Humanity Return

Ch. 30 – Red-Haired Girl and Lazy Big Wolf

Hearing that familiar voice, Aura leaped onto the Wolf Beast's body and found Leinn walking towards him with the Gorilla Beast beside her.

A great feeling of relief swept through Aura's entire body and she instantly fell down lying on the Wolf Beast's back.

Leinn reached beside the big wolf and found Aura lying limp on his back.

“You why?” leinn asked while raising one eyebrow.

“A-I'm okay” Aura jumped up and slid down from that big body.

The Wolf Beast got up from his lying position and sat on the ground yawning, then started walking back down the tree and lay down to sleep again.

The aura passed through the path that returned unobstructed and reached Leinn's front.

“How so? Did you make it?”

“Hehehe...” a strange laugh came out of the young man's mouth.

Leinn raised his right hand and from that back, a small shadow leaped up and landed on that palm.

Aura was visibly shocked by the appearance of the small creature in front of her, a quivering jelly.

“Kyuu!”

“Aura, this is Clear. Clear, this is Aura” Leinn said as she used her left hand to introduce the two of them.

“H-helo”

The aura was stunned by the small creature in Leinn's palm, just like the one he had seen in the Encyclopedia Beast's book.

“KYUU!” Clear answered Aura's greeting with a strong vibration.

Aura was surprised to see that reaction, the Coreless Slime that she had imagined did not have such a spirited nature as the Clear that was in front of her. He also realized the Clear in front of him was reacting like he understood what he was saying.

Leinn started walking with Clear who was climbing up his arm, looking satisfied after seeing the Aura's reaction.

“Hehe, let's go back now”

“E-eh?”

Leinn stopped his steps after hearing the reaction then turned to face Aura.

“What's up?”

“B-how about my Contract...?”

Aura started to feel extremely confused and Leinn in front of her just looked at her without saying anything more.

After a moment passed in silence, Leinn pointed at the Wolf Beast who was lying not far away from them.

“...Didn't you make a contract with him?”

“Eh?”

Time passed again with the two of them staring with the same confused expression.

The Gorilla Beast behind Leinn just stood looking at the two humans in front of him looking at them.

The Wolf Beast did not care and yawned again, then went back to sleep.

Clear finally made it to the top of Leinn's head.

“You haven't made a Contract with him?” ask Leinn again.

“What..?”

This time Aura looked at this Wolf Beast with a puzzled expression.

“Eh..”

He looked back at Leinn.

Seeing Aura's expression, he realized that the girl was completely unaware of her chance of making a Contract with the Wolf Beast. He started to lower his big bag and grabbed onto it.

“Are you unaware of the reason he followed us to this cave?” leinn said as he ruffled the contents of his big bag.

Hearing this, Aura walked slowly then extended her hand to the Wolf Beast's face, which let him touch the tip of its muzzle.

“A-are you sure...? I-I'm not good enough at all...Aw-!”

This time the Wolf Beast pulled back its head then hit Aura on the head with its muzzle.

“Woof”

Aura smiled after receiving that answer, with both of her hands stroking her newly hit head.

“AHA!” leinn shouted in a joyous tone, finding the black paper he was looking for.

Leinn pulled out the black paper along with a piece of Contract Seal, after realizing he had placed it inside his pants pocket. He stared at the two pieces of paper in his hand while re-carrying his large bag. He stuffed the Contract Seal back into his pants pocket and held out the green paper in his hand to Aura.

“This I return”

Aura lowered her head and grabbed the paper without saying anything.

“I don't know yet the amount of Soul Vessel you have”

Leinn said that while stroking the transparent lump on his head, unaware of the sad expression on the girl's face.

“...I don't know..”

Aura only replied in a very small voice, clasping the paper in her hand.

“My father did not let me check my Soul Vessel on my next birthday, he said ‘son failed’ like me do not need to know such a thing.”.

Aura was still lowered her head while staring at the green paper in her hand, until she felt something touch her head. He lifted his head and found Leinn who was smiling at him then realized Clear who had already landed on his head.

“Yes, what else are you waiting for? You already have the chance to create a Contracted Beast now!” leinn said with a big smile.

“Eh..”

Leinn was so confident he had enough Soul Vessel to contract with a Rank B+ Beast, and it was all without any clear reason or evidence whatsoever.

“...haha...” a weak laugh came out of the little girl.

Regaining a bit of his courage, he started activating the green paper. She pulled a small knife from inside her dress bag and stabbed her fingertip, letting a drop of blood fall onto the paper which, along with Mana from it, seemed to start reacting.

“Huh?”

Leinn let out a puzzled voice after seeing the paper's reaction, the rays released and the number of moving engravings were far more than when he examined his Soul Vessel. He was even forced to protect his two eyes from that ever-increasing light.

After ten seconds had passed, the beam finally subsided and a row of numbers could be seen on the paper.

[2 1 2 5 0]

“...eh?”

“Wow”

Leinn looked amazed by the result and Aura rubbed her eyes a few times before re-examining the row of figures.

“...eh?”

He could only let out the same confused voice, not believing in the potential he had.

“Kyuu?”

Clear in his head did not understand what the number meant, he did not even know what a number was and only trembled small.

“I told you to believe in yourself, if you still have a hard time doing it..”

Aura raised her face and found Leinn pointing at herself with her own thumb.

“Trust me who believes in you!” leinn said excitedly, with a big smile on his face.

“Pfft...Hahahaha..”.

Aura started to laugh loosely until tears streamed down her face. He felt the heavy weight on his shoulders decrease drastically, either because of the evidence in his hands or because of hearing the strange statement from the young man before him.

Leinn maintained his smile upon seeing Aura's reaction.

“...haha... Alright!”

After she finished laughing, Aura pulled out the Contract Seal from inside her dress and faced the wolf beside her. Making a new wound with his little knife, he dripped his blood again while draining his Mana.

The Contract Seal began to react.

The Wolf Beast again stood on all four legs and faced Aura as well, bowing its head.

“Kyuu!”

Clear felt a strange thing about to happen, instantly leaping back onto Leinn's head.

Aura then stretched out that Contract Seal and stuck it on the Wolf Beast's forehead in front of him.

The Contract Seal then turned into light particles that began to spread to the ground beneath the two of them.

“Huh?”

Feeling that something was different from the Contract in front of him, Leinn and the Gorilla Beast began to take a step back away from the magic circle that was starting to widen.

The magic circle started to become more and more clear and turned into a red color, then the silhouette of a burning heart started to appear in the center of the magic circle.

[I, Aura Flameheart, First Daughter of the Flameheart family, made a Contract here, now.].

That smoldering heart silhouette appeared on Aura's and Wolf Beast's forehead.

[Making yourself standing in front of me a Contracted Beast that will accompany me until the time when one of us is lifeless.].

The magic circles under their feet began to shine brightly, reacting with the chant that Aura spoke.

[From now on you are a Contracted Beast belonging to Aura Flameheart! Your name is Rufus!]

Simultaneously, the magic circle and emblem on their foreheads both broke into light particles that were sucked into the bodies of the two of them.

The bright light finally began to subside and the atmosphere of the forest became calm again.

Leinn touched Clear in his head and pondered.

“Contract we were not that great yes..” murmured slowly.

“Kyuu?”

Aura turned to face Leinn with a big smile, feeling elated for successfully performing her first Contract.

“Leinn! I succeeded!”

“Huh, congratulations

He felt astonished to see Aura's face that looked almost emitting that light, his joyful feeling was very clearly visible.

Aura then turned around and jumped onto Rufus' face, which responded by throwing Aura at his back. He landed smoothly on the big wolf's back and began to take a comfortable sitting position.

“Come Rufus! Come Leinn!” aura said with a wide smile on her face, pointing in one direction.

Rufus reacted by starting to walk in the direction the girl pointed.

Leinn followed them from behind with a smile. He was also satisfied to see how happy Aura was. He and the Gorilla Beast beside him started walking following Aura and Rufus from behind.

　

　

“Aura, it's not a jungle” exit