I didn’t decide to stay with Claire for much longer after that. Yoona had come a few minutes after me, and I left it up to her to guide our new addition around the preplanned sights and her new dorm room while the Regressor was busy tinkering in the background. For once, nothing catastrophic went wrong, and Jae-Hyun was able to make something to temporarily disable Claire’s abilities to the men in our core group. After Noel scared the woman half to death, I doubted she’d try anything funny while her brother’s life was on the line, but having that safety net was nice in any case.

  Jae-Hyun had decided to give Claire’s recruitment interview - which is to say, if she’d tell us the truth about her powers - after the election was over. We thought it would be wise to give her a few days to adjust to her new environment that should help ease her into trusting the Regressor’s guild. Well, my daily nudging with Noe’s emotional manipulation also helped build that trust artificially even if the Regressor’s own plans didn’t work, so I was fully confident that she’d integrate naturally into the guild come the right time.

  The weeks leading up to the election itself continued on without much pomp and circumstance. The Kim siblings were at the forefront of the campaign trail, going around showcasing the wealth and might of the Abyss guild with public events and spectacles. Hell, he even made the rest of the original members of Pandora join in on some monster-hunting expeditions with the newcomers, having us act more like glorified babysitters and teachers than actual teammates. The new people, as expected, appreciated the support, especially when they were told that they could keep of the various drops and rewards.

  Marcus was hard at work in the front of things as well, having the role of spiritual leader. Many of the Aspirants still believe that all of this was set up by their Judeo-Christian god, and having a practicing spiritual leader at the center of things made them susceptible to the Father’s subtle manipulations. The man probably had more say than Jae-Hyun himself, but the Regressor assured me that he had zero intention of leading himself. Instead, Marcus had been busy painting Jae-Hyun as the Chosen Messiah, and from the fervent whispers and prayers I’d been seeing, his message was working.

  Honestly, Vadeem, Noel, and I were barely necessary for Jae-Hyun to win the popular vote. Sure, there was always the persistent group of dissenters that mysteriously disappeared on a regular basis, but those people made up a minuscule percentage of Pandora’s overall population. Even without our intervention, they wouldn’t have been able to influence the direction of the vote, but as the Regressor liked to say, it was always better to be safe and use every advantage that we had.

  Thus, the days leading up to election day meant that I’d follow Noel around while she checked to see if any new troublemakers appeared while Vadeem and I would have some private chats with the ones who inevitably choose to rebel. Most of the time, they could be convinced to see the errors of their ways with a liberal application of the Vadeem Special, but there were always the stubborn ones who thought they could lie and get away with it. Those ones got Noelled.

  Therefore, it was to the surprise of absolutely no one that the Regressor won the position of the city’s head. Hell, he won with 96% of the votes; so overwhelming was his support that I was afraid that someone would notice the improbability that one candidate could be that popular, but by that point all of the people who would have thought it strange had been taken care of. Noel had even complained that she missed 4% of the populace and promised to rectify this apparent mistake.

  Once all of the hubbub of his victory had subsided, the guild had settled down once more and decided that it was finally time to see if Claire was worthy of joining our ranks. I had long ago briefed the rest of my friends about her unique nature, and the Regressor had shed some additional insight about the woman, or at least about her future self.

  Apparently, after her brother passed away, she’d gone completely mental, or at least that was the popular consensus about what happened to Claire. She had only shown up very late in Jae-Hyun’s timeline, so the only things that he knew about her early life were from hearsay. What he knew for an absolute fact was that Claire had been one of the biggest headaches that plagued the later half of the Trials, and it was only through the combined efforts of the strongest female Aspirants teaming up that led to her downfall.

  She had apparently enthralled close to five city-states worth of Aspirants by that time, and every single person she had under her spell strengthened her own basic stats as well. By then, her charm had practically gotten so strong that it could be considered a law of nature. Even the most expensive and rare charms could only stifle her abilities at range, and the Regressor had been powerless to combat the woman. He was on the sidelines dealing with Claire’s horde of brainwashed goons. I could imagine how much of a nightmare facing such a foe would be.

  Vadeem and I were a little dubious about allowing someone like that to join our ranks, but the Regressor assured us that he could make the appropriate countermeasures for her down the line, even if the worst-case scenario came to light. In fact, he said that compared to Claire, Noel was more of a threat, much to the surprise and joy of the redhead. That was to say, the Regressor had already written down contingencies to deal with her, it was just a surprise for the man to see Claire so early on. We saw no reason to doubt him now, and we also had Noel to do her thing if it really came down to it.

  “So,” I said, breaking the awkward silence of the meeting room, “Let’s hear what you can do, Claire.”

  She nodded slowly, a blush starting to form on her cheeks as she must have been deliberating what she should say. I was worried that she’d lie, but apparently, my meddling during the last few days was enough to have earned us her trust, if not her respect.

  “It’s…” she stuttered, “it’s embarrassing to say, but my ability’s um…”

  “It’s fine,” Yoona comforted, “Do you want me to tell them?”

  I eyed the girl questioningly.

  Yoona: Sorry guys, she told me in private earlier, but I didn’t think it fair to share that without her consent.

  Jae-Hyun: No, it’s fine. The fact that she’s willing to confide in you already means a lot. I’ve never heard her have any close relations in the past.

  Lady Awesome: That’s my bestie! But remember, only I can be your number one super friend, Yoona! She has to settle for number 2.

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  Claire shook her head. “No, it’s fine, Yoona. I’ll explain.” She took a breath and continued, “My ability is seduction.”

  We all blinked, trying our best to look surprised. Some of us were more successful than others, but Claire was so embarrassed that she didn’t notice Vadeem’s… dubious performance.

  “I see…” I muttered, “Can you explain that?”

  She nodded. “My class is called the Spawn of Lilith, and it’s limited to a few people, but I can control men to do, well, whatever really. I can… um,” She frowned, unsure how to explain. “I think it’s easier to just show you.”

  She turned to me for a second but changed her mind and turned to my big friend instead. “Um, Vadeem, do you mind?”

  My friend looked surprised for a moment, but when he saw Jae-Hyun’s nod, he went over and okayed Claire to do her thing.

  “Uh, what am I supposed to do exactly?” he said with a slight frown.

  “Just stay there, look in my eyes and relax your mind,” she replied, “It makes the process easier if you put your mental barriers down, and I don’t have to embarrass myself further.”

  Vadeem grabbed a chair and did as he was told. “Alright…”

  Claire composed herself and did her thing. Now that I wasn’t the recipient of the ability, seeing her work was kind of freaky. One moment, Vadeem was his usual self, doing his best to maintain eye contact without being too freaked out, and the next moment he was slack-jawed and completely out of it. Hell, he was drooling a bit. The twins tensed up when they saw their guardian’s condition, but Yoona and Jae-Hyun quickly calmed the two down.

  “Holy shit!” Noel chimed, “His brain finally gave up on the rest of him!”

  Claire looked over with concern, but I quickly gestured for her to continue her demonstration. “Please ignore her; you’ll get used to their antics eventually. Continue, please.”

  Claire gave Noel one more questioning look but nodded, placing her attention back on the stupidifed mound of muscle. “Vadeem,” Claire continued, “Get me a drink of water.”

  “Yes, ma’am…” he muttered before getting up from his seat to fetch a bottle of water from the corner of the office. “Here you are…”

  “Good, now do a dance.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  He got up from his seat and started to - and I use this word as loosely as possible here - “dance”. We all watched his performance in morbid fascination.

  “And there goes the rest of his body functions…” Noel muttered, shaking her head. “That’s honestly quite disturbing, even for the crap we’ve seen here. Pity I don’t have a phone to record this. I could sell it to the Vatican as proof of demonic possession.”

  “As you can see…” Claire sighed, “The people under my ability will follow my instructions, but how they do it is up to their ability. So it’s more accurate to say that I can influence them, but I can’t make them do something they couldn’t before.” Claire snapped her finger. “You’re dismissed, you can stop now.”

  Vadeem’s eyes cleared again, at least partially. “What the… woah, Claire, you’re looking…” He frowned harder. “That’s not right…” He tried to turn his attention away, but his gaze kept shifting back to the woman. “Something’s wrong with me.”

  Claire’s expression changed as she saw Vadeem resist the passive portion of her ability. “Amazing, you were able to notice.” She shook her head. “Sorry, let me dispel that.”

  She waved her hand and Vadeem’s tense expression immediately calmed.

  “What happened?” Yoona asked my friend.

  Vadeem shook his head again, trying to clear the last of the residual charm. “That was damned weird. It was like… I dunno, it felt like meeting my wife for the first time. Felt like I had to do something to win her over, it was the strangest thing.”

  “The feeling should be stronger than that,” Claire clarified, “But that’s the consensus of what the lingering, passive portion of my class does. Like I said, it’s limited, but the ones under my control will have the urge to do anything in their power to ‘win me over’, as it is.”

  “How many can you control at once?” Jae-Hyun asked.

  “Actively, just one. But I can keep up to 5 in that intoxicated state indefinitely. I can up that number to about 8 if I actively use mana, but no more than that right now.”

  The Regressor scrutinized her expression for a second before nodding.

  Jae-Hyun: She’s telling the truth. I think we can believe her.

  Lady Awesome: You have a built-in lie detector now? Since when?

  Jae-Hyun: I’ll explain later, but I think she’s genuine about wanting to join us. It’s strange seeing her like this and not what I remembered.

  Vadeem the Dream: Yeah… let’s keep it that way. The lady you described sounds like a nightmare.

  “Thank you for telling us,” Jae-Hyun said, “And for leaving nothing out, I know it must have been a difficult decision given the nature of your gift.”

  Claire nodded, looking a little relieved.

  The Regressor continued. “First of all, I want to say that you have done a wonderful job during the probation period, and you are more than welcome to join our guild henceforth. I have also heard that you needed our assistance with a particular curse?”

  The woman nodded quickly. “Yes, Jae-Hyun, sir!”

  “Just Jae-Hyun is fine.”

  She nodded again. “Right, of course. But it’s my brother. I’m not sure if you’ve heard from Walter or Noel, but he’s been sick ever since the Second Trial. Something got to him near the end, before we cleared the stage, and no one’s been able to cure it so far. I heard there’s a doctor here that can help. Please, you have to help him, he’s the only family I have left.”

  Jae-Hyun gave me a probing stare, but I assured him that I knew what I was doing. Or, more accurately, I was sure that between my connections with Q and his people and Noe, I could feasibly fix any issue that the Trash Matrix brings.

  Watler’s Fine: I can do it, don’t worry. I just need a quiet room to work in.

  Jae-Hyun: I trust you. Take any of the offices in the basement; call one of the staff if you need something.

  “I’m that doctor that my late friend was talking about,” I said with an easy smile, “And I’ll be glad to see your brother. Bring him to room 1002 downstairs, and I’ll begin.”

  Claire got up from her seat and grabbed my hand. “Thank you! I mean it, please, if you can help him then I’ll owe you my life.”

  I chuckled. “Just bring him here first.”

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