29. Setting the Terms

"You want me to do what I did to the hero?" Kiara stared at the count, and the Count laughed. "Is that a joke?"

"No." Edmund sipped a small shot of whisky. "There's a price for everything. Your mother understood it, so it's whether you understand it too."

Kiara stood. "I won't stand this insult."

"Well, and then I'll transfer the debt back to the Kenarias land. I'm sure the lenders are more than happy to use their own ways to get repayment." She froze, and then imagined all the horrible things that would happen to her mother and her.

She sat back down. "I... I want to go back to the hero."

"The hero's a bad investment. You'll put in months of your life, serving him, treating him like the hero, but you won't get anything. He'll have at least ten candidates to choose from, and at the end, he may just take the princess. You're a smart lady, so the question is, why?"

"Why..." Kiara asked herself. She honestly thought that was the best choice, at that time.

"Your mother agreed to serve me for the rest of her life."

Kiara's eyes immediately darted back to Edmund. "What?! That's ridiculous! It's unfair!"

"Can you earn back 240,000 gold with the rest of your life?" But that immediately shut Kiara up. The answer was almost always, no. They'd have to strike it big, and get a huge haul. Find some ancient city made of gold. "Your mother is in her late 30s, almost 40, and she'll live for maybe another 30 years. Of that, with magic, her beauty will last for another 20-30 years. But let's take 20 years. That meant a year's service is worth 12,000 gold. I believe that's an extremely generous repayment terms, when I'll cover everything else."

Kiara sat, and then imagined her mother serving as this man's sexual partner for the next 2 decades. She shook her head and then stared at Edmund. Worse, was imagining her mother going through childbirth.

"So, let's make a deal. You're much younger, only in your twenties. How many years do you want to help your mom?"

"...what?"

"I get that I sound extremely trashy and like a piece of crap, but a price is a price. I'll value you at 35,000 gold, at about three times more than your mom. If you give birth to a child, that's 50,000 gold extra. So, if you serve me for four to five years and have two kids during those years, your debt's done. Then four to five years later, you're still young, you can go back and live it out with your mum, free and easy. I'll even keep all you've done a secret from your mom." Edmund was a demon lord, and he didn't care about political correctness. It wasn't very nice to value her service down to a gold price, but he wanted to enslave Kiara to gain her goddess fragment.

Kiara paused, and her mind was so overwhelmed that she couldn't think. "...I have two children for you?"

Those words somehow clogged her brain. She tried her best to regain her composure, and she took a few deep breaths. Edmund gave her the space to think.

"You're just doing what horrible things those lenders would've done to us."

"Oh, in those cases, they OWN you. You two will be enslaved, stripped of all your nobility and land. I think you can see the huge qualitative difference in what I'm offering, since your arrangements with me will be entirely private. In fact, I'll even help to hide your presence from the world during the years you are pregnant. You keep your land, keep your title, extinguish your debt, and you just trade five years of your life. It's not exactly different from trading your years away to the hero. At the rate the hero's travelling to defeat all the 13 demon lords, I think it would take him... maybe five, seven, maybe even 10 years? Who knows, maybe more demon lords will appear from the rift, and his quests never end."

Kiara had to admit, the hero really took some time to defeat the demons. There were so many demons, and these demons were exceptionally crafty.

All that facts and data overwhelmed her, and she couldn't think anymore. Emotions that she suppressed suddenly surged out, and she started to cry.

Edmund nodded and offered her one of the fancy handkerchiefs that nobles oft had. "Alright, that's enough for today."

She cried into it.

"Go back to your room and rest."

***

Kiara walked back to her room, and she felt like her life was crashing down around her. But when she did, she saw her mother waiting in her room. Her mother didn't say a word, and just gave her a hug.

Kiara realised now how much her mother would sacrifice for her, and she felt guilty. She hugged her back.

"Went for a walk?" Her mother didn't think that her daughter would go and meet Edmund. After all, she didn't think there was any reason for her to do so.

Kiara nodded. "Yeah. I just... just felt really sad at what happened to us. To our family. Our... misfortune."

"There, there." Erenia patted her daughters her head gently and stroked her hair. They sat on the bed.

The knight looked at her beautiful mother, and they just looked at each other for a while. "Mother... you've been through a lot, haven't you?"

Erenia's shoulders slumped, and she sighed. "That's life. There are good times, and there are bad times. We've had a period of great fortune in our younger years, when your father was still with us. Now, we've run into the hard times, but we'll get through it together. But at least, the two of us are still here."

Kiara looked at her mother, a little irritated at her claim of doing it 'together'. Her mother intended to bear all of the sacrifice herself, and  didn't intend to let her know the suffering and torture she would go through.

"It'll be okay. Don't worry and just go live your life, alright?" Erenia said. "I'm fine if you want to return to the hero after the ceremony, and I wish you well."

The knight mentally recoiled at Erenia's offer. She mentally wanted to tell her mom no! She wanted to help her too. How could she leave her mom to suffer at the lecherous noble's hands alone?

Erenia looked at her suddenly defensive daughter, a little surprised. "Why?"

This time, it was Kiara's turn to answer defensively. "Nothing, mother. It's... nothing."