly felt a sense of loss. The contract and the parties didn’t specify terms about repeated questions and the uniqueness of each question. The Oni smiled when he sensed what happened and Ayaka felt despair.

The Oni asked again “Why should I pay when I’m stronger than my spawns?” it was a question but Ayaka knew that it was a threat; if she didn’t answer it would rape her.

She said “Because there are things that can be considered more important than life, freedom is one of those things. The spawns had individualities even before the event and many of their behaviors and preferences are similar to the person that made them. So every spawn is a creature that has experienced bondage for about a year. If the person who made the spawns values freedom above his life many spawns will be of the same opinion so they will break free. The only way to keep them is to give them rights, that includes payment for their services, or else they will die trying to escape control”

The Oni had a look of realization when it heard Ayaka’s answer. It was a creature that valued its own freedom it wouldn’t ever want to be a slave without benefits. And now that it could create children the spawns would get useless after a point so they would obviously rather die now than to give it benefits to someone that would throw them away.

The Oni focused back on Ayaka and asked “What… behavior would you say makes me different from others?” The Oni was hearing of some of these concepts for the very first time but they were communicating with psychic energy they were sending raw thoughts. Only very advanced concepts would be hard to understand if the creature that was been spoken to had no idea about the concept.

Ayaka said “Curiosity”. The Oni went into deep thought as he pondered over the new concept. It then said “Yes, I’m curious”. The Oni then continued to ask Ayaka various questions about humanity, from history to society to morals to Ayaka’s personal life, the Oni let its curiosity take control now that it had the upper hand.

A day of constant questions and answers passed and Ayaka kept accumulating pointless days without harm and the Oni kept getting wiser. After the day passed the Oni left to make changes to its horde now that it knew more.

…

On the 3rd day of Ayaka’s captivity, the day when Jade was coming to save her, the Oni entered the room she was in. It had enacted many changes; there were now guards that protected the edges of its territory all day and those that protected various important places like the room Ayaka was staying at.

The rebellious spawns it had captured were now working for it now that it decided to pay them en-code. Although it had killed the higher ranked spawns from Rank 22 to Rank 14 when they rebelled, it still had use for the other spawns and now that they could grow, it could turn them into assets so it had captured them. It also started paying all the monsters in its territory and assigning them roles that mostly involved getting en-code and meat to be stored up.

The Oni was very satisfied with the changes, even though they reduced the amount of en-code it had, they gave it a bright future. The Oni was very happy as it revisited the source of infinite wisdom again. I now knew that the humans would still try to save her. The humans had tried to save her on the 2nd day of her capture but it repelled them once its IP told it about the intruders in its territory.

It successfully sent the humans away but it now knew that everyone of them was a source of infinite wisdom so it expected that they would try a better approach but it didn’t know what to do. Before it would never think that something of a lesser Rank could kill a higher Rank but now it knew that humans always did that to increase their Rank unlike monsters that had automatic Rank increases once their stats met the requirements, it knew they would find a way.

The first questions it asked when it entered the room was “Your people are trying to save you, what are the right questions I should ask to be able to stop them? What questions should I ask to get information that can make my horde have better or comparable military power with humans?”

Ayaka laughed when she heard the Oni’s question and thought ‘It has grown up so quickly’. When Ayaka heard that question she made up her mind ‘I would rather be raped than let this monster grow into something unstoppable’. During the second day she had time to get her head right and she realized that she wanted more than to just be alive.

Ayaka kept quiet and she felt the counter again but she wasn’t tense anymore, she would do her best not to be a hindrance the others, she was tired of being afraid.

The counter finished counting and she felt a sense of loss but she smiled as the Oni’s face twisted into a frown as it repeated the questions. The Oni repeated the questions many times only to be met with silence as the number of Ayaka’s safe days reduced.

After a while it screamed and went out of the room, punching and lashing out on any object it saw. After a few hours of venting it came back with a calm face and said “I’ll pay you en-code if you answer the question. I’ll use Conqueror’s Word again, you can work for me like the other monsters, I don’t discriminate, you’ll be my consultant”.

Ayaka laughed when she heard the Oni’s compromise, it didn’t want to lose her now that it knew her worth. The Oni frowned again at Ayaka’s reaction and said “You are just one human, I’ll capture another one and replace you. Take this deal while I still have the patience!”

Ayaka laughed louder when she heard that and said “Even after so many questions you still don’t understand me, you don’t understand what a human is. I have dreams you idiot, I don’t want to be your consultant and I hate you. I would rather be your play toy than be someone that helps you improve. Go, go and try to catch another person, I’m sure you’ll get more experience doing that than wasting your time with me. You like learning? You’ll learn how hard it is to steal from people who survived this god damned apocalypse”.

The Oni gritted its teeth as it listened to Ayaka, if it could kill her it would have already done it but it still had many days to get through and many questions it had to ask before it could get a chance. The Oni clenched its fist and blood dripped from its palms as its claws pierced them under the pressure applied.

But all of a sudden something it didn’t understand happened. Its IP showed it a map of its territory and a dot indicating an intruder [Intruder at … location] [Rank 11 (Superior) Primordial Human] [Rank 27 Soul Parasite].

The Oni was frozen in shock as it read the illusionary screed before it. It completely forgot the Primordial Human and focused on the Rank 27 being that had intruded. It thought ‘Why is everything going wrong for me today?’