Chapter 223: Contract Slots
After successfully forming the contract with Rias, Haruto's skill list gained a new ability.
[Soulmate]: A contract-type skill, cannot be dissolved. Current maximum: nine.
As the name suggests, after the mutation, this contract was no longer a simple master-servant contract. It would be more appropriate to call it a partner contract or dual cultivation contract.
The restrictions didn't change much: after forming a contract with Haruto, one must remain loyal and obedient. Once violated, a curse activates, producing unimaginable aphrodisiac effects.
Unlike Maria's master-servant contract, this state cannot be relieved by any means other than Haruto personally providing comfort.
Other methods not only fail to alleviate it but instead cause greater suffering.
In terms of effects, besides retaining the original ones, two additional effects were added.
First, after forming a contract with Haruto, the effects of dual cultivation are greatly enhanced.
The second is soul binding.
As long as Haruto doesn't die—or more accurately, as long as one person who has signed the contract remains alive—the others can preserve a trace of their true spirit intact.
This trace of true spirit will reside within the soul of the living person, remaining dormant while slowly awaiting an opportunity for resurrection.
However, there is also a side effect.
Each time someone who has signed the contract dies, the souls of the remaining members are injured.
Especially Haruto, as the contract revolves around him—his importance is self-evident.
If the souls of those who signed the contract aren't strong enough, Haruto's death could directly cause their souls to annihilate.
Similarly, each time a contracted partner dies, Haruto's soul suffers significant damage, and the remaining damage is distributed among the souls of the others.
For example, if three people have signed the contract—Haruto, Rias, and Akeno.
If Haruto and Rias die first, Akeno would have to withstand two soul impacts to nurture both of their true spirits within her own soul.
Then, she would slowly accumulate resurrection power and resources to revive them one by one.
Haruto's current soul power only allows him to form this contract with nine people, and these nine cannot be chosen arbitrarily.
They don't necessarily need to be extremely powerful, but they must have sufficient potential.
Haruto doesn't know whether the number of contract slots can increase as his strength grows and his soul power expands.
Even if it can increase, it probably won't be by much. Each slot is extremely precious.
Currently, these nine slots were already the result of his unique soul. For an ordinary SS-class powerhouse, there would be at most one or two slots.
Well... others don't possess the talent for soul bonds or dual cultivation, so they can't form partner contracts anyway.
Once a contract is established, it signifies an eternal bond that will never be broken.
Either they would coexist eternally, or their souls would be annihilated together, their true spirits dispersing into a wisp of breeze in the world.
Haruto did not hide anything and explained the details of his newly acquired contract to the girls in the activity room.
Because for the remaining eight slots, he intended to select from among them.
Of course, this would depend on whether Akeno and the others agreed.
"Haruto..."
Yuuto looked troubled, "I want to form a contract with you, but the contract ultimately requires dual cultivation..."
Haruto also felt a headache coming on. Maria's master-servant contract didn't restrict gender.
But after the anomaly, the final step required climax to successfully establish the contract.
This indirectly limited the contract partners to females, and Yuuto's current physical condition was special.
Even if both Haruto and Yuuto were willing, they couldn't form the contract.
"After the three clans' meeting, we'll immediately work on resolving your issue."
In the end, Haruto could only give this response.
It really needed to be resolved quickly. If things continued like this, Yuuto would truly be marginalized.
If one day he suddenly couldn't take it anymore, he might even turn dark.
Rather than that, Haruto would prefer her to... well, return to her female form.
Setting Yuuto aside, there were exactly eight girls present.
Akeno, Koneko, Asia, Yuuma, Mittelt, Kalawarna, Mio, and Maria.
The six girls from the Occult Research Club didn't think for long and quickly nodded in agreement.
"Ara ara, the club president has already formed a contract with you~"
Akeno smiled and leaned close to Haruto, her snow-white hand gently reaching between his legs as she teased, "As the president's servants, of course we must follow our master~"
The white-haired loli's cute ears twitched, and she nodded seriously, agreeing with the vice president's words.
"Ah~ Am I finally going to take the step into adulthood with Haruto-san..."
The blonde little nun shyly covered her face, murmuring to herself with hopeful anticipation.
Yuuma's trio glanced at each other, and eventually Mittelt and Kalawarna focused their gazes on Yuuma.
"Mittelt, Warna, we're no longer in a superior-subordinate relationship."
Yuuma sighed. Forming cliques like this wasn't good, and after being Rias's servant for so long, she genuinely wanted to integrate.
But looking at her two loyal companions who had followed her all along, she ultimately didn't spell it out too bluntly.
Mittelt and Kalawarna also knew this wasn't ideal.
In fact, compared to Yuuma, they had built better relationships with the other girls earlier.
Mittelt, Koneko, and Asia had formed a loli trio, and their relationship couldn't be better.
Recently, with the arrival of Maria, the succubus loli, it seemed like there was a trend toward evolving into a quartet.
Kalawarna didn't speak much, but she was actually very gentle and handled matters steadily.
Akeno and Rias occasionally asked for her help, and with her tall, slender figure and her status as an advisor teacher, she subtly seemed to be becoming the third-in-command.
On the contrary, Yuuma, who was solely focused on becoming stronger, maintained a decent relationship only with Yuuto—her frequent sparring partner—without further integrating into the group.
This was why Mittelt and Kalawarna had been somewhat concerned about Yuuma, deliberately creating the appearance of a small clique to draw her in.
Yuuma vaguely sensed their intentions, but personalities differ. She needed more time to fully integrate into this large family.
As her thoughts flowed, she reached a decision.
Yuuma nodded to Mittelt and Kalawarna and said, "We have no issues either."
Haruto actually looked down on the potential of the fallen angel trio, but as a person... one shouldn't focus solely on benefits.
Besides, bloodline potential wasn't something that couldn't be changed.
Cultivating an SSR was easy and comfortable, but personally upgrading an R-card to SR, or even SSR, had its own unique satisfaction.
After nodding readily, he turned his gaze to the Naruse sisters.
Though he knew the chances were slim, he couldn't help but feel hopeful.
Mio's potential went without saying—the first heroine in The Testament of Sister New Devil, daughter of the Devil King, fitting the template of a heaven-blessed prodigy.
The succubus loli wasn't bad either. As one of the heroines and a descendant of the Devil King and the Succubus Queen, her potential was one in a million.
"Hmph, you perverted lecher, exhibitionist! Who would make a contract with you?!"
Mio stamped her foot, her pretty face flushed as she angrily turned away and stormed out of the clubroom.
She could easily imagine what would happen next. Though irritated and unable to stop it, she decided it was better not to witness it.
"Ah, Lady Mio, wait for me~"
Maria hurried after her, glancing back mid-step to stick out her tongue and whisper, "I'd love to make a contract with Haruto-nii, but since Lady Mio refuses, I regretfully have to decline too."
Haruto shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the succubus loli's words.
He knew his effect on succubi—especially since Maria's eyes hadn't left little Haruto the entire time.
If Mio had agreed, she would have followed suit.
Mio's refusal was expected, but he couldn't help feeling disappointed.
Tsunderes were naturally hard to win over, let alone coax into openly expressing their feelings.
Given Haruto's relationships with so many girls and the short time they'd known each other, it would be strange if Mio had actually agreed.
During their time together, both Mio and Maria had sensed that Haruto's connections with the various girls were unusual.
But it wasn't until just now that they fully confirmed it, gaining deeper understanding of Haruto's dual cultivation abilities and Yuuto's special circumstances.
Though Haruto and Rias treated them like family, some matters were better left for them to observe themselves rather than being explicitly explained.
Shortly after the Naruse sisters left, Rias changed into a semi-transparent lace nightgown and returned to the activity room.
"It seems everyone understands now."
After scanning the room, Rias declared, "We'll continue with the contracts while the full moon is still out."
The altered contracts were time-consuming and had to be performed during a full moon night. No matter how unrestrained Haruto was, he probably couldn't complete them all.
As Haruto drew the magic circle, the girls determined the order for making contracts.
First was Akeno.