The president paced around the room, his finger resting thoughtfully on his chin. He looked like he was trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, or at least decide what to have for lunch.

  I’d been sitting in this stuffy, closed room with him for an hour now. I figured I was going get a reward or something, but what the hell was taking so long?

  “I got them, sir,” Yamanda’s voice suddenly rang out, followed by…

  “Oh, damn. Where the hell are we?”

  “Probably where the dumbass president does all his scheming,” Vacinay replied to Hessien, who snorted in response.

  The president, who had been strutting around like a wannabe mafia boss, immediately broke character. He slammed his hands on the table and shouted, “I can hear you, you little shits!”

  Vacinay elbowed Hessien lightly and muttered with a half-smirk, “He thinks he can hear us.”

  The president’s eye twitched, and I could practically smell the murderous rage radiating off him. But he took a deep breath, sighed, and muttered, “Why am I getting worked up over the opinions of children with barely functioning brains…”

  “Excuse me?” Ghomas sat down and crossed his legs, looking offended. “I’ll have you know, I am quite intelligent.”

  I decided to let the president’s comment slide. I was feeling unusually generous.

  He rolled his eyes and said, “You’re all wondering why I summoned you here, aren’t you?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “You had one of your damn presidential knights drag me here by force.”

  Earlier, after some knight outside the walls finished talking to me, a ridiculously handsome guy with red hair showed up and told me to follow him. I think I was mind-controlled because I followed him without a second thought. Seriously, my free will just vanished. It was like I wasn’t even in control of my own body.

  Honestly, what was with people suddenly looking so attractive? Did leveling up somehow make me more appreciative of good looks? Weird.

  Anyway, after the president noticed we were all zoning out, he seemed to forget he’d asked a question and got straight to the point.

  Had he found out what I did? Ha. No way.

  “This little brat killed villagers, resurrected them as zombies, and then killed them again,” he said, pointing directly at me.

  Oh.

  I crossed my arms and replied, “Baseless accusa—“

  “Yuen told me everything. One of his spiders spilled the beans.”

  That BASTARD! I’d actually started to think of him as a friend, sort of, and this was how he repaid me? Damn it… I was definitely going to jail now.

  Damn, damn, damn!

  This wasn’t fair! Well, okay, it was kinda fair since I had committed mass slaughter, but it was an accident…

  Vacinay blinked. “Wait, she turned them into zombies?”

  Hessien chuckled nervously. “She can do a lot of cool stuff, but I don’t think she’s that cool.”

  “That sounds terrifying, not cool,” Ghomas said.

  Okay, I’ll admit, without the context of the victims being innocent, it was kinda cool—except for the fact that I had no control over the zombies. Wait! With my mind influence skill card, I could probably get a skill that let me control them. Of course, that would only matter if I ever planned to use that pseudo-resurrection skill again, which I didn’t.

  I decided to cut to the chase. “So, why summon them? I assume I’ll be going to jail or court to testify for my crimes.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  He shook his head. “Are you stupid? You’re a reality defender; I can’t afford to tarnish your image.”

  Oh. OH! HELL YEAH, BABY!

  How could I forget something so simple? As long as politics existed, there would be corruption. And where there was corruption, the powerful would protect those useful to them. In other words, I was part of the protected class.

  I sighed, then took a deep breath. I was so happy I wanted to fall onto a soft bed and kiss it—like, really kiss it good. Like… really good.

  “However,” he said, snapping me out of my trance, “there will be consequences for your actions. I brought your comrades here to inform them that they’ll also be paying for your mistakes, Lumine.”

  “Wut,” slipped out of my mouth.

  The other three looked completely baffled.

  I asked, “Um… what kind of consequences are we talking about?”

  He grinned like a devil eyeing its next victims. “Well… unless you all want your image ruined by the public finding out about that village incident, you’ll do as I say. Sure, you could try to kill me with Tanya, but the information won’t die with me.”

  Oh, that little son of a bitch!

  Hessien frowned. “I don’t get it. We’re important to you. If you tried to ruin our image while also ‘using’ us, you’d be scrutinized too.”

  “Meh, I’ll just say you’re all functioning as slaves. Boom, everyone loves me.”

  …If only I could hack into his mind.

  Well, I didn’t have any skill points left, so that wasn’t an option. Plus, he probably had counters for mind control, given that such powers existed in this world. As the president, he had to be paranoid. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had his presidential knights hidden somewhere, ready to jump in if we tried anything funny.

  Yamanda was in plain sight, at least.

  He smiled and looked at each of us before asking, “So… loyalty?”

  I grunted and agreed, “Sure.”

  Hessien and Vacinay nodded. Ghomas, however, looked around at each of us, puzzled. He turned to the president and asked, “Um… isn’t it kinda weird we have to pay for what she did? It’s not like we were involved. Can’t you make an exception for me?”

  “No exceptions.”

  “But—“

  “None!”

  “Damn it.”

  Sorry, guys. I’d make it up to you all as soon as possible. I’d already gotten Hessien into trouble again. I just kept making life harder for him. And he wouldn’t even complain. Even if I apologized, he’d probably just ruffle my hair and tell me not to worry about it.

  It was kinda depressing to think about how much crap he put up with because of me. If he’d done even half the stuff I had, I’d have been furious.

  The president leaned back and said, “Before I dismiss you all, tell me your levels. For some reason, Yamanda failed to report them.”

  He said the last part with a sharp edge to his voice.

  I was the first to speak. “19.”

  I pointed at the others. “They’re all around the same level as me.”

  To my surprise, Ghomas caught on quickly—sort of. He just stared at the other two with a ‘what the hell is she talking about?’ look.

  Vacinay nodded in agreement. “I’m level 18, but I’m close to reaching 19. I think Ghomas is at the same level as me.”

  The president crossed his arms. “Is that the truth or a lie?”

  Behind the concrete wall, a voice responded, “A lie, sir.”

  You’ve got to be kidding me!

  The president chuckled. “If you don’t give me a truthful answer, no one’s leaving.”

  Yamanda’s eyes widened. “Except for… me, right?”

  “What about me?! It’s a full moon tonight, and I was planning on staring at it all night!” A new voice chimed in. It sounded young, younger than Yamanda. And it came from above us.

  I looked up and saw… nothing but darkness.

  “Oops. Heyo, you can’t see me, but I’m one of the presidential knights—the third strongest.”

  Wait, I thought Yamanda was the third strongest.

  Vacinay poked Hessien. “Uh… you heard that too?”

  “Yup. Some kind of darkness manipulation skill?”

  “Hey, miss, can you control darkness?” Ghomas asked.

  The woman hesitated. “I have no idea what you’re talking about…”

  “Yeah, right!”

  The president slammed his hand on the desk, grabbing our attention. “Your levels! If it weren’t for the weird level protection you all have, I wouldn’t be wasting our time with this nonsense. Make this easy for us!”

  I crossed my arms. “No.”

  His eye twitched, and he pointed at us. “Miss Xealir, make this quick.”

  What the hell was he talking about—

  Suddenly, I felt something cold on my lap.

  Oh god, what the hell was that?

  I hesitantly looked down, half-expecting a little red demon waiting to bite my face off. But it was worse.

  I kicked back in panic and fell to the ground. “Get it off me! Get it off me!”

  I scrambled, trying to scrape the ‘thing’ off my lap.

  Hessien and the others stood up, looking worried but confused. Hessien asked, “I don’t get it. What’s there?”

  They couldn’t see it?!

  They couldn’t see a hand-sized cockroach clinging to my lap like it was a piece of fried chicken?!

  I screamed, “It’s trying to eat me! It’s going to eat me!”

  “Trying to… going to…? Which one—“

  “Both!”

  Hessien turned to the president, ready to make a threat, but the president interrupted. “Don’t forget the information I have.”

  Hessien’s anger evaporated, and he shifted his focus back to me. “This is going to be difficult.”

  That wasn’t the end of it. More cockroaches began appearing—crawling across my chest, shoulders, stomach, waist, and even my foot. Their wings buzzed incessantly, and they rubbed their front legs together, as though conspiring. I could almost hear them whispering, “Don’t forget, eat the bones too!”

  Okay, I was done.

  I shouted, “My level is 23!”

  From behind the wall, the same voice answered, “That’s a lie again.”

  And with that, the number of cockroaches tripled.