“What else is there? Hmmm. Ah right. People often refer to me as nightmare.”(Me)

I got a rather strange reply.

“Haha. Wouldn’t wonder me. Your personality is a real nightmare.”(Sarah)

“Eh? I think you misunderstood me.”(Me)

“You tell us, people refer to you as nightmare.”(Sarah)

“Yes. I mean the 1 from the dark continent, SS ranked danger, etc.”(Me)

“Yes and I am the queen of the world.”(Sarah)

When I thought back, I remembered, that Sarah hadn’t seen my black form yet. It was a normal reaction, which I should have predicted.

“I don’t want to go against Master, but I am not fully able to believe you either. I mean I saw your strength, but… Perhaps, if you could show us something to prove your statement.”(Nala)

“Nice idea.”(Me)

“What could you prove? The nightmare is a being on par, if not greater than any king out there. Even if you are the real deal, what in the world are you doing here?”(Sarah)

“Well. Thank you very much for your compliment. And sorry, I can’t tell you that.”(Me)

“Sigh.”(Sarah)

“At least I prepared for a similar situation.”(Me)

I got weird stares from both of them. I didn’t mind them and used my mana to activate runes, which I prepared beforehand.

“I wasn’t doing nothing in those past days. I prepared this room with enough runes, so you won’t be able to escape.”(Me)

“Hoy, calm down. You really start sounding like a villain.”(Sarah)

The next step was to go into black form and scare the both of them a little. I didn’t want to freak the hell out of them, just a little bit was more than enough. I started slowly gathering mana.

“Calm down please! I am sorry ok, don’t kill me, just because I can’t believe you.”(Sarah)

“Eh? Who said anything of killing you? We decided, I’d prove you that I’m the real deal, so I’m gathering some of my mana.”(Me)

“You call that some, Master? You are at least on par with me with that some mana of yours.”(Nala)

A dark aura slowly surrounded me and I went into black form. Both of them were surprised but not scared. Nala already saw a weakened black form so that was no issue, but Sarah was showing more fascination than fear.

“Is this enough?”(Me)

“I believe you Master.”(Nala)

“Let’s say I believe you for now. Show me around the dark continent sometime ok?”(Sarah)

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Her behaviour became a lot better after accepting my identity. She seemed less bossy and a lot more friendly.

“If you want, I could sent you there anytime, but for certain reasons, I can only return in about 2 to 3 weeks.”(Me)

“Alright. By the way, I know I’m not able to use magic, nor can I feel mana, because my master never taught me, but how many runes did you use in your preparation?”(Sarah)

“As far as I can sense it, there should be 4 runes in each corner of the room, to prevent any sound from leaving it. And 1 rune on every side, to prevent us from leaving it. So all in all about 10 runes, right Master?”(Nala)

“Ye… Yes. More or less.”(Me)

I could only smile and say nothing more. I didn’t want to see their reaction if they found out that this room had about 70 runes installed. Excluding traps like increase in gravitation, disabling their sense of balance and similar things, it would still amount to about 30 just for the fortification of this room. Let’s just say I had a lot of free time and Nala still had a lot to learn.

“Oh. That’s the reason why even I could feel them. If there are that many in the 1 place, it’s no wonder.”(Sarah)

“Probably.”(Me)

I disabled my hard preparation and went back to normal.

“I’m still wondering. Your reaction is a lot calmer than I expected.”(Me)

“I have no physical strength, nor can I use magic and you made a demon your subordinate. What else could I do than control my emotions? I was able to overcome my fear some way.”(Sarah)

“Is that so?”(Me)

“Yes.”(Sarah)

“Then, what was your reaction back when I fought Nala?”(Me)

“My emotions were forcefully suppressed, due to my old contract with my master and over the years, there was a lot which came together. I wasn’t always as I am now, but I worked at an inn and we had lots of idiots and I was never able to say anything against them.”(Sarah)

“You have to teach me how to do that contract.”(Me)

“Perhaps some other day.”(Sarah)

“I’m fine with that. I don’t have much time left anyways.”(Me)

“For?”(Sarah)

“Is it because you have to go to Sonya city?”(Nala)

I forgot, I never told them I go to school. I just said something about heading to Sonya city.

“I have a good idea.”(Me)

“Huh?”(Sarah)

“The Nightmare is currently building an army of young talented people, so I Hikaru grant you my crest.”(Me)

“Wait what?”(Sarah)

“Shut up and accept it. It will spare me a lot of time and you won’t spill my identity out to everyone we meet.”(Me)

“Only if it’s under 3rd grade.”(Sarah)

“Unfortunate I have no idea how to do that so just accept your fate.”(Me)

“Fine. I Sarah accept your crest.”(Sarah)

Same as last time, I got a short overview of her memories and remembered nothing. Perhaps I can improve that with time magic someday. Strangely, even though she told me that she could control her emotions, she was also struck by fear, similar to Nala when he became my subordinate.

“What do you guys see when we do a contract to make such a face?”(Me)

“Nothing. Never mind. By the way, didn’t you say something about building an army of young talented people? Do I count as young and talented, even though I’m already 16 years old?”(Sarah)

“No way.”(Me)

“What did you expect? Nala has to be at least 20. What’s your reason to even contract him?”(Sarah)

“Fellow subordinate, please don’t be so mean to me.”(Nala)

“Hmhm. I have no subordinate-Master contract I have lower 3rd grade student-Teacher contract.”(Sarah)

With pride, she showed us my crest and when I compared her with the 1 from Nala, I saw that it was a bit smaller.

“By the way, even if I’m only 12, you will still have to call me teacher.”(Me)

“Eh?”(Sarah)

“Hahaha. Serves you right.”(Nala)

“Shut up. So, why did you contract him? You said that he is weak, which makes the whole thing even stranger.”(Sarah)

“Secret. And by the way, just because someone is weak, doesn’t mean he can’t be trained. He can become strong, it only depends on his attitude and his Master.”(Me)

I was able to motivate him to work hard and praise myself in only 2 sentences. He even had fire in his eyes and was eager to start his training.

“But, before this, we have to go back to Sonya academy, I have to finish my quest and then we have about 20 days left to train before the tournament.”(Me)

“Oh. Is Master planning to make his debut in that tournament?”(Nala)

“No, I won’t even participate. But I’ll still make a huge impact.”(Me)

“I don’t understand?”(Nala)

“Listen carefully. Lesson number 1, always think everything through until the end. It’s an important tournament between the human and beastman race.”(Me)

“I still don’t understand it, Teacher.”(Sarah)

“Sigh. Both kings will be there to watch the tournament.”(Me)

“So you will kill both of them in 1 go?”(Sarah)

She totally misunderstood everything.

“Ha? No. I will make a peace treaty. I want my own land to be able to remain peacefully and train with a lot of effort until the day I have to go into the final step of my plan.”(Me)

“I still don’t understand it.”(Nala)

“Than your first task will be to think about it yourself until we arrive at Sonya academy. By the way, you will both be listed as slaves.”(Me)

“What?!”(Sarah)

“Haha. Let’s go now.”(Me)

With me knowing the way and scaring all random beasts, bandits, etc. away, we arrived at Sonya city in merely 2 days. I was happy that I was finally able to overcome this chaos, but when we arrived, I was faced with the next 1 coming up. Perhaps it was a special ability of mine to attract them.