yemalu

"Did you forget? I obtained a skill to protect my mind when we met Delmare?"

She blinked at me, clearly not recognising the name.

"The Sirens?" I reminded her.

She clapped her hands together, "Oh right! I forgot about them since they weren\'t helping me earn any money. So this confirms that it\'s some kind of mind control at work?"

Wow… Really? Do you also only remember me because I can help you get a lot of money? I guess I shouldn\'t ask…

I looked back at Lisa who was still unconscious, "I… I guess? My skill prevents external influences on my mind so it could very well be that. I\'m not familiar with what kind of magic could do something like this."

She shifted her gaze to look at my unconscious Infrid as well, "Hmmm… I\'m not too sure either… Lisa is quite proficient in Alchemy so I doubt it\'s related to poison… But for both Lady Aster and Lisa to get affected but not me…"

I gestured at her, "That\'s what I want to ask next… It\'s quite obvious that your Mikhail guy was also controlled to attack you. And since both Lisa and I only just came on board--"

Emilia suddenly rushed forward to cover my mouth while placing a finger on her lips. She then waved her hand around in the air vaguely before tapping her ear.

Ah… The assassin might be listening in on us right now since Lisa and I were affected by that mind control thing.

Emilia stepped back, "I don\'t know about that… I would have to guess that Mikhail probably spread some kind of drug or maybe it\'s his Unique Skill and your skill neutralised it. We\'ll need to wait for Lisa to wake up to be sure… Anyway, it\'s getting late so why don\'t you sleep here tonight? We\'ll check on her and Mikhail in the morning."

She must be saying all that to throw that guy off. Not sure how much he\'s going to buy into it though since it sounds a little forced to me…

I decided to just play along for now, "I\'ll take you up on that. Do you have an extra room that I can sleep in?"

"Oh, you can just stay here with Lisa, I can have someone bring an extra bed here in a bit. Just let me set up the Privacy Screen…"

Emilia reached into her drawer and pulled out a small ball shaped object that she placed on the table. She then pushed a button at the top and I felt the air shift slightly.

The Nekomata then nodded, "There, that should prevent that ass from listening in if he was."

I pointed at the object, "What\'s that?"

She raised an eyebrow, "Has Lady Aster not seen something like this before? This is a Privacy Screen that prevents people from listening in or peeking in. Most nobles and Merchants use this when they want to keep people from knowing what they\'re doing. I, of course, also have one for my business meetings."

I most certainly have not seen Mother using one before so either she had been using it without me knowing or there\'s no need for it ourselves.

I looked around and I noticed that the air felt a little weird, like it felt heavier than before or something.

"That thing uses some kind of air barrier or something to stop eavesdroppers?" I asked.

She smiled, "As expected of Lady Aster I suppose, normally people can\'t even notice the change in the air. You are correct of course, though I\'m no scholar so I\'m not sure about the specifics. Anyway, we already know the assassin is still around, though we also know that they are capable of turning anyone around me against us."

"So why didn\'t they just control you and make you kill yourself if that\'s the case?"

"Hmm… I\'m thinking that either they can\'t… Or their goal wasn\'t even to kill me in the first place…"

I tilted my head, "If not to kill you then… Drive you away?"

She tapped her chin with a finger, "On the chance that I didn\'t figure out about their mind controlling skill just now, I would eventually come across another attempt on my life by another person they are controlling. Then I would realise that I can\'t trust anyone on my own ship and probably get really paranoid as I live my life constantly watching over my shoulder. They\'re probably expecting me to then choose to run away after that."

"You sound like you don\'t intend to leave even after that?"

"Of course not! Where else can I make as much money as I am over here?! I\'d sooner find a way to run this entire ship without anyone else to help me than just give up on it! Of course, finding the actual culprit and cutting his head off would definitely be the first thing I try!"

"Mmm… I don\'t suppose you have an idea of who might be the culprit behind all this then?"

Emilia raised an eyebrow at me, "If I even had an idea of who it was, I would definitely not be sitting here and ranting, Lady Aster…"

That\'s true… I just thought that maybe she might have a better idea of who was responsible since we know that they might not actually be trying to kill her and just trying to drive her out instead…

Emilia sighed, "Does Lady Aster have any suggestions on how to get rid of this assassin? Because right now you are the only one that I can trust on this ship besides myself…"

Hmm… This is a tough one…

I don\'t think bringing anyone else here is a good idea since I have no idea how this guy is controlling others… So for all I know, even Mary might be susceptible to being controlled. If I at least knew the way they were controlling their victims, I might have more leeway with that.

But since that was a luxury I did not have, I\'ll have to make do with what I have now…

Just as I was trying to come up with a plan, a groan came from Lisa and the Infrid slowly rose out from her unconsciousness.

"Ngghh… Owww… How much did I drink? Why does my head hurt so much?"

Ah… That\'s my bad… I did heal you though… But the fact that she can talk like that means that she must have returned to her senses right?

I quickly went to her side, "Lisa… Do you remember what happened just now?"

"Hmm… Aster? What do you… Ehh? Wait, why am I tied up? Oh!! Is this a new play? Are we finally doing bondage play?" She squealed.

I pinched her cheeks and pulled.

"Owowowowowow~Ahhhhh~ It hurts so good~"

I let go of her and turned to look at Emilia in exasperation, "At least we know she\'s not being controlled now… Maybe your Privacy Screen device also stops the person from controlling those that they can\'t see or hear?"

Lisa let out a gasp before Emilia could answer, "No way! That wasn\'t a dream?! I tried to attack you?!"

"What do you remember?" I asked again.

"Hmm… I remember when Aster shouted something about being controlled… My head started to hurt for some reason and I saw myself rushing up to you… Then I think you shocked me before I lost consciousness?"

Oh, so she remembers what happened while she was being controlled? That might actually work in our favour.

I wanted to untie her but Emilia stopped me before I could, "Hold on. We don\'t know if she can be controlled by that assassin to attack us again and whether it\'s only because of the Privacy Screen that she returned to her senses. I\'m sorry but I think it\'s safer for her to remain tied up for now."

I made a face, "Well… Then what do you suppose we do now? We can\'t just stay here and wait for the assassin to make their next move can we?"

Emilia thought for a moment, "Let me try something… I\'ll go and interrogate Mikhail while taking the Privacy Screen along. Lady Aster will stay here with Lisa to see if she gets controlled again. If she does, it means that the assassin is relying on either sight or sound to control people and we can come up with a countermeasure for that."

"Hmm… I guess we can do that… But what should I do? I can\'t just be staring at Lisa the entire time right?"

Lisa perked up, "Oh, oh~ I know of several things Aster can do while you\'re here, all of them involving me being tied up~"

I stared at her and she smiled back at me, my Infrid smiling at me with very obvious intentions on her face.

You know what…

I turned to Emilia, "Alright, I\'ll be here fucking Lisa until you return soooo… See you later?"

She actually giggled at me, "Ehehe~ Alright, just don\'t break anything."

I was already walking towards Lisa while undoing the straps on my dress and letting it fall onto the ground.

Ok, ok, don\'t need to look at me with those eyes Lisa… I can already tell you are really turned on by the fact you\'ve voluntarily spread your legs and showed me your raging erection.

Now let\'s just take these off and we can start…