Maou no Hajimekata Volume 1 Chapter 10 part6

「You’ve finally come」

The Magician Wikia who had bluish silver colored hair coldly spoke to him as Aur showed up in front of her prison cell.

She had already spent several days in here. Other than the girl who came past her jail cell to give her morning and evening meals, no one else would visit her, and contrary to her calm tone of voice, she was actually quite flustered inside.

By now, the likelihood of Nadja and Sharl already being “dealt with” is pretty high. She could roughly forecast that Aur was coming to deal with her last. After all, if Aur was able to ensnare or make use of Nadja and Sharl, they would be the strongest trump cards against Wikia.

「You may feel relieved. All your companions are alive」

「If you think that I would be relieved just by hearing those words from you, you are a big fool」

Wikia spoke out flatly. To begin with, there is no guarantee at what state they were in even if they were left “Alive”. What if he made them into someone that couldn’t do anything, what if he made them into living dolls that couldn’t move and could barely think? That would still be considered as alive but at what cost?

「Well that’s true. In that case, let me restate it. They don’t have any big injuries and their spirit and minds are still intact. If I were to release them into the world right now, they would be able to return being an adventurer. All three of them that is」

「What’s your point?」

“There is no meaning to disclose such information”, Wikia’s acted in a manner that suggested she wanted to get to the core of things. It was a fact that such information had no meaning by itself. It was easy for Aur to just speak as many lies as he wished.

「You really don’t have much emotions do you….? Fine. I came here today to make a simple bet with you」

「A bet?」

Wikia asked back with a suspicious expression on her face and Aur nodded.

「I will have you play a simple game against me. If you win, I will allow all your companions to safely leave this dungeon. If I win, you will give yourself to me. The conditions are 3:1 in your favor. Don’t you think it is an advantageous deal for you?」

「Don’t say such a stupid thing. Did you think I fall for your tricks?」

Wikia kept her composure and she did not show the slightest impulse nor urge to jump at this deal. They were both in a deadlock. Wikia’s abilities as a magician have been sealed so it was not possible for her to run away.

「I thought you would say that. Therefore, I prepared an impartial adjudicator」

As soon as Aur says that, flame rises from the dark and a demon with a huge brown body appeared.

「If I try to cheat in this game, I will present my soul to this demon and it will be your victory. This will be a fair match. Are you going to play?」

Wikia quietly thought about it. Obviously this demon was one of Aur’s underlings, but a demon is an existence that will never become a man’s true ally. If the demon was this big, it will be even more unlikely. If you bet your soul and lose, demons will collect that debt without showing any mercy. Depending on its personality and according to the circumstances, this demon may even become Wikia’s ally if it thinks that it will be able to obtain Aur’s soul.

「Very well. You’ve piqued my curiosity enough for me to listen. Go ahead and explain the rules」

The girl magician was sitting down on the bed of the jail whilst crossing her legs as she declared so.

The contents of the game were indeed simple. First of all, Wikia and Aur is separated into an offense role or a defense role. Then without letting each other see, each of them will write the names of different body parts onto pieces of paper.

The names of the body parts you can write are: both of your hands and feet, head, chest, belly and waist. So all in all, there were eight places to choose from. In the case that the offence side writes the exact same thing as the defense side, the defense will succeed and the defense will switch sides with the offensive side. When the offence side and the defense side writes something different from each other, the offence side will score and that particular body part will fall “under the dominion” of the offence party. However, offence and defense is still alternated after every round.

In regards to the body part that falls under the rule of the opposing party, a curse is activated and all control of that body part will be grasped by the other party making it impossible to move freely. However, internal organs which are necessary for life support, such as: sight, hearing and the other five senses, or things such as your ability to think or reason, your ability to speak or breathe, these will be unaffected. In substance, this game is about limiting the movements of the other party’s limbs.

In terms of cheating, there are various topics which have been discussed and prohibited. Using mind reading, remote viewing, seeing into the future, or using a familiar to read what the other party has written have all been prohibited. any use of violence or curses, compulsion magic, or anything that would interrupt or hinder the course of the game, illusion magic to disguise the words, using secret messages are all considered to be cheating. If these foul acts are discovered by the demon, Aur's soul will be taken and it will be Wikia’s victory.

The exception is if both of a person’s arms are taken control of by the other party, and if that party is no longer able to continue with the game, it will not be considered a foul. “In saying that, if someone loses control of both their arms, won’t it mean that they have lost the game?” Wikia pointed this fact out and Aur responded with, “Don’t you have a mouth and feet that you can use?”

Unexpectedly, there was no special conditions imposed on Wikia. Although, considering that she had her magic sealed off and that she didn’t have any tools near her, it was not like she could cheat even if she wanted to.

The condition for victory or defeat is when you are able to take “take control” your opponents body parts so that only one remains. If there is only one place remaining, then naturally that person would lose.

After victory or defeat is decided each party will regain control of their bodies, but in Wikia’s case, her whole body will become the property of Aur if she loses, and for Aur, if he loses, he will let Wikia and all of her companions free into the outside world without harming them.

If her companions were later found to be hurt, this would “break the terms” of the agreement and because it would be counted as cheating, it would become Wikia’s immediate victory. After claiming Aur’s soul, the demon has agreed to and will be responsible for sending her and her group back up to the outside world.

The definition of being safe, is that without her having to worry, “after returning to the outside world, her companions will be able to fight in the same physical and mental capabilities as before”. In reality, if she did get the chance to be free along with her companions, she would have wanted to immediately fight against Aur, but it is likely that he will place a curse on them to prevent them from taking aggressive actions against him. She could not really drag him out of the safety of his own territory, so Wikia took this compromise with reluctance.

「Then shall we begin? You can go on the offence first」

Aur comfortably lowers his waist on to the chair and sat opposite against Wikia who was on the other side of the iron-barred cell. Next to them was a demon wrapped in flames standing in silence, four of its arms were crossed and it was glaring at the both of them. A stand and a brush were prepared so that each party could write discreetly.

In this game it was obvious that whoever goes first has the advantage. This is because as long as you still have one body part remaining it will be your victory. Wikia slowly thought about things. This game did not have a time restriction.

If each person were to write down a random body part, there is a 1/8 chance that the attack will fail. Aside from when this reaches the end game, there isn’t much point to thinking too deeply about the early stages of the game as the probabilities were still endless at this point in time. However, precisely because of this, Wikia was already beginning to think deeply.

She realized that all eight parts of the body were not of equal value. This factor alone changed the fate of the game from something merely based on luck to something that was based on skill and reading your opponent. If the attack succeeds, that part of the body actually temporarily becomes the property of the other party.

If your hands are taken from you, it will not be possible to write on the stand. In other words, Wikia is probably going to lose if that were to occur. If it comes down to it, it is probably possible for her to write with her mouth or even her feet, but she would like to avoid such humiliating circumstances if she is able, since it is naturally impossible to write with her belly or her waist. Her arms were her highest priority so to her it was necessary to protect her arms.

On the contrary, such circumstances were actually somewhat advantageous for Aur. Even if both his hands and feet were tied up, for a magician like him, writing on a piece of paper was easy as long as he could use his mouth to cast magic. Even though he said that this was a fair match, since the beginning, the game was set up to be disadvantageous for Wikia.

However, Wikia believed that there was something she could take advantage of.

「…..I’ve written it down」

「You’ve thought for a very long time haven’t you? Well, no matter」

Submitting the note, she wrote on, Aur also presented his note forward. Unlike Wikia who had to think for a long period of time, Aur did not even worry about it as he quickly submitted his answer.

The demon collected the notes and spoke with an unpleasant sounding voice, it was as if metal was scraping against each other.

「Attacking side, Wikia. Specified part “Left Arm”. Defense side, Aur. Specified part “Head”. the attack has succeeded, Aur’s left arm will become Wikia’s possession」

Aur’s left arm shined and along with a large *bang!*, Aur’s left arm was bound up in silver chains.

「Hmm. Now it is going to be my turn to attack」

Without even thinking for long, Aur just started to write on his note without hesitation and handed it over. Wikia was still pondering about Aur’s first choice for defense. The first thing Aur defended was his head. At first she predicted that he would defend one of his four limbs, especially his dominant right arm, but her forecast was wrong.

Is there a particular reason why he is defending his head? Naturally the head was an important part of the body, but, considering that the five senses will not be taken away it doesn’t seem to be too harmful even if you lost control of that body part.

He would still be able to move and cast magic as per usual, and it was not like she could forcibly make him shut his eyes as that would be obstructing the game and breaking the rules. In the first place, just because she owned a particular body part, it doesn’t mean that her nerves were somehow connected and that she would suddenly be able to control his body.

After considering it for a long while, Wikia finally jotted down her answer on the note and presented it to the demon. Just like before the demon took a look at both the notes and spoke out in a creaking voice.

「Attacking side, Aur. Specified body part “Chest”. Defending side, Wikia. Specified body part “right arm”. The attack is a success, Wikia’s chest has become Aur’s possession」

Wikia’s chest area shines and a golden brown chain jingles around her breasts and tightens itself around it.

However, it did not feel particularly painful or anything. Just like it was stated in the terms, her heart, lungs and anything necessary for life support was not taken away from her.

However, to think that he would choose my chest first? Wikia was not able to hide her surprise. She thought that he would surely aim for one of her four limbs first. For Aur, as long as he could seal the movements of her head and four of her limbs he would easily win the match so there was actually no need for him to obtain control of her chest. Then again, that may be his strategy and that is why he purposefully aimed for this body part. Unlike Wikia who was logical thinking about the priority of each body part, it would seem that Aur was going for the opposite thing and attacking body parts with low priority.

「Next is my turn to attack」

Saying this, Wikia presented her note. This time she didn’t require much time before handing it in. Aur was just like usual, he didn’t pause for long before handing his note in as well.

「Attacking side, Wikia. Specified body part “Right Leg”. Defending side, Aur. Specified body part “Right arm”. The attack has succeeded, Aur’s right leg will become Wikia’s possession」

「Hou?」

Silver chains wrapped around Aur’s right leg, and Aur spoke out showing a little bit of admiration from his voice. He was able to see that Wikia’s strategy was to take control of his four limbs. However, this did not seem to make Aur feel an impending sense of crisis. After all, for him, there is not much difference in value between his arms or his other parts of his body.

……However, this is precisely the advantage she was going to take hold of.

Wikia was smiling slightly as she set her gaze on the silver and golden magical energy floating in midair in front of her.

Chapter end