At those words, I looked around.
The other team members were also looking at me and the agent as if they found it strange.
Even amid all that, the agent’s gaze showed no sign of leaving me.
“…So, you want to see me. Excluding the other team members, you’re specifically asking for me.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Who on earth is it?”
There was far too much left out of the agent’s explanation.
But the agent shook his head at my question and answered.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot answer that.”
I clicked my tongue at that.
What kind of situation was this supposed to be?
As I stared at him in disbelief, the agent added, as if making an excuse.
“…I can tell you once the security measures are complete. You may decide whether to answer the summons then.”
Just how important was the person who had called for me, for them to start talking about security measures?
For a moment I wondered if it might be the president, but I’d heard that man had been annihilated.
That… what was it again, the price of a contract with a demon?
‘Then who is it? Honestly, even the president was just a wild guess. I can’t think of anyone.’
I let out a deep sigh and looked around. Old Man Owlbear, who had been watching me mull it over, spoke.
“It may not be a bad idea to go and find out. Connections are always a great help.”
“……”
The team members’ opinions seemed, for the most part, to follow Old Man Owlbear’s.
It would be better to go once. Since I could decide later whether to go or not anyway, I should at least find out who was calling me. That was about the gist of it.
It was certainly a reasonable point, so I nodded.
“…Then, well. I’ll at least hear the name first.”
At my words, the agent nodded.
“Then I will guide you.”
*
The security procedure did not take long.
It wasn’t anything special, just something close to the usual security screening at an airport.
I’d gone through that kind of thing a few times before, so it ended fairly easily.
That was the case for me, at least. On the other hand, the agent seemed to have quite a lot to do.
I couldn’t take a close look, but even long after I had finished the procedure, he still hadn’t come out.
‘…Hmm.’
In the meantime, I looked around.
The place the agent had guided me to was a temporary building that looked like a container.
Naturally, that important person was not here. They had said this place was simply where they would tell me who had called for me.
‘…Just who called me, that they’re this careful about even saying the name aloud?’
For an ordinary politician or high-ranking military official, it felt strangely excessive.
Honestly, I wasn’t even going to meet them yet, only hear their name. Did they really have to go this far?
In any case, as I sat in one of the chairs placed inside the container, the agent finally came in after completing his procedure.
With a creak, the container’s iron door opened.
The agent who entered looked even paler than before. I couldn’t tell whether he had been interrogated somewhere beyond that door, or whether the so-called security procedure was the kind that stripped a person’s soul bare.
As soon as he came in, he took a small device out of his inner pocket and swept it along the wall.
Only after several faint mechanical sounds went zing did he let out a short sigh and undo a button.
“……I apologize for keeping you waiting. The procedures are extremely strict.”
“You’re making such a fuss it’s embarrassing to watch. Is hearing a three-syllable name some kind of state secret?”
At my sarcasm, the agent gave a bitter smile instead of replying. He sat in the chair across from me and took an encrypted tablet out of his briefcase.
“Unfortunately, yes. This person is more precious than all of our lives combined. Ah, of course, you are an exception, Yujin.”
“…Mm.”
I couldn’t tell what the agent meant by that.
Hearing him speak to that extent, he almost looked like a fanatic brainwashed by some cult.
Tap, tap.
The agent’s fingers moved busily over the tablet screen. As if going through several stages of authentication, the light from the screen flickered beyond his glasses.
At last, once the tablet seemed to finish loading, the agent raised his head and stared straight at me.
“Then, since all procedures have been completed, I will tell you. The one who currently wishes to see you, Yujin, is……”
“……”
“A demon.”
A bizarre and absurd name popped out of the agent’s mouth.
No, it was not a name. It was closer to the name of a race.
“…Excuse me?”
Flustered, I asked again.
A demon.
It was an extremely bewildering name, but it was not something I had never heard of at all.
After all, I knew very well that a being called that had annihilated the president.
However, in other words, that was also the extent of what I knew.
“Could that person be a mutant like me?”
“No. That person was born a demon and has existed for a very long time, since an age so ancient we cannot fathom it.”
In that case, they weren’t even human, and in the end, they had been a demon from birth……
‘To be honest, that doesn’t sound all that good.’
It wasn’t as though I knew the concept of demons all that well.
Still, didn’t the name itself carry a negative feeling?
Fond of deceiving others, cunning… things roughly like that.
As countless old tales taught, keeping such beings close usually led to ruin.
Perhaps sensing my reluctance, the agent opened his mouth.
“I understand. It must not sound particularly pleasant.”
“Yes… well. There’s someone who was annihilated right away, too.”
“Even so, I recommend that you meet them at least once.”
Of course those words would come from the mouth of an agent who served under them.
When I looked at him with that in my eyes, the agent spoke as if to explain himself.
“Please do not misunderstand. That person is not trying to propose some kind of deal to you, Yujin. It is quite the opposite.”
“It’s not a deal?”
“Yes. That person wishes to provide you with information unilaterally, Yujin. Without payment or conditions.”
I let out a hollow laugh. There was no such thing as free in this world. And when the other party was supposedly a demon, information without a price? What could sound more suspicious than that?
“And you expect me to believe that? Is the demon running a charity?”
“It would be best to hear that directly from them. However, the information that person wishes to provide is extremely valuable.”
I jerked my chin as if to say I would hear it out.
The agent began listing the information that could be provided.
“Information on the being that created the Blackout Zones, a method to handle divine power more efficiently and attain a realm, your younger sister’s current location, and so on……”
“…Han Yuri?”
My younger sister’s name slipped from my mouth.
Perhaps my composure wavered for an instant, because I nearly kicked my chair back and stood up.
The agent’s gaze remained serious. For someone supposedly trying to shake another person’s mind with lies, his attitude was far too specific and confident.
“…The information you say can be provided right now. You didn’t just spout that to get my attention, did you?”
“Yes. Of course not.”
“…Damn it.”
Even just the three pieces of information the agent had mentioned were far too valuable to me.
If they had information on the being that created the Blackout Zones, we could clearly define what we were fighting against.
On top of that, a way to handle divine power more efficiently and attain a realm.
That, too, was information I desperately needed.
Honestly, my ability was not all that impressive.
Its rarity and importance could not be denied, but that was all.
Compared to the boundless potential I sensed in divine power, my utilization of it fell terribly short.
In truth, rather than saying I utilized it, it was closer to saying I used it instinctively.
Every single one of those was important information, and all of it was exactly what I needed, but……
‘They said they’d also tell me the location of Han Yuri, that bitch……’
My attention was completely fixed on that.
The reason I had decided to enter the Blackout Zone.
‘…If that’s the case, should I accept?’
The choice was far too enticing.
It would fill what I lacked, while the price I had to pay was essentially nonexistent.
There was only one reason I hesitated over this choice.
The ominousness of the word demon.
That was all……
My deliberation did not last long.
“…Yes. I’ll meet them once.”
At those words, the agent smiled broadly and operated the laptop.
However, that smile was not normal.
How should I put it? The corners of his mouth rose to an eerily great length. It was the kind of image that would appear in ghost stories from long ago.
Even his sharply set sunglasses were bending in a wavering curve, as if they were melting.
“…What is suddenly……”
Flustered by the sudden change, I took two steps back.
Because of that, the chair I had been sitting in toppled over with a creak.
“Mm, hmm……”
A sound close to humming flowed from the agent’s mouth.
But it was not his original adult male voice. It was a voice that seemed to blend the voices of men and women, old people and children.
The agent—no, could I still call that thing an agent?
He was possessed by something.
And as for what that something was… it was probably the demon.
The demon looked at me. Above the pitch-black sunglasses, a pale yellow light flashed in its eyes.
Soon, it opened its mouth.
“Mmm, hello, hello! I’ve really wanted to see you, and now I finally do! Just as I heard, you’re truly adorable!”