Luckily, Wang Lei didn’t do anything stupid. He didn’t hesitate or try to slash at Adrian. He just took the cold steel dagger and pricked his thumb, squeezing out a single drop of dark red blood onto the parchment. And the second it hit the paper, the magical contract absorbed it.
The black letters glowed for a second before settling perfectly into the page.
It only meant one thing. He was officially bound to the rules Adrian had dictated.
The exact moment the Soul Contract sealed, Adrian reached out and snatched the paper right out of Wang Lei’s hand. He sent the contract straight into his dungeon storage without moving his gaze away from Wang Lei.
"Well." Adrian smirked. "Now that you finally signed the contract, let me tell you a secret."
He leaned closer to the iron bars.
"You were summoned here directly as yourself." Adrian stated softly. "You got Isekai’d with your original Earth body. Right?"
Wang Lei blinked.
He nodded slowly. He looked down at his own hands and patted his stomach since it was the exact same slightly chubby body he had back home. He wasn’t really ashamed of it though. He just looked back up at Adrian and gave a weak, awkward smile.
"Yes." Wang Lei admitted. "This is my actual body. At least I didn’t have to wake up living inside some random, crippled guy’s body. I guess this is better than that."
’I’ve read way too many shitty novels where that happened but the protagonist always got better. Even with that, I’d never want to face humiliation after humiliation just to face slap people again and again.’ he thought at the same time.
Adrian nodded slowly.
"Yes." Adrian agreed. "And that is actually a massive advantage for you. Because the native people in this world are born with a blessing and a curse. And I am pretty sure that you don’t have either of those two."
Wang Lei nodded.
"Yeah, I don’t have any blessings or curses."
Adrian just stared at him for a second before he dropped the bomb.
"Well." Adrian said with a poker face. "I am from Earth too."
Adrian didn’t say anything else. He just let the words hang.
The reason was simple. The hero from Avarice easily deducted that guns were used against his knights, which means he already suspected that an earthling was here. If Wang Lei was even decently smart at a regular human’s range, then he’d be able to see the signs and come to the same conclusion.
After all, Adrian had a dedicated gunsman squad. He built apartment complexes and his territory served food that was extremely similar to earth’s. A lot of things were inspired from earth and that included his gacha wheel in the dungeon.
It was a better option to shock him directly instead of letting him figure it out slowly. And Adrian wasn’t scared about Wang Lei running around and announcing it since he had already made sure that he wouldn’t in the soul contract.
Wang Lei just stared at him with wide eyes. He stood there for a few seconds since he genuinely felt like he was being tricked right now.
He thought back to everything Adrian had said and done until now. He had just never considered the fact that this medieval noble man standing in front of him could have been some random guy from Earth. He never even imagined a scenario like this.
But even with Adrian explicitly telling him to his face, it was still incredibly hard for Wang Lei to actually believe it.
"If..." Wang Lei stammered. His voice was actually shaking. "If you are actually from Earth... prove it."
Adrian let out a dry laugh.
"Hmm, let’s see." Adrian said, starting to list things off while casually ticking his fingers. "Pizza, coke, sprite, online MMOs, webnovels, anime and stuff like that basically."
As Wang Lei heard the modern words drop one by one, his jaw practically unhinged.
"Wait!" Wang Lei gasped. "Are you really from Earth?"
He practically threw himself onto the iron bars, but Adrian took a step back, dodging him. Even after that, he didn’t stop and grabed Adrian’s hand instead.
"I am so happy that there is someone else out here other than me!" Wang Lei practically sobbed. "I was so scared that I’d die... and that you’d just kill me."
But then he suddenly froze, and slowly let go of Adrian’s arm.
"Wait." Wang Lei frowned. "If you are from Earth... why did you make me sign a magical contract? Like we aren’t the same or something?"
He struggled to find the words.
"I thought we were..." Wang Lei muttered. "I mean, if you are from Earth, aren’t we supposed to be friends?"
Adrian shook his head.
"I don’t trust people that I just met randomly." Adrian replied coldly. "Magical contracts are infinitely better than a handshake. And that specific contract has a clause in it, which you clearly didn’t read. You are not allowed to tell anyone that I am from Earth."
He crossed his arms.
"The only reason I even told you the truth right now is because once you come back to my territory and see the things I have built, you would have made the guess yourself anyway. It was just easier for me to tell you directly."
Adrian took a step back from the bars. He raised his hands to the side casually.
"Unlike you," Adrian explained. "I actually took over someone else’s body in this world. So I could be legally considered a native of this world. Unlike you, I actually have a blessing and a curse. And I don’t have a special, overpowered cheat power without drawbacks like you do."
Adrian paused.
"Well, maybe you don’t either." Adrian mused. "You do actually have a system interface, right?"
"Yeah." Wang Lei nodded. "I do have a system, but it is very basic. It just shows me my name, my age, and the names of the animals I have eaten. I have a list of five creatures that I can store, and three that I can combine and use at the same time."