Chapter 17
Chapter 17
According to imperial law, merely possessing the book of Remegheton is considered a serious crime.
As I said before, being chosen by this grimoire is basically a declaration of social unfitness. The demons directly select humans whose souls are fit to be sold to them. The authority behind it is no joke.
“What am I supposed to do with this…”
I couldn’t just discard the book even if I wanted to. Objects like this always follow the cliché of returning even if you try to get rid of them. No matter if I burned it or threw it away, sooner or later it would appear on my desk again, just like today.
“Going to Robelia… would be nothing short of suicide.”
She is a walking law book. Being a royal, she could decide my fate on the spot. She was already stressed by every possible crisis. If she found out that I had a demon-marked grimoire, who knows what she might do. She could brand me a dangerous heretic or execute me on the spot.
“Wait, why does this make me angry?”
Why me? What did those demons even see in me to give such an evaluation? There are hardly any young men as upstanding as I am.
“Ah, but what should I do?”
I had a ticking bomb strapped to me that I couldn’t get rid of. Even if it didn’t explode, the fact that I carried it remained. The moment someone finds out, I’m done for. Socially, that would be bad enough, but physically burying me is also a real possibility.
Of course, there was a solution. There was, but…
“I can’t exactly go look for that crazy cultist.”
Since time immemorial, the natural enemies of demons have been gods and angels. I didn’t know which demon had latched onto me, but compared to the majesty of a god, it would be nothing. A prophet of the Ereticus cult could exorcise the demon attached to me, and maybe even peer into my mind while they’re at it.
“…Let’s not think about this for now.”
There was no solution. Thinking that way was probably the easiest way to stay sane. I decided to be careful not to get caught and set the Remegheton book in my drawer, then headed to bed.
Sleep, at least.
I couldn’t sleep. With a bomb in my room, it was impossible to relax. Everything stressed me out. The annoyingly bright sunlight was stressful. The icy wind cutting through my skin was stressful. And above all, the pink-haired mad clown in front of me, Safe Clown—Yuna—was stressful.
“Have you changed your mind?”
“No, not at all.”
“You should speak casually, Yohan. That’s how you usually talk.”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Uh, okay.”
“So… have you changed your mind?”
“No?”
“How cold.”
I felt suffocated. I would have been better off not knowing her identity. Knowing it made every moment unbearable. Yuna, the crazy clown, sprawled across my desk, whining like a spoiled child. At first glance, she looked like a careless student, but the truth was terrifying.
“By the way, how did you know Remegheton contacted me? Did you… enter my room?”
I forcibly corrected my tone of politeness. Tone had to change depending on the person, after all. It would have been natural to be polite toward Yuna, but I had to maintain consistency because of how I started.
“I just saw it floating around the school grounds.”
“So you didn’t enter my room?”
“Maybe?”
Damn, she kept smiling that mischievous smile. I had no way of knowing her true thoughts. If her acting had been sloppy enough for me to notice, she wouldn’t have become Safe Clown in the first place. I had no choice but to give up.
“By the way, what are you having for lunch?”
I could at least figure that out.
“I’ll skip it.”
She might have wanted to eat with me, but that was absolutely out of the question. If I ate while she monitored me, I’d end up sick.
“Seeing how the demon book was delivered must have been a rare experience.”
Did it float by itself and enter my room?
“Nope. What I saw wasn’t the book. It was the demon itself.”
“…”
“Now, has your mind changed a bit?”
“…A little.”
For a demon to manifest physically in this world, it would need considerable power. That was why demons collected human souls through contracts. But some demons exist outside such contracts, wandering freely. Of course, there were limitations… but if a demon ignored those, it would possess unimaginable power.
“Talents are always recognized by those who notice them, you know? Fuhihihi!”
“….”
Yuna laughed at me. She must be a cruel assassin who enjoyed others’ suffering.
“Oh, class is about to start. See you at lunch, Yohan.”
Yuna left, giggling, without looking back. When lunch came, I would have to sneak away from Class F.
At noon, I walked across the school grounds with a headache from stress and lack of sleep.
I didn’t feel like eating. Anything I ate would probably sit heavy in my stomach. Why did everything go so wrong recently?
Lost in thought and anxiety, I wandered aimlessly.
“Ah! What the—?!”
Something tickled my face and the world went dark. What the hell? Demon power?!
I flailed to remove whatever had stuck to my face.
Plop.
It fell off ridiculously easily.
“….”
I took a deep breath and looked down at what had fallen to the ground.
“A hat.”
It was a hat blown by the wind. The shame hit me like a wave. I had caused a fuss over nothing. Luckily, no one had seen it—or so I thought.
“Wow…”
Nope, someone had seen it. A girl with pure white hair sitting on a distant bench stared at me like I was a bug.
Looking closer, the fallen hat was the large witch hat she always wore. Her rabbit ears drooped like she wanted to hide.
I was the one who wanted to hide.
“Can you pick up the hat for me?”
“Do it yourself—”
I tried to respond curtly as usual, but her legs were trembling slightly.
Ariel Ether. A girl with a death sentence ticking away.
Damn… I might not want to be entangled with the main party, but I’m not the kind of trash that ignores the sick.
“Hey? Lord Yohan? Pick up the hat over there, please.”
“Ha…”
I didn’t care much about the main party. Without justice, their fights changed nothing in my life. So whether they won or lost meant little to me.
Still…
“Here you go.”
“Thanks.”
“Yes, you should be thankful.”
“Lord Yohan, do you always speak so bluntly?”
“Yes.”
“You’re strange.”
I disliked her. Truly disliked her.
“Hey, Lord Yohan.”
Just as I was about to leave her behind…
“What is it?”
She grabbed my sleeve.
“Can we talk for a moment?”
“No.”
I tried to push her away, but Ariel’s feeble strength exceeded my expectation. I ended up sitting on the bench with her against my will.
“You said you can’t see the future, right?”
“Even if I said no, would you believe it? Asking again makes my answer meaningless.”
“…Lord Yohan, you seem socially deficient. I believe it, though.”
“Believing ends the conversation, then.”
“This is just the introduction. Why are you so mean to me?”
“We aren’t exactly close. Honestly, it’s awkward.”
“Direct… Anyway, I have a question.”
Ariel held my sleeve as if she wouldn’t let go until she got an answer.
“Lord Yohan, you know the future, right?”
“No.”
“But His Majesty said you were told who the head of Eden was. Where did that information come from?”
“That’s a sensitive question. Asking would be rude.”
“So what?”
She was more reckless than I expected. I had no idea she was this way.
“You’ll die soon anyway. Being a little rude won’t hurt, right?”
“Wha…!”
Her casual words froze me. She knew about her illness. Her legs were weak enough she couldn’t rise from the bench.
Yet she openly told me. Even Robelia, whom she trusted, wouldn’t learn about Ariel’s illness until after her death.
She had been hiding her illness. Until her final moments.
“From your expression, it’s true. You probably knew there was no cure for my illness in the future.”
Ariel looked foolish, but she was sharp-minded. Not for nothing was she a prodigy of the Great Mage. She could deduce what I was hiding from my reactions.
She said that even knowing the future doesn’t change everything.
“I’m still going to die…”
Pity, awkwardness, and caution. Yohan clearly had trouble dealing with Ariel.
She put the hat back on her head. The wide-brimmed witch hat covered her face. Soon, her shoulders began to tremble slightly. There were no “ifs” here.