Contractbound

He checked his watch; it was still seven in the morning. He had got up early on purpose so that he would have a lot of time to find the ancient book hidden in a mansion in the forest. Graham was wearing the same clothes that he had worn yesterday. He had ordered his shirt to clean itself using the last Order he could use. His brown trench coat, which had numerous pockets, held the different items he needed to be able to take out at a moment"s notice, while the rest of his items were kept inside the briefcase in his left hand. He walked quickly and arrived at the front of the store not long after.

"Welcome back," greeted Rafferty who was standing behind the counter as usual as Graham opened the door.

The tall older sibling looked energized, standing relaxedly in his spot with his arms crossed. His red hair was neatly combed to the back and the orangish freckles on his face emphasized his pale complexion. He was wearing a different shirt from yesterday, and also a different pair of pants. Graham concluded that Rafferty wasn"t the kind of person who would wear the same outfit twice in a row.

"Your store opens very early," said Graham, slightly surprised. He had expected to have to knock on the door to be allowed in.

The store looked ready for business, even very early in the morning like that. Everything was neatly arranged and thoroughly cleaned. Even with his Supersight, he didn"t notice any speck of dust on the collection of items there. The siblings were surely meticulous people.

"It"s because we basically live here. And very late at night is the time when most of our customers come," Rafferty spoke casually, but his words seemed to contain a hidden meaning.

"What kind of customers come late at night?" he asked in curiosity.

"A lot of kinds, actually, if you know what I mean," he said vaguely.

Graham didn"t press the topic any further, but he kind of got what the man was implying. Since they were an antique store, most likely they also dealt with stolen items. He could also be referring to their ammunition trade in the back room.

"Are my orders ready?" asked Graham again.

"Yes. Come in," said Rafferty as he opened the wooden door to the room at the back of their antique store.

Graham followed him and entered the room with strange writings and talismans on the wall, which gave off a spiritual sense. Cadhla was already sitting there with the items ready as if she knew the time of Graham coming to the store.

"Good morning. You came very early," said Cadhla with her maturely graceful voice. There was not a trace of sleepiness at all in it, although it was still early in the morning.

"You said that as if you weren"t already expecting my arrival," he replied.

"Well, I"m just good at predictions, that"s all," she said nonchalantly.

Graham observed the woman across the room. Her wavy red hair appeared beautiful, which meant she had the time to neatly brush it. Her pale face looked fresh, and there was not a trace of black circles around her eyes. The same could be said for Rafferty. Since he had claimed that their customers came at night, which meant that they had a different sleep schedule from normal people.

Graham then looked at the items on the table in front of her. There were twenty normal-looking bullets and the same number of palm-sized trident talismans with horrible faces on them. Graham took out a brown envelope from his briefcase and handed it over to Rafferty, who was standing closer to him than Cadhla was. Rafferty opened it and counted the money inside; there was a total of forty guilders as agreed upon.

"How do I differentiate the special bullets from normal ones? And anywho, is there a name for the bullets? Calling it special bullet is just not convenient," asked Graham as he approached the table where the items were placed.

"Try to inject spirituality into it; the tip should glow depending on the effect. These ones should glow red. Normal bullets won"t have that reaction. As for the name, these ones are called blood bullets," explained Cadhla softly.

Graham picked up one of the bullets from the table and concentrated. He focused on his fingertips that were holding it and tried to imagine injecting the bullet with an energy that came from inside him. Little by little, the tip of the bullet glowed red, just as Cadhla said. The glow seemed surreal; it was not like a lightbulb glowing, but more like faint candle light. It was a strange sensation; he felt like he was a battery powering up a small light bulb that was very energy efficient, which didn"t drain him at all.

"You said the glow color depended on the effect. Does it mean there are different kinds of bullets besides these blood ones?" asked Graham while still holding the small object in his hand.

"Yes. Blood bullets can destroy lesser evil spirits, but they work just like a normal bullet against anything else. There are others besides them like the demolition bullets that are effective against barriers, and curse bullets which, as the name suggests, puts a curse on the target," explained Cadhla; she spoke with a professional tone, which seemed to come from experience.

"Can you create those bullets as well?" he asked while making a mental note about the different kinds of special bullets.

"Currently, I can only make blood bullets and demolition bullets. The type of bullets also depends on the Contractbound"s power, so I don"t think I"ll ever be able to make a curse bullet,"

"How do we make these bullets?" asked Graham.

"It"s a trade secret," said Cadhla shortly.

Since he wouldn"t get any more information regarding that, Graham changed the topic.

"What about the talisman?" asked Graham again, seizing his chance to gain free knowledge.

"These ones are called Barong"s Tridents. They are effective against the evil spirits residing deep in the forest which are called Leyak, but won"t work against anything else, except if they are evil spirits of the same origin. Different talismans work for different spirits. There is no universal-talisman, unfortunately, so we need to always be prepared," Cadhla explained with a patient voice.

"What is a Leyak?" asked Graham curiously.

"They are evil spirits that have resided deep there since no one knows when. They look like floating terrible masks with giant eyes and unnaturally long tongues. They are resistant to physical attacks, and will kill their victims in the most painful way," explained Rafferty. His tone was slightly colder than when he greeted Graham before, probably because Graham was asking so many questions to his sister.

Graham thought about the creature he had seen through his divination; it matched Rafferty"s description. He now knew the name of the evil spirit, so he could probably try to divine more information about it later. He then opened his mouth again to ask a different question.

"Are there any bullets or talismans that are effective against a ghoul?" asked Graham seriously.

Cadhla didn"t respond for a while. She looked to be observing Graham and thinking about something. Rafferty had a slight surprise in his face.

"Did you encounter a ghoul?" asked Rafferty suddenly.

"Uhmm... yes," said Graham. He didn"t understand the meaning behind Rafferty"s question.

"You are lucky to be alive. They are very vicious and can"t be killed easily, even by beheading. It would take a very strong Contractbound to deal with just one ghoul," said Rafferty grimly.

"Unfortunately, my power is not strong enough to create a bullet that can kill a ghoul. However, there is a talisman that can stunt them for a moment," added Cadhla.

"Val, the ghoul you encounter didn"t seem that strong. Maybe it was wounded?" Graham muttered under his breath, and then turned to the pair of siblings, "The ghoul I encountered was weaker than what you described."

Rafferty thought for a moment and then said, "It was probably wounded, or the ghoul was a summoned creature. If it was, then it makes sense; the strength of a summoned creature is limited by its summoner"s own strength,"

Graham"s interest was piqued in an instant. He had just heard two new terms; summoned creature and summoner. He had never encountered any information regarding either of them, so he became very curious.

"People can summon ghouls?"

"Not just ghouls. But I heard it requires a very dark ritual and terrible sacrifices. Even I don"t know the detail of the ritual," said Cadhla with a cold voice.

"Someone who summons any kind of evil spirit cannot have good intention," added Rafferty.

Graham memorized all the new information he had just received for free. He now had a lot of new materials for divination, which he would try once he got the time. For now, he needed to get going.

"Thank you very much for telling me all this," he said with genuine grat.i.tude, especially since they hadn"t charged him.

Graham picked up the bullets and stuffed them in groups of five inside his coat pockets. He then loaded the other five bullets into his revolver cylinder and put the gun back, tucked in his waist with its safety pin in place. The talismans were bigger and heavier, so he couldn"t stuff them all in his pockets. He put them inside the outer compartment of his briefcase unzipped, so he could reach and take them out easily. His briefcase was now noticeably heavier than before.

"I will get going then," he said while walking towards the door.

"Good luck out there," said Cadhla while Rafferty only nodded.

The two siblings watched as their customer left their store and went back to doing their usual business.

Outside the store, Graham stood under a tree where no one was around and took out his lighter. He started it and focused on the flame. He wanted to do divination regarding his enemy first before going into the battlefield. He believed that if he understood Leyaks better, he could deal with them more effectively.

"What is the origin of Leyak?"

The flame burned brighter and the surrounding area became dark. He saw an image showing a place that he didn"t recognize. It was a village with a totally different kind of architectural style from what he was familiar with. The image then zoomed in to one of the houses whose walls were made of woven bamboo and showed a parchment stuck to the wall. It was written in a foreign language that he didn"t understand, and there were words that were concealed by a blur. When he concentrated on the text, it was translated into Tulpan, but the blurred out words remained blurry.

"Leyaks are ----- who have offered their ------- to ------. They are then given the ability to turn into ----- ------ ------, which makes them invulnerable to physical harms. They can suck out the souls of humans, preferably babies, to lengthen their own lifespans, and in return, giving some of the victim"s lifespan to -------, ---- ----- ------ ------- -------. Leyaks can only be truly destroyed by --------- --------. Destroying ----- ------ ------ will ------ ----- ------, but they can ------ ------ ------ ----- -----."

The image of the text then disappeared.

Graham a.n.a.lyzed what he had just seen. It seemed that he was not strong enough to get all the information through that divination, but it gave him some insight.

"They can suck out our soul. We should note that" he said thoughtfully, then added, "The village didn"t look like somewhere from near here, so what are those Leyaks doing here?"

The place he saw was definitely not from anywhere in the Republic, but the fact was that the Leyaks were there in the forest. There must be an explanation and Graham would love to be able to find it while looking for the book. If it was too dangerous, he could just put it aside and just try to s.n.a.t.c.h the ancient book from them.

He put his lighter back inside his pocket and then headed towards the park from yesterday. He would then enter the forest through the park while divining the safest route to the mansion where the ancient book was kept. He had got everything he needed, so now he was ready.