Before she was even given the name Chloe, she had to perform a job in order to join the familia. How to handle poison, how to build resistance to it, how to use a knife—she was taught all of it from birth. With a starting point like that, developing a logical point of view was hopeless from the start. If she took out a target whose name she did not know by pretending to be an innocent little girl, she was praised. If she took poison and just barely survived, writhing in agony, she was praised…Life was probably most pleasant when she did not know anything.
The familia I belonged too, well, they were pretty much garbage.
The deity who established it called it role-playing.
“If there are guys who want dirty jobs done, then there’s no way around it. I’ll wear the mud.” Cheerfully saying such absurdities, the patron deity sowed blood and death through the underworld—garbage presiding over slaughter.
She eventually got fed up with the familia when an assassin who was like an older sister to her—the mother who had given birth to her and watched over her without ever sharing her secret—messed up on a mission and died. Going against the rules of the organization, she had lost her life shielding Chloe.
Learning the truth later, Chloe also discovered how useless tears were. Doubting the organization and rebelling against the rules, she told the founding goddess she wanted to quit. Chloe could still remember her smirk even now.
Her ceremonial assignment to be able to leave was an unreasonable string of deadly demands to test her resolve. She had almost fainted when she was told to take out a certain empire’s Level 3 upper-tier knight with a single knife. But Chloe had done it. Thanks to that, she leveled up, too. The goddess was trash, but she was honest enough to uphold a contract signed in blood.
—Well, what I’m doing didn’t really change much, though.
Chloe had gained her freedom, but she was still lost.
She did not know what she should do. She did not know what she should live for. Knowing nothing but how to kill people, she was missing something. She was damaged.
If you traced back the secret to her success to its source, it lay in the expressions and tone of voice she had learned just mimicking ridiculous gods.
If I hadn’t adopted this stupid speech pattern and personality, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. The real Chloe that no one ever saw was scared, a crybaby.
In the end, the business she had chosen was assassination.
One kill, lots of money. For earning cash quickly and efficiently, there was no other choice.
There was a relatively large number of vermin in the world. So it was rare that a job would bother her. Sometimes, she was even like a chivalrous thief and became a hero for orphans to mimic. That was a pretty pleasant. Particularly the soft feeling of getting hugged by little boys. That was around when her sexual inclinations started to twist, and she started becoming filled with desire.
—I was sure there was no one who could stop me.
Thinking back on it, Chloe had gotten carried away when she waltzed into Orario.
It had the worst public order in the world at the time, and stepping into that city unconcerned about jobs and without taking it seriously was the first mistake. Orario was a den of thieves. The stronghold of adventurers, sealed in those giant city walls. Chloe had just been a big fish in a little pond. The cat who did not know the depths of the abyss known as the Dungeon received a baptism from the monsters born and tempered there.
—The first time I thought, “Ah, I’m dead!” was when I took a contract on Ganesha Familia, meow.
When she tried to target a certain adventurer in the elephant god’s faction, she almost got herself killed. She ran for her life from the terrifying heroine known as Ankusha.
For the girl who had boasted of a perfect kill record outside the Labyrinth City, it was the first frustration, the first failure.
The difference in strength between Orario and the outside world was exceedingly large; it was not something Chloe could measure with tools she had gained from the familia that had raised her.
Remembering the fear that made her tail stand on end, Chloe started picking her jobs carefully.
Her assassinations had rules.
First, she would not kill children. Especially little boys who were the treasure of the world. Robbing the world of that treasure was unthinkable.
Also, she would only kill people who were human filth, or else were mentally prepared to die. If a target broke either of those rules, she would throw the client’s money back and cancel the job.
Fortunately, if it could really be called that, she had never had to cancel a job once (though she had failed before). As if to mock the supposed upheaval of the Dark Age, the contracts that made their way to Chloe were generally just thugs taking each other out or groups throwing their weight around in their power struggles. Laughing bitterly at the pointlessness of it, Chloe easily completed those jobs. She leveled up again and was now Level 4.
However, no matter how many she killed, assassination contracts never ended.
The rewards were gold coins: chips in exchange for red drops of life.
Just how much blood have I soaked this blade in?
She had gotten here on inertia alone. Or possibly, what little pride Chloe had had not allowed her to stop.
However, her heart was starting to get melancholy. She was used to being alone due to the nature of her work, but more and more, she found herself wanting a place to rest. A place she belonged, like Gale Wind.
Under the starry sky, she held up her assassin’s knife to the moon, soaking in her emotions in a way that was unlike her.
“I’m tired, meow…”
Sighing, Chloe put away her knife as she sensed the presence of another person. Leaving the backstreet, she turned onto Southwest Main Street. Lost in thought for a long time, she had wandered so far south that she had ended up here.
Resting her shoulders on a wall, she casually watched the flow of people.
“Meow?”
She noticed a certain god.
His brown hair was pulled back behind his head. His masculine face was a prime example of a good-looking man. He wasn’t wearing a top even though it was halfway into fall already, which brought the phrase “man of the sea” to mind. Next to him, a follower was helping by pulling a luggage cart.
“…Mya-ha!”
Recognizing his figure in the midst of the crowd, an evil smile crossed Chloe’s face.
She leaped out the next instant, jumping onto him.
“Guoh?! Wh-what?!…Guh, Chloe Lolo.”
While his helper was shocked, the god murmured the name of the person who was clinging to his back. His face twitched. Chloe smiled suspiciously as she also responded to the person she had happened to notice in the crowded road.
“Long time, no see, Njörðr. You doing well?”
“Maaan, I’m lucky, meow. Since we bumped into each other, you’re treating me to a drink, meow.”
“You’re just dragging me along…”
A room in a high-class bar in the Shopping District that covered southern Orario.
In a sound-proofed individual room, alone with Njörðr, Chloe had stripped down to just one piece of underwear.
“By the way, why do you always undress completely when you show me your Status…?”
“That’s rude, meow. I’m wearing panties, meow! It’s just so I can keep up with your exhibitionism, meow!”
Like a certain bounty hunter, Chloe had converted and contracted with Njörðr. He was the god who ruled over the fish who lived in Port Meren to the southwest of Orario.
The faction he managed was in the fishing business, operating in the ocean, starting at the brackish Lolog Lake that connected with Meren. They repeatedly went out to sea to catch lots of fish. The fresh seafood caught by Njörðr Familia was sold in Orario, and just like the agriculture managed by Demeter Familia, it made a big impact on the city’s food situation.
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He had apparently come from Meren today with his followers to sell seafood. The fisherman who had been helping him out until earlier had already headed back.
The reason why Chloe had contracted with Njörðr, who lived outside the city…
“Is it okay to take a tone like that, meow? Should I expose your smuggling, meow?”
“Guh…!”
It was because of that.
Thanks to one of her jobs, Chloe had infiltrated a suspicious place and happened to see Njörðr taking freight from a shady group to secretly smuggle into the city.
He had apparently helped out with the smuggling on the condition that it was necessary for the fish, but Chloe did not know the details. Even without knowing, it was still sufficient for extortion.
Thanks to that, Chloe got a convenient, handsome way to update her Status, and Njörðr was not in a position to resist with her holding that over him.
“I can’t update my Status if I’m not like this, meow~.”
Lying down on the soft sofa, she gave the impression of a queen. She was enjoying herself since he had covered the high fee to get into the tavern. The god grimaced as he moved beside her to update her Status.
A secret room with a half-naked god and mostly naked girl.
If a waitress brought the alcohol now, she would unquestionably misunderstand what was going on.
“Because you are such a good, handsome god, I’m letting you see this unladylike figure, meow. My lovely nude body honed for assassination…Does it take your breath away, meow?”
“Take my breath away…? Your chest is flatter than mine.”
“What?! I’m just still developing, meow!”
As an assassin, there were times I also used my feminine wiles. Well, only idiot targets were done in like that, though. Truly wary men were usually on guard.
—Incidentally, when Chloe had been about to do it for real once, she scratched her partner’s face, so she was still a virgin.
“There, it’s done.”
“Grrr…you’ll pay for that, meow.”
Miffed, Chloe took the update sheet and looked at it.
Chloe Lolo
LEVEL 4
Strength: G 267 -> F 301 Defense: G 222 -> 279 Dexterity: B 711 -> 751 Agility: B 737 -> 776 Magic: E 412 -> 455 Immunity: G Synthesis: H Escape: I
It’s been a while, but still…it’s gone up a good amount, meow.
She sighed.
Doing people in without too much effort was supposed to be what assassins did, but her Status continuing to rise was proof of a lot of hard work.
“So? If you got an update, does that mean Black Cat got another troublesome request?”
“Please don’t call me that name, meow. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a blemish on my record, meow.”
Code name aside, having a second name or alias from other people was proof of failure to an assassin. Having a second name made meant that an assassination failed or that someone had seen her. This was all because the adventurers in Orario were too strong…
Being compared to a bounty hunter like Black Fist is a real nuisance, Chloe thought.
“Hey…you’re tired, right?”
“…”
As expected of a god, he had figured her out and seen what she was feeling in her heart. Chloe silently got off the sofa and grabbed the food on the table with her fingers in a show of poor manners.
“In times like this, that’s how it has to be, meow.”
“If you feel like it, why don’t you come to my familia?”
Chloe froze for a second and then tried to cover it with a suggestive smile.
“What’s that? Have you been captivated by my beauty and fallen prey to your desires, meow?”
“Aah, yeah, something like that would fine. If I got my hands on a cute female helper like you, the gods would rejoice.”
Njörðr responded to her teasing with a wry laugh, meeting her eyes with a concerned gaze.
Njörðr is a good god.
He’s handsome, tall, and cares for children. He’s a god of good character.
While knowing the true identity of Black Cat, he had not revealed it to anyone, and while he complained about it, he still put up with her selfish and absurd requests, as if he was trying to give her a brief moment to relax.
After being quiet for a bit, she smiled slightly in a way that was different from before.
“You should stop that, meow. A cat who stopped killing people and reformed to be crazy about fish…it’s kind of ridiculous, meow.”
“…I see.”
That was how she truly felt.
She was honestly happy at his offer, but she could not quite see herself taking it.
“And familia aside…I don’t really understand things like comrades and friends, meow.”
That was also how she really felt.
With no interactions since her first familia, she was a lonely stray cat. She did not know how to go about joining a group.
That’s way harder than killing people, she thought.
“Is there anyone who gets along well from the start? No, it starts with conflict. You shout at each other; you want to punch each other.”
“You gods are always talking about ‘fighting under the sunset’; is that what this is, meow? But as for me, I don’t even know how to do that much, meow…”
Chloe’s bread and butter was deadly fights. Alive or dead were the only options she knew.
She could not face Njörðr, who was kindly gazing at her as he tried to convince her. She suddenly looked up at the ceiling. She said the thought that popped into her head.
“But, you know…if there was someone who could fight me with all their strength, come at me to kill…and still crack jokes with me…it would be nice to be that carefree, meow.”
They held many feelings in their hearts.
However, they would soon encounter each other.
“When are you going to do in Gale Wind? Think about how many days have passed since you took the contract.”
“You’re annoying. I got it already.”
The client had called Runoa out to pester her. Glaring back at him in the tavern on the outskirts of the outskirts, she laid out her plan.
“Let me be clear: I’m washing my hands of everything after this job. I want a promise from you guys at the Bruno Corporation to not get involved with me again after this.”
“…Thinking you can return to an honest life after all this?”
“I don’t know anything. But if I don’t make a start, nothing will happen.”
She responded clearly as the human from the corporation scowled.
“Don’t worry, I’ll do the job. Just wait and I’ll finish her, like I always do.”
Adjusting her scarf, she announced with a piercing gaze:
“Tomorrow night—that’s when it starts.”
“Black Fist is targeting Gale Wind, it seems! She even said she would do it tomorrow! What should we do?”
“Mmm~, this is bad timing.”
In a forgotten belfry, a concerned client’s voice echoed. Chloe had been called out here; she used her business tone and slowly replied.
“Competing for prey…These times are really exhausting.”
“What are you saying so casually? If we don’t get her quickly, they’ll get there first!”
The dwarf’s voice came at her from both sides as the hood she wore low over her eyes shook. Chloe understood why she was so tired. It was because Orario was stagnating in darkness. After experiencing so much darkness, she knew that it had borne more swirling malice, more chaos than any other country or city she had seen before.
“…But even that is done.”
By none other than Gale Wind’s hand. Orario had been reborn. Chloe felt that.
“Who’d have thought I’d get stuck taking out Gale Wind…? What an unpleasant job.”
“O-oh?”
“Relax. A job’s a job, and I already took the prepayment, so I won�
�t ditch the contract.”
While the client lost his composure as though he were seriously getting scared, she reminded him that she was a professional.
The existence of Gale Wind was a breeding ground for future troubles.
People who resented her would probably come at her with malicious intent some point. So her disappearing now was for the sake of the future.
Arming herself with that pretext, Chloe steeled her resolve.
“Tomorrow night, I’ll do her in.”
4
“…”
Moving through the hallway of the side building, Lyu stopped and looked out the window.
The early morning sky was cloudy.
Gray was covering the whole sky, creating a disquieting feeling.
I’m being watched…
Since she had started working at The Benevolent Mistress, Lyu had felt someone watching her. At first the gaze did not include hostility or malice—more exhaustion—so Lyu had written it off as a non-problem, but at this point she could clearly sense the intent behind it.
Namely, bloodlust.
I didn’t think it was a pursuer…but clearly my intuition was off.
A gaze like that had only one explanation. Someone had tracked down Gale Wind. The misgivings she had about getting Syr and the rest wrapped up in this by letting them shelter her had come to fruition. And just when she had been taken on as an official employee of the tavern.
At this rate, I’m going to cause trouble for The Benevolent Mistress…for Syr and the others.
Those thoughts in her mind, Lyu silently started moving into the side building. She headed toward Mia’s room.
“Pardon me. I’m sorry, I need to talk……Syr?”
She had knocked and started to open the door when she saw Syr in the room with Mia. Unlike Lyu and the other girls, Syr did not live in the side building. Lyu was surprised to Mia’s unexpected visitor so early in the day.
“Good morning, Lyu.”
“…Good morning, Syr.”
“What do you want this early?”
Nodding, Lyu walked over to the two. As Lyu was about to start, Mia cut in.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle: Episode Lyu Page 17