Chapter 11: Contract

“You really didn’t digest her, right?”

“…Do not speak to me. I am focusing right now.”

After rushing back home in a panic, Shia and I finally decided—after much discussion—to retrieve the woman she had swallowed.

“Urgh… ughhh…”

“…Are you really going to throw her up like that?”

“Oh, right. This won’t work in this form.”

Shia, who was lying on the floor dry heaving repeatedly, looked up at me with tears in her eyes and gave me a goofy grin.

“Human, close your eyes for a moment.”

“Huh?”

“Someone like you—or rather, most humans—can’t handle my true form.”

Her words carried an ominous tone, and after a moment of hesitation, I followed her instructions and shut my eyes.

This is exactly the kind of situation where people act stubborn and don’t listen, and then end up causing an accident.

Especially if the warning is coming from an extra-dimensional entity—it’d be suicide to act defiant.

I definitely wasn’t about to get a firsthand view of some Lovecraftian horror and lose my mind.

Besides, I wasn’t even sure I could keep her around if I did see her true form.

Gurgle, Gurgle…

I promised myself I wouldn’t open my eyes no matter what—but a few seconds later, my house was filled with grotesque, wet sounds, and I almost broke that promise.

Groooowll, Squelch…

Just what the hell is happening right in front of me?

Wait… did she tell me to close my eyes so she could digest me too…?

“……!?”

That ridiculous (but not impossible) thought had just crossed my mind when I suddenly felt something cold and wet touch my foot, and I leapt back in alarm.

What the hell was that!?

Why is something slimy touching my foot?

Maybe I’m imagining things. 

Maybe it’s just one of her tentacles brushing my foot and it just felt like slime?

“…What is this…?”

But even after backing away, the soggy feeling didn’t go away. 

It felt like the entire floor had become flooded with goo.

“Shia? What exactly are you—”

“Zk’thrax vo’lum et’kiri na’quantum phl’oob.”

“…Excuse me?”

“Thrz’akvo’mithuk’lari na’zinth phl’eeb.”

Trying to muster up the courage to ask, I called out to her—but even though it was clearly her voice that replied, I couldn’t understand a single word. 

It wasn’t even a language—it was something else.

‘…Ugh, my head…’

Just hearing it made my brain throb like it was about to explode. What even is all this!?

“…Human, get a grip.”

“Ah!”

“Well, I suppose listening to a high-dimensional language would naturally overload your brain.”

Snapped out of my stupor by Shia’s actual voice, I blinked and finally managed to return to my senses.

“Anyway, you can open your eyes now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. At the very least, it won’t drive you insane.”

After hesitating a moment more, I took a deep breath and slowly lifted my eyelids.

“Ah.”

I blinked a few times at the scene in front of me—then immediately turned my gaze away in a panic.

“What’s wrong, human?”

The woman who had tried to kidnap me was now dangling upside-down, suspended by one of Shia’s tentacles gripping her ankle.

She was completely soaked in some suspicious-looking fluid, and large portions of her clothes had melted away—leaving her underwear fully exposed.

No… to be accurate, even her underwear was partially dissolved.

“…Why are you making that face, human? Could it be that even this is too much for inferior beings to handle?”

“It’s not that… Haa. Just put her down for now.”

“Understood.”

Since it was clearly impossible to interrogate her in that state, I asked Shia to put her down so she could at least cover herself.

Shia tilted her head and released the tentacle that was gripping the woman by her foot.

Squelch…

A wet, sloppy sound echoed through the room.

“Here, at least wrap yourself in this.”

I threw the blanket from the bed toward where the sound came from, only to hear another wet squish echo in the room—immediately regretting my decision.

“…Thank you.”

And a few seconds later, once a quiet voice came from in front of me, I was finally able to turn my head back toward her.

“So, who exactly are you?”

“For every refusal to answer, I’ll break one of your limbs. Ten times, a hundred times if necessary.”

“…Miss Shia, humans only have four limbs total.”

“Ah, is that so? Poor things. How do they even live with such inconvenience?”

To be honest, I didn’t expect the woman in front of me to cooperate willingly.

After all, she had just tried to kidnap me moments ago—and, just now, she had literally been inside Shia’s stomach.

“I’m Kang Mirae, the Korea branch chief of the Dimensional Broadcasting Council.”

Which is why it came as a surprise when she calmly revealed her identity and affiliation.

“Dimensional Broadcasting Council?”

“To put it simply, we’re an organization that manages ‘contractors’ across dimensions—otherwise known as virtual streamers.”

“Aha.”

From the way she explained things, it seemed the people behind the attempted kidnapping weren’t far off from what I had initially guessed.

Still, I had to confirm the facts.

“Why would someone from that kind of organization try to kidnap me?”

“You’re quite quick to accept things.”

“With something like that right in front of me, I’ve learned to accept things fast.”

Honestly, if you had asked me a few days ago, I wouldn’t have believed any of this.

But with Shia now pointing a tentacle at the woman in question, I could accept just about anything.

“Anyway, could you please answer my question?”

“…Hmm.”

Now was the time to hear her answer.

What she said next would determine everything.

“The objective was to separate you from the non-standard life form classified as 001-EX.”

“Why?”

“Before that, may I ask: did you, Haru, willingly choose to be with that life form…?”

While I was still listening to her explanation, Shia suddenly pointed a cold-eyed tentacle at her head and muttered in a low voice.

“Minater Shia.”

Wait—wasn’t she upset about being insulted before?

Is she secretly happy about the name?

“…So you are collaborating with Miss Minater Shia?”

“That’s right.”

“That was the reason for your abduction.”

Quick to read the mood, the woman adjusted her wording and continued her explanation.

“As you may know, Miss Minater Shia is considered an enemy of our organization. And by extension, so is her companion.”

“…So you tried to kidnap me to split us up.”

“Given the situation, I won’t lie. It wasn’t entirely without a protective motive.”

I mean, if they really wanted to protect me, they probably shouldn’t have pointed a gun at me.

Well, I am technically cooperating with a being that once invaded multiple dimensions, so I get it.

But still—right is right, and wrong is wrong.

“Hey, human. Can’t I just eat her again?”

“……”

“We can’t exactly keep her tied up here forever, can we?”

As much as I wanted to agree with Shia’s suggestion, things were far too complicated for that.

“I don’t know the details, but if someone like the Korea branch chief suddenly disappears, it’ll definitely become a huge problem.”

“Then how about we just eat the reinforcements too—”

“That’s a slippery slope with no end in sight.”

This isn’t America—there’s no way you can casually own silent guns here unless your organization has real power and resources.

And if we keep feeding everyone who comes after us to Shia, who knows what kind of disaster we’ll invite later?

“So, what do we do now?”

“Hmm…”

While I was contemplating how to clean up this mess—

“Excuse me, but may I offer a suggestion?”

Despite being covered in mysterious fluids and sitting on the floor, she opened her mouth calmly.

“You’ve got some nerve.”

“I’m aware. But won’t you at least hear me out?”

Her guts were impressive, but it wasn’t hard to guess what she was about to propose.

She’d probably ask me to work under their organization.

Which is something I have no intention of doing.

I’m not trying to just become the best in the industry.

I want to create the best in the industry—with my own hands.

“Please accept this.”

“…What’s this?”

I had been getting ready to reject her outright, but when she handed me a contract, soaked in the same weird slime as herself, I found myself wide-eyed in shock.

[Project: Abyss MCN Employment Contract]

It was a perfectly formatted contract for my agency—something I hadn’t even gotten around to creating yet.

“…Don’t you need another manager?”

Is this woman… actually serious right now?