Brewing Bad Ch. 134-135

Ch. 134 - Chains of a Different Sort (part 2)

As soon as he heard the noise, Lucas called out, “Occupied!”

That wasn’t so surprising. The Prince’s private villa seemed to have a standard of service that went well beyond anything that was expected at Parin Manor, as well as most of the other homes of the rich he’d visited. 

What was surprising was when the door cracked open behind him, and the maid's voice from earlier said, “Is everything to your liking, my lord?”

“I, uhhh, yeah,” he said, sinking down to his neck to hide his nudity, even though he doubted very much she could see him through the steam. “This is great, thanks. Could you maybe close the door, though? You’re letting out all of the hot air.”

“Of course,” the woman answered. Closing the door softly. 

Lucas was just about to relax. Then, when he heard the sound of quiet footsteps traipsing across the tile floor. That was when he realized that she’d closed the door but stayed in the room with him. Lucas turned and immediately regretted it. He couldn’t see her clearly through the steam, but it was impossible not to notice the outline of a nude woman. 

“Ahh, what do you think you’re doing?” he asked, fixing his eyes on the far wall, even as the maid got close enough that he could smell her perfume. 

“I just thought that you might need a little help in the bath,” she purred. “You were so filthy that I thought that you might need some help getting clean…”

“That’s very thoughtful,” he said, willing himself to stay calm, “But I’m good I…”

He froze when he felt her touch on his back. First, it was a warm wash cloth, which wasn’t so bad because he really was filthy. However, as soon as the thin coating of ash was replaced with a soapy film of bubbles, he felt her naked breasts press against him, too. He pulled away, but her hand tightened on his shoulder as she clung to him. 

“You need to learn to relax,” she breathed, “This is just a treatment we give to very important people like yourself.”

“I told you, I’m good,” he repeated more forcefully as he pulled away from her. 

“You certainly are,” she purred. “More than good, really. I think—”

This time, he turned to face the woman, maintaining eye contact despite all odds. “I am a man in mourning. I’m not here for a good time or whatever it is your guests usually require.”

“I… I’m sorry,” the nude maid said, not displaying a shred of remorse, even after she bowed and started to withdraw. “You just let us know what you need, and we will provide it for you, my Lord. Anything at all.”

Then, finally, she was gone, and Lucas was alone.  

“Fucking VIP treatment, huh?” he whispered to himself as he lay there. “More like the Prince dumped me in his own private whorehouse.”

This was not what he expected, but it should have been. The Prince was used to getting his way, and right now, he wanted Lucas to be pliable. This was certainly the wrong way of going about it, though, and part of him was as offended as he would have been if Danaria really had been dead. To cheat on one’s fiancé was horrible, but to cheat on her less than a day after she died? 

Motherfucker really must have been hoping to dose me, Lucas thought wearily. Drugs did funny things to people, of course, but he wasn’t sure that he’d suddenly drop his morals along with his pants and start banging the help no matter how high he was. 

Lucas resolved to be more clear with the staff in the future to prevent any other misunderstandings they might try to take advantage of as he got out of the tub and dried off. Then, as he pulled the plug and the tub started to drain, he checked to make sure there was no one hiding in his room to ambush him. 

The first thing he did once he shut the door, though, was check his system to see if it had counted this crazy situation as cheating. When he found the stupid achievement was still sitting at one, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he quickly put on his boxers and the provided robe and left the room to find the dining room. If he lingered here alone and undressed, he had no idea who might try to do what next. 

During the meal, which was exquisite, Lucas finally noticed that there didn’t seem to be a single footman in the household. The entire place was staffed by beautiful women, as far as he could tell. The food was a chicken cutlet on noodles with a white sauce. It was excellent, but he couldn’t help but notice that the wine was spiked with euphorics thanks to helpful pop-ups. So, he ignored that and ate quickly. 

“Is the wine not to your liking, my lord?” another maid asked as he was finishing his meal. 

“I haven’t fallen low enough for day drinking, I think,” Lucas said, resisting the opportunity to reveal that he knew what was in it. There was no need to show his hand just yet. They might get suspicious if he avoided every effort to drug him into submission, but avoiding alcohol was perfectly reasonable. 

“Well, could I get you some juice or perhaps a dessert? My Lord seems famished.” As the new girl spoke, she moved toward him, but Lucas waved her away. He was done trying to be polite in this house. He was going to set some fucking boundaries. 

“The food was excellent,” he answered, even as he set his silverware on the plate and stood. “My compliments to the chef.”

“She will be pleased to hear that,” the woman beamed. “Should I tell her to prepare anything special for dinner?”

“I don’t need any sort of special treatment,” Lucas answered dismissively. The maid looked at him like she was hurt by his cold tone, and for a second, he almost apologized, but when he noticed that she was wearing some sort of push-up bra, he realized the game hadn’t actually ended.

Un-fucking-believable, he swore silently to himself. Besides Skylara, he hadn’t been treated like a piece of meat very often, but even when he had, he’d never been hunted like this before. He wasn’t rich or handsome enough for this sort of attention, and it made him feel like he was on an episode of the Twilight Zone. 

“And let me know when my new clothes are here,” he snapped before leaving the room. 

He felt like a dick, but it couldn’t be helped. He’d been nice enough to every member of the staff in Parin Manor and in Blackgate, but in neither case was the help trying to sleep with him, and he was sure all the women that were coming on to him were being paid well enough to make them quite enthusiastic about their jobs. 

The first thing he did was stalk the grounds to find out where he was and wasn’t allowed. His guest suite was, of course, available to him. In the short time he’d been gone, it had been cleaned thoroughly, and the sheets had been changed. He even noticed a candy on the pillow, and when he checked to make sure it wasn’t drugged, too, he scarfed it down. 

The rest of the house seemed largely accessible. It didn’t seem large enough for servants' quarters, but in the city, he supposed they could live somewhere else. The first floor contained other bedrooms, and the second floor had a library and several sitting rooms, along with a couple other guest suites similar in size to his. 

The third floor was dominated by a midsized ballroom. The fourth floor had a hall with several floor-to-ceiling windows to take advantage of the commanding view it had over the city, but it was mostly taken up by what he was pretty sure was the master bedroom, which was locked. That made sense if it was the Prince’s room, but it could just as easily have been the place where the man kept his favorite hooker. He had no way to know. 

The backyard was more promising. The place was a smallish townhouse as far as the nobility was concerned, and the walls around the garden were quite high. Despite that, it was a lush place filled with topiaries and flower beds. There was even a beautiful elf back there sunning herself, but he gave her a wide berth. 

No, not an elf, he realized, as his eyes wandered past her nearly naked body to the sprig of leaves and the rich pink blossom that was growing in her hair. A wood nymph. Huh. I wonder how rich you have to be to import mythological creatures as sex toys. 

Wood Nymph’s Blossom (fresh): Euphoria 8, intelligence -4 poison 2, endurance 2. Enhances the effects of any arousal-focused compounds by 50%. 

The stats on the reagent made him smirk, but he said nothing to her. Instead, Lucas briefly inspected the gardens for any other useful reagents. Almost all plants had some alchemical properties, but none of these caught his eyes as being particularly rare or potent, so eventually, he wandered back inside. 

He’d planned to go back to his room then and wait for proper clothes, but he had a change of heart at the last minute. Just to see what would happen, he went to the front door. That, at least, was guarded by men who looked more than formidable. “I’m guessing that you guys won’t just let me walk out of here if I wanted to, right?” he asked, half joking.

“An important guest like you?” the captain in shiny armor said. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Don’t you worry, sir. The Prince will collect you when the time comes. For now, just try to enjoy his boundless hospitality.”

The man said it with a straight face, and despite the way his men laughed, he didn’t smile. Lucas had been expecting that, and instead of mouthing off, he simply thanked him and returned to his room. Escape would be easy enough with his ring, but it had all the same problems it would have had if he’d simply avoided the whole situation in the first place; someone would just use magic to track him down, and they might find out things he didn’t want them to find out along the way.

The way the guards and the maids reacted, Lucas couldn’t decide if it was common for the Prince to send other people here or not until he got what he wanted out of them. He considered whether this treatment was routine or rare as he returned to his room. 

Ultimately, it didn’t matter. It strengthened his determination either way. 

No matter how much that rich asshole tried to tempt him into losing his way, Lucas wasn’t going to take the bait. He would have liked to believe he wouldn’t have even if Danaria really was dead, but there was no way to know that for sure. 

As soon as he was back in his room alone, though, and he’d shooed all the attractive young women who seemed either eager or willing to satisfy his every need, he sat down and immediately started drafting letters. The first one wasn’t to Danaria, though, or even Kar’gandin; if they weren’t going to let him leave, then there was no way they were going to let him reach out to anyone like that. 

Instead, the first one he wrote was to his Heisenburgle, inviting him to visit in curt terms that spoke of alchemy broadly and said nothing objectionable. Then, after that, he sent another message to his dancing instructor, inviting him to come and restart their lessons at his new address. The letter said nothing of swords but mentioned that he had limited equipment here because of the fire. He was confident that would be enough. 

Once those were written, he wrote one more to his tailor, inviting him to attend and take his measurements for a new wardrobe. ‘I lost everything and everyone in the fire, you understand,’ Lucas explained in the letter. ‘Surely you know how devastating that can be.’ 

He knew all of his letters would go to the Prince, of course, but he also knew that the man wanted him to get back to normal and was not likely to reject reasonable requests and keep him in isolation forever. 

All this perverse attempt at bribery and distraction had done was strengthen his resolve. He was going to kill Skylara or die trying. It was impossible. He’d only brushed against the barest amount of her strength in both forms. He was going to need a lot of help if he hoped to succeed in such an insane mission. 

Ch. 135 - Coming Up with a Plan

His new clothes arrived later that day, and though they didn’t fit Lucas nearly as well as Mr. Twee’s outfits had, he was just grateful not to be half-naked anymore. When the women in this house looked at him like he was on the menu, that just wasn’t going to fly. 

He wasn’t on the menu, but it seemed that almost everything else was, and the feast he walked into that night was more extravagant than lunch would have led him to believe. Lucas went to dinner that night, mindful of what to eat and drink, but was overwhelmed by his choices. 

There was a ham, a roast chicken, and a roast, and those were just the main courses. “You didn’t tell the chef what you wanted,” the head maid said, acting as if this was his fault, “So, she made sure you had plenty of options.”

Lucas shook his head. There were several appetizers and soups, along with any number of desserts. It was nearly half as much food as he’d bought to celebrate his engagement in Meadowin, and as near as he could tell, it had all been made for him. 

“What’s going to happen to these leftovers when I’m done?” Lucas asked, halfway through his second course, when he realized the sheer magnitude of the disaster that awaited when he announced he was full. 

“Well, the staff will eat,” the maid he’d scolded at lunch offered. 

“And after that?” Lucas continued, unwilling to be dissuaded. 

“Well…” the brunette that had first greeted him answered, trying to stall from the other side of the table. “Unfortunately, only so much food can really be put to use…”

The women, at least, had backed off to some degree. That was the other good thing he’d discovered at dinner besides the mountain of food he was facing down alone. It was like they’d come to some mutual agreement that being too forward was driving him away. So, instead, while all of them were unfailingly polite and sweet, there was a thin veneer of professionalism and deniability to everything they said, which made their futile attempts at seduction almost bearable. 

“That’s bullshit,” Simon countered. “As long as I’m the only guest in the Prince’s little love nest, I don’t want more food being prepared than is actually going to be eaten. Make sure the leftovers are given to the beggars at least.”

“But sir, that would be beneath the dignity of—” the blonde started to protest, but Lucas cut her off. 

“All of you have been really keen on making sure I enjoy myself,” he countered, “But you know what would make me really unhappy? Besides being aggressively flirted with the day after my fiancée died? Knowing a meal like this went to waste. You get me?”

“Y-yes, sir,” they both agreed, thoroughly cowed by his dark words. 

Lucas felt like shit for being like this, but then he really didn’t have a choice. In fact, he felt so bad about it that he reached for his wine glass and almost downed it. He was forced to pretend to drink it before setting it back down and switching to water once more. 

Just like at lunch, it was only the red wine that was spiked, which made his life easier. At a feast like this, drinking was the last thing he wanted anyway. 

Lucas ate more than he should have. He indulged to the fullest, but that wasn’t enough to stop him from encouraging the servants to pull up chairs and start eating themselves or from using that resulting distraction to steal a butter knife up his sleeve. He wasn’t going to hurt himself, or anyone else for that matter. 

He was just going to use it to wedge his door shut so that no one tried to sneak into his bed in the middle of the night. Honestly, after the bathtub stunt that the dark-haired maid had pulled, he wouldn’t put it past them, and he had no interest in waking up to some naked beauty that didn’t understand the meaning of no. 

The only beauty in my bed is Danaria, he reminded himself, but there’s no way I’ll be able to see her again until Skylara is dealt with.

Lucas didn’t get back to his room until late that night. Even though that was the case, his day was far from wasted. After dinner, he did the same thing he’d done once he’d sent off his missives and spent the remainder of the evening until he fell asleep dwelling on his plans for revenge. If anything, the crass flirtation he was being subjected to had inflamed his anger.

He wanted to take that dragon down in the worst way, and part of him wanted to knock the Prince from his pedestal as well. The man hadn’t actually done anything to cause this situation directly, but Simon couldn’t help but blame him for enabling that monster. 

To anyone who was watching him, and he was sure that he was being watched by means that were magic or mundane, it might have looked like he was doing nothing at all. He certainly looked like someone who’d just lost the woman he loved as he stared up at the ceiling for more than half the day.

The emotion that twisted his heart wasn’t sadness, though; it was anger, and his blank eyes were fixed on something no one else could see. He whiled away the hours deep in his system interface as he tried to decide what it was he was going to need to do to end Skylara. 

Realistically, he could have probably whipped up the strongest dose of Blue that he was capable of making and delivering it to her as an apology before watching her flat line. Before all of this, that certainly would have worked, but now he doubted that she trusted him enough to take what he made so recklessly. 

I should have made her OD that night when I had a chance, he thought with a sigh as he remembered the night he’d made her think they’d banged.  

That opportunity was lost to Lucas now, so he tried not to dwell on it any more than he had tried to dwell on all the times he should have offed Adin. Instead, he focused on his stats. If he was going to be a mother fucking dragon slayer, he was going to have to up his sword game about a thousand percent. Fortunately, he had a shitload of points lying around to do that with if he decided it was the right move. 

Name: Lucas Sharpe Class: Magical Chemist   Level: 8

Agility: 13 Endurance: 11 Appearance 10

Intelligence: 14 Strength: 11 Soul: 10

Health: 100% Mana: 100%

Status Effect: None. 

Imbued Equipment: Ring of Vanishing (Fine Quality)

You have unspent points. Please use them to increase your ability scores or gain feats/perks.

Lucas had 35 points, and near as he could tell, that was enough to get his strength and his endurance to 15 and his agility to 20. He wasn’t sure how strong or fast that was, but even that probably wasn’t enough to beat a dragon. 

I could boost all that with potions and elixirs, too, he told himself. Lucas had done that ages ago in his fight with Sir Tristian and a couple other appropriate battles, so he had some idea of exactly how much two or three points could affect things. 

He had Enduring High, now too, which would make performance-enhancing drugs last that much longer. Is there anything that makes them work better, though? He asked himself as he flipped through the list. Some kind of increased sensitivity? 

Lucas had no way of searching through the long lists of abilities he could purchase, but so far he hadn’t found one. If he did, though, that one would be a must-have. 

Even if he didn’t, though, he was pretty sure that getting +1 when you had 20 of something was a lot more powerful than +1 when you had ten of it, so from that perspective, at least, there was lots of synergy in that choice. Still, for now, he resisted. He wanted to do some precise testing at Blackgate with potions calibrated to various strengths when he got out of here. Not only would making up a whole pile of those give him more experience points. They would also be a lot more fun than anything he could do in this house. 

As he had that thought, the image of the nude dryad sprang to mind as if to refute his statement, but he suppressed it. She’s not in this house, he reminded himself, and even if she was, she wouldn’t be half as pretty as Danaria. 

As Lucas’ thoughts about boosting his attributes chased themselves round and round in his head, he eventually returned to the lists of advantages and abilities that might be able to help him. There were some straightforward powers like Heroic Toughness and Infatigable that would make him much tougher without too big an investment. Those were definitely on the list. 

Unfortunately, what there wasn’t much of was combat abilities. He didn’t have any sort of super strike waiting to be unlocked, and as powerful as magic was, he was pretty sure that in a fight with someone who could breathe fire, that would be alike a flintlock vs an AK-47. The Prince had a whole guild of mages. So, if mages could take out a dragon, he wouldn’t be worried about her. 

I have those achievements, he considered. Fancy Footwork, and whatever the murdery one was. Maybe if I get those, it will unlock new abilities that will make me better with a sword. Is a sword even big enough to kill a dragon, though? I might need a lance or some shit. 

Regardless of what he didn’t pick up, the first purchase that he made was one in the foraging section. Preferred Enemy seemed to exist so that he could have an easier time harvesting certain varieties of reagents, but that wasn’t what he planned on using it for. 

For 1 point it gave him extensive knowledge of a specific variety of creature as well as 10% increased damage and a 25% increased quantity in harvesting yields. For 2 points, one could focus on a subspecies, and it increased that knowledge to encyclopedic levels and, most importantly, increased the damage to 30% as one suddenly knew exactly where and how to strike. It also increased the quality of the yields by 25%.

As soon as Lucas was sure that it applied to dragons, and specifically red dragons, he selected it. As soon as he did so, his mind was flooded with information about dragons, and specifically, the fiery crimson ones like Skylara. He suddenly knew how big they got, how old they could be, and how hot their fire was. He even knew what their eggs looked like. No, more than that, he knew what the properties of dragon egg shells were and how useful they could be in armor oil of fire resistance and…

Lucas was having trouble even keeping up with the things he knew about dragons at this point. He’d gotten it because he wanted to know where to stab the bitch to kill her as quickly as possible, but his mind was flooding with the nature of the scale patterns and a thousand points of trivia. The red sequined dresses she wore to balls most nights were actually her scaly skin in a transformed state. The fact that she could take them off, put them on, or change their appearance didn’t seem to matter. 

Worse, though, was the fact that her supple skin was just as hard as her underbelly was normally. Though that was weak by draconic standards, it was still harder than steel and…

“Fucking hell!” Lucas groaned, grabbing his skull to ensure it didn’t fly apart from all of this new information. He’d gotten what he wanted, but it might well be more than he needed by a long shot. For better or worse now, he had a doctorate in dragonology, 

I just hope all this gives me the information I need to kill the bitch, he thought as he started to dig through the vast pile of alchemical and combat knowledge that now filled his brain.