[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 10 - Madam

The moment Freddy opened the door and saw who was standing in front of it, he slammed it closed and leaned against it.

‘Holy shit! It’s Madam Morleppe! Holy fuck! I slammed the door in Madam Morleppe’s face! Aaah!’ His mind whirled as he rushed to try and come up with some sort of plan.

Madam Morleppe was the biggest late-night talk show host in the entire country, and Freddy spent many a night shift watching her on the BC. So that begged the question—what the hell was she doing here?

It was far from his first day on the job when it came to pleasing people higher class than he was. His habit took over, and he gently opened the door again. “Greetings, Madam Morleppe. I am so sorry,” he said as he exited the apartment, keeping his head down. “My living space is quite… shameful, so I hid it out of reflex.”

She was slightly taller than him, but even if she wasn’t, Freddy was sure that standing in front of her would make him feel minuscule. Her three bodyguards wore shaded sunglasses and neat, black suits, standing a little behind her.

“You are Freddy Stern, I surmise?” She asked, her voice even more beautiful in person.

“Yes,” he answered.

“Good,” she said as she turned around. “Follow me.”

“Uh—I uhm…” Freddy’s mind whirled with questions, but a relatively simple issue prevailed.

“What is it, darling?”

“I,” Freddy said, waving his hands around until a finger finally landed on the door. “I have to uh… I have to lock the door.”

She stared at him flatly for a few seconds. “Alright, then,” she said. “Feel free to do so.”

“Okay… I… Just a second.” Freddy hopped into his apartment, retrieved his keys, stepped out, locked the door, and was soon following after Madam and her entourage.

He didn’t know why she was here, what she wanted, or what the fuck was going on, but if Madam Morleppe told him to follow her? He would follow her.

They stepped out of the building and walked into a damn floating limousine, which was, as expected, bigger on the inside, but not by much. Enough to make the space comfortably spacious but not enough to put too much distance between the people sitting there.

To Freddy, who was sitting opposite a figuratively massive celebrity and next to her three literally massive bodyguards, a bit extra space would have been welcome.

While he wanted to know what was happening, he decided to be patient. His heart was beating out of his chest, and no matter how hard he worked to keep himself calm, he was getting sweaty. Thankfully, his clothes were perfectly clean.

Freddy could see outside the shaded window, and they appeared to be heading toward the… Of course. The twenty-fifth district. She certainly wouldn’t be taking him to the ghettos.

They flew over the Bastard Barricade as if it weren’t even there and then proceeded to—

‘Oh, hell no!’

Even before the Bastard Barricade, there had been plenty of places in the twenty-fifth district that were walled off to outsiders. Such as any of the floating islands or buildings. Which seemed to be precisely where they were heading.

Between the fact that they were flying into the goddamn air and going to a very upper-class center, Freddy felt right about ready to throw up. Luckily, it wasn’t a particularly long flight, and soon enough, the flying carriage stopped, and the door opened.

Madam gestured to her guards, who were the first to go out.

Once they were out, she got up, and Freddy mimicked her, unsure what to do.

She stepped right in front of him, smiling gently. “Don’t worry, my dear,” she said soothingly. “I will explain everything you need to know.”

“Oh… Alright.”

“First, relax. We are heading to a casual venue, and the atmosphere will be very informal. As a matter of fact, you do not need to worry about much of anything. It is not all that different from any regular cafes or bars you visit.”

‘Ah, yes. From all my regular cafe and bar visits. Yes,’ he sarcastically thought to himself.

But her words did ease his anxiety a bit. Maybe it was just her soothing voice.

“But,” she added. “There is one thing you do need to know.”

Freddy perked up, but before he could ask what it was, she firmly grabbed his right hand and lifted it into the air. “You need to know how to properly escort a lady.”

He was bewildered at the sheer force of her grip, but her expert guiding hand made it difficult to fail to follow her guidance.

“Posture straight,” she said as she placed a finger on his back, and a zap traveled into it, causing his muscles to stiffen in a way that simulated perfect posture.

That was right. It was difficult to fail when he didn’t have to do anything.

“Left hand gently balled up into a fist, thumb over the middle and ring fingers,” she continued, “and left arm placed behind your back. Then, you lift your right arm into the air and open your palm. Head held high.” Her guidance was followed by pulses of essence that gently moved Freddy’s body into position.

Once he stood the way she desired him to, she placed her hand on his right palm, gently this time. Her touch was embarrassingly overstimulating for Freddy, and he hoped he wouldn’t get a boner. Thankfully, the stress of the situation seemed to have made that an impossibility.

She guided him on how to walk, which was to say as long as he was holding her hand, she would do the walking for him. He couldn’t lie to himself. What she was doing was freaky as fuck. And honestly, it was beginning to seriously hurt.

“Are you alright?” She asked him.

“No, I’m—” he stuttered. “I’m ok.”

She gazed at him contemplatively for a few seconds. “I am familiar with the fact that this technique is rather intensive for weaker archs. If you so wish, I can ease the influence and let you do the work on your own. Ah, but!” She said with a slight smile. “Don’t blame me if you embarrass yourself.”

Freddy stared at her for a second, and then finally, he laughed a bit. “Haha, sorry. Yes, I… I admit it’s a little intense, but I don’t mind it. What’s a bit of pain compared to embarrassing myself?”

She raised an eyebrow at that one. “That’s the spirit, young man,” she said affirmingly. “Well then. Shall we proceed?”

“Yeah, uh, lead the way!”

She stared at him flatly and chuckled, “Hahaha, darling, you’re meant to escort me.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry. Uh. Let’s go.” And with that, they stepped out of the carriage.

‘Holy shit.’

Admiring the floating structures from afar was one thing, but seeing them in person was different.

The floating island had a miniature forest planted, exclusively growing scattered golden trees with thin, royal red vines hanging off every branch. Their path was lined with rainbow-colored tiles shaped from fancy crystals and shiny metals.

They were walking toward what could only be described as three buildings twisting around a center, with surprisingly thin bridges interconnecting them. In the middle, right between them, there was a large, wood-plated open ground populated with occupied tables, and several floating platforms hovered above it, also carrying people on them.

The three bodyguards stood in front, and with every step they took, it became easier to discern the guests pervading the location. While a good deal were dressed in what even Freddy recognized as relatively regular clothing, flashy, colorful, and violently ostentatious was the name of the game.

In the center was a round bar, which seemed to be where the drinks were made.

‘She compared this to any other cafe!? This woman is insane!’

Luckily enough, Freddy was so wildly out of his element that he probably couldn’t even get much more stressed. Actually, no, he was surprisingly calm. Only then did he notice that his heart wasn’t beating that fast anymore, likely due to whatever powers Madam was using on him.

A short walk later, they stepped onto the wooden platform and strode forward. The others rather openly gawked at them, primarily focused on… him? Was he just imagining it?

A woman seated at a table they were passing by whispered to her friend. “Hey, who is that? That’s a pretty wild getup. Is he wearing poorcore?”

‘Poorcore!? Bitch!?’

If it weren’t for Madam’s help, his low-class status would be much more readily apparent. Conversely, because there was no way to tell off his behavior alone, people assumed that he was intentionally dressed to look poor in some sort of, at least in Freddy’s opinion, tasteless fashion statement.

He spotted something unusual to the side of them. There was a section where the floating platforms were boarded. Many of them were missing from their spots, but some of the ones left behind were… ugly. Just plain gross to look at.

One particularly nasty offender was a neon blue and pink platform plated in gold. It was an eyesore to look at. An opinion that Freddy luckily kept to himself as Madam took him to that platform and then boarded it.

The guards were left on standby while Madam and Freddy sat on the platform, a medium-sized table between them. She put her card through a scanner, and the gaudy saucer took off. It rose considerably higher than any of the surrounding ones, and it was definitely not by coincidence.

Being away from prying eyes finally allowed Freddy to relax a bit. His body was in a rough shape, and he felt like he had pulled a few muscles.

Madam took her hat off and also relaxed a bit, although her ‘relaxed’ was still infinitely more dignified than Freddy’s.

She leaned to the side, pulling a pen and small tablet from a hidden section on the side of the table. “Tell me, darling, what do you wish to eat and drink?”

Freddy was damn close to saying something like orange juice and pizza, which was his idea of fancy food. But luckily, he had stopped himself on time, resorting to the ol’ reliable “I’ll have whatever Madam recommends.”

“Hahaha,” she chuckled, much louder than Freddy expected. “Oh, you’re going to regret that,” she said, making Freddy wince.

She wouldn’t order something gross, would she? The joke’s on her, Freddy was starving. Even if she put half-eaten carrion before him, he’d probably at least take a bite.

Once done writing their order down on the tablet, Madam turned and stared at him quietly.

Freddy swallowed and finally prepared himself to ask the question that had been eating away at him. “Madam… why uh—I mean, what—?”

“Are you familiar with the name C-000421?” She asked, interrupting him.

“Uh, name?” Freddy asked, bewildered. “I most certainly am not.”

“That is the code for the passage realm you’ve encountered.”

Those words were like a slap to the face to Freddy, and the instant she uttered them, he already got something of an idea for why he was here. Rather than ask anything, he simply waited for her to continue.

“Not only is that the most dangerous realm we’ve ever discovered, but it is also a hundred times larger than Earth. We have found many entrances to it to date, but most were already inside a passage realm, usually only appearing past the fifth step,” she said, leaning closer to Freddy. “This is the first direct entrance to it to appear on Earth. And you, Freddy Stern, were the first to find it,” she said, offering to shake his hand. “Welcome to the history books.”

That was a lot to take in. He shook her hand absent-mindedly, unable to find a way to appropriately react to hearing news like this. To begin with, what did this even mean for him? Although he wanted to ask her a million things, now that the nature of their meeting finally became apparent, he knew he wouldn’t get the chance to do that.

This was an interview. And he was the one answering questions.

As if on cue, she pulled her hand back and settled, adjusting her dress as she got comfortable in the chair. “So, Freddy, why don’t you tell me something about yourself?”

He took a breath and asked her in turn. “Where do I start?”

“Just tell me your life story, and try to summarize as much as possible.”

He noticed that she didn’t have any sort of notebook or recording device. “Do you… Do you need to write anything down?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Honey, who do you think I am?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m sorry, haha…” Freddy thought about it a bit, and then he got started. “My name is, as you know, Freddy Stern. I’m uh—I’m twenty-one years old. I was abandoned at birth, and for the first nine years of my life, I grew up in an orphanage in the twenty-sixth district. I was then adopted by… well, a couple. They weren’t the best people in the world, but they knew how to have fun. To me, they were never really parents, but more like much older friends. They had a drug problem… among others. One day, at twelve years old, I woke up, and they were just… gone. The landlord kicked me out after two weeks since I couldn’t pay the rent, and I didn’t want to go back to the orphanage, so I lived on the streets for a while until I found a job. Eventually, I was hired at the warehouse and worked there until I turned seventeen, which was when I was moved to the cash register. I worked there until recently, and then, when I became an arch, I was fired.”

She nodded along to his retelling and then proceeded to ask him a few questions about his life, getting quite personal at times. Unfortunately for her, whether it be his social, work, or sex life, there was little interesting Freddy could tell her.

At some point, a small, floating disc hovered over to their table, carrying their food. Freddy was already too overwhelmed to be blown away by this, but the stuff the object carried most certainly roused his attention.

‘So this was what she meant…’ Freddy thought with a shake of his head.

It was seafood. More specifically, it was an oyster found only in a specific passage realm. One was meant to eat them by poking a sharp needle through the small opening, which kills them, causes the shell to open, and partially liquefies their body.

Freddy had seen these on a cooking show recently, so he would be spared the embarrassment of not knowing how to consume them.

There was also a glass of deep brown liquid, likely whiskey, but given the nature of this place, it could be anything.

Madam was looking at him with a slight glint of glee in her eyes. She had probably expected him to fumble and be too disgusted to eat this stuff. Somewhat childish, but given her persona, it wasn’t unexpected.

Unfortunately for her, Freddy just happened to know how to eat them and had plenty of experience eating crap far worse than this. With little hesitation, he stabbed the shiny needle into one of the shells, which opened, the oyster still squirming inside. He let it die, and then, he slurped it up.

Although the texture was rather unpleasant, it tasted pretty damn good.

The disappointment was readily visible in her expression, but Freddy ignored it, proceeding to wash his meal down with a gulp of the drink.

He just barely prevented himself from spitting it all over the table. This wasn’t just strong; it was intense. A strong burning sensation spread through his mouth and throat, and tears rushed to his eyes.

“How do you like the garewood spirit?” She asked, amusement back on her face.

“It is… good,” he eked out.

They soon finished their meal, and the interview continued. She asked him to retell the entire story of how he encountered the passage, starting from wherever he thought it got interesting.

He began the story with how he finished his shift.

Madam listened to the entire thing, maintaining her professional composure and asking him questions as needed—until he shared that he killed a monster with a can of beans.

“Pfff—!” She snorted. “Hahaha, you did what!? Are you lying to me?”

“I uh—”

“You know what, I don’t even care if you’ve made that up. We are using it in the interview.”

He continued the retelling, and nothing else piqued her interest, not even the fact that he manifested the vestige. She did ask him what it did, and he rushed to explain how he’d traded it.

“Hmm… We’ll just say that you manifested that second one. There are other things we can, let’s say, polish for the final interview, but I’m overall satisfied. Now—!” She said as she pulled a paper from behind her and placed it before him. “Please sign this contract.”