Contractbound

Squeak...

Bleat...

The forest was bustling with activities in that cold autumn morning. Sounds of animals could be heard from every direction; some were distant and some were close. The animals were busy preparing for winter, collecting food and building nests. A pair of squirrels were seen collecting nuts from the ground and then quickly retreated back to a tree branch. A gust of wind rustled the leaves up high in the tree canopy, causing leaves to blow away, while at the bottom, only a gentle breeze was felt. In the dark forest floor, mushrooms of various kinds grew in abundance. Some of them looked bizarre, like those depicted in alien movies.

Graham walked cautiously on the forest soil, remembering the distinguishable features of his surroundings. There were tall trees everywhere he looked, but with his Supersight, he could see that the trees were somewhat unique. The markings on their trunks were distinctive, like fingerprints were to humans. Some of the trees had dried sap on the outer layer of their barks, which served as food for beetles. Those features made it easier for him to memorize his location.

He kept pressing forward, heading to the direction of the mansion where the book that he was looking for was kept. He had previously divined its location in the forest and was shown an aerial view of the forest with two red dots marking the target and him respectively. Judging from the distance between him and the mansion, it would take him two hours of walking in the same direction to reach it. In a city, walking for two hours in a direction would most likely take someone to another street, but in Oostelijk Bos, where there were only trees in every direction, walking that deep into it would very easily get someone lost. Fortunately, Graham was a Divinator of the Tongue.

"Doesn"t this remind you of something, Val? Us walking in a forest like this," he said quietly. His tone was full of irony. It seemed that the memory that he remembered was not a pleasant one.

Graham vaulted over a mossy overgrown root and continued walking on the dry soil. There was no visible path leading to the mansion from where he entered the forest, so he had to sometimes create his own by pushing fallen branches aside and jumping over obstacles. When he wasn"t sure of the direction to go, he stopped and did another divination, which then showed him the way.

After walking for about an hour, he arrived at a small spring with fallen leaves floating on top. He stopped there to recover his stamina while leaning against a tree. Although it was probably safe, he didn"t want to take the chance and drink the spring water right away. Instead, he took out his lighter to do divination to determine if there was a danger with the water.

"Is the spring water completely safe for me to drink?"

Graham asked the question that he repeated in his heart while staring at his lighter flame. The flame showed an image of a piece of paper being burned entirely, which was similar to paper burning divination; if the whole paper burned, the answer was yes.

Since the water posed no danger to him, he took a big scoop with both hands and gulp it down. The water felt cold and refreshing, with a very slight gra.s.sy taste to it. Graham wasn"t worried, however. Since he became a Contractbound, his body had become more resistant to common illnesses. Unless the water was poisoned, which clearly wasn"t the case since his divination showed so, he would be okay.

He then took out an almost empty bottle of water from his briefcase. He had been drinking the content on the way to the spring, and now that he had the chance, he refilled it and put it back inside his briefcase next to another bottle of water. He had bought three bottles at a store near the park before coming into the forest.

Chirp chirp...

The sound of nature was prominent there. After drinking and resupplying, he went back to the tree which he had leaned against and sat under it. Graham sat relaxedly there, enjoying the sounds of animals coming from his surroundings. A herd of deer came not long after, aiming to drink the spring water. Graham"s brown trench coat blended well with the soil beneath him, so the deer weren"t scared of the motionless man. He watched them from a distance, enjoying the peaceful moment. He knew that after this, there might not be any more moments like that for a while.

There were a total of six deer in the herd, which were mostly does. The buck from yesterday wasn"t there, but there was another male deer instead, which still looked quite young. They were taking turns to drink because the spring wasn"t wide enough for them to do it at the same time. Watching the animals drinking gave Graham a sense of tranquility. He kept sitting there until the herd was finished with their business and walked away.

Once his stamina had completely recovered, Graham stood up and continued his journey to the abandoned mansion. He kept walking towards the direction from his divination, which he had etched in his memory. Unless something was deliberately misdirecting him, he should be walking the right way.

The green tall trees were slowly replaced by withered ones the closer he got to his mansion. The previously noisy forest also became noticeably more silent. There were no animals around that part of the forest, which meant they didn"t dare approach because of the dangerous evil residing there. Animals had a better sense of such things than humans, after all. Although the surrounding areas had changed, the mansion was still not in sight, so Graham kept pressing forward cautiously. His presence wasn"t concealed yet because Valentine"s ability worked only within a limited radius. He would use it when he was closer to the mansion.

In the dead silence, he suddenly felt a strong presence approaching from his right side at a fast pace. Judging by its speed, Graham could probably outrun the presence just barely. However, he wanted to test the water first while it was still safe to do. He turned to the right and saw a floating terrifying head wearing a mask quickly getting closer and closer to him; it was a Leyak that he had seen indirectly and heard about.

The mask that it was wearing looked wooden and ornamental. The design was not something native to the Republic. From under the mask, the thing"s giant eyeb.a.l.l.s were bulging out and staring right into him. It bared its sharp fangs that could totally crush a human to bits menacingly. Under its head, where its body should have been, there were only entrails with blood still dripping from them. The blood, however, disappeared once it touched the ground, leaving no trace entirely.

Graham stood his ground and waited patiently for the Leyak to get close enough. He could feel a dangerous aura emitted by the evil spirit as it approached him, which made him feel weak and gloomy. Once it was within range, he quickly chanted,

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to stop in your track!"

The Leyak stopped moving once Graham issued his Order. His power worked on the evil spirit! It was a gamble that he took, and if his power had failed, he would quickly use one of the talismans that he had brought.

Since he knew that his Order would only last five seconds, or probably less since a Leyak was stronger than a deer, he quickly drew his gun and shot it in the head.

Bang!

The loud sound of the gun broke the silence in the forest. The blood bullet drilled itself inside the head of the frozen evil spirit. The Leyak didn"t die right away; instead, it wriggled about, looking like it was in great pain. A second later, blood veins came gushing out from the hole that the bullet had made and quickly enveloped its whole being.

Growl!!

The Leyak let out an animal-like scream. Blood burst out of the veins and started to melt every part of its being. It kept growling until it completely melted into nothingness. In only a matter of seconds, the Leyak had been destroyed.

"The way the bullet killed it was different from what I saw in my divination. I wonder why?" he muttered, and then added, "Nine Orders remaining, nineteen bullets, and twenty talismans. We should be able to do this," he said as he approached the spot where the Leyak had been killed.

On the ground, there was a small crystal fragment that was purple in color. Graham picked it up and stuffed it inside his briefcase and quickly left the area. The sound of his gunshot might have alerted the other Leyaks.

Graham quickened his pace while keeping his alert high. The dry soil that he had been walking on just a moment ago was now replaced by parched ground. There were no brushes or gra.s.s, only dead trees, and fallen tree branches around. The area gave off a sense of dread and death.

It wasn"t long until he finally could see the big mansion in the distance. It was even bigger in person than when he saw it through his divination, and was surrounded by tall fences. He couldn"t see the main gate to the mansion from where he was standing, which meant that it was not the front of it. Graham approached it very carefully while observing his surroundings. Around the mansion, in the area inside the fences, there were trees that somehow were still alive, standing tall with their green leaves, and the ground was a healthy brown color without any signs of parching. It was a very strange contrast with the area outside.

Graham got closer to the mansion but stayed outside the green area. He took out his lighter and started his divination.

"Is the green area surrounding the mansion safe?"

The flame flickered and formed an image. In the image, there was a man whom he didn"t recognize running from a Leyak that was just some centimeters away from him. He then climbed over the fence quickly to get to the area where the green trees were and the Leyak stopped just outside the perimeter before it finally left. The image then disappeared.

Graham put out the fire and spoke in a low voice, "That area seems to be a safe spot. Since my divination didn"t show anything else, there shouldn"t be any hidden dangers there."

After putting his lighter back inside his pocket, he climbed over the fence carefully and jumped down into the safe area. Being inside the greeny area gave him a sense of safety and tranquility, which was very different from just a moment ago where he felt the atmosphere of gloom. It felt similar to when he was sitting near the spring watching the herd of deer drinking from it. He then sat under the tree with his back against it and issued an order for himself.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order myself to fall asleep!"

He suddenly felt unbearable sleepiness overcoming him and fell asleep not long after. Once his consciousness faded, Valentine took over and woke up. It only took less than ten seconds for the whole process to finish.

He got up and chanted quietly,

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of my presence a secret!"

A thin yellowish mist descended and enveloped him before disappearing. After he finished with his preparation, Valentine moved from his spot. He would enter the mansion in Graham"s stead for the time being, but should the need arise, he would switch right away.

From where he was standing, there were windows with broken gla.s.s, but they were barred, so he couldn"t enter through them. The mansion"s stone walls looked very strong, so he couldn"t just break through them either. He had to find an unbarred window or a door. If the door was locked, he could probably try to pick it open, or if he couldn"t, he could switch with Graham and issue an Order.

He circled the mansion and stopped when he reached the front. The gate looked like it had been broken open a long time ago. What was left now was the rusty remains of it lying on the ground. There was a fountain that had dried up with a statue of a woman wearing foreign clothing at the top. Parts of her body were missing either because of age or vandalism. Gra.s.s grew wildly on some parts of the ground while the rest had broken pavement on it.

Valentine approached the main double-doors that still looked intact. He grabbed the handle and pulled it open. The door was very heavy, so he had to put in extra power to open it.

Drag...

The heavy door brushed against the floor and created a loud noise. Valentine waited for some time in case something heard the sound he created. After some seconds of complete silence, he decided it was safe and stepped into the mansion without closing the heavy door so that he could escape easily.

The moment he was inside the mansion, the sense of peace and tranquility was quickly replaced by the sense of death and hatred. He heightened all his senses and trod very carefully.