Monster Contract: My Pets Will Bring the Apocalypse

Wolf’s Thread

"Wait a second," Mirae said, already pushing herself up out of her chair before Seojin could respond to the glitching scanner. She disappeared through the doorway behind the couch, and a moment later came the sound of drawers being yanked open and something heavy toppling over, followed by a muffled curse.

"You alright back there?" Seojin called.

"Fine, fine, hold on."

She emerged a minute later holding a slim plastic card, blowing a layer of dust off the surface before setting it down on the desk in front of him. It looked nothing like the temporary visitor badge from HQ, sleeker, matte black with a thin silver border, the Obsidian Fang emblem etched faintly into one corner.

"This is better than a uniform," she said, tapping the card twice against the scanner pad. The surface lit up, and his name scrolled across it in clean white text, Han Seojin, along with a small guild rank marker beneath it. "This belonged to my last real star student. Kid had talent, more than you'll believe right now. Got scouted up to the big leagues eventually and stopped answering his phone the second his name showed up on a banner."

She slid the card across to him.

"You're my new star, then. Try not to forget where you started."

Seojin turned the card over in his hands, running his thumb along the edge. "I'll try."

"Good. Stop by after school tomorrow. I've got something I'll need your help with." She waved a hand toward the door without further explanation, already reaching for her mug again. "Now get out of here before Soondae decides he likes you and follows you home."

The bat let out an offended squeak from atop her head, and Seojin managed a small laugh on his way out, the door creaking shut behind him.

The sidewalk was mostly empty by then, storefronts dark, neon signs flickering out one by one along the block. Fenrir padded beside him in his smaller form, quiet and watchful, tail low.

Seojin held up his hand as they walked, and a translucent panel bloomed to life in front of him, quest logs and system prompts hovering just above his palm. He pulled up the skill tree interface out of habit more than anything, and something about the shape of it made him pause mid step.

The layout wasn't right. Back in school, during the mandatory system orientation classes, they'd all been shown diagrams of the standard interface, clean branching trees with fixed evolution paths and locked stat categories that unlocked in a strict, predictable order. What hovered in front of him now didn't match any of that. The branches curved in ways his textbook diagrams never had, options shifting slightly the longer he stared at them, like the system itself was still deciding what shape to take around him.

He frowned at it for a moment. Maybe that's why the scanners keep failing on me, he thought. Maybe whatever this is, it was never built to fit their charts in the first place.

The thought sat heavy for a second, and then he pushed it back down, not ready to chase it any further tonight.

He opened the skill interface and decided to invest everything into endurance when he decided to consult with Fenrir.

"Fen," he said quietly, "what do you think? Where should I put all these points? Isn't endurance a good pick?"

Fenrir didn't answer right away, studying the glowing interface. "Were you about to pour everything into one skill section?" Fenrir finally said. "That would be a foolish mistake."

"Durability would help me keep standing; that feels like a smart pick."

"A wall that cannot strike back is only ever a wall," Fenrir said. "You need enough strength to matter when the moment comes, enough speed to close distance or create it, and yes, enough durability to survive the space between those two things. Root yourself too deep in one, and the others will wither before they ever grow."

Seojin turned the words over, and something about them settled easier than he expected. "So spread it out. Okay, that makes sense. I'll even everything out and put a bit more into endurance."

He nodded slowly and pulled up the full allocation screen, distributing the points in front of him with more care than he had the first time, most of it still flowing into Durability but enough left over to nudge both Strength and Speed up a rank as well. Alongside the points sat a small ticket icon he hadn't noticed before, a Skill Tree Activation Ticket, tucked into his rewards from the guild quest.

He tapped it, half expecting something dramatic, a rush of power or at least a flicker of light but nothing happened. All he got was a notification that the skill tree was now available and ready to grow with him.

Seojin closed the interface and kept walking, the ticket's quiet nothing somehow more reassuring than he expected it to be.

By the time he reached his building, the lobby lights glowing faintly through tinted glass, he could already smell something cooking through the vents, warm and rich even from outside. He pressed the intercom, and before he'd even finished the buzz, the door swung open from the inside.

His mother stood in the entryway wearing an apron over her work clothes, hair pulled back loose, and the moment her eyes landed on Fenrir standing quietly beside him, she went completely still.

"You," she started, voice catching, "you bonded."

Seojin nodded, and for a second neither of them moved. Then she let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob and pulled him into a hug so tight it lifted him half off his feet, apron strings pressing into his shoulder.

"Mom, I'm fine," he said into her shoulder, half laughing himself now.

"I know, I know," she said, not letting go. "I just, I really thought tonight was going to be like all the others. I made your favorite anyway, just in case, I told myself it was silly but I made it anyway."

Footsteps thudded down the hallway, and his sister appeared in the doorway of the living room still in her house clothes, hair a mess, eyes going wide the second they landed on Fenrir.

"No way," she said, voice climbing. "No way, he's actually real?"

"Hi to you too," Seojin said.

She ignored him completely, edging closer with the kind of caution reserved for something she desperately wanted to touch but wasn't sure she was allowed to. "Can I? Just for a second?"

Fenrir lowered his head slightly, permission granted without a word, and she let out a delighted squeal as her hand brushed over his fur.

"He's so soft, oh my god, Mom feel this-"

"I believe you," their mother said, laughing, wiping at her eyes with the back of her wrist.

From the living room, two smaller shapes crept forward, drawn by the noise. Their mother's fox beast padded out first, orange fur catching the hallway light, ember sparks flickering faintly in its eyes, and behind it came the sister's rabbit cat hybrid, silver pawed and curious, both of them creeping toward Fenrir with the same wide eyed fascination.

Fenrir let out a single low growl, more warning than threat, and both beasts stopped dead in their tracks before settling back beside their partners, ears low.

"He's a little territorial," Seojin said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"So is mine," his mother said, smiling as she scratched behind her fox's ears. "Must run in the family."

His sister snorted. "Guess that makes two overprotective dads in this house now."

They eventually made their way inside, the smell of dinner pulling everyone toward the kitchen, but before they sat down Seojin remembered the folded bills still tucked into his jacket pocket. He pulled them out and set them on the table.

"I want you to have this," he said to his mother.

She looked down at the stack, then up at him, already shaking her head before he'd finished the sentence. "Seojin, no, that's yours, you earned that."

"Then I'll take it," his sister said instantly, reaching for it.

Their mother swatted her hand away without even looking, still focused on Seojin. "No. Absolutely not."

"I didn't even get to touch it," his sister muttered, rubbing her hand and pouting dramatically.

"Mom, please," Seojin said. "Let me actually do something for once."

She hesitated, arms crossed, clearly fighting herself over it, and it took a good few minutes of him insisting before she finally relented and let him press half of it into her hands. He turned to his sister next, holding out a smaller share, and she perked up immediately, reaching for it with both hands.

"Wait, really? I thought you said I wasn't getting any."

"I never said that. Mom did."

Their mother rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, and in the end the three of them ended up in a lopsided hug over the kitchen table, his sister complaining about being squished while their mother just held on a little longer than necessary.

Later, once dinner had been eaten and the plates cleared, his mother disappeared into her room and came back carrying a sealed black case, setting it down gently on the table in front of him.

"I wasn't sure I'd get to give you this yet," she said. "I made myself promise I wouldn't, not until you actually bonded, but I kept it ready just in case."

She opened the case slowly. Inside, wrapped in cloth, lay a sleek longsword with a dark steel handle shaped like a wolf's open jaw, the blade slim and balanced, faint runic lines etched along its spine.

Seojin lifted it carefully, unwrapping the last layer of cloth, and the weight of it surprised him, heavier than it looked but somehow perfectly settled in his grip.

"This was your father's," she said quietly. "He was one of the first, back when the rifts had just started opening. They called him Wolfbane. He told me if you ever bonded with something, this should go to you, and not a day before."

Seojin held the sword against his shoulder, feeling something in his chest tighten in a way he didn't have a name for. 

"Thank you," Seojin said, quiet enough that it was mostly just for her.

His mother placed a hand over his on the hilt. "Be careful with it. But don't you dare hold back either."

That night in bed with the sword resting carefully on his nightstand, Seojin lay staring up at the ceiling with Fenrir curled on the rug beside his bed.

"You've begun walking a dangerous path it would seem," Fenrir said quietly into the dark. "Be careful you don't fall"

If I fall, Seojin thought, letting his eyes close, I'll drag the world down with me.