Chapter 181
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 181
Chapter Title: The Seal of the Contract
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Vania Remirish—that bitch. I shouldn't have just killed her outright.
Frightened, Arsha rolled her eyes this way and that before letting out a short breath.
"It's okay. If eating's uncomfortable for you, we'll step aside."
"N-No, it's fine."
After that, Arsha started eating again, her body trembling.
Watching her force herself to chew slowly like that, Melissa's hands shook as if her heart were crumbling.
Arsha's aphasia and PTSD had improved quite a bit, but since they involved issues with her memories and psyche, it would take time for her to fully stand back up on her own.
Among those symptoms, the one that showed most prominently in Arsha was separation anxiety.
Without me or Melissa by her side, she had no idea what to do with herself.
As if the time she'd spent with us had all been a dream.
Luna said the symptoms would gradually fade within a few weeks at most, but since she was still just a child, there could be variables.
Arsha's condition was improving, no doubt about that, but she was still plagued by nightmares.
Because of it, I'd put my plans for the Dragon Heart on hold for now.
Arsha mattered more than my entertainment, obviously.
"Arsha."
Even at my call, Arsha just groaned, lost in her nightmare, refusing to wake.
I silently took her hand in a firm grip, and only then did her breathing finally even out, looking more at ease.
"I kinda want to see what kind of nightmare she's having..."
I was mulling it over when suddenly, something began to glow on the back of Arsha's hand.
"Huh? This."
Contract Seal confirmed.
Contract Seal.
At those words, I drew in a sharp breath.
"Contract Seal... You mean the one Beast Masters and monster tamers use?"
Confirmed. Judging by its form, it's a powerful seal encompassing both.
A bearer of an exceedingly rare talent, huh.
"Why does Arsha have one of those...? No, wait—there were signs ever since the Angler Bird incident."
I hadn't noticed anything like this when she was little, so maybe her talent had finally blossomed in the meantime.
I muttered to myself as I reached out to touch the Contract Seal that had appeared on Arsha's hand.
Whoosh!!!
The familiar energy seeping in from the seal startled me.
"Don't tell me the one she contracted with is that guy?"
The King of the Golden Realm.
There was only one being who carried power this overwhelming.
Come to think of it, it wasn't impossible. Back in Remirish territory, Vania had tried to summon the King of the Golden Realm—and the sacrifice she'd chosen for it was none other than Arsha.
The silver lining was that the King of the Golden Realm bore me no ill will.
And he'd linked the contract to Arsha of his own volition, without demanding any price.
I didn't know the exact mechanics of how it worked, but his power felt like it was whispering straight to me.
Take her hand. Touch the seal. Don't resist.
I'd never actually spoken to him, but he was someone I could trust.
The moment I yielded to the power flowing from the Contract Seal, my consciousness was yanked in as if hurled into deep water.
Consciousness interference detected! Attempting to resist...
"It's fine. Let it happen."
With those words, the text faded, and my vision shifted.
"I hate it!!"
Soon after, the petulant cry of a furious child rang out.
In this dream world, my current form was that of an outsider.
I couldn't interfere, and they couldn't perceive me.
Phasing through the cabin wall, I saw two familiar faces wearing troubled expressions—and Arsha, whining at them for all she was worth.
Arsha had always been such a sweet child, even from a young age.
She was so good that she'd never thrown a tantrum at Mother or Father.
But she was still a child, which meant she could feel betrayal in ways adults never would.
"I don't wanna eat this!"
"Arsha."
"You promised! Mom definitely said she'd buy me mermaid cookies! I even bragged to Big Sis and Big Bro about how they'd taste!"
"I'm sorry. Mom forgot to prepare them... It's been too long; there probably aren't any left."
"Sob... I was looking forward to it so much! I hate you, Mom!"
Arsha wailed through her sniffles.
"What do we do? She's never thrown a fit like this before..."
I could tell right away when this was.
It had to be the day of the accident at sea.
For some reason, that was the first day Arsha had ever whined to her parents.
It was just a simple case of a picky child.
Mermaid cookies were a soft, delicious treat that was quite popular even among the nobility.
They were hard to come by normally and only available in certain coastal regions that traded with the merfolk.
They were tasty enough that anyone taking a sea voyage made sure to try them at least once.
Some nobles even set out on sea trips specifically to sample them.
In fact, I vaguely remembered Arsha bragging to me and Melissa about them before the trip.
She'd chattered on about how they were super famous and delicious, promising to tell us all about the taste when she got back, her little face beaming.
From the looks of it, Arsha had heard about them and begged to try some, but Mother had gotten caught up in other things and forgotten.
With Arsha sulking and sniffling like that, her parents looked apologetic yet endeared, soothing her just enough to calm her down.
"Mom's sorry. My little girl, stay here—I'll go check right now if any are left."
"Hmph!"
She whipped her head away like she couldn't even bear to look—that was so unlike her usual self.
Her expectations must have been sky-high, so the letdown hit even harder.
A little eleven-year-old girl who'd never whined before mustering the courage for the first time, only for her parents to forget. How heartbreaking was that? Understanding her feelings well, her parents said nothing of her behavior.
With that, the two of them left, and Arsha flopped onto the bed, rolling around.
"I wish Big Sis and Big Bro had come along too..."
Melissa had been at the academy back then, and I'd stayed behind to handle family affairs, so Arsha couldn't hide her disappointment.
That was why she'd thrown her very first tantrum in her life.
Unaware it would be her last.
"You promised! I told Big Bro and Big Sis I'd let them know what they taste like... But I guess I should apologize? Yeah, when Mom and Dad come back, I'll say sorry."
She sniffled like that for a good while.
Thud thud! An urgent knock rang out, and Arsha's eyes flew wide as she dashed toward the door full of energy.
They must be back. She'd tell them she hadn't meant it, that she was sorry.
But when she flung the door open, a frantic-looking sailor stood there.
His usually neat clothes were torn and filthy in places.
"Uh, u-um..."
"Miss! Where are the Count and Countess?!"
At the urgent shout, Arsha recoiled in fear.
"Uh... Th-they..."
"You need to escape now! Get to a safe lifeboat before it's too late..."
Her parents had just left the cabin because of her tantrum.
Seeing this sailor suddenly rush in demanding they flee immediately, Arsha froze solid.
Speak of the devil.
Of all days, it had to be that one.
The day Arsha whined to her parents for the first time.
The day her parents made an unscheduled move to make up for her tantrum.
Arsha's last memory of her parents was the sight of their apologetic backs as they walked away.
The horrific guilt of not even getting to apologize seeped through from that dream.
Far too heavy a burden for an eleven-year-old child to bear.
I watched the rest of it play out.
Boom!!!
My consciousness was flung out of Arsha's dream.
I stared blankly down at her and murmured.
"So this... this is the biggest reason you're hurting."
The way she'd called herself a bad girl who deserved to be punished.
It wasn't just the terror from the horrors inflicted by House Remirish.
It was her own way of expressing her guilt.
Bad kids do wrong.
Bad kids need to be punished.
To be punished means taking a beating.
The best atonement a little girl who only knew simple stories could come up with.
House Remirish had been a source of pain and terror for Arsha, but what kept her going more than anything was believing that suffering was her punishment, her atonement.
On top of that, the pain surpassing her limits and her desperate longing to see us again must have intertwined.
For a child to feel guilt this deep and sorrowful, just how traumatic must that event have been?
I had a rough grasp of what had happened.
Startled by Arsha's first-ever tantrum, her parents had left the cabin to keep their promise to her.
Not long after, the Kraken appeared, dragging a massive storm in its wake and assaulting the ship.
They should have been guided by crew straight to a lifeboat from the first-class cabin amid the inferno—but they got caught in the chaos amid the crowds and couldn't make it aboard.
Arsha, left alone in the cabin, was forcibly dragged to safety by the Cascadia family's frantic servants and maids.
Clinging to the belief that her parents would come back soon.
But reality was cruel.
They never returned. As the ship sank, Arsha wailed and thrashed, trying to get back aboard.
Of course the servants and maids wouldn't let her.
They held her back however they could.
By the time the ship fully sank, Arsha couldn't cope with the fact that it was because of her her parents had died—and that her last words to her loved ones had been harsh ones.
And.
Those servants met the same fate, swept away by the typhoon the Kraken had conjured.
Then, exposed to the Kraken's mental attack amid the storm, Arsha's mind shattered once.
Most on the lifeboat perished in the typhoon, but by some miracle—or heavenly luck—Arsha clung to wreckage and drifted all the way to the Phinas Archipelago.
"This wasn't your fault, Arsha."
Arsha was mistaken about something.
That day, in the scene from her dream, the Kraken had been locked in battle with someone.
Without that figure, the Kraken would have devoured everyone there far more easily.