127 Duplicity of a King (2/2)

This situation with Yawm was eerily similar. The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed. If anything, I stared at the contract and reviewed it once more. It was carefully designed. It was just good enough that I could accept it in theory yet just bad enough that I wouldn’t.

Yawm knew me pretty well after all. He knew what I would accept and what I wouldn’t. I tapped my teeth together, deep in thought. Yawm didn’t just know me well, I knew him well too. That was a tool I could use to my advantage. After brainstorming for a bit, I remembered one thing about Yawm I knew for certain. The guy was greedy.

That’s why his goals were they way they were. Even after a damn eldritch told him that making an eldritch was impossible, he just scoffed. Amara understood more about the cipher and how it worked. She was the best possible resource for checking how realistic his goals were. Despite all that, Yawm just blew her concerns off.

The reason was because he thought he could have it all. Armed with that realization, I tried a different line of thought. I put myself into Yawm’s shoes and wondered what the most he could gain from us was. It wasn’t pretty.

If he captured Ajax, he could interrogate the protytian and find the others at our base. He’d capture everyone. He could experiment further with Etorhma’s tears on us. He could gain us as his new followers using contracts like the one in front of me. Considering that’s how he arrived, it wasn’t much of a stretch to guesstimate his goals like this.

Skill gained! Empathy(lvl 1) - By seeing the world through others eyes, you can use their perspective to gain insight. +1% to understanding others emotions and thoughts.

Breakthrough Achieved! Empathy(lvl 1) -->(lvl 26)

I didn’t let the skill notifications distract me. For Yawm, That was his best case scenario. That was the thing about Yawm that I could use against him. He didn’t want a good scenario. He wanted the best scenario.

Just like with the eldritch, he didn’t want us to fight them off better. He wanted us to not fight at all. Every solution he thought up was grand, inspiring, but most of all, unrealistic. He was betting that I wouldn’t sign this damn contract. He was betting that he would capture Ajax. He was betting that he would make contracts and have us all sign them.

This whole time, he wanted me to believe he was a good guy so that he could get information. He succeeded, but he wouldn’t continue succeeding. I stood up, armed with my new awareness. I walked over towards the contract. I pointed at Yawm,

“Do you mind if I add one extra clause to this contract?”

Yawm raised an eyebrow, “I...I suppose you can.”

If anything, I stared at the contract and reviewed it.

It was carefully designed, just good enough that I could accept it in theory yet just bad enough that I wouldn’t. Yawm knew me pretty well after all.

Skill learned! Tact(lvl 1) - Some conversations are like surgery. Others use an axe. You use a scalpel. + 1% to handling of delicate situations, especially social ones.

Using my bettered knowledge of the cipher, I carved a few symbols into the stone. It took about half an hour, but I got what I wanted onto the tablet. I pointed at it,

“Do you want to read this?”

Yawm stood, walking over,

“Of course.”

I pointed at the beginning of the clause, “Neither Dimension-C138 or Yawm of Flesh will alter this contract in anyway once it has been signed. This will be the first and final contract between Dimension-C138 or Yawm of Flesh. No more contracts will be allowed between them.”

Yawm raised his head, tapping his finger over the last clause, “Why did you add this final piece?”

I opened a hand to Yawm, “Because I didn’t want anymore contracts after this one.”

Yawm shook his head, “You honestly believe you’re in a position to make demands of me? You sincerely believe that?”

There it was. Yawm was leaking out from under his mask, even if only a little.

I nodded. “No, but I think your the kind of person to accept requests like this. You’re not a bad guy after all. It isn’t like I’m asking you to never make a contract with anyone again, just contracts between me and you. That’s all.”

Breakthrough Achieved! Tact(lvl 1)-->(lvl 26)

Skill Gained! Deception(lvl 1) - Those talented in lying know that the best lies are simply half truths. +1% to your likelihood of deceiving someone.

Breakthrough achieved! Deception(lvl 1) -->(lv l26)

Yawm tapped his finger against the stone. The gears in his mind turning. For once, he wasn’t in control. I was. Yawm was surprised, but he hid the emotion completely. That’s how I knew he was acting, however.

In this situation, he should be responding with some emotion. Curiosity, anger, perhaps even shock, it didn’t matter what emotion persay. He didn’t have a single exposed feeling, meaning he was hiding them. His emotions were almost always delayed, meaning they were planted for a certain response.

In this case, he was still trying to keep up the nice guy act. When he did meet my eye, he raised an eyebrow, “Why wouldn’t you want another contract between us?”

I pounded my hand against my chest, “Because we’re warriors and friends. We don’t need contracts between us. Besides, this is probably going to boot my ass from Schema’s system anyways. We won’t be enemies then.”

Yawm nodded, “That’s very true...This version of the contract is acceptable then. I do hope this agreement doesn’t create bad blood between us. It’s a means of guiding you in a direction while ensuring I’m not killed. Given your undeniable potential, I’m sure you understand.”

I raised a hand, “Yeah, it’s not that big a deal regardless. It’s more of a timeline for what I had planned anyway.”

What I said was true to some degree. I did plan on resisting Schema at some point. A 1,000 years was more than enough time for fighting him thanks to the cipher on my armor. Once I was finished giving Schema a few tweaks, I’d give Yawm a makeover. I’d make sure it was with my fists though.

I quelled that bit of anger as I pointed at the contract, “How do we sign it?”

Yawm pressed a finger against the cipher, creating a long line, “On this line, you create a signature mark that represents you. The marking will reflect your name written in the cipher.”

When I looked at the contract, what he said felt right. I grasped it on an intuitive level. It’s not that I could tell if he was lying. I could tell he couldn’t be lying. I leaned over the contract, “Can you give me an example?”

“Of course.”

Over the next hour, Yawm etched in his name onto the contract. As he carved, it the air around his crackled many times, letting him feed mana into the contract. It was enough mana to blow Springfield off the map in his hands . Once he finished the marking, I had to admit it. His etching really did reflect him.

The mark was strong like steel and explosive like fire. It was gnarled up, unafraid and unashamed of its own inner demons. It was an inexhaustible curiosity mixed with a bloodthirsty hunger for change. It was deceivingly light yet undeniably heavy, like iron in your hand. It represented a misguided force of entropy, dead set on changing the world. It was Yawm.

I walked up, Yawm looking at me,

“Are you certain you’ll take the contract as it is?”

“What made you think I’d have any doubts?”

“Even I have doubts about something this final, yet it seems like the only nonviolent compromise.”

I raised an eyebrow, “What will the contract even do exactly?”

Yawm pointed all around us, “The cipher rewrites the space we inhabit. In this case, this tablet will enforce itself in the same manner. Whatever space that is considered us will be altered if we fail the contract. Other than that, nothing will change besides whats mentioned on the contract.”

I leaned against the ice table in front of me, staring at the contract, “So it works like anything else made from the cipher. The bigger the change, the more mana needed. Efficiency is also very important for it as well.”

Yawm took a step back from the contract, “It might take a tremendous amount of time for you to fully charge it in fact. It shouldn’t be too strenuous considering your circumstances....I will admit, however, you seemed like someone who’d rather not be controlled. I didn’t anticipate you to agree to the contract so easily.”

I began my marking, “Eh, we’ll just have to see how it plays out in the long run. A thousand years is a long damn time to make something happen.”

Yawm crossed his arms, “How well I know.”

Unlike Yawm, I carved my marking into my grimoire. As I carved my marking, my mana siphoned into the marking like a drain. It wasn’t as much as I imagined it would be though. Since discovering the cipher, I learned quite a bit about it. That allowed me to adjust my carving for efficiency.

I added extra details, mentioning the finer details of who I was. I didn’t just stop along general guidelines, I dug deep into my history. Where I came from, what I’d done, and who I wanted to be, it was all there. It was fun, kind of like writing an autobiography. When I finished the marking, it wasn’t what I expected.

The mark was like metal, but it was flexible as air. It could bend and warp with ease. It made the inscription malleable yet unbreakable at the same time. There was potential in the marking as well, like it wasn’t quite finished. In a way, that seemed just right for me. I wasn’t quite finished either. There was a lot left I planned on doing.

And like that, I finished marking it down. After ten more minutes of giving the marking mana, the contract clicked into place. Something shifted, like a gear clicking into place. After that, there was nothing new. For something that sounded like a life or death ultimatum, it didn’t have much shock and awe.

Life Oath accepted! You have now been contracted by Yawm of Flesh to alter Schema’s baseline programming. If alterations aren’t made within 1,000 Earth years, Dimension-C138 will disintegrate into the space of dimension-C137.

You have broken one of the primary tenants of Schema’s system. Sentient rights have been revoked. Leveling and further data uploads are hereby locked.

You have been exiled.