Contractbound

He had previously given Luuk his share and asked Ivo to give Jacco his. The total profit of selling the wraiths remains was eighty-five guilders, which he then subtracted by thirty-three guilders for the eleven blood bullets that he had used to kill the wraiths. After dividing it evenly, each of them got a share of seventeen guilders and six stuivers.

"Val, we are really poor if we think about it. Everything is just getting more expensive as we go. We need to find a new way of making money," he paused and stared at his ceiling.

"If only we were stronger, we could kill more supernatural creatures and sell their remains..."

He was thinking about a lot of different things, including why he wanted to keep getting stronger.

"Why don"t we just stop here and live like this until we die? It"s good enough, isn"t it, Val?" he muttered.

"But I guess we can"t. I won"t be satisfied to just live like this. And besides, we became living goldmines the moment we formed a contract with our Deities. It"s either kill or be killed as a Contractbound, and I"m sure as h.e.l.l don"t want the latter,"

Graham stayed quiet again and let his mind wander. He remembered a lot of things, including his bitter past. He used to be weak, and he didn"t want to go back to that state. At least now, he had the power to defend himself and the people he cared about, although currently, he had none.

He also thought about various random things, including his desire to leave the country and travel the world. He would need a lot of money to do so because traveling abroad was not cheap. And now that he was a Contractbound, he would need to be powerful as well because he would be exposed to dangers that normal people wouldn"t normally be.

"Speaking of normal people, why don"t we do what I"ve always wanted to do? It can make us money while allowing me to please my Deity," he said, suddenly having a brilliant idea.

Graham got up and sat on his bed. He took out his lighter from his pants pocket and lit it. And then, he concentrated on the flame that was burning brightly in front of him and repeated a question in his mind.

"Where can I find a secure place near here that I can use?"

The flame in front of him burned brighter and his surrounding area became dimmer. Slowly, an image appeared from the flame and he could see a building that looked abandoned but was still in a decent condition. It appeared to be a small chapel in the middle of a field, with no other visible buildings nearby. The image then zoomed out and showed an aerial view of the area; the chapel was located on the small hill near Dorpstraat, south of Hoogstraat. It was not really close, but not too far either. It would take him probably less than ten minutes to get there by motor carriage. After that, the image slowly disappeared.

Once he found a place, Graham put out the fire and got up from the bed. He quickly put on his favorite brown trench coat and took everything he might need, stuffing them neatly inside his briefcase. After that, we went out to the street to find a public motor carriage, which didn"t take him long. He told the driver and they drove away.

From Tuinstraat, he had to go south towards Hoogstraat and kept going ahead until they reached Hoogstraat South. The street that afternoon was rather quiet because it was Sat.u.r.day and people preferred to stay at home. At the intersection after Hoogstraat South, the driver turned left towards the east and stopped in front of a huge gate on Dorpstraat. Graham paid the driver and got out immediately.

Dorpstraat was devoid of people at that hour. Besides him, there were only a couple of other people in the street and a few motor carriages driving by. It was understandable because there was nothing there except some houses and small corner stores. There wasn"t even a minimarket in sight nearby. However, there were a lot of trees, much more than the number on Tuinstraat, so the street felt much cooler to walk in.

Graham looked at the giant gate on his right. Behind the gate, he could see the small hill but not the chapel. It was probably farther in so he couldn"t see it from the street. He approached the rusty iron gate to see if it was locked, and lucky him, it wasn"t. It was only latched shut but it could easily be opened. He unlatched the gate and walked into the hill behind. After closing the gate behind him, Graham marched quickly uphill, which took a lot of stamina, and found the chapel not long after. It wasn"t that far from the entrance, probably only three minutes of walking.

The chapel was in worse condition in person than in his divination, most likely because the lighting was distorted by the flame. It was a gloomy and old building that gave off a slight atmosphere of horror and oblivion. He didn"t mind it, however, because it would be perfect for what he wanted to do there. As long as the ceiling didn"t start collapsing on him, he wouldn"t complain.

Graham walked around the small chapel to find any other building that might be the place where the caretaker stayed, but there was none; it was really the only building around. There weren"t any tombstones either, which were usually present behind churches. Since there was no caretaker, he took the liberty to make himself at home. He reached into the handle of the double door in front of him to open it.

"Locked..." he said as he was trying to push and pull the door without any success.

It wasn"t a problem for Graham, however. He concentrated on the tall wooden door in front of him, opened his mouth, and started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to unlock yourself!"

His ethereal voice reached into the door and it made a faint click. Graham pushed the door again and now he successfully got it open. He entered the chapel cautiously and observed his surrounding. The moment he stepped into the building, a heavy dusty smell entered his nose, making him sneeze several times.

The inside of the chapel was as gloomy as the outside, with the sunlight unable to penetrate through because of the boarded-up windows. The rows of seats were still neatly arranged, but there was a heavy layer of dust on each of them. In fact, everything inside the chapel was still in good condition. He just needed to clean the dust off everything and the chapel would be ready to use.

Graham walked deeper into the building and found what he was looking for: a confessional. It was crucial in his plan, so he couldn"t afford not to have one. Besides the confessional, he was also looking for something else: a broom or anything that could be used for cleaning. He walked behind the altar and found the broom closet where he found a broken broom inside. Graham concentrated on the broom and chanted,

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to clean this whole place!"

Once his strangely ethereal voice reached the broken broom, it stood up by itself and started cleaning the surrounding area. Graham knew that his Order wasn"t strong enough to make the broom clean the whole area at once, so he would repeat it every time the effect ran out.

The broken broom worked quickly and cleaned the area around the altar, while Graham was busy throwing out any religious symbols remaining in the gloomy chapel. He was carrying a balanced cross and got out of the chapel through the side door and left the cross behind the building. He then came back and found that the broom had stopped working after cleaning a quarter of the total area of the chapel. He concentrated on it again and repeated his chant.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to clean this whole place!"

Once he finished his spell chant, the broom started to work again and cleaned the rest of the area, while Graham observed the chapel closely to make sure he didn"t miss anything. Besides the cross, there wasn"t anything else that could serve as a religious symbol. There was probably tainted gla.s.s, but all the windows were boarded up so it wasn"t a problem.

The broom stopped working again some minutes later and Graham repeated his Order to make it work. It took him a total of five Orders for the broken broom to sweep the dust off the floor and the seats in the chapel, and the dust was cleanly swept out of the building. Now, the chapel was all clean, although it was still shadowy and somber, which was perfect for Graham.

"Val, look at this. This place is just perfect for our plan. Now we just need to find people to complete it," he muttered proudly.

Graham went out of the chapel and back to the street below the hill. He walked past the gate and stopped a public motor carriage that was driving by and asked the driver to take him to Grotemarktstraat. It should be the street with the most number of people at that hour, and it was not really far from where he was either. He arrived at his destination not long after.

The busy Grotemarktstraat was a total contrast with the barren Dorpstraat. Graham quickly went to a secluded alley and took out his lighter. He needed to do divination first to find the perfect target. In the alley with only a few people around, Graham triggered his lighter with his back covering the flame. He concentrated and repeated a question.

"Show me the people who are most suitable to be my targets,"

The flame in front of him burned brighter and created an aerial view image that he could clearly see. In the image, there were seven people in total who had a red glow among the others. There were four women and three men, all of whom looked rather restless. Graham memorized their facial features and every other distinctive characteristic that the people had and after that, the image gradually disappeared.

"Let"s get started, Val," he said meaningfully.

Graham put on a simple facemask to cover his face and pretended to be sick, so people wouldn"t question it. He then left the alley and approached the location of the nearest target from divination. The targets this time were not stationary, so he might not be able to get all of them. He walked fast and saw a man sitting on a bench on the sidewalk while smoking. He looked to be in his late thirties and had black circles around his eyes. Graham walked closer to the man and started a conversation.

"May I sit here?" he asked.

"Sure," replied the man shortly, and then moved over to make room.

"Are you okay, Sir?" asked Graham, trying his best to show genuine concern in his tone.

The man looked at him and was about to say something, but Graham quickly interrupted him.

"You should go to the abandoned chapel on a hill on Dorpstraat tonight at eight because all your problems can be solved if you do. Don"t tell anyone about it and don"t forget to bring some money. You will also forget about this encounter," he spoke convincingly while looking at the man right in the eye.

The man appeared to be in a daze for a second and then nodded. After that, Graham left him alone and went to the location of his second target. It didn"t take him long to find a woman whose face he saw in his divination. She was walking in the opposite direction from him quickly, and much like the man, she looked rather stressed. When she was close enough, he pretended to be lost and spoke to her.

"Excuse me, can you help me? Cough! Cough! I"m lost," he said with a helpless voice with added coughing for effect.

The woman looked at him in the eye and when she was about to speak, Graham interrupted again,

"If you want all your problems to be solved, you should go to the abandoned chapel on a hill on Dorpstraat tonight at eight. Also, bring some money and don"t tell anyone about it. You will forget this encounter as well," he spoke gently but convincingly without breaking eye-contact.

She looked confused at first and then slowly nodded. After that, Graham left her and she resumed her walking as nothing had happened and slowly disappeared in the crowd.

"Two down, five to go," he said quietly.

Graham then went around the street and stores to find all the targets. In the end, he could only manage to persuade five of them to go to the chapel tonight. It was not a problem for him because he was still at the initial stage of his plan. He could always get more people later.

"Now we can get our little cult going," he said meaningfully as he left Grotemarktstraat.