Chapter 84: GRAND FINALE! (Part 1)

And, so, after everyone left, our beloved fake necromancer had a nice talk with the Dark Elf directly in his personal office.

"...Report, Luna," Kaito said, his bass voice flat and measured. "I understand your onboarding orientation is not scheduled for another forty-five minutes. Have you encountered a clerical discrepancy with Brenda?"

"No, Mordecai-sama," Luna stated coldly, her purple eyes locking onto his face without a single frame of hesitation or fear. "I am here to deliver an unregistered cache of high-value structural assets. I've gathered many artifacts from the Royal Family to prove my loyalty to you. To prevent tracking metrics, I utilized my [Mystical Item Shroud]."

Then, with a fluid, professional movement, she unrolled the light-absorbing fabric across the desk.

Clink. Clank.

The surface of the petrified-gloom wood was instantly covered in items of unprecedented, mythic-tier quality. There were glowing chalices, gold-plated ledger books sealed with holy wax, and dozens of enchanted containment units.

For Mordecai, that was a royal banquet. 'Oh. It's dinner time,' He thought, wondering what the taste of a sacred artifact was.

But the central item was a massive, elegant headpiece forged from pure, shimmering starlight-platinum, embedded with thousands of microscopic geometric runes that vibrated with high-density calculation power.

[ITEM ANALYSIS: CROWN OF WISDOM (MYTHIC/ADMINISTRATOR GRADE)]

[EFFECT: EXPANDS THE USER'S COGNITIVE PROCESSING CAPACITY BY 300%.]

[ADDITIONAL BENEFIT: ALLOWS UNRESTRICTED, HIGH-FIDELITY TELEPATHIC DOWNLINKS ACROSS ALL REALM SECTORS, BYPASSING SYSTEM ENCRYPTION BLOCKS.]

Kaito’s left eye twitched slightly as he reviewed the data overlay. "A Mythic-grade processing unit. And you stole it, for me?" Kaito said, rubbing his chin.

"Yes, My Lord," Luna replied, her expression remaining completely neutral, though a faint, dark satisfaction ran through her tone. "I was already planning to leave Nick's side when we met Brenda for the first time."

Then, she pointed her silver pen at the adjacent items:

[The Blade of Sir Galadron the Pure]: A massive, glittering greatsword that hummed with a holy chord.

[The Crown of Sabina]: A golden tiara that granted its wearer a constant +50 Charisma buff.

[The Royal Vestments of Maratea]: A set of incredibly intricate silk robes embroidered with defensive runes that could stop a high-tier ballista bolt.

"You have completely stripped the hero faction of their historical backup assets," Kaito noted, a rare, genuine expression of technical approval settling onto his handsome face. He then made a note on his clipboard. "This is an exceptional demonstration of resource management, Luna. Your tactical foresight has prevented a significant amount of future litigation costs."

"Thank you, Mordecai-sama," Luna said, bowing her head precisely by fifteen degrees. "I have already cross-referenced these items with our current inventory requirements. The Blade of Galadron can be immediately melted down to forge approximately four thousand high-grade industrial wrenches for Larry’s janitorial staff."

"Efficient," Kaito agreed, his violet eyes glowing. "For this unprecedented level of production efficiency, your onboarding status is officially updated. You are hereby promoted to Director of Arcane Compliance & Corporate Asset Liquidation. Your office will be located next to Cassandra's legal department."

Luna raised her head, her purple eyes locking onto his with an intensity that had nothing to do with data entry, before a faint, elegant flush crept up her dark neck. "The promotion is highly satisfactory, Mordecai-sama. As a formal demonstration of my gratitude... and to completely optimize our long-term structural alliance... I officially offer my hand in marriage to your household portfolio. It would lower our collective tax liability by an additional eight percent."

After her words, Kaito didn't blink or alter his facial expression. He just reached down, took the [Crown of Wisdom], and filed her proposal away into the mental trash bin of his system interface.

"Luna," Kaito said, his voice dropping into a flat, business-room tone. "Go to the hallway, ask Brenda for the Director-level uniform, and begin the inventory cataloging process. You still haven't signed your registration papers. Dismissed."

Luna didn't pout, and she didn't scream "Baka" like a broken light novel heroine. She merely closed her notebook with a sharp, synchronized click of her silver pen, her eyes holding an expression of intense, patient professional admiration. "I understand, Mordecai-sama. The proposal remains on standby for the next quarterly review."

She turned and marched out of the room with flawless military grace.

The moment the dark elf cleared the threshold, Kaito looked down at the shimmering starlight-platinum headpiece.

The system voice—the cold, invasive entity that he had continuously sought to subvert—suddenly boomed in his retina, its blue holographic text boxes flashing with an aggressive neon-purple border.

[SYSTEM SUGGESTION: USER DETECTED IN POSSESSION OF 'CROWN OF WISDOM'.]

[RECOMMENDED ACTION: UTILIZE THE ENHANCED COGNITIVE COUPLING TO ESTABLISH AN UN-ENCRYPTED DOWNLINK WITH TARGET: SAINTESS LUCY.]

[ADMIN NOTE: THE LIVE STREAM CHAT IS DEMANDING A CONFRONTATION WITH THE HEROINE, SWEETIE. COMPLY TIME TO TIME TO PREVENT A DROP IN ENGAGEMENT!]

Kaito gritted his teeth, his jaw tightening as he looked at the screen. "Don't call me sweetie," he muttered to the air.

However, his technician's brain automatically performed a quick calculation. Connecting with the Saintess right now was a logical move, since he needed real-time data on the capital's internal defensive parameters before his alliance faction began its march.

He picked up the Crown of Wisdom and placed it directly over his dark, managed hair.

VWOOM.

The impact was instantaneous and immense. His cognitive workspace expanded by three hundred percent, the room's geometry fading into a crystal-clear grid of pure, flowing code lines.

His right violet eye flashed, and with a simple mental instruction, he bypassed the Holy Kingdom's defensive firewalls, targeting a single, familiar soul-frequency in the central palace of Oakhaven.

Ring... Ring... Ring...

The mental downlink clicked open with a sharp, static hiss that sounded exactly like an unencrypted Discord voice call running on a high-speed fiber-optic network.

"K-Kaito...?"

Lucy’s voice flooded his consciousness. It was crystal clear, sounding as if she were standing right next to his shoulder pad, though her tone lacked any of the artificial, holy sweetness she used for her "Holy Bath Water" live streams.

She sounded tired—exhausted by the sheer weight of the narrative she was being forced to endure.

"Nick is officially gone, Lucy," Kaito said, his bass voice echoing flatly across the telepathic link. "I executed a comprehensive contractual revocation on his character model five minutes ago. His data has been backspaced out of the local sector database."

A long, heavy sigh traveled through the downlink, followed by the distant sound of static and rustling parchment sheets.

"I already know, Kaito," Lucy replied, her voice carrying a deep, familiar weariness. "The moment his file was deleted, the system interface in the central sanctuary glitched out for ten full seconds. But Kaito... you need to understand that the situation here in Oakhaven has completely deteriorated. And my act of talking with the Goddess has probably come to an end."

"Elaborate," Kaito commanded, his violet eyes narrowing as his enhanced brain began to sketch out a layout of the capital.

"The High Priests and the royal court are in a state of absolute, unmitigated panic," Lucy explained, her words coming fast. "They realize their primary marketing asset is gone, and to prevent a total collapse of public confidence, they are turning up the narrative volume to maximum. The corruption inside the hierarchy is oozing out. They are doubling the price of the blessings, and Queen Bonblue is currently finalizing the speech parameters for a grand, continent-wide mobilization. They are preparing a forced crusade against your fortress to restore their view count. And they'll probably force me to go along with them."

Kaito looked at his desk, his silver quill manifesting back between his fingers as he tapped it rhythmically against the wood. The idea of taxing paladins was amusing. "Let them mobilize. An uninsured army running on panic metrics is a massive operational deficit. Listen to me, Lucy: you need to continue executing your script as the tragic, mourning Saintess. Do not alter your behavioral patterns. I am already preparing the logistics for our collective march toward Oakhaven."

There was a brief pause on the other side of the downlink—a quiet, heavy beat where the ghost of their past life in Tokyo seemed to hang in the static air.

"I... understand," Lucy whispered, her tone softening into a gentle, mischievous warmth that made Kaito's structural focus waiver for a fraction of a second. "Don't worry, Kaito... I'll take care of it. I will ensure the internal security circuits remain overloaded until you arrive. Just... make sure to be here as soon as possible. The food quality in this palace is completely shit... and I have a serious, high-magnitude craving for some salty peanuts without any particular reason."

Kaito’s left eye twitched. "Peanuts? Are you serious?"

"It’s a luxury requirement," Lucy chuckled softly, before her voice instantly snapped back into a rigid, urgent tone. "Wait—Kaito, shut up for a second. The royal mages are entering the courtyard. Queen Bonblue is stepping onto the grand balcony right now to address the crowd. I have to drop my magic defenses to appear affected by the grief."

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: TELEPATHIC REAL-TIME COUPLING ESTABLISHED.]

[SAINTESS LUCY IS NOW TRACKED AS A CO-LINKED OPERATIONAL AGENT.]

[EFFECT: TARGET CAN AUTOMATICALLY INOCULATE MANAGEMENT REGARDING ENEMY MOVEMENTS AND NARRATIVE PARADIGMS VIA PRIVATE CHANNEL.]

"I’m setting the line to mute," Lucy’s voice faded into the static background. "Just get here, please. Goodbye, my favorite Necromancer."

Then, the voice call clicked shut with a short beep. Kaito sighed, removing the Crown of Wisdom from his head and placing it back inside his desk drawer. The crushing weight of her request for peanuts was an illogical variable he would have to log under [Miscellaneous Maintenance]. (Cravings... uh?)

After that, Kaito stood up, his black cloak flourishing behind him as he channeled his full Dark Lord presence.

"Ugo," Kaito commanded telepathically, his voice filling the underrealm link. "Call the collective staff to the central hall immediately. We are executing an emergency project adjustment."

Thirty seconds later, the central chamber of Fort Blackstone was completely occupied by the core household of Ravenloft Holdings.

The horizontal line was impeccable: Pyroas stood at his right flank, her obsidian secretary uniform perfectly buttoned, her golden eyes holding the cold, terrifying clarity of her newly unsealed administrative fire. She was making sure no other woman would come near him, since what had happened with Egel seemed to have awakened her mosquito jealousy.

Cassandra Lex floated to his left, her spectral glasses catching the violet light as she clutched a stack of liability waivers.

Wukong was sitting with her arms crossed, her eyes closed, and her knees on the ground in her classic Great Sage Equal to Heaven pose, enjoying Mordecai's headpats in pure silence. The Monkey Queen didn't even care about the surroundings.

Egel and Regel stood near the entrance, their fresh, high-fidelity muscle parameters completely aligned after Larry’s soup logistics.

Behind them, the six unpaid interns in their grey jumpsuits stood at absolute attention, their expressions dead and compliant.

Kaz, Kashime, and Jin sat on a bench near the wall, popcorn tubs fully disposed of.

Even Nyalen was there, helping Lucretia whenever she fell down on the ground.

Larry was still cleaning the room with Carry, occasionally giving random thumbs-up to everyone to cheer them up.

Kaito stood before them, his hands crossed behind his back, his twin violet eyes scanning their positioning.

"Listen to me carefully, everyone," Kaito announced, his bass voice dropping two octaves as his acoustic intimidation passive maximized its volume. "Our strategic objectives have received a mandatory quarterly update. We are no longer waiting for the capital to organize their defensive deployment. We are initiating an immediate, full-scale corporate hostile takeover of Oakhaven."

Kaz raised his hand from his tracksuit pocket with an expression of mild concern. "Uh... Boss? Oakhaven is heavily fortified. They have a permanent multi-layered high-mana barrier rig wired into the city walls. If we attempt a standard brute-force raid, our vanguard’s stamina bars will be decimated before we even reach the main gates."

"We aren't brute-forcing anything, Kaz," Kaito replied smoothly, a cold, clinical smirk cutting through his handsome face. "That would be a massive waste of physical resources. I am an electrician. And a professional technician doesn't smash a malfunctioning circuit with a hammer—he simply pulls the plug."

Then Kaito gestured toward a holographic blueprint of the capital floating in midair.

"During my first time in Oakhaven," Kaito explained, his finger pointing at a series of glowing red dots embedded within the city's infrastructure framework. "I utilized my unique skill—[Short Circuit]—to install a dormant, high-voltage Mana Spike directly into the primary security circuits. It has been idling in their grid for all this time, completely undetected by their Level 50 Royal Mages. It is a total, unpatchable Kill Switch."

He looked at his staff, his eyes glowing with an intense, terrifying purple energy.

"With a single snap of my fingers," Kaito declared, his voice echoing flatly off the stone masonry, "I can reverse their mana polarity, cause their entire defensive barrier to implode, and plunge the entire capital into absolute, un-mitigated darkness." Kaito smiled. "Now... adjust your gear parameters. Operations begin... now."

Everyone cheered him with a happy "YES!"

—

(Royal Palace of Oakhaven)

The afternoon sun was bright, reflecting off the massive, golden billboards lining the Hero District.

A crowd of thousands of mindless mortal consumers had gathered in the grand plaza below the main balcony, waving their flags and holding their "Hero Nick" action figures with an intensity that defied basic human intelligence.

Everyone was in shock; many were crying, and many didn't even know what was happening.

Up on the high, gilded balcony, Queen Bonblue stood straight, her hair perfectly coiffed, her heavy, diamond-encrusted robes catching the light in a dazzling glint that was being broadcast across three mortal realms via a massive network of floating transmission crystals.

Beside her, leaning against a white marble pillar, stood Saintess Lucy.

To the untrained eye of the public, the Saintess looked completely destroyed—an absolute image of tragic, holy desolation.

Her pristine white robes were deliberately covered in dark mud and masonry soot, her staff was held loosely in her trembling hands, and her eyes were filled with tears she had magically accelerated with a low-tier cosmetic water spell. She looked entirely devoid of magical force, a helpless victim of the Dark Lord's cruelty.

Everyone believed that she had used most of her magic power to help Nick in his last battle.

In reality, inside her private telepathic channel, Lucy was casually reviewing Kaito’s deployment vectors. 'He’s exactly three minutes out,' she thought, her lips parting into a subtle, microscopic pout. 'He better have remembered the peanuts.'

Queen Bonblue raised her hand, the magical speakers amplifying her voice until it echoed across the entire capital with immense, patriotic reverb.

"Citizens of Oakhaven!" Queen Bonblue bellowed, her chest puffing out with the false righteousness of an influencer facing a drop in revenue. "A catastrophic tragedy has befallen our glorious realm! Our beloved, Chosen Hero Nick... the man who protected your smiles and saved our kingdom multiple times... has been unjustly and brutally defeated by the vile, undead entity known as Aldmax!" She said, with tears falling from her eyes.

The crowd let out a collective, synchronized shriek of panic, several men in the front row collapsing onto the cobblestones out of pure, un-scripted sorrow, while some girls threw their bras towards the queen.

"But do not allow your market confidence to falter!" Queen Bonblue continued, her voice rising into a grand shonen cadence as she pointed a jeweled scepter toward the horizon. "The Holy Church and the Royal Vanguard shall not stand idle while the dark faction threatens our liquidity! We are officially initiating a grand, global Crusade of Righteousness with the help of the Kingdom of Yralyth! We shall march upon his blighted fortress, clear his assets, and ensure that the light—"

SNAP.

The word "light" was permanently deleted from the city's active vocabulary.

Instantly, Kaito's dormant [Kill Switch] inside the inner courtyard panel activated with catastrophic velocity. The reversed mana current surged through the city's power lines like a lightning bolt running through soft copper.

ZZZZZZZZT-BOOM!

The massive, golden defensive barrier surrounding the capital walls didn't just fade—it imploded with a thunderous, electronic roar that blew out every single magical transmission crystal in the sky.

In that moment, the primary spotlight rigs died simultaneously, the floating magical screens went dead grey, and the fluorescent tubes lining the commercial districts fried in less than a millisecond.

The entire Capital City of Oakhaven was plunged into an absolute, suffocating, and terrifying total darkness.

The sun above seemed to be completely eclipsed by the massive, expanding shadow that rolled in from the moors, the ambient light index dropping to zero percent in less than half a frame.

"What... what is happening?!" Queen Bonblue panicked, her scepter clicking uselessly against the marble banister as her magical communication devices gargled with static error messages. "Mages! Restore the grid! Turn on the secondary backup mana generators! The live stream is going dark!"

"The backup lines have been grounded, honey," Lucy’s voice whispered in the dark beside her, completely devoid of its previous grief, though she quickly manual-muted her channel.

"Saintess Lucy? What do you mean?!" The Queen asked, with panic in her voice.

But the only answer she got from the Saintess was nothing more than a malicious giggle.

And then, in the midst of the pitch-black void, the absolute silence of the plaza was broken by a mechanical tone that echoed through the air with perfect 7.1 Dolby Surround placement.

VWOOM.

Suddenly, a single, colossal holographic screen opened in the center of the dark sky, casting a deep, electric-violet luminescence over the terrified faces of the crowd.

That clearly wasn't the Queen's stream anymore. The Ravenloft Holdings janitorial division had just completed a hostile takeover of the primary broadcast network.

Then, Kaito’s voice filled the capital.

Of course, that wasn't his standard Kaitoyama voice. That was the voice of Mordecai Von Ravenloft, now dropped by two full octaves, raspy, cavernous, and dripping with an edgy, dangerous intensity that immediately activated the new AI-Generated skill [Malicious Edgelord Rizz: Area-of-Effect Mode] across a three-kilometer radius. He clearly sounded like he smoked three packs of cigarettes for his entire life.

"Greetings, citizens of Oakhaven," Kaito’s bass voice resonated through the subwoofers of their souls, executing the exact strategic parameters suggested by user Senzu. "Your current administration has just experienced a total performance failure. The 'Crusade' your Queen speaks of is nothing more than an unauthorized attempt to misallocate your tax resources to cover up their own managerial bankruptcy."

The crowd stared up at the massive violet screen in absolute, paralyzed awe. The sheer, masculine density of his vocal resonance was doing genuine damage to the crowd's critical thinking capabilities.

"The Chosen Hero Nick was not defeated in a glorious battle of fates," Kaito continued, his voice smooth and clinical. "He was formally audited and fired due to a complete lack of behavioral and operational compliance. He was a fraud who bought fake bot followers and utilized chemical non-compliance to compromise innocent entities. His contract has been permanently terminated."

As he spoke, the massive screen displayed the real-time frame data of Nick's complete liquidation, cross-referenced with his middle-school "Poopy-boy" trauma log.

The live chat for the Higher Realms scrolled on the right side of the video, flashing with thousands of laughing emojis.

The public confidence in the Holy Church didn't just falter—it hit absolute zero in less than ten seconds.

"But do not panic," Kaito’s voice deepened, carrying a strange, reassuring logic. "Ravenloft Holdings has officially acquired the management rights to this sector. We are initiating a comprehensive sanitation and restructuring program. Look around you. The new staff have already arrived."

Rumble. Groan.

The cobblestones of the grand plaza opened in a series of neat, perfectly circular geometric apertures, and from the depths of the earth, an army emerged.

But it wasn't a violent, bloodthirsty horde of monsters designed to massacre the peasantry. It was the exact opposite.

Out of the central portal stepped... Larry. The true Main Character of this story.

The skeletal janitor was radiant under the violet light of the sky screen. He wore his new [Ordinary SSSSSS Gold Rubber Gloves]; his pristine blue coverall was ironed without a single crease; and he held a massive, industrial-grade Swiffer mop in his bone fingers. Behind him, marching in a perfect, horizontal military file, was an entire legion of hundreds of skeletal janitors.

Luckily, they didn't attack citizens.

With terrifying speed and precision, the skeletons immediately began sweeping the loose gravel, polishing the rusted public monuments, and cleaning the stagnant horse manure off the streets. Every three seconds, a skeleton would pause its broom, face a terrified bystander, and execute a flawless, silent thumbs-up mechanic.

👍

Right behind them came Carry, dressed in her classic maid outfit, leading a division of high-level Revenants and Ogres.

Every single monster was wearing a bright orange mesh tabard over their armor that read in bold, black lettering: [UNPAID INTERN — RAVENLOFT HOLDINGS].

They walked briskly through the crowd, completely ignoring the adventurers' drawn swords, and began to systematically distribute neatly printed paper flyers to the citizens.

The flyers outlined the dark guild's new retirement packages, healthcare options, and the structural benefits of working under an efficient, logic-driven administration.

The citizens of Oakhaven stared at the flyers, then at the skeleton currently mopping their sidewalks with lavender-scented floor wax.

"The... the monsters are completing our public works projects?" an NPC merchant whispered, blinking his eyes. "And they aren't charging an infrastructure tax? This is... remarkably efficient."

Then, from another portal, another army (where the reincarnators were) led by Pyroas stepped out. The reincarnators, dressed in their new Ravenloft Holdings uniform, began distributing paper flyers. Jin used his shadow army to increase efficiency; Kaz and Kashime used their new [Seller Soul Buff] to increase Ravenloft Holdings' popularity, while Egel and Regel acted as bodyguards.

Luna was just smiling politely at people.

Meanwhile, up on the grand balcony, Queen Bonblue was trembling so hard the diamonds on her robes were clicking against each other like dice. Her daughter, Princess Cuckarella, stood beside her, her eyes wide with a terror that completely bypassed her narrative restraint. She was now feeling real emotions.

A sudden, violent vortex of dark purple gravity erupted in the center of the balcony, tearing through the marble tiles without wind. From the center of the vortex, Kaito descended slowly, his black, light-absorbing robes billowing with unnatural weight, his twin violet irises burning through the darkness like two dying stars.

He landed with a soft, heavy thud, his dark leather gloves crossed behind his back as he looked down at the royal family.

"W-Who are you?!" Queen Bonblue shrieked, backing away until her spine hit the palace wall. "Are you the Demon Lord Aldmax?! Stay back! I am royalty! I have divine immunity parameters!"

Then, from the shadows behind the balcony curtain, a door clicked open, and King Cuckus III stepped out onto the marble floor.

He was wearing a set of oversized, faded flannel night pajamas, his hair completely disheveled. He was entirely oblivious to the dark mana vortex, completely focused on a small wooden yoyo he was bouncing up and down with a rhythmic whir-whir sound, while three city pigeons perched casually on his left shoulder.

"Look at the birds, honey," King Cuckus III muttered, completely ignoring Kaito as he adjusted his pajama strings. "They have a very solid flight matrix today. It’s highly optimal. I will open up a farm to breed pigeons." He then started throwing random barley crumbs onto the floor, attracting another wave of birds. "Ohhh! Eat well and grow up! Papa will help you!" He said, completely unaware of his surroundings.

Kaito didn't even allocate a single frame of his peripheral vision to the King's yoyo. He turned his full, violet-eyed focus toward the trembling Queen.

"Queen Bonblue," Kaito announced, his bass voice dropping an octave as his clipboard manifested in his hand. "I am Mordecai Von Ravenloft, Chief Executive Officer of Ravenloft Holdings. I have just completed a comprehensive audit of your kingdom's financial books, cross-referenced with the Holy Church's active accounts."

He tapped the parchment with his silver pen.

"According to our calculations, your administration and the hierarchy of the Holy Church are currently operating under a massive, un-mitigated debt liability to our logistics division," Kaito stated, his tone flat and clinical. "Due to your historical damage to our dungeon infrastructure, abusive workplace, and the structural corruption of your trade agreements, you owe Ravenloft Holdings exactly fifty million gold pieces."

The Queen’s jaw went slack. "Fifty million gold?! That’s... that’s impossible! The treasury is completely depleted! We spent our entire liquidity on Nick's seasonal marketing campaign and the production of the Saintess's bathwater bottles! We don't have that kind of capital!"

After her words, Cassandra Lex appeared out of nowhere to Mordecai's left and held up a large spectral lawsuit paper listing all the infractions committed by the Church of Light.

"Your Majesty, I think that the only viable option is a Cease and Desist," Cassandra said, her body trembling from bureaucratic arousal. She had fulfilled her dream to write a lawsuit against a god.

Queen Bonblue couldn't believe her eyes, because the lawsuit was officially signed by the Goddess herself.

Out of any possible resource, the queen looked at her daughter, then looked back at Kaito, her eyes filling with a desperate, transactional cunning. She smoothed her robes, stepping forward with an air of aristocratic submission. "If... if there is no liquid coin... then perhaps we can negotiate a restructuring of the debt? I offer you my own physical frame... and the high-tier purity parameters of my daughter, Princess Cuckarella... as collateral. In exchange for the safety of our revenue stream... You may use our bodies as your dark compliance assets... Or— I'll be your consort forever and look at no one else ever again!! I'll sign my contract with my own soul!"

Princess Cuckarella flinched, her face turning bright red, but she didn't dare object to the proposal. Instead, she simply kept staring at the Dark Lord before her, unsure of what she was feeling.

Kaito’s left eye twitched visibly beneath his high, structured collar, and his expression twisted into a mask of pure, undiluted professional disdain.

"Denied," Kaito snapped, his voice sharp and clinical. "Categorically denied. Your personal physical assets are heavily depreciated, and the maintenance costs for two high-maintenance royal entities would decimate my department's quarterly budget. I do not collect useless luxury decorations, Queen Bonblue. I collect productivity."

He closed his ledger with a sharp snap.

"Since there is not enough money to cover up for all the damage you caused," Kaito announced, his violet eyes glowing with absolute authority, "the Ravenloft Holdings corporation has officially initiated a total, metaphysical foreclosure of your entire kingdom. We are foreclosing on Oakhaven."

Before the Queen could scream, Saintess Lucy stepped out from behind the white marble pillar.

The public crowd below looked up, their eyes widening as they saw their tragic, mud-splattered Saintess finally emerge into the violet light.

The mages, the knights, and the remaining royal guards tensed, expecting her to unleash a high-tier holy ultimate skill to cleanse the Dark Lord from the balcony.

Instead, Lucy took a single, elegant step forward, her ivory staff held perfectly as she looked down at the plaza, her lips curving into a highly mischievous, manipulative smile that was being projected across the massive sky screen.

"Citizens of Oakhaven!" Lucy’s voice echoed through the comms feed, carrying a perfect blend of holy purity and corporate cunning. "The situation is unarguable. Our administration is insolvent, and our defenses have imploded. But as your Saintess, I shall not allow your file allocations to be deleted by the dark faction."

She turned her face toward Kaito, her large blue eyes flashing with an intense, playful light that made his clipboard parameters glitch out for a fraction of a second.

"Therefore, to ensure the absolute safety and structural integrity of my people," Lucy announced to the entire mortal realm, her voice smooth as silk. "I officially offer myself as a contracted consort to the Dark Lord Mordecai Von Ravenloft. My only mandatory condition is that the Ravenloft corporation shall not touch a single hair of the common peasantry, and in exchange... we shall govern the infrastructure of this capital together, under a unified management board."

The entire city went completely dead silent.

Kaito's eyes widened to absurdity.

[CRITICAL SYSTEM INTERFERENCE DETECTED!]

[ROMANCE FLAG OVERRIDE: 'THE SAINTESS'S ACCORD']

[MANDATORY NARRATIVE COMPLIANCE TRIGGERED BY LIVE STREAM ENGAGEMENT RATINGS (100% UNANIMOUS APPROVAL)]

[USER IS FORCED TO ACCEPT THE POSITION INTO THE HOUSEHOLD PORTFOLIO.]

Kaito's right eye twitched violently as he mentally slammed his hand against the red-flashing system alerts, but the automated coding was absolute.

The audience's retention rate had just broken through to the next cosmic realm. He was trapped by his own bad writing constraints.

"A...acceptable," Kaito muttered through his teeth, his voice a low growl of pure corporate frustration. "The terms of service are... locked."

Lucy smiled brilliantly, her mud-splattered white robes instantly dissolving into a shower of digital pixels, and beneath the cosmetic layer she wove a new dress from pure, high-fidelity dark lace and silver trim—the perfect uniform for the new Co-Director of Ravenloft Holdings.

Then, she glided gracefully over to his side, her hand sliding smoothly around his dark, obsidian elbow, her body pressing against his cloak with absolute, unyielding affection. She leaned closer to his high collar, her lips brushing his ear as she whispered in a private channel: «You remembered the peanuts, right, Kaito? Because if they aren't in my desk drawer in five minutes, I'm going to launch a class-action lawsuit against your janitorial division. Joking, of course, but... that was the only way for me to get out of the scene. So... even if I still don't have the right to stay next to you... just play along, please.»

Kaito didn't answer her. He simply adjusted his leather glove, his violet eyes looking down at the massive crowd below.

And after that event, the crowd suddenly started cheering the Dark Lord without any particular reason.

The Queen and her daughter couldn't believe what their eyes had just witnessed. They saw their entire capitalistic Kingdom fall in the blink of an eye.

The citizens weren't screaming in terror; they were throwing their flags into the air, screaming "HORRAYYYY!" probably because the dark faction had just guaranteed them a stable pension and full dental coverage.

And in that moment, the Capital City of Oakhaven had officially been delivered into his hands. Not through a grand, world-ending magic spell, but through a standard-compliant foreclosure and a highly strategic corporate marriage.

Kaito looked down at his new capital, then at the smiling woman clinging to his arm.

"Ugo," Kaito thought, his mind completely numb from the sheer physical weight of the plot twists. "Get Brenda. We're going to need a lot more onboarding forms."

The massive purple screen in the sky flashed its final, triumphant notification as the chapter reached its definitive operational boundary:

[CONGRATULATIONS! OAKHAVEN HAS BEEN ACQUIRED!]

[NEW ASSETS LOCKED: 1 CAPITAL CITY, 1 HOLY CHURCH FRACTION, 1 CO-DIRECTOR (LUCY)]

[CURRENT POSITION: METAPHYSICAL MONARCH OF THE SYSTEM]

[LARRY STATUS: OPTIMAL. HE IS CURRENTLY CLEANING THE SANCTUARY. 👍]

But... it wasn't over. Something was missing... And Mordecai knew.