"Whatever it is you desire."
"As long as you can pay the 'price'."
Hayashi En's voice echoed through the empty old school building.
Zenin Maki stood at the entrance, her sharp eyes fixed intently on him.
She was no fool.
Growing up in a malice-filled sorcerer clan, she understood the cruelty of 'equivalent exchange' better than anyone.
"You talk big."
Maki scoffed, carrying her naginata into the room and pulling up a chair without ceremony.
She crossed her long legs, radiating a sharp, intimidating aura.
"Do you know who I am?"
"The Zenin family failure."
"A waste of space who has no innate technique, can't see curses, and is inferior even to Inumaki and his Cursed Speech."
Maki pointed self-deprecatingly at her glasses.
"Without these things, you'd be nothing more than a blurry mosaic to me right now."
"So, what kind of price do you think a 'bad asset' like me could possibly pay?"
Hayashi En said nothing.
He simply smiled and adjusted his glasses.
As a transmigrator who knew the plot, he understood the true reason for Maki's 'weakness' even better than she did.
She possessed roughly the same amount of cursed energy as an ordinary person.
For a sorcerer, that amount wouldn't even kill a fly.
But for Maki, it was the heaviest of shackles.
Because of it, she couldn't completely break free from the constraints of cursed energy like Fushiguro Toji, preventing her body from evolving to its absolute limit.
She was stuck in the middle, neither here nor there.
"Maki-san."
En pushed up his glasses, a hint of pity and greed flickering in his eyes.
"The Zenin clan members really are blind."
"Huh?" Maki's brow furrowed, her killing intent surging. "Are you looking for a death wish?"
"Don't be so hasty."
En walked up to her.
"You aren't weak because you lack cursed energy."
"Quite the opposite, actually."
"It's because of that tiny, garbage-like amount of cursed energy still lingering inside you."
Maki's pupils constricted.
"What did you... say?"
"Heavenly Restriction is the ultimate binding vow that trades 'cursed energy' for 'physical prowess'."
En's voice sounded like a demon's whisper.
"That man, Fushiguro Toji, was an absolute 'zero'. That's why he obtained a body capable of tearing Special Grades apart with his bare hands."
"But you? You're a '0.5'."
"Because of that damned 0.5, your physical potential is locked away."
"Do you want to become stronger?"
"Do you want to become a monster that makes every sorcerer tremble, just like him?"
Maki's breathing grew ragged.
Her heart pounded violently.
No one had ever told her this.
Her clan only mocked her for lacking cursed energy; none of them ever explained that this insignificant trace was the very source of her agony.
"Can you... fix it?"
Maki's voice was dry.
"Of course."
En laughed inwardly.
In truth, the system mall didn't have an item called a 'Heavenly Restriction Purification Potion'.
Normal items couldn't handle deep modifications involving souls, bloodlines, and causality.
But this was no obstacle for Exchange Shop No. 8.
Because besides 'buying and selling', the system had a second mode—[SYSTEM: CONTRACT EXECUTION].
This mode didn't require physical goods but had to be conducted within the shop.
Instead, En would draft a 'Service Contract'. Once the buyer signed and paid the price, the shop would act as the 'executor', directly mobilizing the power of laws to intervene in reality and fulfill the contract.
For example, the current 'Deprivation of Cursed Energy'.
The system would act like a precision centrifuge, enforcing the law of 'separation'.
This was convenient for En, but the profit wasn't nearly as high as the first mode.
In this mode, he could only earn points equal to the value of the items provided by the customer; the system would take the items and deduct a service fee.
In the first mode, he could keep both the items and the points.
En turned and took out a transparent glass bottle engraved with runes from behind the counter.
"While I don't have a ready-made potion, I can perform 'surgery' on you."
"I can use the laws to help you strip away that residual cursed energy... bit by bit."
"With every bit removed, your body will evolve further."
"Until you become an absolute 'zero'."
"Really?!" Maki stood up abruptly, her chair clattering to the floor.
"However..."
En shifted his tone, raising a finger.
"This evolution defies common sense. Your body will need time to adjust."
"Just like a deep-sea fish can't be pulled to the surface instantly."
"We can't drain it all at once."
"It must be done in sessions, one step at a time."
En looked at Maki with a professional smile.
"Well? How about trying this 'Heavenly Tyrant Training Package'?"
"I'll do it!"
Maki didn't hesitate for a second.
As long as she could grow stronger, as long as she could trample those who looked down on her underfoot.
Forget stripping cursed energy; she would've agreed even if it meant being skinned alive.
"The price?"
Maki stared fixedly at En. "I don't have money right now. But I can take on missions..."
"No, no, no. Talking about money is far too crass."
En shook his head.
He pulled a pre-prepared parchment contract from his drawer.
What flowed across it wasn't ink, but the power of the system's laws.
"What I'm interested in is your 'future'."
"Maki-san, you intend to take control of the Zenin clan in the future, don't you?"
"Of course."
"Then that makes things simple."
En pointed to the terms on the contract.
"We'll put this treatment fee on credit for now."
"Once you become the head and open the treasure-filled Zenin vault..."
"I want right of first refusal."
"Two cursed tools in total."
Maki blinked in surprise.
Then, her lips curled into a wild, arrogant smirk.
"Ha! You really believe I can reach those heights?"
"Naturally."
"Fine!"
Maki grabbed the pen and scrawled her name onto the contract.
"As long as I become the head, forget three items—you can have half the damn vault!"
"If it's the treasure room of those old geezers... I'd be more than happy to help you empty it."
[SYSTEM: DING! CONTRACT ESTABLISHED.]
[SYSTEM: TRANSACTION MODE: CONTRACT EXECUTION (RULE INTERVENTION).]
[SYSTEM: EXECUTION CONTENT: TARGETED STRIPPING OF TRACE CURSED ENERGY WITHIN ZENIN MAKI.]
[SYSTEM: PAYMENT PRICE: TRANSFER RIGHTS TO ZENIN MAKI'S FUTURE ASSETS.]
"Well then, let's begin the first treatment."
En gestured for Maki to sit.
"It might hurt a bit. After all, we're severing a spiritual bond."
"Less talk, more doing. Let's go." Maki closed her eyes.
En reached out, aiming his palm at Maki's back.
With a thought...
'System, execute the contract.'
[SYSTEM: EXECUTING...]
Vrrr—
Maki's body shuddered violently.
This wasn't jujutsu, nor was it any specific form of energy.
It was a higher-order 'law'.
It felt as if an invisible hand was ignoring her physical defenses, reaching deep into her soul to forcefully yank out something deeply rooted.
Agony.
It was a sharp pain as if her nerves were being ripped out.
"Ngh..."
Maki grit her teeth, cold sweat instantly soaking her uniform, but she didn't make a sound.
From En's perspective...
Wisps of black, murky aura were being forcibly extracted from Maki's body.
They struggled desperately to crawl back inside her, but under the suppression of the system's laws, they could only gather obediently in the bottle En held.
This was the overbearing nature of [SYSTEM: CONTRACT EXECUTION].
Once signed, the rules were strictly enforced.
[SYSTEM: RECOVERED TRACE CURSED ENERGY (PHASE 1).]
[SYSTEM: CALCULATING SETTLEMENT...]
[SYSTEM: REVENUE FROM SERVICE: 22,000 POINTS.]
[SYSTEM: ONE-TIME DEDUCTION FOR RULE EXECUTION LOSS: 7,000 POINTS.]
[SYSTEM: NET PROFIT: 15,000 POINTS.]
"Nice."
En watched his balance skyrocket, his mood lifting.
Five minutes later.
"All done."
En withdrew his hand, sealed the bottle filled with black gas, and tossed it casually into a drawer.
Maki collapsed into the chair in total exhaustion, gasping for breath.
"Is it... over?"
She was in a daze.
Though her body was exhausted, as if she'd run dozens of kilometers...
But...
The world had changed.
Maki slowly opened her eyes.
She habitually reached to adjust her glasses, only to find they had fallen to the floor long ago.
However.
She could see.
She saw the dust motes drifting in the air.
She saw the intricate patterns of the cobwebs in the corners of the old school building.
She heard the sound of a leaf falling hundreds of meters outside the window.
"This is..."
Maki looked at her hands in disbelief.
She clenched her fists.
The sensation of power was more than ten times clearer than before.
Her body no longer felt heavy; she felt a lightness as if she had broken free from a swamp.
"This was just the first session."
En handed a towel to the still-stunned Maki.
"I only stripped away about a tenth of it."
"Your body needs to adapt to this evolution."
"Once you can perfectly control your current strength, come back to me for the next one."
Maki took the towel and wiped her face haphazardly.
She lunged for her naginata on the floor.
With a casual swing—
Whoosh—!!
The naginata tore through the air, producing a sharp sonic boom.
It was so fast that not even an afterimage remained.
"Is this... the world of the Heavenly Tyrant?"
A fire unlike any before burned in Maki's eyes.
This was only a tenth?
If it was all stripped away...
She could hardly imagine the heights she would reach.
"Hayashi En."
For the first time, Maki addressed him seriously by name.
She shouldered her naginata and turned toward the exit, her silhouette appearing exceptionally imposing.
"Thanks."
"I'll definitely get my hands on the contents of that vault for you."
"Even if I have to cut my way through the entire Zenin clan."
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