"If the clients start breaking, they come down."

Ilyra’s jaw tightened at those words.

"What do you mean by breaking?"

"...they become too dependent, or too unstable, or too useful or..."

He paused for a moment and then—

"Or if someone pays."

"Pays for what?"

Darius narrowed his eyes.

The man looked toward a sealed chamber at the end of the corridor.

"People."

"Explain it properly."

Tomas glared at him.

The man flinched.

"There are different rooms here.

One for failed clients, one for what people call high-yield subjects, disposable clients, and finally dependency targets."

"What are these?"

Tomas asked.

The man looked at him and began explaining.

"Failed clients are the people who became too used to the conditioning, people who can no longer live normally anymore, people who panic when disconnected, people who... can no longer stay on the upper floors because they would expose what the "treatment" really does.

High-yield subjects are people with extremely powerful emotions, grief, shame, fear, desire, hope, obsession, dependency, when all these emotions are stronger than a certain threshold, we bring such individuals down here to harvest their emotional intensity."

Mara made a disgusted face as she heard those words.

The man obviously wasn’t done yet.

"Runaways, addicts, poor clients, former staff, these are called disposable victims. People with no family, people no one powerful will look for. These are the people who are usually experimented on to engineer new, stronger techniques to harvest emotions."

Ilyra scrunched her face.

That was when Lucian, who had only been silently watching all this while, suddenly narrowed his eyes.

The man...

He was hesitating.

Well, he was hesitating all this while, but this time, the hesitation was stronger.

Something was wrong.

"Continue."

Lucian spoke as his violet eyes shined threateningly. Darius moved as well, showing his baton and that instantly got the reaction.

"Then there are... dependency targets..."

"What are they?"

Darius questioned, at this point, he too, could sense the man’s hesitation.

"These are the people who... our highest patrons want to own."

"To... own?"

Ilyra raised her eyebrow.

The man nodded.

"These people aren’t harvested, they are... processed so they become emotionally dependent on a chosen person."

"What...?"

Ilyra couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

And Lucian, he quickly connected the dots.

"That woman on the stretcher... is she one of the dependency targets?"

He asked and the man froze.

Then—

"AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

The man screamed as Darius placed the glowing baton back on his chest again, electrocuting his body.

"Answer."

Darius spoke in a cold, merciless tone and the man...

"Y-Yes, that’s the Starling Profile..."

"Starling?"

"Evelyn Starling."

He said the complete name and the instant he did, the group reacted.

"The Evelyn Starling?"

"Yes."

The group blinked, even Lucian was no different. Only Darius seemed particularly confused.

"Who is she?"

He asked since the rest seemed to know.

"Evelyn Starling is one of the world’s most beloved singers, known for her hauntingly beautiful voice, beauty, and unbelievable stage presence. Her concerts sell out within minutes, her albums break new records all the time, and her songs are played across countries.

She has a way of making every performance feel personal, to many, she is not just a celebrity, she is a voice that helped them through heartbreak, loneliness, and difficult nights. She is admired, protected, and loved by millions."

Tomas explained.

The rest of the group looked at him, he blinked, then before his face leaked any more of his emotion, he looked at the man and—

"Hey! You better tell us what they are doing to Evelyn!"

He screamed.

The man trembled.

"T-They plan to make her dependent on our highest patron."

"How do they do it?"

Darius questioned.

"I-I don’t know the full process."

He stuttered. Darius narrowed his eyes and in fright, he said every single thing he knew.

"I-I only know they use a machine that uses desire, fear, relief, and pain to break her resistance, then they would connect her relief to our patron, Orpheus.

Once the process is complete and dependency is formed, Evelyn’s life would change and she wouldn’t even realise it.

She would wake up like she normally does, she would remember her name, she would remember her songs, her fans, her life. She would walk onto stages as the Evelyn Starling the people know and admire.

She would smile, sing, wave and speak as if nothing had happened.

But deep inside—

Something fundamental inside her would have been changed."

"Orpheus..."

Mara narrowed her eyes.

The man nodded.

"Yes, once the processing is complete, Orpheus would rule her without her knowing.

Evelyn would constantly be in a state of restlessness, panic and discomfort and only by being near Orpheus would she be able to calm down.

His voice would calm her faster than sleep, his approval would feel warmer than any love she had experienced, his displeasure would scar her.

A mere thought of leaving him would make her chest tighten, hands shake and her mind would search for ways to return to him, even if she had to abandon her pride for the sake of it.

Her body would crave Orpheus’s presence, her mind would constantly crave his attention. If Orpheus gave an order, her mind would search for reasons to obey.

She would do anything, anything at all, even things she thought she would never do, just to please him."

"That’s... enslavement..."

Ilyra spoke with a shocked and disgusted look on her face. The man, however, shook his head.

"No, it is far worse.

A slave would still want freedom, they would go against their master if given the chance to—

But Evelyn...

Once the dependency is formed, she would become a slave who is conditioned to like being a slave.

Orpheus would become her entire world."

He explained and the more Tomas heard him, the more disgusted he felt.

"Who is this Orpheus?"

He asked, his eyes glaring in anger.

"I-It is an alias of our highest patron."

"Who is he?"

"W-We don’t know."

He shook his head.

"We were only told that Orpheus wanted her to be usable as soon as possible."

"Usable..."

Lucian didn’t fail to notice the wording.

"He wanted her to still go outside, to still sing, smile, still be the Evelyn Starling in public...

But when he calls, she comes.

He wanted to enjoy the feeling of the Evelyn Starling who is loved and adored by billions, grovelling at his feet, longing and craving for his attention—

He wanted her to abandon her pride and stardom for his sake and grovel at his feet every single day."