Maybe she needs some advice about something and wants to use this moment to talk with me… or she could just want to help, I guess.
“I could use some help stuffing the ravioli,” he said. “Would you like to assist me with that?”
The way Jasmine’s eyes brightened until they were brilliant enough to outshine the sun told Alex that he’d been right. Stepping fully into the kitchen, Jasmine shifted into what Alex called her Rich Girl Pose Number 22, which involved her spreading her feet shoulder-length apart, placing one hand on her hip, the other near her mouth, and throwing her head back while simultaneously thrusting out her chest.
“Oh ho ho ho ho! In that case, I shall aid you in your task of preparing dinner, Alexander! Do not worry, for I, who am known by all as the Queen of Cooking, will not let you down!”
“I know you won’t.” Alex gave her a warm smile as she walked into the kitchen.
As Jasmine rolled up the sleeves of her pink pajamas, which Alex recognized as a pair he had bought for her birthday last year and wandered over to the sink so she could wash her hands, the living room door slid open again and Madison wandered into the kitchen.
With the appearance of a beautiful young woman with long, russet hair and amethyst eyes, Madison could have fooled anyone into thinking she was just a normal maid. Her black and white dress, with its frilly accoutrements, swished around as she moved. Semi-translucent white stockings and a bonnet completed her outfit. When combined with how natural her movements were, anyone would have thought she was just a pretty woman working as a maid.
However, Madison was actually an android that Alex had built for Jasmine after they had become friends. When he had discovered that Jasmine’s parents were never home, that her brother all but ignored her existence unless he wanted something, and that she didn’t have any friends to play with, he had made Madison to be her companion.
There were laws against the creation of artificial intelligences. Alex had heard that it was thanks to a war that had broken out between humans and machines some couple hundred years prior, though he’d never bothered confirming it. In either event, only people who had a license could create androids.
Alex was one such person.
Madison was easily his greatest creation, an artificial intelligence that was capable of learning. Her operating system was something he’d created after having his own brain mapped out and translated into code. Madison went about her day to day life, learned and experienced new things, and when she shut down for the day, her memories wiped clean anything it deemed unimportant so it didn’t use up extra space. What’s more, her OS evolved and became more streamlined. The longer she existed, the more efficient she’d get at removing only the memories she didn’t need, retaining what she did, and becoming more human-like in the process.
“Are you also going to help us, Madison?” asked Alex.
“Negative, Master.” Madison shook her head as she stood behind them, hands clasped in front of her. “Mistress Jasmine has informed me that she would like to help you alone. I assume she wishes to deepen her bond with you by sharing this moment. As Mistress Jasmine’s maid, I will not interfere and merely observe.”
“You’re already interfering by just being here,” Jasmine snapped, her face redder than a red star. “And don’t tell Alexander that! H-he might get the wrong idea.”
Alex withheld a chuckle as he prodded Jasmine into focusing on her task instead of bantering with Madison. That said, it did his heart a lot of good to see them getting along so well. Madison had been made specifically to be Jasmine’s companion, and it looked like she was fulfilling her task admirably. Jasmine always seemed very at ease in Madison’s presence.
“S-say, Alexander,” Jasmine started.
“Yes?”
“Um… oh ho! I was just wondering… with Gabrielle, you are protecting her from her suitors by pretending to be her fiancée, yes?”
“That’s about the gist of it. Why do you ask?”
“Oh ho! W-well, I was just wondering.” Jasmine stopped stuffing raviolis and poked her cheese coated index fingers together. “I-if I was in Gabrielle’s place and was getting married against my will, would you do the same thing for me? Marry me to keep me from being married off? I-I mean, you know, pretend and stuff.”
Jasmine was acting awfully bashful, though he guessed that with a subject like this, even the inscrutable rich girl would get embarrassed.
What was happening between him and Gabrielle was complicated. Gabrielle’s father, King Lucifer, the man who controlled more than three-fourths of the galaxy, was trying to marry his daughter off. To keep her from being married to someone against her will, Alex was pretending to be her fiancée. At least, that was how it had been.
“You know that you can tell me anything, right? I know you think I’m just using you to get out of having to marry one of Papa’s suitors, but the truth is, I really do love you.”
Only a little over a week had passed since Gabrielle had told him that she loved him. She had been so sincere as he was sitting in the hospital bed, injured, that he was left with no choice but to believe her. The problem now was that he didn’t know what to do.
Alex wanted to return her feelings, of course. Truth be told, he was almost positive he loved Gabrielle back, but he hadn’t been able to respond to her like he wanted. The reason was…
Blood flowed to Alex’s crotch as he wiped the cooling agent from Nyx’s body, his hand brushing her against her nipples, which had stiffened into a pair of points.
Several weeks ago, the police had tried to kill Nyx, and Alex had gone against the police and rescued her. During that time, Nyx had used her nanomachines to transmute her body too much. This had caused her body to overheat. Alex had saved her, but doing so involved him stripping her naked, using a cooling agent on her body, and then cleaning her so the chemicals in the cooling agent wouldn’t interfere with the healing process.
Even now, Alex still remembered how aroused he had gotten. He recalled, quite clearly, how his body had responded to Nyx’s cries and his actions. It made him sick just thinking about it.
Alex had realized that day that he was nothing but a disgusting freak. He got off on doing something perverse to a girl while she was unconscious. Only a sick, perverted freak could ever get aroused from something like that.
“Alex?” Jasmine’s voice snapped Alex out of his self-loathing. He looked at the girl, who was staring up at him with a worried expression.
Realizing that his silence was bothering Jasmine, Alex presented her with his best smile. “If your parents ever decided to marry you off against your will, I would fight tooth and nail to stop it from happening.” He paused. That wasn’t really answering her question. “Also, if it ever came down to it, I would gladly marry you.”
Alex hated himself for saying those words, which, no matter how true they were, merely reinforced why he was such a loathsome person. He was already fretting over what to do about Gabrielle and what happened with Nyx. Now he was adding Jasmine’s problems onto his shoulders. He felt like a two-timer—no, a triple-timer.
However, when he saw the smile on Jasmine’s face, the joyous glimmer in her blue eyes, Alex knew that he would gladly put up with his self-loathing if it meant keeping this girl happy.
“Oh ho! Oh ho ho ho!” Jasmine turned her head. “T-then if that time ever comes, I shall be counting on you to rescue me, Alexander! Oh ho ho ho ho!”
“Yeah,” Alex whispered. “I’ll be sure to come and save you.”
Dinner was a lively event that night, though that was like comparing hydro spanners to tractor beams. With people like Gabrielle, dinners were almost always lively, but this time, with the additions of Jasmine, Madison, Michelle, and Ariel, dinner was nearly five times more rambunctious. Conversation flowed. Laughter erupted from around the table. Even Alice was smiling, though she stopped when she noticed that Alex had seen her smile.
Nyx had also seemed quite happy. It was hard to tell because she didn
’t really smile. However, he thought her lips had been turned into a slight expression of happiness as she sat between Gabrielle and Alice.
After dinner, Gabrielle and Michelle offered to do the dishes for him. They claimed it was only right since he made dinner. Alex had accepted this and let them wash the dishes. The last he saw, the pair were standing by the sink, their wings enthusiastically flapping as they smiled and talked while their arms were buried elbow deep in soapy water.
As he entered the living room, Alex looked at the couch. Alice was laying on it, sprawled out like a lazy bum with her eyes affixed to a tablet. Earbuds were in her ears. She was probably being conscientious of Ariel and watching Titan Girls on her tablet instead of the holovid. Speaking of Ariel…
Alex wandered up to the girl, who sat in front of the low plasteel table, staring at the tablet in front of her while biting her lower lip in what he could only assume was frustration. He looked at her tablet. It listed off several math problems based on Quantum Theory. The problems were basic, easy to solve, but math must not have been her strong point. The look of frustration made him think she was about to begin boiling.
“Would you like some help?” Alex asked.
“Gya!” Ariel shrieked, tried to jump up, slammed her knee into the table, and went back down. “Ow! Ow! Ow! Damn it, that hurts!”
“Erm… sorry,” Alex apologized as the girl held her knee and swore up a storm. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“You should be sorry!” Ariel snapped. “What kind of jerk sneaks up on a girl like that?!”
Alex wanted to point out that he hadn’t snuck up on her, that she’d just been so engrossed in staring at the tablet she hadn’t heard him walk up to her. He didn’t. It would have only made her argue more.
“Would you like any help?” he asked again. “I’m pretty good at math.”
“Are you saying I can’t do this on my own?!” Ariel asked, and Alex realized that this girl was the kind who liked to make things difficult for others.
“Not at all,” Alex tried to respond calmly. “I just thought it would be faster if I helped you out. That way you could do something more fun.”
Ariel paused. He could almost see the cogs in her head spinning. She clearly disliked math, but she didn’t want to appear incompetent in front of others, especially since it looked like Alice, Jasmine, and Michelle were already finished with their homework. Not being able to do something on her own was probably a blow to her pride.
She bit her lip for only a moment, then huffed and turned her head. “I can do this myself. I don’t need your help.”
Alex knew she was going to say that. “All right. I won’t bother you anymore, but the offer is always open if you need help.”
“W-whatever…”
Since Ariel didn’t want his help, Alex left the living room in search of Nyx. Perhaps he could convince her to spar with him.
Before he could begin to search for her, however, the doorbell to his house rang, and Alex sighed as he wandered up to the front door and opened it, wondering who it could be.
“Greetings, Groom-to-Be!” Azazel boomed from the other side.
Alex stared at Azazel for a full one second, and then he slammed the door shut.
“Don’t close the door on me! I have something important to discuss!”
Alex opened the door again, a frown on his face. “What do you want, Azazel?”
Azazel was a tall man who towered over Alex by several heads and shoulders. Dirty snow-colored hair framed a pretty boy face with purple eyes. A segmented breastplate was strapped to his chest, clinking against his shoulder pauldrons as he shifted in place. He wore a sword strapped to his waist. Jutting from his back was a pair of white wings that reminded Alex of an old image he saw of an angel in a history holobook.
“I sent your response to King Lucifer in regard to Princesses Ariel and Michelle. He said he wanted to speak with you.”
Alex paused. King Lucifer wanted to speak with him? As in actually hold a conversation? Did that mean this wasn’t going to be a simple message like the last one had been? In that case…
“Let’s go up to my room and talk,” Alex said at last.
“Of course, Groom-to-Be.”
Alex sighed but didn’t say anything.
His bedroom was on the second floor, and it was much larger now than it used to be thanks to Gabrielle’s expansion technology. Saying that, since it was now so big, it meant all of his furniture looked tiny, and his room appeared quite spartan in comparison to how it used to be.
Alex wandered over to his desk and sat down in the swivel chair. He studied the inventions lining his shelf for a moment, but then turned to Azazel and gestured to him.
“All right. Let’s see what King Lucifer wants to talk about.”
“Of course, Groom-to-Be.”
Azazel pulled a device out of his own D-space, which reminded Alex of a disc, except this had the telltale angel wings of an Angelisian device jutting from either side. Pressing a button, Azazel set the device on the ground and stepped back. The device blinked once, a small light from inside of the hole in the center of it flickered, and then, appearing before him like a ghost, a figure silhouetted in black stood before Alex.
Like the other male Angelisians, this man had angel wings jutting from either side of his body. Alex could make out nothing else about his save his eyes. They were a startling silver so bright they almost glowed.
Is he presenting just his silhouette on purpose?
“You must be King Lucifer,” Alex said.
“And you must be Alexander S. Ryker,” the figure spoke in a deep, rumbling baritone.
“I heard you wanted to speak with me.”
While Alex presented a calm, composed front on the outside, on the inside, he was a boiling pot of emotions. This was the man who had tried to force Gabrielle into a loveless marriage. It would be inaccurate to say that Alex did not like him. If it wasn’t for how powerful King Lucifer was, and how the two of them lived in different quadrants of the galaxy, Alex would have gladly punched this man’s face in for what he’d put Gabrielle through.
“I hear you have decided to let my two daughters, Ariel and Michelle, stay with you. However, that does not work for me. You see, those two have already been promised to someone else. I can’t have you ruining their only chance at getting married.”
Alex twitched as he clenched his right hand into a fist. “I see… so you’ve decided to force them into a loveless relationship like you have their sister.”
“Love can be earned later on. What’s important is that I had finally found someone who was willing to marry these two before they ran off, and now he is wondering where his brides have gone.”
As King Lucifer spoke, Alex noticed something odd about his words. “You’re speaking as if they’re both engaged to the same person.”
“Indeed. The man who has agreed to marry them has… eccentric tastes, and he has agreed to marry them both. It is quite fortuitous, really. I had honestly given up hope of anyone ever wanting to marry such defective daughters.”
D-defective daughters…?
It took everything Alex had to keep his body from shaking with rage. This man… these words… he was… Alex was so angry that he could scarcely think. Disjointed thoughts flitted through his mind. Broken. Fragmented. A red film had been cast over his vision, a dark crimson like blood, and then there was the voice, the seductive whispers of Voice Number One inside of his mind, tempting him, seducing him.
“Isn’t this man a real fucker? Don’t you hate him?”
Alex normally ignored Voice Number One. Nothing good ever came from listening to it. This time, however, he didn’t. This time, he listened.
I… I do…
“Good. This is good. Hating someone like him is natural. He’s treating those three like his toys, but they don’t belong to him. They belong to you.”
What? No… those three are…
“They are very precious to you. Un
like him, you won’t treat them like that, right? You’ll protect them, right?”
Yes… of course…
“Then hold them tightly. Don’t let this man have his way. Show him that Ariel and Michelle can’t go to someone else because they already belong to you.”
Alex did not think Ariel or Michelle belonged to anyone, but he also wasn’t going to let King Lucifer have his way. He wasn’t going to let this man force those two into marrying someone they didn’t love.
“I won’t let you do what you want with them,” Alex said in a quiet voice filled with anger. “I’m not going to let you lay one fucking hand on them, and I sure as hell won’t let some pompous ass who thinks he can just claim them like they’re his property touch them either! Ariel and Michelle will make their own damn choice! They’ll decide who they want to marry! Not you!”
His words caused Azazel to gawk at him, but Alex was almost entirely focused on the image of King Lucifer.
“Ho?” Alex couldn’t see his face, but it felt like King Lucifer was grinning. “You don’t seem to understand something. Those two are defective. The chances of them ever finding a person willing to marry them is slim to none. I was lucky to find even one person. Are you telling me that I should not let them have this opportunity because you don’t want them to marry? Aren’t you being cruel?”
“You’re the one who’s being cruel!” Alex snapped. “Marriage isn’t something you do just because! It’s a precious bond between people who love each other!”
“Such a naive way of thinking. Then tell me, boy, will you marry my daughters?”
“I…” Alex hesitated, but only for a moment. “I will protect them, and if they decided they wanted to marry me, then I would, but I won’t make that choice for them. I’ll let them make their own choices.”
A Most Unlikely Hero, Vol 6 Page 6