Challenge: The Fool with the Surname Okayamine

Chapter 72 Five Years Ago: The Dark Contract

After Origami turned and left, Shido stood up abruptly with a gloomy expression, his hands clenched into fists.

"No! Absolutely not! I must save Origami!" he said through gritted teeth.

"Whatever, I'm leaving now."

Having witnessed everything, Ming waved his hand, knowing his own fate, and prepared to leave.

"Wait, Mr. Ming!" Upon seeing this, she quickly jogged up to catch up with Ming and stopped him.

"Is there anything else? If you want to change me, just give up, because [she] won't give up either."

“I understand, Mr. Ming. The girl in that photo must be the ‘dream’ you once told me about, the one you can never reach again. She is the person you most long to see again. I will not stop you anymore, but there is one more thing I want to ask of you. It is very important to me!”

Ming lowered his head and met Shido's gaze. It was clear that he possessed the same kind and innocent qualities as Sawa, and a playful look appeared on his face.

"Kurumi told you?"

"No! It was just a guess, and it seems I was right."

"Then you must have had contact with me before. You know that everything you ask of me comes at a price, understand?"

Upon hearing this, Shido paused slightly, then thought for a moment and said firmly:

"I understand. In that case, I'll end everything for you in the distant future. Would that satisfy your request?"

Ming raised an eyebrow slightly. It was indeed what he wanted most, but there was a strange feeling that he was being threatened and manipulated.

He looked at the sincere young man before him.

"Okay, then tell me what you want me to do."

"I hope that in the future, you will be able to take Origami in. No matter what happens, give her a place to stay," Shido shouted.

Ming was silent for a moment before slowly speaking: "You know this is not easy. I am an elf, and I also bear a lot of hatred."

Shido nodded trustingly: "I know, but I believe you have a way. As you will in the future, you are a villain, but the contract will never be broken."

Feeling Shido's trust, Ming could only agree. He then revealed the [God's Eclipse] scroll, tore off another page, carved words on it with a pen, and handed the pen and the paper to Shido.

"Then let's sign this 'Yesterday's Promise' between us."

Shido took the pen and paper and signed his name without hesitation. After he finished signing, the paper emitted a faint glow, indicating that the contract was valid.

In fact, this contract is almost useless; it's just for scaring people. The reason it glows is because the text is inscribed with spiritual power, and it doesn't actually have any binding effect.

He only agreed because he knew that Itsuka Shido wouldn't lie and that the future would indeed be like that.

After sincerely expressing his deepest gratitude once again, Shido did not hesitate for a moment, turned around and left the place as quickly as possible.

Ming, who was standing still, closed his eyes slightly and concentrated on sensing the exact direction of the fire source not far away.

His brow furrowed slightly, and the air around him seemed to grow heavy as he focused intently on his senses.

"Is Kotori's rampage still not over? If things continue like this, not only will DEM not bother with it, but even those ASTs who were attracted by Origami Mirai will be discovered... Well, I'm just killing time anyway, so I might as well take care of the kids."

As soon as he finished speaking, in the blink of an eye, a jet-black flame ignited on Ming's body and vanished from the spot in an instant.

Just after Ming left, satellite monitoring from space captured the images, from the US.

At Asgard Electronics

An elderly blond man in a wheelchair was watching this scene with his secretary, who looked remarkably like Allen.

"Woodman, should we take action? There are two spirits here at the same time. And one of them, which appeared near the home of our company employees, Itsuka Tatsuo and Itsuka Yoko, seems to have just been transformed into a spirit," the secretary asked respectfully.

The secretary pushed up her glasses and saw a woman in a black suit, with short blonde hair, glasses, and the same purple eyes as Allen. The only difference was that she didn't have that unique arrogance.

The old chairman pondered for a moment, shook his head, and said in a relatively calm and kind tone:

“Not for now, Karen. Let’s see how things develop. But it seems our ‘Ratatosk Plan’ can be brought forward. Have someone investigate the identities of that girl and this dark-haired boy.”

"Understood, I'll go and instruct the others to investigate."

The blonde secretary left the room, while the elderly man named Woodman gazed at the screen with a slightly wistful expression, muttering to himself:

"Mio... what are you doing right now...?"

He then turned off the screen, closed his eyes, and stopped watching the content captured by their company's proprietary satellite.

Next to it was a book titled "The Reverse Kabbalah Method".