The Contract That Demands Blood
“Contract is important, but the law is distant, and fists are close.”
“……Huh?”
“……What?”
I watched Morgan and Isolde’s faces twist in confusion as they stared at my words.
Unlike them, they looked genuinely dumbstruck. I scratched my head.
From their perspective, the person who had just beaten them, kidnapped them, and locked them away was now offering them a spot in their ranks. Anyone in their shoes would be reeling.
I had felt the same whirlpool of disbelief when the Demon King himself had first extended that olive branch from the Sky Island.
But my request now was utterly sincere. It was a little disappointing that only two of the four Demon Generals had been convinced, yet if I could pull Morgan and Isolde firmly into our side, things would become far smoother once Mu was completed.
And the method I had prepared for that purpose was simple.
“Um… let me be a little more precise.”
It still went against my better judgment, but since I could handle the aftermath cleanly, this had to be the best option.
Pressing them with sheer force, torturing them, or mind-controlling them had all failed. So before anything else, I had taken a deep breath, mustered every ounce of courage, and finally spoken the words I had prepared.
“Will you not join my side—the one who already knows the future?”
* * *
Silence wrapped around us like a heavy blanket.
Not a single footstep, not a rustle, not even a breath. Only silence filled the research lab.
The air was so thick with awkwardness that one could suffocate under it. I had expected something like this, yet the pressure on my chest remained heavy.
Morgan and Isolde had fallen into silence because they had not yet fully grasped my meaning. Mu and I simply waited for their answer, the silence unbroken.
“……”
“……”
My intuitive suggestion had been clear, yet it clearly took them longer than expected to process.
Mu, standing beside me, puffed her cheeks in mild dissatisfaction at the pair’s stubborn silence. I reached out, ruffled her forehead with a gentle whack, and urged her to stay quiet.
Forcing a choice here would render my words meaningless. They had to believe of their own accord.
So I remained silent, giving them every chance to think, and the oppressive quiet stretched on.
After some time—roughly three minutes—Isolde finally lifted her heavy eyelids and looked at us.
“Then…”
“Mm?”
“You claim to know the future. Show me proof.”
Ah, they wanted proof.
Of course. In our current situation, the statement was nothing but baseless nonsense to them.
Naturally, they would demand evidence if they were to consider believing me.
Even so, Isolde’s boldness took me by surprise.
If we had truly regarded them as mere tools, any such question from the defeated would have been suicidal.
Yet Isolde spoke with perfect calm. She had calculated that this much would not cross the line into death.
And she was right. I could not help but admire her composure—the very definition of the character listed.
Perhaps she simply meant, “My life doesn’t matter anyway,” but I wanted to believe the former. It would give me more varied ways to use her.
Isolde had requested proof of my future knowledge.
I could provide any number of evidences, yet only a few could be explained in words.
Even restricting them to things Demons would recognize would narrow the list dramatically, yet this single one should be enough to convince them.
“The Human-Demon War.”
“……”
“You will trigger the Human-Demon War five years from now. You will gather your Demon forces along the southern border of the Frisia Kingdom, swallow the Sam Empire to the southeast with the Demon King at the helm, and declare war once the opposing formation is complete. The hidden trump card that will decide the war has been in preparation since five years ago—specifically since the recent formation of an enormous annihilation magic circle by the Demons.”
Did I get it right?
In the original game, the Demons launched the first strike and attempted to conquer the continent. Even with my intervention changing the future, this particular outcome should remain unchanged.
Since it was a plan devised by the Generals five—or perhaps ten—years earlier, it was an immutable part of the future.
Especially the part about embedding magic circles across the continent right now.
This was as much a hidden trump card of the Demons as anything, so even if I had kidnapped Isolde, Idea would surely have been the one traveling to install them herself.
And since the plan had been their own private scheme, they could not even suspect betrayal. If nothing else, they would dismiss my words as delusions.
Sure enough, Isolde and Morgan nodded at the same time, without a word, their heads moving in perfect unison.
“……I see. It’s hard to believe, but it seems you truly know the future.”
“So you’re prepared to join my side?”
“Honestly? Yes. If we already know your entire plan, the outcome is obvious. And at this point, there’s no way out of here. I’d rather fight than die.”
Isolde nodded, letting out a short sigh.
Morgan, watching her from the side, grinned and teased, “You’re surprisingly talkative today, Isolde. Do you want to live that badly?”
“Of course. I don’t want my life to end here. I’ll live however I have to.”
Even as Morgan’s mocking tone continued, Isolde answered without the slightest change in expression.
Morgan exhaled through her nose, clearly bored, then leaned back against the wall once more. Isolde, however, still stared at me, as if several questions remained.
“I accept. But first, let me ask a few things.”
“Of course. As long as you don’t cross the line, I’ll answer everything.”
As long as they didn’t cross the line.
Isolde’s throat bobbed slightly as she swallowed hard, though her face gave nothing away.
Even if I had already decided to make them allies, the words from their perspective carried real weight.
Perhaps to her, this meant their lives could vanish with a single question.
So she asked in a slightly softer voice.
“Then I’ll ask only one thing. Even if I join your side, will I have something to do? I’m a Demon, after all.”
“Something to do? Of course—there’s more work than you can shake a stick at. And as a Demon, your basic stamina is far superior to humans. I’ll have plenty for you to do. No need to worry.”
“……”
Isolde’s eyes narrowed, clearly wanting a more detailed explanation than my casual reply.
I ignored her and turned my gaze to Morgan instead.
Spelling out every task too clearly might have let her back out of her earlier statement.
So I asked her directly.
“Then what about you? What will you do?”
“Hah… I have no choice. I love being a Demon, but my life comes first. And since Isolde’s already in, how could I be left behind?”
“Good. Then both of you have accepted?”
“Yes, Mother.”
I had spoken at length, but once I had secured their agreement to join my side, I turned to Mu, who had been standing silently behind me.
She walked toward us, staff in hand.
Before she could even move properly, Isolde’s eyes widened in shock as she took in Mu.
“Mu? Isn’t that the name… Wait, you call her ‘Mother’? That can’t be…”
Isolde’s confusion was plain. I pressed the point home.
“Exactly as you thought. This one is the Homunculus I created.”
“Of course… Then are the other siblings all Homunculi too?”
“That can wait until I finish this contract.”
A genuine spark of interest lit her eyes, and the worry for her own life seemed to have vanished.
If I simply accepted everything, it might never end, so I gestured toward Mu and had her wave her staff. Two glowing sheets of magical contract materialized between us.
“This is…”
“After so long…”
Both Isolde and Morgan’s eyes lit up with recognition at the sky-blue script.
“You both know what this is, correct? A mana contract. You must both press your blood seals here to acknowledge the terms.”
“This should be fine.”
“Mm.”
A mana contract.
The name was simple, yet the document was nothing less than a binding between mana and mana—the soul itself.
As long as even the faintest mana remained, the contract endured. Every living being in this world needed mana to survive; therefore, it was an absolute pact that could never be broken until the end of one’s life.
The four clauses I had written with deliberate elegance were as follows:
First, absolute secrecy.
Second, absolute obedience to my commands.
Third, prohibition of any deliberate self-harm or suicide.
Fourth, permission required before wielding any power.
In short, until the day they died, they would guard my secrets, never attempt self-destruction, and even if I slipped up and forgot to leash them, I would still make them my servants.
Of course, this was little different from a slave contract, so I had added a few safeguards—nothing that could be called excessive bullying, no livestock-like treatment, nothing that would turn them into mere animals.
And with these terms, both Morgan and Isolde nodded, cracked their knuckles, and pressed their bloody fingertips to the seals.
The two contract sheets split into two, each one embedding itself into their bodies.
A faint coercive force seeped through their veins. I clenched my fist lightly.
It was not dramatic, yet I could feel the air itself speaking—affirming that I would uphold the contract.
Morgan and Isolde wore similar expressions, their own senses confirming the same.
I drew my sword and sliced cleanly through their sealing runes.
With the contracts now signed, there was no longer any need to restrain them.
Shing—Clang!
The handcuffs and leg irons that had bound them fell away. Isolde and Morgan rubbed their wrists, then rose to their feet.
I offered them a small, genuine smile of welcome.
“I’ll make sure you never regret joining my side.”
I had that much confidence. And at my words, the two exchanged a glance, then nodded.
“Pray that you keep your word. Otherwise, what was the point of begging for life?”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
Each carried the same certainty in their voices as they accepted my greeting in their own ways, the corners of their mouths lifting ever so slightly.
Mu, standing beside me, looked distinctly displeased at the cheerful scene. The pout would fade once I ruffled her hair later.
So I turned my attention away from her and drew my sword with a bright smile.
“Before anything else, however, I’ll remove the interspecies extermination DNA embedded in your Demon genes.”
After all, it would be difficult to use them if their true Demon nature remained intact.
It would hurt, but they would endure it.
On this day, the two Demon Generals’ screams rang sweetly through the research lab.