Thankfully? Before my back could hurt any worse, Isil released her embrace, freeing me from that awkward posture.
As I rubbed my waist and loosened up, Isil—perhaps embarrassed about having hugged me—turned both cheeks crimson, hung her head low, and properly wiped the remaining tear stains from her cheeks with her sleeve.
Finding her appearance so cute, I unconsciously flashed a mischievous smile and spoke.
"For someone feeling embarrassed, that was quite a bold hug, don't you think?"
"...Don't tease me, Jin. My emotions got the better of me for a moment, so I couldn't help it..."
Isil looked at my face, brimming with amusement, with a sullen expression, then soon exhaled and spoke.
"...Anyway, thank you for saying that. It's been so long since I heard such warm words from another person that tears came out before I knew it."
"Ah, the people here certainly have trouble being honest. You could say they have pointless pride."
"Pride?"
"I mean they often blurt out things they don't mean for the sake of appearances, pretending otherwise. My younger sister does it too—ignoring her own feelings and saying things like 'I have such-and-such reputation to uphold, so I must speak this way.' It's suffocating just listening to her."
"...You had a younger sister?"
"Hm? Yes."
I quietly watched Isil as she suddenly showed a gloomy expression at the mention of me having a younger sister.
Did crying make her emotions fluctuate this quickly?
Could she have experienced something bad related to a younger sister?
Infant mortality is extremely high in this world. She might have had a deceased sibling, for all I know.
"...Um, Jin."
Fortunately, just as I was struggling to figure out what to say about her gloomy expression, she composed herself first and spoke to me.
"Can I ask you something I'm curious about too?"
"...Sure, what are you curious about?"
"T-that... book."
She glanced over.
While seated in the chair, Isil raised her slender finger and pointed at the thick white book resting on the desk beside the bed.
"Where did you get that?"
"Uh... why? Does it feel like it's not an ordinary book?"
"Yes, it smells very faintly of sulfur... like a demon's belonging."
"Ah, so you can sense that?"
Isil studied my face for a moment as I returned her question without much agitation, then slowly parted her lips and explained.
"...Witches generally have a lot of contact with demons. Witches can bring demons the innocent people they desire, and demons impart various knowledge to witches—such as 'curses,' for example."
"Demons want the souls of the innocent?"
"...To be precise, they want souls capable of resonating with Ether, but the Empire secretly protects such beings, so they settle for the next best thing—souls unsullied by sin."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
According to Isil, the witches dwelling in the Black Forest kidnap people or deceive them into falling for their tricks, compelling them to willingly offer their souls to demons in order to obtain more powerful curses.
After all, demons are bound by contracts.
Unless the one who desires the contract offers their soul willingly, the demon cannot take it by force.
"...The accounts of those who've had their souls taken by demons are utterly tragic. Even if they achieved everything they desired, they say it would have been better to have failed and kept their souls."
"I see."
"...So I'm a bit worried. That thing, it's a grimoire given by a demon, isn't it?"
Rustle.
Isil rose from her seat and slowly walked toward the desk where the white book rested.
"Truthfully, I faintly sensed a demonic scent on you from the very first time we met. But it was obvious you wouldn't believe me if I said such a thing when we had just met, so I kept quiet."
Approaching the desk, Isil carefully reached out and lightly pressed the book's cover with her finger.
Then.
Fwoosh!
A mass of dust erupted from the book, and the pungent stench of sulfur instantly began to spread.
"*Cough!* *Cough!* What did you do?"
"I erased the demonic traces lingering on this book. Demons are cunning despite their pretenses; they pull all sorts of cowardly tricks not written into the contract."
As I pinched my nose to avoid the sharp sulfur smell escaping from the book and fanned the air with my other hand, Isil—accustomed to such odors—pulled a small glass bottle from inside her clothes.
Then, when she lightly scratched the side of the glass bottle, a powerful suction force erupted from its opening and instantly began to draw in the surrounding air.
Hwoooooom!
A noise like a vacuum cleaner erupted from the bottle's mouth, and the sulfur smell stinging my nose was sucked toward the bottle.
In an instant, the surrounding air became fresh.
"...Phew, I nearly suffocated."
"Jin."
"Hm?"
"...Look at this."
Slosh!
Isil thrust the bottle in her hand before my eyes.
The inside of the glass bottle, which had clearly been empty before, was now sloshing with a dark crimson liquid.
"Oh, so that sulfur smell was stored as a liquid? Fascinating."
"...Yes. I processed the demonic traces lingering on that grimoire and stored them as a reagent. But this is the first time I've stored this much..."
With a look of apprehension, Isil alternated her gaze between the dark crimson reagent in the glass bottle and my face as she asked.
"The demon who gave you this grimoire—was it a high-ranking demon?"
"High-ranking demon?"
"Yes, one that took human form? The kind you'd casually pass on the street and mistake for a human."
At Isil's explanation, I tried to recall the demon's appearance from my memories.
Indeed, if not for that burning suit and the black horns standing tall like an emperor's crown, it had looked human enough.
"...Come to think of it, if not for the horns on its head, it looked like an ordinary nobleman."
"...Good heavens, how are you still in one piece?"
"Ah, pardon?"
"It's hard enough to believe that you, without any witch's knowledge, met a high-ranking demon. But the fact that you met such a being and came out unscathed is even more unbelievable."
Isil carefully stroked the glass bottle in her hand and spoke quietly.
"Jin, I don't know what business you had with a demon, but the fact that you're showing no signs of abnormality is truly a stroke of heavenly fortune. Even a Great Witch who has lived for ages can be corrupted by demonic Ether with a single careless mistake."
"...I didn't meet it by choice. It suddenly appeared in the mystic space of the mage who summoned me."
"...Is that so? Thank goodness you didn't intentionally summon it. Then you must not have prepared the sacrifice for the demon's descent into the material realm."
Seeing my innocent expression, Isil let out a relieved sigh and handed me the glass bottle she held.
"...For now, keep this glass bottle on you."
"Isn't it dangerous?"
"As long as it's contained within that bottle, nothing dangerous will happen. Also, it functions like a liquid warding talisman that can block other demons from approaching you."
"Oho."
"A demon with energy potent enough that even faint traces on a grimoire can fill more than half this bottle—lesser demons will flee with their tails between their legs like dogs at the mere scent of the bottle you carry. Since you've already encountered a demon, you should keep this for your safety."
So, this acts like bear repellent spray, basically?
If I meet other demons, should I just open the bottle and let them smell it?
"...What happens if this glass bottle breaks?"
"Ordinary methods shouldn't be able to break a glass bottle imbued with demonic energy, but in the unlikely event that it breaks and you come into contact with the energy inside..."
"If I touch it?"
"...You'll temporarily become a lesser demon."
"What?!"
I recoiled at Isil's explanation and placed the glass bottle she had given me back on the desk.
Clack!
"Wait, I'd become a demon?"
"...Demonic energy alone cannot cause permanent changes to the body. However, with a concentration this high from a high-ranking demon, you would transform into the form of a lesser demon associated with it."
"Associated with that demon?"
"Yes, because a demon is a mobile mass of Ether that governs a single concept."
Isil handed me the glass bottle I had placed on the desk again and spoke slowly.
"...Even if you become a lesser demon, it will wear off with time, so don't be so frightened. There were even witches in the Black Forest who deliberately transformed into demons."
"...Just what is a witch? Are you saying turning into a demon is a good thing?"
"...They're just pitiful people."
"Hm? You spoke too quietly; I couldn't hear you."
"No, it's nothing. But Jin, that demon's name—"
She shook her head at my question, saying it was nothing, and the moment she opened her mouth to say something more to me, who was clutching the glass bottle in my hand—
Flap-flap-flap!
The white book on the desk began to open by itself.