“Huh? Three? Authorities? Why?”
The demon spewed questions as if she had broken down.
Well, it certainly wasn’t something ordinary.
After all, according to the demon, an ordinary angel usually received one of the three categories of Authority.
‘But I have three of them.’
It was unprecedented. I was flustered, but it wasn’t as though I couldn’t guess the reason at all.
‘The divine power is completely mine now.’
Other angels would have had to borrow what belonged to another, while I had ownership.
Perhaps the gap had opened from that difference.
If so, it wasn’t that strange.
It was certainly bewildering, but it wasn’t without reason. And it wasn’t a bad thing, either. If it was good, then it was good.
When I came to terms with it inwardly, the demon cried out in even greater bewilderment.
“Why are you so calm! I said you have three Authorities! This is impossible!”
“I understand that it’s astonishing. But……”
“No, to begin with, at the archangel level, you can’t handle all three Authorities! Normally, if you tried that, your mind would melt down completely……”
The demon blinked her bright yellow pupils and looked at me.
Her gaze was fixed on the two pairs of wings on my back.
“At the archangel level, that is……”
“……”
“But you have two pairs of wings…?”
The demon murmured as if possessed by something.
The number of wings was something close to a certificate.
They had no ability in and of themselves, but they proved just how much divine power that angel could wield.
“…Would it be possible with two pairs? No, even so, it should be difficult to endure……”
The demon muttered to herself for a while, then soon asked me.
“Do you feel anything strange right now? Like dizziness, or maybe goodwill suddenly welling up inside you…!”
“No, I don’t think there’s anything like that.”
“Really? Truly?”
“…Yes.”
I nodded, looking a little reluctant.
Only then did the demon let out a deep sigh and slump her shoulders.
“Well… if there’s no problem. I suppose there’s no need for me to keep arguing about it.”
“……”
“And you… you have some idea why, don’t you?”
“…Yes.”
The demon nodded.
It was a gesture that she would not ask any more about the matter.
“…Then that’s fine. If it’s good, it’s good, I suppose. But haaa……”
“What’s wrong?”
“No, it’s just… I was thinking things have gone a little differently from what I planned.”
The demon’s bright yellow pupils flickered like flames.
She rested her chin on her hand as if pondering, then soon exhaled deeply as though she had reached a conclusion.
“Make a contract with me.”
“A contract… you say?”
At those words, I took a step back.
They were not words that sounded purely pleasant.
Because in old stories, the end of those who made contracts with demons was always ruin.
In truth, there was no need to bring up old stories.
Just look at the president of this country. That person, whether it had been a man or a woman, had paid the price by having even their existence erased.
“That’s a bit… uncomfortable.”
“Why! Do you know how much I’ve done for you!”
“To begin with, I came here because you said you would teach me knowledge without receiving anything in return. And now you’re asking me to make a contract?”
I had come here because she said she had no intention of demanding anything from me.
But at my words, the demon gave a hollow snort as if I were being absurd.
“How naïve. Where in this world is there goodwill that asks for no price?”
“……”
“No matter how great the cause, no one would bestow important knowledge without personally wanting something in return.”
The demon murmured so.
She wasn’t wrong. The idea that there was goodwill without a price in this world was far too naïve.
If anything, the one who said such things would look the most suspicious.
But that was that.
I had no intention whatsoever of paying an additional charge that had not been on the menu as a tip.
No matter how much someone appealed to my sympathy, I couldn’t act as their guarantor.
Besides, there was one more thing I found questionable.
“Weren’t you the one who wanted to avoid a contract in the first place?”
“…Why do you think that?”
“Because you didn’t tell me your name. You didn’t seem to have any intention of telling me, either.”
A true name was required in order to make a contract. Even I knew that much.
But the demon had refused to tell me her name.
Rather, she had even asked me to give her a name, saying she wanted to become family.
‘Han Sera, was it?’
It was a truly ridiculous name. Though I had given her that name, I had not once called her that, not even inwardly.
Because her intentions had been far too obvious.
Her intention not to tell me her true name.
“…There was no need. No need to tell you my name. Demons and angels aren’t exactly next-door neighbors, are we?”
“……”
“To us, a name is our essence. You could say it’s like a heart. There are far too many things one can do with just a name. In my position as a demon, I could hardly entrust my heart to an angel.”
I could not deny those words.
The demon had not only refrained from teaching me her own name, but she had also not asked for mine.
To be precise, when I had tried to say it, the demon had stopped me.
“…Then is there some reason you’re changing your attitude now?”
“Well……”
The demon drew out the end of her sentence.
For an instant, her bright yellow pupils curved, and she smiled with her eyes.
“Because I saw a possibility.”
“……”
“A possibility that would make me into me.”
I could not understand what she meant.
When I frowned, the demon laughed heartily as though it was nothing and continued speaking.
“Well, decide whether you’ll do it after hearing the contents of the contract.”
“I’ll hear you out, at least. But I still have no intention of……”
“I’ll confirm your fate. The fate in which you and your younger sister are reunited unharmed.”
This was… not something I could possibly ignore.
It was not hard to guess that this demon had once been an angel, and that she likely possessed Authority of the Revelation category.
Revelation-type Authority was an ability related to the future and fate. Therefore, the demon should have the power to uphold what she had stated as the terms of the contract.
“…This isn’t some wordplay, is it? Like your standard for ‘unharmed’ being slightly off.”
“Of course not, I’d like to declare, but… you won’t trust a promise made only with words, will you?”
The demon strode toward me.
I did not sense hostility in the action itself, so I let it happen.
The demon approached and brought her lips to my ear, then whispered.
—……
The whisper was brief.
The demon immediately took a large step back.
“…What was that just now……”
A smile rested on the demon’s face as she stood one step away.
Her bright yellow pupils were not drawing arcs as they had before, and yet I could not shake the feeling that she was smiling.
“My name.”
“……”
“That was my name.”
There was something the demon had mentioned before.
To demons and angels, a name was no different from a heart.
The demon had all but handed me her heart.
And at a point when I had not even said I would make the contract.
“Why would you……”
“To give you trust. Isn’t it usually the desperate party who yields?”
“…Just what do you want, that you would go this far?”
The demon smiled and said,
“Before that, let me add one more thing to what I’ll give you. I’ll also hand over knowledge such as holy arts and ways to use Authority.”
“…Wasn’t that something you were originally going to hand over?”
“It’s easier if I hand it over through a contract. There’s no need to put it into words; the knowledge simply transfers over.”
The demon shrugged.
“Well, I’m just including that while I’m at it. Even if we don’t make a contract, I’ll teach you, so don’t worry too much.”
“…Enough. Tell me what you want.”
“Hu-hut, very well. What I want is……”
At that moment, the demon’s form collapsed.
I was startled for an instant, but soon realized what had happened.
To be precise, it was the body of the agent the demon had possessed that had collapsed.
The bright yellow pupils, like the very symbol of the demon, floated in midair.
—Whoosh!
Darkness surged in from the surroundings. This time, even my light could not drive it back.
The gathered darkness formed the shape of a woman, and then……
[My name.]
The demon opened her mouth.
[If you reach the rank of a high-grade angel, call my name then.]
It was a modest condition.
“That’s really… all?”
The demon nodded obediently.
As if to reassure me, she added,
[It will not harm the world, people, or this land.]
“…There had better be no lie in those words.”
[Does that mean…?]
“Yes, I accept.”
One should not make a contract with a demon.
That thought had not changed. But I also did not think that the being before my eyes was the stereotype that appeared in old stories.
This demon was a being who had once been an angel.
Perhaps one I could even call my senior.
And since such a being had offered me her heart first… it was worth trusting her at least a little.
The demon reached her hand out to me.
That hand was made of darkness, but it was no different from a human body.
Fine palm lines were drawn across her palm, and fingerprints like a human’s were engraved at the tips of her fingers.
Why did even a body deliberately made of darkness show such features?
Why did she take on a form like a human despite not being human……?
Swallowing those thoughts, I reached my hand out toward the demon in return.
—Clasp.
The contract with the demon was established.