Chapter 18: Chapter 18 – Adventurer Arc

"Let's see what happened, System library."

Notice: 10 mana has been deducted.

System Library:
World of Artana I, II, III
Fishing I, II
Baking I, II
Cooking I, II
Farming I, II
Lumberjack I, II
Hunting I, II
Maid I, II, III, IV, V
Butler I, II, III, IV
Miner I, II
Tales of Artana I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X

"Oh my, it actually worked, even older books have gained more volumes!"

'I'll finally be able to read more! I'm so happy!'

I go back to the kitchen smiling, and once I arrive I hug Aurora from behind when I get close to her.

"Since you're smiling happily I'll take it that it worked?"

"Yes, thank you so much!" I smile gratefully while rubbing my cheek on hers.

"You're welcome, Iris."

After talking about all kinds of things with my sister and mother, I and aurora return to the room and sit on the bed.

Notice: 40 mana has been deducted.

Notice: A contract between human Iris and item Aurora hasn't been made yet.

 

'A contract? We have soul-bound already?'

Notice: 40 mana has been deducted.

Notice: A contract between a being and an item, depending on the grade of the grimoire, it'll grant benefits to both.

 

'Not sure she'd be happy with such a contract...'

I glance at her who's looking in the mirror at the dress she wore shortly after returning to the room.

"I feel stared at, what's wrong Iris?"

"Hum... Sister... Would you like to make a contract with me?"

"Don't we have one already? A soul contract?"

"This one is different, it’s a contract between uh our identities? Like human and item."

"I don't mind, as much as I dislike being a grimoire, if it proves to be useful for the both of us..."

"I believe so!"

"But do promise me you'll never mistreat me, sister," her cold eyes shift to me as the words come out. 

"Of course, I promise, you're my sister after all."

'Only because you were the one who saved me, Iris...'

We smile at each other.

'How do we make a contract?'

Notice: 40 mana has been deducted.

Notice: Write your name on the first page of the grimoire with your mana.

 

"Alright, sister revert and come here."

Aurora transforms into a grimoire and floats to me which I then open and place the point of my index finger on the first page coating my mana along with my ice element while writing it.

"I-R-I-S," I say letter by letter out loud as I sign it.

"There I'm done, I believe you can revert to the other form," I smile happily, and then voices start resounding on my mind.

System: The title Element has been received.

System: The title Contracted has been received.

Notice: Soul-bound has reacted.

 

"Oh noes, not again..." My eyes close as I faint.

 

A memory of Aurora resounds in Iris's mind.

 

'For as far as I can remember, I've explored this incredible and beautiful garden.' 

'A complete fantasy by itself, the grass is always so green, fresh, and soft.'

'Just laying down on it relaxes me to the point of falling asleep on it.'

The soil is clean without fissures or bugs, there are no insects or any life form other than the plants that adorn the grass itself. 

The flowers on it are always perfectly nourished and blossomed, and their simply divine beauties. 

'I fall into little pieces whenever I think negatively of this garden, but loneliness is a feeling that perdures even after this long.'

'It exists to remind me that I shouldn't be here alone.'

'I can't wait to be free again like the person I once was, to avenge for all the things I had to go through.'

'I can't help but feel like the day may come where I'll miss this garden where the word beauty falls far below in comparison.' 

'This place where my mind and heart feel the safest.'

'Yet why is it that I can't help but not be content to stay forever in it?'

'I've walked in the same direction for a very long time, and in all that time I've never seen a pattern of flowers that looked the same.'

'Attempted to go in multiple directions, but it did not work.'

'Stayed in the same spot for a good amount of time but also nothing.'

'I did everything I could to understand this place, however, nothing ever changed aside from me.'

'I've realized the max mana inside of me kept on growing for all these years despite not being able to use magic inside here.'

'I can feel it, a tremendous pressure piled up inside of me wishing to be used.'

'Yet no magic I use does anything in this place.'

'Many flowers I met and talked with, sang and befriended.'

'I still seek the way out of this place, the exit to this maze.' 

"Why am I lost in this garden!?" I shout madly.

I have done everything I could have done, yet none of it ever worked... 

I've ripped flowers but every time I do, they grow back like magic. 

This symphony plays endlessly repeating this monotone life of mine.

Look at this white dress I wear that loves to reflect the infinite sunlight. 

I don't even remember what night was like.

The long-forgotten sense of being hungry, of being tired, and of being sleepy. 

Day by day without ever stopping looking for a crack, a rupture, a hidden door, or something to get me out of here.

"Who am I? Why am I here? Why can't I leave?" I scream with all I have.

This place seals my memories, my very existence from the outside world.

'There must be a reason yet I can't figure it out.'

'I seek guidance but never have I seen a guide.'

After walking for who knows how long... I see a golden rose and bend my knees on the floor to smell it.

"This flower has such a fragrant lovely smell, it feels nostalgic..."

"It appears like a light melody ascending from my heart that makes me feel at ease, what a mysterious rose."

I sat in the garden next to the rose and stared at it with sparkling eyes of admiration that consumed the very essence of the rose.

"I wouldn't mind becoming a little flower like you, you know?"

At that moment a vile thought reached my mind and my hand approached the rose to pluck it out of the earth. 

Upon contact with the stem where thorns seldom await to be touching.

My finger skin ripped and blood dripped turning the green thorn red. 

"I forgot beautiful roses had thorns silly me..." I smile in pain.

A strong breeze flew through the garden passing by the rose, bringing many kinds of petals and making them fly. 

The petals circulated me in a twisting way, like a little tornado making them floating randomly.

"It's so beautiful like a festival of fireworks."

The rose was shaken by the wind like a human nod as if it was in agreement. 

I approached the rose petals with my finger and when I did a heartbeat I felt from the rose. 

I removed the hand from the rose surprised.

I started wondering about it.

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"For an eternal amount of time I've walked through this garden and I've only found a flower-like you little golden rose.

"All the others had their friends and family yet you seem lonely like me perhaps we could be friends."

At that moment I felt my finger itching and my curiosity forced me to look at it.

"My finger is healed!?"

I jumped out of the floor standing still in surprise and the finger was fixed as it had never been ripped before.

Its skin was intact and smooth like the rest of the hand soft like silk. 

"You who gave me pain and also who comforted me through healing will you tell me the way out of this place?"

A wind blew against the rose and this time it nodded in a different direction resembling a human saying no with their head.

"Ah..." I burst into tears.

"I feel like this world may have been created by someone or something, yet I'm alone and lonely I mustn't be."

"The world surely was made for more than one, however, if I'm wrong..."

"I'll end up more insane than what I already am, so rose become my guide and guide me to the exit please."

"What have I done to deserve such an excruciating suffocating curse?"

I start crying causing my tears to fall on the golden rose making it heavier and heavier...

"Won't you let me go no matter what?"

I kept crying as I was exhausted from it all and proclaimed that I would pluck her out of the earth.

Even if it meant to taint her hands in blood.

"If taking your life will free me that is what I shall do!"

A strong warm breeze went against me like a warning. 

The tears that had fallen from me were now descending between the petals through the stem down to the very roots as if the golden rose was shedding her own tears. 

A melancholic view that would sadden any who saw it from a spectator seat. 

My hands approached the rose body the stem and started plucking it from the earth suffocating the rose.

The tears fell from the rose mixed with my bloody hands both on the same course towards the floor towards the roots and even deeper they went far from human sight. 

The petals fell one after another, the golden rose was plucked off the floor and its color lost slowly becoming grayer and grayer withering away.

This time a new flower did not grow back in its place.

The protection I received from the world had worn off as its guardian died and now my feelings and memories were coming back.

I looked at the dead rose expressionless like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

The beautiful world around me was now filling itself with pure darkness.

It was consuming the world from far, far away, I saw it approaching very, very slowly.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry please forgive me!" She yelled sadly.

I got up scared and ran in the opposite direction of the approaching darkness.

I ran the fastest as I could while tripping here and there, feeling sad as I advanced. 

My vision distorted due to the tears, like looking through a glass lens that doesn't suit my eyes.

Far away after running for a long time, something picked my sight. 

I saw a mirror and approached it.

On the other side of the mirror a blonde girl.

I pressed my hands against the mirror but what felt like my physical body was stuck.

'With my memories having returned the only spell I can possibly be able to make is a soul-bound.'

'If that doesn't work... I'll die in this place.'

'I don't have much time left; I must make a contract with this girl and save my soul.'

'Everything is better than the darkness behind me, even becoming her slave if I must.'

'In exchange, I'll only ask one favor from her, to be able to avenge myself for this time trapped in this cursed place.'

'When I get the chance, I will have my revenge on the gods, on the sage, on the hero, on the kingdom.'

'Those who sealed me by sacrificing millions of innocents.'

'I will destroy everyone in this world that treated me as a monster, I will consume everything and everyone but this girl.'

I tell her, "Can you help me? I'm trapped inside this mirror."

She's looking at me but I'm not sure if she's seeing me.

"Hey, I'm stuck in here can you please help me?" I continue begging.

'Not sure if she heard me, if my voice is going through or not, I'll try again.'

"I'm sick of living here in this small place surrounded by darkness," I make a sad expression.

The reflection upon seeing me asked me, "What's your name? Why are you there?"

In turn, I replied, "I am Aurora, I'm here because I was sealed inside this mirror a long time ago," I said with a teary expression.

The girl makes a confused expression and speaks.

"I'm sorry but I couldn't hear your name and sealed? Why would someone seal you? The reflection asked me.

"If you didn't hear my name, then you won't be able to till I'm out of here, my name too is  sealed."

"Oh..." she replied with a disappointed look on her face.

I replied quickly as my time was running out.

"As for why I got sealed well... I killed someone very important a while ago, the first king of Ludrica, the founder of it."

The reflection replied astonished, "Ludrica? There's no kingdom with such a name."

I too feeling surprised from hearing such a reply shouted," what!? Just how long have I been trapped here?"

Tears fell from my blue eyes.

The reflection feeling pity for me said, "Hey it's okay, everything will be okay, what can I do to get you out of there?"

I stopped crying upon hearing her.

"I no longer have a physical body so I need an individual that fulfills three conditions."

"What are they? The girl looked at me with an innocent expression.

"First someone willing to do a soul-bond contract with me, second someone that has enough magical potential, and third..."

The girl looked at me a little sad, interrupting me.

"I'm not sure what a soul-bond contract thing is, but I've never used magic."

I waited patiently since I could scare her away if I pressured her too much.

She continued talking, "I'm Iris, also only fifteen years old, so I don't know if I'm someone who can help you getting out of there." 

"Don't worry Iris, since you can see me, your potential is the real thing."

"Really?" The innocent girl asked hopefully.

"If you wish to take me out of here Iris, then yes."

Both girls hear someone coming up the attic stairs.

I see a young man attacking her, and say, "Iris your hand, touch it in the mirror fast, and make the contract with me."

'Come on Iris you can do it,' I think as blood pours from beneath her as she crawls closer.

My reflection touches the mirror and a light eludes allowing me to leave.

The darkness behind her was approaching engulfing everything in its path she had no time so she entered the mirror. 

After walking through the passage, she looked back briefly towards what was left behind and after looking.

The darkness consumed the world.

On the other side, I kneel and whisper in Iris's ear.

"From today onwards your soul is mine Iris and my soul is yours."

I see her staring at the mirror while on the verge of dying.

"Related to the question that remained unanswered my name is Aurora the woman that will destroy this world."

I raise my hands in the air and darkness surrounds them.

"Death to those of this house, but Iris."

The darkness spread through the entire mansion killing her stepmother, stepbrother, stepsister, maids, butlers, and her father.

I see Iris's eyes closing and then I feel my life extinguishing.

"But... I just came out of that prison..."

I stretch out my hand to hers, and upon touching it, I'm consumed by her soul dragging along the cursed mirror with me.

 

For thousands of years, the woman's soul walked through this dimension and now she was finally free.

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