Clockwork Bride

Page 221

...After reflecting on himself like this, Hayden really wanted to scratch the wall even more.

“Master, instead of looking up all day thinking about how to become an omniscient and omnipotent god, why not turn around and look at your surroundings first, and think about how to become a responsible, strong and brave person?”

Angela's tone was calm, but by her usual standards, this was considered quite serious when she spoke to Hayden.

"A person who is not proactive, lacks confidence, and is irresponsible can achieve nothing."

These words were truly harsh, as sharp as the sword Hayden himself had uttered, leaving Hayden momentarily stunned. However, he genuinely found it difficult to refute them. He was aware of his own problems; otherwise, why would he have felt so attacked?

So Hayden could only obediently admit, "You're right."

Since that's the case, and now that we know our own shortcomings, we must change them.

Hayden rubbed his temples, pulled up his recent work files, and pondered what good opportunity might arise, but in doing so, he didn't see what was happening next to him.

While Hayden was busy thinking, Angela picked up another ancient book from Professor Albion's collection, opened it, flipped through it a couple of times, and seemed to be deep in thought.

It was an old book from Japan. As a country that also preserves many traditional Eastern customs, the Japanese write their wishes on colored paper and hang them on bamboo to pray to the Weaver Girl on Tanabata (the seventh day of the seventh lunar month). In ancient times, when people made such wishes, their desires were often related to praying for marriage. But modern people don't seem to care so much, and Hayden overlooked it for a moment as well.

Ancient legends of "feathered celestial maidens" are found all over the world. If so, do these celestial maidens from beyond the Milky Way truly represent an ancient deity who can grant people's wishes for love?

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The Lovers (Upright)

[Grand Arcana Card 6]

[Keywords: choice, decision, love, interpersonal relationships, union]

Taking initiative is a form of responsibility. A person's capacity to love another depends first and foremost on their ability to take responsibility.

247: A sense of urgency!

Oh dear, Hayden saw Joanna's male transformation and mistook her for a different person.

What should she do now?

The situation before her was so unexpected that Joanna didn't even have time to feel scared.

Since that's the case, let's calm down and try to think about it through a simulation:

Option 1: Tell Hayden that the man she saw was just a relative, like her brother, and that they lived together!

This is, of course, the most common approach, so it's actually not very effective. Women all over the world use this excuse to deceive men, and men do almost the same thing. Everyone's seen the same trick so many times, we're used to it, and rounding it off, it becomes useless.

Joanna could certainly tell Hayden that it was a relative, not her boyfriend. Hayden certainly wouldn't bother with her, after all, Joanna was just an employee. As long as she didn't cause any social trouble, the company didn't need to get involved in such trivial matters.

...But this completely ruined Joanna's plan to seduce Hayden. While she wouldn't be killed by Karen this way, wouldn't the mission her real boss had assigned her also be destroyed?

Therefore, it is clear that this plan will only result in Joanna being brutally murdered by a different target.

So, Option Two: Forget about cohabitation, even saying it's just a relative visiting... no, that won't work either. Ultimately, it's the same thing as Option One.

A spy, from the very beginning, must not be suspected. Because no matter how well the disguise is done, once a spy arouses suspicion, clearing up the suspicion becomes extremely difficult. Although some people in the world are particularly excited about sleeping with married women, Joanna observed Hayden for half a month and did not think he had such a fetish; on the contrary, he was particularly fastidious. A promiscuous nature wouldn't excite him; it would only scare him away.

In other words, once Joanna defends herself, the whole thing is doomed.

What should she do? At this moment, Joanna could only rack her brains. There was still time; she had to come up with a solution quickly! Fortunately, she was, after all, a genius (?) intelligence agent, and within half a second, a plan came to her. In fact, perhaps because she had been wary of Karen recently, Joanna found an obvious method almost instantly.

However, this method is absurd, even akin to drinking poison to quench thirst—but did Joanna really have a choice?

No. Even if it's poison, she'd have to swallow it now!

"actually……"

Taking a deep breath, Joanna opened her mouth and said,

"Actually, Mr. Hayden, the person you saw was me!"

This really surprised Hayden: "Huh?"

Joanna had already come up with a whole explanation in that split second, so she immediately crossed her arms, adopted a somewhat embarrassed and hesitant expression, and quietly admitted, "Actually... after I get home from get off work, if I need to go out at night, I'll use magic to transform into a man's appearance first. After all, I live alone, and I always have to worry about safety when I go out at night..."

That's right, this was Joanna's desperate measure!

Instead of trying to cover it up by saying he's my relative or friend, I might as well just admit it honestly—you saw a man come out of my room? That was me!

By mixing in a few lies on top of the truth, stating some startling but perfectly reasonable facts, and then showing some weakness as a vulnerable woman... wouldn't everyone be curious and want to know more about her? And that can become the basis for goodwill and seduction!

Sure enough, even Hayden was taken aback when he heard Joanna's words: "You often disguise yourself as a man and go out at night?"

...Unfortunately, no matter how you look at it, these words sound somewhat perverse.

It was fortunate that Joanna was a woman, or at least appeared to be one to Hayden and the others, so her nighttime transformation into a man and dressing in men's clothing for a stroll wasn't too frightening. If she were a man, transforming into a woman and dressing in women's clothing every night would likely have drawn truly horrified glances from Hayden.

"Don't say that, Mr. Hayden! It was just a self-defense technique!"

Joanna quickly defended herself, then spun around on the spot, instantly transforming from a voluptuous dark elf woman into a slender and handsome young dark elf. The ingenuity and perfection of this magic even surprised Hayden, who witnessed it.

As luck would have it, Karen walked into Hayden's office just as it was past closing time. The moment she entered, she saw a young, handsome dark elf dressed in a business suit. The sight made her blink involuntarily, as if what she saw had startled even a god.

Fortunately, she was a powerful goddess, so she understood after a careful look and then commented, "A very impressive Transfiguration, Miss Joanna Hadersdottir."

Joanna quickly bowed to Karen, but the dozens of personalities within her were already trembling with fear at Karen's appearance.

This shapeshifting magic is indeed Joanna's signature skill. Being able to transform into another, exquisitely detailed form with just a simple movement, without using any incantations, is no easy feat even for gods. Just look at Hayden and Professor Albion's shapeshifting; they usually rely on props or potions, or at least rituals or incantations.

The fact that she could transform herself into such an exquisite form with a simple spin on the spot at least demonstrates her mastery of this form, even to the point of being accustomed to the mental mode. In other words, this proves that Joanna frequently transforms into this dark elf boy. She didn't just temporarily adopt this form to deceive others—at least that's how it appears to outsiders.

Who would have thought that Joanna's transformation was actually achieved by switching between dozens of multiple personalities? No one would suspect anything, and everyone would fall for the trick. It was truly Joanna's brilliant deception.

...That being said, this signature skill also has a small problem.

“Hayden, I need to take up a moment of your time,” Karen nodded to Hayden, then looked back at the dark elf. “Miss Hadersdottir, I need to have a private conversation with Hayden now, just the two of us. Please put aside your flirting for now.”

These words truly terrified Joanna. For a moment, she even imagined herself being casually killed by Karen, and she shook her head vigorously, her voice trembling: "No, no! I absolutely didn't mean that! I have absolutely no improper thoughts about Mr. Hayden!"

But Karen simply waved her hand and said, "Let's go."

Joanna quickly fled like a wild horse.

Hayden watched her run away and shook his head: "Why did you have to scare this new employee?"

"What? You really want to flirt with her?" Karen said, but a smile played on her lips. "You want to increase the number of people in the virgin's harem again?"

"You mock me for being a virgin while saying things like that? Where's your conscience?" Hayden retorted. "Besides, this guy actually has a male personality and often switches to a male body to go out at night. I can't handle this kind of fetish."

This was the price Joanna paid for her desperate act of self-destruction.

Most people probably wouldn't mind if it were just a beautiful woman with a male personality. However, a beautiful woman who can (and is happy to) conjure up a huge penis at any time is much less acceptable—most men would be terrified if she suddenly turned into a man in bed. Hayden genuinely didn't have that fetish and just wanted to keep his distance from her.

"It's not that exaggerated. Her male appearance is quite effeminate. These cross-dressing young men's bodies don't look much different from women's bodies; in fact, they're much cuter than her female bodies."

Karen, however, said something else entirely.

The reason was that she usually felt annoyed whenever she saw Joanna's breasts, which were about the size of her head and would be hopeless for Karen unless a miracle happened. Now that she saw Joanna transformed into a man and had a figure similar to Karen's own, she naturally found it more pleasing to the eye.

Hayden, however, didn't understand Karen's implication and was instead startled: "You actually prefer that kind!?"

This only confused Karen: "What's wrong with that? A neutral body is definitely better!"

Of course she would say that, after all, Karen herself was designed by her mother to be a slender, flat-chested woman. If she wanted to change, she'd have to get a ridiculously expensive body custom-made and spend an entire menstrual cycle getting used to it. Money wasn't the issue now, but Karen didn't have a month to waste. Everyone was too busy.

Oh, right, she can also use Transfiguration. But Transfiguration isn't real, and just having a Transfiguration spell constantly on her body for the sake of her figure seems a bit too empty! Kallen's pride wouldn't allow her to do that.

In short, Kallen's body image issues are truly heartbreaking. Therefore, seeing Joanna transform from a large-breasted dark elf to a flat-chested dark elf actually brought her a sense of relief.

Hayden, however, didn't quite connect with Karen's train of thought, assuming she had a penchant for handsome, androgynous young men—frankly, there was nothing wrong with that, just as normal as men liking beautiful girls. Nevertheless, Hayden still felt a lot of pressure.

“But let’s not talk about that now.” Fortunately, Karen came to discuss serious matters. “That Joanna Hadersdottir, you should have investigated her background, right? What were the results?”

Hayden then realized what was happening and nodded: "No problem. The strangest thing is that after get off work, she often turns into a man and goes out at night. But the company can't really prohibit such a small thing. But I'm still a little worried that she might have a split personality."

His magical intuition was still quite sharp, and he realized that Joanna's easy transformation might indicate dissociative identity disorder. But even Hayden couldn't have imagined that this person actually had dozens of personalities and dozens of forms.

“I think she switched very smoothly, so there shouldn’t be any major problems,” Karen said thoughtfully. “This new employee has performed very well in the past two weeks, achieved a lot, and gets along very well with other new employees. She has strong leadership skills. I already thought we could remove the ‘candidate for management’ label from her, but I didn’t expect to see this kind of transformation magic today. She’s also very good and very suitable for leading newcomers.”

Hayden was a little confused: "Can a man become suitable to lead newcomers?"

“Of course. No one can be liked by everyone, and gender is especially prone to same-sex repulsion. This Hadersdottir can be portrayed as a handsome young man, with the style of a popular male celebrity. Now that the new employees are all new to the company and entering a new social circle, the female employees will naturally like him more,” Karen explained. “Originally, having such a prominent woman like Joanna as the new leader might have caused jealousy among the female new employees, but this is much better.”

"Theoretically, you are in charge of managing this batch of new employees, so I can't bypass you and interfere directly. But I still suggest that you let this Hadersdottir transform into this masculine form more often in the company. After all, the proportion of female employees in our company is quite high."

Good heavens. Hayden was almost dumbfounded when he heard this.

He knew, of course, that the male celebrities and idols popular in the market these days mostly conformed to an androgynous, handsome, and somewhat "sugar-like" aesthetic. But he never expected that even Karen would like this kind of young, fresh-faced man! Suddenly, Hayden felt immense pressure!

“She should have noticed that we are monitoring her. Since we misunderstood her before, we should now offer her some reward or compensation to appease her.”

Karen, oblivious to Hayden's thoughts, continued, "Promotions and rewards should be shown to other employees to motivate them. Now that it's confirmed she's not a spy, there's no mischief, and she's been performing very well lately, I think we can hold a recognition ceremony for her... What do you think?"

She had already made a very logical and reasonable argument, so what could Hayden think? He could only nod and say, "That makes perfect sense."

And so the matter was settled.

However, after Karen left, Hayden couldn't help but feel immense pressure.

He had always believed (or at least since meeting her parents for the first time) that Karen liked him, and he still had no doubt about it. But he had never considered this question before: perhaps Karen liked Hayden only for his talent, or personality, or abilities, and not for his body? It wasn't that there was anything wrong with that, but thinking about it carefully, it still felt a little awkward!

He was clearly overthinking things. But the matter still put a lot of psychological pressure on Hayden, and even gave him a subtle sense of urgency.

Angela witnessed the misunderstanding between the two, but she didn't say anything this time.

Giving Hayden a sense of urgency might not be a bad thing.

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At the same time, Joanna also received a message from Hayden, telling her that the company was going to promote her and give her a public recognition, and that she should prepare a speech—this sense of urgency was so intense that she almost vomited blood.

Hayden and Karen's praise was as sweet as the ticking of a bomb countdown to Joanna!

And this is really not a metaphor!

248: Urgent! I am the King of Urgency!

Standing before more than 40,000 new employees, Joanna Hadersdottir is feeling despair.

Because she was about to receive public praise from Hayden and Karen.

Karen always acts decisively and without hesitation. So this morning, Joanna was dragged away early to prepare for an awards ceremony in front of all the new employees—a testament to Karen's domineering attitude towards her staff. Fortunately, she at least had Hayden inform Joanna beforehand and give her time to prepare her speech.

This "mercy," however, was nothing short of a death sentence for Joanna, only intensifying her despair and fear. She had initially clung to a sliver of hope, believing that the promotion and commendation were a good thing, proving that Hayden and Karen trusted her more and giving her more opportunities to sow discord between them.

And what actually happened? Now, dragged onto the stage and facing the gaze of thousands, Joanna inevitably realized—she was about to die.

She could no longer even hear what Karen and Hayden were saying beside her. To her, the countdown of the "time bomb" inside her was louder than any words could be spoken.

As a spy prone to losing control, Joanna is like a ticking time bomb. And that bomb is about to blow her head off!

“Miss Joanna Hadersdottir, in recognition of your outstanding work performance this month, I will…”

Karen was spouting meaningless nonsense at her, with Hayden watching from the side. Joanna was powerless to do anything about it.

Since that's the case, let's calm down and try to think about it and simulate it.

Option 1: Turn around and run

If Joanna had run away in public and refused the promotion and recognition, perhaps the "bomb" within her wouldn't have been detonated.

...But doing something like this is no joke. Karen and Hayden would inevitably become suspicious, and then Joanna would never be able to gain their trust again.

Option 2: Sudden onset of a serious illness

Switch to the relevant personality and then suddenly collapse like having an epileptic seizure, so that you don't need... uh, but will anyone trust this employee who suddenly falls ill from now on?

In the end, there was only one result: death.

Option 3: Jump directly to Karen's side and the world will be yours?

...No. She still has relatives back home. Those relatives at the company back home are essentially hostages, and Joanna simply cannot bear to watch them die.

Option four... well, no matter what she thinks, or how she drives dozens of personalities to think and deduce together, all she can come up with is a desperate, short-sighted approach that cuts off all future paths to survival, or a hopeless future where she dies right now.

Why did things turn out this way?

With only a few seconds to think, Joanna finally reached a conclusion. This conclusion was bittersweet, filled with mixed emotions. But she had no other choice.

"Ms. Karen! Please listen to me!"

Joanna, who was about to receive her promotion and award on stage, suddenly interrupted Karen!

"Before I accept the praise, there is something I need to report to you! Just between the two of us, let's speak privately!"

In order to survive, there is only one method she can take now, and it is very simple and easy to understand!