(I posted the wrong fucking chapter kill me)
"Ms. Momo! I've completed my 100 push ups, sit ups and squats! We're going to head out on our 100km jog now!"
"Okay!" Momo called back, "Good work today! You two, keep your sword arms steady! If the edge alignment strays even slightly, your cut will look much different than what you want it to be."
"Training hard today as well huh?" Roko said as he approached her from behind.
"Hey Roko!" Momo turned around to greet him, "Just some simple exercises and drills right now. The soldiers are absorbing everything really well!"
"That's good to hear." Roko nodded, "What about Malus though? Any progress with him?"
"Nope." Momo sighed, "He's not listening to anything I say."
"Hmmm..." Roko mused, "Muscle training will take a while. Maybe I'll have to intervene?"
"If you can get him to come out here, I'll do what I can to convince him. Not that I think he'll listen."
"Maybe some more drastic measures have to be taken." Roko mused.
"Ooo, I can't wait to see what that looks like." Momo grinned, "Are you excited, Aranea?"
Aranea jolted a little, clutching her coloring book to her chest but nodded, still a bit unsure.
"You still don't have anything better to give her than a coloring book?" Momo sighed at Roko.
"Look, Medeia and Pluteum were busy today." Roko scowled, "They had school."
"Oh, well why don't you enroll Aranea in the school?"
"You hear that, Aranea? You want to go to school?" Roko asked the question that he already knew the answer to.
Aranea shook her head in a panic.
"There you go."
"Aw, school is a great opportunity." Momo said, "You've already got friends. Don't you want to make more?"
Aranea shook her head even harder.
"Man, she really is your child."
"If I wasn't sick of the jokes before..." Roko muttered.
Roko sat down to the side of the training soldiers as Aranea laid on the floor innocently coloring her book. This time there were no documents to read since Roko was now planning their next operation. There were a few interesting attacks he could make on Muldingirmus but how effective it would be on Sirius himself was questionable. The revolution has never actually gotten anywhere close to Min al Az'al, Sirius' base. The innermost of Muldingirmus was completely unknown to the Earthbounds so it would be difficult to launch a direct attack on them even if they could get that far. He had intended to do a bit more damage to Sirius with this next attack but breaching Muldingirmus was already difficult enough. The only effective attacks they can make from outside of Muldingirmus had already been done by Zenith before and were not received well by a large majority of people no matter how effective they were. While Roko was not above a bit of banditry, it was already stigmatized by the people of Mulapin and Sirius must already have come up with some sort of countermeasure against it after dealing with Zenith. Besides that, even if Roko could consider banditry as an option, it still didn't sit quite right with him.
"So instead of attacking them for now...we'll have to establish some sort of foothold in Muldingirmus first..."
"Trying to cozy up to the rich bastards behind the wall?"
"I'm surprised you can twist my words to such a degree." Roko replied as he looked up, "Where have you been, Malus?"
"Been sorting out a killer headache." Malus sneered, though much of his confidence seemed to be missing. Something even his groupies have noticed, looking unsure and uncomfortable about just standing behind their boss.
"And what are you doing here?" Roko replied, looking back down at his plans, ignoring the big rebel in front of him.
"I heard you were finally coming up with the Earthbound's next mission. I came to see what you've come up with."
"What if I told you we don't need you?"
"Is that supposed to make me mad? I didn't come here to join you."
"Yeah, you're too weak anyway."
"Okay bucko..." Malus scowled, clearly fully anticipating this statement to appear in this conversation though he clearly wasn't prepared enough to not be shook by it, "How about you say that again once I beat you into the ground for real this time?"
"Oh no..." Roko said, mono-tone, "Whatever will I do?"
"I'm ready and raring this time." Malus said, pulling up more bravado from god knows where, "No headache to stop me this time."
"Mmm...no."
"No?"
"Not worth my time."
"Not worth your time?" Malus repeated, his anger slowly overcoming his fear, "You dare say that to me? I'm someone who can fight on the same level as Kajou herself!"
"You clearly cannot." Roko replied, "I'm not even blustering here, everyone in this room knows that no one in this rebellion is a match for Kajou. Except probably Momo."
"You think you can beat Kajou without me?"
"I don't have to think. Momo WILL beat her in a fair duel. That's out of anyone's hands especially ours."
"There's still four more! You don't know anything about them!"
"I'm working on that. Though why are you so concerned? You don't want to fight. You barely want to be in this rebellion. And you DEFINITELY don't want to listen to me. So what are you doing here? Truly ask yourself that."
Malus took a long, deep breath, the thoughts battling in his head clearly battling out in the short instant until he exhaled, answer showing clearly on his face, "That's right..."
Malus' hand shot up and flipped Roko's plans out of his hands and off his lap, scattering them on the ground as the room quickly fell silent in surprise.
"I don't care about anything." Malus said as he knelt down and drew his fist close to Roko's face, "All I want to do...is punch you in the face."
Roko didn't look up from where his notes used to be, not quite expecting Malus to pull such a petty, bully-like action and actually a little miffed about the pen mark that was now left on his plans after it was knocked out of his hands along with his plans. Roko took a deep breath, not quite as long as Malus, as he picked the glasses from off his head and wiped the lenses with a bit of his shirt.
"I'm not fighting you."
"Oh, what, scared now? Are you going to pretend to be the bigger man and run away from this?"
"I'm not you, someone who makes excuses and runs away from conflict."
"Then what, are you going to pick someone else to beat me?" Malus frowned, "Are you going to make that Momo chick fight me?"
"No." Roko said, killing much of Momo's excitement, though she remained interested to see what Roko had in store.
"Then who is it?" Malus scowled.
"First the ground rules." Roko said, "If I win, you will report to training here with Momo. Until she is satisfied with your progress. You don't have to return to active duty. You don't have to join any of my operations. You need only train until Momo is satisfied."
"Pretty light of a condition." Malus crossed his arms, "I was sure that you were going to make me join your next operation or swear my eternal loyalty to you or something."
"I have no need for a soldier that doesn't want to be in my army." Roko replied, "And I assume you still want leadership of the Earthbounds?"
"I can't say I truly want that but it would make for a nice enough prize for me when I eventually win." Malus sneered.
"Then we have a deal."
"Now who is your champion then?"
Roko took a deep sigh before answering, "If I want to make you fully understand your own shortcomings then I'll have to make it clear and drastic."
"Yeah yeah, you can stop with all the dramatics. Just tell me who I have to crush."
"...Alright." Roko sighed, "You're up then, Aranea."
Roko looked down at the child who dropped her coloring book in shock and began waving her arms in front of her and rapidly shaking her head.
"HUH?!" The entire room erupted into shock and murmurs.
"The child?!"
"Against Malus of all people?!"
"What is he thinking?!"
Even Momo was shocked but elected not to say anything. Unlike Helena who was standing right outside the door to the training grounds.
"Roko?!" She shouted as she poked her head in, "I'm gonna let you cook but are you SURE about all this?!"
"Helena, since when were you here?" Roko frowned.
"Who do you think started the rumor to get Malus to come here?" Helena grinned, "Also Melia is here too."
"You're going to make a child fight?" Melia said as she poked her head around Helena.
"Of course, if she doesn't want to, I won't stop her." Roko turned to the scared child besides him, "But if you trust me, I promise you that you will not lose, might not even get hurt and you won't have to explain anything. I know it's a bit of an unreasonable task but if you trust me to any extent, then I ask you to give me a little bit more of that trust. If you want."
Roko reached out his hand to Aranea. Aranea looked at the hand. Every bit of her wanted to refuse. But if he really wanted her to do something for him then he had a way to impose it. Right under the hand he was offering her was the Master's Seal. All he needed was to threaten her with the spell's punishment function and she would have no choice but to comply. But he wasn't threatening her. He was asking her. Genuinely asking for her trust. She could refuse. But...the gentle and simple way he asked her, as if genuinely for a considerable favor to her...a small part of her wanted to trust him. She reached out, not quite able to take his hand just yet but wanting to trust.
"What? You're asking me to beat up your slave daughter?" Malus scoffed, "You're one messed up fellow you know. Did you buy her just to use her like this? Whatever. I'm not usually one for attacking kids but at this point, I don't care. Hey kid, just know; this is your dad's fault."
Aranea jolted as Malus raised his fist, genuinely about to punch her.
"Catch it." Roko said.
Aranea glanced back at Roko, still unsure of what to do and whether to trust him but she quickly decided that no matter how she felt about it, she could follow his order for now. So when Malus finally threw his punch, Aranea turned and brought her tiny arms up against Malus's large fist. She met the attack that practically dwarfed her and a heart stopping bang later, she was hidden by the dust kicked up from Malus' attack. And for a moment, Malus thought he had won. Whatever Roko did before didn't seem to be happening. But it wasn't long before the dust settled and the crowd was left agape as a small child was holding back Malus' muscular arm with her tiny ones. She hadn't even given up any ground and when she looked up, Aranea seemed to be surprised that she wasn't even putting in much effort to hold him back.
"Throw him off."
With a gentle shove, Aranea threw the grown man's attack backwards, Malus stumbling back in pure, mind numbing shock.
"Try punching him."
Malus snapped out of his shock enough to register the coming attack but wasn't able to defend in time as Aranea jumped up at him with her tiny fist. Surely...he didn't need to defend against something like this?
But when her fist contacted him, he felt what was like a piercing needle that sunk deep into his gut and a rippling force that disturbed his body around the punch. Before he knew it, he had crumpled over, clutching his stomach in pain as Aranea stood in front of him, just as confused as he was.
"You...playing tricks again?!"
Aranea yelped as Malus swung his arms at her, pulling himself up as he tried to catch or smash her. Aranea ducked his first swing and tried to dodge his follow up attack with a jump. But to her surprise, her body moved as light as a feather, easily weaving away from Malus, escaping his grasp with ease that she would have never expected out of herself.
"Jump up and punch him."
Roko's next order came and Aranea followed with a trust that still felt unreal. She jumped up, soaring over Malus' arms until she was right above Malus' head and punched down, smashing his head into the ground with unnatural force. The crowd was still stunned, unable to process what was going on. The only ones with any genuine emotion was Momo and Helena who were watching with glee.
"What...what is going on?" Malus shook his head as he pushed himself up.
"Uppercut him."
Malus looked up as Roko's next order came in and Aranea was already in front of him, her tiny fist swinging up before it smashed against his chin and sent his body flying up, practically flipping him over with how strong this attack was. His head was stunned but it paled in comparison to his confusion and as he collapsed on the floor, consciousness slipping out of his grasp, all Malus could think of was "What the hell happened?"
Aranea stood victorious over Malus' unconscious body. It didn't feel like a real win. Malus could have continued fighting. One uppercut, no matter how powerful it was for her size, was not enough to knock a brawler like Malus out so easily. Malus himself didn't even look unconscious, his eyes were open. They were unfocused and he was clearly knocked out but it was like he chose to figure out what was going on in his head first before continuing fighting. Regardless the result was obvious and the crowd...wasn't sure if they should even cheer. Except for-
"YOU DID IT ROKO!" Helena cried, running into the room up to him, "Oh, also you too Aranea! Nice work out there!"
"No way, I like believed you but I didn't believe you could actually do it, you know..." Momo said, walking up to them as well.
"Okay, Momo be so for real right now. Did you help?"
"With reinforcement magic?" Momo grinned, "Not at all! That was all the two of them! I'm blindsided! I didn't know what's going on! I still don't! That's why, Roko-"
"Yeah yeah." Roko sighed, "An explanation."
"You need us to clear the room first?" Helena asked.
"No, it's fine." Roko said, "There's no point in hiding it and it would only make people frustrated and start rumors."
"So...what happened then?" Melia asked, joining them with a dulled shock that was starting to get used to Roko's antics.
"So..." Roko sighed, "I got this seal."
"The Master's Seal?" Momo nodded, "Yeah, that came with buying a slave so you could control them. What's up with it?"
"Well it has certain functions around it such as calling Aranea, summoning Aranea and relevant to this situation right now, monitoring Aranea."
"Like keeping an eye on her?"
"No, more like monitoring her health. When I first tried it out, I was surprised to see the stats that my spells used being shown back to me. Edea said it's just the information organizing itself to make itself easier to understand for me."
"I didn't think Edea would be knowledgeable on this." Helena nodded.
"She knows more than she lets on I find." Roko replied.
"Go on." Melia said as she jabbed Helen in the side for her interruption.
"So, I thought I'd experiment with it a little." Roko continued, "And use a little spell hacking to try and get into its inner workings. It took a long time to recreate the seal but I did manage to do it though all I could really do was change the numbers on the screen. I thought it was just a cosmetic change at first but it turns out, they reflect onto the person the seal is attached to."
"So...what does that mean?" Momo asked.
"With a Master's Seal and a Slave's Seal, I can redistribute your stats." Roko sighed, "I assume it's because the Slave's Seal monitors and even controls your health to some extent and what I'm doing probably isn't legal or intended but yeah. I can take points in your intelligence or charisma and redistribute it to your strength or constitution stat."
"So..." Helena said, "Does that mean Aranea can fight on par with Kajou and Momo now?"
"Not even close." Roko shook his head, "I can shift her stats so Aranea can fight back against Malus but it's pretty close and nowhere near the level of Momo and Kajou. It's a neat party trick but finding a use for it in actual combat will be difficult."
"Redistributing stats...Aw man, that sounds so neat." Momo said, almost drooling at the prospect, "What if...I too..."
"Don't even think about it." Roko scowled, "This only works because of hacking the Master's Seal. If you want me to use it on you, you'll have to get a Slave Seal."
"Hmmmmm..."
"Stop considering it!" Roko snapped, "Did you forget what being a slave means?!"
"I mean, you take care of Aranea pretty well."
"That's the first time any of you have said that." Roko frowned, "Also, Aranea, don't worry. I set your stats back to where they were before. If I ever use redistribute, I'll always reset it after okay?"
Roko patted the young girl on the head. The girl looked down, still nervous and shy but the fear in her heart had abated. What was left was an emptiness, an unsure void that still didn't dare fill with hope. But there was comfort enough for her to feel...safe.
"Thank you..."
Everyone looked down at Aranea in shock. The first time the young girl had spoken anything since coming here.
"Ohmigosh, you're so cute!" Helena squealed as she picked up Aranea and hugged her tightly, "I'm so glad you're here with us!"
"Let go of the girl, Helena." Momo grinned, "Can't you see she's still uncomfortable?"
"Oh alright." Helena said, placing the child back on the ground, "You should be glad that Corissa isn't here. She'd be even worse than me."
"Helena, don't scare the girl."
"It's true though."
"I'm not saying it's not..."