A few hours later, the Firebird Hunter and I headed to the temple on the east side of the city with Juan. Unlike the temple in the marquis’s city, the one in the duke’s domain was beautiful but otherwise ordinary. As usual, worshippers and priests were inside, and being the duke’s son allowed me to meet with a priest.

He wasn’t the priest who had rushed over to heal me when I was little, but he seemed capable in his own right. He welcomed me warmly. Perhaps because he was a man of faith, he didn’t openly show any contempt for an illegitimate son. Leaving Juan in the chapel, the mercenary and I followed him to a private room.

“What brings you here, young master?”

I handed him a stack of papers: the contract the Firebird Hunter and I had spent the past several hours drafting.

“We’ve come to have it certified.”

The priest took the papers and leafed through the stack with a weary look. “Is all of this the contract?”

“Yes.”

The Firebird Hunter shook her head at my answer. She was probably remembering the hours she’d spent filling it out with me. I’d drawn on my experience from my previous life to make it as thorough as possible.

“There’s no problem certifying it, but contracts written in this much detail are rare...”

Despite what he said, there was nothing particularly unusual about it. It covered only essentials, such as prohibiting us from harming each other during the contract period, dividing any profits, and preventing information from leaking. It didn’t even say what would happen if either of us breached it, or what compensation would be owed.

Unlike in my previous life, there were no courts or prosecutors here to settle breaches of contract. Well, a lord did something similar within his domain, but unlike a resident, a mercenary could simply leave. Besides, I was a noble and the lord’s son, regardless of everything else. If I broke the contract, it wouldn’t be easy for her to protest.

Still, this world had its own way of making people honor contracts: certification by a priest. According to the priest, it meant that a god watched over the fulfillment of the agreement. To me, it seemed more like a use of mana or an inherited ability. (Of course, I couldn’t say that to a priest.) In any case, contracts in this world gained their force through a priest’s certification.

As long as the contract was fulfilled, there was no problem. Break it, though, and a divine curse would descend upon you. Not that the curse was anything so grand.

“It gives the wronged party a way to track the other person, and a priest will notice when they next make a contract, right?”

“You know it well.” The priest nodded.

Unfortunately, the tracking was no more than a compass-like indication of direction, and all the priest would learn during the next contract was whether the previous one had been honored. Even so, that was more than satisfactory.

Of course, someone might secretly kill the other party and never have another contract certified, escaping detection. But criminals like that had been difficult to catch even in my previous life. With a few safeguards besides certification, I could at least minimize the chance of being betrayed.

“Then, both of you, place your hands on the contract.”

The priest pointed to the contract on the altar. She and I placed our hands on the stack of papers, and the young priest cut his palm with a small dagger, letting blood drip onto the contract. His blood flowed into the papers and stained both our hands. Then he began to pray.

“This promise is made in the name of a god. Whoever breaks it shall bleed like a river...”

The prayer he recited with his eyes closed was unexpectedly terrifying.

‘Is this really contract certification and not some kind of curse?’

He continued speaking, and his blood began to glow faintly.

“... Thus, in the name of the god whose name cannot be spoken, I attest to the contract between these two people. Karat Brit.”

He spread both hands and declared, “If you break this promise, your body shall be split apart in the name of the god. In the name of the god whose name is unknown, I attest to the contract between these two people. Karat Brit.”

As he finished, the contract and our hands resting on it glowed faintly.

I felt unfamiliar mana flow into my hand.

‘Should I push it out?’

The thought occurred to me because the mana was weak, but I let it seep into my body, believing it would uphold the contract. It swept through me and vanished somewhere. The blood that had pooled on the contract was gone too, and the cut on the priest’s hand had healed.

“Is that everything?”

“Yes. The contract has been attested in the name of a god.”

“We won’t actually bleed to death like you said in the prayer, will we?” I asked cautiously. His prayer hadn’t matched what I’d heard about certification.

“Ha ha, no. It’s simply a prayer handed down from the Sage’s time during the Great War. There is a legend that when the Sage attested to a contract, it had an effect much like the prayer describes. But the actual effects are just as you’ve heard. There’s no need to worry.”

I breathed an inward sigh of relief. Unexpected things happened so freely in this world that I seemed to be finding more and more to worry about.

“Thank you. Then I’d like to make a small offering of thanks to the god who bestowed this grace.”

I took a money pouch from inside my clothes and handed it to him. It was only the fixed fee for certification, but perhaps because this was a temple, paying it involved quite a performance. His face brightened when he took the pouch.

Had I phrased my thanks that well?

“Oh, you brought it yourself. What a relief. Having to contact the mansion separately to collect an offering is quite a nuisance.”

So it wasn’t my fine words he appreciated. It was the cash on the spot. While I gathered the contract and headed out, he complained about nobles who didn’t bring their money with them.

“It’s not so bad in this domain. Elsewhere, some even pay with promissory notes. Promissory notes for an offering... If the god weren’t merciful, there would be no end of people facing divine punishment.”

Perhaps because priests held a respectable position, he went on speaking ill of nobles in a way commoners would never dare, right up until we parted.

After we met Juan in the chapel and left the temple, the mercenary spoke for the first time since entering it.

“Then let’s meet in front of the south gate tomorrow morning.”

Still hidden beneath her pulled-down hood, she said only that before leaving ahead of us.

“Ugh. Did I go overboard with the contract?”

“I don’t think so,” Juan said.

I shook my head. I could ask her tomorrow anyway. Tomorrow itself was the bigger problem.

“What excuse am I going to use to get out this time...”

I’d need to leave properly equipped, so I’d have to come up with a convincing excuse.

* * *

The next day, fortunately, I managed to leave the mansion without any special excuse. Everyone was terribly busy preparing for a visit from Adria, Simon’s fiancée, who would arrive in just a few days. It was a return visit after Simon’s trip to the marquis’s house, and would formalize their engagement.

‘Is her visit a few days later than it was in my last life?’

Even so, the date hadn’t changed much. I’d done so many things that I thought it would shift considerably, but the butterfly effect was surprisingly small.

Wait. Adria had visited before?

“Ah! Come to think of it, was it today?”

“What’s today?” Juan asked. We’d been walking together when I suddenly spoke aloud.

“Oh, nothing.” I shook my head. It wasn’t something I could tell him.

I’d worked out that today was the day I’d died in my previous life—the day I’d gone with Adria to see the fortress, been chased by mercenaries, and lost my life. In a few hours, it would be the time of my death.

The people who’d killed me were all dead now, and there was no reason for me to die suddenly. It looked as though I’d finally get to see the message again. Four years was no short time. Without a goal, those years would certainly have been hard to endure. In just a few hours, I wouldn’t have to repeat them again.

Juan and I walked briskly and reached the south gate before long. She was waiting there, wrapped in her cloak as always.

“There you are... Are you really carrying that around to use it?”

She stopped waving and pointed at my hand. I was holding a sword wrapped in layers of cloth. It was so big that I’d dragged it here again today. Juan had offered to carry it, but I’d refused because I needed to get used to its weight.

“I don’t know what sort of sword that is, but wouldn’t you be better off using one that fits you? You’ll only pick up bad habits with a sword like that.”

She was right, but I couldn’t bring myself to go to the place where I’d died carrying a sword that fit me. That sort of sword was best for practicing my swordsmanship, but to anyone else, it was just a little blade for a child: short reach, light weight, and as small as a toy. Worse, it was a common, mass-produced training sword. Clash it against a well-forged blade and it would snap before long. I’d already experienced that, so I needed a sturdy sword that, at the very least, wouldn’t break.

‘Well, if I had the money, I could commission a proper sword...’

But lately, including yesterday, the money I’d saved had been draining away at an alarming rate. I had little left.

“You seem to have prepared properly for everything except the sword, and then you bring that of all things... I thought you were really clever, but you show your age in the strangest ways.”

She was right that I’d come prepared. I wore leather armor, and Juan was properly equipped too.

“Well, I suppose that sword will do, since we won’t have to fight here.” She sighed after saying that.

“How do mercenaries even make a living here? No monsters, good public safety... It looks as though all they can do is escort merchant caravans. Can they survive on that?”

“Most of the work is escorting caravans and guarding nobles,” Juan replied. “It’s safer than other domains, but monsters do appear in the mountains and forests along the borders. I’ve heard the bounties are higher than elsewhere, so although the jobs are fewer, the pay isn’t bad.”

The Firebird Hunter rounded her lips in surprise. “Oh, you mean the domain pays generous bounties? The duke must be a good lord.”

She looked at me as she praised the duke, but I had no interest in the compliment.

“Let’s get going. At this rate, we won’t make it back today.”

“Oh. Right.”

I set off ahead, and she followed with an embarrassed look. The guards recognized Juan and let us through the gate.

I started down the same road I’d traveled by carriage a few years ago, in my previous life. It took at least twice as long on foot, but eventually we reached a point where we could see the ruins in the distance. After confirming they looked the same as before, I turned the other way.

A little west of the ruins lay a vast expanse of trees: Ons Forest. There was no reason to take the same route as in my previous life. Our destination was the abandoned tomb, and entering through its exit would be much faster. The female mercenary, Juan, and I headed toward the abandoned village with the empty well—the tomb’s exit.