Devil.
The pair of black horns rising from his head towered like an emperor’s crown.
Beneath those horns hung a familiar smile, a benevolent curve of the lips like that of a good-natured noble fond of social gatherings.
His bearing was dignified and neat, like a lion’s, and the fine suit he wore, faintly burning as if it held the heat of a volcano, flaunted his presence to the world around him.
“Ah, ah. It has been quite some time since I spoke with vocal cords, like humans do…”
More than anything, that smell.
A thick reek of sulfur, as if sinners had been thrown into lava and boiled once over, was numbing my nose.
“Hmm. A taciturn guest, are you? Might you perhaps be under a curse that prevents you from speaking?”
The devil asked me with a smile, as though he would truly find it delightful if what he had said were true.
Unable to endure the clear sign that he genuinely enjoyed the suffering of others, I opened my mouth.
“…Why have you appeared?”
“Aha! Fortunately, you can speak? What a relief. Is there not only one reason a devil appears? To make a contract with you, of course.”
At my question, the devil put on an exaggerated expression as though performing onstage and bowed his head to me.
“And to think you would use honorifics with a devil such as I. The character of one so noble shines like gold! I, Aviyan, am truly grateful to have met you.”
“…If you intend to answer my question with jokes, I’ll simply leave.”
“No, no. Is that not far too hasty a decision? Please refrain from making such a foolish choice, like a parent who rushes off to work unaware that their family is ill, is ground away as a part in a factory, and only in the end embraces the cold body of their dead child in regret.”
“…”
The strangely specific description was unpleasant.
What the hell.
“Seeing as you have not taken a step away, may I assume you will continue this meeting with me, noble one?”
“…You forcibly moved my body. How could I possibly have the ability to refuse?”
“Oh! No! I always offer contracts fairly and equally. No coercion or violence can enter into the process, because…”
At that point, the devil narrowed his eyes for a moment and tilted his head.
“…That would be no fun, would it?”
“Fun?”
“Indeed! Fun! The reason we live! Everything!! Do you know how many devils run about day and night solely for the sake of fun? We run faster than the church’s dogs, you know. Fast enough for our feet to catch fire! Haha!”
The devil spoke with sincere laughter, as though he found his own joke amusing.
From the way I saw it, if that devil ever did stand-up comedy, he would go under in no time.
“Hmm, it seems you were bored. Since you are thinking of something else, shall we move quickly to the main point?”
Snap!
The instant the devil snapped his fingers, space “stopped.”
The direction of the wind.
The burning of the flames.
Even the smell of sulfur.
Gape, gape.
I opened my mouth to say something, but no voice came out.
Perhaps that sight was quite funny to the devil, because he smiled and kindly explained to me.
“Haha, in this state, only I can move! Only I can rewind.”
Rewind?
No sooner had that question occurred to me than the space that had been frozen began to flow all at once.
No, should I even call this flowing?
The wind that had been blowing forward returned backward.
The flames burning atop the firewood went back into the wood.
The sulfur smell that had stung my nose returned out of it.
A miracle that reversed cause and effect, making the result that had occurred into something that had never happened.
Instinctively, I “saw” the result of what the devil had accomplished with a snap of his fingers, and I could not hide my shock.
He could turn back time?
As if he had noticed my astonishment, the devil spoke this time with a pleased smile.
“Mm. Fortunately, you seem to be quite sharp, so I won’t need to explain separately. What a relief.”
“?emit kcab nrut nac uoY”
“Ah, I had not applied it to you yet.”
Snap!
“You can turn back time—ah, what the hell.”
“Indeed. My epithet is He Who Walks Backward! If you make a contract with me, I shall grant you the ability to turn time backward.”
“…”
“Do you now find yourself with a reason to consider it seriously?”
***
“Oh my, thank you so much! Mage!”
“It was nothing.”
Prrr!
Squeak, squeak, squeak!
Between the hooves of the enormous white horse, a black-scorched rat was struggling, trying to slip free.
“Oh, no wonder. The amount of grain disappearing along the way was far too large! The livestock we lead don’t eat grain, and the workers wouldn’t steal in such an obvious way either, so we were puzzled. It’s fortunate we met you, Mage!”
“As expected, it’s a splitting rat. If you don’t catch the main body, its clones keep splitting endlessly. It’s a relief we caught it quickly.”
Squeak! Squeak!
The rat trapped between the hooves thrashed even harder, as though it knew the mage was talking about it.
“Goodness, it seems that lately, the closer we get to the Holy City, the more frequent mystical disasters have become. It certainly wasn’t like this last year… I wonder if something has happened in the Holy City?”
“I’m not sure. Nothing major should have happened. It was the same as usual until I left.”
“…I see.”
The caravan manager did not dare question the mage’s words and simply nodded his head.
Then he looked at the black rat still caught beneath the enormous horse’s hoof and opened his mouth.
“What do you intend to do with that creature? If you wish, you may sell it to us.”
“It seems you know a merchant who can sell mystical creatures.”
“Yes. My cousin is involved in that line of work… Do you perhaps know a shop called Falemk’s Cage? I hear it’s doing quite well in District 6…”
“I don’t know much about District 6, as you know.”
“Ah, of course. Since you are a mage, I suppose you do not often grace District 6 with your presence. I brought up something unnecessary.”
The mage merely shrugged and kept her words brief, but perhaps there were circumstances that could be understood from that alone, because the caravan manager nodded again as though he understood.
“It would be presumptuous of me to make any further offers. Then, since you have caught the rat harming our caravan, I shall give you a reward.”
The caravan manager stopped paying attention to the rat struggling below and handed her a small pouch from his breast.
“We spent nearly all the cash we had in order to purchase grain this time. Therefore, this is all we have to offer as compensation.”
The mage carefully accepted the pouch the manager gave her and immediately opened it.
Inside were angular minerals that looked like transparent beads, each one nestled together.
“They are high-grade reaction stones. I was told that mages prefer mystical items like these over ordinary money…”
Even as he said that, the manager cautiously examined her face in case the mage’s mood might be disturbed. When he saw her give a slight nod, he let out an unnoticeable sigh.
“…This is nice. I understand that even the shop I often visit doesn’t have such items in stock. How did you get them?”
“We purchased them in the past from people who had excavated some ruins. Perhaps they had urgent business, because they handed these items over to our caravan for a pittance. So we kept them. As you know, with items like these, it is useful in many ways to hold onto them rather than sell them on the market.”
“Ruins, huh. Certainly, only ruins would yield something like this. I’ll put them to good use.”
After saying that, the mage placed the small pouch containing the reaction stones into her breast, and the caravan manager gestured toward the place where their wagons were.
“Then, since the work is done, how about tasting some of the food we have? You said you would leave at dawn, did you not? Would it not be better to eat a hearty meal before you go?”
“…Thank you for your kindness. Usually, ordinary people are quite wary of people like us, but you are kind.”
“Haha, as I said before, my cousin is involved in that line of work, so I have fewer prejudices against mages than ordinary people do.”
The caravan manager, speaking smoothly, guided the mage toward the seats, while the mage, wearing a faint smile at that rare kindness and placing the splitting rat that had been pinned under the horse’s hoof into her pouch, suddenly went stiff-faced and stopped moving.
Then she quickly raised herself up and stared intently in one direction.
“…”
“…Mage? Why have you suddenly—”
“Sulfur.”
“Pardon?”
“I smell sulfur.”
Having said that, the mage turned her head and quickly threw a question at the flustered caravan manager.
“By any chance, your caravan isn’t transporting items dealing with gunpowder in addition to grain, is it?”
“Oh my! What a dreadful thing to say! Even a passing child knows that if a caravan that isn’t an imperial one transports items related to gunpowder, it will be in serious trouble! We absolutely never touch such things!”
“That would make sense. I checked earlier, and there was no sign of anything related to gunpowder… In that case, tsk! It’s a devil.”
As if she had an idea of what it might be, the mage stopped speaking midway, climbed onto the back of the heavenly horse that had been watching her from nearby, and began to gallop at full speed.
From behind her came the caravan manager’s desperate cry—“Mage! What do you mean, a devil?!”—but right now she had no time to worry about him.
She had to intervene before the seed she had brought with her made an irreversible contract with a devil.
Before becoming mages, foolish seeds could accept an absurd price and become slaves to devils for all eternity.