Divine Contract

Chapter 9 - The Younger Twin

The next morning, we packed up camp just before sunrise, and travelled the rest of the way to­ Lenovo. This was our last stop before Astropia. According to Fortuna, her little sister, and her Contractor, were already in this town, so Highlander and Fortuna wanted to meet up with them before making the departure.

Therefore, the plan for the day was; Step 1 - Purchase supplies, Step 2 - Meet up with Fortuna’s sister and her Contractor, Step 3 - Travel to Astropia. It seemed like a simple enough plan, but after the events of the last few days, I was expecting something to happen which would mess with at least one part of our “simple” plan.

We made our way through the streets, stopping at stalls to buy supplies along the way, however, when we reached an area that seemed to sell clothes and accessories, the girls got distracted. While I wanted to get our necessary supplies quickly so that we could meet up with the other two and leave, the three girls wanted to take their time browsing the stalls.

Since we couldn’t reach a unanimous decision, we instead agreed to split up and meet at the northern entrance in two hours. I had suggested one hour, but they insisted on having more time.

I left them to do what they wanted and went to collect the rest of the necessary supplies. This took only fifteen minutes, meaning that I had a lot of time to kill before the agreed meeting time. I decided to wander through the back alleyways, because there are often some rather interesting things to find or buy, not usually anything legal, though. Not that it mattered to me.

I was having no luck on my search, and was about to give up and head to the meet-up spot to wait, but I suddenly heard some voices coming from around the corner. It sounded like a group of guys, but I couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying. My curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to take a closer look.

When I peeked around the corner, I saw a sight that wasn’t uncommon in this type of place.  Four guys were surrounding a single girl. The only surprising part was that the girl looked almost exactly like Fortuna. The only differences that I could see were her clothes, the side that her hair was tied up (Fortuna wore hers on the left, this girl wore hers on the right), and the fact that this girl seemed extremely timid and scared. This girl must have been the sister, Mia.

Normally, I would pretend I didn’t see this sort of thing. No need to endanger myself to save someone I don’t personally know, right? However, I felt that I should do something this time.

“I’m getting soft,” I sighed mentally, before stepping out from behind the corner.

“Mia, there you are!” I called as I ran up to the group. They all turned to look at me. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Lia warned you not to get separated from the group.”

Fortuna told me that she showed Mia a mental image of me, so she should know who I am, but I decided to mention her sister’s name, just to be sure.

“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered softly, managing to get away from the group and run towards me. When she reached me, she hid behind my back, away from the group of guys. “I-I got lost in the crowd.”

I smiled and looked at the group of guys. “Were you guys trying to help her?” I feigned ignorance as to their true intentions, in order to avoid any trouble. “That’s right!” one of the shouted, louder than necessary. “We saw she was lost an’ decided to try helpin’ ‘er!” His speech was rather rough, but he didn’t have a foreign accent, so I assumed that he didn’t have much of an education, as was standard in this sort of area.

“I see. Thank you for that,” I responded. “Here, take this as thanks.” I tossed a small bag of Linux to the guy who had been speaking. He caught the bag and opened it, and then he showed the contents to his companions. Grins spread on all of their faces.

The one I gave the money to turned back towards me, but before he could open his mouth, I had closed the gap between us and was holding my knife to his throat.

“You have two options,” I started. “Option one; you take the money I gave you and leave. Option two; all four of you die by my blade. The choice is yours.” I was completely serious, and perhaps they could tell, which is why they slowly backed away a few paces before turning and sprinting away.

“Cowards who only pick a fight they know they can’t lose,” I muttered, sheathing my knife. Suddenly, I felt a small tug on my cloak. I looked back to see Mia holding onto me.

“Thank you for helping me...” she said in a small voice. I wasn’t used to people thanking me so sincerely, so I was slightly taken aback.

As I was trying to think of something to say in response, I noticed that she was trembling. She must have been terrified by what just happened. I didn’t think that anything I said would help, so instead I gently patted her on the head. She slightly jumped at that, and timidly looked up at me.

I smiled gently at her, “You’re safe now. There’s no need to be scared.” Her eyes widened in response, before she put on a happy smile and nodded.

“Oh,” I exclaimed, suddenly realising that I hadn’t introduced myself yet. “Fort- Lia has apparently already told you this, but my name is Ross Knight. I’m Sylvia Highlander’s Contractor.” I made a mental note to start referring to the older twin by her given name, since I would be dealing with both of them for the time being.

“I’m Mia Fortuna, Lia’s younger twin sister.” Mia responded, seemingly less nervous than before.

“By the way, why are you here on your own? Did you get separated from your Contractor?”

“Y-yes,” Mia blushed in embarrassment. “Like I said before, I got lost in the crowd. I was looking for Lisa, but found those men instead. I was so scared before you showed up.”

“So her Contractors name is Lisa,” I took a mental note of that. “It’s unlikely that she’s in the back alleyways, unless she’s here looking for you, so we should head back to the busier streets for now. If we can’t find her, we’ll head to the meet-up spot, and discuss what to do with the others.”

“Ah!” Mia exclaimed. “I didn’t notice before, but Lia and Sylvie have been trying to contact me.” She then fell silent, and I assumed that she must be speaking with the other Angels telepathically. A few minutes passed before she spoke again.

“They were worried about me, because they found Lisa and she told them that we got separated.” Mia informed me. “I told them not to worry, because you’re with me, and we’ll meet up at the designated time.”

“Alright then,” I responded. “Why don’t we go have a look around at some stalls, then?”

“Really?” Mia asked with a bright smile on her face.

“Yeah, let’s go,” I started walking. Mia held onto my arm as we walked, presumably so that she wouldn’t get separated again. “This might be what it’s like having a little sister.” I thought. I remember wanting a sibling when I was younger, so this made me a bit happy.