After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

"I can't use the holy sword, which means my protection hasn't recovered—no, judging by the lack of response from the holy sword, not only hasn't it recovered, it's completely broken."

When confronting Leah before leaving the team, Aize also fiddled with his holy sword.

At that time, although he still couldn't use it, at least he could still feel the response of the holy sword to a certain extent.

But this time, it was completely gone.

"The protection itself isn't a big deal; it's only half-baked anyway. But the problem is, even without it, my power hasn't changed at all."

Aize raised his hand, looked at his palm, and couldn't help but grit his teeth:

"Tell me, why is this happening?!"

Before crossing over, Aize was just an ordinary student without any power.

After crossing over, although he was considered weak among the heroes, the blessing did give him stronger power than most ordinary people in this world - that's what he thought before.

But now, even though the protection was gone, his power hadn't declined.

So, where does my strength come from?

There is even a further question -

"No, after all, what exactly is a Divine Protection? What exactly is a Hero? If the Divine Realm can grant power through Divine Protection, why would they seek to make heroes from other worlds without combat experience? Wouldn't a Knight from this world be more suitable?"

Following this question, countless doubts that had been buried before burst out.

These doubts combined together raise even more fatal questions:

"Taking a step back, what is the Supreme God Realm? Their technology and power are indeed unmatched, so why intervene through the Hero's dilatory method?"

"Also, what is this world?! It's not even in the same dimension as my hometown, so why are humans so similar? Why do demons, something that only exists in legends in my world, seem so real?!"

It can't be described as a coincidence at all.

Aize, who was in the middle of it, was even more puzzled.

Even if he just thought about it for a moment, the amount of information contained in it and the truth behind it made him shudder.

These are just the main questions, and there are countless smaller questions.

Villian, who was suddenly asked these questions, was naturally stunned.

I didn't know how to respond for a moment.

After a moment of silence, she shook her head:

"I'm sorry, I can't answer these questions. After all, you see, I don't even know what I am. But it doesn't matter, right?"

As she spoke, Miss Witch stood up, walked around behind Aize, and pressed on him.

Then he smiled and said:

"The answers have to be found. I don't have the answers to these questions, but I can help you find them. There's still a lot of time to come, so why be so depressed?"

"……Um."

Aize, whose head was pressed down, nodded slightly.

This is the truth, of course he understands it.

But if we actually take action——

"What? You still don't trust me?"

"Oh? No, that's not what I meant..."

While thinking, Villian's sudden question made Aze pause.

He reacted and tried to explain, but the former gently touched his lips, stopping him from speaking, and said with a smile:

"It doesn't matter if you don't trust me, I have a solution~"

As she spoke, she came to Aize's side and gently took Aize's hand.

After looking at it for a while, he suddenly put it into his mouth before the latter could understand what was going on.

The warm and wet feeling caught Aize off guard, and he almost fell down - or fell off the city wall.

"What are you doing...it hurts!"

Before he could finish his question, he was bitten hard, and even blood oozed out.

Then, Aize, who was completely dumbfounded, watched Villian pull his hand to his neck.

When he opened his collar, he saw a mark like a collar that had appeared there at some point.

He dotted the blood oozing from his fingertips onto it.

The moment the red liquid touched the snow-white skin, it was absorbed, decomposed and disappeared.

The mark also emitted a dazzling light, then gradually sank into the skin and disappeared without a trace.

"Haha, it's done~"

At this point, Villian finally let go of Aize's hand.

Aize withdrew his hand and now understood what she wanted to do.

An expression of disbelief on his face:

"This, is a slave contract?"

"Yes."

"You signed a slave contract for yourself?"

"Yes!"

Miss Witch puffed out her chest, looking very proud.

A slave contract, as the name suggests, is a technique specifically imposed on slaves.

It will ensure the slave's loyalty and obedience to the master. Disobedience and hostile behavior will trigger the punishment mechanism of the technique, and in the most serious cases, it may even result in death.

From this perspective, the magic collar that Rufus had previously placed on Alicia was also a kind of slave contract.

It's just that some adjustments have been made to suit her special physique, and it's easy for the caster of average skill to break it.

But Violet is different.

If she did this thing seriously, I'm afraid no one else in the world would be able to undo it.

I can't do that because it triggers my defense mechanism.

In other words, this is like selling yourself out completely, with no way out.

Aize asked as a matter of course:

"Why? What on earth are you doing..."

Villian smiled:

"I know my identity isn't trustworthy. But it's going to be troublesome if it continues like this, so why not just leave it at that?"

What I mean is, you don't need to trust me as a person, you just need to trust what I do.

And under a slave contract, this was taken for granted.

But Aize really didn't expect her to play such a big game:

"No, but... this thing is related to life, right? If I add this thing, wouldn't I be able to easily..."

"Can you kill me? Indeed, if Aize ordered me to jump now, I would not be able to refuse."

Villian smiled mischievously and stuck out her tongue.

"If you really want me to die, I have no complaints. But will you give this order?"

"...That's definitely not the case."

"That's all."

As she said that, the witch pounced on Aize and pinched his face with a wicked smile.

"Anyway, don't worry too much. If anything really happens, I'm still here. Just don't worry. Even if the sky falls, I'm still here~"

Rationally speaking, this guarantee is actually useless.

But judging from the results, Aize's mood did improve a lot.

But when I think about how much the other party would go to in order to make me feel at ease, I still feel a bit indescribable.

It's too late to say anything anyway.

The moment a contract is established, it cannot be changed.

He could only look away with some guilt, and whispered:

"Thank you."

"What's there to thank me for... Oh, by the way, rather than this, do you remember what you promised me before?"

Miss Witch said this with a smile.

Chapter 161 Shadows of the Past

"Uh, that..."

Aize tilted his head and thought for a moment, then showed a surprised expression.

"What? Now? But you see, the reconstruction of Tafia isn't complete yet, and the various forces will react. I've been unconscious for seven days, and there are a lot of things I need to deal with. If this continues..."

The conversation could not continue.

Because Aize saw that Villian's expression turned cold and her gaze was unusually piercing.

After scratching his hair and sighing, he nodded:

"Forget it, it shouldn't be a problem for a while... What do you want me to do?"

"There's something I want to show you... No, I should say I need your help with something. It's a bit difficult to explain, so come with me!"

The witch smiled and said nothing more. She grabbed Aize's hand and ran down the city wall with him.

"Wait, slow down—"

Aize, who seemed to have just recovered from a serious illness, felt a little weak and let out a cry of pain when he was pulled like that.

These movements even attracted the attention of the craftsmen and soldiers who were carrying out the reconstruction work, and a series of curious glances were cast over.

But Villian didn't care and just pulled Aize through the streets of Tafia and came to Noble Street.

Finally, it stopped at a corner of Noble Street, in front of the mansion owned by Villian.

Previously, due to Brian's conspiracy, the entire house was blown up into the sky, leaving only a pile of charred ruins.

Unexpectedly, within a few days, it has recovered as before.

This made Aize shake his head.

"It's all been repaired... no, should I say rebuilt?"

Villian nodded:

"Yes, Sheen sent a group of craftsmen to focus on rebuilding this place. Combined with my skills and crafting abilities, it was restored in about three days."

Then, she shook her head again, revealing a somewhat lonely expression:

"But that being said, only the exterior has been repaired. The interior furnishings... cannot be restored."

Although the original house was not large in scale, the furnishings inside were of great value and had a long history. Many of the artworks and decorations could be considered antiques.

Their monetary value is irrelevant, but they may contain information related to Villian's life experience.

There is no way to make up for these losses.

But Violet's depression didn't last long. After just a few seconds, she smiled again.

"But since it can't be restored anyway, I made some modifications to the interior."

"Revise?"

"Well, anyway, just go in and take a look and you'll know!"

With doubts in his heart, Aize followed Villian, opened the gate and came to the front of the house.