Childcare (2)
"D-Demon Lord... what is this place...?"
"A place where one may earn coin. The labor is harsh, but it commands the highest daily wage in the region."
"This isn't labor I asked for! I distinctly said I wanted treasures of gold and silver!"
Ugh, what a racket. What the hell would I even do with the soul of a parasite like you to justify paying for it? Every single coin I have must be spent on Lucia.
"Indeed. Thou didst say thou desirest gold and silver. Have I not brought thee to the very place where such treasures may be gained?"
"Th-that's... this isn't right! This isn't what I wished for at all!"
"Dost thou intend to break our pact?"
"Urk..."
I had merely gone through the motions of weaving a soul-binding contract without actually placing a curse on him, yet the nameless fool clamped his mouth shut in an instant. Was he truly that terrified? Well, rumors abounded that breaching a demonic contract condemned one to eternal damnation in the depths of Hell, so of course he was frightened out of his wits. From my perspective, though, whether a soul suffered in Hell or was devoured by a demon came out to pretty much the same thing.
"'I can endure any agony.' Those were the exact words thou spakest unto me. Is there any falsehood in my recollection?"
"I... I certainly said that, yes."
"Then I have arranged honest employment where thou mayest earn coin in exchange for thy suffering. I cannot fathom in the slightest what thou findest to complain about."
Barring a precious few exceptions like Lucia's mother, almost every scum who summoned a demon tried to peddle their soul with grand claims that they could "endure any agony." Yet the instant they were subjected to even a fraction of actual hardship, they invariably panicked and wailed like babes. It was truly a wonder. I was already irritated to death at being yanked away while in the middle of feeding Lucia. Why was this guy wasting so much breath? Just accept reality and deal with it.
"Overseer."
"Ah, my lord! You've returned. Is it this fellow this time?"
"Indeed."
There were just so many bastards trying to trade their worthless souls for quick cash. Because I kept bringing over able-bodied laborers, I had grown quite friendly with the mine's overseer. My tone remained stiff and chilly, and I was draped in a massive cloak to conceal my face and physique, but since I supplied him with a steady stream of fresh manpower, the overseer paid no mind to my suspicious appearance. Or perhaps people dressed like me were simply a dime a dozen in these parts.
"Just how much debt did you rack up this time? No, forget it. Even if I hear the number, it won't change the work you have to do."
"Excuse me...? What do you mean by—gack!"
"Did this cheeky bastard just talk back to me? Foreman! We got a fresh recruit! Drag him off and show him the ropes!"
"Right away, Overseer!"
Apparently, the overseer assumed every last fool I dragged in was indebted to me. In this world, loan sharks frequently sold delinquent debtors off to grueling worksites for a finder's fee, which probably explained his conclusion. Ah, look over there—I could see it happening to someone else right now.
Well, I wasn't trafficking humans; I was merely brokering gainful employment. There was no need to correct his misunderstanding. Besides, this place paid the highest wages for physical labor around, didn't it? I had fulfilled his wish to the letter.
Whew. That's another wish settled. Time to hurry back to Lucia.
"Da... da..."
"..."
I had been preparing baby food and spoon-feeding Lucia just as I always did, when she suddenly flailed her tiny hands and called me her father.
...Dad? Me, a dad?
Uh... well... yeah, technically speaking, you could look at me that way... but it stings my conscience.
To be completely honest, I had never once acted like a proper father to Lucia. Even if I had wanted to whisper gentle, affectionate words to her, Faust's monstrous vocal cords and demonic physiology made that utterly impossible. On top of that, eccentric summoners constantly yanked me away at all hours, preventing me from staying by her side for long stretches of time. All I had really done was feed her on schedule and wash her when she was dirty, yet Lucia clearly perceived me as her dad—even though my physical appearance was so hideous it bordered on spine-chilling.
What puzzled me even more was how she could possibly know the word. For an infant to begin speaking, a guardian had to repeat the same word endlessly so their ears could catch the sound. Mothers didn't chatter "Mama, Mama" at their babies day in and day out for nothing. Yet without any such training, Lucia had simply looked at me and called me dad.
...Wait, what's going on? How did she—
"Dada...!"
"...Ah. I see."
No, she was merely stringing together random babble, and it had formed the syllables purely by coincidence. Come to think of it, words like 'mama' or 'dada' were the easiest sounds for a baby to make. They required no tongue articulation, which meant even a newborn who could only babble had the mechanical ability to pronounce them. Lucia was at an age where she could wobble around on her feet, so managing that much was trivial.
Still...
"Indeed. I am thy father."
"Da...?"
Even if it was just a coincidence, what did it matter? I could simply make it no longer a coincidence. If I kept repeating the word, Lucia wouldn't just be making meaningless babble—she would come to understand the true meaning and call me her father with intent.
A human child calling a monstrous demon her father... well, people would certainly give us some very strange looks, but it couldn't be helped.
Ugh... Why on earth are there so many bastards calling for demons?
They say man is a creature of desire, but I had never imagined human greed could run this deep. Throughout the entire year I had spent raising Lucia—which was also my first full year in this world—someone somewhere called upon a demon like clockwork every two or three days. Every single time, I was forcibly summoned, dragging me away from home and driving me half-insane with fury.
Worse still, every summoning felt as if I were being forced to chug a gallon of cooking oil while having my hair grabbed and dragged across the floor. Maintaining my sanity through that ordeal was a battle in itself. The more summoners I met, the more I realized that Lucia's mother had been an extraordinary exception.
Almost everyone else refused to put in an ounce of effort. They would offer their souls in exchange for sudden, miraculous mastery of a skill, or—as usual—demand boundless wealth, or beg for immortality, spewing utter nonsense. Of course, I had neither the know-how nor the slightest inclination to grant such ridiculous wishes. Whenever they asked, I simply ignored them, opened a portal, and stepped right back home. The only exception was the ones who begged for money; them, I dragged off by the collar and dumped into the mines.
Now then, let's see how Lucia is doing... Hm?
Something was horribly wrong.
I had stepped through the threshold, but the house felt suffocatingly bleak and somber. Mealtime had clearly come and gone, yet there was no sign that she had touched a single bite.
And that wasn't all. Ever since turning into a demon, I possessed an instinctive ability to perceive another's suffering... and right now, that demonic instinct was ringing violent alarm bells. Normally, this demonic urge filled an archdemon with sadistic exhilaration. But right now, far from any thrill, all I felt was a crushing, suffocating dread.
Lucia should be the only one here...
...Lucia.
"Ah... ugh..."
"..."
I sprinted straight into Lucia's bedroom. There, lying on the bed, was Lucia. Her tiny face was flushed crimson, and feeble, pained whimpers escaped her lips. Even without casting a diagnostic spell, it took only a single glance to see that she was in agony.
Wait... why?
Because the shack Lucia had lived in was in such wretched condition, I had completely rebuilt it from the ground up, terrified that the draft or filth might make her sick. On top of that, I made sure she consumed only fresh food and boiled water. I had been so anxious about her catching an illness that I had taken precautions to an almost obsessive degree... So why was she suddenly this sick?
She had been perfectly fine this morning. How could she deteriorate this severely in barely half a day...?
Wait.
Are these... mana stones?
As I scanned Lucia with frantic eyes, tiny crystals were beading across her skin like droplets of sweat. For a split second, I doubted my own vision, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me... but there was no mistaking it. Mixed into the cold sweat rolling down her skin were microscopic mana stones, no larger than grains of sand.
...Mana saturation?
My knowledge of Noah's game lore and Faust's vast memories of the arcane converged instantly upon a single diagnosis.
Mana saturation.
It was a phenomenon that occurred when a mortal body absorbed mana far beyond its capacity to endure, placing an unbearable strain on the physical vessel. Typical symptoms included dizziness, splitting headaches, mana leaking uncontrollably from the pores, and severe nosebleeds.
...But for mana to leak out so densely that it condenses into actual solid crystals?
Just how much mana had accumulated inside her tiny body? No, more importantly... why on earth had Lucia absorbed so much mana in the first place—
Ah.
...It's because of me.
I was a demon. My soul and mind might be human, but this vessel was unmistakably demonic. And not just any demon—I was Faust, the endgame raid boss of Noah.
Lucia, a fragile human infant, had remained constantly glued to the side of a catastrophic monster like me. Of course her body would suffer the consequences. It couldn't be explained any other way. Even now, though I suppressed my demonic energy as tightly as I could, wisps of magi were perpetually leaking out. Day after day, that dark aura had built up until it saturated the entire house, inevitably invading Lucia's tender body.
"D-Daddy..."
Lost for words, I froze in place. Yet even through the hazy delirium of mana saturation, Lucia recognized that I had returned and feebly called out to me.
...Lucia.
"Forgive me. I failed to notice sooner."
"Mnh...?"
If this continued, her very life would be forfeit. While I could attempt to forcefully purge the mana from her body, subjecting an infant to such violent magical extraction would inevitably wreck her fragile constitution. The swiftest, easiest, and most absolute solution was... for me to leave her side. Since I was the root cause of the saturation, removing myself would allow her to gradually recover her health.
...Except that is an option I can never choose.
Neither she nor I could survive properly without the other.
"We are moving."
Within the world of Noah, there were numerous regions whose harsh environments naturally devoured mana—such as frozen peaks, the Great Forest, or the Red Desert. If we relocated to a place capable of soaking up my passive demonic radiation, there was a very strong likelihood Lucia would no longer suffer from mana saturation.
Granted, Faust was so absurdly overpowered that such environments would likely wither and become useless before long... but when that time came, we could simply pack up and move again.
Environmental destruction? I couldn't care less. That was a small price to pay compared to losing Lucia.