Became the Unjust Contract Slave of the Archamage’s Book

Binaeril stepped over the campfire and stood up.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

Gillian, startled, fell backward, his expression shifting from confusion to shock, and then to utter disbelief.

“Why are you here?”

“Since I left the Belos Fortress, I’ve been with you all along. You just didn’t notice.”

“I-I-I…”

Gillian stammered, unable to find the right words.

He had always thought that if he ever met Binaeril again, he would curse him out, but now, face to face, his mind went blank.

“What face do you have to show up in front of me! You ruined my life and kicked me out of Elfenbine!”

Binaeril rolled his eyes upward.

No matter how much he thought about it, he didn’t recall any such memories.

“I never did that. If anything, you were the one always trailing after me. Even now, look at you. Coming over here, bragging about yourself.”

Binaeril took a step toward Gillian.

With each step Binaeril took forward, Gillian shuffled backward on his rear.

“And shouldn’t you be thanking me? You were able to keep your petty pride because of me.”

“I was the one who hunted the gnoll chieftain and brought it to the lord of Belos.”

Gillian’s pupils trembled.

“Don’t lie!”

Since it wasn’t a lie, Binaeril simply shrugged.

As he spoke, he continued to approach, and Gillian, retreating, began to shout.

“Guards! Guards! Seize this man!”

The mercenaries hired by the caravan looked around, puzzled.

The usual scenery. No apparent danger.

They cursed and returned to their positions.

Gillian had committed too many sins to earn the trust of others.

“Guards… mmph!”

“Shhh.”

Binaeril silenced him with a finger and cast a spell of silence.

“Mmph! Mmph!”

Gillian mustered all his mana to break Binaeril’s spell but to no avail.

The gap between their abilities had grown too vast to compare.

“You saw nothing. Return to your preparations for the camp.”

Next, Binaeril dismissed Gillian’s followers.

They had no resistance to magic and succumbed easily to Binaeril’s influence.

Gillian tried to back away from the approaching Binaeril.

“Stay still.”

He couldn’t move.

“Mmph, mmph!”

No matter how desperately he tried to scream through his closed lips, no one around paid any attention.

Gillian began to doubt if this situation was real.

‘Is this magic? The perpetual failure, Binaeril, can use magic so freely?’

Even the most renowned professors of Elfenbine couldn’t handle magic with such ease.

Binaeril approached and tapped him on the shoulder.

“That was always your problem.”

“Too much talk for your ability. Even today.”

“If you hadn’t come over and tried to act like you knew me, or rather, if you hadn’t embellished your pitiful past to feed your vanity.”

“If you hadn’t spread bad stories about me, or worse, badmouthed my friend Friederike.”

“Mmph!”

“If you hadn’t done those things, I wouldn’t have gotten involved with you. I don’t particularly like you. But now it’s too late.”

Binaeril’s pale, ashen eyes glimmered with magic.

“I’m going to cast a spell on you, Gillian Bemes.”

Gillian wanted to look away from those eyes, but he couldn’t. For some reason, he couldn’t even blink or move a finger without Binaeril’s command. At this moment, Gillian’s soul was entirely under Binaeril’s control.

“I swear on my mana, Gillian Bemes, you will lose the ability to speak, the root of all evil. You will no longer be able to converse with anyone, or let anyone hear your vain voice.

You will learn the meaning of silence to purge the shallowness of your soul. Reflect on this for the rest of your life. And maybe, you will be grateful to me for this gift.”

Every word from Binaeril etched itself deeply into Gillian’s soul.

Gillian’s tongue began to stiffen. His muffled cries of despair slowly faded into silence.

Fear overwhelmed Gillian, to the point where he felt like crying.

Binaeril focused intensely, not breaking eye contact with Gillian.

At that moment, someone touched Binaeril’s shoulder.

“That’s enough, Binaeril.”

“…Inyakan.”

“That’s enough. You stink. I was dozing in the carriage, but the stench is unbearable.”

“You’re not asking for another knockout punch like you requested earlier, right? If you want, I can oblige.”

Binaeril stepped back from Gillian.

He could have cast a more severe spell to completely ruin Gillian’s life.

He could have shattered his mind.

He could have broken one of his limbs, leaving him crippled.

…But Binaeril didn’t do that.

He had a faint sense that his emotions were being controlled by someone else, not himself.

He needed to stop. Inyakan had given him a wise piece of advice.

“Thank you, Inyakan.”

***

Professor Pierre Blanchot panted heavily as he faced his opponent.

“Senior!”

Avia Flynn, a moment too late, rushed to his side.

Pierre’s complexion was pale.

Noticing something wrong, Avia quickly inspected Pierre’s body.

“Senior, your shoulder…!”

“I was hit.”

His shoulder was cleanly pierced.

The cause was Pierre’s own famed piercing magic.

Bernstein had cleanly reflected Pierre’s magic.

It was a counterattack he had never shown while being pursued.

Uncharacteristically flustered, Pierre failed to deploy an appropriate defensive spell, resulting in his shoulder being cleanly pierced.

It was his mistake.

Avia urgently began chanting a healing spell.

The wound that pierced his shoulder was not light. The healing magic had little effect.

“Don’t waste your energy, Avia.”

“What are you saying? If we leave it like this, you’ll lose consciousness from the blood loss!”

Pierre conjured flames to cauterize the wound.

“Ugh.”

A wave of intense pain surged through him.

For an ordinary mage, it would have been enough to make them faint, but Pierre was accustomed to pain.

He gritted his teeth and endured it, managing to stop the bleeding as the wound cauterized.

“We’ll have to risk infection.”

“That’s a reckless thing to do!”

“Avia, focus on him, not me. Can’t you see? He’s waiting for us.”

Avia then checked Bernstein’s condition.

Surprisingly, he looked calm.

It was hard to believe that he was being pursued by two professors from Elfenbine, given his relaxed demeanor.

“Do you feel it?”

Despite the serene atmosphere, the mana around Bernstein was violently turbulent.

It was as if the human part of Bernstein and the demonic part were in conflict, causing his mana to fluctuate wildly.

“Is he resisting the demonic influence?”

“You’re being optimistic, Avia.”

“Then what is it?”

“To me, it looks like… the struggle before breaking out of his shell.”

“Breaking out of his shell?”

It was a metaphor. The next moment, Avia had to acknowledge the accuracy of Pierre’s metaphor.

Boom!

Though nothing changed outwardly, the two professors, leaning on each other’s shoulders, felt a shiver run down their spines.

Bernstein’s mana erupted explosively. This was no longer human mana.

It was dark, dense, and infused with pure malice.

It was the kind of mana only a demon could possess.

“He’s given up being human.”

This meant that Bernstein’s soul had completely relinquished control.

The mage Bernstein no longer existed in this world.

“Avia.”

“Yes, Senior.”

“Up until now, we’ve been pursuing Bernstein with the intention of capturing him alive, but that’s no longer necessary.”

“From this moment, the mission changes from pursuit to extermination. Do you understand?”

“Can you handle that demon alone?”

Avia met the murky pupils of the now mindless Bernstein.

“I’ll try.”

She began chanting an ice spell.

“A world of icy blue whiteness…”

This was a wide-area ice spell that couldn’t be reflected.

No matter how much of a “Mana Devourer” he was, against a wide-area spell…

Smirk.

Bernstein’s lips curled into a smile as he listened to Avia’s chant.

Avia was puzzled by his confidence.

Was Bernstein overly confident because he had managed to reflect Professor Pierre’s attack?

But until now, he had been running away from them, tails between his legs.

Didn’t that mean he was afraid of them?

‘Could it be that with this recent awakening, he believes we’re no longer a match for him?’

It wasn’t that simple.

Around the three of them, other entities began to emerge.

“This is…!”

Pierre let out a low groan.

Bernstein’s mana explosion was a meticulously calculated action.

“Awoo!”

“Grrr!”

“Kiyaa!”

Various types of demons appeared, baring their teeth at Professors Pierre and Avia.

“He’s summoned demons!”

Without panicking, Avia adjusted the range of her spell.

From targeting Bernstein, she widened it to protect Pierre and herself.

“…All that obstructs shall freeze!”

Crack-crack-crack!

A massive cold wave emanated from Avia’s center.

Frost formed on the blades of grass, and the attacking demons froze solid.

It was as if a completely different season had arrived in a small radius around them.

“Well done, Avia!”

“Senior, where’s Bernstein?”

Having fended off the demons, the two professors searched for Bernstein with their eyes.

…He was gone.

Bernstein had already vanished from their sight.

Meanwhile, Bernstein, having summoned the demons to divert their attention, fled without looking back.

The mana waves that excited him so much were getting closer.

Such a sweet scent of mana!

He could hardly wait to taste it.

He sprinted over hills, crossed rivers, and pushed through thickets until he was close enough to see his target.

Prey!

“…Who are you?”

Once again, a mage greeted Bernstein.

With white hair, eyebrows, and even the fine hair on her hands, she was a mage dressed in a clinging dress, holding a long pipe in her mouth. She muttered as she saw Bernstein suddenly appear.

She was holding something wrapped in a cloth in her arms.

The scent of mana Bernstein was after emanated from that very bundle.

“…Shut up, you filthy cursed sword. I don’t listen to the words of filthy beings.”

“Ha! Try to tempt me all you want. Do you think I’d fall for the likes of you?”

Though it was just Bernstein and the white-haired mage in the vicinity, she chattered as if having a conversation with someone.

Bernstein hesitated, drooling.

He wanted to rip her throat out and consume the mana immediately, but his instincts also warned him.

Seeing Bernstein drooling, the white-haired woman shouted.

“Ugh, disgusting! Another dirty thing shows up! Why is my life so messed up?”