Archive Of Potentialities.

Short story: A Salaryman's Supernatural Induction 13.

"Greetings. My new ambassadors."

Since I could remember, my position within the influential and powerful Tokugawa clan has been made clear to me.

"As expected of the heir."

"You have to do this to be a great leader."

"You will make the clan progress further." And so on. I was praised left and right, but I couldn't care less.

It was all useless in the end.

The one person whose approval actually mattered refused me the pleasantries of his acknowledgement, keeping me away from what I saw as the steadfast symbol of the clan leadership.

But now…now it's right in front of me, now I truly felt like I was on the path of the clan leader.

The restricted zone, only accessible by the leader of the clan, even cleaning duties fell to this one person.

'Why would a person with such a high position stoop to this level?' I always asked myself this, the rest of the clan didn't question it, they only followed orders, like mindless drones.

The elders seemed to know the reason, as they did not raise a fuss.

I tried my best at guessing the reasons, or even narrowing them down but to no avail.
My mind was just too set in it's way of thinking.

But now, bowing with my head touching the ground on my knees, I finally understood. It all makes sense now. What is a clan leader before such power?

I always had the belief that power should be had in all forms, restricting yourself to mastering just one was the height of folly in my opinion.

And that is why I respected this being with my whole.

The aura earlier showed just how much combat power this person held, the questions my father asked me led me to connect the dots that this person is responsible for all the machinations that have been running beneath the shadows of the clans.

Seeing someone that achieved what I deemed as ideal made me ecstatic, and for some reason, I wanted to be subservient to this being. It was quite a foreign feeling, but I deemed it too trivial to care about.

Ishikawa was mimicking my position just to the right of me, neither of us dared to speak.

"You may answer me from now on, we are here to have a conversation after all, two or more parties are needed for that."

Her graceful voice flowed out, it seemed to wrap around me, instilling a sense of security in me. I felt like I could converse with Her now.

"Yes, my lady." I and Ishikawa answered in unison, as if we had practiced this all along.

"Good, now let's begin your main purpose for being here. Like I said earlier, both of you are my ambassadors now, you will be responsible for carrying out tasks for me, you will ask no questions, you will not query my motives, you are only to obey. Are you okay with this arrangement?"

She…asked for our opinions?

How cruel.

This woman is cruel, she knew, I knew, and so did Ishikawa; there was only one answer. There was no threat in Her voice, no malice at all. In fact, it felt refreshing to hear Her speak. The reason why this so called choice was but a cruel illusion was simple— we can't defy her, our minds could not even entertain a thought of defiance.

It was like…we were being guided.

"Yes, my lady." Once again, I and Ishikawa spoke up in unison, our heads were still pressed on the ground, we didn't dare to gaze upon her face without permission.