Richard and Cindy sat peacefully while admiring the open prairie.

"What a wonderful scene... the calm wind blowing through the wild ever green grass... this is a sight that I would never have been able to enjoy if I didn’t lose everything"

"You wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it if you didn’t meet my grandmother, which led you to meet me ultimately allowing you to make a pact with the Goddess"

"... thank you"

"No need, I’m getting my returns"

Cindy joyfully answered while munching on an artisanal bread brought directly fromFrance. A fresh spread of french pastries was on the table as a warm cup of "authentic french coffee" still steaming was next to the pastries.

"You know, with such power... do you even need my money?"

"The Goddess made a pact with you, without the descendant of Merlin, she’s just a talking mirror whose range of information is outdated"

Cindy’s assessment of the Goddess, despite being the reason why she was able to even eat fresh French pastries (quite a mouthful to say). It was quite low, but Richard already knew why.

In terms of magical knowledge, the Goddess who made pacts with countless practitioners of the mystical arts throughout the centuries was like a "Goddess of Magical Knowledge".

But that was her limit, she was like an AI, she only knew what she was allowed to know.

Even now, despite having the freedom to go to any place which had her mark, she still had limits to the things she could know.

Her power did not allow her to "read the akashic records" like some fictional God’s do. In fact, the God’s were nothing more than overpowered, immortal humans in a way.

They do say that any sufficiently advanced technology would be like magic to a civilization with lower technological capabilities-

Then following such a rule, wouldn’t any sufficiently powerful being become a god to a less powerful being?

Richard didn’t try to think any deeper than that, any more and he’d just flood his mind with existential dread.

The freedom he now had allowed him to do the trick he learned in his youth, the best way to calm a sufficiently intellectually capable mind was to flood it with stupid shit!

It’s what kids these days call- "brain rot"

But Richard was still too smart for the "coco melon" or "skibidi something" to do any damage to his brain.

Kids would say that his "big brain is too big to get rotted".

<So you’ve had that phase? Doomscrolling- is that what you call it?>

The Goddess appeared out of nowhere and placed a bunch of snacks from asia on the table this time.

"I mastered the night long ago"

Richard declared cooly but his words did not hit hard enough. Cindy only rolled her eyes while the Goddess acted like he had said nothing while Hana was making a "whistling gesture" that failed as her mouth was covered by a ball gag-

"Huh? When did you put that on her?"

Richard asked, pointing at the ball gag in Hana’s mouth. Cindy turned to look at the tanned beauty and was also shocked at the sight-

"Didn’t know she was into that..."

"MMHFFMM!"

Hana tried to deny Cindy’s comment, it was obvious given her reaction and Richard couldn’t let her continue to be in such a state so he removed the ball gag and-

"The Goddess! She did it to me!"

<I simply acted upon the desires of my contractor>

But the Goddess quickly reflected everything to Richard.

"Wait! Well... I kinda like it but! No! Hey! I didn’t ask her to do it!"

He tried to deny the accusations desperately but Cindy had a playful grin while asking.

"But you thought about it didn’t you?"

"I-"

Richard wanted to deny it but his eyes met with the Goddess and he realized it-

He only had one choice, there was no turning back...

"I do like it, you know seeing her in such a way? I thought about it but I seriously didn’t want to force her to do it... but if she was willing..."

"FUCK YOU!"

"..."

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

<HAHAHAHAHA!!>

Both Cindy and the Goddess burst out laughing, the turtle shell bondage that tied Hana down was undone but the tanned shorty did not leave.

She glared at Richard as she sat properly in one of the chairs before the table and started to munch on the delicacies.

She even took Richard’s coffee for herself!

"..."

Seeing her actions, Richard could only sigh and let her get what she wanted.

’I knew it was weird that she somehow went silent... I’ll let her off the hook with this one’

The last thing Richard wanted to do was make more enemies.

He wasn’t going to let anyone step all over him again but he wasn’t going to become a bastard who did it to others.

Make love not war-

Especially now that the whole American Government was on his ass, the freemasons were probably on his tail as well.

After all- a gas leak leading to an explosion?

In a country where people believe the earth is flat and that tinfoil hats could protect you from 5G?

Yeah, with the almost yearly UFO sightings, Big Foot caught on camera footage and missing persons reports-

It was more likely for the sun to rise in the west than for nobody to think that something was up with the whole gas leak thing.

Add to that the look alike that had already been proven to be a mere body double and people were already on Reddit talking about wendigo sightings.

Apparently, the "survivor" that Cindy purposely let go had already gone to the internet to tell his story.

’I wonder how much he’ll make out of it? Well, in a few months he’ll probably release a book and then start doing podcasts. A year later, he would retire from the FBI and start being a whistleblower. By that time, maybe I could use him to get back at Andrea and Robert? Hm... that’s a good idea’

Despite the fact that Cindy was only trying to create a legend to empower her pets. Her actions gave Richard a good back-up plan for his potential return to mundane society.

Though by the looks of things... his life would not be able to go back to the way it was.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t get a regular life right?

Even Cindy became a college student... though she was now a fugitive like him... if he clears his name, he could do the same for Cindy.

Then the two could become a "couple" and they’d have a great disguise!

<So he plans, what do you think Cindy?>

"Not bad, but I want to know if getting back all his wealth is part of it. If not, he could just kill me off and give me half of his money"

Richard tried to ignore the two women talking, Hana was munching on her food like a hamster. Her earlier gusto was gone because of the pressure exuded by the Goddess.

She even wondered how Cindy was able to keep her calm and have such a casual conversation with such an entity.

Fortunately for Hana, Richard’s plight was enough of a show to make her escape reality.

"Can’t a man have his thoughts to himself?"

Richard lamented but the Goddess, ever so apathetic answered simply-

<No>

"Fuck"

Richard turned to look at the endless grasslands once more to forcefully let his mind go blank.

But the Goddess continued to selectively voice out his thoughts and emotions. They were not all that bad but the things she said out loud were dangerous in a different sense.

<At least you won’t need to worry about not being able to push forward with a relationship right? If you can’t say your feelings out loud then I would do it for you>

The Goddess said calmly while taking a sip of her own coffee.

"Yeah, you men are just too hard to read, when it comes to anything else, you’re like an open book but on the matter of love? All of you men would willingly let out the truth but when love enters the conversation, you start lying- not to your partner but yourselves!"

Cindy followed up with her own words, likely based from her own experience and Richard responded to her with a forcefully calmed voice.

"The trick to deceiving others is to first deceive yourself, if you believe the lie, then it becomes the truth and the truth is always what people want to hear"

<Is that why the phrase "She’s not a kid" echoes in your head whenever you look at Hana?>

"..."

The conversation steered towards the quiet Hana but the content made everyone freeze-

"Disgusting"

"I should’ve left you to the FBI"

Hana and Cindy stared daggers at Richard but he only turned to the Goddess with wide eyes filled with shock after all-

"I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT!"

The worst part about having a Goddess who could read and voice out your inner thoughts is when she starts to mix in lies.

Since she’s the only one who could read his mind...

"It’s the DEVILS PROOF! PROBATIO DIABOLICA! I am innocent!"

He could only deny the allegations but there is no way for him to confirm his words. It’s basically his words against the Goddess.

But-

Richard was in the losing position- after all, who would admit to doing something bad?

Unfortunately his words only fell on deaf ears as Hana did not believe his words while Cindy, already aware of how the Goddess treats Richard, simply played along.

"FUCK!"

Richard could only curse as got marked with a new crime for the Nth time since he lost everything.

"It hasn’t even been a week man... give me a break"