"I…" Chloe hesitated a little.
She gulped and looked me straight into my eyes. She couldn't hide her happy expression. Her lips curled up a little. She didn't seem to believe me as she asked.
"Are you serious?"
"I am. As stated in the contract, I will die if I treat you as a Hero. I will treat you normally, like a normal girl of our age."
Maybe she was still hesitant because of the words 'normally.'
For her, words normally indicated her as a Hero. It was normal for her to clear dungeons. It was also normal for her to help people.
But with the contract, she would be bound to me; she would only help me.
My ambition was great; it was to save the world. She wouldn't and couldn't refuse it. If someone else asked for help, she would prioritize helping me to save the world and could reject their request.
In other words…
"If you sign that contract, you will be free from your duty as a Hero. You will only need to help me to save this world. Your Hero Trait will allow you to prioritize helping me. In return, I will help you. If you ask me for help to teach you how to live normally like the others, then I will help and teach you how to live normally."
"This…" Tears began to drip from her eyes as she gripped the magic contract. "This is not a dream, right?"
"It is not." I approached her and patted her shoulder. "I'm sorry, but… I know your hardships. I have investigated all of it. I can't say where I learned about it, but trust me. You can ask me for help anytime. I promise that you will have a different life than this one. I won't ask for anything unreasonable from you."
The Hero's emotions then broke out like a breached dam with my words. The bottle that contained her emotions had shattered. I forcefully shatter it.
Her legs wobbled, and she sat on the ground as she cried while crumpling the magic contract. Her face faced down, looking at the contract and she shouted, wailed, letting all of her complaints out with a scream inside this lonely dungeon. No one but me heard her, and she screamed on top of her lungs.
The Association didn't deserve this girl. She was not the cold girl that everyone knew. She was only a lonely girl who was forced to walk upon the path of a Hero by unfair adults.
The Contract that I offered could help her. It would make her bound to me, and she could always ask 'help' from me if she didn't want to do something.
In other words, this was her ticket to freedom.
As she had ascertained that I didn't lie when I said I wanted to save this world, she had no reason to refuse me.
A Hero's role was to defeat the Evil that would come into this world. Therefore, a Hero only appeared when there would be an Evil that would invade this world, Earth.
The first Hero appeared at the same time as the dungeons. He defeated the Demon King, who lies in the deepest dungeon called the Abyss.
He left the words to the public that the Abyss would appear again. At that time, a new Hero would be born in this world to conquer the Abyss and save the world.
The second Hero appeared 40 years ago. Once again, the Abyss and the Demon King appeared. The Hero at that time died together with the Demon King and managed to save this world.
Then it came to this time: the third Hero, Chloe.
Her appearance was a sign that the Demon King would be revived and try to conquer this world once again. The Association thought that it would be good to train the Hero from the moment she was found.
And five years ago, when Chloe was 14 years old, she was Awakened. She registered in the Awakener Association, similar to the others, and the Awakener Association found her Hero Trait when she naïvely told the receptionist about it.
"I… I never thought that I would be able to be freed from that promise…"
The Awakener Association then made her promise one thing. She would help them to clear the dungeons.
I made such a sad backstory so the readers would sympathize with Chloe's fate. She had already worked hard for five years. This time, Zaiden would need to work harder in her place. I would still ask her to prepare for the Abyss, though, but I would not force her.
And, for the first time in her life, the Hero asked for help.
"T…Thank you… I… I will agree to the contract. Please… help me… Please help me to live normally."
"I will." I crouched over her. It was sad when looking at her like this.
I genuinely wanted to help this girl. At first, I wanted to help her because I thought that I would save my favorite character. But this world was real.
The strong Hero was crying in front of me, asking for help. If I didn't help her, then I would be disqualified from being a human.
"I will take responsibility for all of it. If the Awakener Association tries to get you back, I will stop them together with you."
Chloe gave a small nod. She wiped the tears with her hand and asked.
"How do I sign this?"
"Just infuse a little bit of your mana into the Magic Contract. I had already infused mine when I made the contract, so it will bind us as soon as you infuse yours."
Once again, she nodded. She then infused her mana into the contract before it combusted into the fire.
The Magic Contract was completed with that. I extended my hand to her and smiled.
"I hope to get along with you well, Chloe." And I called her by name.
She smiled back at me and shook my hand. "Me too, Vincent."
***
I waited for Chloe to calm herself down again. Now that she had signed the contract, she officially became the first member of my mercenary group.
The next thing that we should do is to clear this dungeon.
"Chloe… I can call you that, right?"
Chloe, who had calmed down considerably, nodded her head. "Yes. I will call you Vincent."
"Only when there are only two of us. When I wear a mask, call me Rai, okay?"
"Understood."
"Alright. Then shall we clear the dungeon?" I asked her as I pulled out my [Arash Bow] from my magic bag. "My main weapon is this. What is yours?"
I did know about her main weapon. However, it was best to ask her as I was not supposed to know about it.
Her weapon remained a mystery to normal people or Awakeners. Only she and the Awakeners from the Association knew the weapon that she used.
The reason for that was simple; her weapon was an Artifact.
She took out a dark blue spear from her magic bag. Its shaft was serrated with a snake scale pattern, and the blade was thin but deadly.
That spear was a cursed spear from mythology; it was famous even in my old world because some novels' main characters used this spear as their main weapon.
"My weapon is this spear, Gae Bolg."
"Oh! That's really nice!"
Honestly, I never expected her to use Gae Bolg at this time. It was different from the weapon that she used when she first made her appearance.
Gae Bolg was her secondary weapon. I guess she hadn't gotten her hand on that weapon yet.
"Let's clear the dungeon then. I will support you from behind. Also, can you please match my speed? I'm just an E-Rank Awakener right now. It's only been two weeks since I was Awakened."
Chloe nodded her head before dashing into the dungeon without answering me. She was fast, but she purposely slowed down considerably due to my request.
I smiled a little before following her from behind.
As this dungeon was filled with undead, I planned to use Mana Arrow with Light attribute. Arash Bow was a bow with Composite attributes of Light and Dark, so I could directly infuse Light or Dark attribute into the Mana Arrow fired from this bow without changing the Mana attribute myself.
Chloe had also infused her Gae Bolg with Light attribute Mana, as it let out a faint white and golden glow, unlike the Null attribute that let out a faint blue glow.
She did it by herself, unlike me, who was counting on my weapon's attributes. It was indeed stronger as she directly infused her own Mana attribute in the weapon, but it was considerably hard to use in an actual battle, as one needed to concentrate to infuse Mana attribute into their weapon.
As we went deeper into the dungeon, zombies started to appear. However, as soon as the zombies appeared, Chloe immediately lunged forward and decimated them with her Gae Bolg.
Swoosh–!
Her movement was smooth, and the way she handled her spear was like a dancing fairy who danced with a pole.
The Gae Bolg pierced the zombies' heads, and then its blade severed the zombies' limbs and bodies.
I was amazed. She was amazing. I didn't even have a chance to fire my arrow from my bow.
"Damn. She's good."
We quickly advanced to the second floor. The enemies were skeletons, and once again, Chloe decimated them by herself. The enemies were too weak for her, and we went to the third floor.
The enemies this time were Liches. They were C-Rank monsters that could use Magic. I didn't know whether Chloe would be able to kill them easily, but I could only count on her.
She stopped as soon as we stepped onto the third floor and looked at me.
"Will you be okay?" She asked worriedly. "It's dangerous for an E-Rank Awakener."
"Don't worry about me. I can protect myself."
Although I was a bit afraid when facing monsters with higher rank than me, I would be at a safe distance. I was also confident that I would be fine because I had a dependable vanguard with me.
"Okay. I will kill them fast."
She had turned back to her aloof demeanor after she calmed down. But her expression was softer than before.
She spun her spear a few times before dashing in once again. She had no experience of working with other people, so she didn't know how to make a signal. It was not a problem for me, who knew her, but she wouldn't be able to work with the others like this.
I should teach her about playing a role in a party. It would be wrong to let her do all the work by herself.
'I will talk with her later.'
We entered a big room where the Liches were.
Unlike the first and second floors, the number of Liches on the third floor was only three. All of them were in the same room as the Boss Monster, Great Lich, a B-Rank Monster.
This time, my assistance would prove useful to Chloe. Even for her, fighting against four monsters that could use Magic would be difficult.
Or so I thought…
"Crazy!" I involuntarily shouted as I saw Chloe kill the Great Lich and three Liches as if they were the first-floor zombies.
I honestly thought that she was joking when she said she would kill them fast. But I was proven to be wrong.
As soon as we entered the room earlier, Chloe immediately made a throwing motion before the monsters spotted us. Her Gae Bolg then let out a dark red glow mixed with the white glow from the Light attribute Mana.
She activated the special effect of her Gae Bolg and threw it.
Swoosh–!
The wind was severed by Gae Bolg as it made its way to the Liches.
It then pierced three Liches' Hearts that were acting as their core and shattered them, defeating them immediately.
The Great Lich noticed us at that moment, but Chloe had already moved. Her fists were covered with Light attribute mana, and she then pierced the Great Lich's body right at where its heart was located.
Pierce–!
Her hand penetrated through its body, and she held a blue heart of the Great Lich before she pulled it.
The monsters that I was afraid of were killed just like that. She was about to throw the Great Lich's heart to the ground, but I quickly stopped her after I snapped out of my amazement.
"Wait! Let me have that heart!"
She stopped and looked at me while tilting her head. "Why? Undead bodies are useless."
"Not for me. I need that heart for Enhancement." More specifically, the blood that was congested in the heart.
Although she was confused, she handed the heart to me obediently. "Here."
I never expected to get my hands on it this fast. Great Lich's blood was better than Lich's blood for Enhancement.
But, as it was rarer than Lich's blood, I thought that I would never get my hand on it before I found out that Chloe planned to raid this dungeon.
If there was something that I regret, then it was that I didn't form a party with Chloe before raiding this dungeon.
What a shame... I could absorb some Mana from those monsters if I formed a party with her.
The way to form a party was simple. Someone just needed to wear a special bracelet that allowed Mana to be divided equally. Unfortunately, I forgot to prepare that bracelet before I came here.
Well, I was still happy with the loot itself.
"Thank you." I put the Great Lich's heart in my magic bag.
Chloe answered me with a big nod. She was excited after finally gaining her freedom back from the promise that she naïvely made five years ago.
The other Liches' Hearts were useless now because Gae Bolg had pierced and shattered them. She pulled her Gae Bolg and stuffed it in her Magic Bag before she called out to me.
"Let's get out." She then smiled.
I smiled back at her before putting on my mask again. It was time to act as Rai again.
"Let's go."