The snake woman woke up with a grunt and when she did, she found that her body had been healed.

The broken ribs that had cracked under that man’s single devastating punch were now intact.

The internal bruising that had made every breath agony was gone and even the split skin on her knuckles from when she’d tried to fight back looked fresh and new, as if the damage had never happened at all.

Even her natural healing as a snakekin wasn’t that fast, so a healing potion had probably been used on her.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Some buyers did that... healed their purchases before finalizing the transfer, making sure the merchandise was in pristine condition.

It was practical.

’Was that all a dream?’ she thought with a slow blink of her eyes as her mind was still foggy from unconsciousness but it was not a dream at all.

She was currently in the transfer room... the cold chamber where all slaves were kept while their ownership was processed and finalized through the proper legal channels.

The walls were bare stone, the floor was hard-packed dirt and the only furniture was the slaver’s desk and the iron chains mounted to the walls at regular intervals.

And on the side, standing next to the table where the Slaver sat shuffling through paperwork, was that black-haired man.

The one who’d knocked her unconscious with a single punch and the one who was apparently buying her.

She trembled immediately, her body responding before her mind could catch up.

The Slave Master cleared his throat from behind the wooden table, adjusting his spectacles with one pudgy finger as he looked at Ren with an expression somewhere between concern and exasperation.

"I just wanted to double-check one final time before we proceed..." the man said carefully. "Upon buying this slave, you won’t be able to return her. The contract is permanent until death or legal release. And I must emphasize... she’s been very brutal to previous owners who’ve attempted to purchase her."

Ren’s expression didn’t change as his face remained impassive behind the mask.

"This is the second time you’re telling me this, old man," Ren said flatly. "Or do you actually want me to not buy her? Because I can walk out right now if you’re trying to talk me out of this sale."

"No, no!" The man shook his head quickly. "It’s not that at all! I’m simply ensuring you understand the situation completely."

He leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice as if sharing a secret.

"The last buyer returned her after only three days because she refused to do what he’d purchased her for. Violently refused, I might add. He had to visit a healer for his injuries so I’m just making absolutely certain you won’t be returning her as well, because the paperwork for returns is... extensive."

Ren shrugged with a casual roll of his shoulders that somehow made him look even more confident.

"I want her to fight," he said simply. "Not sex. Sex is overrated anyway."

Mandy, standing slightly behind and to the left of Ren while wearing his full womanly disguise gave his Lord a very specific look.

It was a look that said.

’Since when do you know anything about sex to declare it overrated?’*

As far as Mandy knew, before this strange new "laziness" had overtaken his lord, Ren had spent literally every waking hour training.

Eating, sleeping, and training with the sword... nothing else apart from trying to impress the Saintess who rejected him.

So when, exactly, had Lord Ren gained enough experience with sexual matters to have an opinion on whether they were overrated or not?

THWACK!

Ren’s hand came down on Mandy’s head without even looking in a casual backhand that carried just enough force to sting.

"Ow!" Mandy yelped, immediately clutching his skull where he’d been struck. "My lord, I didn’t say any—"

"Don’t look at me like that..." Ren said smugly and Mandy sighed deeply, rubbing the sore spot on his head through the wig.

"...If you say so, my lord," he muttered as his voice pitched higher to maintain the feminine disguise.

The Slave Master watched this byplay with thinly veiled amusement dancing in his eyes as he was clearly entertained by the dynamic between master and servant then he turned and began rummaging through the massive wardrobe behind his desk...

A towering piece of furniture filled entirely with files, documents, contracts, and ledgers, all organized by color-coded folders that indicated different types of transactions.

"Since this is the first slave you’re purchasing from what I can see," the man began as he searched with his fingers trailing across folder spines, "let me take a moment to properly educate you on slave contracts and how they function under Imperial law."

Ren sighed internally as his patience was already wearing thin.

’It’s just the basic slave contract,’ he thought with mild irritation. ’What the hell is he going on about? Does he think I’m illiterate?’

But he let the man talk without interruption. It was better to play along and seem like an ignorant first-time buyer.

The man pulled out a thick black folder bound in leather and held it up for Ren to see, showing him the cover with its embossed seal.

"This..." He explained, setting it down on the desk with a soft thump, "is a standard slave contract. Now, there are different kinds of slave contracts for different situations and circumstances that result in someone becoming enslaved... The laws vary slightly from region to region, but the core principles remain consistent throughout the Empires."

He opened the folder and began ticking off points on his pudgy fingers as he spoke.

"First and most common is Debt slavery. Most people become slaves because they owe someone a significant amount of money... usually gambling debts or failed business ventures and are subsequently taken to court by their creditors. If they lose the case and cannot pay the debt within the court-mandated timeframe, the Royal Court, or even local courts in some jurisdictions, can sentence them to slavery as repayment. The proceeds from their sale are then split between the creditor and the Slave Master’s guild. Usually a seventy-thirty split in favor of the creditor, with the Slavehouse taking thirty percent as processing and holding fees."

He held up a second finger.

"Second is Guardian rights. Legal guardians of dependents... such as parents with custody over their children, or caretakers responsible for elderly relatives can sell those under their care into slavery if they possess full legal custody rights. It’s relatively rare among noble families who value their bloodlines, but it’s common enough among the desperately poor, especially during times of famine or economic collapse... A family of five might sell one child to save the other four from starvation."

The man’s expression turned somber for just a moment as he spoke those words, as if remembering specific cases he’d processed, then his professional mask returned.

"Third is criminal slavery. Serious crimes against the Empire... murder, treason, assault on nobility, grand theft from the Imperial treasury, and so forth can result in enslavement as legal punishment rather than execution or imprisonment. The criminal is sold at auction, and the proceeds go either to the victim’s family as restitution or directly to the Imperial treasury to offset the costs of their trial and capture."

He paused, then added more vaguely, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture.

"And of course, people can be captured and enslaved under certain special circumstances... primarily during officially declared wars or in designated conflict zones along the borders but the specific legal processes for that are... complicated. Military law and international treaties and all that, it’s not something most civilian buyers ever need to worry about understanding."

Ren turned his head to look at the purple-haired woman who’d been sitting silently in the corner throughout this entire explanation with iron chains binding her wrists behind her back and connecting to a ring bolted into the stone wall.

Her head was down.

Her long purple hair fell forward like a curtain, hiding most of her face from view but he could see the tension in her shoulders.

The way her fingers clenched and unclenched slowly as if imagining wrapping them around someone’s throat.

She was listening to every single word.

"How did she become a slave?" Ren asked directly, cutting through the Slave Master’s explanation.

That part hadn’t been fleshed out in the original novel... at least not in the Chapters Ren had read before dropping the series. Maybe it had been explained later, in volumes he’d never bothered to finish but he’d never seen any wiki entries or forum discussions about her backstory either.

The Slave Master glanced at Eternia, then back at Ren, and shrugged with apparent indifference.

"Oh, her?" He gestured toward the corner dismissively. "She was sold by a relative of hers. An older woman... aunt or cousin, possibly a more distant family member. The paperwork wasn’t entirely clear on the exact relationship. She came in about two months ago with all the proper legal documents and custody transfer forms, so the sale was completely legitimate under guardian rights law."

He scratched his chin thoughtfully, his fingers rasping against stubble.

"Normally, in cases like this, I would have processed a return by now if the original seller wanted to reclaim her... sometimes families have regrets about selling their kin, or they come into unexpected money and want to buy them back. We see it occasionally but the woman who sold Eternia seems to have disappeared completely."

He spread his hands in a gesture of helpless acceptance.

"So the sale stands as final, and Eternia stays on the market until someone purchases her and completes the ownership transfer."

In the corner, Eternia’s hands clenched so tightly that her nails drew blood from her palms.

Ren sighed, turning back to the Slave Master.

"Let’s just finalize this transaction," he said with clear impatience in his tone. "I need to be somewhere, and we’re wasting time with explanations I don’t particularly care about."

The man nodded eagerly, clearly recognizing a customer who wanted to move things along.

"Alright, alright! Let’s proceed then, shall we?"

He turned toward the corner and raised his voice slightly.

"Eternia. Make your way here to the desk."

The snake woman... the villainess from the novel looked up at the Slave Master as her purple eyes were dull and empty of hope then, slowly, she rose to her feet with careful movements.

The chains rattled as she stood, but the Slave Master made no move to unlock them yet since that would come after she was standing at the desk.

She walked forward and stopped exactly two meters away from Ren which was close enough to comply with the instruction, but far enough to maintain distance from the man who’d beaten her unconscious earlier.

The Slave Master frowned slightly as he observed her behavior.

"She’s usually much more... aggressive when this part happens," he muttered, almost to himself.

He shook his head, dismissing the thought, and reached for a key on his belt.

"Well, no matter. Let’s continue."

He unlocked the chains binding her wrists, and they fell away with a heavy clunk as they hit the floor.

Eternia didn’t rub her wrists or stretch her arms despite the obvious red marks from where the iron had chafed her skin. She simply stood there, waiting for whatever came next.

The Slave Master opened the black folder to the very last page.

There, drawn in what looked like dried blood... and probably was actual blood, knowing how these contracts worked was an intricate magical binding circle.

Runes spiraled outward from the center in complex geometric patterns that would activate once the contract was sealed.

"Place your hand here..." The man instructed Ren, pointing to the exact center of the symbol where the lines converged.

Ren placed his right hand flat on the page without hesitation and the moment his palm made contact with the blood-drawn symbol, the slave collar around Eternia’s neck erupted with brilliant light.

FLARE!

"Agh!" Eternia let out a sharp pained groan and fell to her knees with her hands flying up to claw at the collar.

The metal glowed red-hot, burning bright enough to illuminate the dim transfer room with harsh crimson radiance.

The heat radiating from it was intense enough that Ren could feel it from where he stood, and the smell of singed flesh began to fill the air as the collar seared the skin beneath.

Eternia’s face contorted in agony with her teeth clenched so hard he could hear them grinding together, but she didn’t scream... however the pain was excruciating.

The heat died down a moment later, though the pain continued to make her spasm.

The symbol on the contract page began to glow with the same crimson light then it lifted off the paper entirely, peeling away as a three-dimensional construct of pure magical energy.

It floated through the air toward Ren’s hand like a living thing, rotating slowly with its runes still spinning and shifting then it pressed into his palm.

Ren felt a burning sensation... it was not painful exactly, but definitely uncomfortable as the symbol sank beneath his skin, embedding itself into his flesh.

For a brief second, an intricate mark appeared on the back of his right hand... The Master Crest which was proof of ownership then phased out of visible existence, disappearing beneath the surface as if it had never been there though Ren could still feel its presence, a faint warmth pulsing just beneath his skin.

"That," the Slave Master explained. "is your Master Crest. It serves as proof that you have legal ownership of a slave, and you can issue commands through it that will be supernaturally enforced by the collar’s magic."

He gestured toward Eternia, who was still kneeling on the floor, breathing hard, one hand still pressed against her throat where the collar had burned her.

"If the slave attempts to disobey your direct orders, or tries to harm you in any way... physically, magically, or even through indirect means... the collar will activate automatically. The slave will be subjected to soul-breaking pain however Eternia can bear it quite a bit which is how she was able to hurt her other Masters."

His expression grew grim.

"And I must warn you: if a slave experiences that pain too many times, accumulated spiritual damage can result in death. The soul can only withstand so much trauma before it simply... breaks and shatters like glass. We’ve had cases where slaves died from repeated collar activations even though their physical bodies were technically unharmed."

"Thank y—" Ren began.

"However," the man interrupted, raising one finger to emphasize his point, "I must also inform you that slaves still possess certain inalienable rights under Imperial law, even in their bound state. There are limits to what you can legally command."

He began ticking off restrictions on his fingers again.

"You cannot force a slave to commit suicide or engage in self-harm that would result in permanent injury or death. You cannot force a slave into sexual relations against their will... consent laws still apply even to slaves. You cannot torture a slave for entertainment purposes or cause them suffering without justifiable disciplinary cause and you cannot order a slave to commit crimes that would implicate you as an accessory."

The man looked Ren directly in the eyes.

"Violations of these restrictions can result in your own enslavement as punishment, with all your assets seized by the Imperial treasury. The Empire takes slave rights seriously, even if those rights are... limited."

Ren honestly didn’t mind any of those restrictions. He had no intention of doing any of that anyway.

"Okay," Ren said simply with his tone making it clear he wanted to move on. "And how much am I paying for her?"

"Just as we agreed upon in our preliminary negotiations," the man said, pulling out an official receipt form. "One gold coin."

One gold coin for a snakekin with combat potential. It was a bit cheap, but that was because Eternia had proven "difficult" to sell and the Slave Master just wanted her off his hands at this point.

Ren immediately reached into his spatial storage ring and pulled out a single gleaming gold coin. He placed it on the table with a soft clink that seemed to echo in the quiet room.

"Alright then," Ren said. "I’ll take her."

He paused. "Does she have any other clothes? Or possessions? Anything that came with her when she was sold?"

The Slave Master took the gold coin, bit it once to verify its authenticity and laughed.

It was a short, barking sound that held no real humor.

"As her new Master, providing clothing and necessities is your responsibility now," the man said with obvious amusement. "She came with nothing but the rags she’s wearing, and those stay with her. Everything else is on you."

Ren shrugged, accepting this without complaint.

"Fine then."

He turned to look at Eternia, who was finally pushing herself back to her feet despite the lingering pain from the collar’s activation.

"What’s her name again?" Ren asked, even though he already knew. It was better to maintain the pretense of ignorance.

"Eternia," the Slave Master supplied.

Ren looked down at her... she was several inches shorter than him, forcing her to tilt her head up slightly to meet his gaze when she finally lifted her eyes from the floor.

"Eternia..." He said clearly. "You now belong to me."

As the words left his mouth, something nagged at the back of Ren’s mind... a strange sense of déjà vu that he couldn’t quite place.

’Isn’t that strange?’ he thought with mild confusion. ’I feel like this is the second time I’ve told a woman "you belong to me." When the hell was the first time? I can’t remember...’

He dismissed the thought. It was probably nothing important.

...

"Haah~ We’re finally here!"

Mandy pumped both fists into the air with visible relief as they arrived at their inn in the city of Loreheim.

The building was called "The Resting Traveler" which was not the most creative name, but it looked decent enough.

It was a simple two-story establishment which was pretty wide with an open common room, lots of scattered furniture for guests, and the smell of fresh bread wafting from what was probably a stall nearby..

Ren walked past Mandy into the inn with a tired sigh.

The carriage ride from the slave market had taken most of the afternoon, and he was ready to sit down and stop moving for at least a few hours.

Eternia came in last with her eyes fixed downward on the ground as she entered, moving as quietly and unobtrusively as possible like a ghost trying not to be noticed.

Mandy closed the door behind them with a soft click, then immediately locked it for privacy.

"My lord," Mandy said immediately as he reached up and tugged at the frilly hem of his skirt with both hands. "May I please take this disguise off now? I’m begging you."

His feet hurt from walking in heels all day... The corset was restricting his breathing to an uncomfortable degree... The wig was hot and itchy and making his scalp sweat and he could feel the layers of makeup caking on his face, clogging his pores.

How did women do this?!

All he wanted... all he wanted in this entire world right now was to return to being a proper, dignified, masculine butler.

This femboy life was absolutely and undeniably not for him. Not now, not ever, not even for his lord.

Ren waved his hand in a dismissive gesture as he sat down heavily on one of the couches with the cushions sinking under his weight and he pulled off his upper shirt in one smooth motion, tossing it aside onto a nearby chair alongside the mask.

"Yes, you may," he said simply.

"Thank the goddess..." Mandy muttered under his breath with heartfelt relief. Eternia stood awkwardly near the door, still unsure of what to do or where to go or whether she was even allowed to sit down.

’Are they about to do... that... in front of me?’ She thought with her stomach twisting into knots. ’What can I do about it if they are? I don’t want to be punched again. Should I look away? Should I close my eyes? Should I try to leave the room? Can I even leave without permission?’

She swallowed her saliva.

’Perverted humans,’ she thought bitterly with her fists clenching at her sides hard enough that her nails drew blood from her palms once again. ’Disgusting creatures who see everyone else as nothing but tools for their pleasure... I hate them... I hate all of—’

Her bitter internal monologue cut off abruptly as she blinked in surprise at what actually happened next.

Mandy reached up with both hands and removed his wig in one smooth motion, revealing short neatly styled brown hair underneath that had been pinned flat against his skull for hours.

He set the wig carefully on a nearby table with obvious relief, running his fingers through his real hair to fluff it back up then he began unlacing the back of his dress with quick movements.

The dress came off, revealing a perfectly fitted butler’s suit beneath: pressed white shirt, black vest, black trousers and everything immaculate despite having been hidden under the dress all day.

The fake breasts came off next... they’d been attached with some kind of magical adhesive that glowed blue before releasing its hold. Mandy peeled them away from his chest with visible satisfaction and set them aside next to the wig.

He pulled out a clean white handkerchief from his vest pocket and began wiping away the makeup on his face... the rouge from his cheeks, powder from his forehead, lip color, eye shadow, all of it coming off in streaks of color that stained the cloth.

Finally, he pressed his hand against two small silver runes that had been hidden on his body.

The runes flashed once with bright magical light, then faded to inactive gray.

With their dispelling, Mandy’s facial features shifted subtly back to their natural state as his jawline became sharper.

His cheekbones became more pronounced, his nose straightened slightly and his overall appearance became distinctly masculine instead of the androgynous femininity the glamour had created.

His voice, too, returned to normal.

"I feel much better now..." Mandy said in his normal voice, adjusting his tie and straightening his vest with visible satisfaction and relief.

He looked like a completely different person now.

Eternia’s eyes widened in absolute shock with her mouth falling open slightly despite her best efforts to maintain a neutral expression.

’He was crossdressing?! As a girl?! This entire time?!’

Her mind reeled, trying to reconcile what she was seeing with what she’d believed just moments ago.

’And I fell for it so easily! I genuinely thought he was a woman! I interacted with her multiple times back at the market! I saw her walk and talk and move! There was absolutely no indication whatsoever that he was actually a man!’

She felt stupid... foolish... like she’d been tricked by something that should have been obvious.

The disguise had been perfect and flawless in every detail, from the physical appearance to the mannerisms to the voice.

How much training did something like that require? How long had he been practicing this deception?