"You have powers?" she asked, being mesmerized out of shock, "you have powers," she muttered, "and you want me to help you train it?" she asked, trying to confirm what she understood.
"Yes, that's right, I want you to teach me everything you know about it, how to use it? how to train? Even the simple facts about these powers," he said, while moving from his seat, leaning on the ground beside her, while looking directly in her eyes, "I want to know this all."
"I have one condition," she hurried to say, asking before answering anything.
"I will set you free," James said, and his words made her eyes widened. She was really like a little girl, with her mind wide opened for him to read, "I will keep my promise as long as you keep yours," he added, stressing on this point.
"Sure, sure, when do you want to start? Now?" she asked, with great eagerness, much more enthusiastic than James himself.
"Oh, not here, not now, let's wait until we go back to my home," he said, as here was still considered a war zone.
For James, this was a win-win situation, where he wasn't going to lose anything by setting her free. She was a beauty, but he didn't lack any, with Islinda beside him, and Eli who was busy trying to strengthen herself, and Dora who was outside, trying to act as a rebel queen.
"Let's go back to my ship, we need to visit this kingdom," he said, as he moved from the seat, with Luna hand in hand with him.
Luna seemed to be used to such treatment, as she didn't argue with his hand holding her. As for him, he did this to give Islinda a scare. Just imagining the look on her face made him chuckle all the way to his cruiser.
The moment he entered the commanding deck, holding Luna's hand, the moment Islinda, who had just returned from a meeting with the local merchants and wealthy family leaders, spotted them.
The look on her face froze, with shock at first, then with anger. She moved to the couple, glaring at Luna, who felt the amount of hate coming towards her, so she retreated a couple of steps, unintentionally, trying to escape from Islinda's gaze.
"Who is she?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her sweet chest.
"She is Luna, Luna this is Islinda, I hope you two can get along smoothly together."
She didn't change the look over her face, neither she said anything to Luna, as she asked again, with a face so red that seemed to explode:
"Who is she?"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, she is my personal trainer," he replied, acting so innocently, while trying to suppress his laugh, as hard as possible
"Your what?" Islinda didn't understand, but at this awkward moment, Luna interfered to say:
"I'm the one who is going to make him stronger."
"Really?" Islinda just glared at her, from head to toe, before returning to look at James while muttering:
"How exactly is she going to make you stronger?"
"I don't know," he shrugged his shoulders, like thi wasn't a topic related to him, "I just got her from that previous idiot king," he added, giving Luna a warm look, which made the situation more awkward.
"Can I speak with you alone?" Islinda suddenly blurted out, asking to be alone with him.
"Sure, let's go to that secret room," James said, while feeling some faint danger coming from her. He followed her angry steps towards the secure, isolated, secret room in the commanding deck. The moment they were alone, she glanced longly, and silently at him, before she asked, with some bitterness in her throat:
"Did you grab her for her looks?"
James just sighed, before looking at her, in a compassion way. He tried to touch her face, but she shrugged his hand while looking straight to him.
"Well, she is just here to train me," he honestly said.
"Train you on what exactly?" she asked, with much doubt inside her tone.
"Well, towards my special powers," he replied, before holding her body as a whole with his two hands, raising her angry, funny looking face to meet his, "do you love me?"
The question seemed sudden, and for him he suddenly felt some rushing blood to his head. He didn't know why he asked her this, but she was like calling for him, asking him to throw the question.
As for her, her body froze, as she didn't imagine he would ask that question to her, not now, not here, not like this. Without knowing what to do, she moved herself away from his hands, and ran outside the room, without even glancing back at him.
"What a crazy little girl," he sighed, softly sighed before a smile was drawn over his face, "so you are jealous then," he then laughed at her reaction, and at his silly question.
Of course she loved him, and he knew that.
James then returned with a wide smile over his face. He didn't say a word when Rigo questioned him, silently with his eyes, as he just shrugged his shoulders, with an evil smile over his face.
"How are things going down there?" he asked, as he sat on the main seat, in front of the commanding unit.
"The monster's attacks were sudden, but we managed to neutralize them," Rigo replied, as he sat in front of him, while the new addition to the team, Luna, moved in a usual way to sit over his leg, leaning with her body over his chest.
He was startled by this at first, then he saw it was a way to push Islinda further. He wanted to get her, but he was doubting her true intentions. He wanted her to return to her own empire, one day, after he established his own force, one day.
He just hoped she didn't become an obstacle in his path, which was now taking the shape of being a monarch in space. For him all he cared about now was to hasten his development here, using all the opportunities he could get and strengthen his position.
So he wasn't prepared to meet any insider quarrels, hoping only this would remain inside the harem, not affecting his future plans and grand project.
"What about damage reports?" James asked.
"It's still coming," Rigo said, "but I have to say the damage is quite severe," he shook his head while stating the obvious truth.
The damage this time was far beyond their expectations. These planets weren't like the planets they already ruled, as they were all full of population. There was no empty place there, except for a few.
Just fighting these monsters in the middle of this caused many damage, and the rest was caused by the inhabitants themselves. They were panicked, and didn't know what to do, except to run for their lives.
Chaos caused most of the damage down there, and when James saw some footage of what happened, he helplessly sighed.
If he knew the places he would conquer would be conquered by these monsters, he would have come more prepared. At least Rigo would have dispatched troops essential for containing the situation and limiting the damage.
"Take note that from now on, you will have two more specialized units under your command," James said, with some headache, "the first is a fighting force, special fighting force, equipped and has an experience in dealing with monsters," he said, before turning to look at the distant Islinda, who came back just now and decided to stay away, "and the second unit will be a crisis control unit. Ask Islinda to provide experts at dealing with chaotic situations, with the ability to calm people," he added, explaining the full version of his solution.
"This sounds amazing," Luna suddenly said, as she leaned on him, with her hot breaths touching his skin, "I liked this idea, very creative and effective," she added, in a slow tone.
James didn't know if she was always like this, or she was trying to help him in teasing Islinda, however Islinda was now pretty pissed off. Despite that, all she did was to breath loudly, trying to vent some anger and steam off her, and James just enjoyed the sight of her childish futile resistance.
This would all end if she just acknowledged her feelings, and opened up her mind to him. Was that so hard on her to do? That was what James thought of.
"I'm glad you liked it," James decided to go on this play, "what about the people down there? anyone having any funny idea?" he asked Rigo again, without moving his eyes away from Luna's.
"They have accepted our rule already, as they thought these monsters were a punishment from their gods upon us," Rigo said, while enjoying this unspoken ongoing war between the two.
"Really?" James asked, in interest, "and now after we killed these monsters, what do they think of us?" he added.
"They think we are cursed, and beyond any hope of saving," Rigo replied.