I Have Become The Heroes’ Rival

Editor: Daed

“What do you mean by useless? Claudia had tried your best all this time.”

I complimented her hard work instead of her ability or talent.

In the meantime, I had only paid attention to her ability when it came to spirits, but now it seems like I have to intervene.

It was stupid to let her doubt her own ability when I knew that there would be a lot of unfortunate things awaiting her in the future.

“Eum, I did try my best, but……”

Claudia mumbled, avoiding my gaze.

“Even though I can do this now, this is only a form of asking, so it only works with low-grade spirits. I have to sign a contract to borrow intermediate or higher abilities.”

“How do you make a contract?”

“I have to send a request to the spirit world to be chosen by the spirit itself.”

According to her explanation, in the human world, you couldn’t see nor hear the spirits unless you have signed a contract.

So it seemed that making a contract was only possible by sending the request directly to the spirit world.

“Why doesn’t Chloe send a request?”

I asked with pretense; I already knew the answer.

“You want to become a spiritist, right? Or do you have no idea how to send a request?”

“No, I have learned how to do it. And I have tried a few times to send a request. But for some reason, the spirits don’t want it. There is always a wind bothering me, so I always fail. I thought they liked me because things have gone well so far. Isn’t it strange?”

As Claudia said, there were very few spirits who helped humans who haven’t even signed a contract.

In the first place, there was no way the spirit hated humans with high affinity.

But why were the spirits preventing Claudia’s request from going to the spirit world?

That was because Nihilist, the spirit of hopelessness, was waiting for Claudia’s request to come.

That spirit was the one who threw a large shit into Claudia’s life, which was already devastated.

Spirits were largely divided into nature spirits, mind spirits, and independent spirits.

Nature spirits, as we commonly knew, included fire, water, earth, wind, light, darkness, etc.

Mind spirits handled emotions such as joy, sadness, faith, courage, hope, etc.

And independent spirits were spirits that didn’t belong anywhere.

Unlike the nature spirits, the mind spirits controlled and developed their strength by consuming human emotions.

That’s why they desperately want to sign contracts with humans who are easily swayed by emotions.

However, from the human’s perspective, signing a contract with the spirits could be the second best option, but not the best option.

And the spirits associated with negative emotions were not even the second best, they were the worst.

Because the mind spirits constantly demanded emotions from humans. And, if necessary, it induced situations where humans would feel the emotion that the spirits wanted.

Nihilis, the spirit of hopelessness, was also one of those mind spirits.

And he noticed Claudia’s existence earlier than other spirits.

Nihilist was an intermediate-grade spirit. Even though Nihilis was unable to sign a contract with Claudia, he considered her ability to summon the Spirit King.

Yet despite being far short of Claudia’s standards, the spirit of hopelessness eventually signed a contract with Claudia in the orignal work.

He was looking for an opportunity when Claudia lost everything, then he eventually broke her heart.

Humans tend to choose to hang onto useless emotions, just like how I did.

Sometimes, emotions were more dangerous than swords–and they messed up everything.

After Claudia signed a contract with Nihilis, she fell into a swamp of hopelessness and was stuck in an endless cycle of depression.

Because of that, even when there was an opportunity to escape, she would give up on her own.

It was because Nihilis constantly reminded her of the hopeless feeling, saying that it was useless to try anyway.

‘I have to stop Claudia from signing a contract with Nihilis.’

Come to think of it, in the original work, there was nothing left but a dark future for Claudia. In addition to that, there was no other way to describe the hopelessness but as a tribulation.

‘Writer, must you torture our heroine that much?’

I stared at Claudia, who seemed to bear all the misery of the world.

“Isn’t this strange? The spirits block Claudia’s request, but always lend their ability when you summon them.”

“It’s really weird… I can’t see the spirits or hear their voice, so I can’t figure it out. But there must be some reason, and I’ve been waiting for several years, so I’m tired now.”

As Claudia said so, she thought that everyone was disappointed and left her.

“When I entered the academy, everyone said that I would be the first person in the Empire to summon the Spirit King. In addition, my brother was already known as a genius at the time, so I was very excited.”

But as you can see…

Claudia shrugged and then her shoulders slumped.

“I was the only one who couldn’t even send a request to the spirit world even till my graduation.”

She enrolled as the top student, but barely graduated last.

Certainly, if such a thing had happened, her interest in spiritism would have hit rock bottom.

No matter how talented you were, your ability should have shown some result.

And it was obvious how the people who glorified Claudia as a genius had turned their palms upside down.

What’s the point of being a genius? it’s useless if you can’t even send a request to the spirit world, we’re much better than her, blah blah blah. People talked behind her back.

It was Crab Mentality, the human nature of wanting to take each other down, best described by the phrase ‘if I can’t have it, neither can you’.

“Chloe, please know this. As long as Chloe is happy, I don’t care whether you signed a contract with the spirit or not.”

“I repeated my words over and over again earnestly, looking into her light blue eyes.

”

Claudia nodded, smiling with her eyes curving into crescent-moon shapes, as if my sincerity had reached her.

“Alright.”

“By the way, uh… I keep getting anxious thoughts.”

“What kind of thoughts?”

“The spirits in the human world like Chloe. There is no doubt that they will accept Chloe’s request. But, isn’t it clear that they stopped you from interfering with the spirit world because they are trying to protect you from danger?”

Claudia blinked as if she had heard something unexpected.

She seemed to be wondering, ‘It wasn’t even the demon world where demons and monsters lived, what would be so dangerous in the spirit world?’

When I had asked Martina, she told me that Nihilis’s case was clearly unprecedented.

“There are exceptions wherever you go in the world. Why does the word ‘fallen angel\'” exist? It means that even an angel, a symbol of goodness, can become corrupted if he is wrong. There can be a number of spirits like that too.”

And in this exhausting novel, the heroine Claudia was born with the talent of attracting members of the opposite sex here and there.

“Then, do you mean that I have a filthy spirit attached to me?”

Ah, I should be more careful with my mouth. Claudia absorbed harsh words like a sponge.

However, looking back at the cruelty she received in the original novel, it deserved to be cursed at.

I had to give an affirmation.

“It’s very likely, so I’m worried if Chloe get hurt.”

If you got hurt, then it would be painful to me too.

I lowered my head and showed a gloomy expression.

“What if Chloe gets hurt…”

Then, I shook my shoulders and rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand, pretending to cry.

I could clearly see Claudia’s feet pacing back and forth, as if she was anxious.

“Wh- what should I do?”

Yes, that was what I was waiting for.

Honestly, Claudia was the only one who would fall for this kind of bad acting.

I raised my head as I rubbed my eyes that were roughly made to redden.

Hearing my sobs, she began to reason with me.

“As we know, there are only low-grade spirits in the nature spirits’ realm.”

That was why they prevented Claudia from sending a request to the nature spirits’ realm, because they couldn’t stop or deal with the intermediate-grade spirit, Nihilis.

So no matter how hard the low-grade spirits tried to protect Claudia, it was only temporary.

In fact, when Claudia’s emotions exploded in the original work, her request would summon Nihillis.

“In other words, the filthy spirit is an intermediate-grade spirit.”

The contract with the spirit worked like this:

If you signed a contract with the King of Water Spirits, you would get the qualifications to summon all the low-grade, intermediate-grade, and high-grade water spirits.

That was why the difference in the abilities of each class was like the difference between the sky and the earth. So even if hundreds of thousands of low-grade spirits attacked, they were no match for one intermediate-grade spirit.

“In that case, you have to sign a contract with the highest-grade spirit, the King of Spirits.”

“But how do I do that? If Rin’s hypothesis is correct, the filthy spirit will aim for me as soon as I go to the spirit world.”

Huhu, Chloe. It seemed that you forgot my intelligence as an informant because I hadn’t been active for a while.

“Even in the human world, there are high-grade spirits.”

“Huh? I haven’t heard about it before.”

Claudia learnt spirit skills professionally at the academy, and she is still taking private lessons directly from her tutor.

Nevertheless, she didn’t know this high-level information. Martina was indeed amazing.

“They are independent spirits that don’t belong anywhere. They can be said as the ‘outsiders’ of the spirit world.”

“What on earth is the outsider… No, wait, how did Rin know that information?”

“Hehe, I know everything.”

I laughed as I swung our intertwined hands.

“Independent spirits are not bound anywhere, so they can sign a contract even if they are not in the spirit world.”

Of course, as a weirdo who ran away from the spirit world for freedom, it would be harder to sign a contract with him than picking the stars in the sky. But I didn’t think I needed to say that right now.

Claudia, who was dazed as if she had heard an unattainable dream, began to raise her hopes up.

Her gloomy face was completely wiped off her face and she smiled widely like a blooming flower.

However, as if she still held her doubts, Claudia asked in a trembling voice.

“Can I really sign a contract with the spirit?”

“Of course.”

I smiled at Claudia and wiped away the tears from her eyes with my fingers.

“When the ceremony is over, let’s ask Felix to go with us to find the independent spirit.”

I also heard this information from Martina, but I couldn’t guarantee what would happen because I didn’t see it directly in the novel.

But since I knew about the misfortunes that would happen in the future, it was a hundred times better than not trying anything.

“Until then, I’ll make Chloe happy every single day.”

I would try not to let you fall in hopelessness after you suffered from this kind of tremendous hatred and pain.

Even if I was showered by daggers, I would never die so that I could always support you by your side. I won’t leave you alone.

So don’t get sick and don’t get hurt.

“I wish Chloe will keep being Chloe forever.”