Lord of Charm

"Tell me, all this love you've been showering me with, was it real?"

"No. I started liking you at some point after we had sex, but I don't love you as much as I display."

Gale was shocked, he couldn't believe he was being played the whole time. It would be too humiliating, and he knew Lena would mock him in the future every time he'd try to oppose her opinion when it came to women. He turned his head to Lena and saw her smug smile, and immediately tried to hold out hope they misunderstood her in some way.

"Don't be too happy yet, maybe she just means she loves me but showers me with even more love because she wants me to like her back?"

Gale's words were aimed at himself more than they were aimed at Lena.

"Rachel, I'm glad you shared it with me, dear. I want to know more about you, why did you pretend to love me?"

Rachel felt excited, he called her 'dear', it must mean he likes her, and she did the right thing to share her problems with him! She looked into his shining green eyes and felt she should just entrust herself to this man and everything will be fine.

"There are two reasons; the first one was I believed Lena will kill me to hide your secrets once you were done with me because I'd do the same in her place. The second reason was that I felt I could get a lot of benefits by being with an earl's son, who also has a wondrous ability to get stronger quickly."

Lena, who stood behind Gale, felt irritated at the fact Rachel saw through her plans and regretted not guiding Gale's questions to be more specific to prevent such things from being said out loud. She didn't want Gale to think about what might have happened to Mira. She decided to quickly intervene to stop Gale from thinking too much about what Rachel just said.

"Ask her how she'd benefit from being your wife."

"I see, you did the right thing, dear. But I don't understand how'd you benefit from being my wife, do you mind explaining?"

"Of course I don't mind babe. There are two prospects to my plans; the first one is the possibility your powers will allow you to get to the top of the kingdom. In this case, I'd have much to gain simply by being by your side; it would allow me to get any resources I need to get stronger.

The second prospect is in the event you show signs of being tired of me and replacing me with someone else or supposing your powers can't truly get you to the top, I could just sell the information about your abilities for a high price. I'm sure many people would be interested in such unique abilities."

Gale's heart broke. True, he knew her only for one day, but he really felt they had something real between them, and now it all shattered in his face. He looked at the cute, round eyes that stared into his eyes, the adorable round face of a young lady.

He remembered her endearing terms when she addressed him, the way she moaned his name when they got intimate, and the first inexperienced kissing session they had. He felt stupid for falling for everything and believing someone would fall in love with him in an hour without his charm.

Rachel was a prisoner who was taken advantage of for her situation, and he was the one enjoying the benefits. The fact she didn't hate him for that was already only explainable by his charm abilities. He felt a lump in his throat and just wanted to leave, but Lena still wanted him to ask another question.

"Ask her why she accepted my offer if she didn't want to lose her powers."

"Your thinking process was brilliant, dear, and your plans had a lot of potential. But why did you take the risk with people who could destroy you given they found out about your plans?"

It was weird; she could just wait a few years in prison and get out, so why did she need to take such an obvious risk?

"I felt it was my lucky chance and I had to grab it. Without you, I could only reach the Mage Phase in a few decades. As you probably know, the older one is when he becomes a mage, the lower his chances to rise to the Advanced Mage stage are. Without you, Mage would be my limit, but I felt that with your support and abilities, I might have made it to the Advanced Mage stage, or even the Expert Mage stage!"

Her eyes almost shone with excitement, clearly seeing the vision of herself standing at the top of the kingdom with the strength of an Expert Mage. Unfortunately for her, it'll never happen.

"She aimed high only to crush down at a speed she can't survive. I hope you won't get attached to women so easily in the future."

Lena said a few last words and left the room, indicating Gale to start taking Rachel's affinity with earth mana. However, Gale wasn't in the mood to have sex with Rachel.

He noticed his charm abilities only worked when his partner had an orgasm and lost herself in pleasure, which made him conclude his ability's design was to steal his partner's affinity and connection to mana when they were too charmed to resist, which happened during an orgasm.

It made sense that just ejaculating by himself wouldn't help, as his powers were derived from charming others and no partner would be charmed by an early shooter who only cared about his member's comfort. Thus, he was averse to committing himself to please Rachel in bed now after everything he heard.

"I'm leaving, I will think about it and decide later what to do regarding your situation."

Gale left the room and Rachel was left alone, confused. She thought he would comfort her and love her even more after their last conversation. Her problems were supposed to be solved there and then by Gale, yet he just left her alone. Her eyes slowly regained their clearance as she recalled everything that just transpired.

"NO! WHY DID I TELL HIM ALL THOSE PLANS?"

She shouted in horror. She felt her world was falling apart, and her death was inescapable. She, a mere prisoner at the third stage, just admitted to trying to take advantage of the earl's children. The fact that Gale left meant he didn't plan to protect her anymore, and she was sure as hell that Lena would tie up any loose ends to keep themselves safe.

Her door creaked open, making her turn her head just in time to see Lena who just came in. Their eyes met, and Rachel could feel her impending death.

"No! I'm sorry! I promise I will give Lord Gale my connection and affinity! I will just lie down with my legs open without saying a single word! I swear!"

She kneeled and lowered her head so fast it bumped against the floor, leaving a stain of blood on her forehead. In her fright she didn't even feel the bruise, she just kept kneeling and begging for mercy, bumping her forehead on the floor over and over again.

"Poor little Rachel. Your cute appearance can't earn you any compassion from me. I warned you more than once, why did you have to ruin everything?"

"I was wrong! I was wrong! Give me another chance, I swear I won't let you down again!"

Lena slowly came closer to her as they spoke, and stopped only when her feet were only a few centimeters away from Rachel's lowered head. She raised her foot and placed it on top of Rachel's head, pushing it down on the floor.

"Argh"

Rachel let out a muffled groan of pain. She tried her best to remain silent and show no signs of resistance. She had to survive! She had to go through this humiliation and survive!

"You trampled on my brother's feelings, and now you're here groveling at my feet. Tell me, do you still think it was your chance to get to the top in one step?"

"No… I was wrong and blinded by greed. I know my place now."

Rachel answered, with renewed hope she can survive. Gale still needed her to increase his powers, and she believed that she could make Gale take pity on her through her suffering expressions even without saying a single word. Even if he doesn't take her as his wife, he might still spare her.

"Good girl. However, you overestimate your worth. Expert magicians are as common as flies."

A snake made of fire came out of Lena's boots, fried Rachel's brain instantly, and turned Rachel into ashes under the watchful eyes of Lena.