Everything will be my way!

The servant opened the elevator and, with a practiced movement, pulled out a box with the man inside.

Kyon felt himself being carried to the side. The barely audible splashing of water came from there. Apparently, someone was taking a bath. Nearby, near the wall, something was swinging on a chain… Six items. Six living people! Their weak heartbeats indicated that they were in the deepest sleep, or even in a coma. He also caught a distinct smell of blood and the scent of a woman, which sent goosebumps running down his skin.

The servant took the pot-bellied man out of the coffin, brought him to the six hanging ones and hung him on a hook by the chin next to the rest, the last in a row. Then there was a terrible crack of cut flesh… Then there was the sickening sound of blood gushing from the throat. It collected in puddles under the feet of the victims and flowed down the gutters into the bath that the empress took.

{For the fuck's sake, what a carnage?!} – quietly opening his eyelids, Kyon saw a magnificent female body in the center of a spacious bathtub: perfect proportions, skin pale as snow without a single wrinkle, strict and imperious facial features, flawless, as if from a painting by a brilliant artist. The empress of Rosarrio lay peacefully in the water with her eyes closed. Very long silver hair, loosened into countless strands, slowly drifted around her. If the current situation were not so terrifying, such a sight could only be admired.

The blood that got into the water smoothly flowed around the body of the bloody empress, slowly turned black to the state of resin and settled to the bottom in the form of a sediment similar to ashes.

Only the overlord phasers (9) and above can affect metabolism, thereby keeping the body young. But Lanatelle Russell, who was a sovereign phaser at the peaking stage, looks at most 25-30 years old, but certainly not 170. Kyon concluded that the reason for this amazing beauty and youthful appearance is the unique body of blood, which prolongs her life, bestows youth, and probably affects her talent.

Meanwhile, the servant cut the throat of the sixth poor fellow and approached the pot-bellied man. With a practiced movement, he cut his throat as well, but soon he frowned with displeasure: the blood was not flowing fast enough, and the incision seemed small. The man tried to enlarge it, but realized that he couldn't. He broke out in a cold sweat, afraid to disturb her majesty, so he pretended that he had done his job and quietly left.

Just now, Kyon, with the help of Synergy, without causing any noise, allowed the servant to injure him in a controlled manner. The plan is simple: to pretend to be dead, somehow leave the halls of the palace, and then call Eve and Leila for help if necessary.

When the blood of a mature man touched her body, Lanatelle suddenly opened her eyes and instantly left the bath, finding herself next to the group of hanged men. She frowned at the seven victims and fixed her gaze on "The Dark Baron". The woman immediately recognized him as the most dangerous criminal of the empire and even realized who exactly brought him here.

The empress approached the man, took a little blood with her finger and tasted it. Her thin eyebrows went up: {The quality of his blood… Sapphire? No, it can't be, it's ruby!} – for the first time in years, she was truly surprised by something.

Blood is ranked as follows: quality - value - whose veins.

1) black - sick - people who have been ill with something serious for a long time, whose life is already running out. For example, poisoned with a deadly poison that has been active for many years; drug addicts who have been using the most toxic substances for many years; mentally ill individuals who suffer all their lives and want to die; unreasonable beings.

2) brown - lousy - heavy drinkers and smokers; drug addicts; old people in the twilight of years; psychologically crushed personalities; people with poor congenital or acquired health; suffering from obesity, diabetes, depression, etc.

3) gray - bad - occurs in 90% of cases.

4) white - normal – people engaged in sports and self-development; those who monitor their health, including psychological; who are lucky from birth. It is rare among humans, in about 1% of cases;

5) silver - good - people with some kind of innate talent, with a good unique body, healthy psychologically and physically. It occurs 1 in 100,000.

6) golden - excellent - people gifted with something from birth, incredibly strong in body and spirit, like generals. Fate favors such people. It occurs about once in 100 million. This is the last type of blood that can be influenced, and only if the parents will work on their mediocre child from birth, give him a high-ranking cultivated body and not only that.

7) emerald - amazing - is rarely found in the descendants of the direct blood of noble families, who got an amazing innate unique body and who will receive a high-ranking cultivated unique body.

8) sapphire - grandiose - hardly anyone on the planet has it. The energy contained in the heart blood of sapphire quality can significantly affect the talent and change the life of any "???" for the better.

9) ruby ​​- legendary - the dream of any "???".

10) diamond (scarlet diamond) - divine - the purest blood that flows in the veins of goddesses and gods, as well as legendary creatures like supreme phoenixes and dragons.

The ruby blood in the man's veins made Lanatelle yearn to drink it with all his being, but the woman held back because it was cursed. Deep chagrin flashed through the empress' usually indifferent eyes. The higher the blood rank, the stronger the curse. If she takes the cursed ruby-quality heart blood, she will bring disaster upon herself for the rest of her life. It's not worth it. No matter how much she would like to taste this treasure, she will have to control herself.

An imperceptible stream of wind instantly dried the body of the empress from moisture, after which she put on a silk silver robe thin as a sheet, fitting every curve of her slender body, and with a wave of her finger sent energy to the man's neck.

Kyon felt his blood boil, and a powerful healing force instantly healed the cut neck. Real skin lay casually over carbon.

{It's bad…} – Lovr decided that the empress could not accept such a simple death for the criminal who terrorized the capital for a whole year. Initially, he planned to pretend to be dead by stopping his heart for a few minutes, but now this plan clearly won't work.

Soon two servants in gray masks received a mental order, unhooked the man, dressed him, took him to some dark room, certainly not intended for receiving guests, chained him to an iron chair and gave him medicine to wake him up.

The only problem is that medicine for instant recovery from coma has not yet been invented, from this Kyon concluded: people are brought here in a state of deep sleep, which means that the zeroth general deliberately drove him into a coma in order to leave no chance of survival, apparently, in order to prevent a conversation between "The Dark Baron" and the empress.

Without any hesitation, Lovr pretended that there was no coma - he just woke up. He was about to have a conversation with the bloody empress. She was given such a nickname for a reason. How to convince such a cruel tyrant not to kill him? Maybe he should offer to work for her, taking control of the shadow sector of the capital? Bullshit!

{Maybe I should tell her directly that I am the messenger of the goddess?} – Kyon immediately realized that this would only make his situation worse. The person with such limitless potential, who shamelessly exploited the entire empire, hiding behind the investigator, will definitely not be released alive. He should not even hint that he is the messenger of the goddess.

{She's looking for a talented alchemist…} – Kyon recalled, but immediately abandoned the idea of offering his services. There are at least three reasons: firstly, the one who makes medicine must be a trusted person. It's like with the personal chefs of the nobility. Taking the most dangerous criminal in the capital to this position is as stupid as inviting a clown to a funeral. Secondly, in this way he will condemn himself to lifelong slavery, because such an irreplaceable professional is unlikely to ever be released, maybe only in the event of his death. Thirdly, and most importantly, the longer Dick is absent from the order, the more suspicions he will arouse in the zeroth general about the fact that he is "The Dark Baron". And being a loyal servant, he will definitely tell the empress about it.

In general, Lovr realized that he had practically nothing to offer the empress. If only…

Suddenly, the terrifying head of a vast empire appeared at arm's length from Kyon. The atmosphere has cooled sharply to the state of permafrost. His heart was even afraid to beat because of her steely gaze.

«"Dark Baron", will you tell about your gift in a good way or in a bad way?» – Lanatelle immediately got down to business, determined not to waste a second. Her eyes twinkled menacingly.

{How did she know?!} – Lovr wondered to himself, when he suddenly discovered a spiritual attack, but, to his surprise, felt almost nothing. She must have decided to just scare him for now. The question arises: should he pretend to be scared to death?

With the help of Synergy, a whole train of thoughts flashed through his head: all possible options for further developments. And, oddly enough, the strategy of the cunning man trying to brazenly fool the empress was considered a losing one. It's not just the high probability that she will see through him. No. In this situation, it is necessary to win the respect of Lanatelle by showing masculinity, which she has not seen in people until now.

Not a single muscle twitched on Kyon's face.

The empress's thin eyebrows slightly raised, after that she used 0.1% of the real power of her spiritual attack, but the result was the same. She used 1%, then 10% and finally all 100%.

Lovr felt his soul vibrating from the powerful impact, and his blood was trying to shrink from fear. But no more than that. For some reason, the empress's spiritual attack causes even less horror than her icy gaze. Probably, the Void body grants high resistance to spiritual attacks, all this cannot be explained otherwise.

{His soul has amazing resistance to spiritual influence! So the pressure won't scare him either. It must be because of the ruby blood…} – Lanatelle could not remain indifferent. Even an overlord phaser at the beginning stage (9) will experience a moment of awe from her spiritual attack, an sovereign phaser at the beginning stage will lose consciousness, and a imperial phaser will absolutely die of a heart attack! However, some noble phaser at the middle stage not only survived the full power of her gaze, but was not even scared! His heart beats evenly, and there is an unshakable firmness of spirit in his eyes.

«Your Majesty», – Kyon spoke respectfully. – «Please don't try to scare me. I am not the kind of person who will be affected by threats. I am not afraid of death and pain, I am not afraid of your cruel despotic temperament. Do you want to know what my gift is? Well, I'll show it to you. Please order some servant to come here with oblivion medicine to avoid unnecessary sacrifices.»

Lanatelle noticed Zosimos' attempt to seize the initiative in negotiations, and she did not like it at all. Moreover, she did not like the fearlessness with which some little man was talking to her, and how boldly he withstood her gaze, she had not encountered such a thing for decades. She is used to dialogue from a position of absolute authority, in which everyone bows at her feet and tries to please her by any means. If there is no obedience, then it will have to be achieved by ruthless tyranny!

Suddenly, Kyon felt his body go numb. He couldn't move a single muscle, and even the keys refused to rotate. Under the influence of an unknown powerful force, the jaw opened, and some kind of pill flew into the mouth, and then into the stomach.

Lovr's eyes widened for a moment, but then even greater determination appeared on his face. A little later, he felt the destructive energy of the medicine spread through his body. Everywhere it went, his body was filled with burning pain, as if magma was flowing through his veins. With every second, the torment grew, and after a minute it seemed that every cell was dipped into boiling oil. He felt a throbbing pain in his temples. There was a ringing in his ears. The whole body was pierced by incredible pain.

As Kyon quickly realized, he had just been fed torture medicine of approximately "A" rank. The force of its impact is terrifying, more effective than almost any physical torture, and most importantly, it does not injure the body and psyche. But its effect is comparable to only two needles. In Boston, he managed to get Valeera to give information only using three needles. Approximately the same level of pain was caused by voracious keys (pearls of darkness and light) when they gnawed into the body and changed the channels of their elements. And once upon a time, the masters gave him the opportunity to try out all 5 needles to know the real hell.

The pain from torture medicine turned out to be so insignificant compared to the 5 needles that Kyon decided not to suppress it with Synergy. For naturalness, as well as to feel all the cruelty of the empress.

Lanatelle silently watched the suffering of "The Dark Baron" for fifteen minutes, after which she coldly spoke: «Are you ready to obey my demands now?»

Kyon looked up stubbornly at the woman and smiled faintly: «Your majesty, let's not waste time. My daughters are waiting for me at home.»

The empress chuckled in surprise: {I underestimated him…}

(Author's note.. the author believes that Lanatelle looks something like this: https://ibb.co/gMvWMmR )