Alice’s life took a turn for the worse after her father died. Based on the laws and traditions of her country, the head of the family has to be a male, which meant her younger brother, Bob, who was only fifteen, took charge. Unfortunately, he was a spoiled, incompetent child, so their entire family’s finances started evaporating. Desperate, Alice wanted to become a mage, since that is one of the few occupations that would actually pay well, even though female mages earn substantially less than their male counterparts. Not only that, female mages are heavily discriminated against, but aside from selling her body, there isn’t much she could do to earn money.

The path to become a mage is both easy and hard. To cast magic, the mage feeds mana to the spirit and lets the spirit do the magic. Finding a spirit isn’t that hard, since they tend to hang out in places with concentrated mana, like a graveyard. However, getting a successful contract is rather difficult, as spirits are extremely finicky and no one knows what they actually look for in a contractor.

Luckily for Alice, the local Saint Lyn Graveyard contains plenty of spirits, but when she went over there, she was stopped and was told she needed an appointment and to pay for the entrance fee.

“Well, when is the next available appointment?” asked Alice.

“For a girl like you, that’d be in three years and the price will be fifty gold.”

Alice returned home after hearing the reply. As she was washing the family’s clothes, she suddenly had a flash of inspiration. Maybe she could just masquerade as a man and try again. The next day, she borrowed her late father’s stationery and wrote a letter asking for an appointment at Saint Lyn Graveyard. She signed the letter with Mr. Walter.

A few days later, she got a reply back. It said the appointment was set with a date a week later and a price of two gold was due at the appointed time. Disgusted at the blatant sexism, Alice nevertheless wrote back, accepting the offer.

At the appointed time, Alice showed up wearing her brother’s clothes, along with a hood to cover her long hair and a face mask so she can pretend she can’t speak. Alice handed the letter she received to the receptionist.

“Ah yes, I've found your reservation, Mr. Walter. We welcome you to your stay here at Saint Lyn Graveyard. You have two hours to try and form a contract. There are no refunds for failing to find a suitable spirit. Please do not disturb the other guests during your stay. Have a nice day!”

Coughing, Alice nodded and then proceed to walk to the graveyard. She aimlessly wandered the graveyard, waving at any spirit she saw. Most of them flat out ignored her, some ran away, and only a handful cautiously approached her. She greeted them in a gentle, quiet voice and the spirits seemed to take an interest in her, but inevitably they all suddenly stiffen and then run away.

Eventually, the two hours ran out, and Alice returned home, dejected. During the night, she couldn’t sleep due to worry, so she wandered to the local park and sat on the swing, looking at the sky while thinking about how to successfully contract a spirit.

Then she heard a voice beside her, saying, “I heard you were looking for a spirit to contract?”

Startled, Alice looked to her right to see a ghostly outline of a young girl.

“Sorry,” the spirit said. “I took interest in you during your visit to the graveyard, but due to certain reasons, I didn’t want to do it there with everyone watching. A couple of other spirits wanted to form a contract with you, but I scared them away.”

Alice was confused. “What is wrong with other people seeing you? And why me?”

The spirit replied, “Ever since that king ascended the throne, this entire country became ridiculously misogynist. So how do you think they would treat a spirit that looks like a young girl? You are the first girl that actually showed up to the graveyard in recent times. So anyways, do want to form a contract with me?”

Alice, while still a bit bewildered, replied, “Of course. I am honored you would choose me.”

“Great! I’m Lyn. What’s your name?”

“Alice Walter. So, uh, how exactly does the contract get formed?”

“Wait, you didn’t know and you still want to form one?! What if it involves selling you soul or undergoing some painful procedure?”

“Well, according to a book I read, the contract is initiated by the spirit and is quick and painless, and the spirit does most of the work. Is that wrong?”

“No, that’s actually correct. I thought you just blindly went in. If that were the case, I would be having second thoughts about this contract. Good thing you aren’t that stupid. Anyhow, close your eyes while I start the contract.”

Alice obliged. Moments later, she felt a strange connection which she shrugged off.

This repeated for a while until Lyn got fed up and yelled, “Hey, stop doing that! How am I supposed to complete the contract if you keep resisting?”

Alice suppressed the urge to shrug off the magical probe, and afterward, felt her mana being slowly siphoned off somewhere.

Eventually, the mana flow stopped as Lyn said, “Alright, it is done!”

While Alice no longer felt anymore mana drain because it dropped to negligible levels, she could still feel the connection, which she assumed was part of the bond between her and the spirit.

“So, Lyn, in order for me to cast magic, do I just tell you what to do and feed you extra mana through the connection you just formed?”

“Basically. Although it’s not as easy as it sounds.”

“Really? Then should we try it out?”

“Sure. Just feed me enough mana to power a small light spell.”

Alice proceeded to pump some of her mana into the new channel, and an intense ball of light materialized in front of Lyn. Blinded, Alice stopped supplying mana and the ball of light disappeared.

“Don’t worry. You’ll eventually get the hang of mana control. Now let's get out of here before people come and investigate why the park suddenly lit up."

Afterward, life continued as it always had for Alice, with the exception of magic practice in her room at night. Her plan was to master magic and start applying for mage jobs. However, unbeknownst to Alice, her brother had already emptied the family’s treasury, and in order to support his lavish and unwise spending, he decided to sell off some objects in the house.

To make sure his goods didn’t resist, Bob bought some drugged cookies and watched the girls happily eat them. After they were sedated, Bob called over the slave dealers. After the preliminary greetings, Bob led them to where the goods laid.

“This one is way too old. Is that your mother by any chance?”

“Err… yes,” Bob replied.

“Yeah, no one wants one that old and used. Not buying that one.” The slave dealer turned to look at the other three. “Those two look a tad young. How old are they?”

“Ten and twelve.”

“Yup, too young in general. Although there are some men with eccentric tastes, but they are too few for me to risk buying right now. I’ll contact you if I find someone who are looking for ones that young. And as for the final one,” the slaver said as he looked at Alice. “Is she a virgin?”

“I’m pretty sure. Shall we confirm it now?” Bob asked as he moved to take off Alice’s clothes.

“No need. These days, there are way too many cases of mages artificially reconstructing the hymen, so we’ll have a specialist verify it. How about I pay you 20 gold if she passes the test and 5 gold if she fails?”

“Come on, that’s way too low. She’s definitely beautiful enough to be worth more.”

“I’ve seen many girls and I assure you that she’s just average, so my offer will not change.”

“But—”

“Are you going to accept it or not?” the slaver said as he stood up.

“Fine,” growled Bob. “Where do I sign?”

The slaver pulled out a piece of paper from his bag and proceeded to draft a contract. Without looking at what the slaver wrote, Bob signed the form.

“Now where’s the money?” Bob asked.

The slaver dropped five gold coins on the table.

“Only five? I thought you said twenty.”

“That was assuming she’s a virgin. We hadn’t verified anything yet, so you’ll be getting that later. Anyways, pleasure doing business with you.”

Alice woke up feeling rather uncomfortable while hearing an indistinct voice in her head.

“…ake… wake up!”

“Just five more minutes,” Alice grumbled while trying to turn over, only to realize that something was preventing her from doing so. Confused, she opened her eyes only to find her hands and feet bound in shackles.

Now wide awake, Alice asked, “What happened?!”

Lyn replied, “That disgusting brother of yours laced the cookie you ate with some kind of sleeping drug and then sold you into slavery. Now hurry–”

“What happened to my sisters?” Alice screamed in panic. “I remember that Bob gave them cookies too.”

“Oh, the slave dealers apparently deemed your sisters too young for now, although said would consider buying them if they found a buyer. Your mother was too old.”

“Mom too?!”

“Yes, now hurry up and supply mana to me so we can break these chains and leave. Also, stop yelling before the slavers check up on you. You do remember you can communicate with me without speaking out loud, right?”

『Oh right, I forgot. Also, did Bob get paid already for selling me off? 』

“Partially. That repulsive brother of yours got 5 gold and would be getting 15 after they check you're a virgin.

『Huh? Why are the prices so different? 』

"Because – wait you actually don't know what you're being sold off for?"

『… For hard labor or demeaning tasks like cleaning toilets? 』

“…”

『… 』

“No. Usually worse than that. Actually, how in the world are you so innocent?”

『What? 』

“A-Anyhow, I’m still waiting for the mana so we can get out of here. Hurry up!”

『Shouldn’t we wait until Bob gets paid the extra 15 gold and then escape? 』

“Why in God’s name do you even give a damn about Bob? He SOLD YOU!”

『Well, if he doesn’t get the gold, wouldn’t he just sell my innocent sisters off? 』

“Well, maybe?” Lyn faltered.

『Then that settles it. I’ll just sit around until they verify that I’m a virgin and then let’s get out of here. 』

“They probably won’t pay Bob if you manage to escape, so it doesn’t matter.”

『Then I’ll wait until I get sold, and then escape. 』

 “You know, I somehow doubt that the slavers would keep their word to Bob, so you should probably run now while security is still lax.”

『But in the off chance that they do –』

“Oh, just do whatever you want. I’m not the person chained up anyways,” Lyn replied, giving up on convincing Alice.

Alice was fed substandard food and muddy water for days, until the slave wagon arrived at the capital. She was then taken to a dingy cell with about twenty other girls and was told to behave or be whipped. All the other inhabitants looked as if they have given up on life, just staring into space.

『Why do they all look like that? 』

“Because unlike you who can escape whenever you want, they are going to be slaves for life.”

『Should we break them out then? 』

“And let them get immediately caught, whipped, and then sent back?”

『Oh right. 』

Alice sat on the floor like all the other slaves and passed the time by talking to Lyn. Eventually, Alice got bored and tried to speak to the other slaves. However, any attempts at conversation were usually met with silence, with the occasional dispirited reply of “leave me alone.” In the end, Alice gave up.

The next day, a woman wearing mage clothes showed up and announced that she will now be verifying their virginity. She ordered the slaves to strip, inspected their privates, mumbled some foreign sounding words in a cryptic fashion, then wrote something on a piece of paper.

When it was Alice’s turn, Alice asked the woman, “Why are you mumbling?”

“It is to cast the spell.”

『Hey Lyn, how come all I need to do is just to supply you some mana? 』

“That’s because that woman is a quack. While spirits usually can and will hide their presence to everyone but their contractor, spirits can’t hide from other spirits. I can assure you that there is no other spirit here besides me, and besides, there is also no trace of mana flow anywhere.”

After checking on every slave in the cell, the woman left. Not long after, a group of men showed up and took away five of the other slaves. Soon after, a man followed by an obese man dressed in a fancy suit showed up.

The first man said to the fat man, “Here are our new batch of slaves, your highness. All of them are certified to be virgins. Which ones are you interested in?

Even though Alice felt some revulsion, she wanted to leave the cell as soon as possible, so she called out, “Hey, mister—”

“Shut up!” the first man yelled. “Never speak out to our esteemed guests unless told to. Next time you do, you’ll be whipped.” The man turned to the fat man and said, “I’m sorry, your highness. We have just recently required her, so –”

“That’s fine,” the fat man said. “She seems like a feisty one. And I enjoy breaking them into submission. I’ll take that one along with… that one and that one.”

“Alright. Do you want to take them directly to your carriage?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you for your patronage. That will be 150 gold. Now right this way, your highness,” the man said while gesturing toward the open door.”

While the two left, a group of men unlocked the doors, removed the chains from Alice and the other two slaves, and marched them over to an opulent carriage. A man opened the door at the back of the carriage to reveal a sturdy metal cage. The slaves were chained to the cage, and then the door was shut, leaving them in complete darkness. After minutes passed, Alice could feel the carriage moving, and before long, the carriage came to a stop. The doors were opened, and the slaves were forced to march out. They were led to an extravagant room, and Alice couldn’t help but gawk at her surroundings.

The fat man told his servants, “Take those two slaves away and train them. Meanwhile, I’ll be training this one myself. Unlock the shackles.”

“But your highness, isn’t that dangerous? What if—”

“You think the great me will be done in by the likes of that?”

“Of course not! Please forgive me!”

With a loud clink, the shackles binding Alice became undone. The fat man put a hand on her slender shoulders and began pushing her towards his bedroom. Alice felt extremely uncomfortable, and was unsure if she should just use magic and escape. Upon further consideration if she did escape right now, everyone would be after her, so she decided to wait until night time to stealthily leave.

Upon arriving at a luxurious bedroom, the man closed the door behind them and commanded, “Strip.”

“What?”

“I said, STRIP! Or else I’ll do it for you.”

Flustered, Alice tried to think of something to say, when the fat man threw her on the bed. He raised a fist and swung it toward her face. Alice cowered and closed her eyes, while sending mana to Lyn in the hopes that she would stop it. Moments later, Alice heard a soft thump. Wondering what that was, she opened her eyes and saw a gruesome sight. The man’s head, which had a shocked expression, was rolling on the floor while the rest of his body was on the floor, rapidly staining the red carpet with blood.

“Well, that disgusting pig got what he deserved,” Lyn nonchalantly remarked as she watched the head with a smile.

Alice, who was still shocked by the suddenness of the man’s decapitation, uttered, “But why?”

“Why? Because it was clear that the man was going to rape you and has probably already done that to who knows how many people.” Lyn became more heated as she continued, “Do you know how it feels like to be assaulted when you can’t do anything? The helplessness? The humiliation? The pain, both physical and mental? It happened to me before, and I definitely don’t want you to go through the experience. That waste of space deserved it for the crimes against humanity he has committed.”

After hearing that, Alice didn’t know what to say. An awkward silence followed, and to break it, Lyn asked, “So what now? Do you want to just steal some of his money and run away?”

“Why steal?”

“What do you plan on living off of after we run? There’s no way you can return home, and it is suicide to try to make a living here. Besides, by stealing valuables, other people might think some robber broke in and killed him to rob the place, so you wouldn’t be as suspect.”

Alice proceeded to rummage through the fancy cabinets and drawers. She found some expensive looking jewelry that she pocketed. In one of the cabinets, she found some whips, some handcuffs, some chains, lots of rope, some cloth strips, a strange object that looked like a ball with small holes and a leather strap connecting both ends of the ball, some strange cylindrical objects of various sizes that tapered off into a hemisphere, and other strange objects that she had no idea what they were for. Lyn told her that there was nothing in there worth taking, and while curious, Alice decided to continue searching the rest of the room.

Aside from the various jewelry, Alice found a map of the country, which she decided to take. Done raiding, Alice quietly left the room and began looking for the exit. On the way, she met some slaves and offered to help them escape. Oddly enough, none of them accepted, and when asked why, the answers she received included: “I’m not falling for your trap,” “Where would I go afterward?” and “I don’t want to anger master.” Alice gave up on freeing them, and was about to leave, when a loud cry rang out.

“The first prince has been slain! Guard all the exits!”

『Should we run or pretend we weren’t involved? 』

“Given that you were the last person to be with him, suspicions will probably fall on you. Also, the slaves you offered escape will probably rat you out as a likely suspect.”

Alice gave up trying to exit through the door, and decided to go through the window. She had Lyn cast wind magic to break her fall and silence her landing, but the guards at the gate outside of the castle spotted her.

“Assassin spotted in front of the dining room window! We must exact vengeance! Don’t let him escape!”

『Boost my speed and clear everything in my way, Lyn! 』

“Not a problem!”

Alice charged towards the front entrance, where the guards waited for her with weapons drawn. Before she got in range of being stabbed, Lyn pushed them aside with a strong blast of wind. Alice ran out the entrance, but more guards showed up to block the way. This time, the guards charged at her, but Lyn still brushed them aside with little effort. However, at every single intersection, there was always someone in her way, and behind her, an ever-growing number of guards were chasing her. A rain of arrows was shot at her, although Lyn also blew those away.

As she ran closer to the city walls, the density and ferocity of the guards increased. Soon, she had to quench fireballs and leap over stone blockades. Eventually her strategy of just use magic to blow everyone away stopped working as well, since the enemy mages counteracted the spells she casted.

When she leapt over another earthen barrier, she asked Lyn, 『Is it possible for you to just let me fly?』

“Yes, but you’ll run out of mana extremely quickly.”

『What about jumping really high?』

“Actually, that might work. Let’s try jumping onto the roofs and then when you are close enough to the city walls, we can try jumping.”

Lyn launched Alice onto the roof of a three-story building, and Alice continued to run towards the edge of the city. While there was a lot less opposition, Alice still encountered some archers and mages stationed on some of the roofs. Eventually, they reached the city walls and Alice jumped as far as she could, arching over the walls. Lyn managed to ward off the numerous projectiles and magic thrown at her.

Alice continued to run away from the city, hoping that she managed to escape successfully. However, Lyn informed her that there were men on horses chasing after her. Alice was forced to supply more mana so she could outrun the horses. Unfortunately, the fastest she could go was only slightly faster than the horses, so it was hard to lose her pursuers.

A couple hours of running later, Alice began to run dangerously low on mana. Lyn sensed the presence of high ambient mana, and told Alice to head over there. Thus, they approached another graveyard. Unfortunately, the mana recharge rate is extremely slow for ambient mana, so while Lyn doesn’t need to drain Alice of any more mana, Alice wasn’t getting much back either. Since there was no way they can continue to outrun the men on horseback, Alice decided to hide. However, the graveyard was relatively flat, with just some small tombstones that were not enough to cover her. There was also a small shed on the graveyard ground that Alice decided to visit. Inside, there were some blank tombstones, some chisels, and a shovel.

『Lyn, do you think I should just hope they won’t find me in here? 』

“…”

『Lyn?』

“Huh? Oh, I was just really exhausted from the non-stop magic casting. Uh, given that this is the only building around here, I’m pretty sure they will search here. Now if you will excuse me, I think I’ll go and rest right now…”

Alice was wondering where else she could hide, and then spotted the shovel.

Inspired, Alice asked Lyn, 『Could you dig a hole for me? 』

“…”

Alice looked over to Lyn and saw her lying on the floor. Lyn’s outline was rather fuzzy and indistinct. Remembering what Lyn said about her exhaustion, Alice decided to let her recuperate and decided to dig the hole the old-fashioned way.

She found a space near the shed without any tombstones and began to dig. Unfortunately, she was also weakened from the earlier escape and the substandard food she was eating as a slave, so her digging speed was rather slow.

The men on horses eventually arrived at the graveyard, where they heard some strange noises, and headed over to investigate. They saw a suspicious pile of dirt that was getting bigger. Quietly, they got off their horses and with weapons in hand, made their way towards the hole.

Alice was breathing heavily from the exertion, and was close to finishing her digging, when she heard a loud twang, followed by an intense pain through her ribs. Before she could do anything else, she felt a sharp pain in her neck, and then her world blacked out…

Some hours before, during Alice’s flight away from the capital:

『Hey, Lyn, I’ve been wondering, but were you a normal human before you became a spirit? 』

 “I don’t know about ‘normal,’ but yes, I was a human.”

『What would make you not normal? 』

 “I was a saint for the local church.”

『That sounds rather normal to me. 』

“Well maybe.”

There was a short pause, as Alice continued running.

Eventually, Alice asked, 『How did you die? 』

“I did tell you before that I was assaulted. Well, the fuller picture is that I was doing my saint duties, which included cleaning the graveyard behind the church. Some deranged man decided to assault me and after doing the deed, he killed me right there in the graveyard. I’m not sure how much time had passed after that, but before I knew it, I became a spirit. I assumed it was a while though, since the church disappeared and became a place to sell aspiring mages a chance to contract spirits.”

『Have you met any other formerly human spirits? 』

“No, actually. Which made my life quite boring since there was no one intelligent to talk to. Well, I still don’t have anyone intelligent to talk to, even now.”

『… 』

“…”

『Hey! 』

 “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Well, I did wonder why I seemed to be the only human to become a spirit there. I have a guess as to the conditions, but I’m not sure.”

Intrigued, Alice asked, 『What are they? 』

 “I’ve noticed that when an animal dies in the graveyard, sometime later, a spirit of that animal shows up. Since I’ve never seen any human die in the graveyard, I wonder if the condition is to, well, die in the graveyard.”

Another bout of silence followed.

『Say, Lynn. 』

 “What is it?”

『…If some other girl showed up in the graveyard, would you have formed a contract with her instead? 』

 “Probably not. I mean, other girls have showed up before you did. Don’t worry. You are special.”

『Really? 』

“Yes. Even death won’t break our bond!”

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If you liked the story, please favorite it, since that is how votes are counted for the competition. If you don't like, still favorite it anyways.  If you are reading it before 11/1/2019, please comment on anything you think could use some improvement, and I'll see if I can change it.