Transmigration: I Made A Deal With A Man in Yellow

Chapter 7: Ezio Schatten

The man was at least 1.9 meters tall with a lean build perfectly suited for an assassin. He had short black hair neatly combed back with matching eyes. He wore a long trench coat that reached his ankles over a black suit, his katana sheathed at his waist.

I couldn’t deny it, but the man had style.

But what caught most of my attention was his skin. It was so pale that someone could mistake him for a vampire. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

"Aren’t you a bit overdressed for an assassin? You’re not supposed to be drawing attention." I said.

"So that my victims remember that I always mean business and can see how much effort I put into my work." He said, tilting his head to the side as a sharp smile formed on his lips.

It was not every day that an assassin wore a suit.

I pulled my chair back and sat down.

"So, did I finally earn your respect?"

He didn’t reply at first. He walked to the opposite chair and sat down, putting his feet up on my table and crossing one over the other.

"No. Do you think simply killing a few weak, stupid knights would earn my respect?"

"Thought so. Not even after I pulled you out of my shadow?"

His left eye twitched at my words.

"Hmph. Not really, but I’ll admit you surprised me. Not everyone can pull a Shadow Guardian out of a shadow that easily, especially when I am so many ranks above you. That darkness you awakened — it’s a strange power." He crossed his arms, confusion flickering in his ink-black eyes.

He and I were thinking the same thing.

Once a Shadow Guardian hides inside a shadow, it is almost impossible to draw them out. You either had to wait for them to run out of mana or have a specific power capable of erasing all shadows like light, but not just any ordinary light power.

You might think darkness would be a counter to it, but no. Shadows can exist within darkness too. Where they cannot exist at all is within absolute darkness.

I had gambled on my darkness power and wanted to test whether it carried the absolute trait...and it did. That was how I had managed to push him out of my shadow.

"Is that really fair though?" I leaned forward. "My siblings have already earned the acknowledgement of their Shadow Guardians. I am the only one remaining."

I pressed on.

"So what?" He scoffed. "I’m not like the other guardians, kid."

"Calling me a kid and not young master? How disrespectful." I tried to put on a fake angry tone.

"I’ll call you whatever I want until you earn my acknowledgement." He smiled cheekily. "You may have awakened, but you have been disrespected for years. Just because you finally set things right with your servants here — though not all of them — you still haven’t earned the respect of the family: your siblings, the elders, and the family head."

"A small deed like that doesn’t restore your honor."

I closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair.

I had expected those words.

Despite setting the tone here in this mansion, I still had to prove to the whole family that I — Yves — had changed.

That I was no longer the good-for-nothing son, no longer overshadowed by my siblings or cousins.

And in order to do that, I had to win the upcoming Rite of Passage.

Winning it would change everything and bring a great many benefits.

I opened my eyes and looked at the man in front of me.

Specifically this man — I needed him to protect me while I was still growing stronger, and to carry out certain tasks I would need done in the future.

But for that, I needed him bound completely to me. Not to the family, not to the family head. To me alone.

If he was going to be responsible for my life, he had to answer only to me.

That was why I had thought of this.

"What if I won the upcoming Rite of Passage?" I said.

"You?" His lips twitched. "Don’t make me laugh. Do you have any idea how far behind you are compared to the others? You have no chance of winning —"

"You didn’t answer my question. What if I win?" I interrupted.

He looked at me, and seeing that I was serious, the smile faded from his face.

He was quiet for a moment before speaking.

"If you win, you will definitely have my respect — hell, you could have my life. After all, that would mean defying every impossible odd currently stacked against you."

That was all I needed to hear.

"I can have your life, you said?" I asked, just to be sure.

"Yeah, you could have my life." He said confidently.

"You won’t go back on your word?"

"A Shadow Guardian doesn’t go back on his word."

"You say that, but I don’t trust you." I opened one of the drawers under my table and took out a brown sheet of paper covered in runes.

I placed it on the table and slid it towards him.

The guardian looked at the paper, then at me.

"A mana contract?" He frowned.

"Yes."

From Yves’s memories I had seen that he had bought some mana contracts for whatever reason, so I planned to use one with the Shadow Guardian just in case he went back on his word.

"Why should I sign this?"

"Why not?" I smirked. "Are you scared of a kid like me? Didn’t you just say I had no chance of winning?"

A small vein appeared on his forehead and he clenched his jaw.

Then, after a moment of thought, he smiled. "This deal seems entirely one-sided. How about I add a condition of my own in case you lose?"

I nodded. "Sure, go ahead."

"If you lose, you give me my freedom and enough money to live a comfortable life."

"An assassin wanting to live a normal life? That’s a first." I said, amused.

"There’s a first time for everything." He smiled. "I’m tired of being ordered around. I want to be free for once."

"Freedom doesn’t come without a cost."

"I know." He pushed the contract towards me. "So what do you say?"

What he wanted was no small thing.

He didn’t just want freedom...he wanted freedom from the Laurents.

The Laurents had absorbed his family rather than wiping them out, in exchange for their servitude. And since the Laurent ancestors were not foolish, they had bound them all under a mana contract that prevented any betrayal.

It was a near-impossible request — with the sole exception of me, of course.

But would I really go through all that trouble for him?

Yes, I had to.

If I truly wanted him bound to me, I first had to break the contract he had with the family and forge a new one with me alone.

I smiled.

I felt a pang of pity for him, because I was not going to lose — and so he would never see his freedom. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

He was making a deal with the devil.

"I agree to your terms." I said.

I bit my finger, drawing a small wound, and pressed it against the paper.

"I, Yves, agree to his terms — that if I lose, I will grant him his freedom and the money he desires. And I promise not to harm him." The contract glowed.

I felt invisible chains tighten around my heart.

"Your turn." I smiled.

...

Ezio watched the smile on Yves’s face and couldn’t help but have second thoughts about the deal.

Normally he wouldn’t feel anything at all — this wasn’t the first time he had made a deal, and he had won every time before. He had no reason to believe he would lose to a kid.

But he couldn’t shake the feeling that this boy had something up his sleeve.

Something that would make him win — he could see it in how utterly confident the boy was. And if he was being honest with himself, he was more than a little uneasy about the whole thing.

’Doesn’t matter. He won’t win.’

He bit his finger and pressed it against the paper.

"I, Ezio, agree to his terms — that if I lose, I will give Yves my life. And I promise not to harm him."

The paper glowed blue after he spoke his vow.

Ezio felt the mana chains tighten around his heart.

"It’s done." Ezio said, though the words felt strangely heavy leaving his mouth.

’Did I just make a deal with the devil?’