'Now, whatever shall I do with you?'
Seeing the weak, pitiful-looking black wolf lying on the ground, Aurora, for some reason, felt uprehension when she thought about killing the wolf.
She had no idea why she felt this way. This wouldn't be the first time she killed another living being, nor is it the first time she killed a magical beast.
Then why? Why did she feel as if it would be wrong to kill this particular wolf? She didn't know. She felt as if she had no reason to spare the beast's life, yet still, she just couldn't kill it.
The wolf was an enemy. They fought, and he tried to kill her; that much was very obvious from the way it fought against her.
Even now, the wolf only lied down and gave up because he had no more energy to continue. Aurora was sure that if he suddenly regained all his energy, he would start to attack her again without hesitation.
'But no matter how many times I tell that to myself, no matter how many reasons I give myself, I just can't.' She looked down at the beast's frame, but unlike before, when it looked so imposing and powerful, all that was left was an empty shell.
It seemed as if he had truly given up.
'Come on, is that really your limit?' Aurora's eyes sparkled with a strange glint. It was a glint of disappointment, but at the same time, one of resolve and determination. Even if the wolf gave up, she wouldn't.
Closing even the short distance that separated them, she used her little front paw and slapped the wolf on its back, as if telling him to get up.
She waited, but it seemed that the wolf didn't understand her message. Either that, or he just pretended to not understand.
Feeling as if she were being ignored, Aurora slapped the wolf once again, but this time with a lot more force. Yet the wolf still didn't seem to react.
'You're really getting on my nerves now.' Full of annoyance, she circled around the wolf, now standing in front of where his head was lying.
Without a second thought, she raised her front paw and brought it down, landing square on the black wolf's head. The strength she put behind that slap forced the wolf to open his eyes, but he still refused to move.
'If you're so stubborn, then stubbornly cling to life rather than to be stubborn about your death.' Aurora narrowed her eyes at the wolf, which resulted in a frown that formed on her cute little face.
'Get up, idiot.' Though the wolf obviously couldn't hear what she said, it seemed that the expression on her face, plus the clearly annoyed squeels that escaped her mouth, were enough for the wolf to finally give in.
Gathering all the strength and energy he had left, the wolf raised his head, his eyes locking with Aurora's. Seeing that frown and that disappointed gaze of his opponent, the wolf's eyes flashed with resolve as he forced himself to rise back onto his feet.
Slowly but surely, the weak and wounded wolf finally stood in front of Aurora yet again. His figure wasn't nearly as imposing as before, but it still gave off a more ferocious vibe than when he was lying on the ground.
'Better.' Seeing that large silhouette that towered over her standing again, Aurora felt a strange sense of satisfaction.
As the black wolf looked down at the adorable, snow-white ball of fur, he felt a feeling of reverance.
Before Aurora could even understand what's going on, the black wolf took a step back and bowed his head to her. And as if to add to her bewilderment, the system also chimed in at the same time.
[The Midnight Wolf lvl. 20 is offering a subordinate contract to the user. If you agree to the contract, the Midnight Wolf will become your subordinate.]
[Do you accept: Yes/No]
'H-huh? What?' The current Aurora still hasn't even recovered from how the black wolf, supposedly the Midnight Wolf, bowed his head to, much less pay attention to what the system said.
It took her about half a minute to shake her head and finally recover. During this time, the Midnight Wolf remained in the same position, his head almost touching the ground.
This was quite the confusing behavior, but Aurora instinctively felt that the wolf was probably waiting for her answer. So, as to not make him wait too long, she read through the message again, properly this time.
'Hmmmm, subordinate contract?' These words were completely foreign for her, and even though she could make up some meaning out of them, she still had no real idea about what it meant.
'Ahem, system, do the honors, please.' Her way of addressing the system was... interesting, to say the least. Thankfully, it seems that the system still understood what she meant, as the next moment, a new system window opened up in front of her.
[Subordinates]
– Upon forming a subordinate contract, either by will or force, the two individuals will become a subordinate and a superior.
- In this form of the contract, the superior isn't bound by any rules or limitations.
- The subordinate won't be able to intentionally hurt the superior in any way.
- If the subordinate somehow does intentionally hurt their superior, they will receive a heavy backlash, possibly even resulting in death.
- They will also not be able to do anything that could be considered to be an action against the superior. If this were to happen, they will also receive a backlash.
- This contract can only be broken by the superior, and the subordinate has no way to do so.
- The contract is automatically broken once one of the bound individuals dies.
Aurora stared at the light blue screen in front of her eyes for about a minute, carefully reading through the information and its contents.
The more she read, the more intrigued she became, as she realized that the contract the Midnight Wolf just offered her was more than it might seem. While it was quite simple, it was also something incredibly powerful.
'Basically, if I make him my subordinate, he won't be able to hurt me or go against me in any way, unless he wants to receive a backlash, of course. Also, the backlash seems to be pretty severe, so it's definitely not a good idea to try anything funny.
'The superior, in this case, me, won't be bound by any rules or limitations... No matter how I look at it, there's no reason for me not to accept.' She thought about it very carefully, trying to find any kind of loophole or anything that might become a hindrance, but in the end, the contract only seemed to hold positives for her.
Not only would she have a powerful magical beast as a subordinate, the beast in question also couldn't do anything to her or rebel against her at all. Furthermore, she could probably even kill the Midnight Wolf anytime she wanted with no setbacks, so it's a win no matter how you look at it.
'I accept.' As those words appeared in her mind, the system responded almost immediately, as the previous message about the contract disappeared right away.
Soon after, Aurora felt her soul getting bound to something. A soul of another being, to be precise.
The bond was quite weak, and it clearly didn't have any power over her soul, but it was definitely there. This just meant that she really wasn't bound by any rules at all.
However, the same could not be said for the Midnight Wolf. Right after Aurora accepted his offer, he immediately felt his soul being bound by an incredibly strong bond. This bond was like heavy metal chains that very much limited every one of his actions.
Still, the wolf didn't mind that. In his eyes, the little white creature was now the new owner of his life. After all, were it not for her mercy, he would have already been dead.
He felt no resentment, no anger, hate, or dislike at all. All he felt was an endless amount of gratitude towards his 'savior'.
Messed up? Definitely. After all, Aurora was no savior. She just took pity on him and decided to spare his life. Moreover, she definitely didn't do it because of him at all. She did it just because she didn't feel like it would be correct to kill this wolf in particular.
Still, this wasn't something the Midnight Wolf needed to know. Actually, even if he knew it, he probably wouldn't care at all about Aurora's selfish behavior, so I guess it doesn't matter.
'Anyway, now that you are on my side, I should probably give you some kind of name.' Aurora thought internally as she realized that just calling him a wolf or a beast won't really be sufficient. Well, rather, she just wanted to name him for the sake of it.
'Hmmm, something simple.' However, picking a name for the wolf turned out to be more difficult than she thought it would be, because even after several minutes and tries, she still couldn't find a name she liked.
'Fang? Nah, too basic.' Did you really consider that to be an option?
'Hmm, how about Blackie?' Y-you serious?
'No, that ain't it.' Phew. I really thought you were going to pick such a stup-
'Maybe Wolfie.' No. Pleease don't.
'No, that's not it either. Theeeen, how about...' No, don't you dare think of something absurd ag-
'Snoofie.' Pffftt, what!? Does that thing look like a dog to you!?
'No, too cute for such an ugly wolf.' Okay, I mean, I'm happy you didn't pick that, but you don't have to disrespect him so much.
'How about...' And so on and so forth. I mean, you get it. Aurora tried a bunch of different names, but she didn't like any of them. Well, to be fair, most of them sucked, so I get why she didn't like them.
This went on for probably about 15 minutes. By this point, even the wolf has raised his head. Instead of bowing in front of her, he just looked at Aurora with a confused expression as she pounced around in frustration.
The poor wolf had no idea why his new 'alpha' was so angry, but it definitely didn't make him feel comfortable. At some point, he even started to think Aurora was angry at him, something that was obviously not really true.
Also, as it turns out, the Midnight Wolf basically considers Aurora to be his alpha. This is something very normal among wolf-like magical beasts. They often form packs, and the strongest one amongst them becomes an alpha. Quite obviously, an alpha is the leader of such a pack.
Actually, the Midnight Wolf was the alpha of his previous pack. Thanks to his naturally high stats and the ability to use magic, no other wolf could match him in the slightest.
But now he found someone stronger than him. Someone who made him feel inferior in basically every aspect, maybe except size. Whether it was close combat or magic, the small white fox he faced off against beat him in everything.
And even when he thought that it was his end, his enemy spared his life and let him live.
It was because of all of this that he was willing to bow his head to Aurora and decided to follow her. However, she couldn't become his alpha since she wasn't a wolf. However, this wasn't something that the Midnight Wolf really realized or understood.
After all, no matter how intelligent he was, he was still just a rank-0 magical beast.
But, in the end, it somehow worked out as the system took his will to submit as an offering of a contract, and since Aurora accepted it, she technically became the wolf's alpha.
Anyway, just as the wolf was thinking about what to do about his alpha's sudden outburst of emotions, Aurora stopped moving around so much and finally stood in one stop for at least a damn second!
'Ruff, R, Re... Rejoke!' Rejoke? The hell the do you mean by tha-
'That's right! From now on, your name shall be Rejoke!' What? Are you being serious right now? I mean, it's better than any of the other ideas you had, but Rejoke? Really?
Like, it literally had the word 'joke' inside it. Is that really how you want to name your first and only subordinate afte-
[You have successfully named your subordinate. The Midnight Wolf now holds the name of Rejoke.]
Are you being serious right now? Even you, system!? Great, there's no going back now! Alright, I guess it's not that bad, not use of crying over spilled milk anyway, or something like that. That's how you humans say it, right?
[You have met the requirements to obtain the title Leader.]
'Huh? A title?'