Chapter 4: Dragon-san is Forcibly Under a Contract
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Translator: KurehaDurant
Suddenly, a pentagram appeared on the ground. Just big enough to surround both him and me.
This can only mean one thing, the familiar contract has begun. If I don’t add anything to his chant, the contract will proceed with the assumption that the specifics for this contract will only consist what the young man has stated.
Voluntary familiar, is this some sort of a fetish or something? I didn’t want him to walk out of this favour half way through but this is a little extreme.
A familiar is usually when a mage or a wizard form a contract with another species which possesses magic. However, there are cases where it’s the other way around like this one. Once an individual becomes a familiar, they can be summoned into a different universe or fight beasts at the master’s command. They pretty much become a slave. In order to complete the contract, you need to initiate it by drawing up a contract pentagram and an agreement from both parties.
In the case of a forced contract, the master needs to give something to the familiar. It’s because the majority of sane individuals don’t like becoming a familiar. It’s not just because they have to become their master’s slave. But because the master’s magic ends up being shared to the familiar so their master’s ability also becomes their ability. It feels like you’re no longer yourself and it’s not the nicest feeling…… Is what I heard. Still, once they become a familiar they remain loyal to their masters.
Looking at it positively, the two can fully understand each other.
Anyway, once the contract is initiated, an object must be placed between the two individuals. A parchment or a crystal is a very common choice. If the object or the pentagram is broken, or if the master doesn’t have enough magic, the contract will be erased unless something else is added to it. When the contract is complete, the master will notice the bond between the two, notifying them that their familiar is ready to be used for their selfish orders.
However, the procedure is very different if the contract is being formed through the use of an ancient language. The ancient language possesses magic and can even manipulate magic, so a chant from one of the individual is enough to initiate the contract. The moment one makes the chant, whatever is stated in the chant immediately becomes a promise made through souls and magic. Even freakier, spoken words are all you need to complete the contract as well.
It’s like making a pinky promise, pinky promise with magic and words chanted in the ancient language.
For example, let’s say you tell your dad you haven’t eaten any sugar when you have or you say that know something when you don’t. Those small, harmless lies you would have told at least once in a life.
Once the two are a master and a familiar, the slightest guilt you feel from telling those lies ends up being shared.
On top of that, the feeling of guilt will not end until a punishment is given out to the lier. Even if the two individuals don’t really mind about the lie.
Nightmares are still better than that.
Once the contract is formed, there is no freedom for anyone who is under the contract. If you try to break the contract by force, the result won’t be nice.
There are no safe ways to remove the spell.
On top of that, Nectar said he will give his everything with no exaggeration.
That’s like a farm animal saying to the farmer to eat them. Does he understand the situation he put himself in?
First thing first, I need to calm down. I can still make my statements to fix this but if I say one wrong word, we will both live through an endless nightmare. Come on me! Think!
Thinking as fast as I could only drove me towards more panic. Either I have panicked so much that I became numb, the voice which I managed to squeeze out sounded very calm.
⌈………. Calm down. Someone who is still studying magic shouldn’t throw away their life so easily.⌋
His magic is a lot weaker than mine. I should be able to change the specifics just by saying his name. Still, I need to be very careful with my words.
⌈Me, little, helpful. Me, gained, a lot. All, I left, offer, my life. Evens out.⌋ He replied confidently ignoring my concern and my words completely.
Young man, please care about your life a little more! This is going to be too much for him! I was only hoping that he would pay me a visit every now and then and teach me the language during his visits. I didn’t think he was prepared to stick around with me forever!
I guess it’s hard to detect my concern from my stern dragon face. He ignored my words like it wasn’t any of his business.
⌈Also, me, dragon, want, understand. Find out, first. Here, leyline, fix. Study, together. Clean magical cycle. Above all, dragon, beautiful. Other, knowledge? Curious, very. So please, me, near you.⌋
First, he wants to become my familiar and now he wants to study me? Well isn’t he a bold one. It’s like he has gone insane after being overwhelmed by his curiosity and his greed for knowledge. He blushed like a school-girl in love while his eyes shined with curiosity. Regardless of how nice one’s facial features were, you could not deny how adoring the sight was. What an interesting little creature he is. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to have him as a familiar after all.
All the negative aspect in this current situation aside, he’s still going to teach me the modern language. Also, I’m confident I won’t come across someone like him for another couple hundred years. All is well if it ends well!!
Still, there’s nothing “well” in me taking away all of his freedom. I still haven’t added any specifics to the contract. This is my last chance to make this whole situation right. With those thoughts in my mind, I chanted, trying to sound like the o-so-wise dragons you see in fairy tales.
⌈Very well. I, the one born from the lava and raised by the night will accept Nectar Prominen as my familiar. However, the contract will perish once I am fluent in the modern language. While this young man remains my teacher, I swear to give all my strength to protect him and to supply him with all the freedom in this world.⌋
The moment I made my chant, tiny orbs floated up from the pentagram. The pentagram flashed a couple of times, then it split up into two separate circles and sunk into our chests.
This was the most I could do against this freedom restricting magic. After this, a spirit should appear in front of us. The spirit will act as our witness as well as adjust the difference in our strength, the language of the two individual and connect both of our consciousness. It’s quite a handy spirit. However, a lot of magic ends up being used up just for this spirit to come out. But for us dragons, this isn’t a problem. We pretty much have infinite magic.
Also, this method is better for both of us. Let me explain why by using the lying example from before. If you complete the contract by summoning this spirit, you won’t get punished for telling a lie. As long as the lie doesn’t go against the specifics stated during the ritual, no punishment will be given out. However, if it ends up going against the statements, the level of punishment which both parties believe is reasonable will be given to the lier. Even if that punishment was thought at a subconscious level.
The statements which are made during the ritual gets detected as an absolute promise and gets in-printed into our souls. There is even a chance for your soul to completely vanish if any actions are made against the promises. It will be an instant death if you’re lucky.
Protecting him with all of my dragon power is a piece a cake, and I was going to give him all the freedom anyway so it should be fine. The worst punishment that I could get from it would be something like one of my limb taken.
⌈Spirit, now!!⌋
So he knew about the contract chant but didn’t know about the contract spirit. What do humans understand about other species? I explained the current situation to the young man who was just staring into space like he only had a vague idea of what was happening right now.
⌈With this spell, we turn the magic that is close to the core into a spirit and get it to act as our witness. We call them contract spirit, they also connect our souls and magic to finalise the contract. This is was the most I could do for you.⌋
⌈….. The most, you, do?⌋
⌈The chant is too powerful for me to nullify it safely. However, you didn’t set a time frame so I decided to add that to our contract. I also added that I will protect and give you all the freedom while you are teaching me the language. I would have done so anyway but, adding that statement to the chant makes a big difference. You’re finally free from the nation, I wasn’t going to let a giant black lizard like me take that freedom away from you. All I wanted was to learn the modern language. After that, do whatever your heart wishes, and travel to wherever your heart wish to go. Until I’m fluent in the modern language, I will give all my magic and strength to protect you.⌋
Well if the nation ends up taking him back, I won’t have any way of learning the language so of course, I will do everything to protect him. I just want to talk to humans and hopefully, end up being friends with one of them. So no weird fetishes allowed!!
⌈But, me, dragon, name, don’t know!!⌋
I see so that’s what he was worried about. Seeing the young man’s eyes turn watery again, I replied in an attempt to comfort him.
⌈My existence belongs to the world. Yes, I have a name and yes I have a consciousness of my own. Yet, only high-level spirits or my fellow dragons are capable of saying the name of I, who is a fragment of this world. If you put in enough effort, you might be able to say it in a form of a meaningless sound. Still, that’s not something you can do overnight. But I guess it would be handy to have a name since we will be spending a lot of time together from now on. So just call me Lava, how about that?⌋
The young man stared at me in confusion, his eyes wide open. I tried to smile even with my dragon face. I really hope he understands the situation from what I just explained.
⌈Even if I don’t look like it, I’m actually happy about how things have turned out. I never thought I would ever need to tell a human my name. So please don’t look sad. Be proud. You are the very first person to say my name.⌋
⌈The very first?⌋
⌈Didn’t I tell you? You’re the very first person who I could talk to. Of course, you’re also the first person to even think about coming anywhere near me.⌋
Gramps and I were alone on the continent so the closest we got was an old man and a confused baby dragon. With Ligurila…. well, the only reason why she isn’t trying to fight me right now is that I won a battle against her. That’s not a friendship. So at this very moment, he’s the only person who is closest to my definition of a friend.
The young man smiled with his eyes still filled with tears.
He looked as if he had found a treasure which he did not expect to find and didn’t know what to do with it.
⌈Lava, thank you. Please, take care, me⌋
⌈Same thing to you. Nectar⌋
My name, which was said by someone for the first time, made me feel a little embarrassed.
It has been a couple hundred years since I was reincarnated. I finally made my first step of making friends by getting a familiar (temporarily) who is also my language teacher.
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