Chapter 509: A Necessary Step

Inside the chamber, Damian sat down on the sofa and stared across the room at Hazel, Racheal and Ruby. The three women remained seated on the edge of the bed, their backs straight and their hands clasped together as they waited for him to speak.

They had stayed with Damian longer than almost anyone else, and that experience had taught them something they had learned the hard way. Damian’s fury was not always expressed through shouting. When he became unnaturally calm while angry, that was usually when he was the most dangerous.

"Your three families are like a cult. One for all, all for one. All three have united under the shared ideology that it’s their divine right to stand at the top of Velmora, and even though you three haven’t said this yourself, you have also shown you share a similar mindset." Damian spoke calmly, but the controlled tone made the three women increasingly uncomfortable.

He leaned forward slightly, resting his forearms against his knees as his purple eyes moved from one woman to another.

"But I want to know... What exactly has you three and your family done for me and this realm that makes them deserving of this level of entitlement?"

Buzz!

The three women frowned at the question, but none of them could immediately answer. The silence became increasingly uncomfortable because the truth was impossible to avoid. Their families had caused Damian considerable problems since his arrival in the Underworld.

They had interfered with his decisions, attempted to preserve their influence and, after Lin Qui’s death, some of their relatives had even killed the very people who had remained loyal to Lin Qui.

Hazel’s own brother had been involved in the coup against Lin Qui alongside Lazarus, and they could see the pattern beginning to repeat itself.

Damian calmly picked up the wine and poured himself a drink. He did not rush them for an answer. He simply sat there in silence, allowing the question to remain between them.

The three women lowered their eyes because they knew what they would find if they honestly examined their history with him.

Damian lifted the goblet and slowly drank the wine, allowing the taste and faint buzz of alcohol to settle before lowering it again. Only then did he return his gaze to them.

"Look back on our time on Earth... Do tell me, do you three actually think you were an asset or a burden to me?" Damian asked calmly.

Buzz!

Their eyes widened.

They had wanted to answer immediately, but their memories betrayed them. They had fought with him repeatedly, often because they had hidden information from him, acted without consulting him. Their intimate relationship with Damian had certainly helped strengthen him considerably, but beyond that, they struggled to identify what they had actually contributed to his rise. More often than not, they had created another problem for him to solve.

"Lin Qui made me promise to take care of you three, but that was not the reason I held onto you three after coming here," Damian said honestly as he lowered the goblet and placed it on the table. "To be honest, the only reason I keep you three around is I have grown fond of you all even in all this madness. But it seems no matter how much I give it will never be enough. You just keep taking and ruining things for petty emotions."

The three women stiffened.

Damian’s words hurt precisely because there was no hatred behind them. He was not speaking out of spite. He was explaining how he genuinely saw their behavior. His fondness for them was the only reason they remained at his side, and yet they continued testing the limits of that affection.

"Even now when my life is at risk, your top priority is who becomes my concubine when your position of Queen is assured already. Don’t you think you three are being too selfish?" Damian asked.

Buzz!

The three women immediately bowed their heads.

"We are sorry..." they said quietly.

Damian shook his head. "You three have always been sorry time and time again. Clearly, that is not working, so I will have to take a different approach."

He slowly rose from the sofa and the atmosphere inside the room changed instantly.

His gaze became dangerously cold as he stood before them, and the three women instinctively straightened their backs. Damian raised one finger.

"Your three families will be removed from every high official position and reduced to lower ranking officials where they will have to work their way up, earning their place through merit. Forgo the dream of reclaiming the ministerial positions your people lost!"

Buzz!

Their heads snapped upward. Shock and horror spread across their faces. The ministerial positions were not merely titles. They represented generations of influence, wealth and political authority, and Damian was stripping their families of all of it in one decision.

"Secondly..." Damian raised two fingers. "Your people will be moved out of the capital ahead of my coronation ceremony. I cannot have entitled brats be swayed over to the side of the rebellion in hopes of gaining greater power if Hagrid should sit on the throne. Your people’s consistent pattern of being untrustworthy can no longer be overlooked."

Hazel’s face lost even more color. Racheal’s lips trembled slightly, while Ruby stared at Damian in disbelief. They understood that this was no longer a warning directed at them personally. Damian was changing the political structure surrounding their entire families because he no longer trusted them to remain loyal when his authority was threatened.

Damian raised a third finger. "Thirdly... You three will return to your individual palaces since you cannot coexist with those kept here. You will never be allowed to step foot into my palace without my permission until you have proven to me that I can trust you to make the right decisions even in my absence."

"Your Majesty!" The three screamed with pale expressions.

Damian did not react. Instead, he slowly raised a fourth finger.

A faint ripple of demonic force appeared beside him, and a Faustian Bargain contract materialized in the air. The ancient scroll unfurled by itself, its surface covered in dark writing that began forming without anyone touching it.

"Finally, I solemnly swear to personally murder all three of you if you ever move against my own interest for your selfish emotions and gains one last time."

Buzz!

The three women’s faces became completely pale.

They watched in silence as the final words of the contract were written across the floating scroll. There was no ambiguity in the wording, no loophole that could easily be exploited. Damian was not making another threat that could be forgotten after an argument. He was binding the warning to a Faustian Bargain. Once the writing finished, azure flames suddenly erupted around the scroll and consumed it completely. The contract vanished into the air, leaving Hazel, Racheal and Ruby staring at Damian with horrified expressions.

Damian’s expression remained cold, but there was no hatred in his eyes. "As promised, I will make you my queens. But whether you can maintain that position and gain more is left to you three... I will no longer accommodate your childish antics, especially when I’m in a battle for my survival and the survival of all the races scattered across the universe."

He turned away from them and walked toward the door.

The three women remained motionless on the bed, struggling to process everything that had just happened. Their positions as future queens had not been taken away. Damian had reaffirmed that promise. What he had taken away was their certainty that affection alone would protect them from the consequences of their actions.

Damian reached the door and stopped without looking back.

"Now get out."