First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 416: Change in Terms

The room Arlen used wasn’t an interrogation room in the formal sense. It was a small administrative space meant for internal handling, with no observation glass and no recording indicators active. The console between them displayed a release workflow already half-complete, Xavier’s name sitting at the top with a clean exit route mapped out beneath it.

"This is how it goes," Arlen said, resting one hand on the console. "Quiet processing. Identity scrub. You leave under a different registry. No delays."

Xavier looked at the screen without commenting. "Rin leaves with me."

Arlen didn’t react immediately. She scrolled once, then stopped. "The authorization is for you."

"He came in flagged alongside me," Xavier replied. "Same intake window. Same movement logs. Same watch notes. Keeping him here creates more paperwork than letting him go."

"That’s not my concern," Arlen said. "Liability is."

"He’s already attached to me," Xavier said. "That doesn’t change if he stays."

Arlen leaned back slightly, eyes narrowing as she recalculated. "If I add him, he exits as secondary. No independent clearance. Anything he does later reflects back."

"That’s fine," Xavier said. "I’m already carrying that."

Arlen held his gaze for a moment, then made the change. Rin’s name appeared beneath Xavier’s, marked as dependent release.

"There," she said. "That’s as far as that goes."

Xavier nodded once, then spoke again. "Klatos leaves too."

Arlen stopped scrolling. "No."

Xavier didn’t raise his voice. "Why?" He asked even though he knew it was obvious.

"He isn’t cleared," she said. "And I’m not transferring a non-human inmate off-world without cause."

Xavier leaned forward slightly. "What crime did he commit?"

Arlen looked at him, then back at the console. "That isn’t how this works."

"I’m asking anyway," Xavier said. "What did he do?"

She brought up Klatos’s file. It loaded quickly, which was the first problem. There wasn’t much to it. The record showed a transfer chain, not a conviction trail.

"He was moved during restructuring," Arlen said. "After Earth started cleaning the house. Non-human inmates were relocated to avoid jurisdiction conflicts."

"That explains why he’s here," Xavier said. "Not why he was arrested."

Arlen scrolled further back. The entries grew thinner. Administrative notes. Compliance flags. No sentencing extension.

"Minor violation," she said. "Expired term. No renewal order. He shouldn’t have been transferred at all."

Xavier watched her carefully. "So he finished his time."

"Yes."

"And nobody processed the release."

"No."

Xavier sat back. "Then you’re holding him without cause."

"I didn’t put him here," Arlen replied.

"But you’re the one deciding whether he stays," Xavier said.

The room stayed quiet while Arlen considered the screen in front of her. This wasn’t a debate about guilt. It was about whether she wanted to acknowledge a mistake that wasn’t hers.

"I can’t free him," she said finally. "Not formally."

"I’m not asking for formal," Xavier replied. "Transfer custody. Same mechanism used during restructuring. Attach him to my exit. Non-prison authority."

Arlen looked up at him. "You’re pushing past what I offered."

"I know," Xavier said. "I’m also giving you a clean resolution to a problem that shouldn’t exist."

"..." She stared at him.

"I mean, think about it." He shrugged his shoulders. "No one would notice he is gone. Plus, he isn’t officially in the system, either."

She didn’t answer immediately. Then she made the change.

"Klatos exits as transferred custody," Arlen said. "No public record. No follow-up. After that, he’s outside my scope."

"That’s enough," Xavier replied.

"You leave together," she said. "Once you’re out, this stops being my responsibility."

Xavier nodded. "That was always the plan."

Arlen didn’t shut the console down.

She stayed where she was, one hip resting against the edge of the desk, eyes still on the finalized release path like she was checking her work one last time. Then she looked up at Xavier again, slow and deliberate.

"I’m doing more than what we agreed on," she said.

Xavier didn’t shift. "You knew that before you hit confirm."

"I did," Arlen replied. "Which means the price changes."

He waited. Let her say it properly.

"You’re not leaving Jupiter right away anyway, right?" she went on. "You’ll be in this city, or at least this country, for a while. Maybe longer. I will take some days off and join you."

She pushed off the desk and stepped closer, stopping right in his space. No hesitation. No pretending this was still professional.

"I freed three people," she continued. "That’s three separate problems tied to my name. So you don’t just fuck me once."

Xavier raised an eyebrow slightly.

"When I want you," Arlen said, voice flat and confident, "you show up. Three times. Doesn’t matter where. Doesn’t matter when. You don’t flake, and you don’t ask questions."

Xavier looked at her and didn’t bother lying to himself.

He was sick of jerking off in a cell like an idiot, timing it around Rin falling asleep or hoping the guards pulled him out for some bullshit inspection. He was tired of buildup with nowhere to put it in. Tired of friction without release. Sick of being wound tight all the time with nowhere to dump it. It wasn’t romance or affection. It was pressure relief.

And there was the system.

He only had two telekinesis charges left. That was annoying. That meant holding back when he didn’t want to. Sex recharged it fast, without burning through stamina or drawing attention. If someone wanted to offer that on a schedule, he wasn’t about to pretend he had moral objections.

He looked her dead in the eye. "Deal."

Arlen’s shoulders relaxed just enough to notice. "Good."

She straightened and tapped the console once, sealing the exit window. "Be ready at one in the morning."

Xavier nodded and turned toward the door.

By breakfast, the prison had already forgotten him.

The hall was loud and dull like always. Trays sliding. Inmates talking shit. Nothing special. Xavier dropped onto the bench across from Rin and Klatos and didn’t waste time.

"We’re leaving tonight."

Rin froze mid-chew. "Tonight?"

"Yes."

Klatos didn’t react the same way. He hesitated, then shook his head slowly. "I can’t."

Rin stared at him like he’d lost his mind. "You’re kidding."

"There’s something I need to finish," Klatos said. "I won’t leave before that."

Xavier studied him, not the words but the way he said them. "You’ve got a few hours," he said. "Don’t drag this out."

Klatos met his gaze. "I won’t."

Rin leaned back hard against the bench. "Of course, there’s one more thing. There’s always one more fucking thing."

"We have got this chance to leave this place. Otherwise, the next time, we will have to break out of prison, and I am not in the ‌mood to hide around from the officials and become a fugitive in a place I barely know anything about."