Hitman with a Badass System

The elders shivered in terror as blood gushed from Lord Julius's body. The blood oozing down formed a puddle under Julius's feet and reflected the golden light coming from the chandelier.

"Shhh," Gaya shushed everyone when a cat-faced elder tried to shout out for the guards. But the elder quickly closed his mouth when he saw the Dark Queen's gaze fall on him. The others found it hard even to take a deep breath under her presence. Complete silence swept across the hall as Gaya strolled toward Julius's body. She grabbed Julius's hand, pulled out the space ring, and held it in her palm. The elders saw a dim glow appear around the ring for a moment before the Dark Queen put the space ring back on his finger.

They had no idea what she did. Considering Julius was the leader of the Phoenix manor, Gaya knew he would have millions of gold coins in his space ring. As she expected, Lord Julis did have fifty million gold coins and a pay cube. Instead of taking the pay cube, Gaya just took the fifty million. Now that she had taken care of Julius and his gold coins, she took a step forward toward the elders.

Sitting atop Gaya's shoulder, Vedora scanned the elders and looked at them menacingly. The sight of a majestic creature like Vedora stunned the elders. However, they were too afraid to wonder about Vedora. After giving the elders a few moments to drown in their own fear, Gaya opened her mouth.

"To the outside world, you elders sent Lord Julius away to protect him from the Dark Lord. Now who has a problem listening to me?" asked Gaya. None of the elders dared to open their mouths, although some of them wanted to shout for the guards. Yet, deep down they knew there was no point in calling the guards, especially after they sensed the Dark Queen's Half Immortal stage cultivation.

The strongest guard they had was a Hal Immortal, but they doubted he could go head-to-head with the Dark Queen. Besides, they already made a grave mistake by killing the Dark Lord's man. Suppose they raised their hand against the Dark Queen herself; the next and the last person they see would be the Dark Lord.  As experienced merchants, each of them knew when to cut their losses and agreed to the opposite party's terms.

"You," Gaya turned her gaze at Elder Zod, the fox-headed elder who dared to question Julius about his actions. While the elders were shivering in fear, Bear went to Julius's body and stood beside it.

"I name you as the acting leader of Phoenix manor in Julius's absence. Those who disagree with me, raise their hands," said Gaya as Bear slowly licked the blood trickling down from the ax handle, which sent shivers running down the elders' spines. The elders looked at each other wordlessly, expressing their fear and agreement. They all wanted to get out of this hall alive. It was their highest priority.

Seeing no hands in the air, Gaya smiled.

"That's more like it. What's your name?" Gaya asked Zod.

"Zod," said Zod.

"Zod, I am confident you will listen to what you are told and lead our phoenix manor to its new preposterous era," said Gaya.

After giving a few moments for the elders to comprehend everything and calm their minds, Gaya continued.

"I am certain each of you must have gone through countless complex business transactions. On the contrary, what I offer is simple. Distribute our products through your channels, and each will get five percent of the profit. Go against us in any way, we will kill you, next of your kin, and take half of your wealth as a statement. I am mean, come on," Gaya shrugged.

"The great right clans won't come to save you, just like they didn't come to save Itholan. They witnessed the Dark Lord slaughter thousands of soldiers without raising a finger. So do you think they would come to rescue a single beastman? You know better than that. Unlike them, the Dark Lord takes care of those who follow him. He can make you a very rich person or a dead one. The choice is yours," said Gaya.

"Now, if you have any questions, you may ask them,"

Zod was the first one to question the Dark Queen. The others were still too afraid even to take a breath, let alone question her.

"My lady, what are we going to distribute?" asked Zod.

"Red bliss, a new kind of beverage. Trust me, it's going to replace all the ale, beer, and everything the people drink now. The dwarven ale is like muddy water compared to what we are about to distribute, the red bliss," Gaya paused for a moment and went on.

"You will receive the first batch tomorrow. Distribute them for free. Give people a free taste of our product and hook them in. From the next batch, you will sell each bottle for three thousand coins. We will raise the price once it gets more popular among the patrons,"

As soon as the elders heard the price, they gasped in shock. In their minds, the price was simply outrageous. Even a dwarven ale cost a thousand coins per bottle, and they were the finest in the whole world. Only the rich could afford such pleasantries. Unfortunately, the percentage of the poor outnumbered the rich. When it came to food and drinks, any merchant would target the poor because of the wider customer base.

Selling a bottle for three thousand coins seemed like an impossible task. The elders opened their mouths and quickly closed them, fearing their words would bring nothing but the Dark Queen's wrath upon them. Judging by the looks on their faces, Gaya knew what they were thinking. In fact, she could read them like open books.

"I did say give the first batch for free. Just do as I say and watch the red bliss take over the world. Soon, we are going to be swimming in gold coins,"

"Tell them about the brew's origin," Ayag whispered into Gaya's ears.

"And yes," the smile on Gaya's face vanished as she said,

"I know you have policies against revealing a product's source or origin. But if you are pushed by the guardians for example, the red bliss comes from the Southern continent, and that's all you could say. And don't fret about the guardians for now. The Dark Lord will handle them. You just focus on the task at hand. Do we understand each other?" Gaya's cold gaze swept across the hall as the elders quickly bobbed their heads up and down.

Now that the elders agreed with her, she turned around and looked at Julius's body.

"It's time to clean this mess," said Gaya. Then, she flicked her wrist as a colorless potion appeared in her hand. She poured out the liquid inside onto the blood. The moment the potion touched the blood, it sizzled like hot oil. Under their gazes, the colorless potion made the blood vaporize from the ground. In a few minutes, the blood under Julius's body completely vanished, leaving a shiny marble floor. Everyone, including Bear, was completely stunned by the sight. Even his vampire senses failed him as he couldn't smell any blood at all.

After cleaning up the blood, only Julius's body remained. Taking care of the body was easier than cleaning the blood. Gaya just raised her hand as a green mist shot out of her hand and enveloped the body. It covered the body like a jade bubble. Gaya then snapped her fingers as sparks flew out from her fingers toward the bubble. As soon as the sparks met the bubble, they lit up the bubble. The bubble burned with intense heat. Everything around them had a green hue due to the emerald-green flames. The flames burned hotter and brighter for a few seconds until the body completely vanished from the throne.

Thud!

Bear's giant ax fell from the throne. He picked it up, gave a short lick to the blade, and sheathed it behind him. When Gaya turned around, the elders looked pale. They sweated like pigs. Their eyes glistened with complete fear, putting a smile on Gaya's face.

"Till now, I told you what you must do. Now I will tell you what you must," Gaya's gaze turned cold as the elders felt the murderous aura coming off her.

"Red bliss is not for you to consume. Do not drink it. I don't want the pillars of my distribution to turn into addicts. Remember your family whenever you get a temptation to have a taste," Gaya threatened the elders. Eventually, Gaya dismissed the elders but not before making them wear necklaces with Spyders attached. She knew better than to trust a merchant. With the Spyders attached to them, Azazel could monitor every single one of them and inform her if they attempted to do something foolish.

Except for Zod, everyone else left the room. The fox-headed elder peeked through the broken door and ensured no one could hear them.

"You did good, Zod," said Gaya.

"We gave you the position you longed for. I hope for your sake you don't do anything foolish once you ascend to that throne," Gaya pointed at Julius's throne. The elders thought it was random that the Dark Queen chose Zod as the next leader. To be honest, they were relieved to see someone else get chosen. What they didn't know was Zod made a deal with the Dark Queen before even she arrived at the manor and killed Julius.

Thanks to Sadie and her girls, he was able to contact the Dark Queen and ask for the phoenix manor throne in exchange for his undying loyalty. His proposition turned Gaya's initial plan of slaughtering everyone in the higher-ups to kill only Julius and make Zod the next leader. Her plan worked flawlessly, to say the least.

"I won't dare, my lady. I will serve you till the last breath," Zod knelt down before her and pledged his loyalty once again.

"But my lady, what about the harbingers? What if they tried to meddle with our business?" asked Zod.

"They aren't the only death squad, Zod," Gaya smiled like a devil.