World of Women - World of Women – V4 – Chapter 11

I was sitting on the edge of the pool on a chair, a towel wrapped around me. There were cops all over the place. The four bodyguards were nearby. So was Cornelia. I wasn’t in the mood to speak with any of them. Unfortunately, the cops didn’t allow Cornelia near me since I was pulled out of the pool shed. I guess they were afraid that she was going to coach me or something. The blood on my hands and butt had been cleared off. A woman I was more than familiar with and didn’t want to see a third time approached me.

“We have to stop meeting under these circumstances,” she said dryly.

“Hello, Roxy…” I responded bitterly.

“That’d Detective Roxanne to you. Three murders, three times you showed up. Do you know what they call that? Suspicious.”

“The first murder I wasn’t present for. As for the second, there was a room full of people to attest I wasn’t involved,” I shot back.

“And the third murder occurred before you were dragged into the pool shed.” Roxanne sighed.

I raised my head. “You know?”

“I’m a detective, not an idiot.” She sighed. “There was no blood splatter on the front of your trunks. Furthermore, it’d be exceedingly unlikely that you would have been able to make such a scene in such a short time. From the eyewitnesses, from the moment the door shut to them kicking it open, less than a minute passed. Plus, the witnesses attest that you didn’t have a knife going in.”

“Then, I’m free to go?” I asked cautiously.

“Just because I believe you’re not guilty of murder doesn’t mean you’re not involved,” she responded with a frown. “I can only take coincidences so far. I’m willing to believe the event with Dia was an anomaly, but this event too closely resembles the death of your other friend; two people connected to you die in a place where you end up finding them. That’s more than a little suspicious.”

“…”

“I bit my tongue before, but I won’t do it now. There is something you know that you’re not telling me. At first, I thought it was something inconsequential that only you would think was important, so I didn’t press. Perhaps, that was my fault for underestimating your involvement. With two male deaths on my hands in so many days, I’m now concerned about the state of Amaryllis. Rigor’s death is just hitting the news now. If this gets out as well, then we’re talking a media circus. Don’t think that reporters won’t see the connection to you. This is just a long way for me to get you to tell me what you know. I want to know what you’re hiding. If you tell me, then I can protect you. Otherwise, you’re on your own.”

I sat back as she spoke, the expression on my face faltering a bit. It wasn’t that I was intentionally trying to hold things back. It was that there was nothing I knew that they would take seriously. I had spent years in this world being dismissed, so what was the point in telling her anything?

“Someone grabbed me and pulled me back into the shed,” I started simply.

“The people who saw you said it looked like you stumbled back. Furthermore, there is no other way out of the shed. By the time they kicked open the door, there was no one in there but you.”

“And there was also no one there to murder Charlie, right? I suppose he just fell on that blade repeatedly? Good old clumsy Charlie!” I snapped.

She looked away, her cheeks turning just slightly pink, and for the first time, I saw a bit of embarrassment on the hard detective’s face.

I shot her an annoyed look. “Someone grabbed the back of my shirt and then pulled me into the shed. I didn’t see them… but they did speak.”

“Fine…” She pulled out a pad and paper. “Tell me, what did they say?”

“Hello…” I responded.

“Hello?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Oh… I’m sorry, did you think she said ‘my name is this and here’s my contact info?’”

“It’s a she then…” She responded this time her expression not slipping as she stared at me with her hawk-like eyes.

“Yes.” I shook my head. “It was a she, and that’s what she said.”

I ended it at that, but the detective had an unsatisfied expression on her face. She leaned forward and licked her lips.

“You’re still holding something back.”

“Hmm… it’s pointless if I told you. You’d never believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“This is outside your depth, detective.”

“You’d be surprised by the kinds of things I’ve seen.”

“Alright then, demons.”

She blinked. “Demons?”

I let out a soft chuckle. “The woman who spoke, I recognized her voice. It’s Ashton. She was my roommate back in Amarylis Academy.”

She started to scribble excitedly into her pad.

“She died during the Day of Wrath.”

Her pen stopped, and she sighed. “You said Demons?”

“Did you see what the WRATH girls did in the courtyard? Did you see what they did in that building?”

She frowned. “I wasn’t assigned to the Academy, but I did hear some rumors around the office.”

“They were trying to summon demons. Diba Monic was a demon worshipper. She killed all of those men and women as a sacrifice to summon demons into this world.”

“That’s just superstition. She was a disturbed woman. There are no such things as demons.”

“In a world where magic exists, where the human race suffers from an incurable magical curse that prevents men from being born, and you still manage to disregard things like the paranormal and superstition.”

“I believe what I can see… this affliction… perhaps it’s just a part of our biology that humanity can no longer correct. Magic is merely a type of force, like gravity or the strong and weak forces. Everything has rules.”

“So do demons…” I sighed. “They require blood to enter this world. On that day, demons escaped into this world. I don’t know how many. I know of two, who happened to inhabit the bodies of women I knew. The first was Rebecca, the second was Ashley. I’m sure I don’t need to give you more information for you to look them up.”

“Clyburn.” She frowned, looking a bit uncertain. “If you’re wasting my time…”

“You asked what I know.” I sighed. “Now, you don’t like my answer.”

“Fine.” She folded her pad up without writing any more. “I’ll… look into what you said. I’m pretty sure that you’re wasting my time, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt just this once.”

“Watch out for the shadow people, Detective Roxy… if they think you’re on to them, they may send an assassin.”

That seemed to be one sentence too far. I did want to warn her though. I was pretty certain that was how I was brought into the shed. There must have been a shadow person in there. Naturally, since they were a shadow, escaping was pretty simple. Demons didn’t have teleportation or anything like that, at least outside of the already existing runic teleportation. Ashton had only sent the message, but it was those things that did her bidding.

“It’s Roxanne,” she responded stiffly, no longer looking at me like she believed a word I said.

She stood up and walked away like she had a stick up her bum. She was an unpleasant one. In the old days, I would have toyed with her. A little bit of flirting, a little bit of touching, and maybe I could have turned her into putty in my hands. Nowadays, she could never hope to have a baby with me, so I could only tempt her so many ways.

Not every woman could be manipulated with just the pure anticipation of sex. Most women in this world were starving to have it with a man, but many had long grown to cope without it, and wouldn’t even know what to do with it if it landed in their laps. I sighed at how much this world had changed.

At this point, Cornelia was finally allowed to approach me. She had her arms crossed as she stood next to me. She looked down at me with a look of equal parts helplessness and concern. I could practically see the thoughts spinning around in her mind. Was Clyburn going out of his way to make my life difficult?

“Return to the room with me,” she finally said after a few minutes of watching carefully.

I stood up and followed her. The bodyguards joined us. Brianna had her head down, but it didn’t look like the other bodyguard had punished her that much. She must have just felt personally responsible. If they wanted to be technical, the other bodyguard was the “land” bodyguard, so what happened was her responsibility. If they decided to give trouble toward Brianna, I had written an entire argument to criticize their lack of fairness. All of this had happened while the two experienced bodyguards were watching me just the same as their younger counterparts. Constantly blaming Brianna and Syph was extremely unfair. It was at a level where even I was considering living easy from now on.

Except, I was in the apartment. This was supposed to be the safest place for me. I had Charlie appearing to me at night, and I had a feeling that if Ashton wanted to send more shadow people, or even come herself, no one would be able to stop her. I looked at the bodyguards around me with a complicated look. They were supposed to lay their lives on the line to protect me, but I didn’t want them to die needlessly just because Ashton decided to show up unannounced.

“Where is Grace?” I asked.

I hadn’t noticed her when I had been down there with the other police.

“When the police came to notify me of what happened, she left with them,” Cornelia responded, closing the door behind her and leaving all four bodyguards outside.

I was surprised, given everything, that she didn’t have a bodyguard wiping my butt in the bathroom now. I figured I wouldn’t be left alone at all.

“Wash up. In a few hours, you’ll have your first client,” she said, her voice cold and emotionless.

I raised an eyebrow. “Client?”

She picked up a file from her table and then dropped it on the banister next to me. I reached out and grabbed it, opening the manilla folder.

“Her name is Vanity. She’s an up-and-coming pop star. She’s only 17, but she’s worth millions. You will be the one to make her pregnant.”

“A celebrity?” I looked at the picture of a young blond woman who gave me familiar vibes to the rise of young, female pop stars from the early 2000s.

“Naturally, she was a hot pick, so I went to some effort to make sure you got her. She had requested you, so it wasn’t difficult.”

“She requested me?”

“A few years ago, you had the reputation as the blessed man who could make 50% male babies.”

“It’s true…”

She rolled her eyes like I had said something foolish. “Anyway, you were in the news, if not for that, then the nonsense that happened at the Academy, and if not that, then your speech in front of the peace meeting. You don’t realize how many heads you’ve turned. Many young women were taken by the mysterious and elusive Clyburn who then disappeared from the public eye for two years. Rumor has it that she was supposed to get pregnant when she turned 16, but she held off because she wanted it to be you.”

“I have to say, I’m a little surprised that a pop star would be getting pregnant. Wouldn’t that be a bad career move?’

“What are you saying?” She gave me a strange look. “Women love pregnant popstars. There hasn’t been a single singer who put out a single while pregnant that didn’t get to the top. It’s common sense that a pregnancy would accel anyone’s public career.”

“It seems like after all these years, I still sometimes think with the common sense of another world.” I chuckled.

Wasn’t it pregnancy that had made Madison a popular internet personality? Her relationship with me, and her taking care of a baby, were both extremely popular in this world. It was a place built on the concept that having a baby was the most important thing anyone could ever do with their life. Since getting pregnant was a challenge, and something most women would only achieve once in their life, it was a big event, like getting married or graduating from college.

To the women of this world, having a baby as a teenager was the Amaryllis dream. A woman who was rich, beautiful, famous, and pregnant was just the perfect combination of wish fulfillment, and it inspired other women to similarly seek out these things. In that way, this singer was getting pregnant as a publicity stunt. She’d talk and sing about her pregnancy, and hopeful women would eat it up just like songs of becoming rich or achieving their dreams.

“Fine… but would a celebrity want to meet in this apartment?” I asked.

She frowned. “What’s wrong with my apartment?’

She looked around the place. Admittedly, it wasn’t messy and her tastes weren’t bad. Considering the location and security, this probably wasn’t even that cheap of a place. However, compared to my mansion, I could say that this place was lacking a little bit, never mind the palace I once lived in at Matahari.

“Ah… nothing… I just figured a celebrity might be a little… spoiled.” That seemed like the most tactful way to word it.

“All women these days must make sacrifices to achieve their goals.” Cornelia shrugged. “If she wanted a man to come to her in the current climate, I’d say that would be impossible.”

I nodded. “Fine, then, I’ll go get ready.”

I went to the restroom and filled the bathtub, feeling just a bit regretful that I no longer had a maid to do it. I supposed it would have been too much to get Cornelia to offer me a maid. Now that she wasn’t trying to act as my waifu, I was back to having to do everything myself. However, I missed the days where a cute girl was serving me with, who I could play with. Even while at the MPA reeducation center, I was able to play around with a variety of women. In comparison, Cornelia’s environment was downright stifling. It was no wonder that men fell for her act since they had nothing else to cling to.

A dying man about to fall off a cliff would grab anything, even a loose piece of grass, just for the offhand chance that it saved them. Maybe I was being too harsh on her. Her choices of bubble bath didn’t smell all that bad.

I took a very slow bath, letting the heat undo hours and days of stress. The one thing I didn’t allow myself to do was close my eyes. With the demons around, I feared if I closed my eyes, I’d open them only to see Ashton across from me, or maybe Charlie. When I said I wanted company, I wasn’t that desperate. I finished up without incident and then got into a bathrobe, spending the rest of the night reading in my room.

Perhaps, if I shut off my brain, this could have been my life from now on. It seemed unlikely though. There was someone after me. I couldn’t just pretend nothing happened and shut out the world. Eventually, I put aside my book and I ended up reading a bit more on the girl who was coming to my door. Surprisingly, as time passed, I felt a bit of anticipation. A few hours later, there was a gentle knock on my door. I opened it to see a girl standing there. This was Vanity, and she seemed as dressed up as she was on stage.

The photo looked just like her, except where the photo had her looking cocky and smug, this version of her looked a bit shy. She had her hands behind her back, which made her chest pop out of her low-dipped blouse even more.

“Hello,” I said, looking her up and down without showing any modesty.

“C-Clyburn… h-how do you do? I’m Vanity?”

She did something between a music pose and a curtesy, and she must have messed up because she found herself blushing even more. I had my doubts earlier, but seeing her act so cute, I couldn’t help but feel tempted. Then, I had to remind myself that Cornelia was capable of acting just as cute, but in the end, it was all an act with her. She didn’t have any desires in her at all. I didn’t get those same kinds of fake vibes from this girl though.

She was a celebrity though. She was used to putting on a fake persona, so this personality could be fake. That was the problem with women in this world. I guess, it was the same problem in my old world. You had to find out who were the fakers and who were honest and genuine. Even my wife turned out to be a snake when everything was said and done. I had been staring at her too long as I thought about such inane thoughts, and her face grew even redder.

“Ah… will you invite me in?”

I stuck my head out my door and looked to the side. Wherever Cornelia was, she had made herself scarce. I had hoped she’d stick around. I was not sure what I expected. Would she be overbearing, expecting me to ruin my chance with this girl and scare her away? Would she be jealous, acting angry that she didn’t get to be with me first? I didn’t get to see her expression, because she had already hidden away in her room.

“Is something wrong?” Vanity asked.

“No…” I shook my head. “Nothing, I just think too much.”

She burst out laughing, and then quickly shook her head. “S-sorry! I’m not laughing at the thought of a man thinking. I mean… I’m not laughing at you… ah… I’m sorry, I don’t talk to very many men.”

“You do talk a bit too much. If I put my cock in your mouth, you won’t be able to say anything else stupid.”

“Hmm? I-in my mouth? Does that help me get pregnant?” She asked, seeming genuinely confused.

I smirked. “It sure does.”