WHFIO14

Chapter 14

Elsez reached out her hand toward the dark guild member standing beside her.

“Give me the quill.”

Cassian, who had been watching her with mounting unease, quickly caught her arm.

“You’re really going to sign? Do you even know what kind of guild this is?”

“I do. And honestly, I need the money. They’re offering plenty. I can see why people are desperate to join.”

“You…!”

“What right do you have to stop her?” Madame Latour cut in smoothly, her voice sharp as a whip. “You’re nothing to the girl.”

Elsez met Cassian’s anxious gaze and gave him the slightest look that said, Trust me.

He hesitated, suspicion lingering on his face, but eventually let her go—though his eyes never left her.

The guild member handed Elsez the quill. She pressed the nib to parchment and signed.

At once, black flames licked up from the line where her name was written, devouring the entire contract in an instant. The scattering ashes whirled together, shaping a vast magic circle that seared itself into the back of her hand.

Elsez flinched at the crawling sensation beneath her skin, as though something alive was writhing inside. The black seal shifted with a grinding click, then locked into place.

The contract was sealed.

Madame Latour accepted the copy with Elsez’s name, her lips curving in satisfaction.

Elsez stepped closer, her voice clear. “Now, release the members of the Eternal Guild, Madame.”

With a flick of her fingers, Latour signaled her subordinates. The ropes binding the Eternal Guild members fell away, and they were ushered toward Cassian.

The Madame’s gaze lingered on Elsez, a slow, serpentine gleam in her eyes. Her tone turned honeyed.

“Now, come here, child.”

It was the look of a predator savoring its catch.

But Elsez did not move. She simply stood there, golden eyes steady on the woman.

A faint unease stirred in Madame Latour.

“You can resist all you like, but the contract has alrea—”

Before she could finish, Elsez placed a hand over her chest and spoke clearly.

“Elsez, of Guild Once.”

Latour’s composure cracked. Cassian, too, frowned in confusion.

Elsez smiled, brimming with confidence, and declared:

“In the name of the gods, I swear to speak only the truth from this moment forward.”

Madame Latour’s eyes flew wide.

The black seal burned into Elsez’s hand shattered with a sharp crack.

The contract in Latour’s grasp ignited, crumbling to ash.

Elsez watched the fragments scatter from her hand, then raised her gaze. Even in the dim room, her amber-gold eyes shone, unyielding and sharp as steel.

How does she know the annulment trigger…?

Madame stared in disbelief.

The words Elsez had spoken were the ritual “Oath of Truth”—a formula used during interrogations. In the underworld, it also served as one of the hidden triggers to break a dark guild contract.

Unlike ordinary contracts, which dissolved upon the signer’s death, contracts bound by dark magic remained even beyond the grave. Dark magic borrowed mana from another plane, power that could not disperse into this world. For such contracts, only the living signer could break them—and only under very specific conditions.

Those conditions were kept secret, known only to a select few within the guild.

Yet a newcomer, barely initiated, had spoken them aloud.

Elsez flexed her fingers, brushing off the lingering ashes, and murmured:

“Money’s nice and all, but I don’t think I could live well on bloodstained coin.”

She knew the key phrase thanks to memories of another life.

It was part of the main scenario in Last Heroes—the player rescues an NPC trapped in a dark guild contract.

Just as Elsez was about to step toward Latour, a guild member lunged at her.

But Cassian and Elsez moved first.

Elsez dropped low, slipping under the blow with fluid grace, while Cassian surged forward, driving his fist into the attacker’s stomach and slamming him into the wall.

“Guh—!”

Another tried to ambush Cassian from behind, only to be sent flying the same way, body crumpling against the tavern wall with a resounding crash.

The ground trembled.

Madame Latour’s face hardened as Elsez approached, gaze cold and unwavering.

“To recruit talent,” Elsez said softly, “you don’t use threats. You show vision.”

“…”

“When my future and the future of a guild align, that’s when I’ll be moved.”

“…”

“So don’t ever try to bind me like this again.”

For a moment, silence. Then Latour gave a low laugh.

“…Impertinent brat.”

Another guild member moved to strike at Elsez’s back, but Latour lifted a hand.

“Leave her. Do you really think a handful of you could defeat her?”

The men faltered, then retreated at her command.

Elsez shot them each a cold glance before turning to Cassian.

Behind her, Madame Latour’s voice slithered through the air.

“We’ll see how long you can cling to that flimsy sense of justice.”

Elsez met her eyes one last time, expression steady, then turned away.

She and Cassian left the guild hall together.

The freed Eternal Guild members had already gone, sent on their way.

As they walked, Cassian ruffled her hair lightly with his broad hand.

“Well done.”

The sudden warmth in his eyes made her realize just how heavy her limbs had grown now that the tension was gone.

“But tell me—how did you know the annulment clause?”

Elsez stiffened.

…Sharp bastard.

She couldn’t very well say she’d read it in a game script. But silence would only stoke his curiosity.

After a pause, she offered the first excuse that came to mind.

“A… close friend once helped someone tied up in a dark guild contract. I was there, so I learned about it then.”

“What kind of friend does things like that?”

“…A hero.”

Technically true—though the “hero” was herself.

She said it boldly, with a straight face.

Thankfully, Cassian seemed to let it drop.

“Hmph. If the dark guild runs things that sloppily, they’ll collapse soon enough.”

He muttered it under his breath, but Elsez chose to ignore the jab. What mattered was the outcome: everyone was safe, and she’d escaped the trap.

Then his voice dropped again, above her head.

“I take it back.”

“Take what back?”

“What I said before—that you couldn’t swat a fly.”

Elsez couldn’t help but laugh softly.

He had acknowledged her strength.

“But tell me,” she teased, “why am I still a stranger to you?”

“You’re not.”

“…What?”

Cassian grinned. “Not anymore. Or rather—soon you won’t be.”

He stopped walking. Elsez did too, staring up at him.

Cassian extended his large hand, as though offering a pact.

“Let me make it official,” he said. “Join our guild.”