Cattle Registration (1): First Day at the Slave Training Center
Yuriathenes knelt on the cold iron floor of the cage, chest heaving as she fought to catch her breath.
The thick black collar around her neck and the magic shackles binding her wrists and ankles still hummed with faint vibrations, a constant threat against her skin.
The two brutal electric shocks from moments earlier continued to sting every nerve ending.
The very fact that the Iron-Blooded Empress—whose body had never bowed to another soul in her life—had been subdued by such pathetic magical tools was an unbearable insult.
She slowly summoned the status window once more.
Name: Yuriathenes Arcadia von Elysium
Current Location: Slave Training Center
Erosion Rate: 0.7%
Real-World Time: Completely Paused
During the Slave Registration Period (7 days), learn the Basic Etiquette as Cattle.
Condition: Complete 300 declarations of “I am the iron-blooded cattle.”
Success: Erosion Rate reduced by 80%
Failure: None
Yuriathenes let out a sharp snort.
“……Heh. Hahaha.”
Her crimson lips twisted into a cold, razor-edged smile.
Platinum strands spilled over her shoulders as her ruby eyes gleamed with even sharper light.
“Cattle? Three hundred times? Do you truly believe you can break Us with such childish mental torture? How laughably pathetic.
To think you would attempt to subdue the Iron-Blooded Empress with this kind of curse… It isn’t even amusing.”
She leaned back against the bars, closed her eyes, and let her thoughts drift.
Sooner or later this will all be revealed as nothing more than illusion or curse. When that moment comes… I will hunt down whoever created this place and reduce them to cattle in turn. No—something far crueler.
But her thoughts did not last long.
Clang——.
The heavy iron door groaned open, its sound echoing across the entire market.
Two figures stepped inside.
One was a powerfully built man dressed in the black uniform and silver insignia of an S-class trainer. Cold gray eyes looked down at her.
His name was Karsen—one of the most notorious trainers in this slave market.
Behind him stood a slender female assistant trainer. Her long brown hair was tied back neatly, glasses perched on her nose. She carried a thick ledger in one arm and a small measuring instrument in the other.
“Another new head of cattle today,” Karsen said in a low, flat voice.
He stopped in front of the cage and ran his gaze over Yuriathenes—slow, deliberate, shameless. The look held the clinical detachment of a professional appraising merchandise, yet beneath it flickered a greedy curiosity.
The female trainer flipped open her ledger and spoke in a calm, professional tone.
“Appearance score is exceptionally high. Platinum blonde, ruby-red eyes, flawless skin of the highest grade. Breast size exceeds E-cup, waist is perfect, buttocks display excellent elasticity. Muscular yet distinctly feminine curves… a truly rare specimen. Training potential is considerable.”
Yuriathenes’ face twisted with rage.
“How dare you…!”
Her low growl dripped with murderous intent.
“How dare you scan Us with such filthy eyes! We are the Empress of the Elysium Empire—Yuriathenes Arcadia von Elysium! Cease this insolence at once, or We shall sever both your worthless necks!”
Karsen gave a small, amused huff.
“Here we go again. Cattle always start like this.”
He snapped his fingers lightly. The collar flared crimson and unleashed a searing electric shock.
Zzzzzzzzzzt——!
“Urgh…!!”
Yuriathenes’ body convulsed violently, yet she clenched her teeth and endured.
She summoned every ounce of mana within her. The empire’s strongest power surged toward her fingertips, ready to explode.
“——Shatter!”
A devastating wave of mana slammed toward the bars.
The collar reacted instantly. It reversed the flow, sucking the power back in and sending a brutal backlash through her entire body.
Zzzzzzzzzzt——!!
“Aaaaagh…!!”
This time the shock was far stronger. Her legs buckled and her knees slammed hard against the iron floor.
Still Yuriathenes refused to yield. She forced herself upright again, then poured raw physical strength into her arms, seizing the bars with both hands and wrenching them with all her might.
“Uwaaaaaah——! Do you honestly believe these pathetic iron bars can hold Us?!”
The metal gave a faint, protesting groan as it began to bend.
But in that instant Karsen stepped into the cage, seized her arm, and twisted it savagely behind her back. At the same time the female trainer wrapped her arms around Yuriathenes’ waist from behind, locking her movements completely.
“Cattle shouldn’t throw tantrums,” Karsen said coldly.
His grip was monstrous. Yuriathenes thrashed wildly, but the collar and shackles answered with successive waves of agonizing electricity.
Zzt——! Zzzzzzt——!! Zzzzzzzzzzt——!!!
“Ugh…! Haah…!!”
Her legs finally gave out entirely. Yet even then she refused to surrender, twisting and screaming.
“Release Us! Do not lay your filthy hands on Our person! We are the Empress! How dare lowly filth like you—!”
Karsen wrenched her arm higher, forcing her down onto her knees alongside the female trainer. Her platinum hair spilled across the cold floor. Completely overpowered, she was now trapped between the two trainers.
“Begin the inspection,” Karsen ordered indifferently.
The female trainer seized Yuriathenes’ breasts with both hands and squeezed firmly. Yuriathenes’ entire body went rigid.
“……!!”
Humiliation drained the color from her face. The sacred body of an Empress—untouchable by any mortal hand—was now being freely kneaded by strangers.
“Excellent elasticity in the breasts. Nipples are highly responsive. Inner thighs are… already showing a reaction,” the female trainer noted, her voice laced with mockery.
Her fingers pinched a nipple lightly, stroked down the waist, then patted the buttocks to test their firmness. Karsen ran his hand along the sensitive skin of her inner thighs, recording every twitch and shiver.
“Stop…! Stop this at once!” Yuriathenes cried, thrashing violently.
Karsen grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back.
“Cattle keep their mouths shut during inspection,” he warned in a low voice.
The collar flared again, delivering an even harsher shock.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzt——!!!
“Aaaaagh——!!”
Yuriathenes’ body shuddered uncontrollably. She bit her lip hard, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall. For the first time in her life, utter helplessness and shame carved deep into her chest.
The trainers ignored her resistance completely and continued their thorough examination—stroking her waist, slapping her buttocks, tracing the inside of her thighs with clinical precision, noting every unwilling response.
Forced to keep her legs spread, Yuriathenes was being meticulously appraised like livestock.
“Time to brand her,” Karsen said.
A glowing hot iron was pressed toward the skin beneath her left collarbone.
“No…!! You must not—!!”
She struggled with one final burst of desperation, but it was too late.
Karsen lowered the iron and spoke in a flat tone.
“White as platinum, eyes red as blood. And the way she fights… hard and hot as iron. So we’ll brand her ‘Iron-Blood.’”
The searing metal touched her skin.
Sssssssssssst——!
“Aaaaaaaaagh——!!”
White-hot agony lanced through her chest. The characters Iron-Blood were burned forever into her pale flesh.
In that moment Yuriathenes understood with bone-deep clarity that her body was no longer the body of an Empress. The untouchable symbol of the empire would now carry the brand of cattle for the rest of its existence. The realization crushed her pride more deeply than any electric shock ever could. Everything she had built, everything she had sacrificed, felt as though it had been shattered in a single instant.
The collar vibrated once more, stronger than before.
“From now on, repeat the words ‘I am the iron-blooded cattle.’ Whatever you were before, once you enter this place the only proper attitude for cattle is submission.”
Yuriathenes clenched her teeth and shook her head in defiance.
Karsen seized her chin in a bruising grip and forced her face upward.
“If you refuse to repeat it, you will receive continuous electric shocks for the next twenty-four hours. From this moment your name is ‘Iron-Blood.’ You are not an empress. There was never an empress by that name in this empire. That name is erased starting here.”
Yet her ruby eyes still burned with nothing but rebellion.
As the night grew deeper,
inside the cold iron cage of the slave market,
the first day of the Iron-Blooded Empress
stretched on without end.
