The cursed girl

I stare at the back of the opened cart. Right in front of me sat a little girl with black hair and blue eyes around my age along several dead bodies.

The girl has a gag in her mouth and chains around her hands and legs to stop her from making movement. She's undoubtedly a slave.

For the next few seconds she stares at me with puppy eyes and I stare back at her, disappointed at the fact I didn't find treasure.

Well it's not my issue so I guess I will just...

Just as I was turning away, I saw Blade turn towards the girl.

Hmm?

It was rather intriguing so I stopped in my tracks. Blade was an artificial lifeform made of souls, because of that it has a higher sensitivity when it comes to magic and mana in general, even when compared to me. Not to mention, it has a free will of it's own, so the fact that it was looking at this girl meant that she was at least special.

Blade turns to face me and looks at the girl, as though to gesture, "come this way!"

I didn't even know it knew how to do that.

I stepped closer to the cart and stare inside once more. As I scanned the dead bodies along with the body of the little girl, I realized something fundamental, they all had purple veins as though they were poisoned and black spots scattered around their bodies. The spots looked like little burn marks or some sort of scar.

I'm sure they're suffering from the so called "Corrupt blight" disease. I've read about this in the house library before, the body infected with this disease will slowly drain all life force from it's bearer and eventually kill them. Looking at it, it seems some of these dead bodies don't have cuffs around their arms and legs, my guess is that some died on the way here and the others were dead already. But why would someone buy dead bodies? Maybe to experiment on them? Or maybe these nobles just have way too much money.

If you have no use for money you should just give them to me!

Although, I did hear of slaves like these being sold. Since corrupt blight is hailed as some sort of black omen that attracts both bad luck and disasters, people with the disease are oust from society and either live their entire life isolated or become a slave, both of which lead to eventual death.

The girl seems to be at the last stage, black spots are nearly up to her neck and I can feel her breathing becoming heavier by the moment. It's a miracle she's even still alive at this point.

"Guiding force: pull"

I made a "come closer" gesture with my fingers and the girl levitated out of the cart and down, right in front of me. And just as though it was the natural thing for it to do, Blade cut the girl's cuffs and I took her gag out.

The next few moments I laid the girl down on the floor and started healing her, it seemed she had lost consciousness when she saw a flying sword looking...no...pointing? At her.

The corrupt blight disease is very similar to the "Mana overload" disease in my second life. The main issue why people contract it isn't because they have less of an affinity to mana, but because they have way too much of it. People thought because symptoms were so drastic that this sort of disease can only be cured with an elixir, but they were wrong. The only good thing about this disease is that if the person in question can recover, they get quite a boost to their magic power, since they do possess uncanny affinity to magic.

I cured a bunch on people back on Earth with this, to simply explain, the mana overload disease happens when you take in too much mana. It's sort of like a balloon, if you pump it with too much air it'll eventually explode.

So with that same principle, if we extract the air out before it explodes, it'll deflate. And that's what I'm doing right now, extracting mana from this girl's body. She might feel pain at first, but she's unconscious, so I guess that's fine?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After an hour or so, the girl woke up as healthy as ever, I gave her a few healing potions and her pale face turned back to normal along with her many injuries spread throughout her body.

Damn I spent so much time and potions on her!

I thought one would be enough, but this girl took five to wake up! I swear, she better have made my time worth it.

I sigh as I look up only to see her staring right at me.

"Umm...thank you for saving me..."

"I...shall..."

"I...shall...de"

"I shall devote my entire life to you!"

"Huh? That seems like a pain so no."

I put up my hand as though to gesture my annoyance as such a request. What the hell was this girl even saying to someone she just met? Well I guess I did save her life.

"But..."

We went back and forth like this a few more times till she finally gave up.

"Then...will you please..."

"Kill me?"

"That seems like a pain so no."

She looked at me with eyes of resolve. This girl was indeed ready to die, it seems she suffered a lot in her life, but I'm not one to care for other's worries. Still though, she has an absurd amount of mana now that I look at it, maybe she could become useful after all. After all, I did take the time and effort to cure her, why not just take her in.

"It's...just that I don't have a place to return to, and everyone tells me I'm better off dead."

I took a deep breath and sighed. Well I guess I made up my mind.

"In that case, do you desire power?"

The girl looks up at me frantically, I guess she was taken aback by what I just said seeing as I turned her down previously.

"Uhhh....yes."

She shudders while answering my question.

"Then become my subordinate."

The young girl takes my hand and I pull her up from the ground. Now that I look at it, she seems kind of beautiful? Her previously wounded body was now sparkling clean and her face looked way better than before.

"I will now begin the contract formation."

The destiny bond, a type of contract made using demonic arts. It was created during my second life due to fear of being betrayed, but due to limitations regarding world energy, I couldn't even attempt to perform in on others. But the limitation isn't present here. The bond essentially ties both of the souls of the people making it, forging a bond based on the promise that is being made.

In this case, I'm making a destiny bond with this young girl to essentially make her become my servant. I've always wanted to try this, let's see how well it goes.

A few seconds pass and I let go of the girl's hand.

It was a success. Now both our souls are tied together.

"What is your name child?"

"It's uhh...Elaine..."

"That's the name my parents gave me..."

"Very well Elaine, from now on you will be my subordinate and a comrade in arms who is part of my secret plan."

Elaine stares at me blankly, confused.

I explained everything to this little girl in front of me. I'm glad she's an intelligent child, she took everything in an instant, it's almost as if she is used to this.

Elaine's eyes brighten up and as though it was natural, she got on her knees and bowed to me.

"Yes master!"

Eh? I wasn't really expecting that kind of response. But I guess it's good that she's enthusiastic. And now that the destiny bond is in place, I don't think I have to worry about her betraying me.

Now that I have someone supporting me, I guess it's time to move on to the next part of the plan.

Establishing the demon academy!

The demon academy is the home to demons. Demons are nothing like the type you see in my second and third life, they aren't a separate race, instead the demons in my first life were simply humans that practice demonic arts, which includes spells, chants and the like.

They have several levels to them so I'll explain next time.

I couldn't establish the academy before because I wasn't at a sufficient level of demonic arts, but now that I am, it's time to do so.

But why do I need the demon academy?

Well it's simple, in order to rule this world, I can't do it alone, I must have many people supporting me and willing to wage war against everyone with me. And to do that I must establish the demon academy. So the first thing I have to do is...

The four pillars!

The four pillars are the baseline for setting up the demon academy, they are the four cornerstones that hold the academy together along with the core.

Who's the core?

Well it's me, the almighty demon sage.

Back on track, the four pillars are people who are the foundation of the demon academy, without them or the core, there is no way for such an academy to rise.

"Elaine, do you know what's the most important thing for us now?"

"Increasing our strength, master?"

"Exactly, that's why we have to..."

"Ah! I got it you want to recruit more people into your cause right! Leave it to me!"

Elaine stares at me, eyes glittering with excitement and reverence. She seems to have adapted to the current situation a bit too quick, so quick in fact that she cut me off. I wouldn't even think she was on death's door just a few moments ago.

"Uhh...yeah sure."

I was going to ask her to search for the four pillars after I taught her a bunch of things, but I guess this is fine too. After all, if I need an army, I might as well have more people right?