Spirit Contract

The two countries were wiped off the map in 3 days, the survivors were no more than a thousand.

This meant that in three days, two countries with millions of citizens were wiped out, all because of the death of one being.

The high-rank spirit's rampage was finally ended by the intervention of a great spirit, however, the spirit took its life saying there was no point in living in a world without its contractor.

Ever since then, countries always treated spirit contractors like they were walking on eggshells due to the fear of having their countries destroyed by the rage of the spirits.

Spirit contractors were to be reported on sight so as to prevent such an incident from reoccurring, which was why Laurene was at a loss.

She had the responsibility to report Evan's existence, on the other hand, she feared for the end result of what would occur if Evan were to let the Demon Pride on the loose.

'Sir Finley isn't present right now, only Ralphie would stand a chance but I don't know how much power the demon still has left so I can't make a proper analysis.

I should have appraised her earlier.'

Her gaze moved to the red crest on the back of Evan's palm while the young hero was deep in his thoughts.

'That's the Crest of Pride.

The same one that the faction of Demonic worshippers that worshipped Pride a thousand years ago used as their symbol.

She should be inside that thing, right?'

Poor Laurene overestimated the current Pride, whom she had not appraised earlier.

She also didn't have another chance to as the demon had not made an appearance since Ralphie was with them and Evan seemed to be hiding the demon's existence from others.

Due to this series of events, Laurene could not find out that Pride was far weaker than she had expected.

As for why Laurene believed that Evan would actually pull off such a thing, it was quite simple.

'His regard for other people is low, very low.'

During the seven months the duo spent in training, Laurene had become a lot closer to the boy.

They were close enough for Evan to even occasionally review what bits about the future that he could to her, and even tell her about places with good artifacts and weapons that would suit her.

This meant that she was also close enough for Evan to drop all pretences with her.

'His words that day, were quite worrying...

The problem is that he was not lying, that was how he really felt.'

Laurene remembered the statement that Evan made to her when they were talking about the method that a certain group of nuisances had used to accelerate the rate at which the rift opened in the game.

'You know, as far as the world population doesn't go below a certain number, I might have not cared less about how many died.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, those bastards chose to use this particular method to open up the rift, huh?

Now I have no choice but to exert more effort to prevent more deaths.'

Her Mystic Eye skill happened to be active as she was looking through a magic theory textbook, allowing her to inadvertently confirm his words to be true.

It was because of this that Laurene was convinced that Evan would unleash the demon Pride if he so wished to.

As she was remembering this, the young hero jumped down from his bed and began sorting out some of the materials he had prepared on the way back.

From them, he picked up the magic chalk and began drawing a magic circle on the ground.

When he was done drawing the slightly complicated magic circle, he cut his finger and dropped a bit of blood on the perimeter.

"What are you doing?"

"You have the memories of an Arch mage and you can't recognize this?"

"This...thi- Ah! A contract circle!"

[She got it!]

[Look! It's a contract circle!]

[Really?]

[It is a contractor!]

[I have never seen one before.]

[I want him to contract me! Then, I will ask him to embrace me snugly.]

[Dream on, weakling.]

At Laurene's words, the spirits began chattering about, however, Evan ignored all this and placed his hand on the circle.

Turning his gaze to Laurene, he spoke,

"Could you help me divert their attention from here? Tell them I want to rest or something.

Wait...no, that's not gonna work. They'd sense the magic power after all."

By 'them', Evan meant the Duke and the Emperor who had been outside Evan's room for a while now.

"Don't worry, I'd keep them away."

"Thanks."

Laurene offhandedly waved at him as she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. Naturally, she had no intention of ousting Evan as a spirit contractor.

As she closed the door, Evan sighed before injecting his magic power into the circle.

After seeing spirit contractors in-game use the spell so many times, he knew the exact words to activate the magic circle on the floor.

The memories of the previous 'Second' also helped him confirm his knowledge to be true.

'So, if I had tried to use this spell in my old world, would I have summoned a spirit?'

He had such a random thought in his mind as he opened his mouth to speak.

"I, Evan Del Eris, request the world's help. Draw a connection between me and the one who will become my friend and strength. Let us come together like we were at the beginning of the world."

The circle flickered with a bright golden light before dying down immediately after causing a frown to creep up Evan's face.

This was natural, after all, the contract had failed.

"goddess-pedia, explain."

[The goddess 'Artemisia' is lost as to why the contract failed too.]

|Connection Initiated|

|Connection Confirmed|

[The 'Eternal of time and destruction' says the reason is because your true name is not 'Evan Del Eris'. That is just the name of the body you are inhabiting.]

'So, I have to use my real name? I haven't used it in a long while now.

'It was the same as that hidden Duke in the Eastern Empire huh? Just that it's his first name, unlike me.'

And so, for the first time since he came to this world, he said his real name out.

"I, Evan Von Bourne, request the world's help. Draw a connection between me and the one who will become my friend and strength. Let us come together like we were at the beginning of the world."

At that, the magic circle glowed brightly, a little too brightly.