1062 Bait
Date- 4 April 2321
Time- 05:48
Location- Southern Region, Blossom District, Unknown Location
“Ok, but you will have to take an oath that you will never reveal or practice what you learn down here to another soul without my permission and call of your men from contacting the southern emperor,” Jill seemed to like my idea better than taking hold of my soul.
“Yes, but you too will have to take an oath stating that you will not kill me or do anything to harm my life or limit my freedom after I call off my men from contacting the southern emperor for my rescue and that you will reveal everything you are doing down here without any deception or withholding any information,” I was happy seeing that we were getting somewhere.
“I don’t do Oath,” Jill said grimly.
“You will have to take one if you don’t want to kill an innocent soul,” I said betting that Jill was more of a virtuous scholar who would not let her curiosity get the best of her than a mad scientist who would not stop at anything to quench his curiosity.
“Fine,” Jill agreed because she could try to take hold of the boy’s soul but it would take a while and she could not guarantee that by then the boy’s men had approached the Southern emperor to rescue him. She felt that a lot of time had already been wasted while they reached an agreement so she wanted to hurry and get this over with. Not to mention time has proven that an S-rank dungeon was no place for a card soldier to be.
Soon Jill took an oath promising not to kill the boy, harm his life, limit his freedom, and reveal her work down here to the boy, along with a list of terms and conditions applied. Which basically meant that she could kill the boy if he was asking for it.
Learning from Jill’s list of terms and conditions I took my oath stating that I would call off my men from approaching the southern would not reveal or practice what I would learn down here without Jill’s permission adding my own set of terms and conditions which nullified Jill’s definition of ‘asking for it.’
“Really?” Jill asked hearing my oath which had terms and conditions that limited Jill’s definition of ‘asking for it.’
“What? You started it with your terms and condition, instead using settling with mutual understanding and commonsense,” I defend myself by arguing that Jill was asking for it.
“We are not done here, for now, let’s call off your men before all this becomes pointless,” Jill urged and having rushed use outside of the dungeon.
“You have a point there,” saying that I text all my calamity daughter gems to call off the emergency protocol. Then I sent another text asking them to initiate the emergency protocol if I don’t check in with them every 24 hours time period.
“What the fuck?” Jill cussed for the first time since our conversation. It seems she could not resist taking a peek at the message I sent to my subordinates.
“Jill, language,” I in response to Jill’s face which conveyed a sense of being betrayed.
“Shut the fuck up, I will kill you right now if you don’t explain,” Jill screamed furiously. I had a feeling that the reason behind Jill’s reaction was not I was being unreasonable but that I beat her at her own game.
“Again, you started it with your list of terms and conditions, and watch your words if you don’t want the world’s will to get the wrong impression,” I repeated myself and asked Jill to be careful with her words and avoid using words that would provoke the wrath of the world’s will.
“This is not what you promised,” Jill’s said suppressing the rage she was feeling.
“If what I did right now was against the oath I took don’t you think the world’s will would have taken action by now,” I spoke in my defense.
According to my oath, I had to call off my men from approaching Anna and I could not reveal what I learned down here to another soul but all this did not matter if I was dead. With the 24hrs check-ins, I turned my death into my leverage making sure that Jill not only give up any lingering thoughts of killing me but will also have to protect me.
I haven’t forgotten the fact that the dungeon underneath the E-rank field dungeon was an S-rank dungeon. Down there Jill did not have to act or conspire to kill me, the dungeon would do that for her. I could have added the condition of Jill being responsible for my protection to her oath but I decided to let this be the bait for Jill to agree to take the oath without much resistance. And it worked charmingly except for the list of terms and condition part.
“You cheat, this is not what we agreed on,” Jill brought up the verbal agreement between the two of us where we agreed to take the oath.
“Neither was your list of terms and conditions,” I retorted
“I don’t know how oaths are taken from where you come from but from where I come from the list of terms and condition is mandatory procedure in any deal,” Jill argued
“Terms and conditions in an oath are a thing where I come from too but I am betting my life here, I thought we had a mutual understanding between us,” The only reason I was making the list of terms and conditions a big deal was so that Jill just goes along with my 24hrs check-in arrangement with making it difficult.
“What the fuck does mutual understanding have to do with this? You do know that Oath taken in presence of the World’s will are very serious, right?” Jill looked at me like looking at an idiot.
“Fine, if you want me to put an end to the 24hrs check-in arrangement with my subordinates, then add that you will be responsible for my protection to your oath.”