Chapter 253: The Bear Uses Contract Magic

Chapter 253:
The Bear Uses Contract Magic

 

THE DAY AFTER we gathered the leaves and I took the tea, I headed to Mumulute’s house to cast the contract magic.

When I knocked and headed in, Vena was waiting for me inside. “My husband is in the usual room waiting for you, so please head straight in.” With that, she left and I went to the usual room.

Mumulute, Sanya, and Luimin were already waiting there.

“Yuna, we’ve been waiting for you. We have finished the preparations and can cast the contract at any time.”

A giant carpet was rolled out in front of Mumulute today, with the most beautiful pattern on it. Would it be okay for me to sit on top of it?

“Please do not stand on the carpet,” said Mumulute.

“Sorry.” Dang.

“This carpet functions as the magic circle that is essential for casting contract magic.”

“It does…?” I looked at the carpet again. It featured a beautiful circular pattern.

“Um, I heard I’m making a contract too?” I guess Luimin hadn’t been told any details, because she seemed a little anxious.

“I want you to know some of my secrets, Luimin,” I said. “But I don’t want others to know about them. Would you be willing to make a contract?”

“I won’t tell anyone your secrets. If you want a contract, I’ll make one with you.”

“Thank you, Luimin,” I said, and she smiled happily.

“Well, then,” said Mumulute, “let us cast the contract. Sanya and I shall make the contract first, Luimin. While we make the contract, keep an eye in front of the house to ensure no one else enters.”

Anyone could wander into this house without asking for permission. Luimin went to the front entrance just as Mumulute had asked. I guess Mumulute must’ve asked Vena to leave earlier so we could keep these things secret, now that I thought about it.

“Let us begin the contract casting,” said Mumulute. He started placing mana gems onto the carpet. There was already this huge mana gem in the center, too—a green one, about as large as the kraken mana gem I had. What kind of monster could have such a massive green gem? Probably really did rival that kraken, now that I thought about it.

As I thought that over, I watched Mumulute get to work.

“The preparations are complete. Now, all you must do is pour mana into this circle while telling us the contents of your contract.”

Seemed pretty simple. “So, if you try to talk about my secret after this, it’ll make you laugh so hard, it hurts?”

“Yes. If we choose to violate our promise to you, we shall be plagued with insufferable laughter.”

So if I had that carpet and some mana gems, could I cast contract magic too? Now I kinda wanted that stuff, but I probably couldn’t just ask for it. Or…maybe they’d make me my own set if I asked?

“Yuna, what is it that you wish to be part of the contract?”

I’d been thinking of just telling them about the bear transporter gate at first but, after putting some thought into it the other evening… “I want you to keep all my secrets quiet. Do I have to tell them to you one at a time? I don’t want to tell you about them right now, but I might talk about them later, and casting contract magic again would be a pain.”

“You can just sum it up for now.”

“Really?”

“The contract will respond to the wishes you imbue into your mana.”

“So if I told you more secrets, they would be covered by the contract?”

“If you do not know these things that you wish to keep secret at the moment of the spell’s casting, the contract will not apply to them,” said Mumulute.

So I’d need to make a new contract with them if I, say, developed a skill to fly or something. I couldn’t just futureproof my secrets through contract magic. But at least I could include the secrets I currently had in the contract.

Jeez, fantasy worlds really had everything. Then again, the girl with the magical bear stuff was one to talk about being fantastical, huh…

“The only secret I know about you is the thing about your bear panties, though,” said Sanya.

I shot her a look. “Yeah, and that’s definitely going to be a part of it.” My bear undies were top secret. “Also, what happens when people who are under the same contract magic talk to each other about the secrets?”

“It depends on how you want to cast the spell,” said Mumulute. “If you establish that we cannot speak to anyone of your secrets, then it will be so. If that is not your wish, we may speak to one another of them.”

Hmm, that was a tough decision. If something happened and they couldn’t talk to each other, that could lead to more trouble than it was worth.

“All right. I’ve decided.”

“Then let us begin.”

“Oh, uh…” I puppeteered my hand bears. “Can I cast it with these on?”

“As long as you are able to pour your mana into them, you may.”

I placed my bear puppets onto the green gem. Mumulute set his own hand on the opposite side of the mana gem.

“Pour mana into it as you speak the contents of your contract.”

I did just that. “I would like you not to tell others my secrets. But this doesn’t include others who have made the same contract.”

The mana gem started to glitter then, and the room was engulfed in a green light so bright I couldn’t keep my eyes open. All the while, I kept my hands on the mana gem. Slowly, the light subsided and disappeared. I’d come this close to letting go when that light surprised me—I wish they’d told me. Still, it seemed like the contract was complete.

“That sure was bright,” said Sanya.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Mumulute. “It is said that the light is as intense as the contract. That was stronger than any other contract light I have seen. You seem to be burdened with rather heavy secrets, girl.”

Even they hadn’t expected the light to be so bright, then…or that my contract would be so heavy. I guess my secrets did include stuff about how I was from another world, that there was a god involved, and all the stuff about my bear onesie. Plus, the contract included stuff I wasn’t going to tell them about yet. No wonder it half-blinded us all.

“Looks like I’m up next,” said Sanya. She took Mumulute’s place, and right as she touched the mana gem, we heard footsteps rushing into the room.

“Grandfather! Sister!! What was that light?!” It was Luimin. She looked around, concerned. “I saw a terrific burst of light through the window!” Wow, the light had even made its way outside?

“It is all right,” said Mumulute. “She simply cast some contract magic. The mana gem responded to her mana and lit up.”

“Sorry, Luimin,” said Sanya, “but I need to make a contract next. Could you guard for a little longer?”

“Yeah.” Luimin headed back to the front door.

“Let’s get this over with quickly now.” Sanya touched the mana gem again. I touched the mana gem on the other side and cast the contract with Sanya. The light was as strong as when I’d made the contract with Mumulute.

“I suppose Luimin is the only one left.”

“Let us see if it worked prior to that,” Mumulute said.

“See if it worked?”

“You wouldn’t simply believe it worked without checking, would you?” Mumulute replied. “Besides, I would like to see what form this laughing takes as well.”

True, we did need to see if all the casting had actually done something. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“It should be fine as long as we do not finish telling your secrets. Luimin! Please come here!” Mumulute shouted over.

“Is it my turn for the contract?”

“Before that, we must confirm that the contract worked in the first place.”

Huh? “But I haven’t told you my secrets yet.”

“That should be fine. There are already some that we know.”

“Right.”

“Grandfather, please try it out,” Sanya said.

“No, I do believe this is something best left to a grandchild.”

They glared at each other.

“All right, all right…” said Sanya. “I’ll check first, but then it’s your turn.”

“I… Well, I suppose,” he relented.

“Luimin, come over here.” Luimin approached, Sanya looked down at her,

and… “Well, then, let’s try this one: Yuna’s pa-pa-pa-pan...”

“Wait, you—” Hold on, Sanya was going in with that?!

“Her what…?” Luimin tilted her head slightly.

At least she hadn’t realized what Sanya had been about to say, but I knew. Sanya had started to say the word “panties” but hadn’t been able to finish—she was trying to talk about my underwear! She grinned and laughed loudly. When she tried to speak again, she laughed so hard, she had a coughing fit, cried, and started rolling around on the floor. She kept starting again, stopping after hitting “pan,” and breaking out into laughter. If I didn’t know about the contract magic, I would’ve thought she was laughing at me and my bear panties…

She seemed to be having a terrible time with the laughing fit. Actually, maybe this was worse than the kind of suffering normal contract magic caused? It took a few minutes until she was done.

“Haaaaah! A-ah, G-Grandfather! It’s even worse than a normal contract,” Sanya complained, out of breath.

“How would I have known that?” Mumulute seemed grim at the sight of Sanya’s condition. I guess he hadn’t expected it to be this bad either.

“But now, Grandfather,” said Sanya, “it’s your turn.” She handed Mumulute a pen and paper, grinning diabolically.

Mumulute tried to escape his fate. “I do not think that is necessary. We already have confirmation that it worked, after all.”

“You can’t be the only one who gets out of it, Grandfather. Let’s make sure that you can’t write it out either.” Sanya thrust the pen and paper in his face. “We need to check.”

“I...” Mumulute took the writing utensil and paper with a defeated air. Then he started to write. He was probably trying to write about my bear underwear too.

After a few letters, his hand started to shake and instead of writing, he ended up flinging his pen away and balling up the paper before falling into the exact same bout of hysterics Sanya had fallen into earlier. Sanya allowed herself a small smile this time. Luimin just looked worried.

Hmm. This was…pretty bad. I guess going with laughter hadn’t been such a good idea after all. Sanya might’ve been serious when she’d said the normal contract would have been better than this…

After a few minutes, Mumulute sat down wordlessly as though nothing at all had happened. “Ahem.” He looked over at me. “I suppose you know how contract magic works now.”

“I’ll never talk about any of your secrets,” Sanya vowed. It seemed like seeing the absolute state of Mumulute during his fit had made her realize what a spectacle she’d been too. Who wouldn’t want to keep themselves from laughing like that in front of other people? I just about would’ve died of embarrassment.

“You’re last, Luimin.”

“Um, do I really need to make a contract?” After seeing the other two, Luimin looked rather reluctant. Given what she saw, I couldn’t blame her. “I’ll never tell anyone your secrets, Yuna. I promise!”

“Luimin, we promised this to Yuna,” said Sanya. “She saved our village. And she has something she wants to ask for, but she also doesn’t want us to tell anyone else. Even so, she still trusted you to know about it. Are you going to go against her wishes, even after all of that?”

Sanya looked very sad. Yep, she really knew how to lay a lie on thick. She was just putting on an act so Luimin couldn’t get out of it…and it was absolutely working.

“All right,” said Luimin. “I just need to never tell anyone. But…I don’t want to test out whether it works.”

Luimin wouldn’t budge on that. If I were in her place, I’d straight out say no, so I’d take what I could get.

As Luimin set up her contract, Sanya guarded us out front.