Looking at the item he just received, Shesmu was delighted. Shesmu didn’t know the reward behind the quest because the guy who got it in his past life didn’t manage to finish it. The only thing that guy said in the forum was that there was an epic quest in this specific beginner town where you need to save a girl. The girl died before he could save her so he ended up missing this opportunity and lamented about it in the forums.

An item that could boost the amount of experience you receive is rare beyond measure. The fact that this item was an artifact made it even more valuable as it didn’t waste any item slot.

Shesmu hurriedly used the artifact by dropping a little bit of his blood on it. The round white sphere turned into black gas as it slipped from his hand and penetrated his left shoulder. Shesmu didn’t feel any pain, instead, he felt a refreshing cool sensation on the back of his shoulder. After the whole process was finished, an ouroboros tattoo appeared at the back of his left shoulder.

Going out of the church, Shesmu went to a cheap inn, where he could safely talk with the mysterious girl.

Paying the 10 copper needed to rent a room, Shesmu, with the cloaked girl, quickly went straight past the cashier and into the dormitory, where he chose a random room to take.

“You can take off the cloak now.”

With this said, the girl took off the cloak that was hiding all of her body. Her silky silver hair cascaded over her shoulders giving her a noble atmosphere around her. Her snow white skin with no blemish was in contrast with her previous appearance with wounds all over her body. Her blood red lips gave her a certain charm that was further accentuated with her curvatures and slim body.

“First things first, who are you?”

Hearing his question, the girl seemed to have an internal dilemma before sighing and saying.

“My name is Armina Hillrun. I’m from the Hillrun family, the one ruling over Estrya.”

Hearing her reply, Shesmu sucked a cold breath. Someone actually dared to torture and almost kill someone from Estrya’s royalty. Didn’t they fear that the kingdom backing her would go to war with Pliyx Stal?

‘Wait, from what I remember, Estrya wasn’t ruled by the Hillrun family in my past life.’

But before he could continue his train of thought, Shesmu remembered a certain incident that happened at the start of the game in the Estrya Kingdom. He didn’t remember it at first because the thing happened such a long time ago, however, at the time, the incident was all over the forums and was even mentioned on the news. Around one month after the game went live, Estrya’s political scene had a major shift. Due to treason, the Hillrun imperial family was slaughtered inside their palace without the army or the royal guard doing anything about it. In that incident, the royal guard captain, a majority of the army’s generals and major figures from the royal palace planned a coup d’état to overrule the existing King and replace him.

Remembering this conspiracy, he looked at Armina for a long time, before thinking.

‘If I recall correctly, the youngest daughter of the king and the brightest disappeared before the major incident. Maybe she is the princess in question.’

“I know that you’re still troubled with everything that just happened and can’t trust anyone. So I will not bother you with questions for the time being. You can just rest, and when you feel comfortable talking to me, I’ll be all ears.”

After saying what he needed to say, Shesmu was about to leave when he felt a hand stopping him in his track.

“Wait… Can you stay for a bit, I want to talk to you.”

Looking at the resolute face of Armina, Shesmu couldn’t bring himself to say no.

After Shesmu sat down on the bed, Armina stayed silent for a little bit before saying.

“Normally, I shouldn’t be saying this as it involves information related to the inner working of the royal family. However, at this point, I trust you more than I trust my own blood and flesh. Savior, the royal family of Estrya is in shambles, my uncle and my own brother set up a trap for me so that I die a hideous death in foreign territory, so as to avoid the blame.”

Armina paused for a second, but so as to not show her weakness, she didn’t cry and continued speaking.

“My uncle was always jealous of father, feeling that he is the one who should be the king. This jealousy resulted in many incidents over the years, however, father will always look the other way to respect the blood that he shares with his brother. But uncle’s jealousy didn’t diminish over the years, it only grew stronger. Now, with the decision of who between my two brothers will be the heir has been put to rest. My eldest brother grew jealous of his younger brother due to his nomination.”

Armina then paused to take a breath before continuing.

“One day, I heard a conversation I shouldn’t have heard. My uncle was trying to poach my eldest brother to his side so that they can start a coup d’état. He said that he already bought half of the generals of the army to his side. Moreover, he claimed to have the support of multiple high nobles and minor ones. My brother… accepted his offer."

“When I heard this conversation, I wanted to immediately report to the king. However, before I reached the royal chamber, I was stopped by the royal guards. At that point, I knew that the royal guards were already bribed by my uncle. I broke through their encirclement and entered the royal chamber, but my father was not there, he took off in the morning towards the borders with the desolate lands, to lead the army against a beast horde.”

At this point, Armina bit her lips in frustration. Her hands were visibly shaken by the anger and humiliation.

“I knew I could no longer stay in the royal palace, I made way too big of a fuss in a place where treacherous bastards were at every corner. Before the sun set down, I took off to our ally kingdom Pliyx Stal, to take refuge in a noble family that I was related through my mother.”

At this point, tears started dropping from Armina’s eyes, she could no longer stop them as she started sobbing.

“However, those vicious bastards followed me even after I crossed the border, and killed everyone and anyone I was related to with no mercy. Not even children and elderly were spared, they were decapitated, burned and stabbed, not leaving them even with a full corpse.”

Armina could no longer handle the frustration and sadness in her heart as she broke down, crying.

“I really don’t know what to do. I have neither the power nor the support to help father and brother. I don’t even have the strength to defend myself. I’m so weak that I’m disgusted with myself, I can do nothing but watch at the side, as my father and brother are killed in front of me.”

Shesmu had his heartstrings pulled out, he could feel the pain that this young girl was burying under her cold smile, to the point that it felt unbearable.

He didn’t know what to say, and he couldn’t make any empty promise. He knew that the level of strength the royalty was at, is something that he can never hope of reaching even after a year of playing. The king of Estrya was a tier 5 swordsman, holding the hidden class royal swordsman, which was many times stronger than an ordinary or rare hidden class. Someone capable of threatening and even killing such an existence would scoff at his measly strength and wouldn’t use even the power of a finger to crush him multiple times over.

After a long moment of silence, Shesmu finally said.

“I can’t help you with your quest to save your father as I’m too weak. However, I swear on my blood as a noble descendant, that I will protect you from harm until you regain your strength. I will use the immortality given to me by being of the golden generation to protect you even after death. This promise is one that the heavens will be the witness for.”

Soul Contract Description Soul Contract is a contract that holds both parties by the power of the heaven liable to what had been agreed on. The penalty for breaking the contract is a permanent -80% of the contract breaker’s attribute. The penalty is applicable to even the golden generation(players).