Her teacher was a nun by the name of Sister Henra. A nun who was transferred from Orphanage No. 2, in the hopes to increase their slowly dwindling numbers. She was a stout woman, with pudgy cheeks and an outwardly kind demeanor, but there was a weird, thinly veiled hostility in the way that she spoke to Ione. The young girl decided to ignore it as she went about her dinner.
Later that night, Ione had found a way to sneak the note underneath Coranne’s room door after asking for a quick bathroom break after supper. She wasn’t nervous about being asked about her skills, in fact, she was excited. Ione quite liked lying to Henra with the knowledge that she had no idea that she was using her for entertainment. Every lie that she spouted about her attributes, skills and resistances, lifted a weight from her shoulders. Of course, Ione had to have [Deception] on all the time, she was only nervous that once it was turned off it would make the contract somehow realize it was being made a fool, but so far, everything was going supremely well. Sister Henra mostly ignored her, which was more than fine.
After a bout of attempted meditation, she had gone to bed with a smile on her face, before she realized the spiders had followed her.
What is seriously their fucking deal?
She could feel them looking at her, [Prey Sense] on, as always, and when she glanced in their direction, they didn’t move. Just kept to the same spot as they did in the dorm room.
Ione was confused. How is it, that they found her in this room? So quickly? She didn’t even notice them arrive, sure that she would have noticed them crawl under the door.
If they even did crawl.
A chill went down her spine. Her paranoia in full force, she questioned: what if they’ve been Belan’s spies this whole time? Conjured pests that could track people and information.
With a speed she didn't know she possessed, she slapped her hand down on the closest spider. Unfortunately she cracked the wall, but that was besides the point.
Strangely enough, she didn't feel a tiny body being squished. In fact, she didn't feel anything at all save for the tiny sting of the slap that raced along her palm. Ione brought her hand up and saw the spider still there on the wall, still looking at her, in all its spider glory. Her own hand didn’t hold any sort of indication of what she had done; there were no bug guts or twitching spider legs in the last of their death throes.
Her face was a mask of confusion. Indestructible spiders?
She decided to poke the arachnid. The tip of her finger went right through it and the body of it drifted away into dust until she removed her finger, which returned the spider back to its original place.
“Huh?” She vocalized out loud.
She watched the spider as it watched her, and with a breath, she asked, “can you guys turn away?”
They did. She laid back in bed, confused and weirded out. She wanted to figure out what they hell they were, but she didn't want to seem crazy. Hey Coranne, so I have these weird little ghost spiders following me, but they don’t do anything except watch me and maybe make a picture of my face sometimes. Can you help me figure out what’s wrong? They're harmless, I swear.
She knew that Coranne would try to help her, bless her heart, but even this was above her pay grade. Not that she got paid.
Then, she laughed. At least the spiders will keep me company. She found the thought funny.
~~~~~
The next day started when Henra, none too gently, woke her up for breakfast. Ione swung at her, but saved herself, and the nun, at the last minute, and the woman, with an expression of astonishment, slowly turned away and sat at her desk in silence whilst she stared at the floor. No doubt shaken because the wave of force, that was produced from her fist, had briefly ruffled her head covering.
The nun took a moment to collect herself, and then she brought Ione to the cafeteria to have some breakfast. Ione saw Coranne and Fellis, but not Daniah, Trikka, Kraylin or Jahren. The older kids had a later breakfast so she wouldn't be able to see them, but Coranne shot her a bright smile and Fellis waved. Ione had to ignore them for the most part, but she saw that her reaction didn’t dishearten them and that made her feel better.
Breakfast was quick and they were soon back into the privacy of the bed-classroom.
In Ione’s point of view, the day had started swimmingly. With a casual show of power, the nun had decided to be respectful; gone was the enmity, and she answered Ione’s questions with a gusto that even surpassed Amahn’s. This time, she was able to learn more about the world of Terrestria, another boon that came with the contract.
Her first question was, indeed, about contracts. Why wouldn't it be? The more she knew about them, the more she understood. Knowledge was power, after all.
She had learned that they were both forbidden and rare, which she remembered Coranne had briefly talked about: the prohibited portion. They could only be produced by Fae-like creatures far from Whisperwind, in the Umbral Hallowlands, which was situated days east from the Elven domain. In order to obtain a contract, there had to be a deal made in exchange.
There was absolutely no fucking way she would ever make a deal with Fae. She didn’t care if it was a last resort; her last resort would be killing the fuckers for trying to, in some way, get a one-up on her. Just like what she planned with Belan.
The deal was just as enslaving, if not more so than a contract, which is why they cost an exorbitant amount of money; the Fae’s deals almost always ended in their favor, and they were so rare to the point that only low leveled ones were auctioned every 10 years or so, due to how hard it is to even leave Whisperwind and come back alive. Ione asked where they were auctioned, but Henra refused to answer.
Well, I tried.
Something she noted was that her contract was the lowest of the low, and wouldn’t have even worked on her if she was a higher level than the contract itself. Which confused her, because Belan had said that once she gets her class, then she would act as a spy. So wouldn't that mean she had to be at a higher level in order to have effective spying capabilities? What was stopping her at that point to leave the domain and fuck off to wherever?
“Can contracts level up?” She asked.
“No.”
“Can they be reused?”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because their magical energy runs out once the conditions have been fulfilled, then it becomes two regular pieces of parchment.”
“So they pretty much have mana reserves?”
Henra raised a brow. “Yes.”
Ione was confused. “Why? Shouldn't the contract just become null and void when the time comes? Mana reserves don’t make sense.”
“Ione, I don't know,” she said, exasperatingly. “You’d have to ask the Fae that.”
Hm. something didn’t sit right. She used [Predator Sense] and noticed that the woman’s heart rate was elevated. Also, she would rather not ask the Fae for any damn thing. “I could take that as you telling me what to do, you know. To leave Whisperwind. Go find the Fae.”
The nun widened her eyes and her heart rate soared, then her expression turned pensive, “I-I didn’t…” She bit her hangnails, then dropped her hand to her hip. She sighed. “What If I told you… that contracts are... in some way… alive?” The tonal inflection on the last word implied that she was telling her something she wasn't supposed to. She understood Ione's implied thought: If you say things like that, I will take it literally, and get you in trouble.
Then, her mind raced. Wait…what? Alive?
“I would be keenly interested in the why’s and how’s.”
Henra shook her head. “I can’t tell you anymore than that. I’ve already overstepped my bounds, but don’t mention what I said to Belan, please. I didn't tell you to go to the Hallowlands, I was just…joking.”
Well, now Ione felt like an asshole, but at least she got some of what she wanted.
“Secrets safe with me,” Ione said pleasantly. “Let’s move on.” For now.
Now that Ione could lie and deceive to her heart's content, she was going to manipulate Henra into giving her most, if not all the information she knew. Slowly. Baby steps.
Henra nodded.
Another question came to mind.
“Do you know what Belan plans for when I go past level five?”
“I’m not sure.” She tilted her head. “She knows that the contract will end, but as for what she will do with it, I can’t say.”
Before Ione could open her mouth, Henra shot her a glare, “No, I will not tell you what the suspicions are. Anything else about contracts?”
“Could skills affect contracts?”
Henra gave her an odd look. “They could, but those skills are incredibly hard to come by.”
Ione leaned forward. “And what would those skills be?”
The nun said nothing in response.
Ione laughed. “You can’t blame me for trying.” Then moved the topic further along, this time she wanted to talk about the war.
There was still nothing about the cause, of course, Henra still reiterated the same propaganda filled points Amahn did, so that was still a mystery, but a lot of new information involved her father. While she didn’t particularly care about him beyond the quest, she was curious about her parentage in general. She had learned that he was almost considered a bogeyman with how frightening it was to face him; he was known as brutal, efficient, and cunning, and most soldiers who had faced him had come to their demise. There were a select lucky few who ‘escaped’ with their lives, and Ione suspected he had let them go to act as warnings. Although, she wouldn't have done that. At least, not now. She'd learned with Kine that chances are deserved, and he didn't deserve shit. It’d be a warning in and of itself if no one came back alive, especially since his ‘warnings’ didn’t seem to work.
He was reportedly level 365, and was decimating his adversaries, save for a grouping of high leveled humans who were able to routinely push him back. Overall, the situation was dire. The closest he had made inside of the valley was about a quarter of the way in, still far away from most of civilization, but he would annihilate entire war parties, which pushed the need for more boys with soldier classes, which pushed the need for more girls to have breeding classes, which pushed the need for more babies of both genders in general.
She had also asked about the tutorial book in the hopes to find more information, but Henra gave her stern look. Ione wasn’t deterred. Small baby steps.
Soon enough, it was time for lunch. It was a quick affair, and then she was able to have her two hour recess, instead of the regular hour and a half, supervised of course. Which was fine. She had about a couple more hours to go, after recess, before she was left unsupervised in her room until dinner. That would be the moment she would get started on her skills.
~~~~~
Recess, and school were quiet affairs. The nun had already sprung a quiz on her, and Ione wanted to throw it into the sink. Of course, she refrained, but it aggravated her to so quickly be bombarded with a test to, as Henra said, “to prove how much information you can retain as a reincarnator.”
Ione was confused. The topics she was tested on were the things they had spoken about earlier in the day.
Am I simply dumb and don’t know it, or like, does she genuinely think I’m the village idiot? Maybe both? Obviously, she passed the test with flying colors, which prompted Henra to nod in approval.
“I’ve never met a reincarnator before, and I just wanted to be sure you met my expectations.”
“Haven’t I already?”
The nun didn’t answer her.
Well, okay then.
She has asked Henra if she could have some strong quills to write with, and the woman thankfully provided. Unbeknownst to her, they were going to be used in her lock picking ventures. As soon as Henra left and locked the door, she got started on picking the lock.
It was incredibly boring and harder than she thought it was.
What the fuck is this shit? In Skyrim I knew how to do it automatically!
She spent a good chunk of time in an attempt to pick the lock, and all she got was a lousy headache from the frustration.
Dinner passed, and then it was back to lock-picking.
~~~~~
She had finally made a breakthrough, when, in the middle of the night, she was able to unlock the door. Her brief hyper fixation on locks by watching YouTube unlocking videos on Earth had, at long last, come to her aid.
Fucking finally! By god, this skill is stupid. She wanted so desperately to break the door down. She knew she could do it, it would be like kicking cardboard, but she had to remind herself that she was doing this for a reason, and it would help out in the future when pure strength wouldn't be able to get her by.
Still, she didn't get the skill, so she had to keep working at it until the system decided it was enough.
With quick hands, she locked the door from the outside, and then closed it, successfully locking herself in for the next round.
~~~~~
Ione had stayed up the whole night in an effort to get the locking picking skill, and still, she received nothing. She wondered if it was because she had become pretty adept at picking the same lock, and suspected she would have to continue picking different locks in the dead of night to gain it. At the very least, she could take that as an opportunity to talk to Coranne and Fellis.
She had written letters of her own to tell them the good news, and with about an hour of spare time before the sun rose, she quickly made her way to Coranne’s room, and slipped the note under the door. She actually quite liked the whole letter writing thing, she wondered if it would be possible to get a courier to run their notes back and forth, for when Ione left Whisperwind, but she suspected that the war would have to end first before anything like that would be possible.
First, It would be Umin. Then, the others would fall as well. It was only a matter of time.