Chapter 4
While Han Seorin was hospitalized, I sat in the pitch-black space and endured the long hours.
Spending all that time doing nothing in a place where there was nothing was incredibly boring.
The one saving grace was that I could occasionally watch Han Seorin through the mirror.
But Han Seorin was spending her time lying in a hospital bed, too, so spying on her wasn’t much fun.
……There was nothing else to look through in the status window, either.
‘Is there no way to get out of here?’
I lay on my back with my hands behind my head and gazed up at the distant, boundless sky.
My future seemed just as dark as the sight before my eyes.
Two days passed while Han Seorin was in the hospital.
“……I’ll be discharged. I’ll pay my younger siblings’ hospital bills all at once.”
“Are you leaving the hospital with your siblings?”
“No. There’s nothing wrong with me, so I need to get back to work. Please take good care of my siblings.”
She left her siblings in the ward and began the discharge process so she could return to work as a Devil Hunter.
As soon as Han Seorin left the ward, a status window appeared before my eyes.
[Time until current body collapses: 1 day 14 hours 36 minutes 13 seconds]
……There are always hidden dangers in a contract.
It had clearly implied that my body would collapse if I had no contractors, but after I found one, the time until my body collapsed increased by three days.
Wasn’t that completely different from what it had implied?
‘Still, I saved Han Seorin. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if my body collapsed now…….’
[If the Contract Administrator’s body collapses, Soul Recoil will occur for the contractor.]
[Estimated survival rate of ‘Han Seorin’: 4.7%]
‘……Wha?!’
After seeing the unexpected status window, I sprang to my feet.
Wait, that definitely wasn’t there before, was it?
‘Was it absent then because I didn’t have a contractor?’
If I were the only one to die, that would be one thing.
But now there was a chance Han Seorin would die, too, and I started to panic.
‘I have to find a new contractor quickly……!’
As I fumbled about, touching the mirror all over again like before,
Han Seorin kept walking down the street as she spoke to me.
“Lady Asmode. Can you hear me?”
“……Yeah. What is it?”
“I’m going to hunt devils now. I think I’ll be facing D-rank devils. Is that okay?”
“You can do whatever you want.”
The moment I answered her cynically, an idea suddenly crossed my mind.
“Wait, wait! Are you going alone?!”
“No. I’m going because I saw an urgent raid recruitment post on Devil Hunter Gallery. Looks like we’ll be operating as a team.”
“……Ahaha. That’s great!”
They’re operating as a team?
Then I can make contracts with the others!
‘Phew, thank goodness. I’ll just make the contracts quickly and buy myself some time.’
Thinking about it calmly, I’d be putting other people in danger just to save Han Seorin.
But now that I’d meddled in Han Seorin’s life, shouldn’t I take responsibility somehow?
‘……If I don’t want to watch my contractors die when their time runs out, I have no choice but to grow stronger.’
It seemed I needed to become even stronger.
I’d have to unlock new authorities and find a way to reduce the price my contractors had to pay, too.
In the end, having resolved to grow as a devil, I twirled a lock of hair beside my head and answered nonchalantly.
“……Well, do as you see fit. But if things look dangerous, run away immediately.”
“Lady Asmode, are you worried about me?”
“Don’t get the wrong idea! I’m only saying that because it’ll be a problem for me if you die. Well, you’re a C-rank Devil Hunter, so it’s not like a D-rank devil would kill you anyway.”
“……I’ll do my best.”
Han Seorin smiled faintly at my words and slipped a hand into her uniform pocket.
For some reason, seeing that made my face flush.
……It was frustrating that I couldn’t be honest because of that devil’s dignity or whatever.
*
How many minutes passed like that?
The place she headed to was the underground parking garage of a building in central Seoul.
Han Seorin gripped the whip hanging at her waist and looked around in every direction.
But no matter how much she looked, she couldn’t sense a single Devil Hunter—or even the faintest trace of a devil.
“Lady Asmode, it looks like I’m the only one who showed up. I don’t see any devils, either……”
“……That’s strange. If someone posted a false report on Devil Hunter Gallery, they’d be executed immediately.”
“H-how…… How do you know that, Lady Asmode?!”
“You think a devil can’t use an online forum? Honestly, humans are so stupid.”
“……”
Han Seorin stared at me, dumbfounded, and started to get flustered.
……Actually, I knew because of my past life.
A little while later, Han Seorin came to her senses and made an uneasy face before letting go of the whip at her waist.
She folded her arms over her chest and spoke to me in a grumbling voice.
“Lady Asmode, should we retreat? There’s nothing here……”
-Shff.
At that moment, she sensed something nearby.
“Han Seorin, the ceiling……!”
“……!”
Han Seorin immediately looked up at the ceiling at my warning.
A huge spider devil, hanging upside down from the ceiling, leaped at her.
-Ssssss……!
“……Coward.”
-Swish!
Han Seorin immediately leaped backward, dodging the spider devil’s sneak attack.
At that moment, a swarm of small spider devils that had been hiding in the ventilation ducts appeared, crawling along the walls.
The monsters quickly spread across the underground parking garage and began to surround Han Seorin.
There must have been several hundred devils.
It was impossible not to feel anxious.
‘There are too many devils……!’
No matter how low-ranked they were, there was no way Han Seorin could handle this many D-rank devils on her own.
I started shouting at her through the mirror.
“What are you doing?! Get out of the underground parking garage! It’s obvious there are far too many devils!”
“……Lady Asmode.”
But despite my desperate cries, Han Seorin didn’t retreat.
Instead, she pulled out the whip hanging at her waist and stretched it taut.
She raised the corners of her mouth and continued speaking.
“I’ll make good use of the power you lent me.”
Han Seorin clenched the hand holding her whip.
A black aura billowed around her, and her eyes turned red.
……Just as they had when she accepted my contract.
‘This crazy woman……!’
A swarm of spiders soon began leaping toward her, but……
-Whip! Whip!
She struck the walls and floor with her whip to keep the small spiders at bay, and whenever she had the chance, she struck the giant spider approaching her, keeping it at a distance.
-Slice! Slice!
The giant spider’s front legs were severed, and the small spider devils’ corpses quickly piled up into heaps.
The giant spider realized it couldn’t let things continue like this.
It began spewing green acid from its mouth at Han Seorin.
“……Too slow!”
-Smack!
But she dodged the acid so quickly that an afterimage of her aura lingered, then swung her whip at the giant spider devil.
The moment her whip struck the spider devil squarely,
-BOOOOM……!
The spider devil burst with a violent explosion, spraying acid all around it.
As soon as the giant spider devil burst, the small spider devils stopped moving.
……Thanks to that, the underground parking garage had become a space filled with heaps of spider corpses and green acid.
“Huff, huff……. Sorry. I couldn’t run away from here. I need to get stronger. If I’m going to protect my younger siblings.”
Han Seorin rested her hands on her knees and began to catch her breath.
Then the black aura surrounding her disappeared, and her reddened eyes turned black again.
‘……’
Watching Han Seorin’s performance through the mirror, I stared blankly, stunned.
……Was this really the power of a devil?
She’d overcome a situation that would have been dangerous even with several more C-rank Hunters helping her.
Though it was power I’d lent her, I was the one most astonished.
[Soul erosion rate for ‘Han Seorin’ has increased from 5% to 7%!]
But before I could even feel relieved, a status window appeared before my eyes.
Seeing the message that Han Seorin’s soul erosion rate had increased, I grumbled at her.
“Hey, don’t use the devil’s power so carelessly! Why use it just to deal with some D-rank devils?!”
“B-but you’re the one who lent me that power……”
“I’m scolding you because I lent it to you. If you waste your power on things like this, you’ll turn into a devil! Do you want to become a devil and leave your siblings behind?”
“……Sorry.”
“Hmph. Honestly, what an ignorant human.”
At the mention of her siblings, Han Seorin looked as if her spirit had immediately deflated.
……Had I been too harsh?
I hurriedly placed my hand on the mirror and continued in a very quiet voice.
“Still, I’m glad you weren’t hurt. Good work.”
“……Thank you, Lady Asmode.”
Only then did Han Seorin relax her expression and sit upright. Just as she was putting her whip back at her waist,
status windows began appearing one after another before my eyes.
[Notification: Your contractor has defeated a devil!]
[Recovering the souls of the defeated devils.]
[You have acquired many low-rank devil souls!]
[Low-Rank Devil Souls in Possession: 137]
[Your growth stage will increase once you collect a certain number of devil souls.]
[Low-Rank Souls Required for Next Growth Stage: 137/100]
[Your growth progress has exceeded the maximum limit. You may choose one of the following rewards.]
[1. Unlock a new authority]
[2. Reduce your contractor’s soul erosion rate]
[3. Extend the time until your body collapses]
‘……I can collect souls and choose a reward?’
The moment I realized one of the options could extend the time until my body collapsed, my mind was made up.
The first and second options were appealing, but for now, I had to prevent my body from collapsing.
[Notification: The time until your body collapses has been extended by ‘5 days’!]
[Since you did not unlock an authority, the maximum growth-stage value will remain at 100!]
[Growth reward cooldown applied!]
*
Not long after Han Seorin left the parking garage, a group of C-rank Devil Hunters arrived outside it.
“Field infiltration complete. Begin extermination.”
Five or six men and women in black uniforms and berets formed up and entered the underground parking garage.
Before long, they were startled by the heaps of spider corpses piled up inside.
“W-what is this…….”
The situation had already been dealt with before they arrived.
One of them immediately opened Devil Hunter Gallery and started searching for whoever had come here.
Then they wore an expression of disbelief.
“A C-rank Devil Hunter did this all alone......?”
Looking through the gallery, it seemed that a C-rank Devil Hunter named Han Seorin had handled the situation.
……It was shocking.
No matter how good a C-rank Hunter was, it should have been difficult to face hundreds of D-rank devils.
And yet a single C-rank Hunter had defeated all these devils…….
Sensing that this was no ordinary matter, they exchanged glances before speaking in low voices.
“We need to report this to the Association executives.”
Having decided to report it, they left the scene.
It was the moment curiosity about the mysterious C-rank Devil Hunter Han Seorin began to grow within the Devil Hunter Association.