But then, Renge’s eyes widened in surprise, and I—
“Ah!”
My forehead burned with heat. At first, I was disappointed he didn’t kiss me, but the sudden heat made me stagger and step away from him, ruining the moment. The heat became painful.
“O-Ow…” I moaned.
“Tina!”
What?! What’s going on?!
The circlet clattered to the ground, the Pact Stone inserted into its center missing. And in its place, my forehead erupted with pain.
Ah, wait, it feels like my head’s…cracking?! And it’s glowing…!
“Ah…!” Renge exclaimed as he looked at my forehead. “M-My true name is Renge, heir to the Mythical bloodline of the Cerberi! Faced with this girl’s contract, I consent!”
“Huh…?”
When Renge said that, I felt the heat and pain in my forehead recede.
Wh-What was that?
“Ugh…” I felt myself stagger and falter.
“Are you all right?” Renge caught my body, and I somehow managed to stay on my feet.
What just happened…?
“What happened to me…?” I asked.
“…Look at this,” Renge said, sitting me down on the edge of the well.
Sitting in his palm was a reddish stone, as well as a faint purple stone that was severed into two.
Huh? What’s this? A red…red stone? Is this—
“The red one is the Stone of Daybreak,” Renge said.
“Eep!” I screeched.
“And the purple stones are the Pact Stone. I can hardly believe it, but it regained its glow.”
“The Pact Stone being the stone that was in the ark I was floated down the river in, right?” I guessed.
“Right.”
When I was smuggled away from Jiera, my real father placed this cold, gray stone in my ark. Renge called it a Pact Stone. I checked my circlet but found that the Pact Stone Renge had once inserted into it was gone now.
So this purple stone is the Pact Stone that was in my ark? But it went from being gray to purple. What happened?
“It’s warm…” I touched it gingerly.
“…It’s because its pact was overwritten,” Renge said.
“Overwritten?”
“This is amazing… Are Spherit Folk really capable of this?”
“Of what?”
It felt like Renge was piecing everything together, but I wished he’d explain it in a way I could understand too.
“I’ll place the Stone of Daybreak in the jar and hide it in the well. All right?” Renge asked me.
“Y-Yeah. Go ahead. But what does the…Pact Stone mean?” I asked, a bit anxiously.
“Er…”
Huh? Is Renge being bashful?
“It’s just, um… I think this Pact Stone was the one your parents used.”
“You mean, my real mother and father?”
“Yes, your real parents…I think this was the Stone of Daybreak that was produced from their marriage.”
“Ah…”
The Stone of Daybreak I was making right now was elliptical, while my parents’ Pact Stone was round. Yes, the one in my forehead was elliptical, but was the gray stone I had on me all this time really my true parents’ Stone of Daybreak?
“The Stone of Daybreak can only be produced once in a Spherit Folk’s lifetime. When it grants their wish, the stone loses its glow. I don’t know what your parents wished for from this stone, but it lost its color…”
I fell silent.
“But you will survive.”
“You must live on.”
For some reason, I remembered those words clearly and vividly. That was the wish my parents made, the wish that made their Stone of Daybreak lose its glow.
“It must have been some kind of shared pact they made by swearing their love to each other,” Renge said pensively. “Aah, I’d forgotten… Yes, my mother and father also…”
“Your parents…?”
“Yes, their oath of love took the form of a Pact Stone. And when my mother died, the stone lost its color, and my father took it with him when he left this world.”
I hung my head wordlessly.
“The Stone of Daybreak was always a type of Pact Stone,” Renge concluded.
A stone born of an oath of love.
But wasn’t it said that they could be made from a Spherit Folk’s emotions becoming elated?
“No…”
That’s not right. That stone is only made when you have someone that can make you feel this way.
And in that regard, it really was a Pact Stone. The Stone of Daybreak would never come to be if we didn’t long for someone that intensely.
“So, does that mean that…if you and I made that oath, the Spherit Stone in my forehead is a Stone of Daybreak now?” I asked, a little scared.
“No, the Spherit Stone is still embedded in your forehead.”
“It is? Ah, it is!” I touched my forehead.
I can feel it, the stone really is there! But I thought this would make me like a normal human now… Well, I guess I’d never be normal with my ears and lifespan…
“It’s created from the Spherit Stones, so it makes sense it would stay there,” Renge said.
“Aww…”
“If anything, I’m surprised. That was the remains of your parents’ Stone of Daybreak, but because you and I entered a union pact, it regained its function as a Spherit Stone. That’s impressive.”
“What’s a union pact?” I asked.
“A promise to share our lives together.”
“Ah…” My face became very hot.
Renge’s cheeks looked a bit red, too.
“Normally, this pact implies that we both need each other to live on, but, well, forming the pact based on this is a little, hm…” he mumbled.
“R-Really… S-So, um, does the pact…have some kind of power to it?”
“…Well, yes, normally a union pact stone allows us to share some of our abilitie—” Renge then trailed off.
“Renge?” I asked.
He froze up, his expression stiffening. Why would he be so surprised when he’s explaining it?”
“Right, why didn’t I think of it before…? A pact stone… A Joint Struggle Pact!” he exclaimed.
“What?”
“But with this pact, it’s… Tina!”
“Y-Yes?!” I asked, alarmed.
He grabbed me by the shoulders and brought his face close to mine.
“We can beat it!” he said. “I think we might be able to destroy the Sugula! And we can do it without anyone dying or blighting the planet! You and I, we might be able to do it…!”
“Seriously?!”