Chapter 177: Book of Contracts (3)

The demon's name was Glumgos.

Although he had no particular rank, he was a mid-level demon who recently gained influence among demons by fortuitously securing an advantageous position. He happened to make a contract with a human immediately after the guardian of Delcross had his feet bound by the [Agreement].

Considering the many demons who had made contracts earlier and were sliced to pieces by the Nutcracker, it could be said that he was truly fortunate.

His contractor was Wilhelm Schmidt.

At the time, he was a low-level manager in the merchant union, and for someone who summoned a demon, he had modest dreams and meager ambitions.

Thanks to that, Glumgos easily granted his wish and soon succeeded in completely taking over Schmidt's body and soul.

From then on, it was a literal rise to success.

He attained the highest position one could reach as a manager in the merchant union and amassed great wealth in the process. He welcomed a beautiful wife and recently even had a lovely child.

At this point, he couldn't help but develop a strong attachment to life in the human world.

However, his current state was like a candle flickering in the wind, on the verge of being extinguished at any moment. There were plenty of demons eager to harm him and take everything he had.

The merchant union, where relatively ambitious humans gathered, had an unusually high number of demon contractors, and among them, there were occasionally humans who had contracted with demons of tremendously high rank.

To maintain his dominance among them, Glumgos decided to create his own weapon.

It was to make a registry listing the true names of demons and their contractors. That registry would likely become a dagger to pierce his enemies in a moment of life and death.

The problem was that it corresponded to an absolute taboo that demons should never do, as it violated the unspoken rule of not infringing upon each other's contracts.

If any of the demons learned about the existence of this registry, Glumgos would be immediately summoned back to the demon realm and suffer a fate worse than annihilation.

It was the ultimate weapon he had completed by risking everything.

'...Of all times, while I was briefly away?'

Glumgos felt as if he was having a nightmare.

To think that the prince of the Holy Empire would suddenly break into his office, snatch the ledger that could be called the entirety of his power, and point a terrifying holy relic at him from the front!

He rarely let the registry out of his sight, but he had no choice but to entrust it to a low-level minion for a moment as he had business near the church.

And yet, this boy had cunningly seized that very timing to infiltrate!

'Should I just snatch it back by force? No, but...'

The prince before him appeared to be an ordinary human without a shred of divine power, but he couldn't dare to lay a hand on him recklessly.

The implications of him holding the Nutcracker in his hand were clear.

Behind that human stood the fearsome emperor.

'Of all the things to be taken...'

Glumgos looked up at the office ceiling and felt momentarily dejected.

However, what's done is done. There was no other way now. He had no choice but to appease this boy and get the registry back.

"...I don't wish for any further disturbance. Let's have a conversation for now."

"Conversation?"

Unfortunately for Glumgos, the moment Seongjin grasped this book, he sensed signs of a jackpot.

In an era where paper books were common, it was an antiquated book crudely bound with unshaped parchment.

Above all, the peculiar black energy oozing from the cover clearly indicated that it was no ordinary object.

Shake, shake.

As he waved the book and observed the demonic energy dispersing into the air, the branch head demon, or rather, the demon in the form of the branch head, spoke in a trembling voice.

"Now, calm down and listen carefully. For your own sake, shouldn't you return that dangerous book to me? The demonic energy emanating from that book is extremely harmful to humans. Prolonged exposure will weaken the body and eventually lead to death."

"Is that so?"

Seongjin stopped waving the demonic energy and asked the Demon King.

'Hey, is what that guy's saying true?'

Then the Demon King spoke with a somewhat uneasy tone.

[He's not lying. Even from a common-sense perspective, there's no way demonic energy can have a positive effect on a living human. But...]

'But?'

[If you think about it that way, there's something that bothers me. In fact, although in small amounts, there's demonic energy constantly being released from my soul as well. In other words, you've been exposed to a certain amount of demonic energy all this time.]

Hmm. Seongjin rotated his shoulders back and forth but still felt no abnormalities in his body.

'I'm fine. Maybe it's because I'm already dead?'

I'm an evil spirit, after all.

Then the Demon King responded in an uncertain voice.

[Well, I wonder...]

Anyway, the demonic energy didn't seem to pose much of a threat to him. Having made that judgment, Seongjin decided to examine the book carefully with peace of mind.

"Do...don't open it! There's a powerful curse of death on the demonic energy enveloping the book! If a human touches it...!"

"Huh?"

Seongjin, who had opened the book to the very center page, raised his head and looked at Glumgos.

"If a human touches it, what?"

"...No, never mind."

The demon, who had been looking at the utterly unaffected boy, averted his gaze while sweating.

How dull.

After giving the demon a glance, Seongjin slowly began turning the pages. Then the branch head demon furtively observed him and spoke in a subdued voice.

"...That registry is useless for you to take anyway. Can't you just return it?"

"Why is that?"

"Because it's not something a human can read. It's written in the language of the demon realm!"

Indeed, as he said, the characters written in the book were unfamiliar to Seongjin.

Strange letters that looked like interlocking wedges were haphazardly arranged, and beside them were complex patterns of unknown meaning.

Hmm. The language of the demon realm, you say?

[This is insane...!]

The Demon King's muttering could be heard in his mind.

'Can you read it?'

[Of course. It's the demonic language. But I can't directly read it and teach you the contents.]

'Why?'

[Because the true names of demons are listed in it! The moment you read even one, it will summon the corresponding demon here! What was that guy thinking, creating such a dangerous thing?]

True names?

[Yeah. It's a registry of demon contractors and the names of the demons contracted to them. If this is discovered, that guy's life is as good as over. He'll become a public enemy of the demon realm.]

Hmm. He could understand why that branch head demon was examining him with a pale face.

By the way, were there really that many demon contractors in Delcross?

After flipping through the pages, Seongjin made a decision and abruptly closed the book.

"I'll just take this with me."

At that, the branch head demon leaped up from his spot.

"What? It's useless even if you take it, so why?"

"It doesn't matter if I can't read it. It looks quite antiquated, so I think it would be perfect as a travel souvenir for my father."

A registry of demons for the emperor?

For a moment, Glumgos felt his mind go blank.

"This is insane! Why would you...!"

Whoosh.

As if reflecting his agitation, the black demonic energy surged fiercely and quickly subsided again.

The demon was now pathetically trembling.

"Now, now. Calm down! If it's now, we can still manage before it turns into a big problem!"

The branch head demon said that in a quivering voice, but the one who needed to calm down seemed to be him.

His unstable hands fidgeted incessantly, and his entire body was already drenched in sweat.

'Could it be...'

A thought flashed through Seongjin's mind.

"Just to be sure, can my father read this registry?"

"Gack!"

The pale-faced branch head spat out demonic energy.

Bingo.

[Wow, this is an undeniable total annihilation scenario. Such a registry itself generates powerful causality just by existing. Wouldn't it be enough to make your father take action?]

Then Seongjin's face lit up.

"Father will love it! He can read a line whenever he's bored, and whenever a demon is summoned, he can behead them on the spot..."

"Ah! No, you can't!"

The demon, screaming as if in agony, now began to earnestly plead with Seongjin.

"If a demon is annihilated, the humans contracted to them cannot escape death either! Moreover, those listed there are all in key positions in the merchant union! If they suddenly disappear, what do you think will happen to the continental economy?"

"Well, Father will figure it out. He can slowly capture them without overdoing it, right?"

"The existence of this registry will be revealed to the world! Then I'm finished!"

"That's none of my business."

"But if I'm annihilated, the registry created by my power will disappear with me, won't it?"

"Hmm, that would be troublesome. Ah! Why don't you come with us to the imperial capital? Don't worry too much about the grace."

The Demon King managed to survive well inside it, so if they asked the emperor for a barrier, wouldn't it be a simple matter?

At that, Glumgos gave up and sat on the floor, shedding bloody tears. Sob, sob!

"Please have mercy! Despite my appearance, I have a wife like a rabbit and a child like a fox!"

"..."

"The demon realm will never let it go! They'll tear them to shreds in my place!"

But unexpectedly, that hastily thrown plea moved Seongjin's heart.

After silently looking down at the demon shedding blood from its eyes for a moment, Seongjin waited for it to calm down a bit before opening his mouth.

"Alright. I'll return it."

"...Return it?"

Glumgos looked up at Seongjin with an incredulous expression.

He had been contemplating whether to attack the boy if all else failed, even if it meant dying at the emperor's hands right away.

But to change his mind so readily?

"But not empty-handed. Instead, I have a few conditions."

And Seongjin clearly conveyed his thoughts to Glumgos.

***

Top floor of the logistics relay station.

Even after Seongjin had snuck into Wilhelm Schmidt's office, the corridor of the building remained utterly quiet.

Inside the office, the demon ran amok, and demonic energy exploded and surged before subsiding, but at least from the outside, there was no impact felt at all. It was thanks to the barrier Glumgos had set up in advance.

The security guards stood in front of the door, unaware of anything, and even the assassins roaming the corridors passed by the office without detecting the anomaly.

Only one person.

Only one person sitting quietly on the roof of the relay station building had been watching this entire scene from beginning to end.

She was an exorcist with raven-black hair, and she was staring endlessly at the flow of the long Breeze River stretching north of the building.

In her jet-black eyes, just like her hair, a strange silver glow occasionally flickered and disappeared.

"...Your Majesty."

Suddenly, she spoke quietly.

"Is it alright to leave it as it is? If we can get our hands on that registry, we can eliminate a significant number of the wicked ones controlling the continental economy in an instant."

Then, after a moment of silence, the emperor replied.

[Dame Sharon. Do you know how many demon contractors are within the merchant union?]

The exorcist shook her head. Although she vaguely assumed there would be many, she had no way to instantly identify a contractor.

A demon contractor was ultimately an ordinary human. Unless they summoned a demon into reality or directly performed miracles with the demon's help, they didn't emit demonic energy on their own.

Therefore, even though the entire continent was filled with priests who believed in the gods, demons could easily hide in the world through contractors and lurk beneath the surface.

Only the emperor, who could directly see the demon's mark engraved on the soul, would know the exact number.

And his answer was shocking.

[Almost all those in key positions in the merchant union should be considered contractors.]

The members and managers of the merchant union, who had been building their power for decades, were suffering from more overheated internal competition than it appeared from the outside.

To compete against the existing demon contractors, even the newcomers had no choice but to make contracts with demons.

"...Your Majesty!"

[So if we eliminate all those in the registry, even more people will become new demon contractors to seize those vacant positions.]

Even if they fortunately uprooted some demons through the causality obtained from the registry this time, they would still be helpless against the newly emerging demon contractors.

The emperor would continue to be bound by the [Agreement] for the foreseeable future.

In that case, it was better for that modest mid-level demon to maintain this situation.

The wish that those in the merchant union made to demons was mostly for wealth and power.

Then, at least as long as Wilhelm Schmidt firmly held the position of branch head, the day when such individuals could fulfill their wishes would be far off.

That meant the number of demons who could freely move around with a complete human body would naturally be suppressed.

[Trust Morres' judgment. That child will surely obtain the maximum possible results that can be drawn from that registry.]

"Is that thanks to His Highness' oracle ability?"

When Sharon asked, tilting her head, a faint resonance was conveyed in her mind. It sounded like a soft laugh.

[It's a slightly different story. Do you know? Morres had an instinctive talent for calculation since he was young.]

Indeed. Sharon was convinced.

Prince Morres' father was the emperor who flawlessly managed a vast empire, and his maternal grandfather was none other than the Duke of Acein, evaluated as the most formidable on the continent. Where else would the blood inherited from both parents go?

The exorcist looked up at the sky with blank eyes, and then, as if a thought occurred to her, she suddenly raised the corners of her mouth.

"By the way, what a great fortune today's encounter is for that demon. Following Sir Redhead, that good-for-nothing demon will now become the fourth demon permitted to exist by Your Majesty."