Became the Unjust Contract Slave of the Archamage’s Book

*Crash!*

The boulder crushed Binaeril like an insect. He vividly felt the sensation of his skin being compressed and his bones shattering. His consciousness cut off there.

And then.

*Shhh―.*

He regained consciousness.

“??”

As soon as Binaeril opened his eyes, he inspected his entire body. He rubbed his forearms, pinched his cheeks, and slapped his face.

“…I’m completely fine?”

For someone who was just crushed by a boulder, he was in remarkably good condition.

“Did I really die this time?”

– Binaeril!

Eden, who had fluttered over, spoke to him again.

– Too bad.

“Eden, what just happened?”

– It was a failure.

“Failure? So that was real just now?”

Eden, with her tiny face, nodded.

– But don’t worry! You can try again, you know?

“Try again?”

*Rumble―.*

As soon as Eden finished speaking, the surroundings changed once more.

It was the same scene as before. A steep, pathless incline.

“Wait, wait a minute!”

– Get ready!

*Rumble― Boom!*

The ominous sound echoed again.

Binaeril looked up the slope, thinking “It can’t be…”

There it was again. The familiar boulder came into view.

“Damn it…!”

He held back the curse rising in his throat with superhuman patience.

– I hope you succeed this time!

“Wait, Eden!”

But Binaeril’s desperate plea was, once again, in vain.

– Heehee!

With a cheerful laugh, the boulder began to roll again.

Binaeril was starting to resent Eden.

“Damn it! KSHVARL!”

Unable to bring himself to curse at the cute Eden, he spat out the words that Inyakan always used.

And then, he started running again. There was no other option.

“Ahhh! Somebody help!”

Despite his desperate cry, no one came to his aid.

The only one watching was that carefree spirit flying overhead.

*Rumble!*

He ran with all his might, but the boulder was still much faster.

“Damn it! KSHVARL! KSHPARL! NARR!”

Binaeril spewed out meaningless words in a panic.

If Inyakan saw him now, would he shake his head in disapproval, or laugh at the absurdity of it all?

At the very least, Inyakan wouldn’t have let Binaeril die under that boulder.

*Rumble!*

As the roaring sound from behind reached his ears, Binaeril was forced to make a choice again.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures!”

In the end, this was the only option. Binaeril didn’t have the superhuman strength needed to smash a boulder twice his size with his bare hands.

So the only choice left was magic.

“Shoot! Break! Shatter! Destroy!”

He babbled out incantations that matched his frantic imagination, aiming his fingers at the boulder, but…

Heartlessly, the boulder didn’t budge.

“Please! Break! Help me, Eden!”

– I can’t help, sorry!

Her apology was as cheerful as ever.

Of course, it was of no help at all.

*Crash!*

And so, Binaeril faced his second “death.”

* * *

The lost sensation gradually returned. Binaeril regained consciousness while lying flat on the ground. He kept his eyes closed, pretending to remain unconscious. He knew that if he opened them, the same situation would repeat.

Beyond his closed eyelids, he could feel the light tickling his eyelashes. It was probably Eden.

– Binaeril, wake up. Has your spirit been broken?

When Eden didn’t get a response, she started tugging at his clothes and pinching his lips, trying to wake him up. Binaeril seized the moment and grabbed Eden firmly.

– Eek!

A wave of guilt washed over him, but he quickly brushed it off. The fear of being crushed by the boulder again was far stronger than the guilt of grabbing Eden.

“Eden, wait!” 

He kept Eden trapped in his hands as he surveyed his surroundings. Fortunately, the scenery hadn’t changed yet. 

When he slightly parted his fingers, Eden’s face popped out.

“What on earth is going on? What’s with that boulder, and why does the same thing keep happening? Am I dead? Can you control what happens around here?”

– Ugh, too many questions. I’m confused.*

Eden stuck out her tongue and shook her head in frustration. Suppressing his anxiety, Binaeril decided to ask more calmly.

“That boulder from before—don’t do it again. You can stop it, right?”

– Yes!

Her response was overly cheerful.

“Don’t do it. Please.”

– I can’t do that.

Eden shook her head. Her firm expression was adorably determined, but Binaeril couldn’t appreciate it in his current state.

“Why not?”

-Because it’s a test.

“A test of what?”

Binaeril shouted, and Eden covered her ears, letting out a heavy sigh.

– If I let you go now, do you think you can win?

Her tone had shifted subtly.

“Huh?”

-The fragments waiting to devour you outside. Do you think you can defeat them?

“…”

-There’s no time to explain everything. If you don’t want to be devoured, you have to devour first.

Her tone was unusually pessimistic for Eden.

-This place is a preserved dream. In a preserved dream, the impossible becomes possible. You can come back to life and take the test as many times as you need.

-And you’re not dead, Binaeril. Right now, it’s a moment where you have to struggle to survive. If you can’t overcome it and your spirit breaks, you might as well die here. That would probably be better for you.

“But what am I supposed to do? Use magic to break that boulder and survive? That’s impossible. Veritas took all my mana.”

-Don’t talk like that. Even if Veritas took your mana, there’s still something left in you that he couldn’t take away.

“What is it, then?”

-Your memory.

Binaeril felt caught off guard.

-Only nymphs are born with magic in their hands. Everyone else has to overcome it by themselves. Every mage is born that way.

“You’re saying I can use magic without Veritas?”

-Did Veritas gift you with magic? Miracles like that don’t happen. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Veritas only pushed you off the cliff.

By your own strength.

Can I really use magic… on my own?

-You need to break your world. Remember, every bird must break out of its egg, Binaeril.*

With those final words, Eden slipped from Binaeril’s grasp and flew away. Once again, the landscape around him began to change.

*Boom!*

The terrifying sound reverberated through the ground once more. Binaeril stood up and turned around.

Would he flee downward in fear of the boulder?

Or would he break the boulder and climb upward?

The choice was his to make. But in truth, there was only one choice he could make.

This time, he didn’t run.

*Rumble!*

He calmly stared at the approaching boulder, recalling the moment he first crafted magic with his hands.

What did it feel like?

“Break!” he shouted.

*Boom!*

The deafening noise that followed wasn’t the sound of the boulder shattering. It was the sound of his body being crushed once again.

* * *

He tried again, and again, and again.

Could an egg break a boulder? What if it wasn’t just one egg, but ten? A hundred? A thousand?

At least one thing was certain: after dozens of attempts, Binaeril hadn’t managed to put even a scratch on the boulder.

*Boom!*

The sound of the boulder falling and rolling was enough to make his ears ring. The pain of being crushed had become so familiar that he was almost numb to it.

*Thud!*

“Again!”

*Thud!*

“Again!”

*Crash!*

“Again!!”

Eden hovered above him, resting her chin on her hands, watching him with a bored expression. It almost seemed like she was becoming more like Veritas.

“Again!!!”

By now, Binaeril had lost count of how many times he had tried. After his twentieth attempt, he realized there was no point in keeping track. Every bit of focus was needed to break through the boulder; there was no room for distraction. Not at the moment.

“Shoot!”

“Shatter!”

“Break!”

“Explode!”

But all of those attempts weren’t entirely in vain. During the brief moments before the boulder crushed him each time, he thought tirelessly about how to project the most vivid image possible. What would be the most efficient way to break the boulder? Which incantation would be the most effective?

…He hadn’t seen any results yet.

“Wound it!”

“Slash it!”

“Scratch it!”

Eventually, he decided to start from the very beginning, letting go of any grand ambitions. His increasingly humble spells were the result of such deliberations.

“At least scrape off some fragments!!”

And then, at some point.

“Damn it!”

Another failure.

As he revived once more, Binaeril scratched his head, contemplating the next approach.

“…Eden?”

But this time, the surroundings didn’t change immediately. Eden was quietly watching him.

“Did I fail the test?”

-Now I understand.

“Understand what?”

At the last moment, as Eden had watched his death with a yawn and a bored gaze, she noticed something. From Binaeril’s fingertips, the tiniest thread of mana had seeped out. And it had touched the boulder. 

The mana was far too weak to stop or shatter the massive, accelerating boulder. But it was still mana.

Yes, it was time to change the approach.

-I now understand the situation in which Binaeril’s potential will be best realized!

Eden spun around in the air and clapped her hands twice. Suddenly, a completely new landscape appeared. Binaeril stared blankly at the place the spirit had created, then looked at Eden with a face that asked, *Is this for real?*

Nod, nod!

-When you take your seat, it begins!

“My seat…”

He didn’t need her to explain where that was—he remembered it clearly.

His body moved before his mind could catch up.

He instinctively walked to the last seat by the window, the one he was most familiar with. The world around him was in shades of gray, as if time had stopped and the people were frozen in place.

*Click, click, click.*

With just three steps, Binaeril reached his seat and stared at the worn chair in front of him.

As he sat down, the colors around him came to life, like water-soaked paint spreading across a canvas. The students were suddenly animated, laughing, chatting, and whispering among themselves.

As he inhaled, a familiar and nostalgic scent filled his senses. The scene Eden had crafted for him was none other than Elfenbine’s classroom.

-Ahem.

A voice cleared its throat from beyond the classroom entrance.

And then.

*Creak―.*

The front door of the classroom opened, and the professor walked in.

“Everyone, take your seats.”

It was Professor Freud.

He looked around the now-silent students and began calling roll, one by one.

“…Binaeril Dalheim.”

Finally, it was his turn.

“Binaeril Dalheim, are you not here?”

“…Yes.”

His response was a beat too late, causing the professor’s face to twitch with irritation.

“Don’t waste class time. Answer promptly.”

Even his curt tone was a welcome sound to Binaeril.

“Everyone, hand in the assignment I gave you last time.”

With those words, a large student assistant began collecting cubes from the students.

“Gospelt Louis.”

Professor Freud. Gospelt Louis. The students’ cubes.

It was a moment Binaeril remembered well—perhaps a moment he could never forget.

If that’s the case, then the next line should be…

“Binaeril Dalheim.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“Why haven’t you handed in your cube?”

Binaeril smirked.

It felt like acting in a scene that had been lifted straight from his memories.

“I accidentally broke it. The cube.”

“…What?”

Professor Freud looked at Binaeril as if what he had said was completely absurd.

“So now you’re resorting to lies?”

Binaeril shrugged. He knew from experience that his nonchalant demeanor would provoke the professor.

“Come up here immediately!”

With a confident stride, Binaeril walked to the podium. He didn’t forget to grab a cube from the pile as he passed by.

“Binaeril Dalheim. If what you said is true, then do it again. But if you can’t…”

“Yes, I know.”

“…??”

“Let me just try.”

*Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.*

He could almost hear the laughter from that time, tickling his ears. It was probably Veritas’s laugh. Or maybe Eden’s?

Binaeril placed the cube on the lectern where both Professor Freud and the students could see.

And then, in a cheerful tone, he recited the magic incantation.

The one word that was enough.

“Break.”

That was all.