The blood contract I made with the dragon back in the dungeon has been broken.

Why?

How?

And why now?

Does it mean anything?

Shit...

After I collapsed, the trio postponed their leave and along with the guildmaster took care of me.

They brought me to the city's medical facility and waited till I woke up.

When I finally opened my eyes a whole day has already passed.

"..."

"So what happened?

Your mana suddenly started going haywire and then you collapsed."

"...a blood contract I made...with a monster...

...it was forcefully broken..."

"F-forcefully breaking a blood contract?

Who in the world...was that monster?"

"...a dragon..."

With a single word, their faces were painted with anxiety.

"H-how did you make a contract with a dragon...?

Aren't dragons very proud?

They wouldn't let you do something like that..."

"...he was...too strong...

...I couldn't beat him...

...I did a simple contract instead."

"No..again...how did you manage to..."

But this is troubling...

He broke the contract...

Did the god perhaps help him?

No...if he helped him it wouldn't take that long, right?

...

Sigh...

...

Right.

I get it.

He is the monster I have to defeat, right?

When I first met him, he was sleeping.

I don't know how long he was asleep.

But it could easily be hundreds of years like the quest says.

...

But I can't defeat him...

I could only avoid fighting him last time.

I can't win in a fair fight.

"Miss Reiza..."

The guildmaster looks at me with a very serious expression.

"Is this dragon...going to seek revenge on you?"

...

"...probably."

His face turns really sour...

"Can you...defeat it?"

"...impossible."

A depressing silence fills the room.

Even the blizzard woman stopped smiling.

"...If it's a monster even you can't defeat...

Then the entire country is doomed..."

Belion, the orange robed man, has the expression of having completely given up.

But blizzard stomps on the ground and catches him by his robe's collar.

"Stop being so depressed you senile old fart!

Are you going to let your past experiences haunt you forever?!"

He initially looks at her but soon averts his gaze.

"...but it's true.

It's like trying to fight a natural calamity..."

"And that's where you are wrong!"

She releases him and looks at me.

"You said you couldn't defeat him.

But you are still going to try, right?"

"...of course."

"Allow us all to help!"

A beaming smile returns to her face as she boldly proclaims that.

"W-what?!"

"Yeah!"

Belion starts panicking while Bob happily nods.

"...no.

...you will die."

"You said you couldn't defeat it.

But you were alone at that time.

Even if we are all much weaker than you, we can still assist you!"

"...we don't even know where it is or when it's going to come..."

"That's why we need to try our best to prepare!"

Belion tries to voice a complaint but is quickly rebuked by Blizzard.

...

"...why?

...this is...my fight..."

"That's not the case at all.

After you go down, then it will be the country's turn next.

It's not just your fight.

Helping you right now is our best bet."

"...your country...will never get a turn..."

Because after I die, I will have to try again...

"...what?"

She seems perplexed.

"...when I die...I go back...

...and have to try again."

"Go...back?"

Even more confusion fills her face.

"...is that your 'immortality'?"

The guildmaster raises his voice as he looks at me.

"...yeah.

...I died a lot...to that dragon."

"Do you mean...you reincarnate every time you die...?

Or perhaps...

You go back in time?"

"...the latter...probably."

Everyone looks astonished now.

"...then...

Isn't it the case that you will always win in the end...?"

"...yeah.

...but I couldn't beat him last time."

"But that doesn't matter anymore!

With us on your side, there is no way you won't win!"

Her smile has returned in full force.

But while the one she used to have prior to this seemed a little forced, this one looks completely genuine.

...

Why is she so eager to help?

If I die, I will return to that island and I will have to go all the way here again.

We won't know each other anymore and I doubt she will try to help me the next time.

There is no point in any of this.

...

But I guess I will accept their help for now.

"...fine.

...I will try it...with your help..."

"Alright then!"

"Yeah!"

"...fine..."

Blizzard and Bob seem full of energy while Belion gives up.

|= Three days later =|

Our enemy is the 'nightmare dragon'.

When I said that, they seemed to not know what exactly it was.

I explained the fact it can use pretty much every kind of magic I can.

They then asked me to show them and explain in detail all of my tricks so they could think of a way to deal with the dragon.

I thought they might exploit that information against me later, but I complied with them in the end.

Even if they know the details, they still probably can't defeat me.

And even if they can, I will start over anyway.

They in turn explained their own abilities in detail.

Blizzard can use the combination magic of air and ice.

The blizzard magic.

Why is her nickname the same as the magic she uses?

Other than that, she is at expert level air, ice and water magic.

And she also knows a bit of light magic.

Belion is at expert level of air and fire magic and he also knows intermediate lightning magic.

The thing he showed me earlier was combination magic of air and fire, explosion magic.

Unlike blizzard magic, I might be able to learn this one pretty quickly.

Bob is mainly a close combat fighter with his sword.

But he can also use expert level earth magic.

He mainly uses it to reinforce himself, but he can also cause some minor earthquakes and shoot big rocks.

Phil, the guildmaster, was also mainly a swordsman when he was an adventurer.

But he can still use advanced dark magic and he also studied a bit of illusion magic.

He said however, that despite studying it he can't really create any illusions strong enough to be useful.

Hmm...he could eventually learn phantom magic, but I guess that won't happen.

As for me, apparently hell magic is something only the previous demon lords could use.

And as for phantom magic, it's said to be one of the most difficult magics to learn.

They said people would usually go insane before learning it...

And those are our available tools.

It has been three days since I woke up from collapsing.

We still don't know when it will come.

Or from what direction.

The guildmaster has announced a potential threat is nearing this city.

And hired several adventurers to scout near the city and to report if they see anything.

Because of this, many civilians started to leave the city in a hurry.

It's been quite chaotic in the city as of late...

Over these three days, I got to know all of them pretty well.

I found out about some personal things as well.

Blizzard's origin is that of a noble girl.

But despite being raised in a rich household, she always wanted to be free.

She wanted to roam the world as an adventurer.

As she had two older brothers as well as one elder sister, the parents weren't too opposed to it.

She stood on her own without using her family's power and became famous all by herself.

Belion used to be the number one magician adventurer.

But then was sent on a special quest to the monster nation along with six other S ranked adventurers.

Only he and one more person has returned safely.

Their party encountered some kind of ancient monster there and were almost wiped out.

Prior to this, Belion was very proud and confident in his abilities.

But since then, he lost all his pride and even stopped accepting regular adventurer quests.

Instead, he became the court magician in the king's castle.

Blizzard used to admire him as a little girl, but now that's almost all gone.

She decided to work hard to surpass him and was disappointed how easy it has become after that incident.

Apparently that's the other reason why she was so eager to help me.

She hopes that if we defeat an ancient monster together, Belion's pride will be restored.

And as for Bob...

It seems like he was one of the many Blizzard's fans.

But because his strength stood out, Blizzard took a notice of him.

He was a very enthusiastic and honest man and Blizzard decided to take him in as his personal guard.

Phil's parents were both S ranked adventurers.

So his future was pretty much settled in that regard.

Apparently his parents were part of the S ranked party, that went to the monster nation.

And they both sacrificed themselves for the others.

From that point on, Phil became very diligent and strict with anything he did.

Eventually, his attitude brought him to the position of a guildmaster.

In other words, those people have quite the life story...

Listening to their stories made me feel like I missed out on something in my life...

Friends, family, ambition, admiration...I never really experienced any of that.

Thinking back, I befriended some sort of a dog monster once back in the dungeon, right?

What name did I give it again...?

We are sitting in the guildmaster's room and discussing how to approach this, when someone knocks on the door.

"I-it's here!"

The receptionist's shaky voice comes from behind the door.

Bonus:

How exactly do the blood contracts work?

A blood contract binds together two people.

Blood contracts can be used for various things, but the most common ones are slaves.

To do a standard one way blood contract, you need blood of the one, who will be bound by the contract and some mana of the one contracting.

With the blood, a magic circle needs to be drawn.

This magic circle differs depending on what kind of conditions the contract will have.

The conditions can be anything from a simple 'don't hurt the contractor' to 'don't even move unless the contractor tells you to'.

When the magic circle is ready, the contracted one usually stands in the middle of it.

Then, the contractor applies a little bit of his mana into it to make it recognize him.

After that, usually 3-4 people come in and supply the formation with the total mana required.

And then finally, the magic circle lights up and envelops the contracted person's body and the contract is complete.

What Reiza did to the dragon differed a bit from the usual procedure.

Firstly, she did the entire thing by herself, which is already quite commendable.

But she also used an advanced technique where she didn't need the contracted to be standing on the magic circle.

That technique however required quite a bit more of their blood and more mana than normal.

How can these contracts be broken?

They usually aren't forcefully broken.

Most of the time, the contractor cancels it with the help of a few experts.

Only some really powerful monsters or masters of blood magic can break free of these contracts on their own.

And contrary to what you might think, breaking a contract is EAISER the stricter the contract is.

It might seem like breaking a 'don't move unless told to' contract would be harder to break than 'don't get in my way' one.

But it's actually the opposite.

It's because the more specific the contract is, the more fragile it is.

The truly simple contracts are almost impossible to forcefully break.

However, when the contract is forcefully broken...

What follows are several unpleasant side effects for both the contractor and the contracted.

The side effects may include large amounts of mana leaking from the body uncontrollably, nausea, exhaustion and others.

"Why are YOU explaining how things work in MY world anyway?"

Because you wouldn't do it.

And even if you did, it wouldn't be impartial.

"Wha-?!

What are you talking about?!

Of course I would be impartial!

I will impartially say, that my world is perfect!"

...that's what I was talking about.