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The Contract Between a Specter and a Servant #2
The Contract Between a Specter and a Servant (Light Novel), Vol. 2
Masamichi almost died in a hit-and-run, but was rescued by a mysterious, handsome man named Shino. Shino offered to save him on the condition that Masamichi becomes his “food” and it turns out he is actually a powerful specter. Now bound by this strange contract, Masamichi moves in with him. Disguised as a human, Shino runs an antique shop. Spirits reside in the store’s wares, and it’s said that they bring good luck to customers they’re compatible with. Though Shino is unsociable, he is a great cook so Masamichi starts to feel comfortable with this new living situation. Then, a female writer visits wanting to use the store as material for her project...
- GenresLight Novel
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 23, 2024
2 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 3, 2024
Who knew a (formerly) cannibalistic demon could be so cute? Certainly not Masamichi, whose affection for Shino grows everyday. They're a great pair. Shino's lack of pretense gives Masamichi courage, and (much to his reluctantance), Masamichi gives Shino a safe place where he can feel. Shino also is processing the betrayal he claims he doesn't feel over his master's actions, and I am very curious to see the reasoning there. The memories he shares are sometimes sweet and sometimes painful. The story beyond is interesting too, a slice of life that also features spirits both protective and destructive. I'm eager to see what comes next.
October 4, 2024
This series is everything to me.
From the first few chapters, not only is the translator translating the text, their writing skills are beautiful and polished as well! I thoroughly enjoyed the prose by Michiru Fushino and translated by Eriko Sugita.
We learn more about Shino's past and his master and the progression of Masamichi and Shino's relationship is going at a good pace. I love taking my sweet time just reading over certain passages. Something about partnerships forming around myserious antique shops or detective agencies always gets me going.
I'm so glad there's an eng translation to this series and I look forward to reading the next volume.
From the first few chapters, not only is the translator translating the text, their writing skills are beautiful and polished as well! I thoroughly enjoyed the prose by Michiru Fushino and translated by Eriko Sugita.
We learn more about Shino's past and his master and the progression of Masamichi and Shino's relationship is going at a good pace. I love taking my sweet time just reading over certain passages. Something about partnerships forming around myserious antique shops or detective agencies always gets me going.
I'm so glad there's an eng translation to this series and I look forward to reading the next volume.
August 20, 2024
I struggled a bit in reading this one, and I'm not sure why, because I did like it.
Maybe it's something to do with the editing issues I couldn't help noticing - minor things, mostly, like missing words or sentences that weren't quite phrased right, although there was one glaring error when a sentence abruptly switched to first person before transitioning right back to the third person narrative of the rest of the series. There were a few instances, too, of sentences randomly mixing in the present tense. It's sloppy, and it bugs me when things like that aren't caught during the publishing process.
The overall story was good, though, and I hope I can reread at some point when I'm able to concentrate a bit better and get through it more quickly.
The big arc of this volume surprised me, although it really shouldn't have. I suppose I hadn't really considered that Masamichi would have an opportunity to not only find out who had nearly killed him, but to confront him about it. This played out in a pretty satisfying (and rather gruesome) way. I do wonder if the reporter will show up again, despite her oath, because she doesn't seem like the kind of person who would give up on anything that easily. Especially since she has such a personal connection to hit-and-run murders.
But she's still just a side character; the relationship between Masamichi and Shino is at the heart of this story, and developing nicely.
Another surprise: how much of a focus there was on Shino's past master/captor, Tokifuyu, whom Masamichi is very much convinced Shino had loved. I'm not sure if he means romantically, or if Shino had that kind of capacity in his specter heart at that point...but the fondness and the pain of losing him become more and more apparent with each story he shares with Masamichi.
There's devastation and betrayal, too, because after the years they'd spent together, with Tokifuyu talking casually about the life Shino would lead among humans after he was long gone, Tokifuyu had suddenly decided to lock Shino in a vessel and bury him underground, where he would have eventually faded into nothing if he hadn't been unexpectedly released a thousand years later. Shino doesn't understand why it happened. I would think we'll find that out in this series, but I don't know how...who's left to tell him the reasons?
The visual, though, of Shino sending his spirit out to watch his master - alone and uncared for in his final moments - slowly decay in the field where his body had been abandoned...that was a stunning scene. Shino doesn't understand why it made Masamichi cry, but of course I do. Shino doesn't think he has emotions or any sort of a soul, but he shows such a great capacity for caring for others - just in his own stubborn, specter way. He's such a fascinating character, written so well as something entirely non-human who's gradually been tamed.
I love that. He has no interest in being a human, yet he manages to fit into a human world where he can spend his days improving the lives of both humans and spirits, while refusing to acknowledge that any of it counts as "doing good." And Masamichi, it's clear, is growing more and more attached to him- something it's impossible for Shino to not notice, since that love is both visible and delicious. It comes out as the energy that Shino feeds on, that he admits has changed him in some ways, too.
Masamichi is even glad, in the end, that he was mangled so badly by that car...because it brought him to Shino. He's happy with Shino, in a way he never had been before and probably never would've found without that kind of transformative incident. He's finding his confidence, speaking his mind even when he's frightened, and allowing himself to feel the full spectrum of emotions he'd been shielding himself from all his life.
It's such an unusual series, with an odd relationship that really works. I'm glad it's going with a slow pace, and I'm very curious what the "ending" will be, since Shino is destined to still live a much longer life than Masamichi will.
Maybe it's something to do with the editing issues I couldn't help noticing - minor things, mostly, like missing words or sentences that weren't quite phrased right, although there was one glaring error when a sentence abruptly switched to first person before transitioning right back to the third person narrative of the rest of the series. There were a few instances, too, of sentences randomly mixing in the present tense. It's sloppy, and it bugs me when things like that aren't caught during the publishing process.
The overall story was good, though, and I hope I can reread at some point when I'm able to concentrate a bit better and get through it more quickly.
The big arc of this volume surprised me, although it really shouldn't have. I suppose I hadn't really considered that Masamichi would have an opportunity to not only find out who had nearly killed him, but to confront him about it. This played out in a pretty satisfying (and rather gruesome) way. I do wonder if the reporter will show up again, despite her oath, because she doesn't seem like the kind of person who would give up on anything that easily. Especially since she has such a personal connection to hit-and-run murders.
But she's still just a side character; the relationship between Masamichi and Shino is at the heart of this story, and developing nicely.
Another surprise: how much of a focus there was on Shino's past master/captor, Tokifuyu, whom Masamichi is very much convinced Shino had loved. I'm not sure if he means romantically, or if Shino had that kind of capacity in his specter heart at that point...but the fondness and the pain of losing him become more and more apparent with each story he shares with Masamichi.
There's devastation and betrayal, too, because after the years they'd spent together, with Tokifuyu talking casually about the life Shino would lead among humans after he was long gone, Tokifuyu had suddenly decided to lock Shino in a vessel and bury him underground, where he would have eventually faded into nothing if he hadn't been unexpectedly released a thousand years later. Shino doesn't understand why it happened. I would think we'll find that out in this series, but I don't know how...who's left to tell him the reasons?
The visual, though, of Shino sending his spirit out to watch his master - alone and uncared for in his final moments - slowly decay in the field where his body had been abandoned...that was a stunning scene. Shino doesn't understand why it made Masamichi cry, but of course I do. Shino doesn't think he has emotions or any sort of a soul, but he shows such a great capacity for caring for others - just in his own stubborn, specter way. He's such a fascinating character, written so well as something entirely non-human who's gradually been tamed.
I love that. He has no interest in being a human, yet he manages to fit into a human world where he can spend his days improving the lives of both humans and spirits, while refusing to acknowledge that any of it counts as "doing good." And Masamichi, it's clear, is growing more and more attached to him- something it's impossible for Shino to not notice, since that love is both visible and delicious. It comes out as the energy that Shino feeds on, that he admits has changed him in some ways, too.
Masamichi is even glad, in the end, that he was mangled so badly by that car...because it brought him to Shino. He's happy with Shino, in a way he never had been before and probably never would've found without that kind of transformative incident. He's finding his confidence, speaking his mind even when he's frightened, and allowing himself to feel the full spectrum of emotions he'd been shielding himself from all his life.
It's such an unusual series, with an odd relationship that really works. I'm glad it's going with a slow pace, and I'm very curious what the "ending" will be, since Shino is destined to still live a much longer life than Masamichi will.
July 25, 2024
"I'm saying I'm glad I met you."
This series isn't revolutionary at all, and actually reminds me of a few other light novel series I've read, but this was enjoyable enough and it's always nice to have more BL content being licensed and translated into English. The volumes in this series aren't long, and can easily be read in one sitting, but you can still feel the development between the two characters as they grow closer, and the development within their own selves as well.
Shino is still his not-human self with his skewed sense of morals. He still insists that he is unable to experience human emotions, but there is emphasis on him actually acting otherwise (such as his bouts of tsundere-ness). The closer Masamichi gets to his master, the more he realizes that Shino is human in so many ways. This is mostly due to Tokifuyu's influence on Shino in the past, but maybe Masamichi is slowly influencing Shino to be better as well. After all, there are hints that Shino can be tender, in his own way, with Masamichi. Masamichi, too, continues his own character growth with the aid of the very much reluctant Shino. (But is Shino really reluctant?)
In terms of plot, the introduction of an extra character brings the incident from the first volume back into the limelight. We finally get the truth about what happened to Masamichi. The persisting mystery - the reason why Shino's master locked him up despite caring a great deal for Shino - casts its shadow in this installment as well through the memory that Masamichi witnesses, and I suspect the subsequent volumes will uncover more and more about Tokifuyu and his secrets.
This series isn't revolutionary at all, and actually reminds me of a few other light novel series I've read, but this was enjoyable enough and it's always nice to have more BL content being licensed and translated into English. The volumes in this series aren't long, and can easily be read in one sitting, but you can still feel the development between the two characters as they grow closer, and the development within their own selves as well.
Shino is still his not-human self with his skewed sense of morals. He still insists that he is unable to experience human emotions, but there is emphasis on him actually acting otherwise (such as his bouts of tsundere-ness). The closer Masamichi gets to his master, the more he realizes that Shino is human in so many ways. This is mostly due to Tokifuyu's influence on Shino in the past, but maybe Masamichi is slowly influencing Shino to be better as well. After all, there are hints that Shino can be tender, in his own way, with Masamichi. Masamichi, too, continues his own character growth with the aid of the very much reluctant Shino. (But is Shino really reluctant?)
In terms of plot, the introduction of an extra character brings the incident from the first volume back into the limelight. We finally get the truth about what happened to Masamichi. The persisting mystery - the reason why Shino's master locked him up despite caring a great deal for Shino - casts its shadow in this installment as well through the memory that Masamichi witnesses, and I suspect the subsequent volumes will uncover more and more about Tokifuyu and his secrets.
July 29, 2024
This is such a weird series so far. I can't tell if I like it or if I'm really weirded out. Book 2 has so much repetition that around half of it is just a condensed form of book 1.
It also weirdly lacks any kind of plot. The premise of the series sounds a lot like xxxHOliC, but the end product is nowhere near the same thing. Shino and Masamichi kind of just... exist? They're meant to solve supernatural mysteries and unite human owners with spirit artifacts, yet they rarely do their jobs. Instead, we are given page after page of them sipping tea and talking about Shino's old master, but there's no real substance.
Also, let's be real, the whole energy thing is weird, especially with Shino's constant threats to Masamichi's safety.
I don't know if I'll continue with this series. I may give book 3 a shot, but it's definitely not a top reading priority.
It also weirdly lacks any kind of plot. The premise of the series sounds a lot like xxxHOliC, but the end product is nowhere near the same thing. Shino and Masamichi kind of just... exist? They're meant to solve supernatural mysteries and unite human owners with spirit artifacts, yet they rarely do their jobs. Instead, we are given page after page of them sipping tea and talking about Shino's old master, but there's no real substance.
Also, let's be real, the whole energy thing is weird, especially with Shino's constant threats to Masamichi's safety.
I don't know if I'll continue with this series. I may give book 3 a shot, but it's definitely not a top reading priority.
December 16, 2024
When I started reading volume 2, to be honest I was thinking "Oh boy, aren't we just repeating some of the information we've learnt back in volume 1?" But as the story progresses, wow, holy shit, it's sick (in a good way)! I was not expecting a novel series not classified as BL would swing hard that way, lol.
I just wish that they had been more careful with the editing though. For instance, it looks to me the translator probably had originally used the word chi in italics, but probably it was then all replaced with "energy", resulting in italicised "energy" in the whole text, leaving only—if I remembered correctly—two instances of chi that was not italicised and thus probably escaped the Replace All.
I just wish that they had been more careful with the editing though. For instance, it looks to me the translator probably had originally used the word chi in italics, but probably it was then all replaced with "energy", resulting in italicised "energy" in the whole text, leaving only—if I remembered correctly—two instances of chi that was not italicised and thus probably escaped the Replace All.
August 10, 2025
I enjoyed more than the first book in the series, both the series and the characters as a whole are growing on me.
Although the writing feels somewhat stilted sometimes and there's some awkward wording I found myself getting used to it towards the end of this volume. There was some repetition of things that happened in the first book as well which is definitely noticeable however I didn't find it too annoying. It's a bit of an odd series so far but I do enjoy it and will read at least book 3 in the series as well as I'm curious where the plot will go.
Although the writing feels somewhat stilted sometimes and there's some awkward wording I found myself getting used to it towards the end of this volume. There was some repetition of things that happened in the first book as well which is definitely noticeable however I didn't find it too annoying. It's a bit of an odd series so far but I do enjoy it and will read at least book 3 in the series as well as I'm curious where the plot will go.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews