CHAPTER 148: BEATRICE CONTRACT

"A Contract?"

The words left Adam mouth in a low tone.

Beatrice looked at Adam, her rainbow colored eyes glimmering with excitement, as she began to explain.

"That’s right, a contract."

She said, eating one one of the biscuits on her table in an elegant and lady like manner.

"But just a heads up, to form a contract with me is to become a piece on my gameboard, that is the world I have you in right now, to me to me your like a mere actor on TV. The only difference here I dictates the challenges, and I can manipulate the events, and you wouldn’t even know that your being manipulated."

Her grin stretched wider, eyes glittering with wicked delight.

In a way she kind of enjoy Adam worried reactions when he she explain just how powerful she is despite being an assistant witch.

But she didn’t want to scare him too much either.

Even if emotions and expression are great entertainment for her.

For that reason she began to explain the nature of the contract she was suggesting.

"Of course, there are two types of contract’s. Those types being a permanent and a temporary contract. Like renting a soul versus owning it outright, fufufu."

She laughed.

"But you, my sweet little human are but a guest performer here. My aid needs not to extend into permanence for the likes of you."

"Compare to the main characters of the world you reside in, you are so much more, it’s funny how far ahead in terms of existence value you are when compare to them."

Then her gaze flicked to the side, where her an unfamiliar man was.

Adam himself had no the slightest clue who he was, but this person in question gave him the creeps.

"Unlike my precious Queen piece over there, who has served me for five hundred years."

"Heheh... It’s nice to meet you young master Adam."

"Ahhh... Young master, a little too grand of a title for someone as weak as me don’t you think?"

Adam replied back.

It was only true, if he has served Beatrice for that long then it can only means that he is a being of Kaplana.

"Ufufufuf...

The mysterious man laughed subtly, as he close his eyes, but his hand never leave his chest as he bows.

"Ah, but in the grand scheme of things, I am no different from you, with one minor difference in how our soul works."

"Really?"

Adam asked, then continued.

"If so enlightened me."

Hamilton smiled and chuckled ever so slightly again at Adam words, it presence was as warm, yet menacing, truly it hard to choose description for his aura.

Either way his eyes closed in practiced grace, one hand resting atop the other.

As he began to explain, the difference between himself and Adam.

"To the Witches, Warlocks, and their esteemed Assistants...such as my dear Lady Beatrice here."

He gestured towards her, and Beatrice teasingly wave her had at Adam.

As Hamilton continued.

"We are little more than... characters in a book. Amusing footnotes, as they like to call us."

He opened one eye, just barely, a glimmer of amusement peeking through his gaze as he studied Adam’s reaction.

"She exists on a higher logical understanding than I could ever hope to reach. And you, dear guest... you possess something I do not."

"Related you are."

"But something of the unrelated flows through you."

"And that is a unbloomed Witch Gene, quietly nestled in your soul."

"Your ascension, into a warlock...well, it is practically carved into stone assuming you survive to the end of your story."

His tone didn’t waver, but the seriousness behind his words lingered in the air.

"Of course, you’ll begin as an assistant. That is tradition, after all. But even an assistant exists on a higher level of logical power than we poor champions."

He chuckled lightly, his hand covering his mouth.

"Not that I mind. I do enjoy a good role... especially one with such lovely amusement like yourself."

"...I see...

Was Adam’s only response at this moment.

As he soon turn his focus on Beatrice once more.

"So what kind of contract are we talking about here. Also you mentioned earlier that you can revive me multiple times for every game over right? Given I play a game with you, so tell me, what game do you have in mind."

"The game dear Adam, is the same game you been playing live all this long, you just need live your life as you always do. I merley want increase the difficulty of your story even more though."

Beatrice flatly said.

"... I don’t like the sound of that."

"Hahaha... Of course, I will offer you something in return."

"... That being?"

Adam asked, and responded by saying.

"Aha. Well like I said before the little world you cherish so dearly... is absolutely crawling with main characters!"

She threw her arms wide, as the world warp around her showing the many main characters in existence.

Many were male.

Some female.

Others non-human.

In layman terms, these guys were a problem.

"Some of the protagonists in this quaint little AU of yours are fated, and ordained, even to ascend to godhood in their own respective universe. Can you imagine it? Mortals with egos inflated by destiny, clawing their way into divinity."

"And as you are now? There are many, many souls at this very moment who surpass you by unfathomable margins. Especially the cultivators, fufufu. Oh, such gaudy power systems, but effective all the same!"

She leaned close, her smile sly.

It was hard to get a read in her, but Adam could tell, this was all pleasing to Beatrice.

It was like amusement in of itself was a drug she could not get enough of.

It doesn’t make her stronger in anyway whatsoever. But she covets it as if chasing a high.

He could tell, he was the same after all.

When he played games, if the story was top tier, he can’t get enough of it.

And she had those eyes, of...

"More... I need more... I don’t want it to end... Not yet."

It was weird, seeing a being of such power behave like this.

But then and again, if it is one thing he learned in the monster world.

Was that the stronger a person is, the more eccentric they are most of the time.

And Beatrice was just a text book example of this.

She then grabbed Adam as she lies on her grand bed as she lift the plushie in the air while saying.

"So it goes without saying my favourite human. You’re a spark in a fireworks show. Bright, perhaps... but easily outshined."

"Don’t you want insurance... I offer much you know?"

Adam, being force to look her face first as she hoist him in the air.

Began to speak as he asked.

"What exactly are you offering though... Or rather what exactly do you mean by making my story harder."

"Kukuku... I want to see how it all unfolds you see. Every twist, every stumble, the good and the bad. The triumphs you bleed for, and the failures that rip your soul apart."

"The Priscilla Dead End was such an amusing sight to behold."

She said with cruel and satisfied smile.

But yet that satisfaction is but a temporary thing. The high itself will not last for long.

"Accepting my hand is no small thing. It is like reaching for the hand of a cruel, capricious bitch, and I’ll admit that freely!"

"The peaceful little life I gifted you. My sweet, half-hearted apology for killing you and your universe."

"More like I just won the lottery of a lifetime as you once describe it."

She smiled at Adam words.

"Then your just one lucky human."

"Out of Infinites, the randomness of my choice fall on you."

"But hey at least I’m not lying to you, am I? I am not afraid to admit my favourite human."

"Your life is just a reality TV to me, I wish I could give you a more serious response, but that is all existence of the related world could ever be for a being like me."

"A simple, and cliche answer, but still the truth nonetheless. But take my hand, and fail, and fail, again and again till your happy ending is all but sure."

"You’ll have no one to blame but yourself for all you see and experience when everything collapses because of one foolish decision."

She softly said, then continued by saying.

"But In return... I offer you the true visual novel experience. One that no other soul has tasted. The full spectrum. Every route, every ending, every cruel branch and bittersweet finale... all yours to walk, stumble, or claw through."

"... What are you really getting at here Beatrice?"

Asked Adam, a little loss by her offer and true intentions.

"Was I too cryptic for you, my apologies if that is the case. In simple terms, I will give you a unique perspective."

"Similar to beings of Kaplana, till your seed starts to bloom and you join us here."

"WAIT WHAT... FOR REAL?!"

He shouted is suprise.

"Yes a unique logic view, somewhat."

"This reality is a tale. A grand, cruel, beautiful story. What I write... becomes Word. The mightiest gods are no more wondrous than the finest kings inked upon a page."

"Entertain me, Adam! With your suffering. Your love. Your despair. Friendship, betrayal, drama, fantasy, mystery, and conflict! Your world is bursting with many amusing things to keep one like myself entertained."

Then her smile softened just a little.

"And I want to see you give your all. To see how far you’ll rise... when everything is stacked against you."

"You will fail, they are countless ways how things can easily go bad for you."

"You will also hurt, you will also feel joy, you will also feel pain and responsibility. Truly you get to feel it all."

"Now then... provide me with this entertainment, and in return, I shall bestow upon you a most exquisite little gift."

"A power befitting a protagonist in this grand stage of mine... the ability to perceive this world not as something linear or fixed, but as an endless experience, continuing even after your Game Over."

Her grin widened, teeth gleaming.

"To you, this reality shall become series of Save and Load. A luxury no one but you will get. Save freely, preserve moments, seal away decisions like petals in a book. But... the ability to Load, to return to one of your precious saves, shall only be yours in death. Only at the end. Only when you fall or succumb to a Dead End."

"Every time you Load, the story itself shall rewind. The tale retold. The roles reshuffled. A perfect loop, reset at your whim... So what do you say? Are you interested?"