Chapter 345: Terms of Truth

[Loden’s POV]

Loden had been born into the household of a baron.

Nothing particularly grand, of course.

His family governed a modest little territory, which was enough to live comfortably and carry a noble name, but hardly anything worth boasting about.

His childhood, however, had been far less quiet than the life expected of someone from such a household.

Ever since he was young, Loden had been quite the mischievous child.

He was always causing trouble, stirring up chaos, disobeying orders, and generally making himself an unbearable little menace to everyone around him.

Narurally, most of it had been dismissed as nothing more than childish mischief. But as the years passed... his behavior showed little sign of improving, even his parents gradually began to lose their patience.

Although they rarely showed it openly, Loden could tell that they had eventually grown weary of his antics.

The punishments became harsher, more severe, and there were even times when they would deliberately confine him to his room or deprive him of anything he enjoyed — hoping that some discipline would finally straighten him out.

Even so, none of it worked particularly well.

Sometimes, however, there had been a small part of Loden that wished he could have behaved better back then.

Perhaps if he had listened more and caused less trouble... maybe it would make things easier for those around him.

But then again, he had never thought too deeply about such things in the past.

He was only a child, after all, and his way of thinking had been terribly shallow. If something amused him, he did it. If someone told him not to, that merely made him want to do it even more.

Truly, son of the devil.

Looking back, perhaps that was simply the kind of child he had been.

Still, there had always been one person he wished he could have resembled more.

His late sister.

She had been bright, kind, considerate, and remarkably well-mannered for someone so young. She was everything that Loden wasn’t — a complete opposite of him.

And yes, his sister had died young; she was only seven years old when it happened, while Loden himself had been five.

The cause had been food poisoning. At that time, no one had realized just how badly she had been suffering until it was already too late.

For some reason, she had endured most of it by herself, quietly hiding the pain and discomfort from everyone around her.

Loden had noticed that something was wrong with her. He remembered seeing her more tired than usual, eating less, and occasionally clutching her stomach.

But at five years old, he had no idea what any of it truly meant. To him, she had simply looked sick. So, he had even assumed that she would recover after a few days, just as children often did whenever they fell ill.

He never understood that it was something serious.

But by the time the adults finally realized what was happening, there was already very little they could do.

In the end, her death came and it changed the household almost immediately.

His parents had lost the brightest child in their family, the daughter they had always been proud of and the one who had brought warmth into an otherwise ordinary noble household.

Because of that, for a time, neither of them seemed to know how to properly deal with that loss.

His mother grew increasingly distant, while his father threw himself into his duties to keep from thinking about it.

Over time, however, that sorrow began to take a harsher form.

Loden was nothing like his sister. He was loud, troublesome, and reckless. As a result, his parents gradually began looking at him differently.

Every act of mischief seemed to irritate them more than it had before.

There was even one occasion when Loden had been locked inside the basement for nearly an entire week, as though he had become the target of their anger and grief — a place to vent their frustration.

And as it turned out, the older Loden grew, the more his resentment toward that treatment began to fester.

Eventually, he began to harbor a deep hatred toward both of them.

But then, one day, something strange happened to them, as though his parents had simply begun behaving differently.

They no longer shouted at him over every little mistake. Even the usual harsh punishments disappeared almost overnight.

For someone like Loden, who had spent so long expecting anger whenever he stepped out of line, the sudden change should have felt like a blessing.

And in some ways, it really did.

It almost felt like salvation too.

Yet strangely enough, Loden never felt relieved.

Because something about them was very, very wrong.

He could not explain exactly what it was.

After all, his father still looked the same. His mother still spoke with the same voice... carried on with their daily routines exactly as they always had. But somehow, they no longer felt like the people he had known all his life, as if they were an imitation.

At first, Loden thought he was simply imagining things.

Perhaps the years of resentment had made him suspicious. Perhaps he had simply become so accustomed to their cruelty that kindness now felt unnatural.

But the feeling never disappeared.

If anything, it only grew stronger day by day.

Until eventually, without even meaning to say it aloud, Loden found himself staring at the two people sitting across from him and quietly muttering...

"You... you’re not my parents."

However, after he had said that, both of them simply smiled in a way that sent a chill down his spine. And the instant Loden saw those smiles, every instinct in his body screamed that he was doomed.

Whatever those things were, he had just revealed that he knew.

Yet strangely enough, neither of them attacked him. Instead, their expressions gradually changed from amusement to something far more curious.

It was only afterward that Loden understood why.

Apparently, there was something unusual about him.

Something even those creatures had not expected.

Dark Mana did not affect him.

Whatever influence they had used upon the people surrounding the estate simply refused to take hold of Loden.

He did not understand what Dark Mana was at the time, nor did he understand why that made him different.

Because of that peculiar discovery, the creatures took him away from his family estate; toward one particular place — the Magus Spire.

And it was there that Loden finally learned what had truly happened to his parents, about Dark Mana, and the fact that demons still existed in this world.

*****

That memory slowly dispersed as the sound of approaching footsteps echoed through the corridor.

It was Ruvian and the Chancellor. Both of them had returned to the cell, and this time, Ruvian was carrying a [Mana Contract] with him.

"Well, I’ve got the contract now. Exactly as promised."

Ruvian raised the parchment slightly in one hand, showing it to Loden for a moment before stepping closer and placing it on the floor directly in front of him.

"Go ahead and read through it first."

Loden leaned forward as much as the chains allowed, lowering his narrow eyes toward the parchment lying on the floor before him.

The terms were more or less exactly what they had discussed earlier.

Both he and Ruvian would be permitted to ask three questions each, with every question requiring a truthful answer. Neither party was allowed to deliberately lie, falsify information, or knowingly give an answer meant to deceive the other.

However, each of them would also be granted a single opportunity to refuse a question entirely.

Once that refusal had been used, though, every remaining question had to be answered.

There were a few additional clauses beneath those conditions as well, mostly covering the more obvious attempts at exploiting the agreement.

’Heh... quite thorough.’

Loden’s gaze continued downward until it finally reached the last section.

As for the penalty, violating the agreement would immediately cause the offender’s own mana to rebel against them, temporarily sealing their Spellcore while inflicting severe internal damage.

’They really didn’t leave much room for any funny business, did they?’

Loden let out an amused smile. Still, after carefully reading through the entire thing, Loden found nothing particularly objectionable.

The contract was fair. Or at least, fair enough for what he intended to ask.

He finally lifted his gaze from the parchment and looked toward Ruvian again.

"Well, well~ looks like everything’s in order."

Ruvian and the Chancellor exchanged a brief glance before both of them gave a small nod.

Without saying anything further, Ophelia stepped toward the cell and unlocked the restraints around Loden’s hands.

"Don’t try anything funny," she warned coldly.

Loden merely smiled.

"I wouldn’t dare, especially with an Archmage standing right in front of me."

Then, without wasting any more time, he reached for the contract and signed his name across the parchment.

Ruvian did the same immediately afterward.

The moment both signatures were placed, the words written across the parchment gave off a faint glow as the mana signatures of both parties began to seep into it.

With that, the two of them were finally bound by the terms of the [Mana Contract].

A/N: Maybe, just maybe... one Chapter today, a bit busy cuz I need to sell off some of my stuff before I start packing everything up for my BFG. 2 if I can settle this sooner :)

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[Chapter 345: Terms of Truth]