The Other Side of The Contract

The next day came with a big bang. The day started with him getting woken up by water splashing onto his face. Though he got woken up by that way when he opened his eyes to see the surroundings. There was nobody else in the room except him. He started to wonder how he got splashed by water even though nobody was there, and he opened his eyes. After questioning the water for a couple of minutes, he started to feel a little cold due to what he was wearing. Even he was surprised at how he could think to himself that long without feeling the chill from wearing the wet shirt. Now that he has started to sneeze, he should stop stalling and start heading to the bath. As he walked out of the room, he noticed the room he slept in wasn't even the place where he was the other day. And when he looked at the home he had been sleeping in, it was more like a shack than a room. Besides that, the temperature outside was colder than inside the shed because he woke up before the sun rose. With the coldness from the wetness of the cloth and the surrounding temperature, that's the sign for him to make it to the bathroom quickly, or he will have to suffer from the cold much longer. As he entered the mansion, he noticed that he was the first one to be awake. It's been a long time since that happened.

Just as he was about to walk out of the bathroom, he bumped into his foster dad, and his reaction to it wasn't a pleasant one. Right after they bumped into each other, his foster dad went off. All of a sudden, he started to pull his ear as if he had done something terrible. Since Ryan hardly gets punished, what his foster dad did to him was enough to make him cry. But the cries didn't make him want to stop but the complete opposite. He kept on pulling his ear while yelling at Ryan to stop crying. It took a couple of seconds until he stopped crying, but his ear was bright red by the time he stopped crying. And once he stopped crying, his foster dad told him to be grateful that they didn't wake others. He took those words he said to Ryan as a piece of advice not to anger the other two of his foster family. After that incident, he went straight to the shack.

He spent half an hour inside of the shack and forgetting about last night's event. Just as he was about to leave the shed, a person came to his hut and knocked on the door aggressively, but Ryan was afraid to even look at the one who was knocking on the door. When the knocking became more aggressive, he quickly went to the corner of the shack, fearing the one who hit. Right as he gets to the corner of the shed, he can tell the person had enough. So she started to yell, giving him a threat saying he would regret it if he didn't open the door immediately. As he heard that, he went straight for the door while shaking in fear. As he was standing right in front of the door, somehow that person managed to open the lock and slammed it directly as he was standing in front of the door. As if she was waiting for the right time all along. The door slammed right at his face causing him a broken nose. Blood ran from his nose to the ground as well as his clothes. He tried to look at the person who did that to him, but right as he made eye contact with her, she immediately stepped on his head and started to insult him. She told him that a lowly person who loses his wealthy parents means nothing more than an insolent fool for thinking people would help him. That incident made him learn two things at that moment. First, the advice his foster dad gave him, he should've taken it more seriously than before. The second one is that he learned to no longer trust anybody who helped him at that moment. That person turned out to be the person who he always thought would be there for him other than his parents. She is the first and only "friend" he ever made. That person turns out to be Ellie.

The main reason she came to his shack was to bring him to the mansion. But since his nose was spilling out blood, he will take more time than he is supposed to since he needs to change his clothes filled in his blood. Unfortunately, she won't let him waste any more of her precious time, so she just picked a random shirt from the floor and dragged him into the mansion. Right as they were standing in front of the door, she tossed him the shirt she picked from the shack and demanded him to change his clothes quickly. Before he started to take off his clothes, Ellie told him to go to the kitchen immediately. Without wasting a second, he went straight to the kitchen, and he noticed that there was no one there he recognized. They were all talking to each other, but when he entered the room, everybody stopped talking for a second, looked at him, and continued with their conversation. But this time, he felt like they were talking about him. He also thought they were glaring at him, making him feel uncomfortable and scared. To stop the feeling he was having, he distracted himself by talking to himself about why he was there. His conversation with himself stopped when he decided to stop being a creep by ending the conversation with himself and waiting for Ellie to come.

A couple of minutes later, he started to hear the door being knocked. That's when he thought Ellie had finally come to the kitchen, but the person who entered the room was not someone he was expecting. Even though it was not someone he was expecting, it was someone who he remembered seeing that person when he was on the road to go to his mansion. The person turned out to be the new chef working for the family from that point on. When he saw Ryan in his kitchen, he started to give instructions to everyone. He didn't waste any time introducing himself other than saying he was the new chef. Right as everyone got the education from the chef, all of them started to work except for Ryan, who was the only one who was confused about what he was supposed to do. Instead of asking what he was supposed to do, he started to look around, and that was it, but the chef wouldn't let him be in the kitchen and do anything. So the chef began to walk towards him, and when he was standing right in front of him, the chef picked him by his shirt and looked at his face to face. The chef could see his face crystal clear at that moment, and he wasn't in the mood to be excellent. So he yelled the instruction once again right at his face like he didn't care who he was. Precisely as the chef finished giving the instructions once again, water dropped from his eyes. The aggressiveness of the chef was so fearful that just the yell of his voice was enough to make him cry. Not only was he someone that could easily make Ryan cry, but he was also someone who wouldn't even show any sight of mercy to Ryan. So he did the same thing he did to make him cry, but this time with a knife pointing at Ryan's eye. Threatening was not a good idea of his since it only made him cry even more complex.

At that moment, the chef had enough of how much of a crybaby Ryan was, so he gave Ryan something to call for. The chef picked up the knife and swung it to Ryan's face, giving him a small scratch on his face. But it all happened too quick. None of the maids saw him swing the knife. Not even Ryan noticed it. They noticed it when a drop of blood came out of the cheek. At that point, Ryan knew if he was to continue crying, the next cut wouldn't be that light, meaning his only choice was to go through the day with the least amount of pain he had to find courage. And that's what he did. RIght as he stopped crying, the chef immediately told everyone to do the instruction he had already given and managed to insult Ryan simultaneously.

When they had done everything in the kitchen, Ryan finally got permission to do whatever he wanted from the chef. And at that point, he relieves that the nightmare he experienced in the kitchen is finally over. At least that's what he thought. He went to his room to change his clothes since he was wearing was dirty from helping the chef cook. Right as he was done changing, he went straight to the diner table, and on the way there, he saw the chef and maids he helped in the kitchen. Seeing them right in front of the door to the dining room makes him feel embarrassed since he was supposed to be the man of the mansion. That kind of reaction was not how the others see him. When he was at their sight, the chef immediately told them not to let him enter the room and bring him to the kitchen again. Minutes later, he finally dared to go to the dining room, and just as he got close to the maid, they immediately told him to go to the kitchen. But this time, he refused to go there. He told them, saying he was the mansion owner and he knew the food was ready. So he asked why he would do that. They told them, "Even if you are the man of the mansion, we just did what we were told." That answer made him speechless, and he just went to the kitchen.

Just as he arrived at the kitchen, the only person there was the chef. As he entered the kitchen, the chef immediately asked him who he was. The answer he gave was, "My name is Ryan Callisto, the only son of Carlos Callisto, who is the former owner of this place and the nephew of the current owner of this place." he said it in a low tone of voice while trembling in fear of the chef for what he did to him back then. The answer he gave was exactly what the chef expected, but he didn't show it. Instead, the chef asked him if his fosters were ever lovely to him. The question he asks, was answered by another question which was, "Why?" The chef asked him if he noticed any difference between how they were and how they treat him currently. To which he answered, "No, Why?" This time the chef avoided the question by giving him the food they cooked back then. By doing so, he only creates more questions in Ryan's mind that he is needed to answer. One of which is, "Why can't I eat in the dining room?"

The answer he was given was instead an unpleasant one. The chef told him starting today, he no longer has the freedom to do what he wants, and he is now a slave to the contract he signed about a week ago. Then he pulled out a piece of paper saying he was directly tied to the contract as a slave until he managed to get into a school. When he read the letter, he felt like he had read it before like it was just yesterday, but his memory on that part was blurry. He could only remember seeing the letter and a couple of particles of bright lights. That thought made him want to know if anyone came into his room yesterday and what's with the particles. So he came up with an idea to ask Ellie about it later. But for the time being, he needs to do his best not to tell a soul about it. The chef explained to him exactly what he would have to go through for the time being. The best way for him to escape from that nightmare is to pass the entrance exam cause once he gets accepted into a magic school, his one-sided contract will be invalid. And since he is still tied to the contract, he needs to do his best to find time to study. Though it won't be easy, the price for it will be rewarding.