Selene had been walking in the dark tunnel for about 5 minutes. Thankfully because of her fire magic she could walk properly without stumbling over anything.She wondered what would be at the end of the tunnel. A gruesome medieval torture chamber? Secret treasure weaponry?
But a little later she would find that her guesses were far from the reality.
After walking for nearly 10 minutes more, she finally saw the end of the tunnel. Selene stepped into the light and an unexpected view greeted her eyes.
Selene looked at the dreary tunnel behind and then the place in front of her. She couldn't understand how such a vibrant garden could be found deep inside a mansion. She looked around to see if there was any opening from where the sunlight came, but there was none. It was a fairy like garden in a closed stone chamber. And the place was fairly large. Big diamond shaped crystals were glowing everywhere because of which the place was brightly lit.
'If there is no sunlight then how..?' Selene who had grown up learning that plants couldn't survive without sun,was confused. She walked forward to touch one of the shrubs to see if they were real. And yes they were,with real smooth green leaves which had a unique smell than no fake can imitate. Selene walked on the stony path with an earthy smell mixed with a bunch of sweet scents assaulting her nose and reached in front of a set of stairs.
She climbed up the stairs seeing how even the steps were carved with intricate design. At the top of the stairs there was round shaped door. Opening the door, she walked into a stone hall, her footsteps echoing.The place was cooler than outside.Unlike the garden which was brightly lit,the hall was dark .The ceiling was dome-shaped and there was nothing in the hall except a stone altar in the middle of the hall. On it, different colored crystals were placed in a strange array.The crystals were shining brightly in the dark hall. In the center of the array,a slender sword was placed vertically. She walked to the alter to see the sword closely.
Stretching her hand she grabbed the sword's hilt and removed it from the stone altar. Somehow Selene felt that the gleaming sword in her hand which was bigger than her, was alive. The sword vibrated slightly as though confirming her thoughts. She traced her finger on its blades lightly. But she applied more pressure than she should have and got a cut on her finger. Feeling the slight pain and itching sensation on her finger she turned her hand to look at the cut. But she didn't notice that a drop of her blood which fell on the sword's blade got absorbed by it.
While Selene was sucking her finger, she saw two thin threads of light wrapping around the sword and her wrist tightly. The sword dropped from her hands but the thread binding her hand and the sword didn't break. The thing that surprised her was that she could feel these thread on her hand but couldn't touch it.The threads then started to become thicker and thicker until they became as thick as a sturdy rope. Then suddenly the the ropes of light disappeared and a bright light flashed. Selene put her hand in front of her face to shield her eyes. The light diminished as quick as it appeared.
"Ah that was a hard fall." A voice came from below.
Selene looked down to see the course of the voice. In place of the sword, a dragon was there.
Contrary to it's cute appearance, it's words were nasty.
"Ah what is this sh*tty place? Did that stinky brat think that by placing me in a mana garden I will happily be here doing absolutely nothing to that motherf*cker? Huh? Who are you kid?" The dragon asked with curiosity.
"Someone who apparently made you appear out of nowhere." Selene said, annoyed that a creature smaller than her was calling her a kid.
"You?" The dragon asked, looking in disbelief.
"Yes me, is there any problem with that?"
"You are the one who contracted me?!"
"Contract? What do you-"
"Wait, let me first check." Saying so the dragon leapt upon her, looking for something. Surprisingly it was quite heavy even when it had such a small body,Selene almost lost her balance when it landed on her.
"It is really you...." The dragon suddenly spoke while looking at her upper arm. Selene followed it's line of sight and found that a design of dragon entwined with a purple flower had appeared on her arm.
"Why is it such a puny kid such as- Ah so it's your mana that's why...... very well I will graciously let you have a contract with me." The dragon said said snobbishly holding it's head high as though expecting Selene to be extremely grateful for him agreeing.
"Wait a minute which contract are you talking about?What is this tattoo?Why is this place in the de Clypeus mansion? And who exactly are you?" Selene blurted out all the questions in her mind seeing that their conversation was only one way.
"Wow that's a lot of questions.Well you have formed a blood contract with me and the tattoo is the proof of our contract."
"Blood contract? Are you sure? Doesn't it need some preparations or something?"
"Well your immense mana made up for it. Your mana seems to be a perfect match with my mana. The preparations usually made for the blood contract is to match the mana of the two contractors but it wasn't needed in our case."
"Can this contract not be broken?" Selene asked, she didn't want such a serious contract with such an annoying thing.
"Humph how dare you? Thousands of talented big shots had to line up even to see my beautiful face and here you are refusing a contract with me." The dragon said indignantly.
"I doubt people lined up to meet a stunted dragon such as you." Selene snapped back.
"That-......" The dragon wanted to continue but then closed his mouth.
"What?" Selene asked, seeing his expression she could see that he was trying to hide something.
'Activate' Selene took out her ultimate card. Immediately she started to hear the little dragon's self-scolding thoughts.
'Sh*t I almost blurted out about my empty mana core! STUPID STUPID I almost lost my lucky contract with this huge mana reserve. This is all that Alastor brat's fault if not for him I would have still been my magnificent-.'
"Who is Alastor?" Selene asked cutting through his thoughts.
"Wh-what I-I don't know any Alastor..."The dragon said averting his eyes. 'How could she speak my mind's words ? Could it be-? '
"Yes I am a mind reader and unluckily for you I can read all your thoughts. Very clearly. So tell me about this Alastor unless you want me to find a way to break our contract."
"You would know about him if you know about the de Clypeus'..." The dragon murmured relenting to her.
"De Clypeus, Alastor.... Suddenly she remembered few words from the history of the de Clypeus family. 'Alastor de Clypeus or 'the shield of the empire' also the founder of the current de Clypeus duchy.'
"Don't tell me you are talking about Alastor de Clypeus, the de Clypeus family's ancestor."
"Huh when did that brat become an ancestor? Don't people usually become ancestors when they die?"
"Of course he became an ancestor when he died and has tens of descendants now. You can't expect him to outlive the human's life expectancy. He is not an immortal."
"Wait which year is this?"
"It is 1068th year after the sun."
"Are you sure you got the numbers right?" The dragon asked in an urgent tone.
"Of course, there is no way I got the wrong year." Selene said, after all she has been living in this world for more than one month.
"I slept for nine hundred years. FOR F*CKING NINE HUNDRED YEARS!"
"How old exactly are you to be sleeping nonchalantly for nine hundred years?" Selene asked.
"Over 900 human years,967 to be exact." The dragon said proudly, finally he could show that he was indeed a magnificent existence to the rude little kid.
"Wow you are much older than I expected..... But if that's your age, then why are you so tiny?" Her belief that hundreds of years old dragons are huge, completely broke after seeing the dragon in front of him.
"Humph it's all that Alastor brat's fault. If he hadn't kept me here asleep to 'protect me', I would have already killed that bast*rd of an emperor."
"But what did he exactly do to make you- wait is your size related to your mana core?" Selene looked at the dragon face to see if her guess was correct.
As expected the dragon's expression changed to a surprised one but realising that he was making such an expression he tried to hide it.
"Ahem it- it's not like that.... Just think of it like this - the more your magic level increases the more my power and size will increase."
"So basically I contracted a dragon with a uselessly big mana core who has to depend on his contract partner for power."
"Humph it's your power that is useless, if you weren't a beginner at magic I would have been able to absorb more mana from you."
"If you think that my power is useless then why don't you contract a more powerful mage?" Selene teased the dragon, now that she clearly knew that the dragon was attracted to her mana which was much more than the average person.
"N-no I don't need that - the dragon said panicked- anyways I have enough techniques to make you advance faster."
"Techniques? Do you really know something that's better than the basic ones?" Selene asked raising her eyebrows.
"Don't underestimate me, I have lived for hundreds of years plus I am a dragon and dragons are well-known as the guardians of knowledge." The dragon said turning his nose in the air.
It was true that the dragons were called as the guardians of knowledge or the guardians of the hidden treasure. Many people who were greedy and bold enough to face the dragon had tried to plunder them but were unsuccessful. But they disappeared suddenly around five hundred years ago, no one where they went and why did go. 'Come to think of it, it is around the time this tiny dragon tell into slumber.'
Selene put her suspicions about the relation between the tiny dragon and the dragon clan's disappearance aside and said "Well I will see how useful you are, then decide to keep you or not."
The dragon silently glared at her and turned his head away from her.
"Ah that reminds what is your name?" Selene asked.
"Dragons don't need names to identify themselves, they have a special aura that's enough for the other dragons to recognise them." The dragon answered.
"Well the place you are currently living in is a human dominated area where people usually are called by their names, so you have to get a name."
"It's your choice, just don't choose a sh*tty one." The dragon said pretending to be nonchalant but Selene's sharp eyes had already caught the excitement glinting in his eyes.
"How about Lumen?" Selene proposed the name inspired by the dragon's white scales shining in the light of the glowing crystals on the altar.
"It's okay......"
"Then it's settled,from now on I will be calling you Lumen." Selene said cutting him off.
"You never told me your identity though." Lumen said.
"Ah right, where are my manners? I am Selene de Clypeus, daughter of the current duke Alpheus de Clypeus."
"So you are a descendant of that brat no wonder you are ...Lumen muttered in a low voice.
"Hmm? What are you muttering about?" Selene asked.
"Nothing. So are we getting of this sh*tty place?"
"Yes but after you transform into something more suitable for me to take into the mansions without any suspicions."
"What? You can't take me in the mansion in my current form?"
"My current plan is to not attract any attention to myself and your appearance in the mansion will mess it up. Which is why you have to transform into something else." Selene explained.
Lumen looked at her discontented before transforming back into a sword. But both shape and colour of the sword had changed. Instead of silver-golden sword it was now a black-purple sword.
"Huh what is this? How did you change?" Selene asked.
'Since I am now contracted by you, my every form except my original form will correspond with you.'
"Woah is that your voice in my head?"
' Yes we can speak telepathically, it's also one of the contract things..'
"Well that makes it a whole lot easier although I can't take you in the mansion in this form too."
"Why?"
"I found this place when I discovered a hidden door in the library so if I come out holding a black sword through the door in the library out of nowhere it would look weird."
'Sigh,fine I will change into a ring then,that should be fine right?' Lumen asked.
"Yeah that would be perfect." Selene said grinning.
The sword in front of her rose in the air before changing into a black-purple ring which fell into her palm.
Selene turned the ring around impressed by Lumen's transformation skills. She had read a book in which it was written that transformation for a normal person was quite difficult to do and took a long time to do it properly. But Lumen took less than a minute to do the transformations. 'Looks like he was not bragging about it all..' Thinking so she slipped the ring on her index finger and went out of the dark hall.
Looking around the mana garden she decided to come in here again but she couldn't stay any longer,if she did so Anna would start panicking.Walking on the stony path she reached the door through which she entered this place and turning the knob she opened the door and disappeared into the dark tunnel.
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