Chapter 8: Summoned by a Demoness
“Oh, if it isn’t Miona,” Jokin announced, hardly even attempting to hide the fact that he was looking for her.
“Jokin.”
“There’s something I want to discuss with you. Come with me.” He led her to a private room. “Have a seat.” He gestured and sat across from her.
“First of all, thank you for your help before. I was able to keep the other demons at bay long enough for Arzoch to finish up his research thanks to the information you shared with me. We all benefited.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Here comes the hard part.”
“Hard part?” She tilted her head.
“Although Arzoch’s accomplishments are legendary, he’s also clearly lying to us.”
“Lying? About what?”
“You don’t know?” he asked in a disappointed tone.
“W–Well…”
“The rest of us have already figured it out. You’re a bright demoness. I’m sure you can figure it out too. Think for a moment.”
She pretended to agonize over Jokin’s challenge all-the-while recalling how Arzoch had glossed over something very important in his explanations to her.
“Do you see what I’m getting at?”
“Maybe,” she offered. “Maybe not.”
“Don’t play coy with me. You know as well as I do that Arzoch currently has no intention of punishing people like the one who—“ Jokin shut his mouth midway as Miona closed her eyes in disgust. “I need not say anything further there.”
She nodded slightly.
“Miona, if Arzoch is too stubborn to summon the people who truly deserve it, then I will do it in his place. I need only for you to share his method with me. He must have been truthful when he said his ritual only targets summoners, but with some small modifications—“
“I can’t…” She jumped from her seat and ran out of the room.
He called from behind her, “When you’re ready, come to me!”
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Soon after, Arzoch was away attending to other business, leaving Miona behind. As she sat on the couch, arms hugging her folded legs, she replayed her recent conversation with Jokin in her head over and over again. She didn’t want to betray Arzoch, the only one who was truly there for her when she needed help the most. Still, Jokin had a point. She could see both sides of the argument, and it was eating away at her.
“I’ll… have to decide for myself,” she declared to the empty room. Although this too would be going against Arzoch’s wishes, it would be a minor offense in comparison to what Jokin wanted her to do.
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Miona rummaged through Arzoch’s bookcase looking for a certain document. “Found it.” She carried it over to the mirror and got to work. It took a few hours, but her preparations were finally complete. “I hope I’m doing this right…”
She repeated the summoning ritual that Arzoch had used the first time he summoned a mage to the other side of the mirror. Half to her surprise, the ritual succeeded, even though it was a repeated summoning which was known not to work on demons. Arzoch’s meticulous notes made his efforts easily reproducible.
“Here again?” the mage asked, still a bit disoriented from the sudden summoning.
“Yes. I summoned you.” Miona gestured toward herself proudly.
“Oh, it’s you, huh? Where’s that other guy?”
“He’s busy with something important. I need your help.”
“If there’s something I can do to help, I will. It’s the least—“
“I accept!” Miona announced before the mage could revise his statement.
“W–Wait… Did we just…?”
She nodded. “You really should be more careful when speaking with demons.”
“I suppose my guard was lowered now that I no longer think of you as an enemy, but…”
“Don’t worry,” she reassured the mage. “Although I need your help, I have no ill will towards you anymore.”
“I suppose that’s fine then… not that I have much of a choice. What do you need help with?”
“I need help figuring out if humanity is worth saving.”
“WHAT!?” The mage recoiled back a couple of steps. “I’m, uh, I’m not qualified to help you with something so grand.”
“You’ll be fine. I just need you to summon me as your familiar.”
“Summon you? I already promised that other demon that I won’t summon demons anymore!”
“It’s fine,” she promised him.
“I beg your pardon, but no it’s not. There’s no way I can violate my agreement with that incredible demon, even if I have a commitment to your esteemed self as well…”
“I was party to your agreement with him, so I’m empowered to modify it. I’m allowing you to summon me as an exception to the prohibition.”
“I–I see… Even if that’s true, why would you possibly want me to summon you as a familiar?”
She hesitated to answer, knowing that he would overreact. “I want you to abuse me and show me off to a lot of people.”
“WHAT!?” This time, the mage fell down entirely from the shock of her pronouncement. “E–Even before I learned the errors of my ways, I wasn’t the kind of person who would do that… I’m sure some exist, and it wasn’t commendable for me to try to use a demon warrior as my shield in battle, but I wouldn’t derive pleasure from watching a demoness suffer or taking advantage of her…”
“Good.”
“Good?”
She explained, “You won’t really abuse me. You’ll just pretend to enjoy having your way with a cute and defenseless demoness.”
“Why would you have me do such a thing!?”
“How do you think other humans will react when they see you abusing me, a defenseless demoness bound by an all-powerful contract, like that? Will they attempt to save me by releasing me from your contract? Will they turn their noses up in disgust but stop short of taking any action? Will they feel entirely indifferent? Will they attempt to join in on the fun? What do you think?”
“It… It would depend on the person, surely.”
“That’s what I want to know. We’ll set up the summoning so that I’m not actually bound to you; I’ll just be pretending. Of course, I won’t use that freedom to harm you.”
“That makes sense…”
“If people by and large are sympathetic to my plight, then I’ll chalk up the historic poor treatment of demons as mostly limited to summoners, with rare exceptions. If people by and large derive pleasure from seeing me suffer at your hands, or theirs, then that will reflect poorly on humans.” She eyed the mirror. “No pun intended.”
“I suppose I don’t have much of a choice…”
“You do not,” she confirmed.
“B–But if anyone is getting too rough with you, I may not be able to stop myself from intervening on your behalf…”
“That’s fine.”
“Why isn’t that other demon involved in this?”
“He’s worried about escalation of the conflict between humans and demons. Although he’ll summon vile humans who attempt to enslave or use demons directly, he doesn’t believe in summoning anyone else, even if they’re the ringleader of such offenses.”
The mage gulped.
“He’s keeping the method for how to finally punish such people hidden, pretending it doesn’t exist, and I’m going to decide whether or not it stays hidden. He’s worried about the ancient conflict between our peoples escalating out of control. Oh. Now a word of this to anyone else,” she commanded.
“O–Of course…”