The Contract
Lily’s eyes went wide.
Her heart was pounding strangely.
All she had heard was the word “noona,” and yet—
“Lily noona! Let’s go together. Protecting her little brother is a big sister’s duty, right?”
Her resolve wavered.
But she couldn’t simply agree.
She longed to see the unknown dungeon, yet to Lily, Ilia was an absolute presence. The promises she had made with Ilia, the rules she was bound to keep, even the somewhat heavy-handed commands—every one of them was a forbidden line she must never cross.
If the Witch finds out, she’ll kick me out again…
The memory of being scolded so harshly for summoning Shade, then driven from the Witch’s house to wander the forest in tears for days, still lingered as a deep, unhealed wound.
Watching Lily teeter on the edge yet hold firm to the last, Roy felt a prick of frustration.
She’s not coming around as easily as I thought…
From Roy’s perspective, Lily was essential if he meant to enter the dungeon. Because of the shadow spirit Shade.
No matter what monsters are inside, as long as that spirit is with us…
A concealment art that could be cast instantly without an incantation would be invaluable in an unknown place where anything might happen.
While waiting for the liquor to finish brewing, Roy had spent several days talking with the Witch. One of those conversations had been about the sealed dungeon they were heading for now.
The barrier the Witch had placed was not a complete seal that closed the dungeon itself. It was an illusion-type barrier that deceived the eye so no one could tell a passage existed there. In other words, though it looked like solid rock, a person—or a monster—might pass through by pure chance. The twin-headed hound they had seen in the forest was one such creature that had slipped out that way.
She had chosen an illusion barrier from among many types to conserve the mana needed to maintain it. The dungeon sat right in the middle of a mana vein, which kept the cost low; otherwise a single small mana stone could never have sustained it for a full year.
That dungeon is perfect for what I need.
Roy’s reason for going there now was simple: to summon the ancient spirit of the Golden Eyes he had been waiting for all this time.
The spirit he had met in the manor’s basement had told him that a perfect summoning would require at least five times more mana. If that was the minimum just to call it forth, forming a contract would almost certainly demand far more. So Roy had devoted his research to converting part of the summoning chant into a magic circle, hoping to lower the mana cost even a little. The reduction, however, amounted to barely a tenth of the total.
Roy was eleven years old now. His mana had grown to the absolute limit of his innate talent, and drinking the Elven Liquor had more than doubled it again. By his calculations, his current mana was roughly four to five times what it had been when he first summoned the spirit beneath the manor. With the magic circle he had prepared in advance, he should be able to call the spirit again—this time in its complete form.
But that was not the end.
How much more will I need for the spirit contract itself? That’s the unknown variable…
To fill in that final piece of the puzzle, he had to summon it at the very heart of the mana vein. Lily’s shadow spirit made that truth plain. To raise the odds of success even a fraction, the site had to be the underground dungeon beneath the pond—the place of densest mana within the vein.
Roy drove the wedge home into the still-hesitating Lily.
“I promise. Nothing will happen. Even if the Witch finds out, I’ll keep my mouth shut about you helping me, so don’t worry. I still haven’t told her you were tailing me, have I? I’m good at keeping secrets. And think about it—if we clear every monster in the dungeon, she’ll be so proud she’ll praise us for it, won’t she?”
“But dungeons are really dangerous.”
“You’ve been following me for days. You know how strong I am. On top of that, drinking the Elven Liquor boosted my mana even more. And that’s not all. When I summon the spirit and my eyes turn gold, I’ll be able to see where any monsters are hiding before they get close. If things get bad, we run. If you come with me, we can hide or escape even faster with Shade’s help. Right?”
“……”
Every counterargument had vanished. Only the choice remained: keep the Witch’s word to the end, or set off on a heart-pounding adventure with the boy in front of her.
“If you really don’t want to, I’ll just go alone. Choose carefully. This is your last chance. I’m ready to leave as early as tomorrow.”
“But…”
“If you come with me, I’ll teach you more than just this sword—I’ll teach you how to enchant a blade with magic.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yeah. It’s incredibly hard, but I think you can do it. You’ve got talent.”
For the first time, the furrow between Lily’s brows smoothed completely.
“Okay. I’ll go with you.”
“That’s more like it. Here—take the sword.”
“Y-you’re giving it to me already?”
“Yeah. But be careful not to let the Witch overhear anything we talked about today.”
Lily nodded.
“Okay. Got it.”
Roy flashed a bright set of teeth and held out his hand.
“Let’s shake on it. From now on you’re my partner heading into the dungeon.”
“Partner? Then what about ‘noona’…?”
“Fine. Lily noona.”
Only then did Lily break into a wide smile and clasp the boy’s hand. The flush blooming across her cheeks showed no sign of fading anytime soon.
Yes!
Roy had eyes for nothing else right now. Teaching the art of magical enchantment was not something just anyone could do—but he had thrown the offer out first and would worry about the rest later. Achieve the most important goal first; clean up the aftermath afterward.
The next day.
Before slipping out of the Witch’s house, Roy spoke to the baron.
“I’ll take Father’s daughter out with me, so go enjoy some long-overdue time with Third Mother.”
Seeing the baron’s flustered face left him oddly satisfied.
“We’ll be off, then.”
The Witch, who already thought highly of Roy, made no move to stop him from taking Lily into the forest. If anything, she looked openly pleased. In a way, Roy was the first real friend her daughter had ever made. That he was also her half-brother was no obstacle at all. Among the great nobles whose names rang across the world, how many truly kept to monogamy? To a woman who had lived more than two hundred years, it was a trivial matter.
The forest was rough and monsters appeared, but it was the same place she had already sent them to gather ingredients for the Elven Liquor only days before. Both the Witch and the baron decided a little more freedom would cause no great trouble.
“It was around here, right?”
Roy and Lily reached the dungeon entrance in no time, thanks to the black wolf Shade.
“Yeah. Just ahead. It’s so perfectly hidden, though.”
The entrance, disguised as nothing more than a massive boulder by the magic circle Roy had added days earlier, drew another murmur of admiration from Lily.
“Let’s go straight in. No time to waste.”
This was not like the trial, where they had been given days on end. They had told the Witch and the baron they were only going into the forest to gather herbs, so they had to be back before sunset. If they were late, a search party would come out—and the dungeon visit would be discovered.
“If there are too many monsters, or if they’re too strong, we may have to come back tomorrow. Otherwise we finish it today.”
“Got it. Shade, I’m counting on you.”
The two of them and the wolf felt their way along the rock and slipped through the illusion of the barrier.
Pitch-black darkness greeted the three of them.
“Shade can see just fine even in the dark. I can see a little too.”
Born of a shadow spirit and elven blood, Lily seemed able to secure a measure of vision even here. Roy muttered to himself. He could have used the Golden Eyes, but he could not afford to waste mana now. Every drop had to be saved for the summoning.
“Hold on. Can you stick a light on me?”
He was so reluctant to spend even the mana for a tiny flame that he asked Lily instead.
“Wait! What’s that?”
“I’m human. Without this I can’t see an inch ahead.”
“What? You should’ve said so earlier.”
“Huh…?”
Lily stepped in front of him and suddenly began an incantation. The unfamiliar chant was spoken entirely in the elven tongue from start to finish. It must have been relatively simple, for the magic took shape in an instant.
“Well?”
Light bloomed all at once. Completely unlike a lighting spell, countless fireflies seemed to dance through the air. The cave that had been impenetrable darkness filled with soft, multicolored radiance. What should have been a monster-infested dungeon now looked like a fantastical space where tiny fairies might appear at any moment.
“Will-o’-the-Wisp. A light spirit.”
Lily thrust out her chin, face proud, clearly waiting for praise. Roy’s reaction, however, went in a completely different direction.
“…That chant. Could I use it too?”
“What? You? Hmm… I don’t know. The Witch said only elves can use that spell.”
Simply parroting words did not make magic happen. Muttering meaningless sounds would never produce a spell. But Roy had been born with an affinity for many attributes of mana. In his previous life he had learned a little of the elven tongue, and just now he had watched with his own eyes exactly what phenomenon the chant produced.
Besides, I’ve already been using elven for brewing the liquor.
Roy immediately repeated Lily’s chant word for word. A moment later Lily’s already large eyes went even wider in shock.
“…No way.”
It looked a little unstable, yet Roy had successfully reproduced the exact same magic she had used.
“Hmm. Still room for improvement… Anyway, thanks, Lily. I just picked up a great spell.”
“…What the heck. You’re not even an elf.”
Lily’s face turned sulky. The more she learned about the boy’s talent, the more jealousy pricked at her.
“You keep saying you’re human yourself.”
“That’s… hmph.”
Roy almost pointed out that she was a half-elf too, then thought better of it. Left without a comeback, Lily turned her head away with a prim little snort.
“Lily.”
“What!”
“How about this? I teach you how to enchant weapons with magic, and you teach me elven magic.”
“…I somehow don’t like that.”
“Aw, don’t be so stingy. We’re partners, remember?”
“Pfft… only when it suits you.”
In any case, they now had light. Roy, excited by the unfamiliar magic, replenished the mana he had spent by drinking a mid-grade mana solution he carried.
I might need mana when we fight monsters too… From here on I really have to hold back.
“Let’s go!”
“Yeah. Shade! Please.”
The farther they went, the wider the cavern became; riding the black wolf caused no trouble at all. Roy activated the Golden Eyes now and then to search for monsters. Twin-headed hounds appeared only rarely, and when they did the fights were short. He had already faced the creatures before, so he could hunt them with almost no mana expenditure. A single sword stroke from the back of the swift black wolf dropped them before they could do a thing. They quickly pocketed several mana stones, and before long the two of them reached the deepest part of the dungeon.
“It’s just ahead.”
With the Golden Eyes active, Roy could tell the center of the mana vein lay right in front of them. If he was going to cast the ancient summoning magic, that spot would be ideal.
But the dungeon had been sealed by the Witch for a long time, and an obstacle appeared at once. He had miscalculated expecting hordes of monsters. What emerged was only one—just a single creature.
“Why in the world is something like that down here underground?”