Prepare.

Prepare?

Why one whole minute? You should have just given me a second cause a minute is way too long.

Hah.

I lifted my face toward the ceiling and let out a heavy sigh. I actually don’t have time for any of that. I have to tell Viora before the system begins its Soul thing.

"Viora,"

"Ye..."

I hate to do this but I have to. Why couldn’t the system just explain it all before? She is already so weak and now because of me she will feel even more pain.

"Whatever happens. I mean whatever. Don’t panic, alright? I will be right here beside you."

Viora’s brows furrowed as she couldn’t understand what I was talking about. Heck, even I don’t understand anything myself. The system is really creepily mysterious.

"Just remember, don’t panic. I will be here to help you get through it."

Those words were obviously to ease Viora before the impending danger or whatever it is called. But as they left my mouth the screen suddenly changed.

For a whole minute it didn’t disappear and kept counting down the seconds. Now it had already hit zero, so here comes the impact.

[Time’s up!

Binding the ’Contract’ between Host and candidate ’Viora’.]

As it displayed those horrifying words, for a moment I got a little scared. It was my first time. I don’t know how the mana drainage is gonna feel and on top of that what was gonna happen to Viora.

Subconsciously, I quickly grabbed Viora’s hand and clutched her wrist with both of my hands.

"Close your eyes."

I don’t know if she did what I told her but I didn’t let a second go to waste and closed my eyes as tightly as possible. Then, I patiently waited for the destined pain to hit me.

But... ten seconds passed, then twenty, after that thirty, but the pain and mana drainage I was expecting didn’t come. Instead, I only heard Viora’s groan.

"Urg..."

Here it is. She is feeling it. I opened my eyes and looked at her, she did seem like she was in pain but not as much as I thought she would be.

"Viora are you alright? Are you feeling hurt?" I leaned in closer and asked.

"Y...u... Hurt... Me..."

She said and grabbed my hands which were on her wrist. Suddenly my eyes widened and I immediately let go of her.

"...S-sorry," I apologized and glanced over at the screen to know why nothing was happening. It did say to prepare ourselves but we are feeling literally nothing.

[Binding the ’Contract’ 97% Complete.]

’97%? And we felt nothing. Not even an itch.’

I should be thankful that we didn’t get to experience that. If we did the whole hospital would have heard our pained screa—

"Arrrghh!!!"

Out of nowhere, I felt tremendous pain in the center of my heart. I clutched my chest with both my hands and slightly buckled forward which made me fall to the ground, causing my head to hit the floor.

"Woo... Jun....!"

When Viora heard my scream and the sound of me falling she got really worried and even tried to sit up but no matter what she did she couldn’t even lift her head, let alone her whole body.

"...Woo... Jan..."

Now, I was feeling even more ache in my heart. It was just getting more and more intense with each passing second. I felt like someone was trying to pull my heart out of my chest.

"Arrrghh!"

My scream didn’t stop even for a moment and I couldn’t even think about anything else.

[Extracting Host’s Mana 90% Complete.]

[...%]

[...%]

[100%]

Huff... Huff... Huff...

Unexpectedly, the pain only lasted for a few seconds and then in an instant it vanished completely, like it had never existed.

Huff... Huff...

But my body had turned into a mess. I was taking really heavy breaths and my eyes could only open halfway.

"...Wu...jun... R... Uo... Oky...?" Viora asked and I just gave her the answer which I was supposed to give.

"Yeah, I am fine."

After saying that, I tried to grab the bed’s leg to stand up but as I added a little strength to my legs the grip on the bed loosened and I fell again.

"Urg,"

It looks like all of the strength from my body has been drained to the last bit.

Was that how mana drainage feels? If so, I don’t want to go through it ever again. Never.

After two more failed tries at getting up I just gave up. My limbs feel really weak.

’I will just stay here until I can stand back up. Or until someone comes.’

I thought that everything was over now. I thought we were done with this mana drainage and soul thing. But we were not. I had forgotten about the most important thing all along. That was...

[’Contract’ and Mana Drainage are completed. Now moving on to next and final part.

Injecting <Soul-Link> into the Host’s ’Wife’!

Progress: 1%]

"Wu... Ju— Arrrghh!"

Viora’s simple name calling suddenly turned into a pained scream.