“He’s coming to,” I hear a feminine voice say.
“Annette?” I ask, my vision blurry, “I had the weirdest dream.”
“It wasn’t a dream.” The words carry like a song, the voice familiar but difficult to place.
Giean! The name bursts into my head sending me into a panic as the world comes back into view. I blink as I sit their confused my heart pounding. Giean is real, that mana beast, the beast wall, it is all real.
The panic disappears, forcefully washed away by an outside force. With the panic gone my vision clears and feeling returns to my body. I wish it hadn’t, I clutch my chest as I double over. I once burned myself with the iron poker for our stove at home. I still remember the pain and have the scar on my arm to prove it. This is at least three times as bad. The cool wind that chilled my bare torso did nothing to stop the feeling of an invisible force branding my chest. The only source of soothing is the warmth of Giean’s hands pressed against my back. I open my eyes to see the baby dragon sleeping comfortably in my lap. Forcing myself to straight up despite the pain I see Giean’s house looming above us and three people I have never met before sitting in front of us. Well 2 people and a toddler.
“I am France,” the man says holding out his hand.
Meeting Giean and Jill has eroded my understanding of beauty. However, going by my village standards France would have been consider very handsome with his square jaw and stoic brown eyes. I am sure there would have been girls lining up to dance with him at the harvest festival the lucky bastard.
I take his hand and try to stand up only to find myself anchored to the ground by Giean’s hands. Before I had the chance to question this impossibility, I can feel his palms pressing flat against my back, the woman spoke up.
“I am Lilly France’s wife, and this” she says lifting the boy slightly off the ground, “is our son Arthur. Arthur say hi.”
While not as beautiful as Jill, Lilly is quite attractive as well. Arthur however seems to have no interest in me as he struggles in his mom’s grasp trying to get at the dragon on my lap.
“we are Giean’s farm hands” France continues not giving me time to ask questions. “we help with feeding the Pacts, mucking out the stable and maintaining the garden in front of the main house and the large fields over there just past our house.”
He seems to emphasize the difference between main house and our house. Maybe he is proud to have his own house and such a large one at that. It may not be large compared to Giean’s but back home, for a man to have a house like that at such a young age. Unlike Giean or Jill, well I guess you can’t really say Giean dresses since he only wears shorts, France and Lilly dress like simple farmers. The way France describes their jobs calling them simple farmers might be right.
“it is a pleasure to meet all of you, my name is Ken.” I pause for a moment, however since no one offered anything up I am compelled to ask. “What is going on here?”
“You’re dying and I am stopping it.” Giean said nonchalantly from behind me.
It sounds like a bad joke but France and Lilly will not meet my eyes. The pain flashes even hotter on my chest as the baby dragon yawns in his sleep. I look to the mark and see it red and bleeding. The skin around the mark is angry and red, the arterioles showing.
“wha” I stammer out.
“you know what a pact is?” Giean asks.
I am only able to shake my head no as I watch the blood flow from the mark. It forms a bright crimson trail over the reddish brown of the drying blood already caking my body.
“Being able to form a Pact is the minimum required to become a beast tamer. A pact is formed between a Mana Beast and a human when there is sufficient trust between the two. Since you have no talent for being a Beast Tamer and will likely never be able to form a pact again this doesn’t matter for you.”
I have never dreamed of becoming a beast tamer but his words still sting a little.
“The import-”
“Wait, then how did I form a pact with this guy.” I interrupt.
“You didn’t,” Giean answers sounding annoyed. “the baby dragon there formed a Pact with you because it trusted you and you harbour neutral feelings towards it. That is why your mark turned red. Marks have different colours starting at sky blue for F rank mana beasts getting progressively darker till they turn black for A rank beasts. Your mark is red because an unequal pact was form. In layman’s it means that the baby dragon, a B rank beast, is far stronger than you and the power it is giving you is tearing you apart.”
He pauses for a second waiting for his words to sink in. I look up and see that Lilly and France have unintentionally gotten caught in the lecture both now listening with rapt attention.
“Who is layman.” France asks.
Giean to my disappointment, I was wondering who Layman is as well, just rolls his eyes and continues.
“A pact is a literal bonding of the soul of a Mana Beast and a Tamer. It allows the pact and the tamer to communicate and share power no matter the distance. The mark is the point of connection and when mana is drawn through the bond it enters the body at the mark. Of course because the souls are always connected a small amount of mana is always passing through the bond. The issue right now is that a small amount from the baby dragon here… what are you going to name him.”
France’s eyes refocus as we leave the mana talk. I can’t help but question if naming the dragon is top priority right now.
“Bu,” babbles Arthur.
“No this is Bu,” Giean says accepting the babble as a serious option.
“Hey I am dying here.” I say raising my voice. I mean I was fine not knowing but you can’t mention it, say you are going to do something about it, then just ignore the fact.
“relax I am stopping you from dying, you will be fine.” Giean says ignoring my concerns.
Looking at the blood still streaming down my chest I do not feel confident.
“I was going to name him Chrono, what do you think.”
“Sure.” I say hoping to move back onto me not dying.
“Okay so the Mana coming from Chrono is enough to kill you. I am stopping that by forcing the Mana coming from the pact to flow through your Mana vasculature without pressing on it or building up before passing it back to Chrono. This does also serve to improve your Mana Vasculature which means over time you will be able to survive having a pact with Chrono.”
I don’t understand most of what Giean is saying, based on their expressions neither do Lilly and Frances. Pretentious rich kids and not understanding they are being pretentious. At least the lord’s son chose to be pretentious. Giean is just on another level expecting someone like me to understand because it is basic for him.
“However, that will take too long. So to speed up the process I will be teaching you magic.”
My ears perk up at that as do France and Lilly’s. only Arthur is unaffected as he struggles to get to chrono.
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