"...[Contract]..."
Luminous swallowed a low murmur the moment she heard the word [Contract].
To her, it was practically no different from making a [Contract] with Guy Crimson himself, so there was no way she would not feel at least a little skeptical.
With Guy's overwhelming power, a [Contract] like this was something he could break whenever he pleased.
Even so, if someone asked whether she would refuse it, the answer was no.
It was far safer to bet on the possibility that Guy would keep the [Contract] than to openly turn hostile toward him right away.
"...Very well. Since I am already one of the [Ten Great Demon Lords], I can at least accept this much as a way of solidifying our alliance."
With a sigh, Luminous Valentine gave her answer.
Then she cast a sidelong glance at Sylvia beside her before speaking again.
"However, I have one condition."
"...A condition? What condition?"
When I asked what she meant, Luminous's mismatched eyes began to glow faintly in response to her magicules.
Red light and blue light.
Seeing those opposing colors shine at once gave me a bad feeling, and that bad feeling was... more or less right on the mark.
"Before I state that condition, there is something I want to ask. Roy, who attended Walpurgis, told me that you are meant to play the role of a [Hero] infiltrating the side of humanity... is that true?"
"......"
A question so important I almost doubted my own ears came flying out of Luminous's mouth.
Sylvia, one of humanity's greatest military assets, was sitting right next to her, and yet she had just blurted out what happened at Walpurgis.
The identity I was supposed to use for the next three hundred years was about to be destroyed before it had even properly begun.
"Oh? A [Hero], you say~?"
See? She was already reacting to the word [Hero].
If I did not explain this properly, she was obviously going to keep hounding me.
"...What exactly are you thinking? It was an unspoken rule that what happened at Walpurgis should not be brought up in front of outsiders whenever possible, wasn't it?"
"Hmph. Judging by that reaction, I take it it is true."
I practically challenged Luminous over it, but she only grew bolder.
When I fell silent for a moment, dumbfounded by her attitude, Luminous bared her fangs in the distinctive smile of a [Vampires].
"Heh. If you are worried Sylvia might reveal your identity to the other human powers, then you are worrying for nothing. She has kept even my true nature secret for thousands of years. There is no reason she would expose someone who can at least be used as a [Hero], even temporarily."
There was a reason she was an ancient Demon Lord. Luminous carried herself with the confidence of someone treating all this like a mere game, which made her even more troublesome to deal with than Ermesia or Leon.
On top of that, what she said was perfectly reasonable.
Considering that Sylvia was unexpectedly cold-headed, she would probably see more benefit in using me as a [Hero] for as long as possible and only revealing my identity later, once I could no longer serve that purpose.
So while I did not like it, I was starting to grudgingly accept it when—
"That said, it seems Sylvia came here because of you in the first place."
—another bombshell dropped.
"......"
At the exact moment Luminous finished speaking, Ria and Chronoa both turned to look at me.
Their gazes felt downright threatening, full of jealousy that seemed to say, "You again?"
...Was she seriously trying to make my life miserable on purpose? Right as that thought crossed my mind, Sylvia cut in again.
"That's right. I was looking for the [Hero] who attended Walpurgis~"
Unlike Luminous, whose expression I could at least read somewhat, Sylvia's face was impossible to read at all. She was not just difficult to handle—she was the kind of person I did not want to deal with in the first place.
If you judged purely by political intelligence and left combat sense out of it, she might even surpass Guy...
"But something's strange~ What I sensed was definitely a [Hero] with a [Hero's Egg], but you're a [Demon], aren't you~?"
...Seriously, one mountain after another.
The fact that I possessed a [Hero's Egg] was one of those secrets that absolutely could not be exposed, right up there with my identity. And now Sylvia was about to drag that into the open too.
"So what kind of trick did you use, I wonder? I'd just love for you to tell me too~"
"........."
I desperately turned my thoughts over, trying to come up with something she might believe, but not a single useful answer came to mind.
To begin with, the very idea of a monster possessing a [Hero's Egg] was absurd, so there was no way any proper excuse existed—
"I helped him."
"......Chronoa?"
Chronoa, who had been sitting beside me, answered Sylvia's question in my place.
"Hmm~? You helped him?"
At that unexpected reply, Sylvia turned to look at Chronoa. She was trying to gauge her true intent.
But Chronoa had apparently already switched over to Hinata's personality, because her face wore the expression of someone asking why this even needed to be explained.
"That's right. On the day I sealed [Storm Dragon], I passed a small part of the [Hero's Egg] I carry over to him."
"...A part of it?"
Sylvia muttered the words as if she could not believe what Chronoa—no, Hinata—had just said.
However, Hinata's poker face was on a level that could rival even Ria or Noir.
"There's no need to be so surprised. Once a [Hero's Egg] has fully awakened, it becomes possible for its owner to transfer it to someone else by command. In fact, if you read certain ancient texts, there are quite a few passages about inheriting a [Hero's Egg]."
It sounded like a lie, but everything Hinata said was true.
A transfer of a [Hero's Egg] was something the future Hinata had actually accomplished once before, and those ancient texts about inheriting a [Hero's Egg] were distorted retellings of the legend of the First Hero.
In other words, it was a perfect bluff.
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