Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Their Circumstances: Aris Lil Retia's Circumstances
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“Thwack thwack.”
“Eek! Hngh?”
“This isn’t a sound from your mouth. It’s a sound from my arm!”
“I-it’s coming from my mouth… Gah?”
“Huh? You still have the energy to talk? Then I like it even more. Pretty big sis!”
Thwack thwack.
A silver lifeform insisting that the sound—absolutely impossible to come from an arm—was coming from its arm, while unilaterally pummeling the Goddess of War.
…How the hell do you even explain this situation?
At the very first moment of summoning, there had been a brief glimpse of a majestic goddess, but that was gone now.
The goddess’s beautiful face was a mess of tears and snot streaming down, the gorgeous helmet she’d worn on her head had vanished, and in its place were disheveled strands of hair still emitting a transparent glow like seawater.
“P-Professor! She’s still the Goddess of War! No matter that she’s a god from another dimension, she could hold a grudge over this and contract with an enemy nation!”
Snapping out of my daze from watching the scene, I regained my senses as the goddess started letting out utterly nonsensical noises like “Kweh-eeek!” and “Hweeeh” amid her earlier screams of “Eek?” and “Gah!”
Why are gods, spirit kings, and archdemons considered the pinnacle among summons?
Sure, there are definitely other summons that can produce similar output if used right.
But they had abilities beyond raw power.
Spirit kings, half in another dimension yet half in this world, able to manipulate nature itself.
Gods from other worlds who could summon their divine armaments and relics, lending their divine authority to the summoner.
And archdemons possessing armaments and power capable of rivaling those gods.
That’s why a single one of them could alter the course of wars, making summoners who command them feared.
In fact, there are still unbroken records in war history—like a servant of the Water Spirit King winning a naval battle against ten times the numbers, or a single individual empowered by the Storm God shooting down 222 enemy magic engineers from the sky.
And yet, one of those gods—the God of War, no less, with her vast talents—was getting beaten like this.
A god I summoned, at that!
Isn’t this the perfect setup for me to get dragged into the resentment too?
“Watch closely, Lady Aris. Hit her more, hit her more!”
“Heehee. Even if she gets mad, I’ll do it!”
“Ah, nooo!”
“Eeng!”
“Kwehk?”
“Heehee! This big sis has killer hand strength!”
But Professor Niserwin instead ordered the silver lifeform to hit her more, and its hand began moving again accordingly.
How much longer did the thwack-thwack sounds continue?
In the end, the goddess grabbed onto the silver lifeform and started begging.
“Sp-spare me!”
“Huh? Pretty big sis? I don’t kill anyone. Ar is pure and pitiful, hates violence, and doesn’t have any killing functions! Instead, I’m a good summon who heals big sis’s sore spots!”
“N-nooo! Just kill me instead!”
The tearful goddess begged in the end, but the silver lifeform didn’t grant it.
No, it made it worse by saying she wouldn’t die, plunging the goddess into deeper despair.
And at that moment, Professor Niserwin approached the goddess as if he’d timed it perfectly.
“Goddess, there is a way to escape this place.”
“Wh-what is it! I’ll even sell my soul to a devil, please!”
The goddess, ruined beyond belief—impossible to imagine she’d once vied for beauty with the Goddess of Beauty—tried to cling to Professor Niserwin in desperation.
“Where you touching our master! Then scary big sisters will get mad!”
“Kweeng!”
She was stopped with one strike, though.
“Here, contract with this child, and you can escape safely.”
In that instant, the goddess looked at me with desperate eyes.
A contract? With me? True, I had summoned her for the sake of contracting.
But was it okay for a contract to happen like this?
What if the goddess came to her senses later, flew into a rage, and risked forcing a termination?
Then I’d be the one left holding the bag.
It could turn into the worst situation, all on me.
But as if he knew even that, Professor Niserwin pulled out a single sheet of paper from somewhere with practiced motions and held it out to the goddess.
“Now now, just press your thumbprint here, and you’ll be free from this pain.”
“Fr-free…”
As she uttered the word “free” and looked at the paper, the goddess’s eyes filled with hope of release from the torment.
“Eeng? Master master! This pretty big sis has killer hands—can’t we hit her just a bit more?”
“Eek! Hurry, hurry and contract! Child! If you contract now, I’ll teach you everything I know and all my abilities to the best of my power! So hurry! Agh! Why, why hit me!”
“Can’t hit you after contract, so gotta do it while there’s a chance!”
With those words, the thwack-thwack sounds resumed, and amid the same old routine, the goddess glared intensely at me even as she cried out in pain.
“H-hurry! Quick! Gaaah! Do it!”
The goddess was starting to slur her words.
And seeing even a goddess reduced to that made me start fearing whatever that silver spirit of Professor Niserwin’s was.
“O-okay. I’ll contract.”
“Here, press this into the red ink and stamp the contract. Yes, right there. Now, Ar, leave her alone for a bit.”
“Eeng, what a shame.”
Terrified of when that hand might come at her again, the goddess stamped the contract without even reading it, in a frantic rush.
“Lady Aris, you can sign here or thumbprint, whatever you like.”
But I couldn’t do that.
This was a Geass Roll, after all.
An absolute contract that even gods of other worlds—or this one—couldn’t tamper with lightly.
Mess up a Geass Roll contract, and your whole life could be ruined.
So I examined the contract, but…
‘This is a scam contract?!’
Sure, no harm to me.
No, it was so advantageous I wondered, ‘Is this even possible?’
But for the Athena goddess contracting with me, there’d be no more unfair deal than this.
No conditions whatsoever, letting me use a god’s power freely!
‘Oh my, I have to do this!’
She was the Goddess of War, no less.
From a marquisate’s perspective, it’d be worth billions to contract her—yet here was a deal stacked entirely with benefits!
“Qu-quick!”
While I read the contract, the silver spirit couldn’t wait any longer and resumed thwacking away at the goddess.
Thanks to that, the beaten goddess started pleading at me again.
‘I’m innocent. I’m innocent. I’m innocent!’
Yeah, this was what the goddess wanted. I was just granting it.
No responsibility on me!
This was all Professor Niserwin’s fault.
“I’ll do it!”
At the goddess’s wail, I quickly dipped my finger in the ink and stamped the Geass Roll.
“N-now it’s dooone…”
The moment the contract between me and the goddess was sealed, the thwack-thwack sounds stopped.
“Hng, what a shame… Her hands felt so good…”
“Eek!”
A minor incident where the goddess, still sitting, scrambled backward from the silver lifeform eyeing her with real regret.
“Well then, Lady Aris, now.”
“Y-yes!”
Professor Niserwin said this to me as I watched.
“You just need to reverse-summon her.”
“Re-reverse-summon?”
The goddess’s unfocused eyes blinked a couple times, then came back to life.
She hung her head, trembling for a moment, then barely stood on shaking legs and shouted.
“Ch-cheat!”
“Too late.”
The goddess glared at Professor Niserwin with a look of betrayal, and he replied with a wicked grin of total victory.
“Now, Lady Aris. Reverse-summon her, and it’s done.”
“Ch-cheat! This is cheating!”
Reverse-summoning.
The act of a summoner sending a summon back to its original world.
In other words, sending the goddess—now my contracted summon—back to where she came from.
But even without contracting with me, the goddess could’ve reverse-summoned herself.
No, now that she’d contracted, she couldn’t freely reverse-summon.
A moment that made her title as Goddess of Wisdom ring hollow, all thanks to that silver lifeform.
“Ciiiheaaaat!”
As the goddess vanished with a scream, she shot a glare at Professor Niserwin.
“Is a contract normally like this?”
Even if our house had no ties to summoning arts, the contracts I’d heard about from collateral kin or friendly nobles weren’t like this.
They were supposed to be more solemn, more ceremonial—a search for a lifelong partner.
But what had happened during my contract?
Violence, threats, and a slave contract!
Even if I was ignorant of summoning arts, it was obvious this wasn’t normal!
My life had felt off from the moment I entered this academy.
“You’ve become a summoner who handles a god-rank summon. In the end, it’s a happy outcome for everyone, isn’t it?”
But Professor Niserwin replied calmly, as if it were nothing.
“Really?”
“Yes, milady. The basics of negotiation are to push when the other side can’t think rationally.”
It felt more like the basics of intimidation than negotiation, but since I’d contracted with the great goddess Athena, I decided to keep quiet.
The next day.
That morning, on my way to school early, I saw it before I even reached the academy gates: a massive banner reading [Congrats! Lady Aris Lil Retia Becomes Contractor of the Goddess of War, Athena!]
***
I hadn’t expected it, but thanks to Ironbat, I contracted the Goddess of War super easily.
The academy’s reputation shot up!
Sure, there’d been wary looks from parents before, but this wiped them all away.
A god, no less. The God of War!
And the contractor was Lady Aris, from the ultra-famous Marquis Retia house—which commands a legion at the empire’s heart!
Word was already spreading across the empire, and families who hadn’t applied to Yuglasia were green with envy.
As expected, Yuglasia’s biggest star!
At this rate, next year we’d get applicants without even advertising!
-But if it stays like this, other rumors might start.
-Yeah.
But right now, only one god-rank contract: Retia.
Sure, god contractors are rare as hen’s teeth, but they exist.
Heck, one student council exec had contracted with Loki before I even arrived.
Probably folks uneasy about Yuglasia’s rising popularity.
Especially people at the other four great academies—or their parents—itching to tear us down.
So they’ll spread rumors like Aris always had the talent for god contracts.
Makes sense with Marquis Retia’s clout. In that case.
-We just contract another god.
I’d seen it when Sia sent back that hell god she summoned—even gods from other worlds fall to Ironbat.
-Hmph, unique goddess Arcadia-sama scoffs at gods from other worlds!
-Yeah, you’re the best!
Pumping up the smug Ironbat, let’s think of promising first-years.
No way I’m not using the proven Aris method.
-I’m great, guroooh!
-I’ll burn them to deaaath!
-Grooooh!
-H-human! Stop, pleeease!
And so, about a month later.
Yuglasia gained five new god-rank summoners.