Chapter 552 - 552: Chloe

Chloe Rollo was an assassin, and also a thoroughly perverted Cat Person.

She was born into a criminal organization somewhere on the continent and had already joined a Familia before she was even given a name.

What accompanied Chloe through her childhood was not the warmth of family or the happiness children were meant to know, but cold poison and daggers.

Assassin. That chilling title seemed destined to be branded into the course of Chloe's life.

The Goddess who founded the criminal organization was, much like its members, an utter scumbag.

She presided over slaughter and spread death, steeped in a sickening stench of blood.

The one fortunate thing was that the people who died beneath their daggers were usually scum of the same kind. Of course, the young Chloe had no way of understanding that.

Dogs eating dogs, criminals preying on criminals. As crude as those descriptions sounded, they were practically the only entertainment her childhood offered.

Vicious demi-humans who trafficked children often fell into Chloe's traps. They would mistake her for helpless prey and lower their guard, never realizing that Chloe herself was a dagger coated in deadly poison. One careless mistake was all it took for that poisoned blade to pierce their chests.

There was nothing righteous about it.

From the criminal organization's perspective, targeting people like them simply involved less risk and offered greater profit.

Compared to murdering innocents, making other criminals their targets meant they could seize all the wealth their victims had accumulated after every successful job. It also made them less likely to attract the attention of righteous people and invite unnecessary trouble.

That was the full extent of the Goddess's reasoning.

It had nothing to do with good or evil. She unleashed feasts of death purely for profit and amusement.

Perhaps some people, looking only at the results, might have called it a twisted form of justice.

But the Chloe of today understood perfectly well that it had been evil, plain and simple.

And Chloe was not the only dagger.

There were other children her age trapped in the same circumstances.

There was no friendship between them. Most had seen one another only a handful of times.

Those who tried to devour the darkness would inevitably pay a price. After all, the criminals they hunted were hardly harmless themselves.

And the ones who bore the consequences whenever a mission failed were naturally Chloe and the other children forced to stare directly into the Abyss.

The children barely spoke to one another, but they all understood one thing.

There were fewer of them.

Daggers were only tools. Eventually, every tool broke.

As Chloe gradually left her ignorant childhood behind, the faces of the children she had once been somewhat familiar with disappeared one after another.

Naturally, there were no graves.

The moment they failed a mission, they had already lost their value.

No one mourned them. No memories were preserved. They did not even leave behind codenames.

Gods loved the members of their own Familias, but some evil Gods cared for nothing beyond the pleasure of killing.

The Goddess who ruled this criminal organization was one of them.

Rather than mourning her dead Familia members, she went even further, making death seep into the bodies of everyone who remained.

"If you can drink this poison, I'll give you a generous reward."

Any ordinary person who heard such insanity would have stayed far away and valued their life. But the children of that Familia had never developed normal values in the first place. They had no way to properly distinguish right from wrong.

Chloe had heard words like those from a very young age, and she had swallowed many poisons potent enough to kill.

By sheer luck, Chloe survived.

Perhaps Heaven had taken pity on her.

Or perhaps, just as the rumors later claimed, she truly had been born to become an assassin.

The others were not so fortunate.

When Chloe watched a little girl, barely more than a toddler, drink poison and saw her face twist in agony as blood poured uncontrollably from her body, she understood for the first time just how terrifying death truly was.

The scum who fell beneath her dagger had always disgusted her. Their very presence instinctively inspired fear and revulsion in Chloe, so even when they became cold corpses, she felt nothing.

But the little girl dying before her eyes was different.

They had met several times. The girl was only a few years younger than Chloe, and because she still had not learned how to properly use a dagger, she had remained at the base rather than experiencing battles where life and death hung in the balance.

That "clumsy" little girl would smile like a blooming flower and share delicious candy with Chloe.

That was how a child was supposed to be.

Something precious, something that made the world feel beautiful.

And so, as Chloe helplessly watched that girl being swallowed by the cold embrace of death, something inside her quietly shifted.

It was around this time that the young Chloe found someone she came to admire.

That person was also an assassin in the organization. Like Chloe, she had the ears and tail of a Cat Person.

Chloe's reason for admiring this older woman was very simple.

Whenever she had free time, she looked after the children in the Familia.

She bought them candy, baked treats for them, and played with them whenever she had the chance.

Most of the children in the organization were parentless orphans. Apart from providing the bare minimum of food and subjecting them to dull, grueling training, the Familia Goddess who bestowed their Falna simply left them to fend for themselves.

None of the organization's other members bothered doing anything beyond what was necessary either.

"They're going to die sooner or later anyway. We might as well let them test this new poison I made."

Those scum would grin maliciously as they looked coldly at the children.

Far from offering them salvation, they actively helped death along.

In such a place, the Cat Person woman Chloe admired was like the last remaining ray of light shining into endless darkness.

They did not meet particularly often, but Chloe still found herself basking in that warmth many times.

As the years passed, the influence of that older woman gradually began correcting Chloe's warped sense of right and wrong.

The moment that truly changed her life came when she learned of the woman's death and discovered who she really was.

Death always came without warning.

Even now, Chloe could never forget the hideous smile on the Goddess's face when she told her what had happened.

"I was planning to have you play the innocent child and kill those troublesome people investigating us, but she actually leaked the information herself just to protect you. Honestly, we could have dealt with those people shouting about justice so easily, and now we're the ones stuck with a problem."

"You've already killed so many scumbags anyway. What difference would a few righteous people make? I really don't understand what she was thinking... So, as punishment, I cut her head off~"

"Ah, I almost forgot. She was your mother, wasn't she? I suppose she deliberately took care of all the children because she didn't want you to notice her maternal feelings? Well, that's what happened. What are you going to do?"

The Goddess's demonic laughter echoed in Chloe's ears.

It took Chloe a long time to collect her thoughts before she finally asked her Familia Goddess for permission to leave.

After completing an extremely difficult Quest and signing an agreement to keep the organization's secrets, Chloe left the Familia behind.

She stood in a forest filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers, yet inside, she felt like a barren wasteland.

There was nothing there.

Big Sister.

Her mother.

She had left nothing behind.

Chloe had not even been able to see her one final time.

Only after the sun went down and darkness covered the land did Chloe truly understand that death had taken away the person she admired. It had taken away the gentle woman who had so often cared for her and the other children.

Only then did Chloe finally understand what death was.

Darkness.

Fear.

Disgust.

Salty, bitter tears.

An empty heart.

That was death.

It was the first time Chloe had ever cried.

No one reached out to comfort her. There was only the endless darkness spreading around her without restraint.

After leaving the organization, Chloe's way of life did not change very much.

Assassination was all she knew.

To survive in such a dark world, Chloe could only pick up her dagger and become an assassin feared by all who heard her name.

She imitated the way her Familia Goddess spoke, suppressed the verbal habits common to Cat People, and concealed her true origins.

Chloe had met more scum than she could count. Drawing from that experience, she effortlessly constructed the identity of [Black Cat] and disappeared into the darkness.

As an assassin, Chloe followed two principles.

First, she would never kill children.

Her past had shaped her deeply. In Chloe's eyes, children were treasures of the world, beings who could never be harmed.

Second, anyone she assassinated had to be scum or an extreme individual whose hands were already stained with blood.

Given the state of the world, almost every commission Chloe accepted involved the former.

During Orario's darkest period, she used the identity of [Black Cat] to eliminate many villains from Evilus. Time and again, she also spread false information, toyed with criminals, and profited at their expense.

Of course, Chloe had accepted other kinds of commissions as well.

It had only happened twice, but both occasions dramatically altered the course of her life.

The first time, she set her sights on the Ganesha Familia's [Ankusha].

Calling it a commission was not entirely accurate. It was closer to a personal conflict for Chloe.

After all, as a notorious assassin, Chloe naturally attracted the attention of those who upheld justice.

If she did nothing, they would eventually bring her to justice.

With that thought in mind, Chloe turned her dagger against [Ankusha].

The result was her first taste of defeat.

After enduring tremendous hardship, Chloe barely escaped with her life.

From that point onward, she became far more cautious, and the thought of retirement began to take root.

If she kept living this way, sooner or later she would fall into the Abyss of death as well.

How wonderful would it be if the city finally became peaceful?

If she could save enough money, perhaps she could spend the rest of her days living a lazy, carefree life.

Before long, Chloe's wish came true in a rather twisted fashion.

She received an extraordinarily lucrative commission.

Assassinate [Gale].

The Elf woman had lost her companions and unleashed a terrifying wave of slaughter throughout the city.

Although Chloe readily accepted the commission, she still had doubts about the person she had been ordered to kill.

Was [Gale] really as the client claimed?

Had she lost her mind and begun slaughtering people without mercy?

Was she scum?

Or was she simply another pitiful person tormented by death?

Chloe carefully kept her distance while investigating the Elf woman.

To her surprise, [Gale] seemed to have found somewhere she belonged. Every day, she worked at a tavern called the [Hostess of Fertility].

An ordinary job.

Ordinary relationships.

As Chloe watched her from afar, she even began to feel a trace of envy.

That feeling made Chloe relax her guard for just a moment.

And that was enough for [Gale] to notice her.

The Elf mistook Chloe for a villain plotting something sinister, while Chloe had genuinely accepted a commission to assassinate her. There was naturally no easy way to explain the situation.

And so, the two began a fierce battle.

After [Black Fist] and [Vana Alfi] barged into the conflict, the entire tavern became a chaotic battlefield.

Just as everyone was locked in a desperate struggle, Chloe's client, a merchant association colluding with Evilus, finally bared its fangs.

They had deliberately arranged the entire trap so they could wait until everyone was exhausted, then eliminate every troublesome person in one stroke.

Chloe could hardly believe she had fallen for such an obvious scheme.

Sighing at her own naivety, she joined forces with the others and dealt with the criminals attacking them.

Just as everything finally seemed to be settling down, the tavern's strongest fighter appeared.

The Level 6 Adventurer, [Demi Ymir] Mia, effortlessly brought everyone under control.

She forced Chloe to join the tavern and, citing all the tables, chairs, walls, and other property Chloe had helped destroy, made her work to repay an astronomical debt.

From that day onward, [Black Cat] ceased to exist.

In her place, a tavern girl named Chloe appeared in the Labyrinth City.

…

Because her childhood was so far from normal, Chloe's personality is rather twisted.

Life at the tavern is peaceful enough, but it's still a long way from what she truly wants.

Chloe wants a master.

Not in the ordinary sense of someone above her and someone below, but something far more warped than that, the way a person keeps a cat.

When she wants to be petted, all she has to do is give her tail a swish, and the other person will gently stroke her fluffy ears.

No worrying about how to make a living, no fretting over the weather turning.

If she feels like wearing clothes, he'll drape them over her; if she doesn't, then she can walk around bare and it won't cause a single problem.

That is the sort of lazy, good-for-nothing kitten Chloe wants to be.

And that's only part of what she wants.

Most important of all, Chloe has very particular demands where this master is concerned.

Compared with everything just mentioned, his build and his face matter even more.

Because of what she went through in the past, Chloe sees the existence known as a "boy" through an extremely peculiar filter.

Old enough to have shed a child's greenness, so he can satisfy her dreams.

Young enough that he hasn't lost a child's innocence, still one of the world's treasures.

Chloe is infatuated with beings like that.

Of course, this perverted appetite of hers isn't aimed at any one person. It's a very simple thing, nothing more than a personal taste.

She has never once forced herself on anyone, and she has kept a maiden's purity all along.

Just as some boys grow infatuated with a fictional princess out of a fairy tale, Chloe's desire is much the same sort of thing.

And so, in the instant Bell Cranel appeared, Chloe fell hopelessly in love with him.

From his face to his frame, from his personality to his dreams, Bell satisfied every single one of Chloe's desires perfectly.

If she could just become one of the girls in his harem, that gentle, upright boy would surely bring a smile of pure happiness to Chloe's face.

So Chloe reined in her perverted urges and, in her own way, slowly narrowed the distance between them.

Given enough time, the two of them would certainly have turned that mutual fondness into something real, easing naturally into a romance.

But then came the accident.

Chloe received a secret letter from the Familia Goddess.

She had gotten her claws into the god Njord's dirty secrets and used them to strong-arm him into updating her Status.

Chloe had thought she would never again be tangled up with the criminal organization she was born into. Never once did she imagine that all-too-familiar handwriting would appear in front of her.

"You've grown to a surprising degree, haven't you? Actually, your mother's death was a lie~ If you'd like to see her, come to Melen and help me take care of a troublesome little matter~"

It was that goddess's handwriting, that goddess's tone, without question. And tucked into the letter were several long black hairs.

Her mother's scent.

Chloe could never mistake that scent.

Even if nothing but the abyss of death waited ahead, Chloe had to go.

Luckily, the very day the letter arrived was the day Bell Cranel came back from his expedition.

Chloe had time to settle her twisted little love affair.

She couldn't confess and become the boy's lover. For one thing, if she left and never came back, it would leave Bell, Syr, and the others with a pain that would never fade. For another, there was every chance she'd drag the boy into the whole affair.

The situation was far too urgent for hesitation, so all she could do was follow her heart and say goodbye to Bell in her own way.

The temperature was just right, and Chloe's distinctive scent hung in the quiet room.

The velvet blanket was soft against skin, and that faint fragrance coaxed out desire in its purest form.

A pair of crimson eyes reflected Chloe's figure.

The faintly black nightwear, the thick black underwear, the black tail, the black ears, all of it set off against pale skin. Every part of Chloe answered to the name "Black Cat."

But the one in that room was no assassin. She was nothing more than an ordinary catgirl.

Chloe swished her tail and twitched her ears, as though she meant to leave her scent on everything.

She had brushed shoulders with death more times than she could count since she was small, and all Chloe wanted was to be a happy little cat.

To curl up in the warmth and forget the pain of dying. To drown in happiness and forget every unpleasant thing that had ever happened.

So when she finally touched that warmth, it was as if she'd tasted happiness itself, and she grew a great deal bolder.

Chloe remembered how it had felt to swallow poison for the very first time.

The taste was nothing at all like happiness, but in one respect the two were very much alike.

Her body went faintly numb.

Back then, the venom soaking through her whole body had been enough to carry Chloe to the brink of death, and to let her feel what it meant to be alive.

Poison and medicine work hand in hand.

What was seeping into Chloe's heart now was precious medicine for a sick mind.

She savored that fine remedy gladly, letting it wash the past out of her.

And this was only the beginning.

Chloe had been raised in an assassins' organization, and her mind was warped beyond repair. Even knowing that what she was about to do would cause trouble for Syr and the others, she would not stop.

She had made up her mind long ago, back when she drove the dagger in: whatever came afterward, right now, this time belonged to Chloe alone.

"Nya..."

Chloe let slip a murmur, the kind she almost never made.

There had been a time when Chloe felt gloomy about her figure.

She'd been convinced she must be cursed, and that was why she never grew.

Oddly enough, though, after she joined the Hostess of Fertility, perhaps because she'd finally set down the burden she'd carried so long, her figure began to fill out and soften.

She was nowhere near Syr's level, but next to Ryuu, Chloe fairly overflowed with feminine softness.

She was a pervert.

Chloe knew that better than anyone.

Ever since she met the boy, she'd often taken out a portrait of Bell, imagined his face, slipped out from under Syr's watchful eyes, and hidden herself away alone in this warm little den.

Yet no matter how twisted Chloe's desires were, she had never once let anyone else touch her body.

For that, her mother deserved all the credit.

She had come to Chloe as a big sister, and she had given a girl raised in a den of villains a proper understanding of love.

Full of admiration and a great many thoughts of her own, Chloe had lived by the older woman's advice.

But restraints, in the end, always meet the day they break.

"Fu-nya-nya?! Nya..."

Chloe had fantasized more times than she could count about when that sick heart of hers would finally get what it wanted.

She'd made her predictions, she'd even fished around a bit for Syr's opinions on the matter, but in the moment she actually laid eyes on it, Chloe did panic, just a little.

It lasted only the briefest instant. Chloe's sense of shame ran on completely different values from everyone else's.

Chloe put on a show of composure and took charge.

As a Level 4 Assassin, she had a whole set of Development Abilities: [Abnormal Resistance], [Escape], [Mixing].

First she bolted backward, quick as a startled kitten.

Then, tail swaying, she crept in again and returned to where she'd been of her own accord.

It wasn't fear. Quite the opposite, the flame in her chest was blazing.

In that instant, Chloe thought back to mixing antidotes. For a top-class assassin, handling poison skillfully was impossible without the ability to prepare its cure.

Some ingredients swell during preparation.

Others contract.

A potion always demands effort after effort, the finished product born out of trial after trial.

Back when she was still unpracticed, she'd been like a helpless, hopeless kitten, landing herself in trouble through sheer clumsiness.

Fortune smiled on her, though. When it came to Mixing, Chloe was nothing short of a genius.

Once she'd gotten the hang of it, Chloe could even swish her tail and use that carefully groomed black fur of hers to lend the Mixing a rather different flavor.

The finished product was a touch bitter, but to Chloe it was sweet beyond words.

And naturally, with countless poisons in this world, the mixing of antidotes was never going to end after a single attempt.

...

When the dawn light climbed over the walls of Orario, Bell opened his eyes.

Sitting on the table were potions to restore energy and stamina, along with a letter.

"I feel bad for Syr and the others, but I really had a wonderful time nya~"

"I'll be leaving Orario for a while. Please don't come looking for me. I'll definitely come back safe, and then we can do those nighttime things together again nya~"

"I don't know how Bell managed to hold out against the poison, but you shouldn't get careless in a situation like that next time, nya."

"The Ganesha Familia's [Ankusha] is the real deal in a fight, nya. If you ever end up clashing with her, your best move is to run the moment it starts, nya."

"Anya is an idiot, so just agree with whatever she says and she's easy to handle, nya."

"Lunoire's fists are terrifying, so whatever you do, don't back her into a corner, nya. Same goes for Mama Mia. She's probably stronger than you imagine, nya."

"The god Njord seems to be smuggling something he wouldn't want anyone to see. If you ever get into trouble, you can hold that over him, nya."

"And also..."

There were a few damp marks on the paper, tears that must have slipped out and landed there while Chloe was writing.

She had gone out of her way to leave behind every piece of information she had. She must have known perfectly well that this trip of hers would be anything but smooth sailing.

Bell didn't chase after her right away.

He couldn't trample on Chloe's resolve. Dragging her back by force would only drop them both into an abyss of suffering.

Chloe didn't want Bell caught up in this. She had closed the distance between them last night precisely so their relationship would stop at desire and go no further.

If she came back, she'd give him the confession she owed him. If she didn't, then at least the boy wouldn't have to grieve for a lover who'd gone.

That said, Bell had no intention of leaving it there.

Even if Chloe kept her mouth shut, someone among them, from Syr to Lunoire, was bound to know what she'd gotten herself into. On top of that, Bell had already taken out his insurance last night, so losing her trail was not a concern.

He picked up the envelope and looked at the last two lines.

"Yesterday was so much fun nya~"

"As a keepsake, I'm giving you my black panties, nya~"

When the envelope came open, something soft and light dropped into Bell's hand.

He looked down at the lace-trimmed undergarment and let out a helpless laugh.

This...

What was he supposed to do with this...