A basement surrounded by the breath of the wraith.

Due to the torrential rain and thunderstorms, the basement was extremely cold today, and Koichiro was still wearing the white short-sleeved dress that he wore the day he blocked the arrows.

'Isn't it a little cold?' Koichiro simply took a blanket and gently covered Love.

So it won't be too cold. ’

Today, Love is also sleeping quietly, her soft pale blonde hair is scattered, and her pale face is not angry at all, like a white porcelain doll frozen up.

Koichiro found a place close to Love, and sat down quietly with his back to Love's ice coffin.

He set aside the black balls he had taken from Richard's monster shop, then took out the parchment paper containing the monsters he had brought back from the wooden box, and began to look through them carefully, comparing the state of the black balls with the records on the parchment.

"Hopefully this will allow me to learn more about the world."

Richard's monster report records most of the known monster races in this fantastical continent of Teyvat.

Known monster races have orcs that are easier to train, and some bird monsters, even if they are larger, they are easy to control, as long as there is a slave coat of arms, they can make them obey their words, orcs generally carry out transportation, grinding, farm work and other labor activities, and there are also orcs with strong attack power can be sold to the fighting arena as the object of bets by gamblers, so the price of the demon seed will be higher.

Secondly, the remaining dignified demon species that are not good at working can be raised as domestic servants and sold to the nobility or upper class as a reward, just like what happened to the fox Xia Xia.

In addition to this, there are some beautiful birds, or rare varieties of quirky little monsters that can be sold as pets.

Looking through these records, Koichiro unknowingly knew the type of business and connections of Richard.

Most of the monsters and slaves were privately captured by Richard, and some were bought from some poor families, and there were even greedy Orcs and young girls that Richard robbed from the slums to satisfy the special funnishings of some nobles, and it is estimated that Itina and Xia were forced into Richard's monster base camp in this way.

The originator of this unequal and inhumane deal should have died a long time ago. ’

Through line after line of searching, Sakamoto Koichiro finally found an introduction to this black egg ball.

The parchment record simply states that Richard bought it at great expense from a noble lord in Monte, and that it was a sign of friendship between the neighboring nation and that lord in ancient times.

Richard personally thinks that this is a very valuable dark demon species, and on the surface, it may be an egg laid by a snake monster, but Richard has spent a lot of effort to find a way to hatch the demon seed.

"The vampire snake species, which feeds on human blood, reproduces quickly, and has strong attack power, making it a favorable and insidious weapon for night attacks on the battlefield." Koichiro muttered to himself what was on the parchment.

"Only the eggs of the demon seed that are born with spirit and strong attack power will be black, and the demon seed eggs that have no attack power will be milky white or egg goose yellow."

That is, this snake egg that can't hatch is still spiritual. ’

Then he thought, 'In that case, let's destroy it, and since it's likely to be a harmful, self-aware monster, why keep it.' ’

So, Hanichiro picked up the black sword that Bruder had given him earlier, weighed the weight of the black sword in his hand, and then charged his strength, and after two seconds, he slashed at the black ball vertically.

"Qiang-click", the sturdy black sword actually cracked a mark.

Koichiro rubbed his fingers against the long crack in disbelief, 'Huh? Isn't it, harder than a sword? Are you sure it's a snake egg and not a vajra egg? ”

Charged again and slashed horizontally with the sword a few times, the black egg ball didn't move at all, but Koichiro's black iron sword was broken to only one hilt.

Koichiro looked at the bare hilt of the sword, lamenting that the blood oath lacked sword-making talents, and he was so devastated that he had destroyed public property like this, and his conscience was really unhappy, while thinking, "It's not safe to put it here in Love, so why don't you try a slave contract?" ’

According to Thea, a slave contract requires a little blood of the contractor, and in addition, it is enough to use the exclusive slave crest to brand the monster that needs to be contracted. After the slave contract, the slave has strict conditions, such as if the master is asleep and refuses the master's orders, the slave will suffer severe pain from the slave coat of arms.

"It just so happened that Richard also recorded the chant of the slave contract on paper, and it really didn't take much effort to get it."

He was about to brand the black ball with his own brand, but Koichiro thought about it, "Since it is kept here by Love, let's just brand it with Love, so that even if it hatches, it probably won't be a master." ’

It was decided so decisively!

Ryichiro lightly took a little blood from Love's index finger, and by chanting the runes of the slave contract recorded by Richard, the surface of the black egg ball suddenly sensed, and a circular magic array was born, and the pattern of the monster coat of arms also glowed, and after sucking up the blood of Love, the magic array instantly converged the light, and the monster coat of arms quietly disappeared.

"Huh? Did the contract succeed? "Koichiro was surprised to see that the monster crest had also disappeared, 'The pattern marking the success of the slave contract will disappear automatically?'

I guess that's fine. ’

————————————

Koichiro breathed a sigh of relief, and then returned to his own room in the castle.

"Today's rainstorm, it seems that I can't go out, and I want to take advantage of the time when there is no mission to experience the civilian life of another world." ’

'Love's soul fragments, let's hurry up and find them. ’

In the gloomy weather, the wet mist brought by the sound of rain outside makes people drowsy, and the dim room is easy to make people tired, and in the afternoon, the idle Koichiro soon enters the dream.

"Whew...... The small and unaware human beings dare to put a slave coat of arms on Lone's head, and they are still a half-dead thing, and it is not enough to stuff their teeth as Lone's staple food......"

At this time, the crystal placed next to the bed was faintly emitting a blood-red light, which was a sign of danger, but the sleeping Koichiro didn't know anything about it.

In the dream, a huge black shadow swept away the pale blonde girl, and the torrential rain obscured most of the vision, and the girl and the black shadow entered the boundless clouds, accompanied by lightning and thunder, the black shadow shuttled freely through the clouds, and then flew farther away.

"Lord Ernist, help me......"

"Wake up ......"

The whisper in the dream is whose faint cry for help.

As if he had been woken up, Koichiro, who had turned over, caught a glimpse of the crystal emitting a red luster on the side in a daze, and then he subconsciously reached out to grab the red light.

"Hiss......" the burning sensation coming from his hand.

Koichiro immediately refreshed, 'This must be something going on!' ’