Chapter 26: A Familiar Story
"I was going to say 'pretty young,' Kir said, grimacing from the knowledge he didn't need to know.
"I'll have you know I'm just under ninety-nine!" Stella argued. "I trained with all the best succubi for my first job! Raelva the Whipmistress, Luturia the Submissive, even Janice! You know how hard it is to get lessons with Janice?"
"I don't-" Kir tried to say.
"Well, it's fucking hard! No one stays a virgin around Janice! But I somehow did!" Stella started weeping. "I'm going to be stuck in this shop foreverrrr..."
Kir felt a little guilty, though he wasn't about to have pity sex with a girl he didn't know. "Look, um... can't I just... free you or something?"
"You have the contract with you?" She instantly went from crying to hopeful.
"No... I don't..." Kir replied.
"Ugh... then it's pointless. No one can get the Duke of Heresy to reveal a contract unless it's being made or fulfilled. Or someone offers him better." She hovered down to the table and sat on the empty box that had held the mana crystals.
Kir chose not to share with her that his mother had apparently managed to escape hers.
Stella slumped again. "I just wanted a nice contract and a good, daily fucking... instead I get twenty years of sweeping and dealing with customers." As Stella complained, the part about dealing with customers made him shudder from some whisper of his past life. "Everyone's probably laughing at me back home..." She mimicked an annoying voice, "Oh, look at Stella. She can't get laid." She pouted even more. "Now I'm anchored to some kid."
"If it's any consolation, I don't plan on keeping the shop or anything like that," Kir said. "I'm going to be a student at the Academy..."