- 11 hours ago
Frost Pact
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:02On the first day of school, Winterholz Academy distributed contract beasts based on each student's magic aptitude scores.
00:09Class president Chloe, ranked first in the grade, unhesitatingly chose the SSS rank 9-tailed silver fox.
00:16As for me, dead last in the rankings, I was assigned a measly F rank brown bear named Bruno.
00:22Not long after, the eternal freeze descended upon us.
00:25Having formed a contract with Bruno, I shared his innate talent, cold resistance, but Chloe's 9-tailed fox, too delicate
00:32to have developed any power, was frozen solid on the first day.
00:36Consumed by jealousy and rage, Chloe consplired with other students to ambush Bruno and me.
00:41They built a fire right before my eyes and boiled a bear meat hotpot, feasting without remorse.
00:46Watching my inseparable companion torn apart and devoured, I was overcome with grief and fury and died on the spot,
00:52vomiting blood.
00:53When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the contract beasts were distributed.
00:58As the lowest scoring student, a grade A slacker, I could only wait at the very back of the hall.
01:03Sure enough, the last remaining crate held that same dull-looking F rank brown bear, Bruno.
01:09Just as I reached out to pick him up, a sharp female voice cut through the silence.
01:13Wait!
01:14Chloe, the star of the entire academy, came rushing toward me clutching a silver fox cub with snow white, almost
01:21translucent fur.
01:22Without a word of explanation, she shoved the fox into my arms, and, as though afraid I'd snatch it back,
01:29swiftly grabbed the solitary Bruno from the crate.
01:32The silver fox is yours.
01:34I don't want the silver fox.
01:36The whole class erupted.
01:37Even the instructor furrowed her brow, because this silver fox had the highest bloodline purity of any creature in the
01:45ceremony.
01:46Its ancient lineage reaching 80%, far surpassing the brown bear's meager 20%, and infinitely superior in every way.
01:55Chloe, choosing your companion beast determines your magic ceiling.
02:00Don't be reckless.
02:02The instructor warned sternly.
02:04Chloe bit her lip and put on a performance of selfless nobility.
02:09Instructor, Elena needs the silver fox far more than I do.
02:14I have the talent to grow strong with any beast.
02:18But if she's stuck with a bear of such impure bloodline, her entire life will be ruined.
02:24That performance earned a round of applause from the entire hall.
02:28The instructor, moved by her apparent purity of heart, turned to me with a cold expression.
02:33Elena, what are you standing there for?
02:36Thank Chloe this instant.
02:37I stared blankly at the silver fox in my arms and pushed it forward.
02:42No need to swap.
02:44I actually rather like that bear.
02:46A flicker of panic crossed Chloe's eyes.
02:48She clutched Bruno tighter, as though startled, her voice soft but probing.
02:52Elena, don't refuse my goodness.
02:55I genuinely want to help you.
02:57I really don't need it.
02:59Before my words had even faded, a searing pain shot through the web of my right hand.
03:04The silver fox had bitten clean through my skin.
03:07The moment bright red blood welled up, it extended its tongue and lapped at the wound with a tingling, numbing
03:13sensation.
03:14In an instant, runic light blazed to life.
03:16The silver fox had forcibly initiated a blood bond with me.
03:20Binding our lives together as one.
03:22Jeers rose from the crowd around us.
03:24She was playing hard to get just now.
03:27And look, she bonded faster than anyone.
03:30Scared Chloe would change her mind.
03:31What a hypocrite.
03:32After the contract was completed, the silver fox sank into a deep sleep.
03:37I listened to the muttering around me.
03:39My heart utterly cold.
03:40They thought, I'd stumbled into a treasure.
03:43What they didn't know, was how much I despised the useless thing in my arms.
03:47I knew all too well that this pampered little fox, would become the greatest burden, once the eternal freeze arrived
03:54in half a month.
03:55But there was one thing I understood even more clearly.
03:58From the moment Chloe gave up the silver fox, and scrambled to grab Bruno instead.
04:03I knew, she was a reborn soul, just like me.
04:07What she didn't know was that someone had come back with me.
04:09The contract beast hiding beneath a bear's skin, with a far deeper mind than he let on, Bruno.
04:15In my past life, Chloe had chosen that glamorous silver fox, while I was left to bond with the unnoticed
04:21brown bear Bruno.
04:23No one could have predicted, that half a month later, the eternal freeze would descend without warning.
04:28The entire world plunged to minus 50 degrees.
04:31A silent, frozen death.
04:33Those contract beasts of noble bloodline typically required extremely long growth cycles.
04:38When the freeze came, Chloe's silver fox was still a helpless little cub that could barely eat on its own,
04:44and it was frozen solid on the very first day of the apocalypse.
04:48My Bruno, carefully fed and raised by me, had already entered his adolescent stage, and awakened his talent-sharing ability.
04:56In temperatures cold enough to shatter bone, he shared his thermal guard with me, making me the only person in
05:02the apocalypse immune to the cold.
05:04I had joined the academy's search teams to forage for supplies.
05:08Along the way, Chloe repeatedly tried to manipulate Bruno into forcibly severing his bond with me, and each time, Bruno
05:15refused without mercy.
05:16Enraged and humiliated, she spread a rumor that eating brown bear meat could grant anyone cold resistance.
05:22In the end, during one supply run, Chloe rallied a group to kill Bruno and me.
05:27In that despairing world where people traded children for food, we became their resources.
05:32Snapping back to the present, I looked with concern at Bruno, nestled in Chloe's arms.
05:37In my past life, we had been partners who trusted each other with our lives.
05:41Now, he'd been taken away by that vicious woman.
05:44I'd even started worrying whether he was getting enough to eat.
05:47Just as I was staring at him in a daze, the toy-sized brown bear suddenly swiveled his eyes toward
05:52me.
05:53The moment our gazes met, he blinked at me.
05:56Twice.
05:56Not once more.
05:57Not once less.
05:58Exactly twice.
05:59That was the only secret signal between Bruno and me from our past life.
06:03Two blinks meant, everything's fine.
06:05Don't worry.
06:06Joy exploded inside me.
06:07So it wasn't just me who'd been reborn.
06:09Bruno had come back with his memories of our past life too.
06:12I turned away and shot Chloe a look that said, good luck with that.
06:16Bruno was no honest, simple-minded fool.
06:19He was a thorough and scheming schemer, black-hearted through and through.
06:23Still absorbed in my silent exchange with Bruno, I suddenly felt a warm, suckling sensation at my fingertip.
06:29I looked down.
06:30The utterly useless, do-nothing pampered little lord, the white fox Silas, had woken up.
06:37I am not useless.
06:40An arrogant, yet oddly babyish young voice detonated in my mind.
06:47And you?
06:49Don't you dare look at-at that ugly, dark-furred brute.
06:53Is that you talking?
06:56Silas gave a haughty little sniff and wriggled into a more comfortable position in my arms.
07:02Rather than a contract beast, I felt more like I'd adopted an insufferable little young master.
07:07I am Silas.
07:09Woman, if you feel like calling me master, I won't refuse.
07:13You little brat.
07:14Where did you pick up lines like that?
07:16Up on the podium, the instructor was drawing out the principles of the contract formation on parchment.
07:21Normally, only humans could initiate the ceremony.
07:25Unless a beast with an exceptionally deep affinity for humans chose to bond.
07:29The students around me were all working to establish their connections.
07:33Only I sat completely still.
07:35Who could have imagined that I'd been forcibly contracted by a haughty little silver fox?
07:40Silas, why did you choose me?
07:43I asked him curiously through our mental link.
07:46That woman's soul smells rotten.
07:49Rotten?
07:49She's the academy's saintly beauty, you know.
07:53Half the school lines up just to catch a whiff of her perfume.
07:59They're all blind.
08:01Her soul is rotten to the core.
08:04And mine?
08:06The silver fox buried his nose in my palm, his tome going oddly awkward.
08:11Not bad, I suppose.
08:13Sweet.
08:14I suddenly understood his logic.
08:16For a little fox with such a keen sense of smell,
08:19being bonded to Chloe would be like dropping a freshly baked little cake into a rubbish bin.
08:25With nothing better to do, I started scratching under his chin.
08:28I had to admit, the fur of a top-tier bloodline was extraordinarily pleasant to the touch.
08:34Soft and thick, like a giant marshmallow.
08:37I pinched his ears, then pressed gently at his little belly.
08:41And ultimately, couldn't resist reaching for that gloriously fluffy tail.
08:45The instant my hand landed on his tail, Silas went rigid all over,
08:49as though he'd been struck by lightning.
08:51A faint, rose-pink flush appeared beneath the parting of his snow-white fur.
08:57Stop it, woman.
09:00You...
09:01You're being absolutely appropriate.
09:03Watching him curl up like a put-upon little spouse.
09:06You're a little kid.
09:07Stop filling your head with weird ideas.
09:09Silas's eyes went red with indignation.
09:12He turned his head away and refused to acknowledge me entirely.
09:15In the great hall, Chloe was the first to complete the soul rune drawing.
09:19A flash of triumphant satisfaction crossed her saintly, delicate face.
09:23And a burst of magical light enveloped the brown bear Bruno.
09:27Yet in the gaps between the spinning runes,
09:29Brumer quietly and imperceptibly shifted two of the magic threads.
09:34What had been a standard pact, was secretly twisted, in that very moment,
09:38into a dark, forbidden master-servant bond.
09:41Only this time, Bruno was the master, and Chloe, the servant.
09:45This was an ancient formation we'd discovered in a ruin expedition in our past life.
09:50Never had I imagined that this outwardly docile, inwardly ruthless partner of mine
09:55would use it on Chloe in this very first step.
09:57After successfully sealing the bond,
09:59Bruno looked over at me with a pleased little tilt of his brow.
10:02I slipped my hand beneath the stone desk, and quietly gave him a thumbs up.
10:06As expected, at Winterhold Academy, the last person you should ever cross is the honest one.
10:12Woman! You awful, awful woman!
10:14A voice crackling with jealousy erupted in my head.
10:17Ah, my insufferably arrogant and sharp-tongued little Lord Silas.
10:22Now what?
10:23I asked, casually pinching his soft, pudgy cheeks.
10:26He might only be a little fox cub right now,
10:28but the texture was honestly excellent stress relief.
10:31You touched my tail, and then you went and made eyes at that ugly, dark-furred brute.
10:35Silas squirmed furiously in my arms, his gorgeous ruby eyes brimming with aggrievement.
10:41I sighed lightly.
10:42This little Lord wasn't just haughty, he was a hopeless, jealous little creature.
10:46The bonding ceremony concluded,
10:48and the instructor distributed a portion of basic resources to each student.
10:53I kept only one magic essence crystal for emergencies,
10:56and fed all remaining 19 to Silas.
10:59He crunched through the crystals with a satisfying crackle,
11:02as though snacking on high-end magical chips.
11:04Before we'd even left the Great Hall doors,
11:06my entire week's worth of resources had been consumed.
11:09They mocked me for wasting resources.
11:12But they didn't know that Simus and I shared a blood bond.
11:15In an ordinary standard pect,
11:17the beast could die while the bonded human lived on.
11:19But under a blood bond,
11:21if he froze to death on the first day of the Eternal Freeze,
11:23I wouldn't survive either.
11:25So right now,
11:27this little Lord's life was worth more than mine.
11:29As I walked out of the hall,
11:31Chloe blocked my path.
11:33I know you've been reborn too.
11:36This time around,
11:38it's my turn to bond the bear and control the thermal guard.
11:42Then by all means,
11:43make sure you stay alive.
11:46With this bear,
11:47of course I'll be fine.
11:50As for you,
11:52keep your two useless things,
11:54and wait to die on the first day the freeze hits.
11:56Raising a spirit beast was a bottomless money pot.
12:00Especially for the little Lord in my arms,
12:02who devoured magic-esque crystals
12:04the way other people snacked on chips.
12:06To secure a large supply of resources,
12:09I absently ran my fingers through Silas's silky fox fur
12:13and sank into thought.
12:14Then it hit me.
12:15In my past life,
12:16just before the Eternal Freeze,
12:17the media had reported on a small spirit vein
12:19located in the outskirts.
12:21By my calculations,
12:22that spot shouldn't have been discovered yet.
12:24I made my decision on the spot
12:26and took Simus to drive out to the marked location.
12:30When I arrived, however,
12:31I found that Chloe had already beaten me there.
12:34She was the daughter of a prominent noble family.
12:37Her intelligence network and connections
12:39were on an entirely different level
12:41from a commoner like me.
12:42All I could do was stand at the perimeter
12:45and watch as she directed more than 20 burly workers
12:49excavating the crystal mine in full swing.
12:52Big Sis, is that you?
12:53Just as I was turning to leave,
12:55a delightedly surprised voice rang in my mind.
12:58Bruno?
12:59You've unlocked telepathic transmission?
13:02Chloe spared no expense to get me to awaken early.
13:04She fed me an entire stack of expensive soul-rousing herb.
13:08Big Sis, take your little brother and go rest somewhere.
13:10I'll call you when the crystals are done.
13:12Woman, how dare you cheat on me?
13:15I can smell it.
13:16There's a bear scent on your soul.
13:18It's that ugly dark-furred brute, isn't it?
13:21I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck,
13:23lifted him off my shoulders.
13:27Kid, watch your vocabulary.
13:29I said nothing wrong.
13:31Among our Silver Fox clan,
13:33whoever you bloodbond is your lifelong partner.
13:36You're not allowed to have secret meetings with him.
13:40How old are you?
13:41What do you know about being partners?
13:44Silas flailed his paws in the air
13:46in a furious display of underwater swimming,
13:48and then, while I wasn't looking,
13:50pressed his wet little muzzle to my cheek with a soft pop.
13:54I've kissed you.
13:55That makes you my partner now.
13:56I've marked this spot.
13:58No one else is allowed to touch it.
14:00And with that,
14:01the culprit scrambled back into my arms,
14:03covering his ears and refusing to hear another word.
14:06Night fell,
14:07cloaking the wilderness in darkness.
14:08Bruno's signal finally came through.
14:10Big Sis, come quick.
14:11They've all left.
14:12Carrying Silas,
14:13I slipped back toward the spirit vein.
14:15Only a decoy magic floormation
14:16remained at the crystal mine site.
14:18Silas was still sulking about the earlier secret meeting.
14:21His little mouth pursed in displeasure
14:23until he caught sight of Bruno poking his head out.
14:25Then his composure shattered entirely,
14:27and he bared his little fangs at the brown bear.
14:30Simus is a little high-spirited.
14:32Please don't mind him.
14:33Bruno paid no attention to the little fox.
14:36He divided the excavated crystals into three piles.
14:39He kept a small pile for himself,
14:41set aside a small pile for my cultivation,
14:43and then the remaining pile,
14:45a mountain the size of a small hillock.
14:47He pushed entirely toward Silas.
14:50If you strip this place bare,
14:52will Chloe hurt you?
14:54Don't worry, Big Sis.
14:56That woman now does everything I say.
14:59Early the next morning,
15:00Chloe stood before the crystal vein,
15:02now so empty it echoed.
15:05You?
15:06You used all of these magic essence crystals?
15:09That little vein barely covered my teeth.
15:12I hardly felt a thing.
15:13Weren't you the one pushing me to awaken Thermal Guard within half a month?
15:16I just felt it.
15:17The threshold of awakening is almost within reach.
15:19If you think my bloodline is inferior,
15:21you could have left me alone from the start.
15:24I certainly didn't beg you to choose me.
15:27The pressure you put on me is enormous.
15:29If I'm under too much mental strain,
15:32this talent may never awaken at all.
15:35Chloe panicked immediately.
15:36She knew better than anyone
15:38how terrifying the eternal freeze
15:40that was coming in half a week would be.
15:42Bruno was her only lifeline.
15:45No, no!
15:46I didn't mean it that way!
15:48Whatever you need to awaken,
15:50just say the word.
15:51Since her family refused to believe in any apocalypse prophecy
15:54and would never waste resources on a low-tier brown bear,
15:58Chloe had no choice but to go all in alone.
16:00She sold off her manor,
16:02her carriage,
16:02and even her most beloved designer robes and jewelry
16:06by the time I saw her again at the academy.
16:08She wore a faded, well-worn robe,
16:11and her lunch had been reduced to the cheapest black bread.
16:15She thought she was investing in her future.
16:17She had no idea that of all the crystals bought with everything she owned,
16:21less than 0.01% had entered Bruno's stomach.
16:24The remaining 99.99%
16:28had been secretly transferred
16:29through esoteric arts
16:31into Silas's and my possession.
16:33The night before the apocalypse,
16:35it should have been the scorching heat of mid-summer.
16:37Yet in the dead of night,
16:38the temperature plummeted
16:40with eerie,
16:41cliff-like speed.
16:42Magic sensors across the globe began to well.
16:44June snow,
16:44which had no right to exist,
16:46drifted down and blanketed the earth.
16:48For safety,
16:48the academy had urgently recalled all students.
16:51In the girls' dormitory,
16:52Chloe huddled in heavy robes and layers of blankets,
16:55shivering violently.
16:56Having funneled all her resources to Bruno,
16:59she hadn't cultivated her magic for a very long time.
17:02The magical power within her
17:04flickered like a candle on the verge of going out.
17:06Her nose had turned red from the cold.
17:09She dabbed at it constantly with a tissue.
17:12Bruno,
17:13have you finished Awakening Thermal Guard yet?
17:16On the floor,
17:16the brown bear Bruno
17:17was leisurely chewing on his last magic essence crystal.
17:21In just 10 short days,
17:22with mountains of resources poured into him,
17:25he had shed his cub stage entirely.
17:27His size had swelled by several increments
17:28as he entered his powerful adolescent phase.
17:31Don't rush.
17:33Almost there.
17:34Bruno,
17:35are you hiding something from me?
17:37Chloe went pale with terror.
17:39He was her only hope.
17:41I was wrong.
17:42Bruno,
17:43I was just confused from the cold.
17:44Keep the crystals.
17:45Nothing matters more than you awakening your talent.
17:47Hmm.
17:48This is the last time.
17:50Bruno snorted,
17:51and bent his head back to the crystals.
17:53Not only had he intercepted the vast majority of energy,
17:56he had even used his master-servant bond authority
17:59to let through only the most imperceptible wisp of warmth to Chloe.
18:02Barely enough to keep her from freezing to death.
18:05Just enough to keep his cat and mouse game going.
18:08Feeling that faint trickle of warmth,
18:10Chloe finally relaxed.
18:12What she didn't know was that the energy flow between them
18:15wasn't slow because Bruno absorbed it slowly.
18:18It was because in this twisted bond,
18:20how much magical power flowed back to Chloe
18:22was entirely at Bruno's discretion.
18:25Meanwhile,
18:26in another dormitory,
18:27I was contentedly curled up in my warm bed,
18:30watching a film projected by a magic screen.
18:32The mountains of magic essence crystals
18:34that had once filled the room
18:36had been absorbed completely,
18:38reduced to a carpet of silver-white powder.
18:40The white fox Silas lay on an expensive cashmere rug,
18:44still sleeping,
18:44but he was no longer that frail little cub.
18:47His body had grown to the size of a fully adult spirit beast.
18:50His coat gleamed snow-white and almost luminous,
18:53and the magical aura that spiraled around him
18:56was enough to make the heart tremble.
18:58I climbed out of bed and checked his breathing,
19:01confirming he was stable.
19:02The magic clock on the wall ticked steadily,
19:05its hands inching toward midnight.
19:06The true eternal freeze was about to descend.
19:10This time,
19:11with me here,
19:12Silas would not be frozen to death
19:14on the apocalypse's first day.
19:16The entire academy became a frozen tomb.
19:20That night,
19:21many people sank into a sleep,
19:23from which they never woke.
19:25Five days later,
19:26all order in Winterhold Academy
19:28had broken down entirely,
19:30with the last of their food exhausted,
19:32starving and freezing students
19:34turned frenzied
19:35and began sweeping through dormitories and packs,
19:38looting whatever they could find.
19:39Before long,
19:40several upperclassmen set their sights on my room.
19:42I felt the vast magical power gathering in my palm,
19:45fortified by Bruno's thermal guard,
19:47and the terrifying energy Silas fed back to me.
19:49My strength was now enough
19:51to crush most of the academy's instructors.
19:54No matter how many of them came,
19:56in my eyes they were nothing but lambs to the slaughter.
19:59A thunderous pounding reverberated through the corridor.
20:02But before I could even act,
20:04a devastating magical pressure erupted from the center of the room,
20:08sweeping outward.
20:09It was a bone-deep dread from the very depths of the soul.
20:14Accompanied by a clear,
20:16cold,
20:17supremely authoritative divine voice
20:19that detonated across the entire corridor.
20:23Get.
20:24Out.
20:24The rioters outside didn't even manage a scream
20:27before they scattered in a scrambling, terrified rant.
20:31I turned back and gently stroked Silamus.
20:34Still coiled on the cashmere rug,
20:37eyes still closed in what appeared to be deep sleep.
20:40Silas?
20:41Are you finally about to fully wake up?
20:44At the same time,
20:45outside Chloe's dormitory,
20:47others had also tried to force their way in,
20:49and were violently repelled by Bruno,
20:51who stood guard at the door.
20:52With Bruno there,
20:53Chloe wasn't dead yet,
20:55but she was not far from it.
20:56She lay crumpled on the freezing floor.
20:59With bones fractured and no treatment available,
21:02her wounds had already begun to fester with a spreading stench.
21:06Whenever the pain grew so unbearable,
21:08she was about to lose consciousness.
21:11I'm afraid you're cold.
21:13Consider this a gift of warmth.
21:16Bruno's memory was long,
21:17and he held grudges longer still.
21:19He moved through the castle guided by his recollections of our past life,
21:23tracking down every person who had participated in killing us before,
21:27and crushing each of their throats with precise and methodical ruthlessness.
21:31For the innocent survivors remaining in the academy,
21:34Bruno held nothing back any longer.
21:36He activated his ultimate skill,
21:38the aegis of 10 miles.
21:40In an instant,
21:41a warm golden radiance enveloped the entire academy,
21:44and every person felt a current of warmth rise within them,
21:47like a blessing bestowed by a god.
21:49Yet this warmth,
21:51salvation for everyone else,
21:52was the perfect death sentence for Chloe.
21:55Bruno had already shattered several of her internal organs.
21:58The extreme cold had been freezing her body,
22:01slowing its decay.
22:02Now,
22:03with the sudden surge of warmth,
22:05it was as though a low-powered thaw had been switched on.
22:08Her internal organs began to lose all balance,
22:11and rotted at an accelerating rate.
22:13She lay motionless on the floor,
22:15her throat producing a sound like a broken bellows.
22:18Slowly,
22:18from her eyes,
22:19nose,
22:20and the corners of her mouth,
22:21foul-smelling fluid began to seep,
22:23right until the moment she breathed her last.
22:25Those eyes filled with regret and terror,
22:27never managed to close.
22:28That morning,
22:29I was pulled from sleep by a warmth I had not felt in a very long time.
22:33Blazing and all-engumping.
22:35I opened my eyes.
22:37My field of vision was utterly filled by a broad, imposing figure,
22:41a stridingly chiseled face,
22:42its features deep and defined,
22:44narrow eyes barely closed,
22:46powerful arms wound tightly around my neck.
22:48With each steady breath he drew,
22:50I could feel the sculpted line of his chest pressed close against me.
22:54I instinctively tried to pull away,
22:56and those narrow eyes trembled open to reveal a pair of light amber irises,
23:01slit-pupiled,
23:02unmistakably inhuman.
23:06Silas.
23:07The man's lips curved upward in unhurling pleasure.
23:10He casually grabbed the blanket covering us both and flung it to the floor.
23:14Cool air rushed against my skin.
23:16Instinct made me curl further into his arms.
23:19A single, fluffy, white foxtail swayed lazily behind him,
23:23brushing against the side of my leg.
23:26Did you miss me, woman?
23:28Well, the moment I heard that signature woman,
23:31I was a hundred percent certain,
23:34this was my hawky little lord.
23:38So you do know how to wake up?
23:40I was a hundred percenter more wan
23:40about five pounds,
23:40and I'm fear all about five pounds,
Comments