Charlotte Gray.

"Know a little?" Ethan nodded to himself.

"Charlotte Gray, female, 20 years old. Has a younger sister named Mirabel…

If you kill me, your sister won't be cured."

"Who are you?" Charlotte trembled in disbelief. "How do you know about me?"

"Oh… I know quite a bit about you. Really, just a tiny little bit."

Charlotte didn't speak for a while. She was shocked, but she regained her composure in a few minutes—seconds even.

"I don't know how you found out, but killing you would prevent the secret from leaking."

"What about your lil' sis?"

"I'll find her cure." Charlotte's gaze remained resolute.

Ethan tilted his head and chuckled.

"Your lil' sis will die in a week…

Her disease has reached the final stage. Perhaps I should say her cancer is now terminal. Of course, you can't possibly know what cancer means… no one here does. I'm the only one who knows what she has—and the cure."

Charlotte frowned.

She could totally ignore Ethan and kill him. However, the Ethan in the documents she received was different from the one standing before her. Sure, their appearances were the same, but she could feel it in her bones—this was a different person.

She had one guess for this: Ethan had been pretending. He had information an assassin like her—with numerous connections—couldn't even get. And he managed to deceive his own family for years.

How old is he again? Fifteen? Charlotte calmed herself as she thought it through.

He has the cure. His bargain must be to spare him. If he heals her, I'll quit being an assassin. That way, the Hargrave family would have no one to blame if Ethan Hargrave is found alive… and of course, there's a chance he's lying.

She studied him for a moment.

I don't think he's lying.

"What do you want in exchange for curing my sister? And aren't you afraid I'll kill you and pull the info from your soul?"

"Oh… your lil' sis can be saved. But we'll need an ingredient from the Rat Forest…

Also, soul extraction won't work. Long ago, some god tried to do something like that, but I bit him to death using my soul teeth. Then I escaped."

Charlotte held her head as a headache started forming.

"What's your condition?"

"Oh yeah, it's quite simple—follow me to the Rat Forest and protect me on my personal expedition. Oh, it's a win-win for you anyway. Of course, it'll require a mana contract. After the expedition, you can kill me."

"That's your only condition?" Charlotte frowned. Isn't it too simple? And he's not even asking to live… does he think I'll spare him out of gratitude? I guess he really is a teenager.

After a while, since they both agreed, a contract made of mana appeared between them in midair. It floated quietly, containing Ethan's conditions for helping Charlotte.

Charlotte looked at it for a moment, then added her own clause: "Ethan cannot do anything that would harm me during the protection period."

"Are you okay with the contract?" Ethan asked suddenly, smiling with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

Already wary of Ethan, Charlotte reread the contract, searching for loopholes. Finding none, she nodded.

Both Ethan and Charlotte dripped their blood on the contract to seal the agreement.

When their blood touched the floating contract, it turned into two golden lights and entered their bodies.

Ethan smiled brightly…

Charlotte had an ominous feeling.

Trying to calm her uneasy mind, she recalled her daggers.

"Dress up. Let's leave… who knows, I might let you live if you really cure my sister."

"I can walk, remember? Someone decided to break my arms and legs like a psychopath…

I get it—it's your thing, disabling your targets before killing them. I'm quite grateful for that habit, actually."

Charlotte chuckled before starting to bandage Ethan's wounds. She then reached into her pocket and handed him a low-quality healing potion.

Ethan looked at the potion she held.

Charlotte misunderstood his silence and spoke. "I can't kill you now. Think I poisoned it?"

"Guess you're the cautious type, carrying healing potions… some assassins don't, which tells me something—you're scared of death."

"Uh?"

"I thought assassins were supposed to kill themselves when injured."

"Are you stupid?"

"No, I'm pretty smart for my age. Probably because I'm old—"

"Shut up. Since you're fixed, get up and help me get the ingredients I need."

Ethan stood from the bed.

"Carry me to the Rat Forest."

"I'm an assassin, not a horse."

"Time's ticking. I'd walk myself if someone didn't break my leg first."

"It's healed."

"Sure, my flesh is healed, but what about the muscles? You don't actually think a low-rank potion fixed all that instantly, do you? You seem kinda dumb compared to the Charlotte Gray I knew."

"Stop talking."

"The faster we get to the Rat Forest, the faster your lil' sis gets cured. And the plant we need? It'll wither soon."

Charlotte stopped arguing.

She swung Ethan over her shoulder, jumped into the air, and disappeared into the night—heading straight for the Rat Forest.

The Rat Forest was exactly as the name implied—filled with rats. Mutated ones, even. Individually, they were low-threat, but in groups, they were a nightmare.

But that wasn't the strangest thing.

The forest was shaped like a giant rat, which made some speculate it was formed from the body of one.

Normally, Awakened and hunters avoided it. Navigating the forest without alerting the rats was nearly impossible, and killing one only made things worse.

Charlotte thought about all this and started to wonder if she'd made a mistake. But back then, the temptation of saving her sister had blinded her to reason.

"Stop at the market before the Rat Forest. I'm hungry…"

"No. I'll buy you food after we cure my sister."

"When I'm hungry, I tend to forget things."

Ethan didn't say more.

Even a fool could tell that was a threat.

If I don't feed him, he might "forget" an important ingredient. That might worsen Mirabel's condition—or kill her. The better option is to feed him. Since I'll kill him later, I might as well sell his corpse to the Corpse Sect. The body of a noble fetches a good price. And since he's a Hargrave, I might get even more.

Charlotte smiled.

She stopped at the market and bought whatever Ethan pointed at, spending without hesitation.

After all, she saw both hope and profit.