Chapter 8
I bought a Low-Rank Contractor Draw Ticket.
Then static began to flicker across the mirror, and an image slowly took shape.
I crossed my arms over my chest and stared intently at the scenery changing in the mirror.
……As I did, I thought.
Please let me make a contract with someone strong even without using the devil’s power.
‘I want to stop my contractors from turning into devils……!’
I bit down hard on my lower lip, my heart pounding with anxiety.
A little while later, the static in the mirror gradually faded, and it began to show a scene.
‘……Where is this?’
In the pitch-black darkness, something like the beam of a flashlight swept back and forth, illuminating the surroundings.
At a glance, it looked like a spruce forest in the mountains in the middle of the night.
I was certain it wasn’t anywhere near Seoul.
-Thud. Thud.
A little while later, I saw a woman in a Devil Hunter uniform walking along a mountain path beyond the mirror, holding a flashlight.
She was a short woman with an emerald-green curly bob and black eyes.
Terrified, she held a hand to her chest and strode toward who knew where.
[Notification: A human seeking a contract has been detected!]
[The target is currently in mortal danger.]
[Connecting to the contract target’s voice.]
“Ugh, I’m so scared……. Where did all the senior Hunters go, leaving me behind…….”
……Was she alone and stranded in the mountains?
That did happen sometimes when Hunters went out on night missions.
‘But why not contact them over the radio?’
As it happened, she had a radio clipped to her waist alongside her quiver.
But she made no move to take out the radio, wandering instead along the dark forest path.
‘Maybe the radio battery died. That does happen sometimes.’
……That was certainly possible.
But what was this uneasy feeling I’d had for a while now?
The moment I sensed something ominous, she suddenly picked up her pace.
And not long after…….
-Splat!
“Ow……!”
She caught her foot on a tree root and fell, dropping her flashlight.
-Click!
The button was pressed, and the flashlight, now switched off, began rolling down the slope.
“No……!”
She sprang up and hurried after it, but……
-Splat!
“Aaaah……!”
She tripped over the same tree root again.
As she rubbed her scraped knees and elbows, the flashlight had already rolled far down the mountain and out of sight.
The moment I saw that, the anxiety inside me turned into certainty.
‘A-a total failure…….’
No matter how I looked at it, this kind of thing was impossible.
Panicking, I fumbled with the mirror, trying to switch contractors even now, but it showed only this woman.
……The woman in the mirror sank to the ground and burst into tears.
At that moment.
-Creeak, creeak……!
Something started rushing toward her from behind at incredible speed.
A devil that looked like a black yeti, clutching something like a goblin’s cudgel.
It raised its cudgel, leaped high into the air, and brought it down on her.
-Crash!
“H-hyaaah……!”
She barely managed to twist away from the devil’s attack.
The woman scrambled to her feet and began sprinting down the dark mountain path as if her life depended on it.
“Help me! Senior Hunters……! I’m over here! Anyone, please, just help me!”
[Notification: A prayer from a human with a strong survival instinct has been detected!]
[A soul contract with the target is possible.]
[Contract Target: Lee Minjeong]
[Occupation: F-Rank Devil Hunter]
[Current Condition: Injured ankle / Panicking]
[Remaining Survival Time: 20 seconds]
“……20 seconds?! There’s no time!”
I instinctively pressed the button to offer the target a contract, focusing intently on the text in the status window.
[Passive ‘Contract Devil’ activated.]
[Generating a standard Soul Contract.]
[Contractor: Lee Minjeong]
[Contract Administrator: Little Devil Asmode]
[Contract Terms]
.
.
.
“Fuck that, there’s no time!”
Contract—proceed!
[Notification: Contract registered!]
[Starting voice connection with the contract target.]
“Do you want power? Answer quickly. Come on! I’ll help you!”
[Remaining Survival Time: 8 seconds]
[Remaining Survival Time: 7 seconds]
“H-huh……. I’m suddenly hearing things…….”
“You’re not hearing things! You’re about to die! Hurry, hurry and say you want power!”
[Remaining Survival Time: 4 seconds]
[Remaining Survival Time: 3 seconds]
“Ugh, I-I want power! Please help me!”
“Request accepted.”
[Notification: The contract target’s consent has been confirmed.]
[Finalizing the soul contract!]
[Time until bodily collapse extended by ‘3 days’!]
[Time until bodily collapse: 5 days 21 hours 8 minutes 32 seconds]
[Remaining Survival Time: 1 second]
The moment I made a contract with Lee Minjeong, the devil leaped high into the air.
As it came crashing down toward her, the monster readied its goblin’s cudgel to strike.
At that critical moment,
Lee Minjeong pulled the longbow off her back.
-Whirr!
[Remaining Survival Time: 0.5 seconds]
Then she drew an arrow from the quiver at her waist, nocked it on the bowstring, and aimed at the devil’s head.
[Remaining Survival Time: 0.1 seconds]
-Fwoooosh!
The moment her dazed black eyes turned red,
she released the bowstring.
-Thwack!
The arrow she had fired struck the devil right in the forehead.
Hit squarely by her arrow, the devil dropped its cudgel and crumpled to the ground.
……Lee Minjeong stared blankly at the scene.
She looked as if she couldn’t believe she had just killed a devil.
“Gasp, how did I even hit it just now……?”
“Lee Minjeong! What are you doing here!”
“……Aah, that voice, Team Leader?!”
Just as Lee Minjeong was about to savor the afterglow of defeating the devil,
men in Devil Hunter uniforms came rushing toward her from behind.
Then the man at the front slapped her hard across the cheek.
-Smack……!
“You bastard, why’d you suddenly go off in another direction?! Do you know how long we’ve been looking for you!?”
“I-I’m sorry……! I-I suddenly needed to use the bathroom……. I was afraid the senior Hunters would get mad, so I tried to sneak off by myself…….”
“In these mountains, you’re talking about needing to use the bathroom! Get ready to write a statement as soon as we get back to the Association! You damn……!”
The man who seemed to be the team leader started to swear, but with great effort, he stopped himself.
He glared menacingly at Lee Minjeong, who was already thoroughly terrified, then turned away.
“……Let’s head back. I don’t even want to talk to you anymore.”
“Ugh…….”
Lee Minjeong hurried after her departing teammates as they began making their way down the mountain path.
Watching them through the mirror, I sighed and thumped my chest.
“I can’t breathe. That’s my contractor……?”
……My legs gave way, and I slumped to the floor.
I’d somehow managed to make the contract, but it was one of those moments when I couldn’t help feeling I’d gotten the short end of the stick.
[Lee Minjeong’s soul erosion rate has increased to 3%!]
*
Half a day later, it was lunchtime.
[Notification: Your contractor has defeated a devil!]
[Recovering the souls of the defeated devils.]
[Souls in Possession]
[Low-Rank Souls: 121]
[Mid-Rank Souls: 36]
[Soul erosion rate for 'Han Seorin' has increased from 16% to 18%!]
‘……Han Seorin’s working hard.’
In the mirror, Han Seorin wiped out all the devils pouring out of a Gate that had opened in the street.
She seemed to have become even more enthusiastic since being assigned to Extermination Division, Section 5.
……It might sound a little conceited to say this, but watching her was like seeing myself in my prime.
‘Just wait a little. Once I’ve gathered enough souls, I’ll make sure to lower your soul erosion rate.’
While Han Seorin was showing me such an impressive performance,
I manipulated the mirror and began spying on my new contractor.
Lee Minjeong was sitting on a sofa in the Association lounge, writing a statement on a sheet of paper on the table.
[Statement]
A devil appeared
I was so scared ㅠㅠ
But I heard a woman's voice in my head
So I shot my bow and the devil died
I'm sorry for sneaking off to use the bathroom ㅇㅅㅇ
After writing an embarrassingly shoddy statement, Lee Minjeong set down her pen and sighed.
“I-is this good enough……?”
……The writing didn’t make any sense, and it was far too short for a statement.
But even worse, she’d written down exactly what happened—that she heard a woman’s voice in her head.
‘There’s no hope for this girl.’
In the end, unable to just keep watching her, I cleared my throat and spoke to her in a low voice.
“Listen, erase the line saying you heard a woman’s voice in your head.”
“……Huh? Th-that voice, the one from back then?!”
“That’s right. I’ll be blunt. You have made a contract with me, Little Devil Asmode.”
“A devil……? A contract……?!”
Lee Minjeong murmured my words under her breath.
“I-I don’t understand. A contract? When did I make one……?”
“Last night, I asked if you wanted power. The moment you answered that question, the contract was formed. Now, I will lend you the devil’s power with your soul as collateral.”
“I made a contract with a devil?!”
She flinched and shouted, then realized how loudly she’d spoken and lowered her voice.
'Well, I guess no one would be happy to hear they’d contracted with a devil.'
As I clicked my tongue and expressed my sympathy for her, she continued speaking.
“Wow, that’s so cool! I can’t believe something that only happens in manga happened to me……!”
……Why was she happy?
“……You shouldn’t be happy about this! You’re a Devil Hunter!”
“But it’s so cool! This is something I’ve always dreamed of! Getting a special power all my own! I don’t care if it’s a devil’s power! I think I can control it just fine!”
Lee Minjeong listened to me and grinned from ear to ear.
Had this girl read way too much manga or what?
Unable to handle her reaction, I ignored her and continued.
“Sigh. A devil’s power eats away at your soul, so be careful when you use it. If you don’t want to become a devil, don’t get too addicted to it.”
“C-can I ask one thing……?”
“Sure. What is it?”
“What exactly is an authority?”
“…….”
……Good question.
What even was an authority?
It was a question that hit the nail on the head.
Even I had started using the word ‘authority’ naturally after becoming a devil, but I didn’t know exactly what it meant.
As I paused for a moment before answering her,
a status window appeared before my eyes.
[Searching for an authority to grant to the contractor.]
[Search complete.]
[No suitable authority exists.]
[The contractor’s potential exceeds the level of the authorities currently possessed.]
[Unlock a new authority and grant a suitable one!]
‘……Huh?’
……Had I read it wrong?
Why did it sound like Lee Minjeong didn’t need the power I currently possessed?
I read it, then read it again, and once more, but there was no way the status window’s text would change.
Which meant that good-for-nothing…….
‘She’s already surpassed my power?!’
……I was completely taken aback.
It was shocking enough that a mere F-Rank Devil Hunter had surpassed the power of a devil.
But it was even more shocking that she’d used the devil’s power last night despite having that much strength already.
‘Is she an idiot……?’
I’d finally found the kind of person I’d wanted so badly—someone strong even without the devil’s power—but she didn’t seem to realize how strong she was.
……This contractor looked like she’d be a handful.