Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13.
Lilith shuddered from head to toe.
She knew very well that her life was completely in the hands of these two people.
Especially that refined-looking man.
He killed without even blinking, and with a casual gesture, he had erased an entire mountain summit.
“I will talk! I will tell you everything!”
Lilith spilled everything she knew in one breath.
“The employer was a man in black robes, wrapped up so tightly that not a single feature was visible, and even his voice had been altered, so there was no way to identify him!”
“But!”
Seeing Sylvia’s brows begin to knit together, Lilith hurriedly added more.
“He paid the deposit in specially made gold bars, and I still have that money with me! As long as you have a sufficiently powerful divination mage, you can trace him through the gold bars!”
After saying that, she looked at Logaris West and Sylvia with a face full of expectation.
Her expression practically screamed: Hurry up and praise me! This information is useful, right?
However, the two exchanged a glance, and both of their expressions turned slightly strange.
Tracking someone through money?
What kind of information was that?
Since the other party had dared to pay in that way, it meant he had long since prepared for the possibility of being traced.
This lead was most likely useless.
Besides, although Logaris West knew divination spells, those spells could only predict changes in “things.”
If they really wanted to perform tracking, they would have to find someone more specialized.
Seeing the displeased look on their faces, and even hearing Sylvia’s blade begin to hum again, Lilith’s survival instinct instantly surged to its peak.
“No, no, no! My lords! I am still useful!”
She hurriedly shouted, “No matter what, I am still a sixth-tier combatant! Third on the mercenary rankings! Keeping me alive is definitely more worthwhile than killing me! I can serve the two of you!”
“Sixth-tier?”
Sylvia let out a mocking laugh and looked her up and down.
That gaze was like she was inspecting a flawed product.
“A sixth-tier who only knows Anti-Magic, cannot use a single spell, and cannot even beat me in close combat.”
“What use are you?”
That cut straight to the heart.
Lilith’s face immediately flushed red.
Her “Nullification” domain really was the nightmare of all mages, but she had no particular talent in combat techniques, and she was even more incapable of learning magic.
All of her physical combat skills relied entirely on a body honed through endless training and instinct.
That was more than enough against ordinary opponents, but when facing a monstrous swordswoman like Sylvia, it was completely inadequate.
She was basically an extremely specialized prodigy with one subject taken to the absolute extreme.
Just as Lilith was becoming so embarrassed that she was nearly about to cry, Logaris West finally spoke.
“That is acceptable.”
He adjusted his glasses, and behind the lenses, a sharp glint flashed through his eyes like a researcher who had discovered a rare material.
“Your physique is very unusual.”
“I am quite interested in the principles behind Anti-Magic.”
“As it happens, I am lacking an experimental subject.”
An experimental subject?
Lilith’s heart skipped a beat.
She had a very bad feeling about that phrase.
But her life came first, so she did not dare think too much about it and nodded frantically like a pecking chicken.
“I am willing! I am willing to do anything!”
“Then let us sign a contract.”
As he spoke, Logaris West took out a parchment radiating magical light and a quill pen from thin air.
Around the edges of the parchment was an extremely intricate and exquisite ring of golden patterns.
It looked gorgeous and ancient.
He began writing on the spot in midair.
One rune of the common tongue after another flowed from the pen tip and branded themselves onto the blank parchment.
A few minutes later, Logaris West flicked the contract in front of Lilith.
“Sign it.”
Lilith struggled to read through it, her brows tightly furrowed.
The contract terms were harsh.
She would serve Logaris West and Sylvia for ten years.
During that period, she would be required to obey most of their orders and “unconditionally cooperate” with all of his research.
As for compensation… it was practically nonexistent.
Although it looked like an outrageously unfair contract, at least it had a time limit.
Ten years in exchange for her life.
That seemed… not entirely unacceptable.
She was an elf, after all, and her lifespan was nearly eternal.
Lilith’s expression shifted uncertainly.
Clinging to a final thread of hope, she carefully asked, “My lord… um… is ten years not a bit too long? And there is no compensation at all, so I…”
“Compared to the length of your life, is ten years really that long?”
Logaris West cut her off in a flat tone.
“Or would you prefer the other permanent solution, the one that requires no contract?”
Before he had even finished speaking, Sylvia’s blade at the side once again emitted that grating hum that made one’s teeth ache, as if it could leave its sheath at any moment.
“I will sign! I will sign!”
Lilith completely gave up struggling.
She accepted her fate.
Ten years it was.
That was still better than dying right now.
“Very good.”
Logaris West pointed to a specific node within the ornate ring of golden patterns beneath the contract.
“Press your blood seal here to activate the contract.”
Lilith did not think much of it.
She assumed it was simply a standard activation procedure for some sort of magic contract.
Filled with grief and indignation, she bit her fingertip and firmly pressed her bloody fingerprint onto it.
The instant her finger made contact—
A sudden mutation occurred!
That entire ring of golden patterns she had taken for decoration erupted.
Countless tiny ancient runes that she could not understand at all emerged from those patterns and instantly formed a golden magic formation far more complex than the main body of the contract by hundreds or even thousands of times.
BUZZ—!
The contract instantly transformed into a dazzling golden light and shot into the center of her brow.
A sense of restraint far stronger and more overbearing than she had ever imagined rose from the depths of her soul.
“Th-This is… the highest level of soul binding?!”
Lilith’s face turned white as paper in an instant.
She screamed in terror, “Did the contract not say only ten years?!”
“Oh?”
“The common tongue text says ten years.”
The corners of Logaris West’s lips curved upward slightly, revealing a faint smile of successful scheming.
He slowly put away the already activated contract and kindly explained it to her.
“But I forgot to tell you that the ring of golden patterns around it is written in an ancient script.”
“The clauses written there are the true core content.”
“For example… the duration is ‘permanent.’”
Lilith felt the world spin around her.
She knew that for the rest of her life, she was completely finished.
“Good.”
Logaris West paid no attention to her despair and extended his hand without the slightest politeness.
“Now hand over your Storage Ring.”
Lilith’s face instantly collapsed.
Her features twisted together in pure heartbreak.
“My lord! That is my entire savings!”
“It is mine now.”
Logaris West’s tone was flat and unquestionable.
“But… but when I fought you earlier, I did not use any killing moves either!”
Lilith made one final desperate attempt, trying to awaken some trace of conscience in him.
“Look, at the very least… could you leave me a little money for travel expenses?”
Logaris West looked at her expressionlessly.
Only after staring long enough to make her scalp go numb did he slowly speak.
“Are you saying that you intended to use killing moves against me?”
“No, no, no! That is not what I meant!”
Lilith was so frightened that her soul nearly left her body.
She hurriedly stripped the ring from her hand and presented it with both hands.
“My lord, please take it! This is my offering to you!”
Logaris West took the ring.
With a sweep of his mental force, he directly erased the mark on it.
Lilith felt her connection to the ring be severed with brutal force.
A stab of pain pierced her heart, and tears nearly came to her eyes.
It was over.
All the wealth she had painstakingly saved over decades as a mercenary was gone.
Sylvia, watching this from the side, was a little speechless herself.
She sighed helplessly and shook her head at Lilith.
“You are truly hopeless.”
“To be this obsessed with money as a mercenary is beyond saving.”
……
A few hours later, inside the Magitech Train carriage, the indicator lights lit up once again and emitted a gentle glow.
“Done.”
Logaris West’s voice rang out.
He clapped his hands as though he had only completed some trivial task.
The burned-out connection matrix had already been replaced, and the overloaded power core had returned to stable operation.
Only a few hours had passed from beginning to end.
The nobles and merchants, who still had not fully recovered from the fright, looked at the restarted train and then at Logaris West, who appeared calm and relaxed.
Every one of them looked as though their jaws were about to hit the floor.
This was a Magitech Train.
One of the kingdom’s most advanced creations.
Even the finest Magitech engineering team in the royal capital would need at least ten days to half a month to repair damage of this level.
Yet Professor Logaris West had made it run again by himself in just a few hours?
Mars, the fat merchant who had earlier doubled his investment in Sylvia, was now flushed red with excitement.
The way he looked at Logaris West was practically the way one would look at a walking god.
With a divine figure like this by their side, what was there to fear about the Northern Territory failing to develop?
The train slowly began moving once more, setting out again on its journey toward the Northern Territory.
The atmosphere inside the carriage was now completely different from before.
The survivors’ gazes toward Sylvia and Logaris West contained not only awe, but also a fervent desire to follow them.
Lilith had been untied, but because of the soul contract, she could only curl up in a corner like a wronged little victim, hugging her knees and occasionally shooting resentful glances at Logaris West.
At the other end of the carriage, Sylvia had finished treating her wounds and changed into a clean set of clothes.
She looked at the scenery racing past outside the window.
Then she looked at Logaris West, who was sitting across from her with his eyes closed in rest.
After a moment of silence, she finally spoke.