"Alastor, did you hear something just now?" The nameless girl was still baffled by the strange voice she had heard.
This was already the second time.
The first time, she had dismissed it as an auditory hallucination. But what about this time? It had said so much, too.
'Mortal danger? Counterattack authorization? What the heck was all that...?'
"Hmm..." Alastor fell silent.
Meanwhile, Tendōkyū trembled every so often.
Clearly, the enemy was proving difficult enough that Wilhelmina and Merihim had been dragged into a hard fight.
Standing within the flames of retribution, the girl stared blankly at her own hands. "Alastor, what about the contract? Why hasn't it gone through yet?"
"The contract has failed," Alastor explained calmly.
"I see... So it failed."
The girl wasn't particularly surprised, only a little disappointed.
After all, she wasn't the first person deemed suitable to contract with Alastor.
Over the years, nearly a hundred people had supposedly trained here in Tendōkyū.
They had all failed.
And now, there was simply one more failure added to the list.
The fate of those who failed was to leave and return to ordinary human society. That was where every unsuccessful candidate ended up. The girl had already considered that possibility herself.
"I understand. No matter what happens, thank you for raising me..."
Before she could finish expressing her gratitude, Alastor interrupted. "Your case is somewhat unusual."
"Hmm?" The girl made a small, puzzled sound.
"The reason for your failure is simple," Alastor spoke calmly. "Before attempting to form a contract with me, you had already formed a contract with another Crimson Lord. You may not have been aware of it, but now that a contract with me was attempted, that fact has automatically come to light."
"You've got to be kidding?" The girl's mouth fell slightly open in disbelief. "I've never made a contract with anyone! Aside from you, Alastor, I've never even met another Crimson Lord!"
"I understand. In fact, according to Wilhelmina's report on your condition last night, everything was perfectly normal before you went to sleep." In his voice, deep as muffled thunder, Alastor continued his analysis. "As absurd as it sounds, sometime between dawn yesterday and just now, you may have already formed a contract with a Crimson Lord. Think carefully. During that time, did any unfamiliar voice ever speak to you?"
"How could I..."
The girl was about to deny it, but then something suddenly came to mind.
Her pupils shrank.
"That voice! The weird voice from earlier? It was his doing!"
"A strange voice? Explain in detail." Alastor immediately realized that the key to this mystery was probably the voice the girl had mentioned.
"It was just now, about twenty minutes ago. I was under my favourite tree, getting ready to sneak up on Shiro, when someone claiming to be the Sun God, 'The Unfading Sun,' spoke to me. But I thought I was just hearing things..."
"'The Unfading Sun.'" Alastor slowly considered the meaning behind this. "Has it awakened in this age...?"
"Alastor, what do we do? I have absolutely no idea what's going on anymore!" The girl was starting to panic.
Tendōkyū was under attack. At the exact moment they needed her to become a Flame Haze, she suddenly couldn't form a contract, and somehow she'd already contracted with a Crimson Lord she'd never even heard of.
"In a sense, this is good news." Alastor's answer completely caught her off guard.
"Good news?" The girl went blank.
"I believe I have an idea who you contracted with." As Alastor spoke, his tone became filled with emotion. "In the distant past, there was a god born within the Crimson Realm. You could say it was the second Crimson God to be born after the God of Creation, the Snake of the Festival. It was also the strongest Crimson God."
"Its true name was 'The Unfading Sun.' An eternal sun of life that never falls..."
"It was the architect of the Crimson Realm's order, the one who established the order of the four seasons, and the being who gave names to the Crimson Realm, its Denizens, its Lords, and countless other things."
"Frankly, I find it difficult to imagine that 'The Unfading Sun,' who fell into slumber very long ago, would awaken in this era and accidentally form a contract with you... But perhaps this is an important opportunity."
"An opportunity?" The string of absurdly grand titles had completely overloaded the girl's brain.
'The strongest of all crimson gods? An eternal sun of life that never sets? The architect of order?'
She had casually answered a single sentence, and somehow ended up forming a contract with a god that exalted?
To form a contract with Alastor, she'd trained for seven years. Since childhood, she'd received all kinds of terrifying warrior training and regularly found herself dancing along the edge of life and death.
Even after all that, there had still been no guarantee that she could successfully contract with Alastor.
Alastor failed to notice the strange look on the girl's face. Instead, he continued talking to himself. "Among the Crimson Denizens, the strongest force is naturally the God of Creation, the Snake of the Festival. On the Flame Haze side, that counterpart is me, the God of Retribution. In a sense, our two sides are balanced."
"But that balance is fragile."
"In the past, most believed that Shaher, the God of Guidance, would be the one to break that balance, the decisive piece that would determine the outcome of the war between the two sides."
"But unfortunately, its authorities have made it impossible for it to join either side."
"And now, an opportunity to break that balance has arrived. A god who has slept since the primeval age has awakened in the modern era. Such a change is nothing short of earth-shattering."
"Whichever side this god chooses to join, the consequences will be decisive. Sigh~ As absurd as it sounds, I never imagined that the most crucial factor in the conflict between Flame Hazes and Crimson Denizens, the choice that may matter most of all, would end up in your hands."
"Mine?" After listening to Alastor's lengthy explanation, the girl actually understood what he meant. "My choice... determines the future of the world?"
For the first time, she felt the crushing weight of that responsibility.
"Yes." Alastor didn't brush off her question. He answered with complete seriousness. "The Power of Existence within you remains intact. Therefore, the most crucial step of the contract, the offering of your own existence, has likely not yet been completed."
"So the choice truly lies before you. Whether you choose the side of the Flame Hazes or the side of the Crimson Denizens depends entirely on you."
Alastor had never imagined that the child Wilhelmina had picked up would bring with her an opportunity of such enormous significance.
The God who had slept since the primeval era, who had already stood at the very pinnacle of the Crimson Realm and exercised the authority of order back when all Crimson Denizens, and even the other Crimson Gods, were still in their infancy...
That being had actually taken a liking to this young girl.
What an incredible coincidence.
"So, what will you choose?" Alastor was willing to let the girl make her own choice rather than interfere.
The girl took a deep breath and answered solemnly.
"I'm disappointed that I can't become the Flame-Haired Blazing-Eyed Hunter."
"But becoming a Flame Haze, and deciding for myself what that truly means, was my own choice. So whether it's the Retribution God or the Sun God, the person who ultimately makes the decision is still me."
"I... I choose to form a contract with the Sun God!"
With the girl's declaration, everything that had happened within the sanctuary condensed into a single message and was transmitted back to the Crimson Realm.
[The nameless girl has decided to form a contract with you. Do you wish to respond?]
Within the Crimson Realm, a pair of black eyes suddenly opened.
What followed was surprise, then bewilderment. "A contract?"
As his gaze shifted slightly, Ryo gave a helpless smile. "So I'm the one cutting in line and stealing someone else's contract? That's kind of a jerk move."
He chuckled. After watching the girl and Alastor each make their own choice, he sighed, set aside his amusement, and answered in a calm, unhurried voice. "I accept."
And with that... the contract was formed.
.
.
.