The Mark of Submission
The mark.
Just as a demon carves its own insignia into its contractor, so too does a demonologist etch the symbol of subjugation onto any demonologist weaker than themselves.
As a demonologist, I was little more than a novice, but I knew what a mark meant to others like me.
It didn’t take a genius to figure it out—right then, I could have been its target myself.
The demonologist who had been tracking Ray—Malebris—had declared he would stamp that mark on me and turn me into his slave.
His servant, his experiment, and in the end, his sacrifice.
A living corpse.
That was the mark.
At least, that was what I had been told.
“Just asking out of curiosity.”
So I asked.
“Is there something else about the mark between demonologists that I don’t know about?”
Mea nodded.
“...I heard that inscribing a mark is about establishing a hierarchy between demonologists and building a domination system.”
I wasn’t sure if I could believe Malebris’s words, but from the way he had boasted to me, there was probably some truth to it.
My guess had just been confirmed by Mea’s answer.
“Everything you said is correct.”
They wanted to carve that onto me?
I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
I had lived as a slave—wondering every second when, where, or why my life might be taken.
The slave mark that had been burned into me was a terrible curse that let the owner end my life with nothing more than a thought.
Now the magical power was gone; only the scar remained.
But that scar still weighed on me like a gun pointed at my head, waiting to fire at any moment.
Even hiding the mark wasn’t just to conceal my slave past—it was also because looking at it brought back memories I couldn’t stand.
I simply couldn’t understand why Mea, of all people, was asking me to carve that on her.
Still, Mea spoke calmly and explained.
“A mark isn’t one-way. It’s bidirectional. The control of whichever direction you choose lies entirely with one party.”
That was exactly what I had thought.
Mea’s next words shattered my assumption.
“So the dominant party can simply claim the subordinate party’s issues as their own, if they wish.”
“Issues? As in, a price?”
“Mostly.”
Only now did I understand why Mea had asked me to carve that mark.
Thinking about it, it really wasn’t that complicated.
It was just that my negative experiences with the mark had made me reflexively reject the idea without even realizing it.
“Roman’s contracted demons are definitely higher-ranked than my own. I can feel it. The top-tier demon that lurks beyond Roman, the Second Rank Great Demon.”
It was almost unheard of for a demonologist to recognize their contractor’s demon.
Not even Hekate, who had admitted to me that she ranked higher than most demonologists, could manage it.
Yet somehow, for Mea, it just felt... possible.
A dark elf, perhaps.
It simply clicked.
“So Mea wants to use my mark to return the favor for my previous contracts, is that it?”
“Exactly.”
“What about Hekate?”
Seir and Leraje had said the same.
That Hekate’s contracted demon ranked extremely high.
If both of them spoke like that, it meant Hekate probably had the rank to consider carving a mark onto Mea as well.
“...The price doesn’t disappear.”
In the end, avoiding the price of the mark meant transferring that price through the mark.
Someone would always have to pay it.
“But Roman is different.”
Mea spoke with absolute certainty.
Like she knew me better than I knew myself.
“You are someone loved by demons. You receive endless gifts from those demons who steal life and soul in exchange for sweet power. If anyone could handle my price, it would be you. In fact, you already did.”
That had been the deciding factor.
One night—when Mea couldn’t sleep and I helped her—had turned into this snowball.
“If you carve the mark, I will obey your commands, correct?”
“Will you?”
When I asked, she had nothing left to say.
“Of course.”
“Really?”
“If that’s what you want, then yes.”
She had said it with resolve.
Mea’s request wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment whim that happened overnight.
Over two weeks of being in the Abyss.
That had been her conclusion after days of thinking, analyzing, and observing.
She had offered herself completely in exchange for me taking the price.
“...Did you talk to Hekate-sama about this?”
“U-uh... I didn’t tell her.”
That only made my head spin more.
Should I accept it? Or not?
I thought in silence.
Mea stayed quiet and let me think.
Mea’s price was a dream.
A cruel one at that—a dream stolen and turned into a nightmare that forced her to relive the terror of past memories.
Was the price of losing sleep really worth sacrificing the rest of her life?
“...It can’t be that.”
The expedition log she had kept so meticulously that it felt almost editorial.
When I woke, the first thing I had checked was the sleep-related entry.
Perhaps she had paid the price in dreams during those nights as well.
So even if I had to carve the mark, it was worth it to avoid the price.
If the only person who would suffer was me, then what meaning was there in living?
“...I understand.”
“Eh?”
“I accept. Mea’s request.”
Surprised that I had agreed right away, Mea’s eyes widened.
“But I don’t know how to do it, so could you teach me the method?”
“...Yes!”
§
It was just before dawn.
When Mea left my room and headed downstairs, the first thing she saw was Hekate sitting at the counter, quietly drinking the last of the secretly stashed liquor.
“Hekate.”
“...Congratulations.”
Without hesitation, Mea pulled out a chair beside her and sat down.
“So Mea will be leaving here too?”
Excluding the ghosts, only five people remained in the Thelema School.
Even among them, Hekate and Mea were the only ones who cared about the school’s affairs.
With Mea gone, the real Thelema School would be left with no choice but to operate as a non-regular academy.
“No. The school stays the same.”
“...Why? If you don’t mind the price, Mea’s power is enough to make her an Expert.”
That was exactly what I thought.
“Roman doesn’t want anyone’s comfortable protection.”
Roman’s goal was to rise in rank.
Every step he had taken had been paid for in blood.
With Mea’s strength, his path would become much safer.
But the comfort she offered would only become a weight that held him back from growing.
I knew that.
So I had refused her offer.
One day, when we were equal.
“Hekate.”
“Hmm?”
“I’m going back down into the Abyss.”
But Mea didn’t want me to wait for her until I reached her level.
“Alone? The team members from before either retired... or...”
Died.
Some disappeared while exploring the Abyss, others were swallowed by endless fighting.
Now they were just forgotten by time.
“I’m going to contact the other school members.”
“Yeah. The others might not, but Alkein will come with us.”
“And one more thing—Roman found something... right?”
The book Roman had brought back from his discovery.
He had entrusted it to Hekate because the first page was coded and unreadable.
The moment she saw it, Hekate had realized several things.
Most important of all: who had written it.
The one who had created a space that absorbed magic by remodeling ruins and hidden their own records in the magic.
The answer had been in the book.
Or rather, Mea had already suspected it.
“Right. Cordelia Wollstonecraft. Her handwriting.”
The Founding Decree of Res Limen and the First Expedition that challenged the Abyss alongside the Great Duke, Lombard.
One of the members of that legendary group.
The Mother of Alchemy who built a society of magical academies and unique alchemists.
Cordelia Wollstonecraft.
The book I had found had been written by her.
And when Mea realized that, she was utterly shocked.
“Roman overloaded the device Cordelia Wollstonecraft created with infinite magic and destroyed it. That’s what he did.”
When I heard that, I knew for certain.
“Roman is special.”
“I know.”
“Even you, Hekate...”
“Mea.”
At Hekate’s words, Mea closed her mouth tightly.
“Even if I fall, I am still the headmistress. I will never forget that. And I never will.”
Even the fallen have their own pride.
Hekate spoke those words and downed the rest of her drink.
§
“I’ll join. I have Mea’s matter and I asked you to decode the code.”
I opened my coin pouch while thinking about how much the entrance fee might be.
It was stuffed with silver and gold coins, with platinum ones scattered around as well.
I roughly grabbed a fistful and dropped it on the counter.
Thousands of lupezas—silver and gold—rang out with a bright clink.
“Is this enough?”
My voice never reached Hekate.
Her senses were completely lost in those golden treasures.
Her eyes, ears, nose, hands—even her mouth, which had clearly been about to ask if it was real.
And when Hekate realized those were real and that the amount was a staggering 88,000 lupezas, she couldn’t hold back any longer.
“I—I’ll pay too!”