Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 7 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 2===

While Basara was in Oldora Forest receiving training from Jin.

At the girls’ group where Mio was at, they were undergoing special training in the courtyard in Wildart City under the supervision of the mother-daughter pair Sheera and Lucia. Close ranged fighters who primarily uses weapons or martial arts like Yuki and Maria were instructed by Lucia; mage-type fighters like Mio, Kurumi and Zest were instructed by Sheera. What they were doing here, is something that is not special training like for Basara. Sheera and Lucia who had the role of instructors held tactical workshops on the ways of fighting coordinated for Mio and the others, studying old match ups, or planning new moves.

The focus is on bringing out as much of their power as quickly as possible, and raising the strength or effectiveness of their base stats. By strengthening their foundation, it brings about more possible moves to use, thus making their strengths more valuable and effective; however – exactly because of that, this kind of training is very draining.

Thus, before they put in effort that surpasses their physical abilities, they have to continuously put in all their strength, and there was also no guarantee that they can break through their barriers holding them back. To grow beyond the limits, requires a reforming of the consciousness on a completely different level – in other words, an awakening is needed.

Something like that, is not something that can be accomplished in a single night. Since they started around two hours ago, Mio and the others were already out of breath, and were already staggering.

“Ara ara, how surprisingly meaningless… no other choice, let’s all take a break first.”

Seeing their physical states, Sheera sighed while saying.

“Everyone, here. This is a magic water that can help in recovering from fatigue.”

The maid Noel who was waiting nearby then came and handed long water bottles into the hands of Mio and the others one by one. After feeling the slightly sweet and sour water moistening their throats and the thirst leaving their bodies, only then did the girls seemingly come back to life.

The training had not gone on for long, so naturally no one has gotten some new power yet, but everyone seemed to have gotten a vague feeling on what they should do. The reason was, that they had already found the direction and path they should go towards to take their fighting strength to the next step.

Kurumi’s goal is be able to borrow more power through the dark elements received from Lucia; Yuki’s is to be able to utilize [Sakuya]’s power in the Demon Realm by establishing a connection to the Human Realm through the dimensional boundary.

For cases of emergencies like in the battle against Zolgear, Maria could overload the central circuit of her spirit to turn into her [Adult Form]. In order to be able to use it in tight situations, Maria needed to enhance the condition of her body and mind for her spirit to remain in an ‘activated’ state, to make it easier to recover the energy required for refining the ‘Key’ required.

While Zest’s originally high combat prowess was raised even more after being subjugated during the establishing of the Master-Servant Contract with Basara, she was still a new comrade of theirs. Thus to fill in for her weaker points, she quickly learnt about the fighting styles and abilities of Basara, Mio, Yuki, Kurumi, and Maria, to build up more rapport and fighting combinations.

Everyone who had set down their goals, were still actively seeking advice or an exchange of opinions from either Lucia or Sheera even during the break. Except—

“…………”

Only Mio was sitting silently, looking down at the ground with a glum look. The other four has already begun their own training methods to become stronger, and Mio was the only one who has yet to find a direction.

Even if she had inherited her own father’s power – Demon Lord Wilbert’s power was really great, but the backlash from using it will cause her to lose consciousness, just like what had happened before in Wildart City when the Current Demon Lord Faction sent out giant spirits and the high-class Demon. While she could use that power… the price is the loss of consciousness, which could cause herself to become a burden in the decisive match with the Current Demon Lord Faction.

''…Just what should I do?''

Unable to find a specific solution, Mio clenched her fist. During today’s special training, she had also tried controlling Wilbert’s power, but no matter how many times she tried, she would always lose consciousness just after activating it a little. The power that Wilbert could use effortlessly, cannot do anything in Mio’s hands.

The base reason is that her power was too little, since—

''…Even that person could use gravity magic very well…''

Mio had heard that after she had lost consciousness in the previous skirmish with the Current Demon Lord Faction, Ramsas and Jin had resolved their crisis; and just like Mio, Ramsas had used a gravity magic attack that eliminated a spirit by itself and he could safely maintain his consciousness, showing that it was not a power that only Wilbert could use. As long as she could find a way, the more easily she could use it at will.

“—um, Mio-chan. That power is not something that can be controlled just so quickly, you know?”

As Mio became frustrated over her own helplessness with it showing up on her face, someone suddenly said that as if seeing through her thoughts. When she looked up, she realised that Sheera was already standing beside her.

“That power was given to you unilaterally to protect you, his only daughter; from the beginning, he was not even considering that you would master using it. Well, Wilbert aside, it doesn’t mean that Ramsas has mastered it yet.

“Eh… But he…”

Mio couldn’t help but ask.

“That is not a power that he has. He only knows about the theory to activate it, and had forced himself force it out; so compared to you who would lose consciousness, his burden is a lot more… if he overuses it, he might just lose his life.”

“Really…?”

“Really. He might appear to be fine, but from my point of view, he is just not letting it show.”

Sheera said with a bitter smile.

“From the start, Wilbert did not want you to inherit the throne of the Demon lord… that’s why he asked his subordinates to bring you to the Human realm to raise you; him choosing to give you the power before dying, is for you to protect yourself from danger after his death. Although it might seem contradictory, to him, that was his duty as a father.”

As if recalling those times, Sheera looked at a faraway place.

“That power is like a defense mechanism, activating when you are at your extreme limits when in a life-threatening situation or when your stress is too much. I can understand that since you have got such a powerful power, of course you would want to use it to help Basara-kun and everyone else; but you shouldn’t focus on that too much for now, and focus on raising your own power… While you may feel that this is simply just taking a detour,  but if you really want to make use of Wilbert’s power, I think that this is the shortest route.”

“………”

As Sheera’s encouragement sunk Mio into silence—

“Nfufu, that’s right – Mio-sama”

“Ya! W-Wha… Ma-Maria!?”

Someone suddenly hugged Mio from behind and started fondling her breasts and Mio immediately turned around to deliver her scolding, but the culprit Maria ignored her and carried on with her actions.

“Forget about Wilbert-sama’s power for now, think about how to stretch your own strengths first.”

Wouldn’t that be fine?

“It’s exactly because you often spend time on these worries or you think that you can slack off and relax just because you are the first to do the Master-Servant Contract with Basara, that allowed Kurumi and Zest to catch up.”




Maria suddenly dropped a bomb.

“W-W-What are you talking about…!?”

Kurumi dropped her bottle to the ground from the shock, and her face grew red.

''…W-Why does Maria…?!''

Originally, Kurumi did not approve of the Master-Servant Contract between Zest and Maria, but after some unspeakable intimate interactions, a profound feeling was developed deep within her. That event, was also known to Mio, Maria and Yuki who had rushed to that room the next morning; but since Basara nor Zest revealed the slightest detail about it, Kurumi naturally chose not to reveal any of it too.

“? Catch up… What do you mean?”

“……Kurumi, I won’t get angry, so tell me all about it.”

Putting aside Mio who asked Maria in confusion, Yuki pressed for an explanation with an expressionless expression that carried great pressure and scary eyes staring at her target.

“You’re just too obtuse. While Mio-sama and Yuki-san had to be subjugated by Basara-san for their bond to deepen, Zest has already done many many things the moment she did her Master-Servant Contract – things like using her breasts and mouth to service Basara-san’s male organ.”<ref>Volume 5 Chapter 3</ref>

Hearing what Maria said, Mio and Yuki turned to look at Zest, dumbfounded.

“…My deepest apologies. Even though I knew that it would be shameless of me, I was unable to supress my desire to serve Basara-sama.”

Zest apologised frankly, confirming that what Maria just said was the truth at the same time.

“The Zest-chan back then, really is a feast for the eyes~”

Sheera who pushed forward the Master-Servant Contract between Basara and Zest, joined in with the comments after everyone found out about it—

“When Basara-dono and her helped straighten out Kurumi-dono’s feelings not long ago, her actions were even more aggressive, right?” <ref>Volume 6 Chapter 3</ref>

Even Lucia joined in in saying things as if like she knew what Kurumi and the others had done.

''…W-Why…?''

The cause of that incident was that baby doll negligee with the『Charm』effect that Sheera had put on her, and though it was merely just speculation, Maria and Lucia probably didn’t know about it. Just then, Zest seemed to recall the scene back then, and said with her face red:

“I brought shame to you… I’m very sorry for my silly clumsy service to Basara-sama.”

Lucia who had brought this up shook her head lightly.

“Please don’t say that. From the recording mother had showed me, I could see that you were leading the still stubborn Kurumi-dono while making Basara-dono very happy, which is already excellent.”

“Not only that, Lucia-oneesama, Kurumi-san also did well. Putting her mouth and hands aside, as her breasts are not that impressive, she sandwiched Basara-san in her most sensitive place armpit while saying『Hurry up and move, Basara-niichan….♥』, it really just scored a succubus’s super ultra-moe point, right!?”

“Why are you saying that you damned idiot!! No, why did you even show them that Sheera-san!!?”

Finding out that her own shameful acts had been shown caused Kurumi to push away Yuki who had pushed herself up against her and ask her that, forgetting about the issue of secretly recording her.

“I’m sorry~, it’s because Lucia-chan had not forgiven me for sneaking into her room, and Maria was angry at me for throwing her at Lucia while I ran away… Other than showing them your recording, I could not think of any other way for the three of us to make up.”

After Sheera gave a flippant reply with no remorse at all—

“Choosing an ero video that was specially set aside together after a quarrel… is a standard way of patching things up in a succubus family after all.”

Like her mother, Maria also proudly puffed her chest outwards.

“That’s why, Kurumi, in order for us daughters and mother to make up quickly after a quarrel, please continue to provide such interesting videos that’s really stimulating~”

“Are you crazy!? Of course not!!”

“Oya? Are you saying that you will no longer do any ecchi stuff with Basara-san anymore?”

“A-About that… I-It’s because…”

Kurumi glanced at Lucia. After spending a lascivious night with Zest and Basara and awakening the dark elements, Lucia had done some supplementary to the elements. The dark elements could absorb the user’s pleasure and excitement and turn it into magic power, and Lucia had them as it had the most efficient energy absorption of pleasure and excitement of that of succubi. Of course, with the elementals awoken, Kurumi no longer needs to contact the spirits of the Human Realm; however, lasciviousness stimulates the liveliness of the elemental and strengthens its power.

In other words, it was not just Basara, Mio, Yuki, or Zest the four of them that can strengthen their battle power through being subjugated as master and servant – it too would have the same effectiveness on Kurumi; compared to the succubus Maria who becomes stronger through absorbing pleasure and excitement of others, Kurumi can get stronger through the special ability of the dark elemental but needs to achieve it by herself.

''…But still,''

Nonaka Kurumi is not excluded from it. She herself wished to be treated like Yuki, Mio and Zest who had did a Master-Servant Contract and receive Basara’s commitment; even though she was not under a Master-Servant Contract, Toujou Basara was already Nonaka Kurumi’s master.

As Kurumi repeated that to herself—

“Ara ara, this is troublesome~…”

When Sheera said that with a smile, Kurumi looked up—

“Nn… Ah…!”                      “Haa….Nu…”

And saw Mio and Yuki hotly panting heavily with some difficulty, writhing about sweetly.




Nonaka Yuki suddenly felt a sweet and sour feeling welling up within her and growing quickly.

It caused her knees to lose strength, and Lucia quickly rushed in to hold her up.

Raising her sights, she found that Mio was also in the same state as her, and is being held up by Maria.

''…Mio…''

Seeing a significant collar marking appear on Mio’s neck, Yuki then understood what had just happened. She and Mio right now – are under the aphrodisiac effects of the Master-Servant Contract curse.

“To be surrounded by so many girls… Basara-kun is a really lucky fellow~”

Seeing Yuki and the others, Sheera gave a strained laugh:

“Although, it’s a really huge risk rushing into the stronghold of the Current Demon Lord Faction… Nice timing, the two of you, swallow this.”

And she put a red colour heart-shaped tablet into Yuki and Mio’s mouths. In that moment, a burst of sweetness spread within their mouths, and the tablet dissolved quickly just like a sugar confectionery.

They then immediately swallowed the tablet that has already become a sweet liquid—

“Eh--…”                          “No way… Why?”

Yuki and Mio let out their surprise simultaneously. The sweet and sour feeling expanding in their bodies disappeared – yet the collar-like markings remained. Being freed from the aphrodisiac effects while the curse was still activated, caused Yuki and the others to look at Sheera with shocked eyes.

“That was a medicine that can suppress the effects of the curse of the Master-Servant Contract… As the effects of your curses are that of a succubus’ aphrodisiacs, I had put in some effort in creating these tablets that can control the curses according to everyone’s spirit structures. It looks like the effects are quite good. Then Zest-chan, you take one too… you don’t want to become a burden to Basara-kun at this timing, right?”

“Yes. Thank you Sheera-sama…”

While looking at Zest immediately swallowing it the moment she received it, Yuki couldn’t help but to voice out a doubt within her.

“Since there is something like that, then why up till now…?”

“Although this tablet could be made as I am a succubus… for it to have any effect you’ll need to have your allegiance towards Basara-kun cross a threshold. As you’ve heard—“

Sheera continued her explanation:

“To release the curse of the Master-Servant Contract, there’s basically two ways to go about it; first is to dissolve the Master-Servant Contract, the other is have the Contract’s『Pledge turn into Vow』. To possess complete loyalty to the master and never do anything that will betray or cause guilt towards the master, will never cause the curse to ever trigger – take a look.”

Sheera snapped her fingers, and a large mirror appeared before Yuki and the others. As Yuki and Mio looked at themselves in the mirror, as well as the markings that appeared on their neck, Sheera continued:

“The degree of change each time is very small, which probably the reason you had not noticed it, but have you noticed that the colour of the collar is now quite red. When you reach a hundred percent, it’ll be deep crimson, which means that your relationships with Basara-kun right now has progressed to a point very close to that. That tablet, is able to temporarily fill up the needed amount to achieve having the『Pledge turn into Vow』… Zest-chan, go stand beside the two of them.”

“Understood…”

Zest nodded and moved, as if affected by some special magic. Despite Zest’s curse not activated right now, her collar marking still showed up within the mirror.

After looking at the colours of the markings of the three of them, Sheera said:

“Uun…  Your loyalty towards Basara-kun from highest to lower, are Zest-chan, Yuki-chan, and then Mio-chan.”

“Eh--…?”

With these words, Mio who was beside Yuki suddenly raised a stunned voice. She had never thought, that she who was the first one to have the Master-Servant Contract done with Basara would have her loyalty being the lowest.

“No need to be so bothered, the difference isn’t really big.”

Sheera said while comforting Mio:

“Well, loyalty is something that’ll be affected by the personality… probably with you  all, the difference is with how candid you can be towards Basara-kun.:

“I-I’m not really…”

Mio tried to refute quickly, but Sheera stopped her with ‘Don’t worry…’ and a wave of her hand.

“I already said that the difference isn’t really that big, everyone’s loyalty is already really high… Rather, it deserves praise. There are not many who are as dedicated towards raising loyalty like you. The reason is that after reaching this point, although the battle potential has been raised a lot, there’ll be restrictions on the ability to sense positions.”

“Restrictions…?”

“What you girls have is the 『Master-Servant Contract』… From the wording, you should be able to understand its meaning?”

Seeing a crease in Yuki’s brow, Lucia explained:

“The master of course will have the right to sense the subordinate’s position, but for the subordinate’s position, it is not one that has the right to be able to sense the master’s position with just a thought… If your master Basara is not willing to reveal it, you girls won’t be able to sense his position.”

“That…”

Sheera heaved a sigh, seeing Mio become anxious.

“Well, if you’re really worried, it’s probably because you’ve served Basarsa-kun to that extent in such a short time. Who knows what might happen in the future. If it continues, then—“

“?   Then?”

Yuki asked.

“…Forget it, it’s nothing. I’m probably thinking too much into it.”

Sheera then resumed her warm gentle smile.

“…Don’t worry, Kurumi-chan.”

She then said to Kurumi whose face had imperceptibly turned pale:

“The reason why Mio and Yuki would get jealous and activate their curse, is not you. It’s because they had not serviced Basara-kun properly that they would occasionally blame themselves for it.”

“………”

Those words caused Kurumi to collapse onto the ground on her butt. Yuki saw Sheera lightly pat Kurumi’s head, and thought that what she had just said was the truth.

The reason behind Yuki activating the Master-Servant Contract curse, was not jealousy or ill-feelings towards Kurumi, and Mio also had the same thoughts.

However, just as Yuki was about to say something to comfort Kurumi and help her up—

A tremendous boom from Oldora Forest resounded out.

It was probably from around the same location where Jin was busy giving special training to Basara.

Thus – everything that happened next, happened in an instant.

“————!”

Kurumi activated spirit magic which sent everyone flying through the sky, and they landed at the entrance of Oldora Forest in the turn of an eye. However, before they could rush into the forest, the silhouette of a person appeared.

It was Jin. Basara who was carried on his shoulder was not moving, probably unconscious.

“Help me treat his injuries… Although I held back a little, I still went a bit too far.”

After saying that to Yuki and the others who was standing still, Jin showed a bitter smile.




While watching Mio immediately tending to Basara in a hurry, Jin lighted up a cigarette he took out from his chest area.

“—so, is Basara-kun any closer?”

Sheera came to beside him and asked lightly.

“Probably… though death nearly claimed a life.”

As Jin said that, the smoke that filled his lungs was then blown into the empty sky.

“Fufu~… and whose life might that be?”

Thus, Sheera asked with a smile filled with certainty, which was directed at Jin who was gazing at a faraway place.

At Basara and Jin’s special training location, where the scar was carved.

A part of Oldora Forest’s trees and earth, was wiped out in a fan shape – the dust in the sky has still not settled down, a testament to how severe the impact of that attack was.