Chapter 20
In a pitch-black space where nothing else existed.
No, a space that now even came with a library.
After confirming Lee Minjeong had returned safely, I thoroughly investigated every book in the library.
To find Authorities I could learn now, or might be able to learn in the future.
“Snore…. Snore…. Huh?!”
However, before I’d even investigated half of this library, I’d somehow fallen asleep.
Just how huge was this library?
“Ugh, I’ll have to continue investigating later.”
Having come to my senses, I got up, stretched, and let out a big yawn as I left the library.
Then, as usual, I sat down in front of the mirror and began checking on my contractors.
First, Han Seorin, lying in her hospital bed.
“Han Seorin, how are you? You haven’t mistaken anyone for a devil like last time, have you?”
“Yeah. I’m still holding it in. I think knowing I have those symptoms makes it easier to endure.”
“Really? That’s a relief. Anyway, get well soon. An injury at your age can leave lasting damage, you know?”
“……Lord Asmode, are you older than me?”
“I’m a hundred years older than you, you know?! Don’t disrespect this body!”
After I’d gone to all the trouble of worrying about her, Han Seorin turned around and challenged me.
Annoyed with her, I cut off the communication and immediately contacted Lee Minjeong.
Through the mirror, I saw Lee Minjeong sprawled on the sofa with her eyes closed.
“Lee Minjeong, can you hear this body’s voice?”
“Snoooore…. Snoooore….”
“Is she getting up later than the devils?”
It seemed Lee Minjeong had stayed up all night watching the Featherman movie and was sleeping in.
With no choice, I cut off the communication and contacted Sophia one last time.
Inside an old-fashioned bedroom.
She sat on the edge of the bed, drinking tea with a gloomy expression.
“Kind devil, you’ve come to see me again today.”
“That’s right. How are things over there?”
“Everything is the same. I still haven’t found a way to escape the mansion. I still can’t die, or live freely.”
“Don’t try to die. This body will find a way somehow.”
“This body, you say?”
“Huh? Did this body say that? No, not ‘this body’—I mean, this body.”
“…….”
“Uh. What’s wrong with this body?”
What was that……?
There was no way I’d use such a cringey way of speaking.
Come to think of it, hadn’t I said “this body” when I spoke to Han Seorin and Lee Minjeong just now, too?
Just as I was flustered by the way I’d started referring to myself without meaning to, a status window appeared before me.
[The restoration of the Contract Space has partially altered the speech and behavior of Little Devil Asmode.]
……What kind of pointless feature is this?
Feeling perplexed, I cleared my throat and tried to gloss over it.
“Ahem, it’s nothing. I just came to check in today. Well, I’ll be going.”
“Hehe. Understood.”
-Zzzzt.
“It doesn’t look like anyone’s hunting devils today, so maybe I’ll go investigate the library again.”
[Notification: A contractor has exterminated a devil!]
[Recovering the souls of the devils exterminated.]
[Souls Recovered]
[Low-Rank Souls: 322]
[Mid-Rank Souls: 78]
[Souls in Possession]
[Low-Rank Souls: 835]
[Mid-Rank Souls: 232]
[High-Rank Souls: 1]
“……Huh?!”
I’d just checked and seen my contractors resting peacefully.
Who in the world had done this……?
“Haah, this body has no idea either. Not anymore.”
In the end, I decided to just accept it.
The recovery of souls meant a devil had been exterminated, so that was a good thing, wasn’t it?
Since I still had plenty of time before bodily collapse, I decided to browse the Soul Shop.
[Potential Unlock Ticket]
[Price: 1 High-Rank Soul]
- Analyzes the contractor’s latent potential and strongest desire to awaken their Unique Authority.
“Come to think of it, I can afford this now, can’t I?”
But Han Seorin and Lee Minjeong already had Unique Authorities, and even if I unlocked one for Sophia, it felt like it would be completely useless.
Just then.
I scrolled down a little and saw it.
[Super Sale!]
[Unlock Contractor Torture & Training Authority]
[Price: 1,000 Low-Rank Souls -> 800 Low-Rank Souls]
[This is your very last chance!]
“……You really are persistent.”
A product I must have seen two or three times, even though I hadn’t opened the status window myself.
Today, that product was especially tempting.
After all, it was so boring being in a space with nothing but a mirror and a library.
I was curious what this thing even did, too.
“They’re free souls anyway, so it’s fine to buy something like this once, right? Fine. You win.”
-Click!
[Notification: You have purchased ‘Unlock Contractor Torture & Training Authority’!]
[Low-Rank Souls: 835 -> 35]
[Congratulations!]
[You can now guide your contractors in the right direction!]
……What?
That was a much more wholesome description than I’d expected.
At that moment, another status window appeared before my eyes.
[A new Authority has been unlocked!]
[Punitive Summoning (F-Rank)]
- Can summon a contractor’s soul to the Contract Space.
-
Contractors cannot use any Authorities in the Contract Space.
- Torture tools can be purchased through the Contract Space Interior feature.
- Torturing contractors inside the torture chamber will further increase their soul erosion rates!
“There’s a torture chamber? Does that mean I have to unlock it, like the library?”
No, wait.
That wasn’t the important part.
The first clause of Punitive Summoning.
It could summon a contractor’s soul to the Contract Space.
Which meant……
“I can meet my contractors in person?”
Of course, it wasn’t literally meeting them in person.
Apparently, their souls would come to the Contract Space.
But……
“……I want to meet them.”
I wanted to meet my contractors.
Before I transmigrated into a little devil, I’d lost countless comrades while fighting devils.
I’d lived the same cycle over and over: someone I’d met yesterday was mauled by a devil today, and someone I met today went missing in a Gate tomorrow.
As the deaths of my comrades kept piling up, I eventually decided to close my heart.
It was a selfish mindset: I wouldn’t grow attached to people, and would treat them as nothing more than tools for carrying out missions.
But while living this precarious life as a devil, that mindset had gradually changed.
My contractors weren’t tools for carrying out missions.
They weren’t tools to prolong my life, nor means of earning souls.
Without realizing it, I seemed to have grown attached to my contractors.
To grow attached to people again after becoming a devil.
It was truly ironic.
Having steeled my resolve, I cautiously reached toward the status window floating in midair.
I had absolutely no intention of torturing them.
I just wanted to meet them in the same space.
[Notification: Would you like to use ‘Punitive Summoning’?]
-Click.
[Select a contractor to punish.]
[Han Seorin / Lee Minjeong / Sophia]
For now, maybe I’d summon Lee Minjeong, the easiest one to deal with.
I lightly tapped Lee Minjeong’s name with my finger, then twirled a lock of hair and waited.
A little while later.
A white light began to spread out before me, and Lee Minjeong stepped out from beyond it.
……Looking exactly as she had in the mirror.
“Huh, where am I……?”
“Hello?”
I awkwardly smiled at Lee Minjeong as I greeted her.
At that, Lee Minjeong took in my appearance, and her eyes began darting wildly.
Was she treating meeting me as something important, too?
Just as my heart began to pound for some reason,
Lee Minjeong cautiously opened her mouth.
“Eek, it’s a devil! Quick, my longbow……!”
“W-What……?”
“Huh?! I don’t have my longbow!? B-But I have to exterminate it somehow! If only for Lord Asmode’s sake!”
“This body is that Asmode!”
“……Pardon?”
Lee Minjeong rubbed her eyes, wearing an expression of disbelief at my words.
She looked me up and down, then belatedly seemed to recognize me from my voice and quickly bowed at the waist.
“I’m sorry, Lord Asmode! I didn’t recognize you at all!”
“Hmph. You should’ve recognized me as soon as you heard my voice. Anyway, this body has unlocked a new Authority. One that lets us meet like this.”
“Oh, how fascinating!”
“……This may be sudden, but how do you feel about seeing this body in person?”
“How do I feel? Hmm…….”
Lee Minjeong stared into my eyes for a long while, then tilted her head with a bright smile.
“You’re so pretty and cute! I’ve only ever seen disgusting devils, but you’re the first beautiful devil I’ve ever seen in my life……!”
“What? Wait, can the words ‘pretty’ and ‘devil’ even coexist?!”
“I didn’t think they could either, but seeing you in person changed my mind, Lord Asmode~!”
Unfazed by my flustered reaction, she continued praising me.
Lee Minjeong suddenly turned toward the mirror standing in the middle of the pitch-black space and walked over to it.
“This is a mirror, right? Is this how you’ve been watching us?”
“That’s right. This body has been watching over my contractors through the mirror.”
-Tap!
When I snapped my fingers, static briefly flickered across the mirror, and it immediately showed Lee Minjeong’s room.
Lee Minjeong on the sofa was sleeping soundly in an even more disheveled position than before.
“Aah! I was drooling in my sleep?!”
While Lee Minjeong was startled by the sight of herself, I snapped my fingers again and showed Han Seorin.
Han Seorin, lying in her hospital bed, was staring blankly at the ceiling.
“Wow, is that Ms. Han Seorin?! You really can watch everything!?”
“Hehe, do you find it that fascinating? It gets boring when you’re actually here, though. There’s nothing else to do.”
“Um, I wanted to ask, just in case…….”
Lee Minjeong watched the scene with shining eyes and asked me with interest.
“What happens if you use this mirror to observe Lord Asmode?”
“Huh? I’ve never tried that before. In the first place, I just show up in a mirror like normal.”
“But I feel like it’d be different from looking in an ordinary mirror. Could you show me just once?”
“……Now you’ve made this body curious, too. Fine. Let’s try it.”
Having made up my mind, I snapped my fingers once more and made the mirror reflect me.
-Tap!
A little while later, static rippled across the mirror, and it slowly began showing a place.
“Wait, this is……!”
Then Lee Minjeong and I saw something in the mirror that we could never have imagined.
What the mirror reflected wasn’t a black space.
A studio apartment in an officetel.
A broken rope lay scattered across the floor, and a chair was toppled messily beside it.
The place somehow felt familiar.
That was because this was……
……my home!?
I was still reeling from the sudden sight of my former-life home in the mirror.