Tredon Filian.

 

The remnant of the world. The evil that tempts the wanderers. The Unholy One that chews and devours their tragedies, wetting their choked throats with tears, and so on.

Once I recognized the unholy words that the world used to label the demon, I could find a constant stream of epithets to describe them, like a never-ending spring of water.

I stared at Tredon Filian in silence, then slowly opened my mouth. A middle-aged man with an aloof demeanor, Tredon waited patiently for me to speak first, even though he had been addressed.

“My esteemed Lord Tredon. With all due respect, may I ask a small favor of your lordship?”

“Speak.”

“There is something I wish to discuss with you in private.”

I recognize the devil, but he does not recognize me. The Divinity of Corruption was as secretive as the world’s greatest exploits.

Tredon stared at me for a long moment, his eyes blank, then slowly spoke.

” Everybody get out of here.”

The servants and the two knights left the room. Now, alone with my lord, I cut to the chase.

“Do you enjoy being a lord in human form, demon?”

A blunt statement that said I already knew who you were. Tredon stared at me, then slowly moved the muscles in his face.

His rigid expression danced, and the coldness of his mood vanished without a trace. With a mischievous grin, the demon spoke.

“This is the dead Galad, and we have an honored guest.”

With a smirk on his face, the demon licked his lips up and down my form. An extremely rude and flippant demeanor. But there was no malice in it.

“From the way you recognized me at first glance, I’m guessing you’re not a priest who worships the Goddess of Preservation?”

Demons are enemies of most religions. As the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I smirked and said.

“I serve the Goddess of Corruption.”

The demon’s eyes widened in admiration.

“Oh. I thought you were all dead, but you have a son of corruption who is still alive. It’s a pleasure to meet this one, I call him ‘Crawling Waiting’.”

“It is an honor to meet you as well. My name is Marnak, priest who worships the Goddess of Corruption.”

Smirking, the demon, Crawling Wait, stretched out his legs and made himself comfortable.

“You may make yourself comfortable. It’s just the two of us here, anyway. By the way, it’s nice to talk to a priest so intimately. It’s been a long time, indeed.”

In truth, demons had no feelings for priests. Not even for the gods they worshiped. Their attention was directed solely toward intelligent life.

Demons are invincibles, born stronger than anyone else, but unable to take anything for themselves. Not belonging to the world, they could only acquire what belonged to the world by making fair deals with intelligent beings. Therefore, demons loved all living intelligent beings.

Demons were enthusiastic spectators and voracious readers who enjoyed making deals with the intelligentsia and immersing themselves in their lives.

As powerful as they were, demons were limited in what they could do, but from the perspective of frail humans, they were as close to omnipotent as you could get.

The gods were therefore reluctant and wary of demons.

The price of a deal with a demon was always directly proportional to the size of what you wanted, but the size of your faith was not proportional to the grace of the gods.

The gods could not bear to see the faithful and other intelligentsia falling prey to demons who took as much as they gave, so they drew their sharpest swords and proclaimed to all the intelligentsia: “From now on, the unholy things shall be named.

– “From now on, those unholy things are called demons, and they are manifest evil!

The demons gladly embraced the sudden hostility of the gods and began calling themselves demons. Thankfully, they were happy to have a name that made it easier to introduce them.

And so began the priests’ demon hunt for manifest evil.

The answer to the question of why I knew so much about demons was quite simple.

Being a Demon Contractor, a job where you’re persecuted by everyone if you’re found out, is an extremely difficult and unappealing way to play, and it was the next class I had circled after the Priest of Corruption. It didn’t matter now that I was in the game.

My mother’s hand twitched boredly in her breast pocket.

“Murder.

A deep voice. Our Mother of Corruption, unlike the other gods, didn’t care much for demons. I patted my breast pocket to soothe my mother and spoke to the demon.

“How many years have you been possessed?”

The demon lord stretched out one hand, counted on his fingers, and smiled broadly.

“This is my forty-second winter, hahaha! If it weren’t for this priest, I’d almost let such a monumental year slip through my fingers. Perhaps we should have a little festival to warm up this chilly city, though I’m afraid my current role prevents me from shedding it all and having some fun myself!”

The crawling waiter was soon lost in his own world, muttering to himself.

“Let’s see, how much is left in the budget for this year’s Goose— Hmm. It’s a little tight, but if I chip in a little, we’ll have enough for the city to play and eat for five days. Good, very good, perfect!”

Speaking to himself and finishing his own calculations, the demon clapped his hands together.

“If the priest isn’t too busy, I hope you enjoy the festivities, I’m sure you’ll have a blast, hahaha!”

After bursting into laughter full of goodwill, the demon shook his head and asked me.

“Why did you come looking for me, anyway?”

“I came because you called me, but—?”

The demon who had smacked his forehead laughed out loud.

“Oh, right! Look at my mind, hahaha, I’m sorry. Priest. It’s been a long time since I’ve had someone to talk to, and I’ve been a bit distracted, so I apologize for that!”

I grinned.

“I don’t mind.”

“This Son of Corruption has a personality as generous as his face!”

“Murder!

The Mother of Corruption chirped, as if she knew what I was talking about.

“Actually, I didn’t call you here to talk about anything in particular. I called the priest because I wanted to hear the story of how he died, from an eyewitness. If you don’t mind, I was wondering if you could tell me the details of Galad’s death, and I’ll give you enough examples.”

I’d be happy to do that, especially if he gave me an example. I told the devil the details of how Galad died.

When I was done, the demon clicked its tongue and shook its head.

“Tsk tsk. What a tragedy. No matter how many times I told him to quit mercenary work, it’s too dangerous. Oh, and by brother, I was referring to this body.”

I took a long, hard look around. The room was unadorned, a testament to the lord’s frugality.

A frugal demon lord condoling the death of his brother. Interesting.

I settled into a more comfortable position in the warm room.

“By the way, is the body’s original owner a contractor?”

I asked, and the demon replied coldly, as if it had been waiting.

“Hahaha, I see you’re curious about my story, and I’m more than happy to tell it to you, for a story is always more flavorful when there’s someone to listen, isn’t it?”

The story of the demon’s humble beginnings was not a complicated one.

The Demon Contractor was the father of Tredon, a warlord who desperately wanted a woman he met one day, but she already had a fiancé he loved, and he wanted not only her body, but her heart as well. Eventually, he summoned a demon and voiced his desires.

– Give me her, give me her heart, I’ll give you anything!

The demon spoke in a voice that could not have been kinder to the former lord who had summoned him.

– You don’t have to give me anything. Just give me as much as you want.

– What do you want, Crawling Wait?

The demon laughed, slowly extending the fingers of his different hands one by one.

– To ruin one life, I need another. Your fifteen-year-old son, if you give me his life, I will give you the life of the woman.

Devoured by lust, the lord of the manor did not hesitate to sell his son to the devil. The devil gave as surely as he took, and the woman became the lord’s concubine.

And the devil’s story was that the son born to her and the lord was Galad.

“What a pity. I’ve always tried to take care of Galad, as he’s like a child of my own making, but his brother, who didn’t take kindly to his illegitimate origins, eventually ran away from home and took up mercenary work. This winter, my brother was in need of work, so I secretly tried to provide him with some, only to have him die. Life is indeed difficult.”

The devil smirked. Amused.

“Which makes it all the more exciting! Anyway, it’s time for me to go about my business as a lord. I’d love to tell the priest more of my story, but that’ll have to wait for another time! Oh, and you’re welcome to visit me anytime, it’s always nice to have a friend to talk to!”

Before I knew it, I was a demon’s friend. The fat demon lord handed me a pouch as a reward for a job well done.

“I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t put much in it, but if you take it, it will be of some use to you. Now go in peace, priest!”

As I left the lord’s mansion, I carefully opened the pouch, and inside were two shiny golden coins. Two hundred silver coins.

“Wow!”

“Murder!

“Uh-huh. Mother, the lord is indeed in the right. The lord is trying to seduce me with money, and this gold coin is full of pure goodwill.”

The Mother of Corruption was bothered that she didn’t have the good sense to give my son a gold coin, and she revealed her true jealousy of the Demon Lord.

“Murder!

“A priest who covets gold! You speak too much, but do you know, gold coins do not rot.”

“Murder!!!

“Mother. Please don’t get angry and listen to me. Words are only as good as what comes after them.”

I calmed my voice.

“Hmph. There is one thing that never decays and is as eternal as a gold coin, and do you know what it is?”

“Murder?

“It’s my love for my mother.”

“Murder…!

A rush of emotion. The Mother of Corruption was stunned into silence.

“My mother will always be my first priority, so don’t worry too much.”

I patted my nagging breast pocket and headed for the mercenary guild. Along with two gold coins.

***

White armor that gleamed and caught the sunlight, a black cloak emblazoned with the symbols of a great hammer and white scales strapped to his back. A sword at his waist, just in case.

Three priests of the Church of Cultivation, ready to slaughter someone at a moment’s notice, were talking to Erin inside the mercenary guild. Seeing that I had entered the Mercenary Guild, Erin smiled and waved.

“Uh, you’re here? Say hello to the priests here, Marnak!”

The friendly greeting is very welcome, but I don’t want to be seen with these fanatics.

Hiding my true feelings, I put on a reverent-looking smile and inclined my head toward the priests.

“Greetings, priests of the Goddess of Preservation, protector of daily life. I am Marnak.”

The moment he made eye contact with one of the priests of the cult.

“Murder!!!!!

The Mother informed me that one of them had one of the twelve remaining holy objects.