Ch. 17
Chapter 17
You Might Break, You Know
So, what exactly had she come here for?
Sightseeing? Shopping? Or simply taking a pet out for a walk?
Ling Xi lowered her head and glanced at the Lolita dress she was wearing, then reached up to touch the collar around her neck.
Alright, the last option seemed the most likely.
Scarlet Moon stopped in front of a massive elevator structure.
The main body of the building was made of steel and brass, with countless pipes coiling around it, releasing rhythmic hissing sounds.
"Miss, we came here…"
"To collect a debt."
Scarlet Moon interrupted her.
"Collect a debt?"
"Mm."
She walked to the elevator control platform, where a dwarf in greasy work clothes was standing.
When the dwarf saw Scarlet Moon, his entire beard trembled. Without saying a word, he pulled down a massive brass lever.
A shrill alarm bell rang out.
A gigantic metal elevator, accompanied by the thunderous grinding of chains, slowly descended from above.
"Twenty years ago, there was a little mage who felt her talent wasn’t enough, that she would never in her lifetime reach the threshold of the fifth tier."
Scarlet Moon’s finger drew a circle in the air.
"So she came to find me."
Scarlet Moon stepped into the elevator, and Ling Xi was tugged along after her by the shadow thread attached to the collar.
As the two entered, the elevator lit up with a blue glow, then slowly began to rise.
"Her name was Aina."
Scarlet Moon leaned against the cage’s railing. "Twenty years ago, she was only twenty-five years old. She had just reached the threshold of the fourth tier, then got stuck there.
Her talent had reached its limit. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t go any further."
Ling Xi stood behind Scarlet Moon, watching as the streets below grew farther and farther away.
"She was very unwilling to accept it. After all, it was only the fourth tier. In this world, the fourth tier was nothing more than an ant."
Scarlet Moon turned around, her blood-red eyes looking at Ling Xi.
"So she made a deal with me.
I gave her power and let her break through to the seventh tier, becoming a true mage."
"As for the price."
"Twenty years later, her life and soul would both belong to me."
Cold sweat instantly seeped out across Ling Xi’s back.
Twenty years.
It sounded very long, but for a mage, it was no more than the blink of an eye.
Especially when one had gained great power and could do many things that were once impossible, time would pass even faster.
And then one day, the creditor came knocking.
Holy shit.
Ling Xi cursed wildly in her heart.
Good thing I hadn’t signed any labor contract with Scarlet Moon! A verbal agreement! Yes, it was just a verbal agreement!
Although the current working conditions—food and lodging included, salary paid on time—looked pretty good, who knew whether one day, in a bad mood, she would point at her and say—
"According to the unwritten rules between us, the meal you cooked today was too salty, so your soul belongs to me," or something like that.
"What nonsense are you thinking about now?"
Scarlet Moon’s voice rang out by her ear without any warning.
"N-no!"
Ling Xi’s body stiffened, reflexively denying it.
"Is that so?"
Scarlet Moon stepped forward, and the invisible shadow thread connecting the two of them shortened accordingly.
Ling Xi was forced to step back until her back pressed against the cold metal railing. There was nowhere left to retreat.
"Your heartbeat is accelerating, and your expression is very stiff."
Scarlet Moon extended a slender finger and lightly tapped Ling Xi’s forehead. The icy sensation at her fingertip made Ling Xi shudder.
"It seems I need to place a contract mark inside your mind."
"What?"
A chill even stronger than before spread from where her forehead was touched. Instinct told her that this was absolutely not something good.
"It means exactly what it sounds like."
Scarlet Moon’s voice lowered slightly. "Placing a small little thing that belongs to me inside your brain."
"That way, whatever you think about every day, whether you secretly curse me behind my back, I’ll know it all clearly."
Ling Xi’s body went completely rigid.
Putting something inside her brain?
Monitoring her thoughts?
This was even more excessive than the most terrifying twenty-four-hour surveillance.
There wouldn’t even be the slightest bit of private space left!
"However…"
Scarlet Moon deliberately dragged out the last word. The finger resting on Ling Xi’s forehead began to slowly trace circles.
"This process requires extremely high control over the caster’s mental energy.
It needs to be like the most delicate surgery—peeling open your consciousness,
finding the core of your soul, and then placing my mark… gently, inside."
There was a hint of mischievous amusement in her voice, as if she were describing a very interesting handicraft project.
"If I were to accidentally let my hand slip, or perhaps, deliberately let it slip."
"You might break, you know."
"You would turn into a beautiful doll who only obeyed orders, without any thoughts of your own."
"I would tell you to smile, and you would show the sweetest smile.
I would tell you to cry, and you would shed the most pitiful tears.
So? Isn’t that very convenient?"
Wasn’t that the deluxe otherworldly version of a prefrontal lobotomy!
Side effects?
This was called total scrapping, okay! How was that any different from directly formatting a hard drive!
"No no no! That won’t be necessary, Miss!"
Ling Xi shook her head like a rattle drum, her hands flailing wildly as she tried to push away the finger so close to her, yet did not dare actually touch it.
"I swear! I won’t let my thoughts run wild ever again!"
The elevator continued to rise, passing through layer after layer of steel structures.
Scarlet Moon turned her head and looked at Ling Xi, who had shrunk into the corner of the cage and was trembling. She let out a laugh.
"As long as you behave obediently, I won’t do that sort of thing."
She reached out and stroked Ling Xi’s silver hair.
"Such an amusing toy shouldn’t be broken so easily."
Ling Xi covered her forehead, still not having recovered from the earlier threat.
"But Aina wasn’t so fortunate."
Scarlet Moon turned back around and leaned against the railing again, gazing upward through the gaps in the cage.
"Twenty years is very long for mortals, but for us, it’s nothing more than the blink of an eye.
A week before the contract expired, I already sensed that she was making preparations."
"Preparations?"
"Mm, a magic array, a very large one."
Scarlet Moon gestured with her finger. "She poured all the resources she had accumulated over those twenty years into it, along with all the wealth she had plundered by relying on the power I gave her.
Magic stones, mithril, and all kinds of forbidden materials she had picked up from the black market.
Like a squirrel storing nuts for a winter that would never come."
Scarlet Moon’s tone was relaxed.
"She was planning to fight me with her life on the line."
With a burst of grating friction, the massive iron-bar gate automatically slid open to both sides.
The iron-bar gate automatically slid open to both sides.
Ling Xi was tugged along by the shadow thread as she followed her out.
"Then… will you be in danger?"
The moment she stepped out of the elevator, Ling Xi still couldn’t help asking.
Scarlet Moon turned around.
She slowly raised her hand and lightly brushed the back of her black lace-gloved fingers across Ling Xi’s cheek.
"My little maid."
"Can the light of a firefly burn the sun?"