The Contract Witch

"So what brings you here?" Dante faced towards Abigail while offering her a hand to help her up.

Abigail clamped her hand with his, allowing him to lift her up as she asked. "Do you remember the last thing I said before we all went our separate ways?"

"Yeah, you said something about searching for your contracted partner,"

" That's right," She nodded.

"But what I didn't say to you guys back then was that the partner I was looking for was actually a demon," She placed both of her hands behind her back as she walked towards the ocean.

"And I'm the one you're looking for?" He asked, a little confused as he trailed right behind her.

"Oh?! She was a little bit surprised to hear him say that. "It seems you already know you're a demon," Abigail squatted down to remove her shoes.

Dante noticed what she was doing and he did the same as well. "So you knew all along?" He asked, noticing how she walked straight into the ocean.

"The truth is, I had my doubts because back then you weren't really a demon, even now you are still not a demon. True you have demonic blood in you but you're still not a demon....yet," She replied while walking on water like a fishing spider.

"....." Dante listened and followed as well.

"From the first time I met you, I noticed a bit of demonic blood in you but it was too weak to really be noticed by any other witch such as myself,"

With Abigail being a witch, she had the ability to sense demons and spirits

"Then why didn't you say anything to me,"

"*Shrugs* At first, I thought you had a dark past you didn't want anyone to know about but then it occurred to me that you really didn't know you had demon blood in you,"

Now both of them had reached a certain distance away from where they started. She hunkered down and asked. "Hey D?"

" Hmm?"

" Do you recall the time you went missing for days just a few months before we conquered the demon Lord?" Abigail placed her hands into the water.

"Yeah?" Dante didn't know why she suddenly asked this question and his response seemed more like a question.

"You really do not recall what happened to you during those days you went missing?"

Dante shook his head. Now a fish willingly swam towards Abigail's hands. She grabs the fish and stands up.

"Actually, back then was when I noticed something out of the ordinary in you,"

"....."

With the abundance of air and the absence of water surrounding the fish, it began to gasp.

"There was something new in you," She paused for a few seconds and continued.

"Something sinister that had completely replaced the demonic blood I first noticed in you," She tossed the fish that was still gasping as it couldn't breathe anymore, up to the sky.

"Was that why you were hell-bent on searching through my memories at the time?"

"Yeah, but I didn't seem to find anything back then." Abigail replied. A dolphin swam from underneath the ocean and leaped over both of their heads to capture the fish.

"It's possible the person who did this to you wiped your memories at the time," The dolphin caught the fish.

*Splash*

A splash was heard as the dolphin dived back into the water.

"Honestly I can't believe you right now. You knew all these things and yet you still kept quiet about it," Dante shook his head. This was a typical characteristics of Abigail he was really familiar with.

"At the time, I asked Landon to keep a close eye on you since he was the one you were really close with," She resumed walking on the water.

"Geez, I never asked you to treat me like a child,"

"....." Abigail paused reluctantly, she didn't expect those words to be what he would utter out.

" It's even more embarrassing when the one doing it was actually the youngest among the group," Abigail paused after hearing his words. She knew she was the youngest among the heroes that formed a party but still she tried her best to act more matured than her age so as not to be regarded as a kid by the others.

Abigail clenched her fist tightly, trying desperately to hold herself back from knocking his head.

*Sighs*

Eventually she exhaled a bit to calm her nerves and she asked.

"But there is one more thing that's been bothering me for a while now." She asked after sensing something unusual about him.

" Hmm? What's that?"

She turned towards him and asked. "Are you cursed?"

"Oh! You mean this thing?" He showed her his wrist and released a bit of mana towards his wrist, enabling the golden bracelet which acted as cuffs to reveal itself.

"The Ring of Voluminus?!" Abigail was shocked to see the ring in Dante's finger and the cuffs across his wrist . She held his hands quickly to get a closer look at it.

It all felt surreal towards Abigail right now.

A huge whale came from underneath the water, enabling both of their feet to nestle safely on the whale.

"Mmm," He replied by shrugging as though it was nothing. In fact Dante had a huge smile on his face. He was really weird.

Abigail looked up and she saw his expression. "You're smiling?" He shrugged in response, his smile still plastered across his face.

"...." Abigail couldn't believe what she was seeing. If this was a dream, she would have described it as utter nonsense but right now Dante had the ring in hand and he was vividly cursed and yet he appears to seem unperturbed by the situation.

He could see how worried she was for him. To her it was a serious matter but Dante didn't really care about that. Rather than looking gloomy and feeling pessimistic about the whole thing, he instead grabbed hold of Abigail's cheeks.

"Ouch!!" He held her cheeks gently but still she felt a slight pain and then he said. "Stop worrying,"

He sat on the whale as he replied.

"Worrying about what's been done isn't going to change the situation at hand,"

"How did you come in contact with it in the first place?" She asked, Now both sat on the whale as it submerged itself into the water.

"It's a Long story," Though now they were underwater, still both were able to hear and speak fluently to one another.

"Sighs, it seems you've been having a lot of fun ever since we were all disbanded," She gave up on trying to think too much about it. Abigail knew Dante wasn't a kid anymore, so he wasn't going to risk his life without really thinking of ways to save himself.

"Trust me, you don't know the half of it," He replied and relaxed his back on the whale, glancing around to see various species of fishes swimming both above and around them as the whale swam as fast as it could towards the shore.

"Well, I'm ready to listen to what you have to say," Abigail crawled towards him with her eyes gazing towards his and obstructing him from seeing the fishes around.

" Didn't you wanted to tell me something?" He asked.

" Oh! Yeah!! I wanted you to know that my contracted partner... *Grr*" Her stomach growled.

Though they were underwater, still he was able to hear her stomach growling sound vividly.

Every where became dead silent as though time itself had frozen right after her stomach growled.

"Uh?!" Abigail eyes were widened. She couldn't believe what had just occurred. She immediately stood up and faced towards the other direction, placing her hands on her stomach.

"Pfft... Let's get you something to eat first," He laughed while getting up.

"Fine. I've been starving ever since I got here, so I'll accept your late hospitality," Both got off from the whale and trekked towards the location of their shoes.

"That reminds me, what about the maid you abducted on your way here?"

"I didn't abduct her. I needed a disguise and so I....."

" Kidnap? You see.... Now you are finally admitting what you did,"

Abigail rolled her eyes and clicked her fingers.

*Click*

The floating clouds in the sky immediately dispersed and the sun was instantly replaced with a moon. The maid who had been abducted suddenly appeared before both of them. Well actually, she was unconscious and was floating before them.

*Click*

The scenery around them changed once again, allowing both Dante and Abigail to currently appear in Dante's study.

"Is that your crystal ball?" Dante asked after glancing towards the huge glowing red apple she held in hand.

"Un," She nodded.

The apple was actually a crystal ball. It had the same density as a crystal ball, so it couldn't be eaten as an ordinary apple.

"I really like the new look,"

Both Dante and Abigail were just coming out of her Crystal ball. While they were inside, the world was called Abigail's Crystal world because everything they saw and felt were all from Abigail's imagination.

"Well, I can't allow everyone to know I'm a witch now can I," She replied, clicking her fingers as the apple vanished from both of their sight.

A maid was ordered to look after the unconscious maid and since Abigail meant no harm towards the maid, the maid's life wasn't really in any sort of grave danger.

Both had already informed the chef about what they would love to eat, so now they were both in the dining room sitting side by side and facing one another.

"So what's this about a contracted partner?" Dante asked.

"I'm sure you already know about me being a contract witch and you're well informed about my history as well,"

Dante nodded in response.

Contract Witches are a type of witches who were mainly known for having contracts with spirits of other dimensions which they could summon at a moment's notice.

Aside from this fact, many were known for being slaves to the members of the seven royal demon families.

"Yeah I do and that is why I do not like the idea of you coming over to meet me here," He replied earnestly.

"Don't be like this D, you know how much I despise the Royal family. In fact, everyone (the heroes party) of us do. I need power and the only way I can do that is to sign the contract with you,"

"Yea....Not gonna happen,"

She held his hands and looked straight into his eyes as she continued.

"I appreciate that you're worried about me but it's not what you think really," She tried to make him see things the way she does.

Abigail placed one of his hands towards her chest.

'See... This is an ability witches use to communicate with themselves and the ones they are contracted with,'

He could feel how her chest cavity began to steadily rise and fall as she inhaled and exhaled deeply. She used a skill called <Mind Communication> to have a dialogue with him just now.

The chef who had arrived for roughly fifteen seconds now briefly interrupted their moment which snapped them both back to reality.

"*Ahem*

Dante then retracted his hand as the chef bowed and declared.

"Dinner is served My Lord,"

*Click* The chef clicked his fingers.

"Would you like to share a meal together?" the chef questioned after noticing what occurred just now and a single meal appeared right before their eyes.

After hearing what the chef said, both couldn't help but look into each other's eyes .....

"Pfftt... Haha,"

The sounds of their laughter reverberated within the entire dining room.

"Sorry but we are not in that kind of relationship," Abigail confirmed, allowing the chef to bow one last time as the dish before them was doubled and the chef vanished from their presence.

With the pleasant meal before them, they both decided to ease their thoughts and continue their discussion after their meal.