Chapter 2
#Chapter 2 Crown Prince Alondre (2) - Making a Deal with the Devil
Lucidra was a great demon who had once spread her infamous name across the entire continent long ago.
The heroes of the age, unable to stand by and watch her lure countless people, corrupt them, and lead them down the path to ruin, banded together to seal Lucidra away, and she had to spend ages trapped inside a stifling book.
“...So you're saying you'll grant my wish?”
But today would be the end of that, and Lucidra smiled slyly to herself.
Of course, she didn't forget to keep a kind and friendly expression on her face.
“That's right. If you make a contract with me, I'll grant any wish.”
“Hmm.”
The young man who had found the sealed grimoire looked to be considering it, and Lucidra felt terribly impatient.
She knew that rushing a contract was a bad move, but even knowing that, it was hard to hold back when the young man before her looked so appetizing.
Blond hair and blue eyes. Such extraordinary beauty that even the word nobleman scarcely did him justice.
A sturdy build that was obvious even beneath his neatly tailored clothes, and a vast, high-quality mana naturally emanating from him.
Above all, he was still young enough to be naive about the world and easy to deceive!
There were few feasts as sumptuous as this for a devil whose job was to tempt and corrupt humans.
Especially to Lucidra, who had been forced to starve while trapped inside that cramped book for so long, it felt almost like violence itself.
How was she supposed to endure it when the top-tier delicacies laid out on the table were tempting her with such intense flavor and aroma!
“Now then, tell me. Money? Fame? Power? Or perhaps... a woman?”
When she spoke the last word, Lucidra wriggled seductively as she looked at the young man.
In any case, the easiest desire to exploit and the one that contributed most to corrupting humans was none other than lust.
And at last, the young man opened his mouth.
“Can you give me a vacation?”
…….
………….
………………?
“Huh?”
Lucidra wondered for a moment if she had misheard.
Had it been so long since she had spoken with a human that something was wrong with her ears?
But the young man seemed to interpret Lucidra's “Huh?” in a different way.
“Well, sorry. My explanation was lacking. When I say vacation, I mean a real vacation—one where I can truly rest in peace. A real vacation with no deceit like 「the work you didn't do today will be added to tomorrow」 or 「sorry to bother you while you're resting, but this is urgent and absolutely has to be done right now, so please handle just this one thing」.”
“Uh, no, I mean—I don't not understand what you mean.”
“I beg you! If you can guarantee my free time, I'll grant you anything within my power! Money? Fame? Power? What do you want?”
No, that's what I said just now.
Why is a human saying to a devil the very words a devil should be saying to a human?
Only then did Lucidra realize the point she had failed to notice in her delight.
At a glance, the young man's appearance was perfectly respectable, and his skin looked flawless.
But if you looked at the young man with the eye that sees souls... you could tell that there was an enormous amount of fatigue and dark shadows around his eyes.
And, in addition, there was the madness glittering in those eyes.
Human eyes filled with desire were, to her, much like beautiful jewels.
But, how should she put it.
“That one's a little scary.”
Lucidra broke out in a cold sweat.
A suspicion burst up in her that maybe she had gone and poked at some strange guy, but she couldn't afford to give up here.
Although the seal suppressing her had been broken, the area where she could freely act at this point was still only this tiny little room.
Outside, countless barriers still remained, and the mana she felt from those wandering around the building was anything but ordinary.
If she tried to leave this little room alone in this state, she'd be detected by the barrier immediately and then surrounded by skilled experts who rushed in afterward.
Maybe if this were Lucidra in her prime, when she had once spread such infamy across the continent, but right now, weakened by years of sealing, she honestly wasn't confident she could win in a head-on fight.
It would be too heartbreaking an ending to be revived only to be driven off immediately.
Somehow, she had to make a contract with the man before her and obtain his cooperation if she wanted another chance.
“Vacation, huh. Then fine. I'll bewitch the people who force you to work. If I can make them think the work got done even when it didn't, that should do, right?”
“Would that be enough? It might fool them for a while, but the work itself would still remain, so there'd be a gap somewhere.”
“Then have them do your work for you instead.”
“Hmm, that's a bit off too. That would mean the work they decided on gets approved under my name without my even checking it. If anything went wrong, cleaning up afterward would be a pain.”
“...I'll even provide the service of pinning all the blame on someone else if the work goes wrong.”
“Ahem, even if you try a scheme like that, karma will only come back to you later. I'm not fond of it.”
Lucidra thought.
Does this human even intend to rest?
No, if you keep nitpicking every little thing like that, how is he supposed to get a vacation? Come to think of it, wasn't this human the one who dragged work to himself?
But her pride as a devil would not allow her to admit defeat so meekly.
“Fine, then how about this? I'll teach you magic that creates a doppelgänger.”
“A doppelgänger? Wouldn't that just be nothing more than an illusion without substance?”
“No, it's different. A doppelgänger with a body, substance, and even the ability to use part of the original's power. If you put that in your place, then you can go do whatever else you want, can't you?”
Lucidra didn't miss the way the young man's eyes flashed.
“Do the original and the doppelgänger share memories? How is it controlled?”
“Basically, there's one consciousness. It's like moving your right and left hands separately while controlling two bodies at the same time.”
“What about its duration and mana consumption?”
“They're practically the same thing. The more mana you have, the longer the doppelgänger lasts. Conversely, the more lavishly either the original body or the doppelgänger uses mana, the shorter the duration becomes.”
Lucidra was not lying.
Creating multiple bodies and freely controlling each separate vessel was something only a devil like her could do, and although there was the minor problem that a normal human trying to do the same would place a tremendous burden on the mind, she had, in any case, explained the principle correctly, hadn't she?
There was also the issue that if the doppelgänger were destroyed, the original would suffer a corresponding rebound, but she simply hadn't mentioned that because he hadn't asked.
“What's the price of the contract?”
“Let me stay by your side. If I wander around on my own like this, I think I'll get caught by the barrier. If I hide myself inside your shadow, I'll be able to avoid that.”
“Would that be enough?”
Lucidra inwardly sneered at the young man's surprised expression.
Right now, he probably thought the price was extremely simple.
But once he actually used the doppelgänger magic, he'd end up unable to withstand the massive information processing and fall into confusion and exhaustion.
Then, to the young man crawling like a bug on the floor, unable even to properly support his own body, she would make the proposal once more.
Any other wishes?
Cornered and with his mind clouded by confusion, the young man would have no choice but to accept an unreasonable contract.
Imagining that scene, Lucidra smiled beautifully.
“Of course. You were the one who let me out, after all, so I should at least provide some service.”
“Good. Let's make the contract.”
When Lucidra took the young man's hand, some of her knowledge flowed into him through that touch.
A devil's magic that an ordinary human could neither understand nor interpret.
But just as someone who had no idea how to make a sword could still swing one without any trouble, the certainty that he could use this magic should have passed over to the young man by now.
The moment the young man closed his eyes and drew up mana.
A duplicate body identical to the young man appeared beside him.
Lucidra cheered.
Soon, the young man would show an indescribably shameful display.
“Hmm. Indeed, so this is what it feels like.”
“It's a little awkward, but I think it'll be fine once I get used to it.”
“The mana consumption is manageable too. For normal daily actions, I should be able to keep this going almost indefinitely.”
“Given the structure of temporarily splitting off part of my soul, the original body would also suffer considerable damage if the doppelgänger were destroyed, but with a groundbreaking spell like this, that much is only to be expected.”
“In the end, both sides have to be controlled in real time, so it's a little different from ‘rest’ in the usual sense, but still, where else do you get a separate body for leisure!”
“Yes, yes. Anyway, if I sleep on a magic circle, physical fatigue will quickly disappear. Mental fatigue was the problem, but this should solve that.”
““Thank you, devil whose name I still don't know.””
At the sight of the two young men calmly thanking each other, Lucidra's face stiffened like stone.
“Huh? Eh?”
With a foolish, dazed sound, the young man reached out his hand to her.
“Alondre Arkandel Izeurn. I'm the Crown Prince of the Empire, though I am lacking in many ways. I look forward to working with you. And your name?”
“…Lucidra.”
“Right, Lucidra. You said you wanted to get out of here, didn't you? Then hurry up. I did say I'd spend my time quietly, but even so, if I stay in the library too long, someone suspicious might come in.”
Lucidra had a lot to say.
She genuinely wanted to ask how on earth he could be perfectly fine.
But asking that here would be no different from confessing, ‘I was trying to screw you over.’
In the end, all Lucidra could do was let her cheek twitch and nod.
Her body slowly melted into red mist, then was absorbed into Alondre's shadow, and Alondre, after amusedly looking at his shadow, put the book that had been emptied of its contents back in its place and stepped outside.
***
A few days later.
Lucidra was still following at Alondre's side, hidden inside his shadow.
Because she had failed to force Alondre into an unreasonable contract, her power hadn't fully recovered, and above all, she felt defeated for not being able to handle him as she pleased.
And once again, she was able to realize it.
This human really was strange.
“Hmm, good. This is excellent. What do you think, Lucidra? Isn't it just the very image of a splendid adventurer?”
Alondre's private room.
At the sight of Alondre cheerfully continuing to talk in front of his own doppelgänger, Lucidra was at a loss for words.
That was only natural, because the doppelgänger's appearance had become completely different from before.
Unlike Alondre's blond hair and blue eyes, its hair was red and its eyes brown, and its face was a little younger and more plain.
If Alondre was a handsome man reminiscent of an ancient statue, this one was a youth who had only just shed his boyish looks and was on the somewhat handsome side by village standards.
Unlike Alondre, who wore a dress uniform, he wore rough cloth clothes and leather armor, so no human would ever realize they were the same person.
But what Lucidra truly found shocking was not that.
Simply changing a doppelgänger's appearance wasn't difficult for a devil who had reached a certain level.
The problem was.
The fact that the modifications Alondre had made to the doppelgänger changed not only its appearance, but its contents as well.
“...What did you do while making the doppelgänger?”
“Hmm, since it's a doppelgänger, its overall specs are lower than the main body's in various ways. So instead of leaving it awkwardly able to do a bit of everything, I just specialized it completely for a specific function. In this case, I focused on its role as a swordsman. Physical ability, bodily enhancement efficiency, aura. Well, it can't use magic at all, though.”
Did this man even understand what it meant to freely tear apart a devil's magic and use it however he pleased?
Or had the world changed so much while I was sealed that something like this had become ordinary?
'Whichever it is, it'd be better for now to just gather information at this man's side instead of running around saying I've revived. Even if this man's main body seems to stay in the palace, his separate body will be roaming around outside, so I can watch the world from there.'
Lucidra decided on her course.
“So what's the name of this doppelgänger? You're not planning to go around using your real name, are you?”
The crown prince grinned before answering.
“Bern. I’m Bern, the adventurer.”