TL-cosmo
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A Second Encounter, Part One
“Hey… Hey!”
Guh!
“Get up! The official’s waiting for us in the square!”
A sharp blow to my stomach jolted me awake.
It was a terrible way to be roused, but I didn’t feel unwell.
Ever since I’d gotten on in years, a long, refreshing sleep had become a rare luxury.
“What’s this, now? Bullying an old man so early in the day…”
“Huh? You’re no old man. And what’s with that weird way of talking? Just get up already! We’re going!”
The friends who used to visit my hut were long gone. I supposed someone might come by on an errand, but I couldn’t recall anyone rude enough to barge in and kick a sleeping man.
Besides, the voice was young.
And somehow my own voice… was young too.
So young, it almost sounded like a child’s.
For a moment, I wondered if it had been a woman’s voice—but no, it had clearly come from my own throat.
What’s more, though my bed had been cheap, it had been a proper bed. Why was I now lying not on a bed, but on the bare ground? I wasn’t a restless sleeper; I’d never once fallen out of bed.
And what was covering me was just a thin piece of cloth, not even a proper blanket, that offered no warmth at all.
Yet strangely, my joints didn’t ache.
If I really had fallen from my bed and slept on the floor, my whole body should have been protesting in agony.
I rubbed my bleary eyes and lifted my head. The world gradually came into focus.
The boy in front of me looked vaguely familiar.
He was a well-built boy for a pauper, with mousy brown hair and a single streak of yellow.
He was rough, blunt, and prone to violence—but fiercely loyal to his friends and painfully honest.
My best friend, who’d died young in the war.
This must be a dream,
I thought instantly.
Despite having just kicked me, the boy’s face—silhouetted against the light—was split in a wide grin.
“R-Ranno… is that you?”
“Who’s that? I’m Rau. And you’re Zeke. It’s not like you to be this out of it.”
The back of my nose tingled.
I remembered now. The boy before me was Rau, and I was zeke.
There was no mistake. He was exactly who I thought he was.
This had to be a dream.
To see that carefree smile again... to meet him so clearly, once more…
“Come on, let’s go.”
“W-wait…”
Without giving me a moment to wallow in sentiment, Rau slung an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into a run.
I stumbled—but my body felt light, and I let him drag me along.
My viewpoint was low, my feet moved swiftly, and the scenery flew past.
I shook his hand from my shoulder and followed him as he ran ahead.
The sights around me were familiar—a nostalgic path I knew by heart.
It had been so long since I’d last run. The simple joy of it left no room for thought, and before I knew it, Rau was slowing down.
We had arrived.
This was the square—a space created when a fire had accidentally spread and burned down several old, dilapidated houses.
Rau’s words, the scene before me—it all came flooding back.
Children dressed in rags were gathered in the square. With them stood a finely dressed official and a few soldiers. Adults loitered at a distance, watching.
This was the slum in the northwest of Relmadae, the capital of the Anjuvitz Kingdom.
Zeke knew what was about to happen.
This was that day.
The day the torment began.
“Is this all of them?”
“We haven’t been able to account for every last one, so this isn’t everyone, but I believe we’ve gathered most of them.”
An official, facing the crowd of poor children, addressed a soldier standing behind him.
His face was a mask of displeasure—like a man wondering why he, of all people, had to come to a place like this.
He would have loved to push a job that required visiting the slums onto a subordinate.
In fact, he would have, had it not been a direct order from the king himself.
It was hard enough keeping a census of the commoners; counting the poor was all but impossible. He had been told to gather all the children of the slums, and he had done his best, but of course he couldn’t get every single one.
He wanted to leave no gaps for complaints or any openings for his colleagues to sabotage him, but it was a difficult task. The official’s mood soured as he pictured the faces of his rivals, the sort of men who would seize on the slightest pretext to trip him up in the race for promotion.
He wanted to tell the soldiers to search high and low until they found every last child, but that wasn’t realistic. He couldn’t have them running around the slums forever, and earning their resentment would do him no good.
With a heavy sigh, the official stepped forward, drawing all eyes to him.
A soldier gestured for silence, but the children of the slums were not the type to be quieted so easily.
The official waved his hand dismissive gesture, sending the soldier back.
Judging by his somewhat haughty attitude toward the soldier, he was likely of high rank, perhaps even a nobleman.
After glancing once over the children in the square, the official cleared his throat and snapped his fingers.
A flame burst to life in the air. The crowd went silent in an instant, every child’s gaze fixed on the official.
It was a drastic method, but an effective one.
The official unrolled a scroll and began to read.
“By royal decree, His Majesty has enacted a new law. Under this law—the National Contract Law—all children born henceforth, regardless of station, shall be required to form a contract with a magical beast. Furthermore, even those already born are granted the right to form a contract.”
A stir went through the children once more.
“In accordance with this law, the children born in this slum are also subject. The state will bear the cost of the contract. For that purpose, you have been gathered here. You will now be moved to the contracting site.”
Even the younger ones knew what a Contract was.
But they were still children.
They couldn’t quite grasp what the official was saying with his difficult words, and there was no one to ask for help.
There was no time to think.
Asking the child next to them didn’t help—they were just as confused.
As the murmuring refused to die down, the official jutted his chin, giving an order to the soldiers.
Urged on by the soldiers, the children were led from the square and herded onto a large, horse-drawn cart.
Zeke, having followed along without resistance, was also lost.
He knew what was coming.
Was this a dream? A vision from the brink of death? A mere phantom?
The only thing that was different was that he knew what was about to happen. That was all.
If he had to name one more difference, it was that he no longer held any hope for the Contract.
As he mulled this over,the cart began to move. Soon, they arrived at a large building on the border between the commoners’ district and the nobles’ district.
Because the facility was used by both nobles and commoners, it was often situated on such a border, in this city and others.
This was the Contracting Grounds—also known as the Dragon Hall.
It consisted of a grand hall and a vast outdoor enclosure behind it, walled off from the surrounding city.
It was a place the poor never normally set foot in.
Usually, one would go through reception inside, get a check-up from a doctor, and if you were a noble, you might be asked for a donation.
But now, skipping all formalities, zeke and the other children were led directly into the wide, training-ground-like area.
The vast, walled space, with its exposed dirt floor and open sky, had an atmosphere that made you forget you were in the middle of a city.
Though it was apparently called the Contract Chamber for convenience’s sake, the blue sky was so visible that calling it a “chamber” felt like a stretch.
In the center of the chamber, a large magic circle was drawn. This was where the Contracts were made.
One of the children who had been standing near a soldier was led to the side of the circle.
He was handed a small magic stone. A soldier pricked his fingertip with a knife, letting a drop of blood fall onto the circle, and made him repeat words he didn’t understand.
The magic circle began to glow. The children leaned in, fascinated.
Zeke, too, had been excited the first time, but seeing it for a second time, he felt nothing.
Soon, the light flared brighter, and something emerged from within the circle.
Oh, that’s right. That kid was the first one,
Zeke thought, calmly observing the situation as the other children gasped at the light from the circle.
The story was proceeding exactly as he remembered.
But even if he wanted to run, having come this far, escape was impossible.
What had been summoned was a small, avian magical beast with blue feathers, called a Silkbird.
It was rude to categorize another’s magical beast, but if one were to divide them into “hits” and “misses,” this was clearly the latter.
The Magical Beast Contract was a form of magic bestowed upon humankind by the dragons of old. It was for humans, who possessed a certain degree of intelligence and skill but were weak and lacked magical power.
This magic, which made it possible to summon and contract with monsters that were hostile to humanity, had now become indispensable.
It did not simply allow one to command monsters; it also granted humans the power they lacked.
TL-cosmo
PR - Badboy
Read at asmotoon.com
