Daimon dusted off his clothes, now that the creature was gone, there was just one pending matter to tend to before he could return with his beloved Aisha to have a relaxing bath, in preparation for his departure tomorrow.
He approached Pablo and the others and made Pablo remove the restrain that was preventing Olivia from talking.
"You already saw what is this planet dealing with, I offer your Black Wave a chance to not only survive but prosper, instead of the slavery with cattle purposes that those things will put you through if they win".
"Naturally, you'll all have to sign a contract and those who fail to fulfill the requirements will be executed on the spot since I don't need spies in my files", he said.
To Pablo's surprise, his mother who in his experience should be getting angry and try to fight back, remained silent for a moment before she nodded.
"We'll join you, but you have to guarantee we'll be paid for our services and rewarded for our contributions, we are assassins and not slaves after all", said Olivia, to which Daimon agreed.
Olivia noticed her son's baffled expression and she sighed wondering where did she go wrong at raising him, what a joke she just saw the queen who doesn't show any face even to the king, not only listen to the masked silver haired youth, but casually acting close to him as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Not only that, but the creature which was horrifying enough to make her, who has seen quite a lot of the ugly side of the underworld of Neptune, feel unpleasant just by being in its presence, she wasn't too sensitive or something, it was an instinctive thing.
And yet this youth who she is sure is younger than anyone in this room, made such a thing feel fear to the point that it begged for pardon, she who has survived so many crises to reach the Stellar rank as and removed a lot of heads until she became this Black Wave's branch leader, could recognize an opportunity when she saw one.
Besides, she knew her son wouldn't betray her unless he was forced, so since her sole weakness was in the hands of the silver haired youth, why should she suffer, when submitting will give benefit her.
Someone who had the support of the Light Palace's matriarch, couldn't be a bad boss anyway.
Daimon called Thea and she helped him make the contract between Olivia and Daimon, the Empress was still a bit down since she couldn't detect that curse, her pride in her innate ability which was in her eyes, took a blow.
But to be honest she wasn't at fault, out of all the ones present, only Evangeline probably noticed that curse before it showed signs of activating, but couldn't say anything until it was endangering Daimon directly, due to the restrictions of the system.
As for why Rita reacted first, that's because she lives is Daimon's shadow, also unlike Horals whose talent is battle, she excels at mana sense, which ends up making her a formidable mage, giving her an incredible facility to comprehend her element.
Thea still reacted faster than Aurora and Annete, so she genuinely doesn't have a reason to feel bad about it, but Daimon didn't say anything to not put salt on the wound.
Olivia casually accepted the contract becoming Daimon's third subordinate through Thea's contract ability, Daimon then ordered Pablo to remove the restrains on the other executives.
Not even a second later, one of the executives, the one who Olivia earlier ordered to take Pablo to a safe place, which was also her second in command, a tall man called Mekt, became a flash of light that aimed at Daimon's neck.
But there was an even faster flash of electricity that made Mekt froze on the spot.
"Blegh!", Mekt, whose mouth was covered by a piece of cloth, vomited blood, he slowly looked downwards and saw a knife coming out of his throat, he managed to slightly turn his head backwards, just to see Olivia's cold eyes glaring at him.
"L-Lady Olivia, why…", he managed to say before the light abandoned his eyes as he collapsed on the ground dead.
The other executives had a not so convinced expression on their faces, profession aside, Mekt has been at Olivia's side from the very beginning, it's not a secret for everyone that he had feelings for her, and yet she killed him just like that.
It's not like they were exactly friends, but it didn't leave a good taste in their mouths to see their boss surrendering to the other side so easily, but that only lasted for a second, before they saw Daimon removing the piece of cloth that was covering Mekt's lower face.
"T-That is!", one of the other executives pointed at Mekt's corpse, the flesh of his mouth was gone, leaving his raw meat exposed, surprisingly there was no wound or blood, as if it was meant to be this way, which is clearly not the case, since Mekt was a regular mixed Mermen.
"He has worn that cloth since we left the gathering between the four leaders of Black Wave, I originally thought it was just a personal preference, who would have thought that he already betrayed us and jumped into the carriage of the leader of the Bone Sea…", said Olivia.
Independently of that, she acted because she who has lightning affinity could see that the silver haired youth which became her boss a second ago, was smiling from the beginning to the very end of the incident.
The others confused the fact that he released the restrains on them before making them sign contracts, as a "greenhorn" mistake, but Olivia realized that Daimon did it on purpose.
'He already knew there was something fishy ongoing and used this opportunity to purge the spy and also see what my reaction would be… what a terrifying fellow', she thought.
Olivia was right, Daimon never did something without a reason, like previously stated he has already seen through the pattern of actions behind the scheming guy.
That preference of using one's weakness to get what it wants, is a major flaw in its strategy from Daimon's point of view, it makes it easy to see from where will the knife will come for you.
That guy was Olivia's most trusted subordinate, if his treason wouldn't have been revealed, then Black Wave would have been infiltrated from the inside and no one would have noticed it.
Unfortunately, he had no option but to act right now and then try to sweettalk Olivia, with something along the lines of "It was for the sake of Black Wave", since he wouldn't be able to sign a contract that will kill him on the spot, as he had ulterior moves from the very beginning.
Naturally Daimon has already seen through it, he was the one who created this chance for Mekt, by sending sound transmissions to the queen, Thea and Aurora, telling them to show some "distraction", so that the assassin will try to attack him.
And those three perfectly executed their role, from the very beginning the assassin was a clown dancing on Daimon's hand, even if Olivia turned out to be a disappointment, the murderous intent and the pair of eyes that could be seen coming from Daimon's shadow, meant Rita was up to protect her young master.
"Just to be clear, I don't have the hobby of killing anyone who doesn't deserve it, if you work for me, then you can expect to get benefits, that guy probably sold himself over a chance to become a Stellar ranked, even if that meant becoming one of those things", said Daimon as he pointed at Mekt's corpse, which had started crumbling apart, apparently the one who gave him that power made it so there would be no corpse to study once he died.
But that is also fine, because now Daimon could confirm that normal beings could turn into those creatures, one must not underestimate the wish of others for strength, and since the scheming guy had the means to grant others strength, then it was easy to find fools to manipulate.
That also drew a line between the White's ancestor and the scheming guy which wasn't clear before, since Carlos was given power through a potion instead of being turned into one of those creatures, the objective was the same, but the method was way different, so Daimon could confirm that they weren't on the same side, each had their own goal.
Daimon then took out a wooden bottle and opened it, making the four executives and even Olivia's eyes glow, they could feel every cell of their bodies telling them that the content of that bottle was beneficial for them.
Daimon then poured a glass of three-colored water and handed it to Olivia, who immediately recognized it as one of the most treasured resources of the Clear Water kingdom, which was exclusive to the Minister of development and their closest family members.
"Three-colored water", she mumbled as she accepted the glass Daimon poured her.
"That's right, like I said, those who work for me get rewarded", said Daimon.
The three-colored water is beneficial for anyone regardless of element, at least the first time, after that, only those whose affinity is related to water, will be able to get some benefits out of it, but it is still not a resource that can be found even in the black market as it is strictly regulated by Raymond.
Not to mention all Mermen had a decent water affinity, even if it isn't their main one, the three-colored water is indeed one of the most beneficial things they can get, to the point that there is a chance, they improve their lineage concentration thanks to it, like Walford.
Naturally this glass which Daimon handed Olivia, wasn't even close to the dosage needed for it to take effect on a Stellar ranked, but the fact that he was willing to give such a precious resource to a newly joined subordinate as a reward made those executives eyes to glow.
If they are going to sell themselves, why not choose the highest bidder, they will get stronger and wouldn't need to turn into monsters, and they just had to kill others for it, it was a dream come true for them.
"We greet the young master!", they said at unison, imitating Horals's demeanor.
Daimon inwardly smirked, naturally not everyone was as perceptive as Olivia who submitted out of her own will, without the need for any external reward, besides keeping her life of course.
For those who were destined to always be soldiers, immediate benefits are the best way to control them, the method of the stick and the carrot so to speak.
'Sigh, these fools just wasted a chance for long term benefits over some peanuts… whatever, as long as they can live that's fine', she thought.
Olivia gladly drank the glass of three-colored water, and could feel it nurturing her body, she then bowed and said.
"Thanks for the young master for his generosity, I have something to report, may I proceed?".
Daimon nodded; he was interested in the conversation she was having with the creature before the battle broke out.
"Go ahead, there are no strangers in this room", he said.
Olivia then proceeded to tell Daimon everything regarding the gathering of the leaders of Black Wave.
Turns out, that this time things took a different direction, Black Wave is an organization that was founded a long time ago, but it started as a mere gathering point for assassins to exchange information and jobs.
Once the organization grew big enough, they split into four branches one for each sea, they then develop their own methods, rules and internal organization, which resulted in the Black Wave of today.
Still, they kept in touch, since that way they could wok as an information network that covered all Neptune, and the leaders of each branch reunited once a year to exchange information and discuss some major events.
This time they gathered, due to all the recent important events that had happened lately, like the Trident of Promise breaking, the statue of Snakele, the Shaman receiving backslash, and the recent actions of the pirates and the Skelefiends.
Everything was going like usual, but at the end of the meeting, the leader of the Black Wave branch at the Bone Sea, asked for a moment to talk exclusively with the other three leaders.
It was then when things went downhill, the four leaders were originally on equal standing, all being early stage Stellar ranked, but this time the leader of the Bone Sea turned out to have advanced to the middle stage, not only that but his affinity which was originally earth, somehow became related to darkness.
Or at least that's what Olivia used to believe after she saw him using some kind of black mist to demonstrate his current powers, he invited them to join first, but the three leaders naturally knew there was no such a thing as a free meal.
And when they said they will take some time to think about it, the leader of the Bone Sea changed his approach, from an amicable invitation to forced recruitment, the other three leaders joined hands to resist and were able to escape each using their own means.
"The leader of the Maelstrom Sea suffered wounds when we were escaping, but me and the leader of the Elemental Sea were able to defend ourselves, could be because my affinity is lightning and wind, while the leader of the Elemental Sea has fire affinity, which are able to face darkness head on", said Olivia.
She still felt chills remembering that black mist, which was practically the same as the one the creature tried to use to attack them, it wasn't hard to deduce who was behind the sudden advance of the leader of the Bone Sea.
Daimon nodded, he more or less understood the current situation, since the Global Raid was approaching, the scheming guy had started to accelerate its plans after seeing them fail due to Daimon's interference.
In other words, it went from exploiting weaknesses directly to overwhelm others with strength, the usual pattern.
"Olivia, do you have a registry of all the ones who joined Black Wave?", asked Daimon.
"Mm, we make everyone sign a silence contract before they enter the organization, so we have a list of the names and directions of all the members", she said.
Daimon nodded and then turned to see Thea.
"Miss Thea, can you accompany them and bring all those guys under a contract?".
Thea nodded, the other members of Black Wave were weaker than the executives, so she could mass contract them, and with her ability to travel through space easily, they should be finished in a couple of hours at most, not to mention she still felt bad regarding the curse which she didn't realize was planted into the creature.
"Please do so, we'll be leaving tomorrow, so don't overdo it", said Daimon.
Thea used her spear to cut a breach into the space and the dragged Olivia, Pablo and the now four executives, they had a lot of cleaning to do after all.
Daimon let out a sigh of relief, he was exuding Overlord's Pride aura all the time, to leave a big impression on those assassins, not to mention he practically used all his battle aura when he dealt with the creature, he already used Sanctuary today during the tournament, so he couldn't replenish his stamina, mana and battle aura that way.
Though Aurora was here, he didn't ask her to use Silver Citadel on him, earlier because he didn't want to waste it, what if a real emergency happened, then he would be in trouble, but now everything was over at least for today.
"Let's go back to the old man's mansion… here this should help you with that", said Daimon.
With everything that happened, Annete forgot about the small wound in her hand, she got due to punching Carlos on the face without any mana, so Daimon handed her a healing potion.
It was nothing special, but the queen still gladly accepted it and drank it on the spot, only after that, she opened the portal back to Vincent's house using the arrays in her private prison.
"I'll go talk with Mellie, goodnight", the queen was still processing what she learned about her mother's death, so after a short goodbye she left to Daimon's room, where Mellie was.
Aurora wasn't any better, there were some troubles lurking on the shadows of the Elemental Sea too, so she was worried about that.
"I'll go prepare for tomorrow's departure, please keep an eye on that little girl", she said as she left.
Daimon stretched his body and then went to his room, where Aisha has been waiting for him to haver her "bath", the others were already sleeping, with the only exception of Mellie who left the room to have a conversation with Annete.
Aisha's pretty purple eyes glowed as she saw Daimon entering through the door.
"You sure tool your sweet time interrogating that thing, darling~", she playfully said, her little fangs enlarged a bit, giving her a slightly wild charm, and Daimon knew he was about to be suck dry, in all the meaning of the word.
