The Strongest Curse Master

Ace waited silently, letting Dee3's guilt simmer and do its work. But as he waited, a thought crossed his mind, wiping the smirk off his face. He couldn't help but ask, "Hey, Dee3. Just so we're on the same page—you're only agreeing with me to keep me calm and unsuspecting until you figure out what to do with me because you don't trust me, right?"

"Yes, I'm following EAD Matthews's recommendation on dealing with you. She was right. But I meant every word I said—" Dee3 abruptly stopped, realizing she had just spilled the truth to Ace. She then yelled in frustration, "Could you stop doing that?!"

Ace had figured out Dee3's quirk. She couldn't lie—or, more accurately, she despised lying and any form of deception so much that it had become impossible for her to lie at all. There wasn't a single dishonest bone in her body.

That's how he knew her sympathy and guilt over his and his family's situation were genuine. But something was clearly holding her back from acting on that sympathy and guilt. He just needed to figure out what that was and convince her that everything would be alright.

"It's not that I don't understand what you and your family are going through," Dee3 said, her voice conflicted, "but that doesn't give you permission to break into secret Base Wulfric and steal classified curse gadgets. I can't just let you go knowing all that, right?"

She was caught in a moral and ethical dilemma. Unfortunately, unlike formulas or logical problems that came easily to her, this she couldn't solve easily.

"Yes, you are right, Dee3. Various government organizations betraying me and my family when they were supposed to protect us, doesn't give me the right to break into a secret government base and steal weapons to defend my family from the dangers they shoved us in. One wrong doesn't justify another. I hear you—and you're right. I should be held accountable for my actions, brought to justice, and gracefully serve my sentence," Ace said, not denying a single word Dee3 had spoken. Instead, he agreed with her and openly confessed.

But he wasn't finished. After a dramatic pause—and just as Dee3 was beginning to think Ace wasn't nearly as bad as EAD Matthews's files made him out to be—he continued, "But what I don't understand is this: what right do you have to hold me accountable for my crimes? Aren't you a criminal too? Aren't you also on the run from the C.I.B. and the Military? Doesn't that make this just another case of kidnapping?"

He stared at tunnel ceiling, voice steady but sharp as he blamed her, "You're willfully keeping me away from my family when they need me most. How could you be so heartless? You might as well sentence me—and them—to death, just like the rest of the world has. Go ahead. Get it over with. My family and I are just more lambs sacrificed on the altar of your self-righteousness."

"No, I'm not being self-righteous! I was just…" Dee3 shouted, then trailed off, unable to deny the truth in Ace's words. The more she thought about it, the more the guilt weighed on her. He was right. She had no room to question him—not when she, herself, had been breaking into Base Wulfric and stealing supplies on a near-daily basis. It didn't matter whose crime was more severe; one wrong didn't justify another.

Dee3 sighed deeply, wondering how an ordinary morning had spiraled into an accidental kidnapping. She genuinely had no clue what to do with the teenager she had unintentionally abducted. This was bad. She might actually have to abandon Base Wulfric for good this time. That meant no more freeloading. She'd have to get a regular job just to afford coffee and booze. But was that even possible? After all, the C.I.B. and the Military had launched a global manhunt for her over a decade ago—a manhunt that hadn't stopped and had since extended into the 'World of Curses.'

"Hello? You still there?" Ace asked after a long silence, noticing Dee3 had gone quiet again. He had no idea that she'd drifted off mentally and forgotten about him once more.

"I'm sorry! Please don't kill me or my family, miss!" Ace cried out dramatically, using Dee3's guilt as a knife and twisting it deeper into her heart, hoping it would finally convince her to let him go.

Ace's pleas snapped Dee3 out of her thoughts, and she quickly assured him, "Ace, calm down. I'm not going to kill you or your family. But you have to promise me that you won't sell or use the curse gadgets you stole from Base Wulfric to harm people."

Despite everything, she hadn't forgotten to make sure that the curse gadgets she designed wouldn't be misused by a teenager for greed or ambition. This was one thing she couldn't compromise on. Before negotiating his release, she had to be sure he wouldn't turn her creations into weapons of destruction.

"I can't promise that," Ace replied honestly.

"But I can promise that I'll only use them to protect myself and my family. I'll even put it in writing," Ace proposed, showing willingness to sign a curse contract.

"I suppose, given your situation, that's fair," Dee3 agreed with a nod, but rejected the notion of signing a curse contract, informing, "No need for a curse contract. EAD Matthews seems to think you're a man of your word—and I trust her."

Though she hadn't met EAD Matthews in person, Dee3 had come to trust her judgment based on her track record and reports—more than she trusted Ace, even though he was standing right in her dungeon.

"Or," Ace added with a casual shrug, "you could come with me and make sure I keep my word. Think about it—a new home, free food, free accommodation."

He was feeling good about his chances, so he couldn't help but take a shot. It wasn't hard to guess that Dee3 would need a new place to stay if she were to let him go. It was a shot in the dark—but maybe, just maybe, it would land.