Though they choose me over the old ones, that doesn’t mean they want to throw them away; they still cultivate them, too. After all, they did pay a price to get them here. But when I, the most spoiled son, say I want this or that, they will happily let it happen, pampering me to no end, making me the Golden Son in this case.

My hand slightly touched against the fruit, feeling its soft texture. As greedy as I was, I didn’t want to take all this completely away. This dude fighting his way here hasn’t done anything wrong against me, and it’s in the best interest of this world for him to get stronger too; he still has a role to play in the board that is set.

Killing him won’t create any problems for me, but it will cause ripples in the board already set for the game, which was set in motion far before I came aboard. Right now, I can sense how the flow is going, but if I mess with the flow, anything I could see will be lost. A sneer came to my face as I understood the situation.

’It’s a subtle opening they allow me, an incentive not to take away too much from the board in itself.’

In more open terms, a small gap allows me to become a controller of this game, rather than just a player, which is just a benefit for me.

’Still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.’

But I shrugged my shoulder at it. If you want something good in life, you gotta take some small sacrifices; it’s just letting this parasite trot on away with his abilities while I get the chance to become something far greater than what I was meant to be in the board.

’But that only means I let him live and grow, doesn’t mean I let him grow so easily; after all, I still have to keep my chaos and order fed.’

Musing, I have already reached an understanding of what I want here. Thus, with a single movement, my presence came alive, and the moment it did, the eye of the snake sharpened, filled with a sense of murderous intent. Though the moment the intent was released, the poor thing fell right onto the ground, crushed.

Boom!

A heavy pressure fell upon the snake as it just lay there like a dead animal, its skin shivering and curling while a sense of pained hiss kept leaving the snake’s mouth. In its eyes, filled with intelligence much more than a normal Origin Level 3 beast, I could see the fear, but more than that, what I liked was the spirit in its eyes.

It was screaming that it’s unfair, that it doesn’t want to give in to anything like this, and I smiled seeing such a heavy spirit—one that doesn’t want to bend itself to anything. I was liking that look more and more. A desire to just rip apart this snake and offer it to Emma bloomed in my mind, but I kept that away for now.

It would serve a much better purpose for me here. My hands glowed as I now stood in front of the beast, its eyes defiant even in the face of its death, but I wasn’t gonna kill it. I kneeled, looking into its eyes as I spoke.

"How about becoming a beast companion to me?"

My eyes made the snake’s eyes blink faster as it just looked at me in doubt, though that soon faded away. As I left a gap through my pressure, it slowly rose and nodded its head. Becoming a beast companion to someone as powerful as me? How could it not be enticed by that fact!?

Its life would be becoming even smoother sailing from here on out, too.

"This decision comes with risk, you see. My first beast companion is quite possessive, and she will not at all take it lightly to anyone else trying to take up her spot."

I said as I lightly touched its huge head. The snake, being smart, played around completely docile with me, acting like a cute little pet, its eyes blinking like those puppy dog eyes, even if that was possible, as it looked at me.

Several plans went through my mind. I could take it and leave it beside that dude as a spy, but that is only gonna backfire on me. Leaving such a companion full-time with someone blessed with too much luck and fate, and someone who seems like a good guy playing around? I already got the one betrayal when my luck fell; I am not gonna fall for it again.

Pulling the snake away from that dude will take away a lot of his power because, as I said before, I can sense the direction of certain fates. For Tria, it’s the fate of absolute single power that will reign like death, like a dark moon that hangs over the world, putting its hand into the fight, becoming the light to make the world better.

But for this guy, what I am sensing is more like a sun, a good-like character that will shine. The fun part being I can detect several suns around his fate, and one of them is this little snake; the rest feel similar to it, too. And using my knowledge, it didn’t take me long to understand how it’s all gonna end up for him.

’Something like a divine archer with extremely powerful rare beasts that fight alongside him, so no betrayal and full trust.’

My eroge sense also tells me something deeper, too.

"Hey, you a girl?"

To my question, the snake looked at me weirdly, but it did nod its head up and down, to which I scoffed.

’A beast girl harem and more?’

I could see that future ahead, and I didn’t like it. Why should I give a harem of beautiful, powerful beasts to that dude?

Greed is in my nature after all, and in this world, while uncommon, human and beast-like relationships do exist, but when they reach Imperial, they can indeed take human forms, and even bear kids too. These kids born are a bit special in the sense that they get something called a sense of beast call in them, taking in the abilities from their beast parents, not beast-men per se, something more unique from them.

Anyhow, taking those away, I looked at the snake once again, and I could tell its potential was frightening too, which will be the case for all the other beasts that come this way too. Soon, a smirk came to my lips as a plan unfolded in my mind. Sure, I will let him go that route, but I am gonna take away the harem markings from him, though.

My hand moved as I placed it on the head of the snake, and as I was doing it, the world seemingly paused, and a heavy cloud of unbridled killing intent—intent so strong that it will drive an Imperial to death with madness and kill all the other beasts below it in a single second—descended. But I easily waved it off, making sure it didn’t affect the atmosphere as a big, wide wolf appeared on my side.

"Master~"

She called out as Luna appeared on my side, her wolf-like lips smiling as she, in her small size, curled up on my shoulder, rubbing her head against my cheek, full of love and care, though that turned delayed when it landed on that snake, which was now crying its mind out. Seriously, I didn’t even know that snake could shed tears as the poor girl was crying out of her mind here.

"Hmmmmm... master seems to be doing something interesting while I was away~"

"I was just thinking of taking this one as a beast companion."

"This trash?"

Luna asked with a wolf-like smile as the poor snake started to dance left and right on the ground, clearly feeling wronged.

"Isn’t her bloodline quite peculiar? Plus, with what’s coming, don’t you think she has a chance to break through that?"

At my words, for the first time, a more surprised expression came to Luna’s face, and then it became one filled with absolute seriousness.

"Master, are you planning on dipping your toes into ’that’ which is coming?"

I didn’t directly reply to Luna as I just kept looking into her eyes, after which I spoke. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"I am. Will you fight alongside me, my companion?"

To which, without even a second of hesitation, a blood-chilling wolf-tearing-like smile came into the face of Luna.

"With you, master? I shall gorge on the flesh of all of them who descend."

Her answer made me smile as I patted her head. She leaned into it, enjoying the touch. As someone of her level, she could also see into the flow of change in the world, and as someone who took part in those wars and became what she is, she is more inclined towards the wars that are coming.

After giving her that loving pat, I asked.

"All settled?"

"Um."

Luna replied, after which I looked at the snake.

"So what do you think?"

"I want to eat her, she looks tasty."

"...."