Should I call it anticipation?
There is an image demons are supposed to live up to.
Gentlemanly, arrogant, cruel…….
Blink, blink.
The demon’s bright yellow eyes blinked as though flickering on and off.
The sight itself was utterly harmless. More precisely, compared to its intimidating appearance, the lightness of its behavior felt out of place.
‘…Is this really a demon?’
At the strange sense of cognitive dissonance, I dredged up every bit of knowledge I had about demons.
Beings that make contracts with humans and ultimately lead them down the path of corruption and ruin.
Of course, there were probably other methods, but the method wasn’t what mattered.
The reason demons went out of their way to lead people to ruin. If I had to say why…….
‘In the end, isn’t it all to screw over God?’
As far as I knew, their essence lay in stirring up trouble.
It might sound like a bit of a leap, but in other words, they were the kind of bastards who went around spreading shitposts just to screw over the administrator called God.
Indeed, only after my thoughts reached that point could I understand the entire situation.
Troublemaking never needs a reason.
—Thud.
While I was coming to that conclusion on my own, the demon reached a hand out to me.
I stared blankly, unable to understand what the gesture meant, and the demon waved its hand vigorously.
‘…It wants me to shake it… I guess?’
Only then did I take the demon’s hand.
As if that was exactly what it had wanted, the demon shook my hand hard.
“Ahem! Then, since we’ve exchanged greetings, shall we try introducing ourselves?”
The demon spoke in a cheerful voice.
Though that was only its tone; because its voice was inherently bizarre, it carried a strange sense of pressure.
“…Didn’t you already introduce yourself to some extent through the agent?”
At my words, the demon smiled meaningfully.
“Hehe, to think the day would come when I’d hear polite speech from that angel! Well, putting that aside… do you even know my name?”
Unfortunately, I knew very little about demons.
In other words, all I knew was the information I had heard from the agent a moment ago.
But wasn’t a name something very important to a demon?
Perhaps sensing my doubt, the demon added,
“Of course! I’m not going to tell you my true name. Even the one beyond those heavens doesn’t know that.”
“Then…….”
“But a name is something that must be put forward for the sake of communication. You can’t keep calling me ‘demon’ forever, can you?”
That made me flinch a little.
Because I didn’t know the name of the agent whose body the demon had taken over. I had only ever called him the agent.
“Hmm… then what would be good? Coming up with names is just so hard.”
“…….”
“So, how about you decide one for me?”
The demon asked that with eyes that seemed subtly expectant.
I wondered what the hell this was supposed to be, but the one holding the information was on that side.
…I had no choice but to play along.
“…Do you have a preferred format?”
“Well… Ah, I want to become like family with you! So I’d like a name with the same surname as yours!”
What kind of move was this now?
I wondered whether there was some hidden intention behind it… then soon gave up.
Because if I didn’t name it here, I had a feeling this would drag on for no reason.
“How about… Han Sera?”
“That’s nice! What does it mean?”
“…I didn’t really take that kind of thing into consideration.”
It was closer to a name I had just blurted out as it came to mind.
Was it supposed to have some kind of meaning?
For a moment, I felt worried about that, but unexpectedly, the demon seemed satisfied.
“Good. Sometimes, I’ve wanted a name with no meaning at all. Now I can introduce myself! I’m Han Sera!”
“I am…….”
“Shh.”
The demon raised an index finger with a mischievous look in its eyes.
It had told me to introduce myself, so what was this sudden action?
As I wondered that, the demon giggled and said,
“Hehe… you really are innocent, aren’t you? How can you try to tell a demon your name so casually!”
“…I mean, don’t you already know it?”
“That’s true, but… seeing a name in writing and hearing it from the person’s own mouth are vastly different things.”
Mm, I had no idea what it meant.
Perhaps my thoughts showed on my face, because the demon laughed wildly and continued.
“Truly, truly, it seems that person didn’t tell you anything…! Goodness, how unlucky…….”
“…….”
“But don’t worry! Isn’t the whole point of family that it’s nice to have? If there’s anything you’re curious about, say whatever you like! I’ll resolve it for you.”
The demon’s bright yellow eyes curved into crescents.
I had forgotten because of its frantic attitude, but the demon had said it came to deliver information to me.
In effect, we were now returning to the main point… so I immediately asked the question I was most curious about.
“…First, my younger sister. Where is that bitch right now?”
“Mm, not a difficult question. I wanted you to ask about your nature first, but… well. I suppose this was what you were most curious about. Your younger sister is at Starlight Pocha right now.”
The demon answered as if it were nothing.
I wondered where Starlight Pocha was… and then realized it was the bar in Gangnam where my younger sister had last gone.
…In other words, it was wordplay.
“I have no intention of joking around. I…….”
“Your question was wrong. Don’t you think you asked something far too obvious? Your younger sister must be somewhere in the Blackout Zone right now, and naturally, that place would be where she was last reported missing.”
…It wasn’t wrong.
The demon’s bright yellow eyes were still curved into crescents.
It looked utterly relaxed. Its attitude said I could ask again as many times as I liked.
I briefly gathered my thoughts… then asked again.
“…Then. Is that bitch alive right now?”
“It lacks detail, but… still, not bad. Han Yuri, your younger sister, is alive and well right now. Not as a mimic beast or some other monster, but alive and well as a human. Of course, she has undergone mutation.”
“Huuu…….”
The moment I heard those words, a sigh escaped me on its own. Like air escaping from a balloon filled to its limit.
The demon watched me, then added,
“Additionally, you probably don’t need to be that tense. Your sister is fairly at ease. She has plenty of supplies, and there aren’t any major difficulties. At least, not yet. I can’t guarantee it will stay that way.”
“…But is that even possible? When you put it like that, it only sounds more suspicious.”
“It’s possible. The monsters lurking inside the Blackout Zone are hostile to humans… but that doesn’t mean everything in the Blackout Zone is hostile to humans.”
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
I tried to recall the situation inside the Blackout Zone.
No matter how I thought about it, that place had felt like nothing but endless malice toward humans.
Darkness so thick you couldn’t see an inch ahead, hindering humans who depended mostly on visual information. And on top of that… even a human wall made up entirely of people.
As I recalled all of that, the demon spoke in a subtle voice.
“But try to remember. In everything you experienced there, did you truly feel only malice?”
“That’s…….”
It was the moment I was about to say, of course.
Before I could utter anything, the demon shook its head first.
“Think carefully once more. There must have been a moment when you received help as well.”
At those words, I frowned.
What help could I possibly have received in there…….
‘…No, there was a time I did.’
I spoke the word that suddenly came to mind.
“…The elevator.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
The demon affirmed it.
Inside the Blackout Zone, the elevator had been a suspicious existence.
It had served as the only passage that could connect to other floors.
Of course, up until the middle, that was all it had amounted to…….
‘But the very end was different.’
When I purified the pregnant woman and lost consciousness.
The reason we were able to leave the third floor and head to the fourth floor, where the exit was, was none other than the elevator.
For us, who had been unable to find a way up, it had been more like a lifeline lowered from above.
‘I can’t be sure that was goodwill.’
I had seen and heard far too much to simply regard it that way.
But… that action itself did not feel like malice either.
The demon stretched its body out long as if loosening up and said,
“Anyway, your younger sister is enjoying something similar to that. You could call her lucky.”
“…For now, I’ll believe you when you say Yuri is alive and well.”
I would acknowledge the possibility that Yuri could have survived.
But that didn’t mean the demon’s words were entirely convincing.
“But it’s hard to accept that the Blackout Zone itself isn’t hostile. If it weren’t hostile in the first place, there would be no reason to kill people so brutally and violate them even after death.”
Even if there were some exceptions, overall, the Blackout Zone was clearly hostile to humans.
In the end, the monsters came pouring out of that place.
Meaning that place was the cause of all the tragedies.
At my words, the demon shuddered.
“…That’s why it’s frightening.”
“…….”
“The ones who caused the Blackout Zone do things like that, despite not being hostile.”