“This isn’t what you promised!” Solace is shouting in my ears, but I don’t mind. The outcome of this is already set in stone, after all.
“It’s your fault, you know,” Ah, a laugh came out. “If you weren’t so scared of death, then you wouldn’t be in this situation at all, would you?”
“But-”
“So, are you going to tell me?” I cut her off before she could continue complaining. While I’ll let her fuss somewhat because it makes things less boring here, it’s only somewhat. If I let her do whatever without consequences, then she’ll think she can do whatever, which isn’t good.
Just my words won’t be enough, so I also reached out and wrapped my hand around her neck. …No matter how many times I look at it, my right hand still looks weird. But at least Solace is very afraid of it, so I don’t even have to tighten my grip to scare her.
Plus, I get to exercise my hand in a manner other than those horrible hand seals. An urge to squeeze down and release the tension rises up, but I won’t act on it. The consequences aren’t worth it. Too much force is also bad…
I ended up letting go and turning away from her angry eyes. “Make your decision within five minutes, or I’ll just get rid of you here.”
…I’ve already decided that I’m willing to do anything for power, so why am I having such a hard time being mean to this girl? It must be because she’s just too naive! As soon as I said I wouldn’t kill her, she stopped being afraid of me and is so lively.
Surely even an evil person wouldn’t want to be mean to her, right?
Ugh, what am I saying? Even I can tell that that’s not a reason, but an excuse. Whatever. It doesn’t matter if I don’t know the reason; I can’t hurt her anyway, so simply being unable to is fine by me!
Shade, how much longer do you think it’ll take for me to learn the Curse? I can get through ten seals now, but considering the time limit, I can really only reach the sixth. Still, it’s only the first day. My guess is that it’ll take three, which is already good enough.
Still, I want to know what Shade thinks. I thought it’d take you three days, but it might actually only take two. I’m not sure if it’s because of the sin focused in your right hand, or if the changes to it just made it more flexible, but your hand is recovering faster than expected.
Huh, really? That’s nice, but I feel like it’s kinda only useful right now. It’s important to be able to cast spells with both hands, which means my left hand will need to adapt to these strange seals anyway. So I might as well practice with both.
Though, now I wonder. Since my Devil mark is on my right hand, will there be any benefits from casting Devil Law spells with it?
No, it won’t. Even though the hands are essential to casting spells, that’s simply because they’re the body’s release point. Shade shook its head. Though, you do get a benefit to your spells from being a Devil. As you absorb sin, it will increase the yin in your body.
My spells will become even stronger, then? It’s good news in theory, but there’s something I’m confused about. Even after using Steal Yin all this time, I haven’t noticed any changes. Would it actually do anything?
That’s because your body’s vital yin is at maximum capacity. The yin from Steal Yin ends up in your core because your body can’t absorb it any further. Ah, so Shade finally confirmed one of my old theories.
Well, I think I can guess what it’s going to say next. The yin from absorbing sin is a different source, which will still affect the power of your spells. It also has a limit, but the limit of sin increases with each Rank, unlike vital yin, which only increases once as far as I know. Mmm, my guess was right.
But my vital yin capacity can only increase once… When would that be?
I was going to ask Shade, but five minutes have almost passed and now it’s time to see what Solace ended up deciding on. She was still standing where she had been when I turned away, but wasn’t looking at me. Hmm, when I look at her like this, I can’t help but notice that she has an attractive face.
Maybe she sensed me staring, but she finally turned to look at me. …I don’t like how she’s literally looking down at me, but I can’t do anything because of the difference in our heights! All I can do is hope that I’ll finally grow taller now that I’ve started eating better…
“So, are you going to tell me, or am I going to have to kill you?” Oops, I couldn’t hold my anger in and ended up snapping at her. Whatever, it’s her fault for trying to resist in the first place.
Solace was silent for a moment - I think I saw her flinch from my voice - but eventually spoke, “I’ll tell you, but… do we have to do it here?”
She’s still trying to negotiate?! “Here and now, or I’ll treat it as you refusing. And I already told you what’ll happen if you refuse!”
“...Fine.” She seems quite angry, which is interesting to see. Is it because she doesn’t want to tell me the things that Alera taught her? If so, then I guess I should applaud her for being… uh, filial? Loyal doesn’t really sound right, since true loyalty would be dying rather than giving in.
While I was dealing with random thoughts, Solace seems to have finally calmed down. “What do you even want to know about Soul Law anyway? You already managed to get out of my spell before, didn’t you!?” Never mind, seems like she’s still mad.
“Does knowing how to kill someone also mean knowing how to raise them?” I giggled at Solace’s silly thoughts. “Of course not.” She seems to think highly of me - though not in a good light, of course - but I don’t feel proud or anything at having beaten her when it was Shade that negated her spell.
She seems to want to rebuke my words, but they make sense don’t they? Of course they do, it’s one of the things I picked up from father. He knew well how to kill, but that made him horrible as a parent.
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to see for myself, since I don’t think I’m capable of having children…
Oh, what nonsense is even going on in my head right now? I keep telling myself that I need to get rid of this bad habit, but it turns out that controlling my own mind is difficult.
“Well, you can start by telling me about the paths of Soul Law.” It’s something simple, but still useful - the more paths I know about, the better I’ll be able to react when I encounter enemies that use them. “What I’d actually like to know is the spells you can use, but…” I shook my head, trying to stifle a laugh. She doesn’t seem like she’d even be able to teach me.
“I would rather die than tell you!” Solace seems to not have noticed my actions and just my words.
“That’s what I thought, so it’s fine.” This has gone on long enough, and it won’t work out so nicely to just talk about it here. “It’d be bad if either of us gets too dehydrated, so let’s go.”
As I walked past Solace towards the exit wall, I stopped for a moment and trailed the pointer finger of my right hand across her cheek. “Oh, and if you say anything, I’ll kill you and everyone nearby, since I’d end up dead in the end regardless. Might as well take as many to Hell with me as I can, right?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Hah, the way she shudders in fear is satisfying considering how uncooperative she’s been.
I continued going past her towards the exit. This place will be left vacant after this sadly, but oh well. Given how large the abandoned district is, I’m sure I can find another place.
More annoying than that is having to go through the process of getting my rations… What bad luck that I ended up having to deal with this stupid girl when I myself am about to run out of supplies. It’s not food that’s an issue, but water. It’s always, always water.
“Um…” Solace’s voice came from behind me, though it was faint. Yet when I turned around to see what she wanted, she wasn’t even looking at me. Her face seems a bit redder than before, actually.
I could see her taking glances at me before looking away again. “What is it?”
“I’m… I’m not going to judge you, but… Are you really going to go out without clothes on?” She finally spat it out, but I didn’t expect that.
Aren’t I obviously… Oh. As soon as I looked down, it became apparent that I was naked. It must’ve been from when I took off my robes to carve the symbol on my skin, but how did I not notice? Shade… Why didn’t you tell me I was naked?
I thought you already knew. Although it didn’t say it, I can hear the implication - ‘I thought you liked it’ is what it's trying to say! I really want to punch Shade in the face, but I’d just hurt my fist on the ground.
It’s not like I care if other people see my naked body, unless it’s Flare that sees it. Rather, it’s the fact that I didn’t realize it that’s embarrassing. But now I realize why Solace hasn’t been looking directly at me most of the time, and also why her face was red.
I’ll let you off this time. At least Shade gave me a way to make Solace embarrassed instead of myself. I feigned covering my chest, though it’s not like there’s anything to cover… I’ll forget that. “Oh, I thought you liked it, Solace.”
“What?! Why would I- Ah!” Ouch, seems she bit her tongue while shouting.
All I could do was shake my head and go to get my robes. More than just not going out naked, I also need to use the long sleeves to cover my right hand. Until I find a way to hide it, I’ll have to get used to doing everyday tasks with my left hand, huh.
When I walked out of the room again, Solace immediately started glaring at me, but I just laughed. “Stop being mad. You know what’ll happen if you look unnatural while we’re out there.”
I didn’t bother to see what her expression was like, and she still followed me over the wall. To make sure she wouldn’t be able to escape through the crowds or anything, I forcibly linked arms with her and then put on a purposefully fake smile. “Now, you should start telling me about Soul Law’s paths.”
“...Shepherd, Incarnation, and Karma.” Honestly, I’m a bit surprised that she didn’t argue further.
Well, at least I’ll get to go back to being silent until she finishes.
“I don’t know about Lady Alera, but I only know Shepherd and Karma path spells. Um… Shepherd is about capturing, raising, and controlling large numbers of souls. Of course, at Rank 1 it’s more like just a couple of them.”
That makes sense. Shepherd… That’s an old word. Someone who tends sheep, right? Uh, the Black Book doesn’t really go into details like that. I wonder what a sheep looks like. Oh, and what a soul looks like as well, of course.
“Incarnation is apparently about strengthening your own soul. I don’t really see the use of it.”
That’s because you seem to dislike fighting. Using the power of your soul to attack others’, or having a stronger soul to resist attacks from others. Both are good! Also, if the soul is stronger in life, then it’d also be stronger in death, right?
Could Incarnation path masters become rulers and kings in the Plains of Death after entering Hell? If so, then I want to become a master as well! Everyone wants to live forever, including me, but if it’s not possible then I don’t see why ‘living’ forever in Hell can’t replace it!
“The last one… It doesn’t make sense to me. Master says that Karma is about the relationships between souls, and that’s why it lasts even after death, but it’s still odd. Don’t they say that all grudges and debts are settled with death?”
I nodded, which seems to have made Solace happy, and she started talking with more energy. Now it feels like she’s the one pulling me along…
“Lady Alera is probably right, but she also always tells me that there is never one true way to see things. So, while she can be right, so can I, right?”
“Like good and evil.” The topic’s interesting, so I actually feel like talking. “You see me as evil and think you’re right, but evil people also think they’re the ones in the right.”
“Uh…” She stumbled, so I just pulled her along while she recovered. “No, I think you’re talking about two different types of being right. Plus, I thought that you also see yourself as evil?”
“Uh.” Damn, my reaction ended up practically the same as hers! Thankfully, the crowd ahead of us means I don’t have to acknowledge what I said. “Shut up now. And remember-”
“Yeah yeah, if I say anything I and everyone else nearby dies. I get it.”
I don’t like how casually she’s started treating things. What gave her the confidence to be like that all of a sudden? Is the promise that I won’t kill her really that impactful to her, even though I can easily break it again if I wanted to?
…Crowds are still horrible for me. In the end, Solace had to drag me through because I couldn’t make it through myself. I’m jealous- height really comes in handy for getting through groups of people that don’t care about whether they’re shoving others around.
Though, she could’ve easily just left me there and escaped on her own… Why didn’t she? I don’t believe that she didn’t think of it, because while she’s stupid, she’s also intelligent. Uh, that sounds quite contradictory now that I actually think about it.
“Shadow?” A whisper in my ears drew me back to reality.
That tickles… I moved away from Solace, who was leaning over to whisper into my ear. Ugh, no, it wasn’t that she was whispering, but that she had to get that close for me to actually hear her words.
“What do you want?” Ah, I ended up snapping at her again. Whatever, it’s her fault. …Why am I feeling like this has happened before?
The smile on her face is annoying, but my eyes were soon drawn to what was in her hands. “Aren’t you curious about where the city’s water comes from?” On her outstretched palm were five small blue stones, like a Blood Jewel, but blue instead of red.
Are these another type of gemstone? But how does water… Oh. Oh! “Water Law materials?”
Solace nodded, but her smile seemed slightly pleasing this time. But wait, “Do you even know the spell to actually create water with them?”
“Of course!” Solace shoved two of the gems into my hand and then started pulling me away again. “It was actually the first thing Lady Alera taught me, since girls tend to have more yin and thus make more water when using the spell!”
Ah, doesn’t that mean I could make an incredible amount of water compared to others? The thought was quickly driven out of my mind though, replaced by ‘Ah, so this is what unfairness is.’ Someone like me barely gets enough water to not die, but Solace can just go and get the things used to make the water without any trouble.
Whatever. Solace could drag me here since everyone knows where the distribution points are, but only I can lead the way home. At least she has good senses despite her lack of intelligence, since she isn’t bothering me from my thoughts.
I don’t think I could ever notice something like that if I were in her shoes.
It didn’t really take that long to get back home, but rather than drinking water or eating rice, or practicing the Curse or even keeping an eye on Solace, I just let myself fall forward into the bed. I was expecting the hard impact of stone, but the bed was soft, like the one in the healing department.
For a bit, I was interested in learning to cast whatever spell uses those blue jewels, but now all I want to do is sleep.
…What’s wrong with me? Everything feels foggy and uncomfortable. The bed is soft and warm, at least, it should be. But my body feels cold. Like it’s not my own.
Could this be some strange side effect of me becoming a Devil? I remember Shade compared Devils to serpents. Aren’t serpents cold-blooded or something? So they wouldn’t be able to feel warm, right? Am I experiencing the same thing right now?
No, that doesn’t make sense anyway. Cold-blooded is just not being able to generate my own heat. If it was that, then the bed would feel very warm, in fact. But then, why?
I want this feeling to go away, but I don’t even know what’s happening…
Winter… No. That’s not warm, but cold. I want to think of mom, but all I can remember instead is the short-lived warmth of that necklace.
Huh? Did thinking of that really work? I feel warm now.
Never mind. When I opened my eyes - I don’t even know when I closed them - I saw Solace in front of me. She’s on the bed, pressed against me for some reason. …What’s wrong with her? Shouldn’t she want to kill me for what I’ve done to her? Doesn’t she hate me?
I can’t help but wonder if the thought I didn’t want to think of earlier was true. Does she like girls?
…Not like I care. I just need to drown out these thoughts. Doesn’t matter with what, either.
“No… Shadow, don’t…”
I feel like something drifted into my ear- No, I’m probably just imagining things.
Ahh~ It feels warm… Mmm, this’ll do.