I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism! - I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 157

“Come, sit down.” Mistress Sci gestured next to her on the bed.

I looked her up and down. “What are your intentions?”

A small smirk formed on her lips. “This is the next reward for allowing me to entertain you this evening.”

I smiled and then sat next to her, my leg touching hers. Her smile didn’t change, but she reached out and pulled out some cards.

“Card tricks?” I raised an eyebrow. “That wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“These are divination cards.” She responded with a twinkle in her eyes. “I can use them to see hints about your future, or lost parts of your past.”

I let out a grunt. “So, this is the kind of stuff that paragons get up to behind closed doors. My curiosity has been satiated, but I feel a bit unsatisfied.”

Her eyelids flickered a bit, but she continued to wear her smile. “Were you expecting something else, Sir Spirit?”

“This is called a pleasure palace, isn’t it?” I asked.

“It is… I suppose you are speaking on satisfying a man’s more carnal desires?” she asked, quirking her eyebrow.

“What other desires would a man have if not carnal ones?”

“There are plenty of other desires.” She giggled. “There is the desire for power. The desire for control…”

“There are those that would argue that sex only exists as a bid for power and control.”

Her cheeks turned pink for a moment and asked shyly. “And what do you believe?”

“I believe that men and women instinctively want to fuck.”

“Sir, please!” She put her cards down and covered her face in embarrassment. “Why must you say such vulgar things to me?”

“If not to the mistress of pleasure, who would I say these words to?” I grinned, but seeing her continue to cover her face, I dropped my grin. “Very well, do your magic trick.”

She slowly uncovered her face, her lips tight, but she nodded and made a space between us where she started to deal the cards out between us.

“Are you interested in your past, or your future?”

“What’s the difference?” I asked with a chuckle.

“To some men, it’s just important to know where you’ve been as to know where you’re going,” she responded evenly.

“You can change the future, but there is no changing the past,” I argued.

“Yet, why would change the future, unless there was a past that warned you of your follies?” Her smile returned.

“Mm…” I responded. “I want the past.”

“Oh?” She seemed a bit surprised. “And what would you like me to look for?”

I bit my lip. “My sister, and my mother.”

I was naturally talking about my previous life. I had no mother or sister in this life, so if it wasn’t them, she’d likely find nothing. I didn’t expect much from her, but I was naturally a bit curious about them. I could ask about Mara’s issues, but on the off chance there was something behind her card tricks in this world, I didn’t want her to learn something she wasn’t supposed to know.

“As you wish…” She couldn’t know any of my thoughts, so she merely began to deal out her hand. “I will start with your sister.”

She dealt four cards face-down, one by one in front of me, and then five in front of her, and then she flipped over the first one. It was an image of a girl in a cage. She then flipped over the second, and then the third. It was the same girl, except in a different environment. When she reached the fourth, she paused, and then she looked at me.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” She asked, and she sounded very serious.

“Yes.”

She flipped over the fourth card. It was a picture of a woman lying dead in a pool of blood, her hands and feet tied. Although I was no fortune teller, even I could guess that such a hand wasn’t a good one.

“Is it as bad as it looks?” I asked.

“She was a captive her entire life, always bound by others. Even in death, she was nothing but other people’s slave.”

I lowered my head. I would have expected something like that. She might have gone to prison after killing me. Either that, or she continued to be controlled by my stepdad. Either way, I never expected her to have a happy ending.  Then again, this could all be bollocks too. It hit a bit too close to home for me to completely disregard it though.

“What of my mother?” I asked.

She nodded and pulled the cards back up again. She shuffled the deck and then pulled four cards once again. This time, they were face-up, and the first was an image of a young woman holding a newborn. Then she turned the second and the third. The second one showed a bird in a cage. The third showed the woman covered in blood.

To me, it naturally showed my relationship with her as I knew it. I was born, abandoned home leaving her in her cage, and then returned only to cover her kitchen floor in blood. Only the last card remained unturned. I glanced up at her. She flipped it. There, a bird was flying through the sky.

“Freedom.”

Crack.

Without even realizing it, my hand had been holding the bedpost on the footboard. Her words caused my emotions to turn, and I had broken the post right off the bed.

“Ah, it broke.” I coughed, trying to wipe the tears on my cheeks. “Crappy workmanship, I guess.”

“I never took you for a family man, Spirit,” she said quietly, looking at me with analytical eyes, the smile no longer on her face.

“You don’t even know me.” I glanced at her.

“Spirit, you seemingly appeared from nowhere. Rumors say you come from a mortal farming village. You arrived here with a sister who became the maid to Lady Capala. I suspect this isn’t the sister in chains from my divination. Do you have two sisters, or is she something else to you?” She asked but then continued without waiting for me to answer. “Meanwhile, you became friends with Sammuel the Broken and became a drunkard. That was until you unexpectedly won the martial tournament and Lady Capala offered you her hand in marriage.”

“You looked me up?” I tilted my head.

“I wouldn’t have invited you to my room without this much.” She giggled.

“You wish to know so much about me, but I know so little about you.”

“Being mysterious is the privilege of my profession.”

“Perhaps, you should change professions, Lady Giselle.”

She almost opened her mouth to respond but then her eyes flashed and she pulled a small pen dagger, putting it to my neck. “Don’t move.”

I didn’t react at all to her sudden attack. Rather, one could say I expected it. It was my turn to smile at her.

“What’s the matter? Did you think no one would notice how your appearance in the pleasure palace lines up so well with the arrival of Lady Giselle? I wonder how your suitor Huntington would feel to realize the woman he’s courting all day is also the mistress he lusts after every night.”

Her expression turned sour, and she pushed her blade against my neck harder. “Sometimes, being clever is not a virtue.”

“My bad,” I croaked. “So, where do we go from here?”

“Normally, I would have dosed you with dream essence. We might have had a wonderful time in your dreams. However, I can’t have someone thinking they profaned the Lady Giselle, now can I?”

“Since it was my dream, I’m sure you would have enjoyed yourself as well.”

Her face turned red and then she showed her teeth. “You’re quite presumptuous for a mortal! Do you have any idea what kind of situation you are in? I am associated with the great houses. If I want you dead, do you think your little girlfriend can protect you?”

“Lady Capala is from the great houses too, if recall.”

She chuckled. “Lady Capala is currently a black sheep ostracized from her family. She barely has power in this city, let alone the capital. The difference between me and her are hills to mountains.”

I looked down at her chest. “I agree.”

“Vulgar!” Rage filled her face. “Do you wish to die?”

I snorted. “If you were intending to kill me, you already would. Did you call me clever? Well, I’m clever enough to know that my death would inconvenience you quite a bit. So, I ask again, where do we go from here?”

She clicked her tongue in irritation and pulled the knife away. She then got up and walked to her bookcase of gifts. She grabbed a vial and tossed it to me. I caught it and glanced at the vial, but whatever label identified what was inside it, I didn’t understand.

“Drink it.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You must be joking.”

“It isn’t poison.” She huffed unhappily. “It’s an amnesia drug. You will only lose about the last twelve hours. Don’t argue with me. This is the only offer I can provide. I’ll have someone send you back to your mansion. By the time you wake up, it will be morning and you will have no memory of this event.”

“Will it work?” I wondered out loud.

“Do you doubt me?” She sniffed. “Don’t misunderstand something. Killing you would be inconvenient for my sisters here at the Green Palace. That’s the only reason I’m sparing you. This is the limit of my kindness, but if you won’t take it, you can excuse me if I become impolite.”

“I’ll take it.” I coughed awkwardly just as she looked like she’d pull her dagger out again.

I had been asking myself if such a thing would work. I doubted it, but I decided it wasn’t worth the risk. I downed the vial, but as soon as it entered my mouth I pulled it into my Luminal Space and then swallowed. I opened my mouth to show her I drank it, although it was just harmlessly in my inventory.

She relaxed seeing I had drunk it. “Good. Then, I’m sorry our evening will be cut short. You may suffer a bit as you won’t remember what happened. As a consolation, I will allow you to keep the Eternal Harmony.”

“Is that… so…” I yawned and then fell back on the bed.

I only guessed the drug made you sleep, although she hadn’t said it did that for certain. Of course, I was still awake, but I could fake the biological functions of sleep to the point I could even fool an EEG. As for my memories, they weren’t in any danger whatsoever.