Toward the Tower
A chilling silence settled over the hollow ground where the beast had vanished without a trace.
The violet mana and pale blue smoke enshrouding my body drifted away like heat haze, bringing the contours of my true shape into sharper definition. A form reclaimed after hundreds of years—yet far from a proper living creature. It was little more than smoke and mana teetering precariously in the shape of a man.
The bob-cut girl sprawled on the ground looked up at me with wide eyes. In her bloodless, pale face, shock and awe warred for dominance.
"What... what on earth are you...?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Well, what was I supposed to say? I hesitated for a moment. Should I call myself a researcher from centuries ago, or the very first magic user in this world? Unable to find the right words, I simply threw out something offhand.
"Your... ancestor, I suppose."
She tilted her head, thoroughly perplexed.
"An ancestor...? Then why were you trapped in the middle of these ruins?"
"I used to be the master of the laboratory that stood here. There was an incident, and I ended up sealed away for a very long time."
At those words, her eyes went wide as saucers.
"The master of the lab here?! Don't tell me... the 'Initium' from the history books?! You mean the Facility of the Beginning?!"
Initium? Facility of the Beginning? They were unfamiliar terms. My research had been destroyed before it was ever revealed to the public; it never even had the chance to be known.
Yet judging by her reaction, even if my name had been lost to time, the searing violet radiance and ground zero of mana that erupted from this lab on that fateful night had been recorded as the dawn of history. In the end, the very concept of magic really had taken root in this world.
Hmm. So that's how it played out.
A quiet wave of sentimentality washed over me at the resolution of a mystery centuries in the making, but I had no time to lose myself in nostalgia.
"Anyway, that's my situation. Now, I should get moving to find my real body."
As I spoke, inspecting my smoke-wreathed hands, she scrambled to her feet with visible hesitation.
"Um... if you don't mind, I can help you!"
"No, thanks, but I'll pass. I move better alone."
I cut her off flatly. Having spent centuries in isolation, the mere thought of traveling with someone felt bothersome, and I had no desire to incur unnecessary debts. But this girl was far more stubborn than I had anticipated.
"No, really! There are plenty of dangerous monsters around here, so going alone will be difficult. Please, let me come with you!"
"I told you, I'm fine. A monster or two is easily handled, just like the one a moment ago."
"Even so! Please!"
A tedious back-and-forth ensued as she pleaded and I repeatedly refused. Just as my patience was beginning to fray, she puffed out her chest and declared with unearned confidence:
"Well, you have no choice! In fact, we are currently under a Contract! You cannot annul a contract without the contractor's consent, so even if you want to shake me off, you can't!"
"...What??!"
For a second, I doubted my own ears. A contract? What kind of preposterous nonsense was this?
"Why on earth are you going this far?"
When I asked in sheer disbelief, she suddenly averted her gaze, her cheeks flushing crimson.
"Th-that's... well, you see..."
Watching her stammer, unable to finish her sentence, a sigh escaped my lips unbidden.
Ah... well, I suppose I was pretty good-looking when I was still human. Back in university and during part-time jobs, people used to ask for my number or show interest solely because of my face. Even though I was currently a figure woven from smoke, good bone structure didn't just vanish. She had probably fallen for my handsome visage.
Since she just stood there failing to find an answer, I let out a dry scoff and pressed for what actually mattered.
"Forget it. Just explain what this 'contractor' nonsense is."
"A contractor... means an elementalist. As of now, I chanted an incantation and contracted you as my spirit."
"Wait, you can just forge a contract unilaterally like that?"
Stunned by this absurd system, I questioned her, and she pouted.
"Normally, both parties have to give mutual consent to form a contract!"
"I never consented."
"Th-the thing is... in that moment, even the tiniest shred of goodwill—like wanting to help me—is treated by the system as consent..."
My pity upon seeing her pinned beneath the monster, combined with my fleeting empathy for her desperate chanting, had apparently been processed as valid consent. The absurdity rendered me speechless.
"Ha, fine. Let's say that's true. Then what does it take to dissolve it?"
"To annul a contract, you need the spirit's will and the elementalist's magic chant. On top of that, you need the claw of a two-tailed fox, a dragon's horn, the egg of a camel-toad, and..."
She began rattling off more than ten outlandish ingredients that sounded completely made up. Listening to her, a breath of pure exasperation slipped past my lips.
"Are you kidding me right now? The contract is forged on nothing more than a scrap of goodwill, yet breaking it requires gathering materials out of fairy tales?"
The terms were an outright scam. As I stared at her in utter disbelief, she glanced at me cautiously and tried to strike a deal.
"Instead... once you find your real body, grant me one request. If you do, I'll do everything in my power to help you gather the ingredients for annulment."
What kind of nonsense is this now...? I didn't want anyone's help getting my body back in the first place, and now she expected me to promise an unasked-for favor on top of it.
My simmering annoyance laid itself bare across my face. When I clicked my tongue with open distaste, the light in her eyes abruptly turned frigid.
"Ah... really, you just won't listen obediently, will you?"
She muttered something under her breath.
"May this world pass judgment upon you."
"Within an eternity bound in an instant, an endless—"
⟨ Torture Magic ⟩
Crack-crackle!
In that instant, an excruciating, searing pain tore through the dead center of my brain, as if high-voltage electricity were piercing straight through it.
"Aaaaargh!"
Clutching my head, I collapsed to the ground, writhing violently. It was a horrific agony, like lightning coursing through my neural pathways.
"It's Torture Magic. A harsh punishment elementalists use to forcibly discipline spirits that refuse to obey."
My smoky silhouette flickered and warped wildly under the sheer intensity of the pain.
"Gah! F-fine! I get it, damn it!"
The moment I screamed in surrender, the hellish agony crushing my skull vanished as though it had all been a lie.
I staggered unsteadily back to my feet. Panting for breath, I glared at her, but she was already beaming with an innocent smile, as if nothing had happened.
"Can I call you Spirit Oppa from now on?"
"...Do whatever the hell you want."
To think that after hundreds of years, the moment I finally reclaimed human form, I would be subjected to spirit torture. Frustration and venom churned in my gut, but for now, there was no escaping the clutches of this lunatic elementalist.
And so began my absurd, humiliating life under contract.
Suddenly, my vision spun as a violent wave of vertigo struck me. The world blurred, and the black-and-blue mana smoke that comprised my body instantly lost momentum, fraying into nothingness.
Wh-what...? Am I out of mana already?!
As the smoke dissolved, my true form—the violet Mana Cube—was left hovering for a fraction of a second before plummeting straight to the ground. A dull thud resonated as I felt the full texture of rolling across the cold, damp dirt.
After putting on such a grand show for the first time in centuries and vaporizing a colossal monster, I had anticlimactically reverted to a tiny cube.
"Huh...?"
She stood there staring down at me for a long time before carefully scooping me up into her hands. Through the cube's hardened facets, I could feel the sensation of her fingertips turning me over, inspecting my condition.
Brushing away the dirt, she began tracing an intricate, miniature magic circle onto the ground with her finger. Azure radiance trailed where her fingertip passed, etching glowing lines into the earth.
Gently placing me at the center of the luminous circle, she slipped a slender ring off her finger and laid it beside me. Then, biting the tip of her finger, she let a single droplet of crimson blood fall onto the magic array.
Whispers of a soft, arcane language flowed from her lips. As the chant progressed, the magic circle flared with intensified brilliance, enveloping both my Mana Cube form and the adjacent ring in a gentle, radiant glow.
Wait... what's happening?
To my astonishment, the rigid, solid cube began to soften, melting like heated wax. My true core seamlessly fused with the ring, restructuring itself into an elegant piece of jewelry crowned with a gleaming violet gemstone.
It was infinitely easier to carry and far more refined than rolling helplessly across the dirt as a block of mana. To alter a spirit's physical vessel and anchor it into an enchanted artifact in such a short span of time...
Whoa... are you insane? You're actually an incredible mage.
Admiration burst from me unprompted. Having only tinkered with magic as dry theory in a laboratory centuries ago, witnessing someone wield and adapt it so effortlessly elicited genuine awe.
Startled, her eyes widened like a doe's as she stared down at the ring, before her cheeks colored with a bashful, delighted smile.
"Ah... thank you. Hehe."
...Wait a second. You can hear my voice?
I blurted out the question in shock. Until moments ago, while trapped as a Mana Cube, my thoughts and voice couldn't reach the outside world at all. But now, my voice was transmitting directly to her, clear as day, as if I were standing right beside her.
Holding up the violet-gemmed ring to catch the sunlight, she beamed with a touch of pride.
"This ring originally had 'Telepathy' embedded as an auxiliary spell. When I chanted the circle just now, I transplanted that telepathic function directly into your core. Now we can converse like this instantly!"
Somehow, I had ended up worn as a ring on the finger of this lunatic elementalist, but at least I had avoided the fate of rolling in the dirt. Feeling her body heat seep through the metal, I let out a heavy, conflicted sigh.
"So, where are we heading now?"
At the vibrations echoing from the ring on her finger, she halted her steps and turned her head. Only the sound of the wind whispering through the desolate ruins stirred the quiet air.
"First... we have to head to the Tower."
"The Tower?"
"Yes. That's where almost all the world's mysteries and rare magical phenomena unfold. If you want clues to reclaiming your body or information on the materials to annul our contract, the Tower will be the fastest place to find them."
Gazing down at the ring's violet jewel, her voice was laced with unwavering conviction.
"So there's no need to hesitate. Our next destination is the Tower."