Chapter 11
Since I’d promised to make Lee Minjeong a hero, I had no choice but to keep that promise.
With that in mind, I unlocked her potential.
-Click!
[Notification: You have purchased a Potential Unlock Ticket!]
[High-Rank Souls: 1 -> 0]
[Who would you like to use the Potential Unlock Ticket on?]
[Han Seorin / Devil Hunter (C-Rank)]
[Lee Minjeong / Devil Hunter (F-Rank)]
……Deep down, I thought it would be better to invest in Han Seorin.
But with Han Seorin’s soul erosion rate already so high, giving her a new power might tempt her to use it excessively.
‘More than anything, I want to help Lee Minjeong.’
In the end, I chose Lee Minjeong.
A loading screen appeared, and with a shoddy fanfare, Lee Minjeong’s unique ability was unlocked.
[Contractor ‘Lee Minjeong’s’ potential has been unlocked!]
[Unique Ability ‘Featherman Time (A-Rank)’ has been unlocked!]
- She can spread Featherman’s wings and fly through the sky for a certain amount of time.
- She can freely summon Featherman’s weapons and use Featherman’s powers.
* Caution: The Contract Administrator must have prior knowledge of Featherman!
‘……What the hell is this, you weeb.’
I knew Lee Minjeong liked Featherman, but since I hadn’t seen the original series, I couldn’t begin to understand what this power did.
……And this was a power that could only be activated if I knew about Featherman.
Now the status window was making me study, of all things.
‘Still, if it’s A-Rank, it must be good, right?’
I twisted a lock of hair at my temple around my finger and accepted the situation, figuring more was always better.
The moment I unlocked Lee Minjeong’s unique ability,
that sickening message appeared before my eyes.
[Time until bodily collapse: 3 days 18 hours 24 minutes 9 seconds]
‘Haah, I have to deal with this, too. What a pain.’
Since I had enough low-rank souls, I effectively had six days and eighteen hours left.
Even after overcoming this bodily collapse, how many more times would I have to endure this ordeal?
It was just then that I thought it might be nice if I could disappear all by myself.
*
“I’d like to be discharged, Doctor.”
“What?! All of a sudden?! I mean, there’s nothing stopping you, but…… this is a problem.”
“I’m not sick or injured, and I can fight devils!”
Lee Minjeong handed her card to the billing office and spoke in a pleading voice.
The billing clerk let out a deep sigh.
He was frustrated that Lee Minjeong, who hadn’t said a word since being admitted, was suddenly acting like this.
“……All right. You can insert your card there.”
-Beep!
After paying, Lee Minjeong left the ward without looking back and pulled out her phone.
She logged onto the Devil Hunter Gallery and started looking through posts recruiting Hunters for emergency exterminations.
Just then, a voice rang out in her head.
“Don’t try anything funny. Go home and rest quietly. Right now, you need to focus on recovering.”
“Hic! L-Little Devil……?!”
Lee Minjeong was so startled she hiccupped, but Little Devil Asmode continued as if it were nothing.
“I don’t know what this Featherman thing is, but even he has to take breaks, doesn’t he? Even if he doesn’t, the network might preempt the show or postpone it because of the World Cup. Things like that.”
“……You know a lot about the human world, Little Devil.”
“If I’m going to invade the human world, I need to know a lot about it. Besides, there’s still plenty I don’t know.”
Asmode had many things left to try, having made a contract with a devil and devoted so much time to work as a Devil Hunter.
Things like getting really into something the way Lee Minjeong did, or staying in a suite like Han Seorin……
Asmode had devoted an entire life to hunting down filthy, vile devils.
Maybe that was why Asmode regretted never having been able to let loose a little.
“……In that case, I’d like to know about this Featherman thing, too. Will you tell me about it?”
Asmode asked cautiously, scratching a cheek as the demon looked into the mirror.
……Using the excuse of figuring out Lee Minjeong’s power.
At the question, Lee Minjeong froze, looking horrified.
“What? Y-You waaaant……?!”
“……Ahem, is that really so surprising? I need to know what my contractor likes and what they’re aiming for if I’m going to give you a power that suits you.”
“But…… Some of the villains Featherman defeats are devils, too, you know?!”
“A cartoon’s just a cartoon. And I need to study heroes like that if I’m going to rule the world.”
“……,”
Lee Minjeong’s heart pounded as she hesitated.
After thinking for a moment, Lee Minjeong fidgeted with her fingers and replied.
“……Then, would you like to watch Feather Rescue with me at my place?”
“Sure. But just show me the highlights. I can’t stand anything that drags on.”
A few hours later, that evening, at Lee Minjeong’s studio apartment.
Despite asking to see only the highlights, Asmode started binge-watching Feather Rescue with Lee Minjeong, from the first episode to the last.
At last, Featherman stood in a valley, gazing at the sunset and remembering his fallen comrades.
Asmode burst into the tears the demon had been holding back and wailed in Lee Minjeong’s mind.
“Sob, waaah……! Featherman, you bastard, you came to the place we promised to meet after all!”
“…….”
“Me too! I won’t let my comrades’ lives go to waste! I’ll do whatever it takes to carry on for them!”
“I’m sorry, but my head really hurts.”
“……Ah, sorry.”
After weeping in earnest, Asmode stopped wailing and began wiping away tears with a sleeve.
Lee Minjeong smiled, as if she could picture Asmode’s expression.
“Pfft, puh-huh…….”
“……What? Want to die at the hands of a devil?”
“No, no. It’s just…… I realized Featherman’s charm works even on devils.”
“What works? It’s a cartoon made of nothing but clichés. Why does nobody attack while Featherman’s transforming? And why does Featherman wait until the devil finishes transforming?”
“Hmm, maybe time stops while they’re transforming?”
“If he could do that, it’d be faster to catch them without transforming. Jeez, I was curious what kind of cartoon my contractor was obsessed with, and it turned out to be this?”
“For someone who says that, you were bawling your eyes out during the last episode, Little Devil.”
“…….”
Asmode fell silent at Lee Minjeong’s words, leaned back against the mirror, and sighed.
The faces of the comrades who had been sacrificed when Asmode was a Devil Hunter came to mind.
“……Still, the last episode was good.”
“Hehe, right? I became a Devil Hunter to make money, but if I could, I’d like to become a hero like Featherman, too.”
“……You’re already a hero. You saved Junhwi.”
“No. I couldn’t save my senior colleagues. If I’d been there at the scene then, if I hadn’t been such a failure, maybe I could’ve saved them with Little Devil’s help……”
Lee Minjeong also remembered her dead comrades.
Tears welled in Lee Minjeong’s eyes, then began to fall in fat drops.
“If I’d been a better person…….”
“…….”
Just as Lee Minjeong was wiping her tears away with her palm,
-Kaboom!
“……!”
The ground shook, and an explosion sounded nearby.
Lee Minjeong stopped crying and began looking out the window to see what was happening.
……Two blocks from her home.
A small black devil shaped like a UFO was floating in the sky, scattering bombs.
-Bang! Bang! Kaa-boom!
“……Lee Minjeong, let me give you one piece of advice. Let go of the compulsion to be a better person tomorrow.”
“Then what should I do……?”
“Do your best right now, in this moment. I’ll help you.”
“…….”
Hearing Asmode’s words, Lee Minjeong felt much more at ease.
Lee Minjeong flung open the balcony window, climbed onto the balcony, and took out a longbow.
Lee Minjeong nocked an arrow, focused her eyes, and activated Devil’s Eye.
[Notification: Your contractor has used ‘Devil’s Eye (Passive)!]
-Vzzzzing!
……There it was.
The center of the UFO, the part that looked like its engine.
Lee Minjeong drew the bowstring with a resolute gaze and calmly steadied her breathing.
Do your best right now, in this moment.
At last, Lee Minjeong finished aiming, released the bowstring, and kept her eyes on the arrowhead all the way.
The moment her arrow struck the UFO devil.
-Ting!
The arrow bounced helplessly off its armor.
She’d expected that to some extent, but Lee Minjeong still felt anxious.
“Oh no……! Asmode! My attack isn’t working!”
“……Lee Minjeong. Do you trust me?”
“Huh? I do, but why are you asking all of a sudden……?”
“Jump off the balcony.”
“…….”
Lee Minjeong looked down from the balcony.
Though it was only a five-story building, a fall from here would surely be fatal.
But……
But for some reason, Lee Minjeong was certain Asmode wouldn’t let her die.
Lee Minjeong jumped off the balcony without hesitation.
As she fell, Lee Minjeong flailed her arms and began to regret it too late.
“Aaaah……!”
-Flap!
“……Wha!?”
Just as Lee Minjeong was about to despair, breaking out in a cold sweat, angelic wings sprouted from her back.
Featherman’s emerald-green wings from the cartoon.
Realizing this was the devil’s power, Lee Minjeong flapped her wings and flew toward the devil.
The UFO devil noticed Lee Minjeong’s presence too late and fired missiles at her, but……
Lee Minjeong dodged them, gliding freely as if she were already used to moving her wings.
“……Now summon a weapon.”
At Asmode’s words, Lee Minjeong slung her longbow over her back, reached out into the air, and pictured Featherman’s weapon.
Then Featherman’s bow appeared in Lee Minjeong’s hand.
……Lee Minjeong nocked an arrow once more and drew the bowstring.
In the still-gray field of vision, Lee Minjeong aimed at the red dot she could see on the UFO devil.
And……
-Fwoooosh!
Gritting her teeth, Lee Minjeong released the bowstring.
The arrow Lee Minjeong fired struck the UFO devil’s armor once again.
-Kaboom!
The arrow exploded on impact like one of Featherman’s arrows, shooting the UFO devil down in an instant.
“Hoo, hoo……”
Catching her breath, Lee Minjeong carefully moved her wings and landed on the roof of a nearby building.
Then Lee Minjeong stared blankly, as if unable to believe what had just happened.
“……This is the devil’s power?!”
Lee Minjeong, who had once been treated as a failure by her teammates.
It was the moment she became Featherman himself.