"May I know how both of you ended up in this situation?" Felix sugarcoated his question as much as possible.

He understood that anyone signing a slave contract seldom came without a shitty experience that was too hard to recall. By asking them this, he was doing nothing but opening up their wounds.

As expected, Malak expression's turned nasty instantly. She didn't seem like she was targeting Felix with her look.

'Well, she ain't answering that.' Felix shook his head lightly after seeing her reaction.

When he turned to Erik, Felix saw that he was being given a look meant for morons.

Before Felix could feel baffled by that look, Erik said with a casual tone, "Obviously because we signed a recruitment contract."

"..."

"..."

A desolate silence had descended in the room as both Felix and Malak felt like their brain had short-circuited.

They kept staring with a dumbstruck expression at Erik, making him feel a bit weirded out.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Abashed, Erik scratched his nose and said, "I am getting embarrassed."

"This can't be right." Felix shook his head and fired off multiple questions at once, "You are joking right? About the recruitment contract? You do realize that you signed a slave contract? Right?"

"Slave contract? What are you talking about boss?" Baffled, Erik snapped his finger and displayed a holographic contract.

He pointed his finger at the title and said, "See? It says Recruitment Contract."

Neither Felix nor Malak knew how to react after reading the title. It wasn't because it was written Recruitment instead of slave contract, but because of Erik's sincere bewilderment about the situation!

They knew that all slave contracts never actually have a title that said ]Slave Contract[.

It could be recruitment, servant, subordinate, lackey...etc. Anything but the term 'slave' since it would be the same as adding salt to injury.

Yet, this idiot truly appeared like he didn't know about it!!

'Please don't tell me he got cheated to sign it? No one can be that stupid? Don't even mention a 4th stage bloodliner like him!' Felix massaged his temples with his eyes closed shut.

After regaining control of his wits, Felix opened his eyes and asked with a soothing tone. "Can you tell me exactly what happened when you were about to sign the contract? Did anyone force you or something like that?"

"No one has forced me to sign it." Erik continued with an appreciative tone, "During my great escape in the universe, I have run out of food, water, and I didn't know exactly how to get some."

'Oh no.' Felix could already see that his narration would end horribly but he still didn't interrupt him.

"Thankfully, I wasn't left starving for long as I have luckily met with a bunch of gentlemen in space." He praised sincerely, "They treated me like their close friend after I explained my situation to them. They fed me and took great care of me. They were the ones who told me about this easy way to earn coins so I can support myself."

"You mean they made you sign the 'recruitment' contract?" Malak inquired, not able to stay silent at his messed-up narration.

"Nonono!" Erik shook his extended arms and clarified, "They merely told me about it and I requested to sign it since I didn't know any other method to earn coins."

Felix took a deep breath, trying to suppress himself from shouting at this retard.

He had so many questions and the most important one was, "Did you read the terms of the contract carefully? Like really carefully."

"Of course!" Erik replied firmly like it was only natural to do so.

Felix's lips trembled as he asked again, "You have read that betraying, attempting to kill, retaliating, and disobeying the orders of your 'recruiter' would get you either punished or killed based on the wishes of the 'recruiter' and the contract terms?"

"Yes!" Erik quickly nodded his head, appearing quite comical with those two feathers flailing around.

Yet, neither Felix nor Malak found anything funny about his agreement.

They only felt wonderment while gaping at Erik, appearing like they were admiring an exotic creature.

"Why are you looking at me like that again?" Erik tilted his head and said, "Isn't that term normal? After all, I will be recruited and it is only logical that I will be punished or killed if I betrayed my boss."

He added smartly while pointing his finger at highlighted term, "Plus, I know that my boss can't order me to kill myself or do anything that is against my beliefs, morals, dignity...etc." He shrugged his shoulders, "So, as long as I stay loyal to my boss and respect the terms of the contract, I will be paid 2 million SC per month and I will have nothing to worry about."

"So why are you referring to this contract as slave contract?" Erik looked at them in utter confusion, "Those fine gentlemen that saved my life also had signed it with their captain and they looked like they were enjoying their life in their spaceship."

"...."

"...."

After hearing all of this, Both Felix and Malak were left stumped by his logic that seemed correct but it was still flawed big time.

They knew that everything he had said was indeed correct and within the contract terms. After all, 'slave contract' came in many varieties.

There were extreme contracts that rob the signer of every basic right that he had. If the owner ordered him to kill himself, the slave must obey or the Queen would pop his consciousness.

Naturally, only a fraction of people signs this contract that was worse than death itself. As for the majority? They all sign a contract that ensures what Erik had mentioned above.

That's why Felix wanted to create a boss and subordinate relation instead of a master and slave relationship.

He might be slightly narcissistic and proud but he wanted none of that shit of feeling superior to another person.

On the other hand, there were temporary contracts that had a lifespan.

It could be 10 years or even 10,000 years of service before the slave gets released from his 'slavery chains'.

Then, there were permanent contracts that could never be broken unless the owner died or he broke the contract from his side.

Currently, Erik and Malak had signed a permanent contract with a monthly payment of 2 million SC, unlike the temporary contract that didn't offer anything in return.

So in a sense, Erik truly had signed a recruitment contract since he wasn't forced to do it.

He probably got cheated but not forced.

Meanwhile, Malak was most likely threatened with either her life to sign it or by another matter. Whatever it was, she clearly didn't seem to enjoy her situation, unlike Erik.

"You have no problems with being my subordinate for life?" Felix asked.

"As long as we are going to do some fun stuff." Erik said with a foolish grin.

"Have fun?" Malak said, "Excuse me, but how old are you?"

"I am turning 20 this year!" Erik replied casually.

"Then how could you be ignorant about so many matters?" Malak exclaimed in disbelief. 

Felix didn't show much of a reaction as he already saw his age in the profile details.

But, just like Malak, he was quite surprised that a 20 years old man was completely out of touch with the UVR and the Universe.

After all, he referred to pirates as gentlemen, not knowing that he got played into signing the contract and sold in this auction or the party who placed him here.

Whatever it was, they had earned 4.8 Billion out of him without his knowledge or probably he knew that he was going to get auctioned after being lied to again.

After all, the pirates could simply fool him into believing that he was being auctioned due to his talents, strength, or some bullshit. Based on Erik's naivety or stupidity, he would most likely believe it.

This what both Felix and Malak concluded after piecing the dots.

However, there were still many inquires that were eating their brain out.

Like Erik's ignorance about making coins in the UVR, obtaining coordination to a populated planet so he could resupply, not knowing that he was actually signing slave contract...etc.

Such basic knowledge was known to even 8 years child. Don't even mention Erik.

"Why do you think I escaped my family?" Erik complained, "My mom kept me locked up in my palace since the moment I was born. Even when I leave it I get accompanied by her and no one dares to talk to me or look at me when they see her."

'Isn't that taking sheltering to the extreme?' Felix's eyelids twitched after understanding the source of Erik's lack of knowledge.

"How about the UVR?" Malak asked, "Weren't you given access to it?"

"I did have it." Erik admitted sadly, "But, I never realized that it was this big with multiple cities and such since my access was limited by mom to only enter my UVR room." He chuckled in nostalgia, "Though, it was quite fun playing in it since it had all the games that I wanted to play."

'Denying even access to the public UVR?' Felix frowned his eyebrows, 'Was that really his mom or he was kidnapped and imprisoned?'

In Felix's eyes, locking someone's up in fear of having him killed or kidnapped was a horrible thing to do but understandable.

However, denying even access to the UVR and making him only enter his UVR room? That's too extreme since it would serve no benefits.

Heck, it would do more harm since the UVR was a safe spot to learn about the Universe and its cruelty to idiots and naive people.

If his mother was anxious about him that much, she could simply teach him about the dos and don'ts in the UVR to avoid having him cheated into signing a disadvantageous contract and scammed.

So Felix was truly bewildered about his backstory. Was that his birth mother or not? What Family does he belong to? Is it a normal one or a behemoth that needed to worry about?

Questions like those coursed in Felix's mind and he wasn't planning to add Erik into his inner circle unless he got a clearer vision!