Chapter 49
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Efficient Resource Management-8
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“When I first got this offer, I thought whoever the guy was, it’d be someone I knew.”
Carlea grinned.
“Honestly, that’s just how it goes. Our prison boss, politicians, even someone from Humanity’s Shield...”
Her cheeks were flushed, so the booze must’ve been stronger than it looked.
“But I never imagined a handsome Korean guy would show up here.”
“You’re too kind. You must’ve met plenty of guys hotter than me.”
“Well, I won’t deny that. Still, I didn’t expect to have one of them as a guest.”
She shrugged. I tilted my head.
“A guest?”
“What, you’ve heard all those stories about Asian guys asking if girls are virgins, and that’s the first thing you suspect?”
“That’s not it...”
“Don’t worry. I’m a virgin. I was just a pimp, that’s all. Or should I say, ‘the pimp named Carlea.’”
She slipped into a drunken dance. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
“How’s that? Pretty good, right? Some guests even paid me to do it.”
“For real?”
“A regular sexy dance is easy to learn, but this takes real skill... I had to practice hard to teach my girls.”
Carlea beamed like the sun.
“That’s wild... How’d you end up here?”
It was a genuine question. She didn’t seem like a villain at all.
“I told you. I was a pimp.”
“That’s no reason to become a villain.”
“...A lot happened.”
She shrugged.
“This asshole customer came in mouthing off, so I beat the shit out of him. Turns out he was some big shot. Cops raided us right away. I tried to run as far as I could... but then I caught immigration goons trying to rape one of my girls.”
“Damn.”
“I half-killed them and bolted. Later, I heard they died. Unfortunately, I was an Awakener, so I dodged pursuit, did this and that, and boom—villain status.”
I had no choice but to nod.
“Eh, don’t buy too much into a criminal’s sob story.”
“Doesn’t feel like you’re lying to me.”
“There’s plenty I left out.”
She hung her head.
“It’s true I brutally messed up people chasing me harder than they should’ve, and immigration assholes too. And my old job? Pimping out illegal immigrants, selling women’s bodies.”
“Prostitution’s a crime in the US too?”
“Unless you’re in Nevada! Sellers don’t get punished, but pimps do!”
She cackled with laughter.
“Some girls here really got screwed over unjustly, but not me. I appreciate the sympathy, but no need.”
I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.
“And they gave you the death penalty for that?”
“Villains get heavy sentences. Especially me—the judge was a devout religious type who couldn’t stomach a filthy, lewd business like selling women’s bodies.”
“...”
“That’s how people are. Foreign workers starving to death? Not our problem. Caught by drug cartels back home before crossing the border and dying? None of our business. Shit happening over the border? Handle it yourselves.”
Drunk as she was, she spilled her thoughts without a filter.
“But gathering up Gaam-Hi whores and making them sell their bodies? That’s unforgivable. Lock ’em up and execute on the spot. That’s the vibe.”
I gave a wry smile.
“That’s sad.”
“Feeling sorry for me? What an honor.”
She flashed a bright smile.
“Why?”
“Well... when I first heard, I was kinda shocked. Thought I’d have to entertain some super high-and-mighty bigwig. Honestly, I was looking forward to it a bit.”
“It’s not that big a deal.”
“I heard he’s a good guy.”
Carlea kept drinking nonstop.
“It was all classified, so I didn’t hear tons of details. But they said he’s incredibly kind and good. Someone who wants to repay him directly—even a politician said that, wanting to meet me personally.”
“So that’s why you took the offer?”
“Well, even without that, there were plenty of reasons. A cruise trip I could never dream of in prison, and if I can catch your interest, maybe get out and stay by your side.”
I had no way to know right now if she was telling the truth.
No. Actually, I did. I could just command her. Force her to spill her honest feelings.
But that’d be boring as hell.
To me, sex slaves were essentially no different from dolls. They couldn’t think differently from me, but they couldn’t defy my orders either.
Imagine mid real-time strategy game, and I wipe out the enemy’s entire army with one click just because I feel like it.
Not impossible. In single-player, using the editor isn’t cheating. No one calls me out for “daring to use external programs to delete the enemy.”
But the second I do that, I can’t immerse myself anymore. Everything turns into data blobs vanishing with a click.
Ordering a sex slave felt much the same.
Carlea was approaching me as a human. That was refreshing. Everyone else on this cruise was just an onahole for wrapping my dick—not in their eyes, but because that’s how they saw themselves.
If I gave a “master’s” order here, sex slave Carlea would have no choice but to obey.
“...”
Of course, nothing really changed at its core. Even if she was being friendly now, she was still my sex slave.
I just didn’t want to unwrap the packaging.
Just as mingling in a room full of people is tiring and draining, stepping into a room full of onaholes would feel lonely.
“Still, I wanted to do something helpful for everyone.”
“Like clinging to me?”
“For starters.”
Drunk as I was, I placed a hand on her ass.
Firm yet soft.
She gave a wry smile.
“Let’s stop here.”
“Huh?”
“No going deeper. Well, if you really insist, I can’t stop you.”
“Why?”
Every woman here had sworn to offer her body to me. Even if not full sex slaves, they’d promised through Diana.
“Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“It was, until a moment ago. Not anymore.”
“Why?”
“You’re too nice. It killed my urge to follow Diana’s script.”
She was talking nonsense.
“Later, after this trip ends and we meet again, I won’t say no. But right now... it feels off.”
I smiled faintly.
“Fair enough.”
I didn’t know if this was just an act to jack up her price or if she truly had some reason not to give in right now.
Either way, it was fine. Let’s enjoy the secret.
There wasn’t much else to do on this cruise.
“I have nothing to say. I’m sorry. I should’ve explained the necessity of this to the prisoners more clearly...”
Diana bowed her head before Nafre.
“I never expected Your Holiness to do this. Ending the cruise without embracing even one woman... My preparations must’ve fallen short...”
Sadly, Nafre hated lies.
Her time was always short. She had no intention of wasting it on diplomatic chit-chat.
“Let’s see. You didn’t even consider Your Holiness’s feelings from the start, did you? Spare me the fake regrets now.”
Nafre thought highly of Diana.
If she’d truly prepared something for one man’s happiness and pleasure, it would’ve been far more fitting than this half-assed cruise.
“You’re too harsh. I am disappointed. And painfully aware of my shortcomings...”
Diana gave a wry smile.
“Your Holiness is a man too, right? I figured in this setup, he’d have sex a few times at least. Enjoying no-strings pleasure is natural for any guy.”
“Hah.”
“Even if not that, I thought he’d get close to a few women. Girls he’d want to see long-term and bring back to Korea instead of America.”
It was all pre-arranged. If he wanted, Your Holiness could take any women and build a harem.
But he didn’t. He just turned and left without a word.
“That was never the point anyway.”
Nafre glared at Diana.
“Your first goal was using Your Holiness to shatter the organization’s ethical code. Don’t deny it.”
“...You’re stating the obvious. Did you think I was hiding it?”
Humanity’s Shield had strict ethics. It had to.
They were a secret organization with asymmetric power like Lee Ha-seon and multinational forces. Without ironclad rules, they’d be branded villains in no time.
“Selling prisoners’ bodies” was forbidden. So was “using villains as combat assets.”
Not just public consensus or laws—though laws banned it too—the laws persisted because Humanity’s Shield enforced them.
America was advanced. They didn’t need Lee Seong-ha’s sex slave contracts to control people. Far stronger brainwashing or bindings existed.
The block came from Humanity’s Shield not wanting it.
They hadn’t collared villains with bombs to use as hero meat shields either—thanks to Humanity’s Shield.
“No intent to hide it, then?”
“Of course not. Hiding wouldn’t work anyway.”
Humanity’s Shield had changed. “Lee Seong-ha” was now paramount. The banner of “for Your Holiness” trumped all rules and procedures.
If Diana rallied supporters inside for a “for Your Holiness” plan, even Nafre couldn’t stop it.
Lee Seong-ha mattered. His joy and pleasure outweighed everything. Just as they’d sacrificed for Lee Ha-seon before, now they endured anything for him.
The moment Nafre blocked “acts giving Your Holiness joy but ethically wrong,” Humanity’s Shield lost its purpose: “devotion for humanity’s survival.”
Diana exploited that gap.
This plan’s true value wasn’t “Your Holiness’s exclusive sex slave contracts.” It was the “for Your Holiness” banner itself.
Diana had succeeded. At least in Nafre’s eyes.
“Those villains. Where do you plan to use them?”
“In the spots everyone’s thinking of, I suppose. Plenty of people tangled up in this, after all.”
Diana smiled faintly.
A smile only someone who saw people as chess pieces could wear.