The Scarlet Arbitress: Contracts of Starlight and Shadow - The Confrontation at the Abandoned Village

They reached Kelvan Village as twilight descended. Meredith stood at the village's entrance and observed the surrounding landscape in silence. This village, where eight hundred souls had once dwelt, had now surrendered itself entirely to emptiness. Most of the houses leaned toward collapse, wooden doors swayed in the wind, and the majority of windowpanes lay shattered and abandoned. Weeks had passed since the Covenant Magistracy—that governing body which enshrined contractual supremacy as the world's order, sanctifying all agreements—had sealed the place. In that interval, the village had begun its swift decay. The sky was staining itself crimson. The setting sun sank toward the western mountains. The shadows cast by the ruined houses in that light were long, and deep. *Where are the people of Kelvan Village now?* Within Meredith's heart, complex emotions churned. When she had dismantled the village's debt-bondage contract, the villagers had cried out in joy. That happiness, born from thirty years of captivity, had been real. Yet the price had been steep. The Covenant Magistracy's pursuit. A bounty across the kingdom. And the sealing of the village itself. *Was it right... that choice?* Such doubt writhed faintly in the depths of her heart. The logical thinking honed through fourteen years as a magistrate now shook her, here at the end. She advanced toward the plaza at the village's center. A stone well stood there. Around it, traces of what had once been a market square remained visible. The remnants of stalls. The footprints of merchants. All evidence of human endeavor was fading away. Then it came. "Meredith Crane." The voice reached her from behind. Meredith reacted in an instant. Her body tensed, her gaze thrown backward. Simultaneously, her hand found the relic in her breast. It was warm. That familiar sensation, as though something were encouraging her. From the depths of the plaza, a man emerged with silver-gray hair bound behind him. His height was perhaps one hundred eighty-two centimeters. Despite his length of frame, his bearing possessed a certain dignity. Beneath his left eye, a contract sigil—the tattoo worn by the Covenant Magistracy's elite, a mark symbolizing the covenant itself—floated faintly upon his skin. Aldric. The Seventh Seat of the Covenant Magistracy who had once sought to bind her—a position of high rank within the governing body, one that oversaw all contract enforcers across the regions. Calm. Logical. And—something, some quality that resembled her own. "Alone?" Meredith asked. Aldric advanced slowly, one step, then another. The setting sun stained his face red. His expression remained as cold as ever. Yet within his eyes, something seemed to waver. "Yes. This is my personal judgment." The man's voice maintained its usual cultivated courtesy. Yet something else mingled within it. Emotion. Resolve. Or perhaps—uncertainty. "Are you not the pursuit division of the Covenant Magistracy?" Meredith questioned again. It was unthinkable for the Covenant Magistracy to act individually. Systematic pursuit operations were the standard. "The pursuit division has withdrawn. The contract enforcers have temporarily pulled back as well. I thought this place was where you and I should speak." Aldric's answer was clear. Meredith regarded him. Such a judgment was anomalous for the Covenant Magistracy's doctrine. Normally, he would have brought multiple contract enforcers—those judicial executors with authority to compel the will of those belonging to the organization—to conduct the pursuit. Yet Aldric had chosen a different path. "What is your purpose?" "I thought we should talk." Aldric proceeded slowly and entered one of the ruined houses. One of its doors was broken, appearing as a black void. Meredith hesitated. It might be a trap. Yet her intuition told her—this man truly wished to speak. She too stepped into the ruined house. Within, the interior was dim. Several portions of the ceiling had collapsed, and through them the setting sun poured in. That light made the dust glimmer, creating an atmosphere of strange beauty. Broken furniture. Scattered household goods. All of it spoke wordlessly of human habitation that had been. Aldric sat upon a broken chair. Meredith stood across from him. "Why did you dismantle the contract of Kelvan Village?" It was not a question but an interrogation. Yet those words lacked the absolute authority of before. Rather, one sensed a genuine desire to understand the reason. "That is..." "How do you think of it? What was wrong with that contract? I wish for a legal explanation." Meredith fell silent. In her mind's eye appeared the faces of Kelvan's children. Hollow cheeks. Eyes clear yet filled with despair. "That contract did not treat human beings as human." "Yet according to the principle of contractual supremacy—the doctrine the Covenant Magistracy upholds to preserve the world's order, that all properly executed contracts are sacred and must not be broken—all such contracts are sacred." "What does sacred matter?" Meredith stepped closer to Aldric. Her words began to surge with suppressed emotion. "The people of that village were bound by contract from the moment of their birth. With no choice in the matter. From parent to child, thirty years of debt passed down. Is that justice?" "It is order." Aldric spoke the words. Yet his voice was not filled with conviction. Rather, it sounded like—an utterance to himself. "A world without order is chaos. By liberating Kelvan Village, contract violations have proliferated across the lands. That signifies the collapse of order. When people obtain freedom, they begin to wound one another." "Then is it justice to preserve an exploitative order?" Meredith's voice too had risen. She stood and leaned toward Aldric. "Do you truly believe that? That the children of that village should live their entire lives as slaves, that a world where such a thing is justified by the word 'order' is right?" Aldric too rose. In that moment, the distance between them narrowed to the span of an arm. Within the dim ruin, the setting sun had grown yet more crimson. Illuminated by that light, the two stood opposed. Meredith's deep blue eyes. Aldric's silver eyes. Eyes of entirely different colors, colliding. A long silence held. Within that silence, Aldric's hand moved slowly. It touched Meredith's shoulder. In that instant, Meredith's body stiffened. An enemy. This man was an enemy. A member of the Covenant Magistracy, one who sought to bind her. Her body reflexively sought distance. Yet. That hand was unexpectedly gentle. Not forceful. Not coercive. Simply, quietly, softly—resting upon her shoulder. "You are not... wrong." Aldric's voice trembled faintly. Those words, low and whispered, resonated directly in her ears. Their faces were near. Their breath nearly mingled. "Yet your method is mistaken. If you destroy contracts, you too will be destroyed. Your power—the power of Unmaking—loses something each time it is used. I understand. I can perceive that cost." Meredith gazed into his silver eyes. What lay there? Hostility? Pity? Or—something else? "When I look upon you, I too become uncertain." Aldric's voice grew lower still. "For four hundred years, the Covenant Magistracy has upheld the principle of contractual supremacy. I believed it was right. Yet before you... that conviction wavers. It cannot help but waver." Meredith's heart began to beat fiercely. An enemy. Yet this man was simultaneously the only one who could speak with her as an equal. The only one who truly listened to her words. Aldric's hand moved from her shoulder, slowly. It caressed her cheek, gently. Meredith caught her breath. The warmth of that hand. The gentleness of that touch. All of it shook her. Why? Why did her heart tremble so before an enemy? "Meredith..." What lay in his voice as he spoke her name? That—Meredith did not yet have the courage to name. Then it came. From outside, a voice called. "Meredith! Are you well!" It was Kess's voice. Aldric and Meredith separated their bodies in an instant. Aldric looked from the window, Meredith from the door. At the village's entrance stood Kess. Dressed as a mercenary in light armor. His jade-colored eyes filled with concern. "They have come," Aldric said quietly. His expression had returned to coldness. "The pursuers draw near." Aldric leapt lightly from the window of the ruin. He landed outside. His movement was entirely tactical. "Where shall we meet next?" With those words left behind, Aldric ran beyond the ruined village. Kess burst into the ruin. "What happened! The pursuers are coming!" Meredith watched Aldric's retreating back with a complicated expression. His shoulders seemed to tremble slightly. *What is that man?* Within Meredith's breast, a strange emotion toward one who should have been an enemy had begun quietly to take root. Was it confusion? Or—something else? Kess seized her arm. "We must flee!" Meredith was pulled by Kess from the ruin and ran. Yet even as she ran, Aldric's silver eyes remained in her mind. And the warmth of his hand—lingered, undiminished.

日本語

What is Novelia? →

Episode 3

Name: The Scarlet Arbitress: Contracts of Starlight and Shadow
Author: Novelia

What is Novelia?

Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.

Learn more about Novelia →New sign-ups get 5,000pt