Chapter 33
I declined Mea's offer to teach me how to summon her Patron Devil.
Well, it was an expected result.
It was practically impossible for Devil Sorcerers to recklessly increase their Patron Devils.
If I wanted to, I could, but forcibly increasing them like that wouldn't allow me to properly borrow their authority.
To use an analogy, a pact with a Devil was like a company going public.
If I, Roman Sun, were considered the company, then the basic framework of Devil magic would be like going public, giving out stocks (worship, offerings, price) to borrow money (authority).
And what determined the value of the stock was level.
It might be an apt comparison to think of it as the company's value.
In this case, a Devil Sorcerer raising their level to form more pacts with Devils could be seen as issuing new stocks.
However, existing shareholders didn't like new stock being issued because it diluted their shares.
Devils were the same.
From the start, there were cases where forming a pact with a Devil was impossible due to level limitations.
High-ranking Archdevils.
Currently, I had a pact with two of them, leaving no room for additional pacts with other Devils.
Even if there was room, I probably wouldn't form a pact with Mea's Patron Devil anyway.
Why would I form a pact with a Devil from this world when Devils from Earth offer their services free of charge?
Hell, if I know.
But it seemed my rejection of her offer was quite a shock to Mea.
Judging by how she was keeping her mouth tightly shut without saying a word, looking quite dejected.
For a Devil Sorcerer to introduce their Patron, which was their foundation, was truly the greatest gesture of goodwill.
It must have taken a lot of courage for Mea to make that offer, and I might have rejected it too bluntly.
I could have said I'd keep that in mind and maybe form a pact when my level is higher, even if not right away.
Why do good ideas always come too late?
If I were to say that to Mea now, it would sound like empty words just to console her.
An awkward journey continued.
"...There."
"Yes?"
"Plant goblins. They mimic plants to ambush prey. And that's a magnetic beetle. Be careful, it has the power to attract metal."
Mea was an excellent instructor, steadfastly doing her job even in such a situation.
Then, I, too, should live up to those expectations.
Ready, Le?
[Of course, Ro.]
"I'll take care of them right away."
It was essentially my first real combat in the Abyss.
This is an opportunity.
An opportunity to show Mea why I couldn't form a pact with her Patron Devil.
The monsters.
They all died at my hands.
§
Fortunately, the awkwardness disappeared, pushed away by our conversations and diligent training progress.
However, it took a full day for that, and we only returned to normal on the third day.
The initial 1-night 2-day plan for the first training session had long been scrapped, and we had been rushing for days.
And Mea still hadn't slept.
Even when I took the first night watch, Mea just laid there.
It would have been understandable if she was pretending to sleep, but she was openly staring at the sky with wide-open eyes.
So, from the third day in the Abyss, we either openly stayed awake together, or I slept alone.
On the first day, we were too busy watching the quartet to look around.
On the second day, having left the Main Base only a day ago, we were busy being cautious of other explorers we occasionally encountered and tried to ease the awkward air.
It was only on the third day that Mea and I finally had the leisure to appreciate our surroundings.
And today was already the fourth day in the Abyss.
With the sound of burning firewood as white noise, I was absorbed in the paradoxically familiar yet unfamiliar landscape of the Abyss's first floor.
Floating islands drifting leisurely under the dark blue sky and mountain ranges covered in thick shadows of twilight.
The mysteriousness that seemed to draw one in clearly made one realize this was a different world from the outside.
However, one element that should naturally be present in the Abyss was missing.
"Is it because we've come down? There aren't many monsters around."
"There are."
Mea extended her short but thin finger to point at something.
It was a light cloud emitting a soft glow, swaying in the wind.
"Luminous dust mites."
"Ah, is that it?"
When I learned about them at the training center, I thought they were like fireflies, but seeing them in person, they really were just glowing powder.
"They're harmless, so there's debate about whether they should even be classified as monsters."
"They're pretty."
Knowing that they were actually tiny insects made it a bit off-putting, but if one forgot about that, it looked like a slice of aurora placed on the blowing wind.
"It's one of the reasons the first floor is called the Garden."
They were friends of grateful explorers, driving away the darkness of the moonless nights on the first floor.
Providing light to push back the darkness of night and serving as the bottom producer in the food chain of the Abyss's first floor, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that luminous dust mites were responsible for the livelihood of explorers.
However, the relationship between explorers and luminous dust mites wasn't one-sided.
Their relationship went both ways.
Luminous dust mites were both producers and decomposers in the ecosystem.
"...We'll probably arrive tomorrow."
The nickname for a group of luminous dust mites was "swarm of death lights”.
They move following the scent of corpses and consume them as their nutrients.
Of course, from the perspective of luminous dust mites, explorers who brought death were creators of the nutrients they consumed.
Whether explorers killed monsters or monsters killed explorers.
Those light swarms would envelop the corpses and feast on death all the same.
"Mea, how about getting some sleep soon? Even for you, it must be hard to keep going without sleep, right?"
"I'm fine."
"...You've been awake for 4 days straight now."
"I'm an elf."
"It's the price, isn't it? Sleep."
Maybe she didn't expect me to be so direct.
Mea raised her eyes slightly, looking a bit surprised.
But soon, Mea returned to her expressionless face.
Honestly, it wasn't much of a secret.
Refusing sleep this strongly was clearly unusual.
But if one knew Mea was a Devil Sorcerer, it wasn’t that strange.
Devil Sorcerers were always burdened with having to pay Devils something as a price.
Mea, being an elf, was no exception.
And Devil Sorcerers were the kind who struggled desperately to avoid or lessen that price, so Mea's refusal to sleep was part of that.
"...Similar."
If not sleep, then dreams?
It didn't make sense that she couldn't sleep at all.
Mea wasn't unable to sleep, she just chose not to.
It wasn’t that there was a problem with sleep itself, but rather an aversion to the act of sleeping.
Either way, it was a terrible price.
It was essentially no different from giving up 30% of your life.
Humans needed to sleep at least 7 hours a day.
Humans were a species that spent 1/3 of their life sleeping.
Mea's situation might be a bit different since she was an elf.
But even so, the fact that sleep was a necessity didn't change.
"Is this the Devil's price you were going to tell me about?"
"...Yeah."
Mea spoke in a dejected voice.
Maybe she felt bad for not revealing the price of the Devil whose summoning method she had offered to teach me.
Though I had cut her off before she even had a chance to tell me.
"It's dreams. My Patron Devil takes dreams as payment. All that's left are nightmares."
So that’s why she’s trying not to sleep.
For her to refuse sleep to such an extent, those nightmares must be terribly severe.
"Still, this much is a decent price. It doesn't take away lifespan or cause permanent physical damage."
"When you put it that way, it does sound okay."
Two cool wolf summons at the price of nightmares seems like quite a good deal...?
"This much is really good for a Devil. It's a high-ranking Devil with a title. A baron, but still."
Mea had been trying to emphasize that her Patron Devil was exceptionally capable and reasonable among Devils in terms of ability and price, but unfortunately, my standards had become too high.
For me, who had become unsatisfied with anything that wasn't free, paying any price at all was an unacceptable outrage.
In my heart, I was just practicing saying, "It's okay," to Mea while listening to her explanation for a while.
At some point, Mea's voice suddenly cut off.
Mea had fallen asleep.
Is it because her tension had eased?
Or is it some hidden trap in the price that even Mea didn't know about?
Putting that aside, after staying up for over 4 nights, it was about time she collapsed.
It was 4 days from what I had seen, but it might have been even longer if she had been avoiding sleep before that.
I laid Mea down properly, as she had fallen asleep suddenly and was in an awkward position.
Not long after, incomprehensible words came out of Mea's mouth along with groans as sleep talk.
Mea was almost delirious.
Like someone with a high fever.
Cold sweat trickled down her forehead, a frown adorned her face, and shivers engulfed her body.
"It's severe."
I wiped away Mea's cold sweat.
Fortunately, there was no fever, probably because she was just suffering from nightmares.
[Shall I help?]
"Is it possible?"
[Hmm, it is difficult to interfere with a legitimate Devil's pact that is taking its price, but it is not impossible.]
As expected of Seir, the Lord of Hell.
A dignity befitting her rank of Duchess.
[Not me, Leraje!]
...Oh, O' Great Marquis of Hell!
[Why? Want to help?]
"Yeah. Please."
[It's simple. Just add one more tanghulu next time you summon me. Got it?]
Of course, consider it done.
Just a moment ago, I was thinking that nightmares were a very reasonable, cheap, and cost-effective price for a high-ranking titled Devil, but the Great Marquis's price was just a few tanghulu?
Loyalty, loyalty.
There's no one for me but you, my Devilish Ladies!
§
The moment she opened her eyes, Mea sensed something was wrong.
Whoosh!
Mea immediately sat up.
The blanket covering her body flew off with her rough movement, but Mea had no time to care about that.
Did I... sleep? When? For how long?
She didn't want to sleep.
Because she hated the nightmares that forcibly dredged up those terrible memories and shoved them before her eyes.
Nightmares that made her experience the memories she wanted to forget.
And above all, she feared the intense emptiness that followed.
Of all times, now...!
She hadn't descended into the Abyss for too long.
It was said that fatigue accumulated in the Abyss even if one just stayed still.
She had arrogantly warned others to be careful because it was completely different from the surface, but she herself had failed to manage it.
At a time like this…?
"Are you awake?"
"Huh?"
"Did you sleep well?"
Did I sleep well?
When you clearly know about my price.
I told you that having nightmares is my price, and now...
"Eh?"
It was comfortable.
The sweat that always soaked her whole body when she slept, the numbness felt throughout her body from tossing and turning during sleep, the confusion that felt like it would break from the remnants of nightmares, all of it was gone.
There was nothing problematic at all.
Rather, she felt refreshed.
How long had it been?
This refreshing feeling after a good night's sleep.
It was something from the past that she couldn't even remember anymore.
"You..."
"Let's have breakfast and get going soon."
"No, that's not the point...!"
Sleep was one thing, but the problem didn't end there.
Mea hadn't told Roman, but the price she had to pay wasn't just one dream.
Just as Roman had pacts with two devils, Seir and Leraje, Mea also had formed pacts with multiple Devils.
One of those prices was even more fatal than nightmares.
Mea frantically searched for and opened her notebook.
Then she started reading the contents she had recorded quickly yet accurately from the first page.
When she had skimmed through to the last record with speed reading.
Mea's mind became even more confused.
"Why...?"
I remember everything, don't I?