Master-Slave Contract
"Nnh…"
The moment my consciousness returned, a faint moan slipped from my throat.
Whether it was the aftermath of fainting or something else, my head felt as though it were filled with fog.
I slowly lifted my heavy eyelids, and the world around me began to take shape.
The sound of water striking the shore. The free, unfettered cries of birds.
"…The ocean?"
What filled my vision was a vast stretch of beach and the pure white sand that met it.
It was a completely different environment from my last memory.
I was definitely in the forest… wasn't I?
As my mind gradually cleared, I carefully retraced the moments before I lost consciousness.
I had struggled to break free of Athena's restraints, and then her hand had come down on top of my head. Right after that, everything went dark.
Piecing the circumstances together, it was obvious—I had been taken down by her.
Not that it mattered much. I had never truly believed I could beat her in the first place.
Even the protagonist in the later half of the novel couldn't stand against her. What chance did I have?
To face her properly, you'd probably need to drag the Demon King himself along.
I brushed aside the pointless thoughts and tried to move, hoping to get a better grasp of the situation—
"Huh?"
My body wouldn't budge an inch.
I rolled my eyes this way and that, taking stock of myself.
My arms stretched out to either side. My knees pressed into the sand. And wrapping around me like living chains was a web of golden mana.
"Nngh…!"
No matter how hard I strained, the golden mana didn't so much as tremble.
The moment I finally gave up on escaping, a voice drifted over from one direction.
"You're awake?"
I followed the sound and found her.
Standing there in all her lofty grace, she looked like the sun itself—brilliant and radiant against the sky.
"Athena…"
She stepped toward me and laid her hand against my forehead.
"Does anything hurt? I already checked you over once, but still—just in case."
And who exactly put me in this state?
Her shameless concern left me utterly speechless.
"Is that really something you should be asking?"
I glared at her sharply. She only looked more amused, as if she found my defiance adorable, and ruffled my hair.
I tried to shake her hand off as hard as I could, but the mana gripping me crushed every last bit of resistance.
"Pfft… You're not getting out of this one. I put a lot of care into this spell, you know. You're stronger than you look."
"And where exactly is this place?"
It was a breathtaking beach straight out of a movie—but given my current situation, it only felt jarringly out of place.
"The last spot felt too cramped, so I changed the scenery to somewhere more open. Do you like it?"
Like it or not, what I really wanted to ask was why she was going this far with me in the first place.
But I doubted she would give me a straight answer, so I cut straight to the point.
"…What are you planning to do with me?"
"Curious why I tied you up?"
I answered her with silence. She took it as agreement, nodded, and asked again.
"Hera. Have you ever heard of a Master-Slave Contract?"
"A Master… Slave Contract?"
"Mm. It's proof that a servant will follow their master for eternity—and it places the servant's leash firmly in the master's hand."
I didn't know it. Not once in the novel had any magic like that been explained.
There had been a few characters who appeared as slaves, but a Master-Slave Contract was something I was hearing about for the first time.
Reading the meaning in my silence, Athena continued.
"So you don't know. Well, anyway—there's one condition required to complete this contract."
She stroked my cheek as if handling a precious treasure.
"Both parties have to consent for the contract to finish properly."
"Then you can't do it with me. I have absolutely no intention of becoming your slave."
I offered her a bitter little smile.
Athena must have expected that answer to some degree, because she brushed it aside without the slightest effort.
"Then what do you think happens if the contract is forced through without mutual consent?"
Starting a contract without agreement?
Wouldn't it just become null and void?
But the way she spoke suggested otherwise.
"…What happens?"
Her expression darkened. She made a little exploding gesture with her hands.
"Your heart bursts, and you die."
"Wh—?"
A chill ran through me at how casually she delivered something so vicious.
My heart bursting open… Was she just trying to scare me?
"Every person's body accumulates mana naturally over the years."
She stepped closer to my immobilized form and gently stroked my stomach as she went on, speaking almost to herself.
"When a Master-Slave Contract is formed, the master refines their own mana and pushes it into the slave's body. The slave then accepts that mana as part of themselves."
"Once the master's mana and the slave's become one, the master can control the slave whenever they wish using their own power. But what if the slave rejects the mana that entered their body?"
She directed the question at me, but there was no way I could answer.
She gave a soft little laugh, then clapped her hands together with a sharp smack.
"Just like cells fighting off a pathogen that invades the body, your own mana and the foreign mana start colliding. If your mana is of a higher grade than the outside force, it's no problem. But if it's the other way around…"
"The other way around…?"
"The foreign mana ends up bursting your heart."
"Nngh…"
Terrifying. The thought of my own heart exploding was not an experience I ever wanted to have.
For someone who used to groan and suffer through even a simple cold, it was beyond imagination.
"Are you planning to kill me…?"
I asked in a slightly cowed voice. Her cheeks flushed faintly, and she broke into a bright, dazzling smile.
"Oh my god. You're just too cute, Hera!"
She ruffled my hair roughly as she spoke.
"Don't worry. I'm different from other people. I can make sure you absolutely won't die. But…"
The smile began to drain from her face.
Every trace of kindness vanished, replaced by a coercive light settling over her eyes.
"It's going to hurt enough to make you wish you were dead."
"Wai— mmph?!"
In an instant, Athena forced my mouth open and shoved her hand inside.
Then she drove her fingers down my throat.
"Ghk?! …Kkuh… uwek…"
Nausea surged up from my throat, but even as I fought it down, I felt something riding into my body along with her touch.
When her hand finally withdrew from my mouth, a transparent thread stretched between her fingers and my lips like a strand of spider silk.
"Cough…! Haah…! Ugh…"
I gasped and wheezed in the most undignified way, scrambling to reclaim the breath I'd lost.
After gulping down air for a long while, my chest gradually steadied.
The moment my senses returned, I shouted straight at Athena.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
I glared at her as if I wanted her dead. Her face grew even more serious.
"I'm truly sorry, Hera. I didn't want to put you through something like this. But I want you that badly."
"You absolute— what do you take people fo— ghk?!"
Thud.
Suddenly it felt as though my heart had dropped straight through the ground.
Something unknown was happening inside my body.
What… what is this…
Heat began to rise through me, and a throbbing ache took root in my chest.
That small pain spread farther and farther—
"Hhk?!"
—until, before I knew it, an unknown agony had flooded my entire body.
It felt as if a tiny flame were expanding outward, slowly burning me up from the inside.
I clenched my teeth and waited for the pain to pass.
But with every second that ticked by, the agony only grew.
It swelled until it felt like molten lava was melting my organs from within.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"
As I let out a wretched scream, Athena seized my face in both hands and shoved her own face right in front of mine.
"Hera. This pain will vanish the instant you accept me."
Athena said something, but the agony tearing through my body drowned out every word.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"
My heart hammered and thrashed like a mad thing.
It wouldn't have been strange if it burst at any moment.
And yet something unknown seemed to wrap around it, holding it just short of rupture—leaving only the pain to continue without end.
"Ah…"
I had no idea how much time had passed.
My throat could no longer produce screams.
Reason had long since fled into some distant void.
I want… to die…
As the unbearable pain dragged on, my mind screamed for someone—anyone—to just kill me already.
Why did I have to suffer like this?
What had I done wrong?
I had only been an ordinary person who liked reading novels.
I hate this.
I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.
I want to die.
I don't want to die. Save me.
Someone… please help me…
My mind was breaking apart.
My thoughts grew more and more limited, until all I could do was beg for release from this horrific torment.
And through my blurring vision, I saw a single light.
Warm golden eyes, shining like the sun.
Athena.
If it was her…
I truly hated the thought, but if it was her…
If it was her, maybe she could pull me out of this pain.
A slave.
She had told me to become her slave.
She was the one who had thrown me into this hell—and yet she was the only person I could cling to now.
I hated her enough to die. But if she left me now, I felt certain I would never escape this agony for the rest of my life.
"No… I don't…"
The original story?
What did the original story even matter anymore?
Nothing written in that novel was of any help to me now.
As long as I could get out of this place, I didn't care what became of me.
Even if it meant becoming her slave.
I forced myself to look at her as best I could and squeezed out a voice that barely wanted to come.
"I'll… I'll do it… a slave… ple…ase… he…lp me…"
And then—
"M… Master…"
The moment the words left my lips, the pain vanished as if it had all been a lie.
The agony that had raged through me, trying to kill me, transformed in an instant into a warm sanctuary that gently wrapped me close.
"Ah…?"
As the pain disappeared, the magic binding me dissolved along with it.
My body pitched forward—
"You did so well, Hera. Something like this will never happen again."
—and she gathered me snugly into her arms.
As if to soothe someone who had suffered terribly, she began to gently pat my back.
Held in her warm comfort—
"Hic… hic… uh…"
—the relief of being freed from the pain, mixed with all the rage and grief that had built up until now, broke free. I burst into tears against her chest and sobbed without restraint.
The harder I cried, the tighter Athena held me.
Why was it, I wondered.
I hated her enough that I wanted to throw her off this very second.
And yet her arms felt so unbearably comforting.