A ceiling fan came into his view as Alex opened his eyes slowly. He looked around and found himself in a small living room. There wasn’t particularly anything out of the ordinary except a thin broken armour kept in the corner of the room.

“Oh, you’re finally awake.” A familiar voice entered his ears as he turned around and saw Merissa entering the room.

“Here.” Merissa poured him a glass of water which he drank promptly relieving his parched throat.

“This place is?”

“Where I live.” Merissa said as she observed him closely. The first thing which now came to Alex’s mind was him killing Marx.

“About what me doing to that summoner…” He looked down feeling perplexed. It was his first time killing someone. He should be feeling devastated, scared, guilty. But they were a small part of his emotions. He felt rather relieved that he was alive and not dead.

“You don’t have to worry about him. His body has been taken care of. As for you killing him, rest assured, you did the right thing. It was either him or us. On that matter how are you feeling?”

“Mentally or physically?”

“Both.”

“I feel relieved that I survived. I think I could have knocked him out before I had to kill him so that part itches me a bit but I don’t think that’ll last. As for my body, it feels slightly heavy and my muscles are paining all over.” Alex said looking through a window at the evening dimming down the setting sun’s light.

“About this soul holder…”

“You signed a contract with whatever’s inside, didn’t you?” Merissa asked already knowing the answer.

Alex recalled the moment when the dragon said that he was a suitable candidate for being his partner. The strings dangling in front of him had suddenly disappeared and Alex found himself standing on top of the Dragon’s palm. The next moment instead of previous black and blue coloured strings a set of golden strings appeared in front of him.

“I, Miracle, upon my name offer you a new soul contract. I’ll save your life as my debt to you for sustaining my energy from you and for putting you in this predicament. But the contract I offer is conditional. Help me find my brother and I shall become your greatest weapon and armour. You shall neither be beneath me nor above as would I be. Your death will bring about mine and we will perish together. Accept the contract and the things I stated shall hold true, reject it and I shall leave you right here and now taking the enemy with me. My soul shall extinguish if I lie about the contract or if I break any conditions and the same shall hold true for you if you break the conditions.” Miracle said.

Alex looked up and into the Miracle’s black coloured eyes with beautiful blue irises. He had failed to noticed the majesty of those eyes before. Something in him moved. He knew if he rejects it, he’ll have nothing to gain but he’ll be safe and free from the summoner. This was the logical thing to do. Not to associate oneself with something beyond your understanding. But that’s what his mind said.

His heart had already accepted the proposition as he found himself already grabbing the strings. The gleaming stars in the sky began to brighten as everything seemed to turn white due to the flash.

“A fine choice. Now let’s take care of the insect outside.” Miracle stated as Alex could faintly make out a slight grin on his face.

Having recalled it he simply nodded to Merissa’s question to which a long and heavy sigh followed. ‘So, it finally happened, one way or the other…’

“Okay you can keep the soul holder then.”

Alex blinked in confusion. “You don’t want it anymore?”

Merissa shook her head, “I do want it but it doesn’t matter now, I won’t take it away from you or rather it’s impossible to take it away from you.”

Alex understood more or less about what she meant. The contract he had with Miracle makes it impossible for her. Then Merissa offered him some snacks to eat as Alex talked about what transpired inside the soul holder. While talking he suddenly remembered something peculiar which Marx had mentioned.

“Say, that guy mentioned something about being Alemnol Kingdom’s no. 1 bandit. Him being no.1 seems doubtful but a Kingdom? What’s that about?” Alex asked

Merissa looked away contemplating for a while before answering “It’s true, there is a Kingdom called Alemnol. It’s not here, in this world but rather a different world called Emerald.”

“Th-There really exists another world?”

Merissa nodded, “Where do you think I am from.”

“Oh… well I wouldn’t have thought that but you know you can’t use magic, you got beat up pretty easily, almost got kill- ow! Ow! Ow! Okay! Sorry, sorry!” Alex rubbed his ears which got pinched midway by Merissa.

“You’re one to talk, when you almost died yourself.” Merissa said looking at him with a scowl.

“Hehe… well I suppose that’s true.”

“I am actually from Emerald; I just can’t use my magic. Though one doesn’t necessarily have to be from Emerald to use mana you know, people on Earth have it too, it has just become extremely dormant because your ancestors stopped using it. Of course, you belong to a tiny bit category of population who doesn’t possess any mana whatsoever.” Merissa said the last sentence with a smirk.

“Yeah… yeah… I get it. Though if you can’t use magic… how did you take his blows and still survive?” Alex asked. Merissa then pointed at the broken armour kept at the corner of the room.

“Standard armour, its capable of taking quite a bit of damage, though now in pieces.” Merissa explained.

Sometime later Merissa dropped Alex outside the forest on her scooter. Her home was apparently a bookshop not located much farther than Rudolph’s café but in a less populated area. After saying his goodbye Alex turned around to leave when Merissa stopped him.

“You… why did you came back suddenly?” She asked in a solemn tone.

Alex then recalled back to the time that he had left her behind and ran away. He had gotten quite far but had suddenly heard a loud noise coming from their direction. It made him felt uneasy. It made him remember something his father told him about to stand by the ones who fight for you when you need them the most.

“Well… that, I suppose… I might be a coward but I don’t leave people behind who stand up for me.” Alex said before quickly turning around and walked into the forest hiding his embarrassment.

“Uhm… well, see you again I guess.” Alex jabbed these few words before disappearing into the forest.

Merissa couldn’t help but get a small smile on her face.