Harem System In A fantasy World

’A deal?’ he wondered.

Should he simply take her word that she would let them go? Honestly, he didn’t know, but if she wanted them dead, it would be easy enough for her.

Since he had somehow managed to tickle her fancy, he might as well hear what kind of deal she wanted to make.

"Sure," Elion said, feeling his jaw tremble slightly from the cold. "If it’s something within my power, I wouldn’t mind making a deal, though I doubt I have anything someone of your stature would be interested in."

"Oh, you have no idea," she replied, a light smile appearing on her crazed features. "It’s quite simple, really. It should be well within your power... I just want you to form a contract with me."

"What?" Elion blinked.

"I guess I should explain my situation to give you a better understanding," she said.

With a snap of her fingers, a beautiful dress appeared on her body, casually demonstrating that she could have clothed herself at any point.

Though Elion was disappointed that he wouldn’t get to gaze upon her glorious assets anymore, he was already curious to hear what she had to say.

Another snap of her fingers banished the biting cold, and a stone throne rose behind her with a rumbling sound before she sat down in it.

Elion’s companions continued to shiver, the chill having seeped deep into their bones, and Uta seemed to be suffering the worst of it.

"First things first," the woman began, placing her elbow on the armrest and resting her chin upon her closed fist. "After I became a saint and gained a mind on the level of you humans, I realised I was living in a cage. Quite ironic, really, considering that I built a similar cage to rear my own food..."

"But I also realised that I could escape this cage." Her gaze rested on Elion with an unusual seriousness he hadn’t yet seen from her. "Now tell me, humans, you came from outside this cage, did you not?"

"If by ’cage’ you mean this hidden world, then yes, we’re not from this place," Elion replied. "And since you asked to form a beast contract with me, I’m assuming you want my help leaving?"

She snapped her fingers. "You catch on quickly. I’ve tried many times to leave this cage, without success. Now imagine my delight when people who weren’t supposed to be here suddenly appeared in my domain. I did end up eating all of them, of course, after realising they would be of no help to me..."

"As for my other reason for agreeing to let you go... You see, I simply haven’t tasted flesh as delectable as yours." She licked her lips. "My four servants here are decent at best, which is why I keep them at my side instead of devouring them entirely, but they take so long to recover."

"You, however... not only do your flesh and blood taste infinitely better, but your healing capabilities seem outstanding. Of course, you did use some sort of potion, but even before then, your flesh was already knitting itself back together."

Elion raised a brow. He didn’t know how she had noticed something like that while in her seemingly crazed state, but then again, she was a saint...

The thing was, her words made it clear that she intended to keep taking pounds of his flesh whenever she pleased. His brow twitched at the thought.

"Is that really necessary?" he asked. "It gets to a point, you know. You can only dismember a person so many times before their body just gives out."

She chuckled. "It’s a good deal, no? You get to keep your life and gain a powerful ally, while I get to eat high-quality food whenever I feel like it."

"And would that be often?" he asked.

"Of course." She nodded, beckoning toward the four sages standing to the side. "I take pounds of flesh from my servants all the time, and they are still fine..."

...

[Would you like to form a Beast Contract with Arachnid Kali?]

[YES] [NO]

’You already know the answer, System...’

[Forming Beast-Type Soul Contract...]

[Contract formed successfully.]

[Contract Type: Bond of Equals]

’Awesome,’ Elion thought.

[Would you like to view contracted beast Kali’s status?]

’Well, why not?’

{[Status]}

[Name: Kali]

[Race: Arachnid Monster]

[Age: 274]

[Level: 92 {Saint}]

[Bonded Partner: Elion Nova]

[Contract Type: Bond of Equals]

[Base Abilities: Venom, Enhanced Agility, Mind Hex, Sovereign Silk, Web Domain, Cocoon Shield, Chitin Armour, Apex Predator]

’Wow, that’s actually informative.’

This was probably the most informative status of another person he had ever seen.

Better yet, he could even focus on one of Kali’s abilities and receive a vague explanation of what it could do, which was already far more than his System usually bothered telling him about other people.

He had agreed to the contract in the end, though it wasn’t like he’d had much of a choice. After carefully considering the ramifications of helping a rogue Saint-level monster escape into the real world, somehow, this was how everything had unfolded.

Kali had originally attempted to force him into a contract of servitude.

With him as the servant: Yeah, him, and not her.

After a fair amount of arguing, negotiating, and, unfortunately, giving her another arm to eat, however, Elion had somehow managed to convince her to settle for a fifty-fifty contract instead.

He felt like sobbing whenever he thought about that missing arm, but at least things had worked out in the end.

Maya and the others had somewhat recovered as well, though they still looked visibly shaken.

Kali was incredibly intimidating in general, mostly because she didn’t bother concealing her aura in the slightest, allowing the oppressive presence of a Saint to leak freely from her body without much care for everyone around her.

Perhaps it was because she was a humanoid monster, or perhaps she had simply never bothered learning how to properly control her power.

Either way, not everyone could casually brush off the aura of a Saint like Elion could, and even he was finding it increasingly uncomfortable.

"Wait, what did you say?" Elion suddenly asked, turning back toward her. "Repeat that."

Kali blinked at him before casually repeating herself. "A few decades ago, I raided a settlement to the north occupied by a bunch of humans. That’s how I ended up with these servants under my care, as well as most of the people you saw in the cavern beneath my farm. The settlement gave them to me as sacrifices so that I wouldn’t kill everyone else."

Elion rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

’So there’s a human settlement nearby.’ He deliberately filtered out the part about Kali casually raiding said settlement for food.

"Listen!" Kali snapped, clearly annoyed that he had gotten distracted. "That isn’t the important part."

"Right, right. Continue."

"My point is, back then, they were weak." She crossed her arms beneath her chest. "Very weak. I could go there whenever I wanted, take whatever I wanted, and there wasn’t much they could do about it."

Elion stared at her.

Kali stared back.

"...You do realize you’re describing extortion, right?"

"I don’t know what that means."

"Never mind."

She huffed before continuing. "Anyway, I went back there recently because this useless farm stopped producing anything tasty, but this time they actually had someone strong enough to fight me."

"How strong?"

"Strong enough to annoy me," Kali replied immediately, her expression darkening. "We fought for days."

She looked genuinely offended by the memory, though Elion couldn’t tell whether she was angry because the man had challenged her or because, for once, she hadn’t been able to simply eat whatever she wanted.

"And?"

"It ended in a draw," Kali muttered, clearly unhappy about admitting it. "Neither of us could kill the other."

Elion raised a brow.

Someone capable of fighting a Saint to a standstill was definitely worth paying attention to. They could only be a saint themselves, but that mostly depended on Kali’s own strength.

"But before I left, he asked me something strange." Kali tilted her head slightly. "He asked whether I wished to leave this cage."

Elion’s eyes narrowed.

"And that’s how you learned about us?"

Kali nodded.

"He told me that people from outside the cage would eventually appear here again." Her lips slowly curled into a grin as several of her eyes settled upon Elion. "So naturally, when all of you suddenly appeared inside my domain..."

Her grin widened.

"I became very interested."