19: Forced Contract
Nina’s soul was singing in hostility. It was entirely different from how she first appeared to him when she forced that contract onto him. A different kind of killing intent meant only for pieces of scum.
For once, Aidan actually feared for his life. It was definitely the sort of intent that aimed to take his life if he said the wrong thing at this time.
“Hold on, before you get any funny ideas–I wanted to talk to you about her. She caught me.”
Nina raised a brow at that. “Explain.”
Now he sensed a different kind of annoyance from her soul that still made his hair rise on end. Still, it was better than the disgusting insinuation she had in mind, so he explained what happened without preamble.
Nina definitely looked displeased, but she kept silent as Aidan continued, which finally brought up his question.
“So I know this looks bad, but maybe we can make something out of this. What do you think? Can’t we just make her join us?”
It wasn’t a better option by a long shot, but it was the only hope Haley had to survive this. She looked at the two, staying completely silent as the conversation dragged on about her life right in front of her eyes.
Nina stayed silent on the matter, then glanced over at Haley and gave her a long stare. Aidan was certain she was using her talent to read through her status page, which made him feel guilty considering it was like she was using an x-ray on this poor girl without consent.
But her eyes shone with a brilliant look that caused Aidan to feel a sense of relief. Her soul sang in delight, her lips actually twisting into a gleeful smile.
“My, my, you really are lucky,” Nina said, her tone sounding loftier than Aidan expected. Was she really that pleased by what she saw?
“W-What?” Haley, for once, spoke up. “What are you talking about?”
“Let me guess, you were keeping it a secret from everybody, weren’t you? If I’d known there was someone like you around here, I would have paid quite a lot of money to find you and take you for myself.”
Aidan paused at that. Was it really that incredible? He turned to Haley, raising a single brow at her. “What does she have that got you so interested?”
“She has a talent,” Nina revealed. “And a rather interesting one at that.”
“W-What?!” Haley balked. “How did you know?! Nobody should have–”
“It’s my talent, sweetie,” Nina cooed, walking over to the frightened girl, a true predator with eyes that shone with clear desire. Her soul was nearly purring at the sight of the girl. “I’m able to pierce through anything and see everyone’s status page, allowing me to see through everything.”
“E-Everything…?”
“Everything.”
Nina placed a hand on top of Haley’s shoulder, causing the girl to flinch under her touch. Her other hand lifted up Haley’s chin, making their eyes meet each other.
“Ooh… and you’re not such a bad looker either. I can already see a lot of good things from this.”
Haley snapped away from Nina’s grasp, her face blushing slightly but looking just as terrified at the words. Nina ignored her little act of rebellion, turning back to Aidan with an eased expression.
“Good job, Aidan. Looks like you get to keep your freedom yet. You just found me a treasure that nothing else can compare to.”
Aidan knew that she was talking about the talent that Haley supposedly had. Like Nina said, people with talents were hard to come by, and those that did often have incredible abilities that no amount of training or learning can give them.
“What is her talent?” Aidan wanted to ask, his curiosity piqued.
“An incredible talent, something that I didn’t think was possible,” Nina continued, which only aggravated Aidan the more she kept dancing around the point. “It allows her to spot treasures of unknown quality, capable of even piercing through illusions and hidden veils. She’s a walking treasure-seeker in the flesh.”
Aidan’s eyes grew wide at that. He learned that treasures weren’t just the classic wooden chest carrying gold and gems inside, but magical artifacts that contained incredible power and diversifying effects.
One example was a chalice that constantly refilled itself with pure water without ever running out. Another one was a quill that could draw anything. and it would come to life, though at some cost to the user, he reckoned. There were many different kinds of treasure that were as varied as the number of people on the continent.
So having a particular item or perhaps spell or skill that allowed you to find those treasures was well sought after by many enthusiasts and explorers. He even read some history books where those people with such abilities were granted high prestige by actual royalty for their treasure-seeking powers.
He could understand from the look on Haley’s face that the opposite could hold true. Some could easily force the user who had treasure-seeking powers under their employ, forcing them to find valuable treasures or their life would be on the line. Did he just seal this girl’s fate by introducing her to Nina?
…It’s either her or me.
His thoughts put the matter to a close. It was too late. But at the very least, he could rectify a little by asking Nina another question.
“Then that means she’s off the hook, right? No need to kill her?” he asked, prompting Nina to nod.
“Of course. It would be foolish to kill her. Now…”
Nina approached the girl again, only for her to step back in fright. Nina only smiled as she pointed to the table beside them, Aidan knowing full well how this was going to play out.
“You have two choices, Haley Housten,” Nina spoke outright, freezing Haley into place. “Either you sign a contract, or you’ll be going through a very bad time. Like Aidan said, your life could’ve been snuffed out in an instant. I’m sure you know how the last two who found him turned out.”
Haley’s eyes welled with tears, her shoulders trembling at the threat. But she also knew that signing any contract would put her life into a chokehold.
Tears flowed freely as she slowly nodded, then followed Nina to the table. Like before, Nina pulled out a piece of paper and slid it across the table to Haley.
Aidan’s heart wept for Haley. As the young girl’s pen hit the parchment, he sensed the magic from the contract slither up and around Haley, particularly around her neck and chest. It constricted her, like a snake ensnaring its prey, but the girl only showed pure despair rather than any anguish.
Soon the contract’s magic took hold, the light show from before shimmering in front of him. He supposed, out of everyone in the room, only Aidan could tell about the malicious clutches the binding contract shot out at her. It bound the soul, trapping her under a system-enhanced contract, forcing her to follow Nina’s words with no hint of rebelling back.
Only Aidan could break the contract like that, and get away scot-free, though he had to pretend he was still under Nina’s thumb. His chest ached at seeing another person getting locked down, unable to free herself. Worse, caused by his hand.
“The contract is sealed,” Nina said. “Welcome to the Raining Treasures, Haley. I’ll be looking forward to you working here from now on.”
Haley continued to cry, her tears making a tiny pool on her lap. She forced herself to stay under control, her hands frantically wiping the tears out of her eyes.
“B-But what about my brother? He’ll find out that I’m not at our house…”
“I’m sure you can make up something along the way. Say you made a bad bet and now you’re forced to work here to pay it off. A simple story that anyone can believe in.”
Haley certainly didn’t like it, her head lowered as she could not bear to look at her employer, or rather, her master’s face any longer.
Nina only looked pleased as a peach as she stood up from her chair, dragging the paper and putting it back into her bag hidden within the cloak.
“Now let’s not forget the reason why I’m here, Aidan,” Nina said, now turning to her next servant. Aidan only frowned at her, but she ignored his look and continued. “Do you have it?”
“Yeah,” Aidan said, digging into his pocket and pulling out the quartz gem he’d takenfrom the body. “It’s right here.”
Nina picked up the quartz and marveled at it, pulling it up to the light on the ceiling and scanning it further. He wondered whether her talent could also pierce through an item’s description further than his own scan did the longer she stared at it.
“I see… this would definitely get them riled up if they lost something like this,” Nina said, mostly to herself as she put away the quartz gem into her storage pack. “You did good work, Aidan. Not only did you get the gem, but you also found yourself a nice little assistant to help you out in the shop. Make sure to use her well to get some extra revenue for the shop, alright?”
“Does that mean she’s staying here?” Aidan asked.
“For now,” Nina said, then shot a glare at Aidan. “This doesn’t mean you have control over her, however. Just so you know, I can tell everything that’s going on here.”
“I’ll tell you just as I told her,” Aidan groused. “I’m not interested in little kids.”
“Good.” Nina smirked. “I’ll hold you to that. You aven’t disappointed me yet, so don’t start now.”Aidan scoffed but was downright ignored by Nina as they kept talking about the store’s business for a while before she eventually left, leaving both the tired Aidan and the sobbing Haley to themselves.
Great, now I’m dealing with this.
He knew he could’ve avoided all of this if he just killed her. Perhaps that might have been a better fate for Haley rather than getting signed into a one-sided contract with no way out.
He looked over at her, who was now kneeling on the floor with her hands covering her face. She truly looked like her entire world had fallen apart as she kept muttering to herself.
“Why…? Why her of all people…? Why did it have to be the Key Slinger out of all of them?”
He heard her say, getting Aidan to pause.
“You know her nickname?”
“Who doesn’t know who Nina Alcatrox is?!” Haley snapped, looking back at her captor with rage in her eyes. “She’s known for being absolutely ruthless, bringing everyone that got in her way down to the pits of hell! My brother kept warning me to make sure to never get in her sight even if my life depended on it. And now… ugh…”
Haley slapped her hands on top of her face once more as she cried out, tears constantly flowing. He felt bad for her, but he was starting to get annoyed at how she was outright sobbing. He didn’t like this any better than she did.
Hell, he was in a pretty dicey situation himself, his fate completely left up to chance while Haley only had to find treasures for Nina. He didn’t know how bad treasure-finding could be, but that was just how the world worked.
“Alright, enough of that,” Aidan said, steeling his heart for his next words. “No amount of crying is going to change anything. The best thing to do now is to get some rest for tonight. Tomorrow, you’ll be helping me manage the shop.”
He sounded cruel, and he was, but Haley did exactly that as she stopped her crying. She did send a nasty glare to Aidan before sniffing loudly and standing up from where she was.
Aidan introduced her to the rooms she would have to get accustomed to visiting, as well as to the extra room on the second floor where she would be staying. He told her that she’d be sleeping here from now on, so once tomorrow came, she’ll have to go back to where she used to live to get her belongings.
Haley only stayed silent throughout all this, not bothering to say a word. Aidan didn’t bother making up pleasant conversation, as he was certain it would only make her feel even shittier than now.
Thankfully, the night ended without any more awkwardness once Aidan helped fill Haley’s belly with some food from the fridge. The two were famished after their skirmish back in the forest, and the look on Haley’s face eased up a little from the constant despairing face she had. Once she was sent to her room to sleep, Aidan stayed in the kitchen and closed his eyes.
Even now, he could feel Haley’s soul riddled with sadness, a mournful tone that kept nagging at the back of his mind. It was like someone kept playing a depressing song in the middle of an empty bar with a glass of alcohol in hand to make it worse on purpose.
He wished he had some alcohol on hand right now, but he made do with a pitcher of water instead. He really wished he could erase this night from his memory with his Vanish spell right about now.