Chapter LI: An Oath Under the Od II

Shizukana Gake, Heian Kingdom

Month of the Tortoise 24, 172 ,328 DE

When I near the Silver Princess , Old Man Jones jumps down from the hatch. "Brat, the bitch princess is your problem, I'm going after the Almughayir. They run in packs. If there's one, there should be more. Those things are more dangerous than any crazy bitch, who has given herself to the Primal Powers."

"Can you find it, old man?"

Old Man Jones give me a grim smile. "I was an assassin long before I became and Artificer. I've been hunting and killing most everything that walks, crawls, swims, or flies since before the best part of you ran down your mother's leg when your father was done fucking her. What do you think?"

"You're an asshole."

"Shitty brat, your a bigger asshole than me. You can take that as a compliment."

"I learned from the best."

Old Man Jones gives me a wry smile. "Don't die, brat."

"You either, old man."

"I keyed the Watchtowers to respond to you and raised your access in the Mind Net to Supervisor. It's the highest access I can grant you. Use them if you think you need them."

As Old Man Jones turns and head to the east, he seems to merge with the darkness. Even with my senses, I lose track of him before he crosses fifty meters. He gives the impression of a man making preparations because he will not be coming back anytime soon. I doubt the Almughayir is the only prey he plans to hunt.

One the Silver Princess, silence fills the bridge. With a sour expression, Brigitte stares at the deck beneath her feet. Looking at Brigitte from the corner of his eye, Vorn has a blank expression, but an odor of amusement fills his scent.

"Are we leaving?"

"Time to hunt down your insane aunt."

Vorn frowns. "Could you stop pointing out her relationship to me? It's embarrassing."

I let a grin show on my face. "Your the one that told me she was your aunt."

Vorn's frown does not change. "I didn't know how far she had fallen. Once word reaches my father, he'll cast out of Clan Bjornsonner. She's nothing but a traitor to her Blood."

I chuckle, but the sound contains no humor. "Don't worry. When we find your aunt, I'll kill her. She won't be around to embarrass your clan anymore."

I look at the Brigitte. "Hey, first mate. We'll drop you in Shizukna Gake. You can make your own way form there. But if you hook up with old comrades and get in my way, I'll kill you."

Anger and fear mid in Brigitte's eyes and scent. "I want to stay with you. On the Silver Princess . Grandmaster Jones said most of his inventions that I respect are really your work. He told me to follow you. You could teach me as much as he would."

I do not bother keeping my irritation from showing on my face. "What makes you think I would want you around. You're just an enemy that turned into one of the shitty old man's discarded fucks."

Brigitte glares at me. "Bastard! We weren't enemies until you attacked me! I never knew what a twisted bitch Princess Deadre was."

As uncertainty and fear mix in her scent, Brigitte looks back at the deck. "Did you really build the Jones slug thrower, and the auto loading ten centimeter cannon, and that twelve centimeter cannon in the turret?"

Being unable to hold back my frown, I shrug. "That shitty old man really hated it when I named it the Jones slug thrower. But he still sold it under that name."

The Jones slug thrower is a six-barrel, fire-powder gun is fed by linked cartridges. You turn a crank to rotate and fire the gun. When Old Man Jones saw it, he frowned and asked me where I came up with the idea for a Gatling gun. As with all of his weird language, he never explained what a Gatling gun was. He just pointed at my gun and said I could always call it a Raymon gun. I told him to fuck off and named it the Jones slug thrower. Once I got Mika-chan on board with the name, the shitty old man gave up and the name stuck.

I have never understood why Old Man Jones treats Mika-chan differently. But she keeps the compound residence clean and makes sure I get fed so I have no complaints about her. By human standards, she easily qualifies as a beauty, but so do all his bitches. He rotates between five to seven bitches at a time, but Mika-chan has always been one of them since he met her. The rest are lucky to last for three months before being dumped. He mostly ignores Mika-chan's kids, but he gave her a job and bought a place only a block away from our compound for her to live in with her kids.

"Grandmaster Jones' weapons have revolutionized the way weak Cultivators and normal human fight Ferocious Beasts in only a few years. With stronger Cultivator being freed from the duty of defending certain towns, the Dunkle Sonne Empire and several kingdoms have opened up new settlements in territory overrun by Ferocious Beasts.

"I never imagined that a school child, even if you don't like one, was responsible for some of his designs." As she finishes speaking, Brigette frowns at me. Her scent carries a mix of aggression and confusion.

Off to the side, Vorn chuckles. "You call me a middle-aged man, but you don't look much younger."

Brigitte shifts her glare to Vorn. "You do look like a middle-aged man. Being a prince doesn't change that. Prince Temujin and Prince Jaanfaag are older than both of you and look younger. They're princes from the Jewel Kingdoms too, aren't they?"

"Don't lump me in with the smug cat, I'm not a prince from the Jewel Kingdoms."

"Temujin and Jaanfaag? Where did you see them? Were they with my crazy, bitch aunt?" Even though Vorn's voice remains calm and quiet, his face turns purple, and hostility and rage fill his scent.

Not missing the change in Vorn, Brigitte quails and responds in a small voice. "They were both with Princess Deadre. Prince Jaanfaag has his own airship. He spends most of his time in the Demonic Wildlands. I don't know what he does there. Prince Temujin was on the War Knife with Princess Deadre when you kidnapped me."

"Who are they?"

Vorn shifts his glare to me. "Jaanfaag is from the Kingdom of Opal. He's a potential heir to the throne. You people around would call him an Okama. He's one of the sickest bastards I know. Little boys are his favorite playthings."

"Hey, smug cat. Don't lump me in with the idiots around here. I'm a gaijin just like you. Though some of the assholes around here call me Ningen Janai, the same anyone else with skin naturally darker than theirs. Not that being called human makes me happy in the first place."

The purple tinge in Vorn's face fades a bit. "Ningen Janai. It suits you."

Ningen Janai means Not Human. I do not dislike the term. I just hurt people because they think they are insulting me with the appellation.

"It's better than being called human. What about the other one, Temujin?"

"Temujin is the heir to the Kingdom of Diamond. He thinks he is a great warrior. He wants to be a great conqueror, but his father only fights the wars that Great Tang lets him fight.

"The Kingdom of Diamond is the biggest of the Jewel Kingdoms and they let more Ferocious Beast get past their borders than any other kingdom. Once the Beasts are inside, they drive them south, sending them into Dunkle Sonne of the Norther Kingdoms."

When the Dragon Gods sealed the Realm, the Great Snake and the Great Alligator turned traitor and joined the Dragon Gods. The Great Puma refused to fight. At least, that is how things went according Old Man Jones. I do not know where he got his information, but he claimed it was accurate.

The Dragons and Dragon Gods have been corrupted by the Primal Powers. Old Man Jones says the only way a Dragon could get past the Watchtowers would be to destroy them, and there are no actual Dragons on the Great Plateau. The Kingdom of Diamond has fallen under the sway of Great Tang, the strongest of the four Middle Empires. Could this mean that the Dragons or the Dragon Gods have a hand in this?

The greatest of the Supreme Daos is the Dao of Chaos. According the teachings of the Temple of the Dragon Gods, Chaos is the origin of everything. From Chaos came Order, and under the Dao of Order stand the Dao of Light and the Dao of Dark. All of the other Daos are grouped into Greater and Lesser Daos. Only the four Daos named after the Primal Powers are called Supreme Daos.

I give Brigitte an icy stare. "Do you want to follow me?"

Brigitte frowns, but she manages to hold my stare. "Not really. But I will."

"Are you just waiting for a chance to betray me to your comrades?"

Brigitte's eyes open wide in apparent shock. "No!"

"Will you serve me loyally?"

Brigitte does not immediately reply, but after a few moments, she nods. "I will serve you loyally."

Her scent betrays not sign of lies, but taking her at just her word would be the act of a fool. The air around my hands shimmers and the Dragon Slaying Swords appear in my grasp.

Both Vorn and Brigitte gape at the swords, but they have different reasons for it.

"You have a spatial ring! No, you don't wear rings. Is it your belt." Brigitte's questions come out in a higher than normal pitched voice.

"Those are the swords from the temple. How did you pull them out of that block?"

I shrug and answer neither of the two.

"Brigitte, put one hand on the blade of each sword."

Brigitte starts. "This is the first time you've addressed me by name."

"Put your hands on the swords. You're going to swear an oath."

Do you expect us to witness the oath? Tama's thoughts settle into my Mind as though they are my own.

Of course. You embody the Od.

Very well.

Brigitte gingerly places her hands on the blades, palm down.

"If you wish to serve me. Swear to do so without betraying me. Ever. I will train you as an engineer. My swords will witness your Oath."

As I utter the name 'Oath' to the best of my ability, Brigitte shivers. While taking a deep breath, she stares at my swords, then raises her head. "I Brigitte Shaefer swear to follow …"

As Brigitte's words trail off, Vorn snickers. "His name is Raymon. Raymon the Beast. Just don't call him Beast-kun. He gets pissy."

"Fuck off, smug cat."

"I, Brigitte Shaefer, swear to follow Raymon the Beast. I take him as my Master. I give my loyalty until the day of my death." As Brigitte finishes speaking, threads of silver-shot blackness and black-shot silver rise from the two swords. The threads wrap around her and sink into her body.

"Aaarrrrr!" With a shriek, Brigitte pulls her hand off the swords and turns them over to look at her palms. Her eyes open wide, and after a few moments, she turns them around showing me her palms.

She has a mark on each palm. Perhaps two centimeters in diameter a double teardrop marks each palms. Fitting one into the other, one teardrop is black and the other silver. Cultivators call the symbol a Taiji. The Dragon Gods and the Daos have tried to subvert it and make it their own, but the true meaning of the symbol is the Cycle of Life and Death. In this case, it should represent the Od.

I nod half-unconsciously. "The Od has accepted your Oath. You are mine until death. I will teach you as your Master. But I will also put you to work. For now, you will serve are the pilot of this airship. Take us up. See if you can raise the anchors without my help. The pattern within them should respond to Yuan Qi."

Brigitte bows in the fashion of the Dunkle Sonne Empire. "As you command, my Master."

While Brigitte fiddle with anchor controls, Vorn grins at me. "Women keep giving themselves to you. You're more of an alpha Beast that I gave your credit for."

"Shut up, you smug pussy."

"Now that's just being an asshole."

"I learned form the best. The finest human I've ever met."

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