CHAPTER 73: CONTRACT RENEGOTIATION

I received a call from Elena, it seems the dragons want to have a conversation with me for a renegotiation.

Now it’s nighttime and I’m well-rested from the dangerous events, so I’ll converse through a crystal ball.

I place the crystal ball on the bed, this crystal ball is an artifact, they serve to prevent unwanted people from accessing the communication.

Soon the crystal ball activates and I see the tribal leader kneeling in reverence. However, I don’t pay attention to him and soon look at Zephyra.

She seems dejected, although she is in reverence, I notice a weary posture, a depressing aura, her colors are a mess, soon they raise their head to start the conversation.

’She’s still beautiful even like this...’

Zephyra’s eyes have dark circles, they also seem less bright, an indication of her efforts to meet the goal.

"Any problem, Varion?" I ask, knowing the obvious.

"Y-Your Majesty, I-I would like more guards, and w-would it be possible to increase the strength of the barrier? L-Lately there have been many attacks"

It’s obvious that with the reductions I’ve made, he would need help.

"Of course I can" His expression lights up only for me to fill it with despair.

"It will be 100 tons of ore for more guards, and if you want me to increase the strength of the barrier it will be 500 tons of ore, and the time has dropped from 3 months to 2 months, so you’ll have to deliver the shipment to me by July 29th"

"..." I see the blood flowing from his lips, I received the report from my soldiers, and it’s very difficult to maintain the safety of everyone, as the barrier has weakened, the attacks have increased a lot.

Several members of the tribe were injured, some houses were destroyed, and there were even 2 deaths, he as the chief must think about the well-being of his people.

"I-I will only want more guards..." I see Zephyra’s color change to despair, if before it was already extremely difficult to do 60 tons, now that she has to do 100 in a shorter time, it will be impossible.

"Perfect, then I’ll send you the new contract with the guards, I hope you can get what you want, goodbye" I undo the magic of the crystal ball, cutting the call, Elena received the content of the call, so she will do what is necessary.

I throw myself on the bed to have a fun night, I can’t help but masturbate when I remember the despair on Zephyra’s face and the color of her aura, soon, soon she will be mine and mine alone.

...

...

...

"Zephyra, go to your room..." I say to my daughter, who seems extremely tired, as soon as she leaves the room, I turn the table upside down, tears of anger and frustration fall.

My daughter is important, but my people are too, I can’t let my people continue to die and get hurt, and it’s so difficult, how can I take care of my people and my daughter at the same time?

I had no choice but to accept, I’m desperate, what could I do? That damned tyrant is complicating everything.

"Sir, the new guards have arrived" Soon I go out to sign the papers they brought, and of course now the number of guards we have is 500, the number that was common before is now a luxury.

’How did things deteriorate so much? Why is the Demon King doing this?’ At first the Demon King didn’t seem to have any interest in us, just like the previous Demon King.

But suddenly the Demon King started doing this, and everything became more difficult, complaint forms never stop arriving, the administration of the village became more difficult, and I can’t even sleep in my house because I hear my daughter moaning in pain all night long.

And now it just got worse, that sadistic monster is destroying me, I don’t know what I can do to improve this situation.

...

...

...

"Zephyra, go to your room..." My father says to me, and I obey and go to my room.

As soon as I get to my room, I fall on the bed and start crying.

"Hick... it hurts... I’m tired... hick, why is this happening to me..." I let out low moans of pain as I try to hold back the tears, everything hurts, it feels like my body is being constantly pushed to its limits.

Several times a day I feel sick, my vision becomes blurry while everything seems distorted, my body has chills while trembling in pain.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to sleep properly, the headaches make it feel like my head is going to explode, every day my mana is depleted and yet I have to work like a slave to meet the goals.

In the past, I produced 54.9 kilograms of ore per day. But because of this new agreement, I had to produce 659.3 kilograms of ore per day, my mana is considerably low because I’ve never had much training and my level is half the maximum.

So these numbers are absurd. And now they’ve increased again, I start crying even more as I realize how much the goal has increased, now to be able to meet the goal I will have to produce 1,666.7 kilograms per day.

"It’s impossible... hick... I-I can’t do so much" I barely managed to meet the previous goal, and now the goal has more than doubled.

My mind spins and spins, the pain is terrible, I can only think about why I have to suffer like this, it’s so unfair, I’ve never done anything to deserve such a horrible fate.

My life was always monotonous because I was always locked up at home, but now it’s a never-ending hell of pain and suffering, I practically had no time for anything, and now that time has been reduced to zero.

I don’t think I’ll even be able to try to sleep, I’ll have to spend almost 100% of the day trying to meet such absurd numbers.

"Demon King... w-why is she being so cruel... hick..." I cry as I think of her words, I tremble with fear just thinking about my father accepting the offer of 500 tons of ore.

"Is it revenge? I-Is she doing t-this b-because I rejected her? B-But if she loves me, w-why would she make me suffer like this?" To me, it is incomprehensible why someone who loves would make their loved one suffer in this way.

The only love I’ve received was what my father provided me with in childhood, a gentle and loving father who did everything for me, so I can’t understand why the Demon King is so cruel to me.

If my ability still works, then she should still love me, so why does she make me suffer so much? Why does she choose to put me through so much pain and anguish?

Toc Toc Toc

"Miss, it’s time to start your work" I get up with moans of pain, while walking to the door.

I am guided by the maid to the room where I make potions, if I don’t make mana potions in advance, I’ll never be able to continue the work.

The problem with the potions is that they don’t solve the problem of exhaustion and pain from lack of mana, this pain and fatigue just keep increasing and increasing without stopping, making everything worse.

I start mixing the necessary herbs while using mana to bring the mixture to the perfect point, soon a mana potion is produced, I continue making potions and in this way I produce what I think is enough for a day’s work.

I can’t make them excessively because there is a limit of material and also because I spend mana to produce them.

As soon as everything is ready, I go to the room where I have to produce ore, in a magic circle made by me I start converting mana into ore, to reduce the mana consumption, the ore produced is random.

So if I’m lucky, something like gold, diamond, and emerald will come, but most of it is iron and copper.

And with really good luck, a magical ore can come, but the chances for that are almost nil because the ore is made based on my mana, so since I have little, what I can do is limited.

This reminds me of the bouquet the Demon King offered me, that bouquet alone had more mana than I do.

If the Demon King is really doing this out of revenge, I can’t help but wish I had never done anything against her. I find myself wondering if I had accepted it, would things be different?

If I hadn’t done that, would she treat me differently, would I no longer have to suffer?

If my ability really works and she still loves me, if I plead, maybe she won’t make me suffer like this anymore? In the end, it’s all speculation, I don’t have the courage to try to talk to her.

I don’t have the courage to ask that being who is so oppressive if she loves me, I can only try to endure all the pain alone.

’My arms hurt...’ My condition is so bad that just starting to use mana already causes me pain, the body has paths through which mana passes, and forcing your mana makes these paths more sensitive.

And this generates pain when done constantly, I who force my body to do what it can’t handle am only hurting myself, damage to someone’s mana path is as painful as damage to the soul.

But unlike soul damage, mana path damage can’t kill you, it’s just excruciatingly painful, a form of torture that your body inflicts on itself to show you’re pushing the limits.

And after 10 minutes, all I can do is 7 kilograms of ore, seeing the small amount just makes me want to cry, with this amount it would still be possible if I tried my hardest to meet the previous goal, but with the new goal, it will never be enough.

I kneel on the floor and cry with sadness, I will never be able to do this, I’m a mediocre alchemist, I’ve never made an effort to be good at it, as far as I know, the demon alchemist could produce more than 1,000 tons in a few minutes, and the delay of minutes is just to draw the magic circle.

While I took almost 3 weeks just to form this magic circle, and all I can do is this.

The difference is so absurd that it makes me feel like I’m just the dust on the floor compared to her.

"Hick..." It was obvious that if I had made an effort to be a good alchemist, this request might have been possible, but since I didn’t make an effort to improve, now all I can achieve are mediocre results.

Compared to most alchemists, I’m very poor at it, not for lack of talent, but for lack of effort, human alchemists who started a few years ago would have difficulty, but they would still have better results even without talent.

I never thought that one day my lack of effort would come back to haunt me like this.

’Will I be a slave? Is this my destiny?’ If I don’t meet the goals, I’ll be forced to become a slave to pay the debt to the Demon King, I wonder if when that happens I’ll still go through this same hell as if I were a machine with the sole purpose of making ore.