Chapter 233: Gotta love blackmail
An unfortunate fact of life is that not everyone is willing to keep their promises, especially when it’s only verbal.
More often or not, one member of a verbal promise will attempt to renege on it if it means they can get more benefit from doing so, or at least protect their “reputation”.
It’s rather tricky to have people believe you are in the right, when everyone is relying on he said, she said.
This is where contracts come in.
Solid, physical proof that a deal took place, notarized documents that make it clear to the world that both parties made a promise to each other to perform the depicted task or deal to its letter.
Fine pieces of evidence to prove whether or not someone is being a lying bastard.
Or in this case, prove that someone orchestrated the death of their own mother.
“I’m not gonna lie, this is rather brutal, Madam Corrada,” Zhen Liu chided as he held the paper and read through its contents once more, “Exchanging poison for the death of your own mother…damn. Succession politics is a hell of a bitch.”
Telana was thrown for a loop when she saw the paper, but stopped herself, finding it prudent to get answers before getting violent.
“Where did you get that contract?,” she asked with forced yet practiced calm. She was used to dealing with smartasses, she knew when it was the right time to strike.
Zhen Liu smiled as he folded the paper and placed it back into his pocket.
“Which would you believe? That I found it in his desk? In a secret vault? Or in a secret box under several locks?,” Zhen Liu asked in an amused tone as he moved to drink his milkshake. He had no idea if this was completely random, or that Logos and Pathos intervened, but he did find it more refreshing than tea in the desert.
Telana snorted at the repeated question, she had a feeling this was going to be a trend and she despised it.
‘Honestly, I was expecting money, not dirty deeds…,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he recalled how he found this bombshell of a revelation. It was a good thing he found this shit before his uncles did…
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“So…you stole this during the initial conflict between grandpa and Harold?,” Zhen Liu asked as he gingerly looked over the bronze key in his hand.
The key question shared a lot of details with the box that he stole from the Marquis’s mansion all of those weeks ago. He figured that the key was going to be here, but he didn’t expect Frosttusk to find it so easily.
“I…did…it was…in…his…desk…,” Frosttusk slowly answered.
Zhen Liu had offered the mammoth kaijin a chance to chill in his bedside lamp, but the latter refused due to not needing to be pumped up right now…or so he said.
“Well then…let’s open it up shall we?”
From under his bed, Zhen Liu pulled out the funky box he had gotten from the Marquis de Howlite and brought it together with the key Frosttusk stole from Harold’s stuff.
“Alright, so I just need to put it here and…yahtzee!”
The box’s lid swung open as soon it was unlocked, revealing it’s treasured bounty of…papers and a bracelet. Which was honestly a good haul.
“Hmmm…oh shit, looks like the Wolfes managed to get a spatial storage treasure…gonna be taking that after looking through it…and…huh?
None of the papers gave off the feeling of being a lost Aether Art in scroll form, but when Zhen Liu had looked over the contents, he found something much much more interesting.
“Huh…looks like I’m gonna have to a pay visit to the Corradas…great…”
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“Now, as I had said earlier, I am here to simply… propose a deal. Take it or leave it, it’s up to you,” Zhen Liu said to get the conversation back on track, “so what’s it gonna be?”
Telana gave Zhen Liu a cold look when he asked, but she gave a quick nod as a signal to for him to make his deal.
“Excellent,” Zhen Liu smiled, “now in exchange for me not handing this little to your family members and horribly ruining your reputation as a matricidal maniac, I want two simple concessions from you, well technically three. The third is rather conditional though.”
“Which are?,” Telana asked, ignoring Zhen Liu’s words near the end.
“First,” Zhen Liu said as he dramatically held up a finger, “I want the promise that from here on out, the Corrada Family will never plot against the Zhen Clan in any capacity. No selling poisons to our enemies, no fucking up a prescription we get and no more sending coked up bandits to attack our shit.”
That last one sounded weird, but it was a mildly open secret that the Corradas would regularly test out new drugs on their prisoners and then set them loose on the other powers like demented hounds. The others begrudgingly accepted this annoyance due to the drugs that got out of the testing phase were surprisingly potent for their price tags.
“Alright, fine,” Telana agreed, “and your second concession?”
“Hmmm,” Zhen Liu hummed as he tapped his lips with two fingers, “Well…your daughter, Gianna, is quite the looker, ain’t she?”
“Yes…,” Telana answered with a sense of dread.
“Well my cousin thinks so too, and I think their feelings are mutual. Long and short of it, I want you to bless their relationship.”
“I’m not going to gi-wait what?,” Telana asked, clearly confused. She was under the impression he was gonna ask for her daughter as a concubine or something.
She had planned to initially protest before accepting it as fact if Zhen Liu insisted, but now she had to throw that plan out since the latter was asking for his cousin’s sake! Unexpected…
“And…that’s it,” Zhen Liu said as he finished drinking his milkshake, “just keep those two promises, and I’ll make sure to take your dirty secret to the grave.”
“Really?,” Telana asked as she verbally, and visibly seemed to perk up at the word, “grave”.
“Really,” Zhen Liu confirmed as he stood from his seat and moved several steps forward, his back a plain target as he looked forward.
“Now then, Lady Corrada, you were a most elegant host and I do hope-”
*Fwoooosh!* “Die!”
*Thud!*
*Fwoooo!*
*Zap!*
“Gah! What?!”
“…and I do hope you understand you activated condition three,” Zhen Liu continued without missing a beat.
While Zhen Liu’s back was still turned, Telana had attempted to sneak attack him in an effort to keep her secrets hidden. She had assumed that even if Zhen Liu had summoned his puppets prior, he wouldn’t be able to react to her sudden attack in time. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t know those “puppets” were waiting for this moment.
In the same moment Telana had attempted to kill Zhen Liu, Nepherage, Frosttusk and Hurricroak had all intercepted her and locked her down with all manner of arts. While it was tricky to see the expression on the former two’s faces, Hurricroak had enough expressions for the three of them combined.
“D’awww, what’s wrong little lady? Upset that you can’t quench your bloodthirst?,” Hurricroak mocked with a snicker.
When Telana heard Hurricroak’s voice, Telana froze in shock.
‘This boy…can bring puppets to life?!, she concluded as her eyes darted between the “puppets”.
It wasn’t exactly wrong, but it definitely wasn’t right.
Zhen Liu walked up to Telana’s locked form, a look of contempt plain on his face.
“You know…I really didn’t want to do this next part. But…eye for an eye as it were.”
As Telana looked Zhen Liu in the eyes, for the first time in years…she felt fear.
