As Frondier had expected, Bune was strong. No — he exceeded expectations.
The golem prototypes he produced were Teacher Vinkis’s masterpiece. He had moved beyond merely imitating Atjie’s technology and completed them as warriors that, in combat, most humans could not even be compared to.
However, Vinkis had aimed solely at completing this golem and never considered mass production.
Therefore, even if told to make the same thing again, it likely wouldn’t be easy. He must have repeated tremendous trial and error.
But Frondier could do it. His replication did not require any machine intended for mass production.
'Exactly seven units. He smashed them all.'
Even as he deployed seven, Frondier felt it was excessive. Even the fully prepared Zodiac would not be easy to face, and Antero’s body had suffered considerable damage and aura loss.
Even so, Bune overcame it. That alone could be called roughly Zodiac-class.
Truly, the name Paladin was not wasted. Frondier liked that very much.
Even if Bune was a demon.
“I have a lot to ask you. Truly.”
[......Of course you do.]
Bune spoke with a half-resigned heart.
Frondier extended a hand toward him as if to guide him.
“Here, sit.”
[Sit, where—]
As Bune said that and looked around, a chair had been created at his side before he knew it.
[......It’s like stepping into someone else’s dream.]
“Haha. Not so different.”
Thus the two sat facing each other. The moment Bune sat, his shoulders sank deep.
He had truly fought for a very long time with not even a moment to rest. Demon or not, he would be tired. The human side of the body was likely at its limit.
[This brat will scream bloody murder when he wakes up.]
“Anything broken?”
[No. He’s just a whiner.]
Bune was strict with the one he empowered. At that sight Frondier tilted his head.
“So in the end, why is a demon lending power to a human? As if—”
[As if it were divine power, yes.]
Frondier nodded.
Just as Pandemonium had emerged when demon powers collided, Pandemonium emerged for those who used divine power as well.
From that he learned that demon power and divine power were not so different.
'Gods and demons are both powerful beings. The Seven Deadly Sins are said to rival most gods. The 72 Demons would defeat half-baked gods. Of course demons would struggle against the highest gods.'
When he had heard Arald’s explanation before, he had heard that the Seven Deadly Sins had no overwhelmingly dominant leader commanding them all. In other words, the gap in power between Belphegor, whom Frondier had fought, and Lucifer, whom he had not yet even seen, would not be that great.
By contrast, in Greek or Norse myth the kings of gods clearly existed. Zeus and Odin.
They possessed overwhelming faith and recognition among humans. That was precisely the point that would disgust demons.
'I see why Arald wants a king of demons. It’s probably what many demons desire, not just Arald.'
The birth of a king of demons.
Frondier didn’t know why Arald wanted that to be Frondier, but at any rate he understood that a king was needed.
“From where I stand, gods or demons are the same. I’d like both to stop meddling with humans and get lost. In that sense too, gods and demons are similar. What do you gain by lending Antero power? Is that the will of demons as a whole? Or going further, are the gods’ aims similar to yours?”
That was what Frondier truly wanted to know.
If he learned Bune’s aims and intentions, would that not become a hint to grasp the gods’ ulterior motives as well?
There Bune lowered his gaze slightly.
[Frondier, it’s merely a difference in perspective. What I’m doing is something you already know.]
“Something I already know?”
[Demons lend power to humans. That in itself shouldn’t be surprising. You’ve already seen something similar.]
A demon lending power to a human.
Frondier thought a moment, then realized and spoke.
“......A contract.”
[Right. Demons are beings desperate to lend power to humans.]
Demons covet human souls. Therefore they make contracts.
“In that case, are you saying Antero offered you his soul?”
But at this question of Frondier’s, Bune instead shook his head.
[No, of course not.]
“What?”
[Sales of souls to demons are very rare. Or else they’re stories in fairy tales. No matter how crazy you are, you can’t do something like that. Why would you, when you could simply live normally and experience a better afterlife.]
Ah.
Frondier nodded as if he understood there.
'This is a world where the afterlife is believed in as a certainty. Belief in the existence of souls is natural. So contracts staking a soul weigh far more than in the world I came from.'
Thus even if humans want a demon’s hand, they won’t go so far as to offer their soul.
“Then how is the contract made? How do demons intend to take the soul?”
[We don’t try to seize the soul through the transaction alone. Usually the aim is to corrupt that soul.]
“Corrupt?”
[Yes. When a demon and a human make a contract, for the duration of the contract the two are temporarily connected to each other. For that reason, human and demon both faithfully fulfill the contract. Otherwise they pay the price.]
A contract was not designed from the start to favor demons. Frondier had realized that.
However, because demons know far more about the contract itself than humans, the side more likely to swindle using the tool of “contract” is the demon. Humans can also deceive demons — if they plan a stratagem surpassing a demon.
Frondier turned his eyes aside for a moment and thought.
“......They say demons don’t keep their promises even as they take a human’s soul. I thought it was sheer vicious taste, but there was a reason of sorts.”
[From a demon’s standpoint, a human who contracts for the price of his own soul is rather terrifying. Ordinary humans don’t have that level of resolve. Such a soul is more likely to be noble instead. Even if a demon receives such a soul as compensation, clumsy demons can’t swallow it.]
Noble souls cannot be stomached by demons either.
In short, most demons do not want souls of that caliber. They want souls they can handle — not noble, and easy for them to corrupt.
“......I see. That’s the difference from divine power.”
[Yes. Gods want strong humans and grant them power, while we want weak humans. That’s where the disparity of power arises.]
“So whether or not a human stakes a soul as payment during the contracting process, a demon necessarily needs the process of corrupting the human.”
[Yes. And in contracts where the human stakes his own soul, low-grade demons don’t even come. The odds are high it becomes a contract they cannot handle.]
In a contract with a demon, a soul is not necessarily placed on the scale.
For humans that would be a tragedy beyond all measure; thus contracts made at such a price inevitably become powerful and dangerous.
'It makes sense that when the shadow unit in the imperial palace staked their souls, Satan appeared.'
Finishing his thought, Frondier asked,
“Then what contract did you make with Antero? No — how did you contract? Antero didn’t seem to know you.”
[Can’t you tell from the situation. Everything I’m doing right now is what Antero wanted.]
At those words, Frondier tilted his head for a moment.
Then his expression wrenched.
“Don’t tell me, that bastard Antero — while wanting to become a Paladin—”
[He said he wanted to forget I existed. So that it would all feel like something he himself had done.]
“Is that possible?”
[It was a somewhat far-fetched request, but there were two reasons it was possible. One was that the content was beneficial to me.]
“Beneficial? Forgetting you?”
[Of course. Isn’t it obvious. The human and the demon, the moment they contract, must doubt each other endlessly. But if one side completely forgets the other, the side that keeps the memory is overwhelmingly advantaged. If I were the one to propose this, the contract would become extremely difficult, but the human side asked the demon. So viewed as a term of the contract, the difficulty actually becomes easier. The human himself imposed a disadvantageous constraint on himself.]
Frondier’s eyes cooled to a bored chill.
He had wondered if Antero’s arrogance and incompetence were due to a demon’s influence, but it seemed to be his fundamental nature.
[And the other thing — the medium that summoned me.]
“A medium. Right, a gate that links the two. Something like a Dragon Heart?”
[That’s when I’m in the demon realm and need to cross worlds. I don’t need a medium of that level. Before contracting with Antero, I was already on this continent.]
Right. The demons Satan had summoned to strike the continent of Falind. Bune had been among them.
[Still, it was a valuable object in its own right.]
“What was it? What medium did Antero use?”
[He had ‘Goetia.’ Do you know what that is?]
At those words Frondier’s mouth fell open.
“......A grimoire in which the 72 Demons are recorded. You’re saying he held a text of Solomon’s deeds? That it exists now?”
[Ah, no. That’s not it. That’s a garbled rumor.]
Bune shook his head.
[Goetia is not a single completed book. That’s a human fantasy. There is no book that contains complete countermeasures for all seventy-two. It’s not that kind of text you can flip through once and dispose of demons as Solomon did.]
“Then what is Goetia?”
[It’s like an encyclopedia. A giant database themed on the category of the 72 Demons. It collects the knowledge and experiences humans have had about the 72 Demons throughout human history. It naturally contains errors, and there are demons for whom there are no countermeasures at all. It’s not a book that lets you skim it and resolve demons in one go like Solomon.]
“It’s strange to hear that from one of the 72 Demons.”
[All of the 72 remember suffering at Solomon’s hands. From that vantage point, the Goetia Antero has is far inferior in quality to Solomon’s actual compilation.]
Hearing it that way, Frondier was a little disappointed.
Among the 72 Demons were not only Bune but Bael, whom Frondier had met, and demons sharing names with those among the Seven Deadly Sins, like Asmodeus.
If the Goetia were what Frondier knew, it would help in countering them.
[In any case, the Goetia Antero possessed was genuine. Genuine, but not a thing matching human fantasy — merely something with value in its own way. That’s how I was summoned. To realize the wretch’s paltry desires.]
“Then when does this contract end?”
[What Antero wanted was to become a Paladin, and to keep seven wives and concubines. Amazingly, the latter was harder. This brat was bizarrely unpopular with women.]
'He has a decent look, Bune tilted his head, and yet...'
[Even so, I thought about three might be managed by exploiting his status or money, but you interfered.]
“You’re surprisingly faithful in executing the contract. Isn’t the aim to twist the contract and drive the human toward tragedy?”
[That’s only when there’s a need.]
Bune shook his head.
[His soul is already corrupted. When the contract ends, it’s mine.]
