Negotiation? Let them rest? You ask yourself. Ha! You have possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity to test your spells on a bunch of sexy bunny girls and you’re not going to waste it! Not to mention that their leader did attempt to murder you. Twice! And such action cannot be glossed over easily. So, of course, you’re completely justified in your actions!

However, experimenting on your grand prize right off the bat is too risky. She held her own against your sister after all! Such capable warriors might not be easy to come by—especially in combination with such a stunning young body—so you don’t want to end up killing her by accident or turn her into a vegetable. Who knows, she might treat you differently once she sees what you’re capable of doing to her underlings? Either way—at least for now—your sister needs not see just how far you might have to go with these bunnies.

“You go ahead and rest,” You tell your sister once you’ve but Epsilon behind bars, one of the few on this level that still had no signs of rust on it. “It’s been a long day, and it will probably be an even longer day tomorrow.”

“Ah, but what about you? I’ll prepare a room—”

“No need! I don’t want you to do any more work today. That’s an order!”

“I—If that’s an order. But may I ask, what will you do, My Lord?”

“I… Have some questions to our captives. We will have to deal with the rest of the bandits soon. I want to know what awaits us.”

“Of course! Then we will set out first thing in the morning! Or better yet, a night raid!” Ariadne lights up in excitement.

“Let’s… not be in a hurry. The interrogation might take a while. I don’t want any surprises. And I need to be sure who of these girls I can trust. I will be outside the gates when I’m ready. And I forbid you to return to the outpost alone!”

“Ah, I understand,” She says meekly. Is it just because you did not give her the proper opportunity to prove herself? “In that case, good night, My Lord… And good luck!” Ariadne bows her head and walks away through the same damp stone corridor you came from, disappearing in the dimly lit staircase, leading to the upper levels. You add a mental note to yourself that you need to liven up this place as soon as possible. It’s one thing to have a dreary prison cell or two, but, if this is supposed to be your home now, you can’t let the whole place look like it’s been designed by the torturers of the Inquisition.

Waiting for a couple of minutes to make sure Ariadne is far enough, you turn to your prisoner in the small cell that is barely wide enough in either direction to lie down. And nothing to lie down on. So, Epsilon just sits in the corner and stares at the walls with glossy eyes. You feel a tinge of guilt at her poor conditions, but you had to put the wounded Alpha, Beta and Chi in the better cells. And this was one of the last ones with a working lock.

“Epsilon!” You call for the bunny girl.

“Yes!” She answers and looks up at you when she hears your name.

“Who is your master?” You ask her.

“What a stupid question! It’s—” The bunny girl goes silent, with her mouth still open like she lost the ability to speak. Her eyes grow wide and her face turns pale as if she’d remembered something horrible. “I… I…”

So at this level, the spell is not perfect, You think to yourself. They were willing to obey me without a second thought before. Were the circumstances different? Did the effect of the spell wear off? The summoning spells have a time limit, who’s to say these don’t too? Does it also wary from person to person how long the submission lasts?

“What if I told you that your leader is in trouble and needs you right now?” You ask the bunny girl.

“What!?” She jumps to her feet. “Where is she!? Who dared raise their hand against Chi-sama!? Take me to her immediately!”

“Don’t you remember? You guided her to into a cell in this very dungeon!”

“I—”

There it is again, you think when you see Epsilon stare into nothingness with her mouth slightly open. Her true personality can’t come to terms with her own actions? Did she black out while under my control?

“Do a handstand!” you command Epsilon.

Without hesitation, Epsilon gets on her knees, places her hands on the cold floor at shoulder width and attempts to shift her body weight from her knees to her hands. She fails miserably and falls to the floor before even raising her knees above the level of her head. Come to think of it, performing a handstand successfully would be most impressive with such massive... assets.

“Ow!” Epsilon rubs the knee that took most of the damage.

At least she continues to follow my orders, you think. Still can’t be too careful, in case it’s a trap.

“Epsilon, scream as loud as you can for thirty seconds!” you command the bunny girl and run from the cell to the staircase.

Epsilon does just as you order and lets out a high-pitch, ear-tearing scream. When you reach the narrow staircase you cast [Summon Imps] spell. When three imps appear next to you out of a literal puff of smoke, you kneel next to them and whisper in their ear, one at a time.

With Epsilon’s screaming stopped, you walk back to the cell and open in, letting the loli imps inside. She’s still coughing from going all out as you told her. Perhaps you could’ve given her a glass of water if you had one. You give her a knife instead. Epsilon takes the knife and stares at it, then at you.

“Do you want to attack me?” you ask her.

“I—I can’t…” Epsilon can barely speak and whispers her words.

“You can’t or don’t want to?”

“I… don’t know…”

“What if I told you that your leader is my prisoner?”

“What… I… But…” Epsilon has tears in her eyes.

“Stab yourself into your left eye as hard as you can!” You command the bunny girl.

Panic flares her eyes as her face turns white. She clenches her teeth. Her hand with the knife trembles. She must have realized that following this order means her death and desperately tries to resist.

You extend your arm with the palm of your hand facing Epsilon, as if you planned to do a Ki-blast, look Epsilon directly into the eyes and cast [Submission].

[Congratulations! Spell [Submission] is now level 2!]

“You must obey my every command! Take the knife in your hand and jam it into your left eye socket as hard as you can!”

Epsilon breathes rapid, short breaths through her mouth and extends her arm for a wider arc. She looks at the tip of the knife’s edge, already turned toward her face and lunges it at herself. The knife never reaches her eye—two of the imps jump and grab her forearm to hold it back, the third imp jumps onto Epsilon from behind and places its own knife in front of it Epsilon’s eye, blade turned sideways, in case the other two failed.

“Good! Drop the knife and follow me!” You command Epsilon. She drops the knife, sweating and panting like she ran a marathon. You’re more than satisfied with the results. You had no intention to let the bunny kill herself in such a brutal manner, but you needed to be sure she wouldn’t try doing the same thing to you. Of course, if she did try to attack you, then her fate would have been sealed, but that can’t be helped since you obviously value your own life more.

You perform similar tests on Delta and Gamma with the same results. With submission reinforced on all three of them, the bunny girls obey you without objections. Though their mental state will probably deteriorate in time. At the very least if forced to do something they absolutely would not want to do otherwise.

Your imps disappear as their time runs out, but you feel no need to summon them again. At least for now. Though not through loyalty, the bunnies will do as you command, even if it means their death. All that’s left to decide is how to approach the tests with the yet unbroken Alpha and Beta. Your [Submission] spell might just be strong enough to work on them on its own and bring them both under your control without the need to degrade them further. Especially on Beta, who was in by far the worst shape of them all, when you brought her.