Chapter 263
“Wow” was translated as “Wow,” naturally capturing Manuela's joke that she was seeing famous players from hundreds of years ago in person._TITLE: Soul Contract
Soul Contract.
Even as the words left his mouth, a faint unease stirred in him. A soul contract carried a weight all its own. To pledge a promise upon one another's very souls was to call down a power no mere created being could defy.
"A soul contract... is dangerous."
"I know. That's why I'm suggesting it."
"Has the meaning drifted from the soul contracts I know? Were they not something only those with nothing left to lose would enter?"
"Then we simply don't make the terms too fussy. Simple enough that the promise has to be kept, no matter what. You weren't planning to take what you could get and quietly slip away, were you?"
"I keep what I promise. That will not happen."
"You look the type. Still, a verbal promise with no insurance at all is unsettling. That's why it's a soul contract."
"What conditions do you have in mind?"
"Hmm..."
Yujun had already thought it through, but he made a show of mulling it over. That was when the Black Sorceress spoke.
"I will state what I want first."
"New-Generation Magic, right?"
"Correct."
"I'll throw in how things stand on the Continent right now, and the like. How's that?"
"You would offer the information unasked. You have my thanks."
"Shall I tell you what I want, then?"
He said it with a smile. An ominous feeling prickled at the Black Sorceress, but she nodded all the same.
"Very well. Speak."
"Travel with me."
"Hm? Was that not already settled? If I am to learn New-Generation Magic from you..."
"I'm asking you to travel with me as a companion. To be an ally."
"Not a difficult request. The term of the contract?"
"Until you've learned every last piece of New-Generation Magic I have."
"...How strange."
The Black Sorceress narrowed her eyes.
"Why? What's strange about it?"
"Are these terms not far too favorable to me?"
"I get a strong companion out of it, and if I happen to pick up the magic you created on your own along the way, all the better."
"Teaching it is no difficulty. So long as I can learn New-Generation Magic."
"People usually won't share magic they made themselves if they can help it. You're an odd one."
"Once I have mastered New-Generation Magic, I should be able to create magic more tremendous still."
"...I see."
This was going to leave him feeling rather sorry for the Black Sorceress. One look at the actual caliber of the spells he had labeled New-Generation Magic, and the disappointment waiting for her was plain enough. In a sense, it was a fraudulent contract. Even so, Yujun had not broken its terms.
"Then shall we seal it that way?"
"Mm. Agreed."
The soul contract with the Black Sorceress was over almost as soon as it began. Neither side had any complaint with the terms, so there was little room for trouble to take root—setting aside, of course, whatever might follow once she learned what this thing called New-Generation Magic actually was.
Yujun quietly slipped the Absolute Sealing Orb he had been holding into his inventory. The Black Sorceress wanted something from him. More than that, a soul contract now bound them, and that alone spared him the work of taming her the way he had tamed Balrog. The orb was unnecessary. And with that, Balrog's lease on life stretched a little longer.
"Balrog. You stay in there."
"I want that loathsome mage in my grasp."
"She's already an ally."
"...A pity. Hold on. Since when did I become an ally of the likes of you?"
"You're not? Then I suppose I'll have to kill you."
"For the time being, let us say we are of one side."
Balrog changed his tune without so much as a flicker of expression.
"You put in the effort this time, so I'll ease the pain a great deal."
At Yujun's words, Balrog's face brightened visibly—then flushed a furious red.
"You mean to say you have been heaping pain upon me on purpose all this time? You human!"
"So you don't like it?"
"Fine."
"Stay in there."
"Understood."
He had grown decidedly more docile than before. The suffering he had endured inside the Absolute Sealing Orb accounted for some of it, but the greater part was that he was beginning, little by little, to feel the gulf between his power and Yujun's.
Now that I think about it, I put it away for nothing.
He drew the sealing orb back out. Balrog entered the Absolute Sealing Orb without protest, and Paranet came over, dabbing at a bead of sweat on his brow.
"Master."
"Yeah?"
"Such a commotion, and yet not a single celestial seems to be coming. How is that?"
"I put up a barrier."
"Pardon? When?"
"Before we came in here."
"Then the celestials of the Moderate Faction outside have no idea what is happening in this place?"
"Right. And they probably didn't know one of their own was trying to summon a being out of myth—or that he was a Demon God Worshipper."
"What will become of the war?"
"If they don't have another card to play, the Hardline Faction wins. We've already cut their strength down quite a bit."
"And if they do have another card?"
"You think I'd have every last one of those figured out? The Black Sorceress, for instance... Oh, right. What's your name?"
"Yenil."
"Yenil? Bit of an unusual name. Anyway, unless someone like Yenil suddenly shows up, you can treat the variables as nonexistent."
"Hmm..."
"What? You uneasy?"
"I have a bad feeling."
"Yeah?"
When Paranet said he was uneasy, it meant something was there. There was nothing to be gained by simply waving the fellow's instincts aside.
"You think there's something dangerous?"
"Yes. It has been a long while, I think. This sensation."
Paranet said it while striking what he clearly believed to be a dignified pose.
"And you don't know what it is? Just vaguely uneasy?"
"Less a threat close at hand... and more a feeling that it is deeply bound up with the war, if I had to say."
"You can tell even that much?"
"I am not ordinarily one for instincts. That is precisely why, when a feeling comes, I know it at once."
"...You foresee the future in a very peculiar way. All right. Noted."
Just then the Black Sorceress stepped between the two of them, and it was Paranet she addressed, not Yujun.
"What is your name?"
Paranet thrust his chest forward.
"I am Paranet. First summon of the great Master."
"A Death Knight?"
"Well, something along those lines."
"Hm? You are not a Death Knight?"
"I am. Just take it that way. Understood?"
"Why is this summon so insolent? You—"
"Shin Yujun."
"Yes. Shin Yujun. I would appreciate it if you kept that summon called Paranet under proper control."
"Don't be like that. Get along, both of you. This isn't the sort of acquaintance that ends after a brief look."
"Understood."
"...Hmph."
At any rate, if Paranet was right, this was no time to be taking their ease.
"Let's get out of here. Paranet, take us to where Manuela is."
"Are we bringing that sorry excuse for a mage as well?"
"Sorry excuse for a mage? I use magic too. Does that make me a sorry excuse?"
"My apologies."
"Space Movement first."
"Yes, sir!"
The teleport brought Manuela into view, Atradeon beside her. Told by Yujun to wait, she had been watching for him with desperate impatience, and the moment he appeared she came toward him smiling. Then her eyes found the Black Sorceress at his side, and her face hardened.
"The Black Sorceress?"
"You know me?"
"How could I not?"
"And who are you?"
"Wouldn't mean anything to you if I told you. I was active in the Demon Realm."
"A witch, then. Judging by the aura about you, a pureblood."
"That's right."
Manuela seemed to recognize the Black Sorceress, and it was only natural that she would. Even granting that the Black Sorceress had come from the past, that span of years did not exceed a thousand. Standing there, Yujun felt in earnest just how long Manuela had been alive.
"Wow. Manuela. Then you must have seen all those famous players from hundreds of years back with your own two eyes. You might even have watched dragons grow from practically hatchlings all the way into full-grown adults..."
"Hey. Seriously."
"My apologies."
"You've been pretending those were slips of the tongue on purpose since last time. Hm? Why do you keep doing that?"
"..."
Manuela looked thoroughly angry. That was when Paranet came to Yujun's rescue.
"My lady! This is no time for that!"
"Hm?"
"Where have the rest of our companions gone?"
"A little while ago they said Sertiphs had asked them to see to something separately... They went into that forest."
"Ah. And of course an ill premonition is never wrong... We must go there at once."
Yujun tilted his head.
"What's in there that has you like this?"
"A creature giving off a feeling similar to Balrog's. Stronger than he is, of course."
"How strong are we talking?"
"I cannot say for certain. Only that it is dangerous, nothing more..."
"Either way, we've no choice but to go. You're saying Mr. Dokgo Minsu and Mr. Yohan are in there."
"Yes."
"Yujun. But is that sorceress coming with us too?"
"Yeah. We decided to travel together from here on. You can think of her as halfway to a companion."
"..."
For all that the party's strength had just risen, she didn't look particularly pleased about it.
"What?"
"It's nothing."
Had Dokgo Minsu and Kim Yohan fallen into danger? Paranet's unease left little doubt that some powerful creature dwelled in that forest. Whatever Sertiphs had asked of them was very likely tied to it, and even if it wasn't, the errand was plainly a dangerous one.
Yujun broke into a run toward the forest, sending Sertiphs a message as he went.
...An immortal being.
The phrase brought to mind the Blood Lord sealed inside his Absolute Sealing Orb. Was this a being of the same kind?
In truth, he had let the summoning proceed and then taken her on as a companion, but that was hardly something he could say outright.
The closer he drew to the forest, the heavier Yujun's unease became. More precisely, the aura pouring off the presence within seemed to raise gooseflesh over every inch of him.
What kind of thing could possibly press down on me like this...
He meant to save his companions. He was curious, too.