Sorry did not proofread again :(

Silver channeled her mana into her hand, forming a small fireball so bright it illuminated the room. She could have killed him earlier, but she wanted to relish this experience. Gulliver’s awe replaced his fear for a second.

“V-Voiceless i-incantation…” He muttered.

“I learned a little from each mage that bed me,” She said. “After soothing their egos, of course. Praise them a little and they’ll tell you anything.”

“Y-you never told me you could—“

“Use magic? Of course not.” She purred caressing the other side of his face. His sticky sweat disgusted her, but it could not overpower the glee she experienced in this moment. “You would have killed me before I could torture you.” She gave a quick glance at Ares. “Though a certain ‘someone’ quickened my plans.”

Gulliver could use some basic magic like [Mana Armor], but this technique was something only a few high-level mages, with the exception of geniuses could accomplish. Silver was a whore since she was young. For her to have such ability was inconceivable to him.

“You bitch—“ The fireball searing his flesh inched closer and interrupted Gulliver.

“Shh.” She put his finger on his trembling lips. “I don’t want to spend the time I have left with you speaking words. Screams will do nicely.” She smiled while saying all of this. Even Sapphire was taken-aback, but regained her composure.

She inched it slowly to his face, thrilled by his expression.

“I didn’t take you for the calculating type.” Sapphire chimed. She gave a devilish grin. “Do it. Slowly.”

“Don’t do it, Silver!” Annabelle screamed from across the room. “The mark from the [Contract Magic] will never go away!“

“We’ll be hunted as slaves who killed their master for the rest of our lives!” Another continued.

But Silver wasn’t listening. The fireball had begun to leave scorch marks on Gulliver’s face and his tears streamed down, only to evaporate on contact with the blazing fire.

Suddenly, an arm grabbed her wrist. As she turned to look up, she saw the face that saved her a few days ago. His right arm disseminated like sand and his skin turned a more natural color. But his horns did not retract from his head immediately. They turned a pure white, sharply contrasting with his black hair, and slowly retracted.

‘You’re—“ She squinted her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows. Ares couldn’t tell if it was a look of anger or curiosity, but she continued her words unfazed. “Why are you stopping me?” She gave him a cold glare, but Ares ignored her.

“Can it be hidden?” Ares turned to Annabelle, his grip tightening over Silver’s wrist to stop her from killing the man before he got his answer.

“I-It can’t.” Annabelle said surprised by Ares’s abrupt glance towards her.

“Demonstrate.” Ares commanded.

Anabelle frightened by his words and quickly placed her hand over the exquisite tattoo on her hand. After a few moments, it moved away from the back of her hand to her forearm like a spider.

“I see.” Ares looked down at Gulliver. “Well, what are you waiting for? Dispel the magic.”

“Will you spare me?” Gulliver asked, a glimmer of hope returning to his eyes.

“No.” Ares said plainly. “Think of it as repentance.”

“Go to hell.” Gulliver said with a snarky grin. Seeing his imminent death, he let out a shiver-inducing cackle.

“You first.” Ares let go of Silver’s wrist and the fireball slammed into Gulliver’s face. The embers from contact flared in front of her eyes and the gaping, crispy hole continued to expand on Gulliver’s face. Pieces of flesh hit her beautiful face and marked it red, her hair flying violently from the impact.

“No!” All the women cried out in agony. “What have you done!?” As Gulliver’s head became nothing but ash, the marks on all the women’s bodies shone a crimson red. Luckily, all the men already left a long time ago and no one other than them witnessed the outcome of this situation. If someone reported this to the empire, a hefty sum could be made. But it would only be a matter of time.

Ares saw the mark on Silver’s lower back through her revealing dress glow. He wasn’t sure if his advanced therapy would work, but it had a good chance of succeeding. He thought maybe the reason the reason the master was needed is because the mark would only react to him as a foreign existence as the [Contract Magic] was infused with the body, which was probably why other magic wouldn’t work on it either.

“Lay on your stomach.” Ares words cut through the grim atmosphere. Even Sapphire who was ruthlessly kicking Gulliver’s motionless body stopped for a second to hear his words.

“Ready to claim your reward for saving me before?” Silver purred cynically,laying on the ground seductively near Gulliver’s body, radiating a scent of death, along with Sapphire and her bloody heels.

“… Just do it.” Ares said annoyed. “I might be able to help.”

“What can a one-armed man do?” She asked, belittling him.

“…” Ares stood there unresponsive to her snide remark.

“Fine.” As much as Silver hated a man touching her body, he was their only hope. She expected him to grope her under these conditions, but his hands moved across her back with purpose, especially around her mark.

Within five minutes, all the women within the brothel surrounded Ares. The mark began to fade like water in ink.

“It’s working!” Annabelle exclaimed, smelling freedom.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Anna.” Sapphire retorted. “I won’t believe it works until it’s completely gone.”

After five more minutes, the mark was completely gone and Silver’s back was bare, her flesh unblemished as if gaining more luster than before.

“Aahn.” Silver moaned jokingly. Ares grumbled with a slight smile. Silver couldn’t help but tease him. She didn’t know if it was because she took a liking to him after all he did for a bunch of whores he didn’t know, or because she could finally be free of being a slave.

“Who’s next?” Ares asked puffing his chest out. He knew his actions were hot-headed and could have possibly put these women in a situation far worse than their current one. But he succeeded. Once again, he could see Vi’s proud face looking down on him from above.

“Arrogant now are we?” Silver said trying to tease him again. But her voice was drowned out by the numerous women surrounding them.

“Me!” Some said in unison, while others repeated it adorably trying to get his favor, and scrambled towards Ares.

“No, Rose is next!” Silver’s voice cut through the commotion as she rose herself to her feet.

“Why should we—“ A few began, but they shrunk under Silver’s glare. It made sense. Rose was the youngest. All the women nodded to each other and from then on decided to go by age.

They moved away from Gulliver’s corpse into their public quarters. They cleared the way for Rose and she approached him cautiously. Some of them were already getting impatient.

“Ro—“ Silver walked towards her, but was interrupted by Ares.

He lightly took her hand that bore the mark of a slave. Before she could retract her small hand, he lightly gripped it and grabbed her attention. “What’s your name?”

“R-Rose…” She said nervously, still frightened by her previous experience, as her cheeks were a bit bloodied.

“Is that your real name?” Ares asked with a warm smile.

“No…” She mumbled dejectedly.

“What is it? Don’t tell me it’s a man’s name…” Ares snickered, aiming to get a rise out of her.

“It’s Jill!” She replied strongly embarrassed at his insinuation.

“Hoooh. That’s a nice name.” ‘Just a little more’ Ares thought. “Do you have any friends your age?”

“No…” She said depressed again. Ares released her hand and ruffled her head before she could flinch away like a scared cat.

“I know a girl that’s around your age. You two could be great friends. But she’s really childish. Haha.” Ares said reassuringly.

“But I have the mark of a slave!” She retorted.

“What do you mean? I don’t see anything.” Ares said a tone higher than usual in a childish manner.

“It’s right— huh?“ She looked at her hand in bewilderment in all sorts of weird angles, attracting the warm gazes of all the women. “Look, Ares! Look! It’s gone!” She said smearing her hand all over Ares’s face. “Do you see? Do you see?” She asked excitedly. The women chuckled at Ares. The man that seemed like a cold murderer was being played by a kid.

“Yeah, I see.” Ares smiled at her adorable reaction, but was still a tinge annoyed. “Do you still want to meet the girl?”

“Mm!” Jill replied jumping up and down.

“Ro—Jill, we might have to leave.” Silver interjected into the warm atmosphere “We’ve probably fucked half the men in town and that’ll make it hard for us to start over.”

“C’mon pwease!” Rose asked with a sparkle in her eyes.

“No means no, Jill.” She said sternly

“Just for a little while, Silver. How can you say no to those eyes?” Ares asked, pulling Jill’s rosy cheeks. “I’ll even escort you guys to the next town.”

“Ugh.” Looking at Jill’s eyes again and Ares offer, Silver gave in. “Fine. But you better keep your end of the deal.” Silver was happy Ares would continue to accompany them and it slipped out in the form of a warm smile that radiated across the room. The women who witnessed the picturesque scene felt their hearts skip.

“You guys look like a family.” Sapphire said, reading the atmosphere.

They truly did. Ares being a doting father and Silver a strict wife. The other women gazed at them with jealousy and admiration.

“Don’t joke, Sapphire.” Silver then turned her glare to Ares. “And I still hate men.”

“That’s perfectly reasonable.” Ares said. “I just hope you meet a man that’ll change that.” Ares said simply.

Ares seemed inattentive the whole time, playing with Jill. She didn’t know why, but it annoyed her. “So that’s your taste. I wondered why you didn’t grope me.” She purred. Hearing her accusations, Ares turned to her in disbelief, his mouth gaping open.

“She already has.” Sapphire whispered to Annabelle loud enough for Silver to hear.

Before Silver could retort their statement, Ares grabbed her attention as he stood toe to toe with her.

“Don’t joke like that.” He said coldly and turned his back to her. Ares went to tend to the next woman and didn’t pay her any attention as he treated the rest of the women as the hours passed.

****

Silver leaned on a distant wall with her arms crossed at the corner of the room. ‘Why is he being so fucking sensitive?’ She thought angrily.

Sapphire approached her with a mocking grin. Before she could speak, Silver spoke first, which was very unlike her and caused Sapphire to laugh loudly.

“It was just a damn joke.” Silver said expressionless. Her usually cynical and seductive demeanor was gone. “And stop laughing. What’s so funny?”

Sapphire laughed some more and finally spoke. “Haha. Well, you aren’t known for being funny… You like his attention right?”

“I don’t hate it.” Silver replied, grabbing her forearm so hard, it looked like it would bleed any moment.

“Then you should apologize—“ Sapphire tried to counsel, but were words were cut short.

“Sapphire, you know what I hate more than men?” Silver asked rhetorically, looking in Ares’s direction. He finished with the all the women after a few hours and started to tell Jill some fairy tales while the others began to pack and sleep. A few tried to seduce him into leaving Jill alone to sleep with them in their rooms, but he politely refused their advances. He then looked in Silver’s direction and turned away.

She felt annoyed and angry at herself. Her back slid down the wall until she was crouching with her hands clutching her hair. “…Being a hypocrite.”