Chapter 483: Contract Fairy

According to Shaya’s account, Saul believed that someone was deliberately preventing ordinary people from leaving the city.

But the way they were doing it was far too overbearing.

If you try to leave—you die.

At first, Saul couldn’t understand why someone would go to such lengths.

Stopping ordinary people from leaving wasn’t difficult. No matter how many of them there were, they couldn’t possibly resist a wizard.

As long as Caugust City or Bayton Academy asserted their authority, they could easily prevent the civilians from leaving.

But the person secretly creating wraiths hadn’t relied on the power of wizards. Instead, they used the most covert and most ruthless method. That meant their true purpose likely went beyond just keeping people from leaving.

“Someone is stopping civilians from leaving the city,” Shaya concluded. “Right now, it’s only targeting ordinary people. But I suspect they may eventually try to stop even the wizards from leaving. Just to be safe, we need to come up with a countermeasure in advance.”

Saul and Julie exchanged a glance.

They had considered this point too, but didn’t expect Shaya to already be thinking as far ahead as wizards being targeted.

“That’s a bit far-fetched, isn’t it?” Julie wasn’t quite convinced. “Ordinary people have no means of resisting wraiths, but we’re true wizards. Who could possibly trap us with such a method?”

Saul didn’t immediately dismiss Shaya’s theory. Instead, he asked, “Who do you think is stopping the civilians from leaving?”

Shaya’s expression grew serious as he looked at Saul, his face grave. “No idea.”

Julie’s upper body twitched. “If you don’t know, why the serious face?”

But Shaya didn’t feel there was anything wrong with his response. He turned to Julie. “Precisely because I don’t know—that’s what makes it terrifying.”

Julie fell silent, her expression thoughtful.

Saul asked, “Even if you say you don’t know, you must have a few suspects in mind, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have just come to us.”

The muscles on Shaya’s shoulders tightened, visibly tense. “I’m going to be suspicious of every possible enemy, no exceptions.”

“Then why not be suspicious of us?” Julie bit her lip and asked.

She hadn’t interacted much with Shaya in the past.

She could understand why Shaya invited Saul and Jonah, but she couldn’t figure out why she was included.

So part of her wondered… could it be that Shaya liked her?

“Jonah never goes out to hunt wraiths. He only focuses on experiments. He doesn’t understand what’s going on with the wraiths right now. As for Saul… everyone knows he just left the Wizard Tower and came to Caugust. There’s no way he has any connection to the forces here. And you?”

Shaya looked at Julie, his gaze a bit complex.

“You specialize in light elements, and you’re weak. Controlling wraiths would be too difficult for you.”

The moment Shaya said that, Saul immediately felt a wave of heat rising off Julie beside him.

Saul coughed twice, not wanting to waste time listening to them argue.

“So, Shaya, I assume the reason you called us here is to find a way to secretly eliminate the source of the pollution? Do you have any leads?”

Shaya answered directly, “I have someone who’s probably already been targeted by the pollution source. I’ll place a marker on them to track down the source’s location. Then, we’ll work together to eliminate it. At the very least, we need to confirm whether they’re going to turn their attention toward us wizards.”

Saul folded his hands, his index finger tapping lightly against the back of the other.

Conveniently, he had just found a similar clue.

Julie, however, didn’t think much of such a crude plan. “You just said there are lots of possible suspects behind this pollution source. What if it turns out to be someone we can’t afford to cross…”

“Then we run—before they turn their eyes toward the true wizards,” Shaya said firmly. It was clear that’s exactly how he was thinking.

When making a plan, step one: plan the escape.

No wonder someone like him had managed to survive this long.

Julie, still irritated after being called weak, snapped back, “What if you’re discovered while investigating and it’s too late to run?”

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about. That’s why I waited until I had three people before bringing up this plan.” Shaya’s eyes swept over the three of them. “That way, when it’s time to run, I’ll have others to help split the enemy’s pursuit.”

Julie rolled her eyes hard. “What if I refuse to be part of your plan?”

“Then I’ll kill you right here.”

Julie was chilled to the bone. She had interacted with Shaya more than the others, so she knew his tone. Though it sounded flat, he likely meant what he said.

If Shaya really did try to kill her here, Julie wasn’t confident she could escape.

This guy had a foul mouth and a twisted brain, but his attack power and battlefield control were terrifying.

“Then what if we agree to your plan here, but later change our minds and back out, or even leak the whole thing? What will you do then?” Saul asked.

He wasn’t planning on doing that himself, but he was worried others might leak the plan.

He didn’t take kindly to betrayal from teammates.

Shaya understood what Saul meant. He pulled two scrolls from his sleeve.

“These are Secret Word Contracts—products of contract fairies. We write the terms on them and sign our names. That way, we don’t need to worry about anyone leaking the plan.”

“Contract fairies?” Saul took the scroll and opened it, examining it carefully.

Shaya didn’t stop him.

Wizards had to understand a contract’s terms and vessel before signing.

If Saul didn’t check it carefully, Shaya would actually be more suspicious that he was up to something.

“How did you manage this? You’ve got a spatial teleportation formation, and now a Secret Word Contract from a contract fairy?” After Saul was done examining it, Julie also took a look, her face full of disbelief.

The fairy race was even rarer than the long-lost elves and dwarves.

Information about their origins and habitat wasn’t recorded in low-level wizard texts. Maybe high-rank wizards knew more, but low-rank wizards usually had only heard the name.

Only companion fairies—those that needed to live alongside wizards—were somewhat more common.

And contract fairies were even rarer than companion fairies.

“You don’t need to know where it came from.” Shaya shot down Julie’s question again. “Contract fairies are also called curse fairies. Once a contract they’ve witnessed is broken, they’ll begin relentless harassment.”

Perhaps worried that Saul didn’t fully understand, Shaya added, “They may not be able to kill you, but they’ll wait for a key moment in your experiment to ruin everything you’ve worked on for years or decades. Or, during a life-or-death situation, give you a little push and cost you your only chance to survive. And you’ll never know when the punishment will end. You’ll live in constant dread.”

Saul clicked his tongue. The consequences of breaking a contract really were a pain.

Just then, Penny whispered in Saul’s ear, “Brother Saul, if you can kill the curse fairy that shows up, then you don’t have to worry about paying the price for breaking the contract.”

Saul immediately asked her in his mind, “How strong are curse fairies?”

“Well… it depends. They always strike by surprise. I heard from my previous master that even a Third Rank wizard was once tormented by a curse fairy. He didn’t die, but during a crucial experiment, his body mutated out of control. Anyway, before my master passed away, that wizard hadn’t been seen in a very long time.”

“Got it. In short, I can’t afford to offend them now.” Saul admitted defeat instantly.

(End of Chapter)

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