"If that is the only thing that worries you, then you can rest assured, General," Nico replied, his eyes burning with a sudden intensity, "We hate Pantheon just as much as you do… If not more."
"What do you mean?" The General frowned as he stared at Nico in surprise. Even he could not have predicted this.
Nico slowly closed his eyes, and through the telepathic link of their Familiar Bond, he asked, [Nom… is it alright with you if I told them you're a Chimera?]
Nom-Nom's nonchalant voice rang out in his head almost instantly.
[Yeah, sure.]
[But it will make things difficult for you… even with me doing everything I can to handle it.]
[Master… do you remember what I said back at that camp when you wanted me to hide my identity?]
["I am nothing to be ashamed about." That's what you said.]
A moment of silence settled between the two before Nom-Nom replied.
[And I meant every word of it… that goes for both the good parts and the bad ones. I will live my life as who I truly am… And I will take all that comes from it. Besides, if something goes horribly wrong, I know you will be able to handle it!]
[I promise I will…] Nico replied as he slowly opened his eyes.
Taking a deep breath, he looked straight in the General's eyes and asked the question that sent his heart into a frenzy.
"Do you know what a Chimera is?"
Beside him, Peko instantly snapped her eyes toward him in complete and utter shock.
The General, however, didn't flinch. He kept his eyebrow raised, along with the faint, confident smile playing on his face despite the adrenaline he had just suppressed.
"You lot can't possibly believe… You can keep those hybrid pets of yours right outside our backyard without us noticing."
"Hmm," Nico nodded slowly, scratching his chin as he spun the lie. "I didn't know there were Chimera Containment Zones this close to Fugen."
"So yes, I know what a Chimera is," the General said as he drummed his fingers on the table. "What about it?"
"Nom-Nom is a Chimera," Nico stated flatly.
He looked closely at the General's expression, ignoring the hole Peko's glare was currently burning into the side of his face.
The General's fingers stopped drumming. His wide eyes snapped toward the casually sitting Nom-Nom.
And before the General could let out a single word of denial, Nico dropped the rest of the hammer.
"She is a hybrid of a Greater Dragon… and a Wendigo."
A deafening silence descended on the room.
The color drained from the General's face instantly, as he took in a trembling, ragged breath.
From behind, the silence was broken by a soft Clink.
Nico didn't need to turn around to know that was the sound of Dove's hand gripping the hilt of her sword.
Oblivious to the sudden killing intent filling the room, Nom-Nom raised her hand.
And under the horrified gaze of the General, she casually picked out a handful of sugar cubes from the tray and popped them into her mouth.
-Crunch. Crunch.
To the General, it didn't sound like a girl eating sugar; it sounded like one of the most terrifying monsters in the world grinding bones.
"W-What…" the General stuttered in a trembling voice. "What have you brought to my country...."
[That's what I wanted to see…] Nico thought, watching the fear take root.
Before the silence could spiral into violence, Nico replied with a reassuring smile.
"But don't worry. Pantheon has managed to permanently suppress her… urges."
"Bullshit!" The General thundered, slamming his fist onto the table hard enough to make the teacups jump.
"The curse of the Wendigo cannot be tamed! It is endless hunger made manifest!"
"Credit where it's due, General…" Nico replied with a soft chuckle as he tilted his head, "Pantheon may be the most heinous bunch of bastards on the face of this world… but you gotta admit, the stuff they can do is nothing short of miracles."
The General remained silent, his chest heaving, as he glared at Nom-Nom.
He wasn't looking at a Pantheon operative anymore. He was looking at an extinction event sitting across from him.
A normal Wendigo was a horrifying force of nature as it was… but a Greater Dragon with the Wendigo curse was a calamity waiting to happen.
"As if Arlen Hale's insanity wasn't enough…" The General sighed deeply as he rubbed his temples with his callused hand, while the lines on his face deepened as if he had aged another decade in the last minute.
"Like I said," Nico said with a nonchalant smile. "Her hunger has been erased, allowing her to keep the other aspects of a Wendigo…"
Before The General could speak, Nico continued with his voice dropping an octave. "But to achieve that… you can imagine the things they put her through. The pain and the agony she went through... Now imagine the hatred she must feel..."
The General looked at Nom-Nom for a long moment with fear blatant in his eyes, but still, he steeled himself with a deep breath before slowly nodding.
[Okay… the big fish bit... Now on to the dirty work...] Nico thought as he turned towards Peko and spoke-
"And just like Nom-Nom, Peko over here…"
While Peko looked at Nico with trembling fury.
Her usual stoicism was completely shattered as she watched with wide violet eyes that blatantly displayed the heartbreak of a woman watching the first person she had ever trusted as he sold her out.
Her knuckles had long turned white as her nails dug into the wooden armrest of her chair.
Being unable to keep eye contact with him as he betrayed her while looking her straight in the eyes, Peko looked down at her lap, her shoulders shaking as she bit her lip so hard that blood threatened to surface.
[Please don't…] she pleaded internally as the cold knot of despair tightened in her chest. [I trusted you…]
The General watched her reaction. He saw the trembling, the genuine terror, and the look of a victim about to be exposed.
To him, it was the reaction of someone reliving their worst trauma.
"She has four affinities," Nico continued in a voice heavy with sympathy. "Now imagine what Pantheon must have done to a woman like that..."
[Huh?] Peko's brain nearly short-circuited as she sat there frozen in absolute stun.
Nico, however, continued with a heavy sigh as he looked back at the General.
"Thankfully, the number of affinities you get has nothing to do with bloodlines… so they didn't force her to bear children and stuff… so there's that silver lining. But they did cut her open… and peered into her soul… more than once."
The General winced with a look of genuine disgust crossing his face.
Meanwhile, Peko's mind raced as the realization hit her like a truck.
[Bastard!]
She stared at the back of Nico's head with her heart still hammering against her ribs.
[He tricked me! He used my reaction to being revealed as a construct to sell his lie!]
She was still faintly trembling, sweat-drenched, and feeling the bitter aftertaste of that adrenaline and fear, but now her glare at Nico held a different kind of heat.
[But what about Nom-Nom? How is she okay with this?]
Ignoring the death stare burning into the side of his face, Nico let out a soft, self-deprecating chuckle.
"And then, there's me…" He pointed a thumb at his own chest, "The only living bastard out of a batch of 700. We were specifically being trained to have heightened mana recovery... I was the only one who managed to complete it."
Leaning forward, Nico rested his elbows on the table and looked the stunned General straight in the eye.
"So, believe me, General… we hate Pantheon more than you do. And we've made sure Pantheon knows that too... and given how many resources they spent on 'developing' us, they couldn't exactly afford to kill us either. So they sent us to the nation that hates their guts… and also happens to be in desperate need of their 'help'.
The General began slowly drumming a single finger against the table as his gaze bored into Nico while a suffocating silence stretched between them.
"Doesn't make sense…" the General finally spoke with his eyes locked intently on Nico's, "What's stopping you from turning on them?"
Nico didn't flinch as he held that intense stare, while his expression remained as calm as a frozen lake.
"The fact that the leash on life we've always dreamt of holding… is this close."
He let the words hang there for a heartbeat before continuing with a tone of absolute conviction.
"Look, General… we know better than to double-cross Pantheon… so please, let us help in this year's Night of the Red Moon," leaning forward slightly, the sincerity in Nico's voice deepened as he continued, "If after that, you'd still rather we leave, we will and find a new place to make a home… If not, then we would like to start the latest chapter of our lives here in Fugen."
The General looked at Nico with eyes that remained cold and unyielding.
And despite a drop of sweat sliding down his spine as Nico held that gaze, maintaining his mask of calm while his mind raced a mile a minute.
[I played the victim card. I played the hate card. Revealed Nom's true identity… even threw Peko under the bus to sell the lie…]
Nico clenched his jaw as his thoughts spiraled into a frantic mess.
[If this doesn't work, what's left? Come on, dude, think! You've come too far to back off… There's gotta be something!]
And yet Nico found his hand empty. There were no more aces to pull, no more bluffs to call. It was all up to the old wolf now.
After a long stretch of silence that felt like a noose tightening around Nico's neck, the General swept his gaze over the trio before landing back on Nico.
"I still don't trust you," the General said flatly.
Nico felt his stomach drop through the floor.
[Damn it…!]
His mind scrambled for a foothold, desperately trying to formulate a rebuttal, a plea, anything to salvage the situation before the General called the guards to escort them beyond their borders.
But before Nico could say anything, the General shifted his attention to Nom-Nom.
He watched the Chimera pick at a loose thread on her dress with a terrifying sort of innocence before he let out a heavy, resigned sigh.
"But it's also true that Fugen will benefit greatly with her fighting for us…" the General admitted with a grimace before turning back to Nico. "So, I give you two options."
Raising two callused fingers, he spoke with the tone that left no room for arguments.
"One. You will be allowed to stay, but under constant supervision. You will be assigned a handler, and you will follow their orders without question for as long as I allow you to stay in Fugen."
"That I will not do, General," Nico replied instantly with a resolute shake of his head. "I won't trade one collar for another… not even for a day."
The General didn't look surprised by the refusal. He simply stared at Nico gravely as he slowly curled one finger down, leaving only one remaining.
"Then here's the last option I offer you…"
Under Nico's gaze, filled with the dread of a man watching a trap snap shut, the General spoke the words that sealed their fate.
"You three will sign a Blood Pact."