Chapter 28 The Brand
A few hours later, Evernya inputted most of the conditions she wanted but couldn’t quite get the contract to balance. Every remaining condition from the list got rejected by the contract for pushing the balance into her favor, leaving her at a loss. During this time, her observers became bored waiting, so they caught up on paperwork while they waited for Evernya to finish. Only Meira kept a close eye on Evernya as she worked.
Dammit, what do I add? I am so close to finishing this damn thing! All I need is one small condition to balance the scale! I wonder, will I have to have a roommate like colleges in my old world? I may as well ask.
“Will I have to stay in a dorm with a roommate?” Evernya inquired, breaking the silence.
Thomas paused and glanced up at Evernya seated on the opposite side of the table before answering. “Yes, we require low-ranking students to stay in the dorms with at least one roommate. If you climb the rankings high enough, you have the option to stay in our private student housing, but as a new student, you will not have a say on your roommate nor housing location.”
“Okay, thanks,” Evernya replied before returning her attention to the contract. She added the condition she thought of finally balanced out the contract.
“Yes! Finally, the contract balanced. The contract agreed with me that your conditions were too constricting because it allowed me to add one more.” Evernya cheered as she showed the contract to Meira for approval before presenting it to everyone else.
Meira scanned through the conditions before complimenting, “Good job, it’s not exactly what I would have done, but I think those conditions properly reimburse you for what they are forcing upon you.”
With Meira’s approval, Evernya slid the contract to the center of the table, allowing everyone else to see.
1. Must administer a private mage’s test for Evernya.
2. No order placed on Evernya may cause physical, magical, mental, or emotional harm to her or her allies.
3. If an order violates condition two, the one who issued the order must face immediate termination.
4. Must be no discrimination against Evernya. This includes instructors giving her poor grades for no reason and limiting her freedom compared to a human student of the same rank.
5. Must be allowed to leave campus during an active semester.
6. Must be allowed to enter the wilds without needing a group of four or more.
7. Must have priority access to all levels of private training rooms with an unlimited time limit.
8. Must be allowed to choose her own roommate.
After reading through the conditions, Thomas spoke, “We should be able to make most of your conditions work. Normally, we don’t allow students to leave campus during the semester, so you will have to have a special pass on your college ID. However, I am not sure I can allow you to adventure into the wilds without a party. I require even high-ranked students to have an adventurer party of at least four people without instructor supervision, and this is after they pass the required classes.”
Meira jumped in to justify the condition. “I will personally train her over the summer on wilderness survival. She will be more qualified for wilderness expeditions than most of your graduates as a first-year. Besides, she may have specific needs that can only come from the wilds, and as you know, anything gained from the wilds is costly.”
Thomas’s gaze surveyed the three women with curiosity as Meira continued, “Also, with her being a shifter, it will be hard for her to find an adventuring party consistently. Even if she does, she will have to split the earnings, forcing her to go out even more. That’s not even taking into consideration the increased chances of her getting betrayed by her party out in the wilds. After taking these issues into account, I feel it is safer and more efficient for her to hunt in the wilds solo or with a small group she trusts. She isn’t your typical young human mage. Shifters are much tougher.”
Thomas countered, “I trust you will train her properly, but it is still too dangerous to go into the wild alone. Even seasoned adventurers don’t venture far into the wilds unless they have at least a small party with them. That includes shifter adventurers. It is too dangerous to venture beyond the outskirts of the wilds without a full party backing you up. What does she need from the wilds? Our university may provide it for her instead of her risking her life alone in the wilds.”
Meira glanced at Richard, who was intently listening, before responding. “First, she is not your typical shifter. You will find out why after the mage’s test. Even I don’t know everything about her, and neither does she. Hence why we want to perform a full evaluation on her. The reason she needs to hunt in the wilds is we suspect her diet needs to consist primarily of food high in mana. She looks and acts healthy, but I suspect her body is starving. I’m sure you have heard about what happened in the Commons yesterday. A warrior class shouldn’t injure themselves to her extent from a few-second burst. Injuries like hers only happened from prolonged overstress of one’s body. What happened to her is a red flag that something is wrong with her. Hopefully, the full evaluation can help us figure out what is wrong with her.”
Unconvinced, Thomas suggested, “Providing her with wild-grown food shouldn’t be hard. All we need to do is set up challenges for the upperclassman adventuring parties to hunt wild-grown food for points towards their DIOM rank.”
Refusing to back down, Meira argued, “That may work, but wouldn’t it be much easier to have her go hunting? Besides, if you set up a challenge, all she will get is a bunch of the same things to eat. Plus, you would have to set up a challenge at least once a month with her appetite. I was feeding her three times the amount a normal shifter of her size would eat, and it still isn’t enough. If we allow her to hunt for her own food, it will give her the freedom to choose what she will eat and keep a steady supply of food without putting pressure on the college to supply her eating habits.”
“Won’t forcing her to hunt for her own food interfere with her studies?” Thomas questioned.
“No, I don’t think it will. If anything, it may provide some stress relief.” Meira replied.
Thomas silenced for a few moments to think it over before responding. “Fine, you win. I will allow her to hunt in the wilds alone as long as she receives an A in the advanced wilderness survival course. She can skip the basic wilderness survival courses, since I trust you will teach her more than enough to make those courses a waste of time. She may even find a trusted group to go hunting with during her time in advanced wilderness survival.”
Meira smiled triumphantly as she replied, “That’s fair. I wouldn’t trust her to be in the wilds alone if she cannot surpass humans her age. As long as she takes the course in her first semester, we should be able to stock her with enough food to last until the end of the course.”.
Meira turned to her kitten, who was silently listening. “Evernya, do you agree?”
Evernya glanced between Meira and Thomas before responding, “Yeah, with Meira’s training I should be able to get an A. I understand you don’t want to put students’ lives at risk before they’re ready.”
With the condition decided, Thomas moved on. “Now, the private training room condition may be hard to implement. Normally, first-year students can only reserve rooms on floor one and two for a couple of hours a week. Of course, you aren’t a typical first-year, but if we allow you to reserve better rooms without a time limit, there will be complaints from your upperclassman. The floor five rooms will be almost impossible for you to reserve as those have reservations over a year ahead and limited to the top hundred in the rankings. The only way you could reserve a level five-room is if you duel someone for it, but those students are in the top one hundred for a reason.”
Evernya nodded her head in understanding as she clarified, “I understand these rooms are in high demand, hence why I put priority access to them. So if there is an open room and multiple people want to reserve it, including me, I expect to get into the room. I don’t expect you to kick out someone from their pre-reserved room, since it will just cause more issues for me. The unlimited time limit sounds extreme, but it doesn’t mean I will hog a room for weeks without even using the room. I just do not want to prevent someone from disturbing me during my training and remove the pressure of a time limit hanging over my head. In reality, I don’t think I could reserve a room for long because of classes and hunting.”
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Thomas’s stance softened at her clarification but warned. “We can work with your conditions, but if you stay too long in a floor four or five-room, you will come into conflict with another student who has pre-reserved the room ahead of time. However, floors one through three are fine since you cannot pre-reserve them without special permission as they run on a first-come-first-served basis. After completion of your testing, I will open up the permissions on your future DIOM ID to allow you to reserve private training rooms on all floors.”
“By the way, are these rooms recorded?” Evernya inquired as she surveyed the plain gray stonewalls.
Thomas glanced at Meira before responding, “Like bathrooms and changing rooms, it is illegal to record in a private training room. In fact, these rooms are especially secure. Once you lock the door with your DIOM ID, it seals the door. Only a small group of people who oversee this section of the training hall can enter. However, don’t think you can get away with anything illegal. We thoroughly scan and clean all rooms after each student leaves. The scans will pick up any illegal activity or damage to the room and report the student to our campus police for investigation.”
Evernya looked at the seemingly simple chair and table before asking her next question. “Do I have to be careful about damaging something? I’ve seen how destructive some of your students can be on TV.”
With a reassuring smile, Thomas replied, “Be careful about the furniture in the room, but the room itself will be fine. As you will learn, when the room has a link to the occupant’s training suit, it is impossible to physically or magically damage the room. As for the furniture, we only furnished rooms with damage-resistant furnishings, but accidents happen. If the investigation concludes the damage accidental, we will not hold the student accountable.”
I’m not sure I like the sound of scans. I’ll have to read up on the laws of this world. I don’t want to do something illegal by accident. At least the room should be able to handle me. Evernya thought before something Thomas mentioned caused her to ask another question.
“What is a training suit and what do you mean by linking to the room?” Evernya inquired.
“You will learn in a few minutes what a training suit is, but the linking to the room will have to wait until your orientation.” Thomas answered cryptically.
After a few minutes of silence, Thomas moved things along. “we can easily implement the rest of your conditions. However, are you sure these are your final conditions? Once you lock your side in, we cannot change them.” Thomas warned, handing the contract back to Evernya.
Evernya stared down at the list, taking Thomas’s warning to heart as she thought her choices over. I really don’t want to mess with my conditions and have to rebalance it again. I hope I don’t regret accepting the contract tying myself to the college for at least a year. Still, attending college again may be fun as long as humans keep the racism to themselves. The alternative is to hide on Meira’s land for six months and hope I don’t face sabotage during my mage’s test again. I just want this over with. Becoming an adult on earth was so much easier since all I needed to do was turn eighteen. I guess it could be worse. I could have been reborn into this world as a baby like many stories. Somehow, I don’t think I would have a fun childhood in this body.
“Yes, I have made my final choices.” Evernya decided after reading her choices several times.
Thomas nodded his head as he explained what to expect during the next steps. “To confirm your side, press your palm on your column and will your mana into the contract, picturing your acceptance of all conditions in the contract. Once you do this, the contract will activate, binding everyone to the terms of the contract. You will feel a burning sensation on your mana core as the contract brands it. If you break the terms of the contract, the brand will severely damage your mana core, crippling your ability to use magic. Don’t worry though, few break these contracts with the safeguards in place. To make following the conditions easier, you will feel a compulsion to meet the conditions of the contract. Once the terms of the contract fulfill itself, which is in one year, the brand will disappear, freeing all signees from the terms of the contract.”
Already knowing the risks, Evernya didn’t hesitate to follow Thomas’s instructions. She placed her palm on her column, picturing her acceptance to all terms of the contract. As soon as she did, her column locked in. A moment later she felt a foreign mana invade her body, traveling through her mana veins to her mana core. Once it arrived at her mana core, she felt a slight burning sensation on her mana core before a sudden surge of her mana eradicated the foreign mana.
Evernya stared down at the now blank contract in confusion. What happened? That wasn’t how Thomas described it. I am guessing the foreign mana was the contract, but why did my mana behave like that? Did I accidentally mess up the contract?
Unaware of Evernya’s confusion, Thomas announced, “The contract is in effect. How do you feel? Your first magically binding can be frightening. Don’t worry about the compulsions, you will get used to them as your mind adapts to the new constraints.”
Thomas’s announcement only increased her confusion as panic crept in. The contract succeeded? But I don’t feel any different, no compulsions to fulfill their conditions. He would know if something was wrong with the contract. Does that mean I’m immune to the compulsions but still have to fulfill the contract? Will I accidentally break the contract and kill myself? Worse, I can’t ask them. What if the contract didn’t take effect on my side, forcing them to put me under an even stronger contract? I don’t want to go through this again! Evernya curled up into a ball on her chair, hugging her legs and tail.
Spotting the signs of a panic attack, Meira shooed everyone out of the room. “Everyone, please leave for a minute. I need to comfort my kitten. I will call you when she calms down.”
“This is a waste of time. Just shake her out of it.” Insisted Richard callously, causing him to receive a sharp look from everyone else.
Meira’s temper flared at the blatant disregard for her kitten’s feelings. “Richard Taylor, get out now before I force you out! You will receive the results of her mage’s test and any other relevant information when we finish.”
“You are not my boss. You have no right to order me around! I am not leaving!” Retorted Richard, showing no fear toward the elf who could squash him like a bug.
Thomas stepped in between the two before the conflict escalated, staring into Richard’s eyes with disappointment as he spoke. “No, she isn’t, but I am, and I agree you are no longer needed here. As Meira said, we will forward Evernya’s results to you as soon as possible.”
“Fine, but the rest of the board will hear about this. I expect her results on my desk by the morning.” Richard proclaimed as he stormed out the door, slamming it closed.
The sound of the door slamming startled Evernya out of her panicked state.
Meira kneeled down in front of her seated kitten before rapidly firing off questions. “How do you feel, Evernya? Why you were panicking? Were the compulsions too much for you to handle?”
Evernya shook her head, scanning the room to find Richard missing. Should I explain what happened? I don’t think I could handle not knowing if I might accidentally break the contract. Even if I am forced under another contract or something similar, it is better than accidentally killing myself.
Meira prodded her kitten again to open up. “It’s okay, Evernya, no one here will tell anyone what you say without your permission.” Meira assured, while glaring at the remaining inhabitants of the room, promising retribution if they revealed anything.
After a minute of silence, Evernya gave in, timidly whispering, “I’m not sure the contract worked. I don’t feel a compulsion to fulfill the conditions of the contract. Does that mean I am immune to compulsions, or did the contract fail on me?”
Contrary to her expectations, the adults shared a look with one another before Thomas broke the silence. “How unusual. The contract feels normal on my end. How about you, Elizabeth?”
“It feels like a normal contract here. Richard would have made a bigger fuss if he felt anything unusual.” Elizabeth replied.
Evernya’s eyes shifted between the four adults as she questioned, “Then why is it different for me? Is there a way to check if the contract is in effect?”
“Yes, there is. All you have to do is check your mana core for a brand.” Thomas replied.
Evernya closed her eyes, bringing up her mana system. She focused on her mana core for the first time, bringing a brightly glowing light blue sphere to the forefront of her mind. After a few seconds of inspecting it, she spotted a couple of words written swirly black print. She squinted her mental eyes to decipher the faded brand, causing a chill to run down her spine as the meaning of the brand became clear.
While trying her best to keep herself from panicking, Evernya relayed her findings, “the only brand I can find says to ‘track and destroy’.”
The gathered adults shared a worried glance before Thomas spoke. “That’s definitely not the contract. The symbol for the contract reads as ‘to comply or destroy’.”
After a pause, Thomas inquired, “Do you know what language it is in?”
“I think English,” replied Evernya with a shaky voice.
“English, what is that?” Thomas inquired with confusion.
Meira interjected, saving her kitten from answering. “It’s probably not in English. Evernya has Omnilingualism.”
Thomas’s gaze swiveled to Meira as he questioned in a suspicious tone, “Omnilingualism didn’t show up on her original mage’s test.”
“It didn’t because I suspect it is a racial trait.” Meira replied, brushing off Thomas’s suspicion.
“I thought she was a catkin? Catkin don’t have Omnilingualism, what is she?” Thomas inquired, curiosity piqued.
Meira and Elizabeth shared a silent exchange before Meira revealed, “We don’t know, the scans only display feline shifter, and she has some mana siphon traits. We are hoping the full evaluation can shed some light on her true race.”
Thomas let out a whistle as he fished out a piece of paper and pen out of his briefcase, placing them in front of Evernya. “No wonder you didn’t want Richard to see anything past the mage’s test. She is more unique than she appears.”
Evernya glanced at the blank paper before questioning, “What is this for?”
“I want to see if you can draw the brand on your mana core.” Thomas requested.
Evernya complied, picking up the pen before beginning to draw. Over ten minutes passed as Evernya drew the complex symbol in a trance with robotic accuracy.
After completing her drawing, she looked up to find four astonished faces staring back at her.