Chapter 30 30 : Terms And Conditions

"Have you tidied up his appearance?"

Isabelle was talking to one of her maids in her workroom. Isabelle sat on a chair, working on files related to the harvest and supplies that would be prepared for the capital's Whitmoon festival.

"Already have, my lady, as lady's request. It's just that we don't have any kid's clothes now."

"Then what is he wearing?"

"Fortunately, there is a leather armor in the warehouse that suits his size. A winter-leather armor."

"I see... bring him here."

"Yes, my lady."

As the maid was about to leave the room, Isabelle realized something.

"Wait a minute, what's wrong with your hand?"

"!!!" The maid was startled, as she had been trying to cover the wound on her left hand with her right. She slowly turned her body around.

"I caused a little trouble with that boy, but it's nothing, my lady, just a small scratch," said the maid.

"I see, then you can leave," Isabelle replied.

The maid once again bowed her head and left the room.

The next day after Allen made a slave contract with Isabelle. Isabelle gave Allen a servant's room. Because his hair was messy; his clothes were shabby; and his body stank. Isabelle ordered her maids to clean Allen's body and tidy up his hair.

Allen hurt some maids when they were about to remove his scarf and headband. "Don't touch. I can do it myself!" Allen said as they started to hold his scarf and headband.

After 20 minutes, the maids knocked on the door of Isabelle's workroom,

"Come in," said Isabelle, who was writing.

"Excuse me," the maid said as she entered, and Allen trailed behind her.

"Leave us alone," said Isabelle, who still hadn't stopped writing.

The maid bowed her head and left the room.

Finally, Isabelle raised her head and now saw Allen with a completely different look from the last time she saw him.

His hair was cut shorter, and the wounds and traces of blood and dirt on his face were now clean. Yesterday his clothes were tattered and smelly, whereas now he is wearing winter soldier's clothes. His inner clothes were white wool, with long sleeves that covered part of his palms. then covered with brown leather armor. Allen was still wearing his long black scarf and headband. Based on the maids' information, Allen said both were gifts from his precious person.

"Hmm hmmm... you look much better now," said Isabelle, amazed by his appearance.

Allen was silent as he turned his face away.

"What about the clothes? Should I buy you something more comfortable?"

"No need. It's warm enough," Allen replied.

"Well, you'll wear that thing more often anyway."

"I don't care about that. So, how about it?"

"'How' what?"

"About how to kill that man!"

Isabelle once again smiled and then said,

"Hahaha, I honestly don't think that's possible."

"What?!" Allen now looked at Isabelle angrily.

"You see, he's one of the strongest humans in this kingdom, let alone Leofric; even Theobauld, who is only mithril-ranked, doesn't seem like you can win."

"But you promised!"

"Yeah yeah yeaah... sit down first," now Isabelle took out her cigar from her desk drawer and lit it.

"No! You promised before, didn't you? That you would—"

Suddenly, Allen felt a slight pain inside his body.

"Wha...what happened? Why do I feel like everything inside my body hurts? Like something is piercing my skin from the inside."

Isabelle exhaled smoke from her mouth and said,

"That is the effect of my god's blessing. Since you are my slave, you must follow all my orders, including trivial things like telling you to 'sit down,'

The pain you feel is related to how much you resist my commands and how much I command you. Since I'm only telling you to sit down, your pain is negligible. If I order you to do something bigger and you resist, the pain will also be more excruciating."

"So, sit down first."

Allen sat on the sofa, and the effect disappeared immediately.

"Don't you remember that a contract binds us, the reason you can be my slave is that I agreed to the conditions you gave; it was to help you kill Leofric. If I violate the conditions, the contract will not be valid, and you will not remain a slave.

Since you just felt the pain of disobeying my order, you are still a slave, which means I also still intend to help you kill Leofric. Understood?"

"I… I see... Then as a slave, what should I do?"

asked Allen with a serious face. Actually, he didn't really understand the work of slaves. He had only heard the word "slave" from Lavinia, which had to do with serving his master.

"Nothing," said Isabelle.

"What?"

"Yes, nothing, it's just that if anything happens, just protect me or honor me. I don't really think seriously about things like that. A maid does the housework anyway, and I'm not really interested in a child's body. I just like adding more slaves because they're easier to trust and won't betray."

"The…then, what should I do now?"

"You can practice sword art with Theo. That was my plan from the beginning. If you want to defeat Leofric, you must become stronger. Theo will teach you swordsmanship, while Thurstan will teach you about mana control. Are there any other questions?"

"I don't need to train. Just bring me to that bastard. I'll kill him by myself."

"Fyuuuh... I told you, you wouldn't be able to beat him, at least not now. I know you're strong, but killing that man is impossible."

"How do you know that I can't?! I didn't lose to that guy before! The one who defeated me was the guy with the arrows!"

"Alright alright, I'll do it, but on one condition, you have to beat Theo first in a legal and fair one vs one fight."

"Okay, not a big deal."

"Then one more thing. This time I will give three necessary orders for you that you must follow. If you violate them, the pain will be tremendous.

First, you must not mention Leofric's name or your intention to kill him to anyone.

Second, you must not kill anyone without my consent.

And lastly... take care of yourself; eat three times a day; and bathe twice a day."

Allen was astonished by the orders. He remembered when Lavinia told him about slaves: slaves should be on the lowest hierarchy of humans, having no rights whatsoever, whose life and death were in the hands of their masters. But right now, not even the three necessary orders given by his master were incriminating to him.

"Alright, I understand," Allen said with a confused face.

"You may leave."

Allen walked out of the room.

.

The waiter who had picked him up was outside the room, waiting for him.

"I'll take you to the training ground," she said.

Allen just nodded.

Unlike before, the current Allen was not nervous talking to other humans. His perception of humans had changed since the last time a human killed his mother and since he had killed many humans. In his mind, humans are just evil creatures who keep taking away other people's freedom for themselves. Allen's feelings towards humans were indeed hateful, but the hatred he felt was not such that he wanted to kill them again. Ever since he killed many people in that dungeon, he had seen how the humans hated him, and the reason the humans hated him was also because he took something away from them. Not that he had become hesitant to kill humans, but he now didn't care about anything. He only wanted to kill Leofric.

"You're so lucky,"

On Allen's way to the training room, the maid was talking to him. Her words baffled Allen, who heard her.

'What's so lucky about being a slave,' thought Allen.

Then the maid continued,

"Being Lady Isabelle's slave means your happiness is guaranteed. same as everyone else. They make a contract with Lady Isabelle and burden her with their life goals, whereas all she asks for in the contract is just honor and trust."

"Everyone?" asked Allen.

"Yeah, almost everyone who lives in this manor house is Lady Isabelle's slave."

Allen honestly still doubted the orders given by Isabelle. There were too many holes in the order. Isabelle's orders didn't mean much to him, and she could also change them whenever she wanted.

"Here we are," they walked to the back of the house until they approached a large door.

From behind the door, Allen could hear the sound of swords clashing, or more like swords and wood clashing.

The maid opened the door, and Allen walked out.

There was the house's backyard, the training ground of the soldiers living in the earl's residence. That was a vast rectangle; the length of the area was almost the same as the entire length of the earl's manor house. Except for the earl's house on one side, the entire side of the training ground was surrounded by a stone wall about Allen's height. Outside the wall was a dense forest. On the training ground, there was a drawer to place various weapons, such as bows, swords, and spears. Then there were some straw dolls tied to stakes that were stuck in the ground.

"Hyaat!"

On that spacious training ground, there were only three people, plus Allen and the maid. Two people were fighting, and one was sitting on the edge of the house holding a towel.

The ones who fought were Felicia and Theobauld. Felicia's hair was tied in a ponytail, and she was wearing a short-sleeved dress; her dress was only thigh-length, while knee-high boots covered her legs. Felicia used a rapier, while Theo used a long wooden sword. Felicia attacked Theo with seemingly random movements, while Theo just received her attacks, parrying with his wooden sword. Felicia was sweating profusely and had probably reached her limit, while Theo didn't have a drop of sweat on his face.

"Let's get it over with today."

"Not yet! I'm not done yet! I haven't landed a single hit on you today!" Felicia said as she pointed her rapier at Theo.

"Let's call it a day, my lady. After this, you still had to practice controlling mana with Lord Thurstan."

After a few strikes, Felicia stopped, panting.

"My Lady, let me tell you the reason why you can't land a single attack on me."

"Fine, say it. I'll listen."

"You're too kind. Just because you're using a sharp sword, you only land strikes on non-fatal parts. Don't worry about me. In fact, I won't get hurt even if you try to stab my heart."

Hearing his words, Felicia immediately became angry,

"You're just a slave. How dare you talk to me like that. Look, tomorrow, I will beat you in no time!"

"That's good. Next, you should try stabbing my heart. If anything happens, you can heal me right away, right?"

"When I do that, I won't heal you. I'll let you die alone while looking at the sky."

Rachel approached Felicia and handed her a towel.

Felicia accepted it and wiped the sweat from her head until she realized Allen was watching her.

"What are you looking at?"

Allen looked away.

"Nothing," he said.

It was the first time Allen had seen another human of the same age as him. He didn't know they were that weak. Allen began to believe he could defeat Theo easily. He thought that: Isabelle thought he was weak because he was a child, just like Felicia. That's why Isabelle asked him to beat Theo because she believed he wouldn't be able to beat him.

"You've arrived. Can we start training right away?" called Theo.

"No need, I don't need training..."

Allen picked up a random sword that was hanging on the sword rack. Then he walked to where Felicia was standing earlier, and pointed his sword at Theo.

"Theo, change your wooden sword. My agreement with Isabelle is to defeat you. If I defeat you, I can immediately fulfill my goal of killing that person."

Hearing that, Felicia immediately laughed.

"Hahaha, don't make me laugh. A little kid like you can't possibly beat Theo."

As for Theo, he immediately changed his wooden weapon.

"Do you want me to split your hand again? Oh yeah, a princess here can heal you like yesterday, so maybe I'll just chop your body up."

The calm expression on Theobauld's face had now turned angry.

"Watch your mouth, boy. Don't you ever mention Lady Isabelle's name without respect. Maybe my lady will let it slide, but not me. If you can't hurt me, you must call me 'master Theobauld,' and after you lose, you must call Lady Isabelle's name with 'Lady'."

"Alright then, let's get started."

The maid who had escorted Allen earlier walked up to the practice arena. She held a silver coin in her right hand.

"I will drop this coin. When you hear the sound of this coin on the ground, the duel has begun. The rules are you can't attack the head and heart, and the duel will end when one of you faints or surrenders."

The maid let go of the coin.

Then in

3

2

1

-DING

The coin falls to the ground.

-WUUUSH!

The one who made the first attack was Allen. Allen, with a swift movement, was immediately behind Theo.

"!!!" Rachel, Felicia, and Theo fell silent, surprised by Allen's speed.

The blood dripping on the ground came from Theo's dislodged left ear.

"Are you giving up now, MASTER THEO?"

"Oh wow. We have a QUITE strong as*hole here."