NOVEL NEXT Chapter 53
The tearful atmosphere in the Dessert Café gradually settled down as time passed. Anser, having regained her composure a bit too late, fiddled with her bangs in embarrassment and said,
“Um, thank you. Yuria and Sabrina. I must look terrible even though I’m supposed to be an adult…”
“Ahaha, it’s okay! No matter how old you are, there are times when you just want to cry. Our teacher always said that!”
“…!”
I vigorously nodded in agreement with Sabrina’s words.
I mean, even if she was an adult, she was only in her early twenties. The concept of adulthood might differ in this world, but to me, she was definitely not at an age to act all grown-up.
Of course, shedding tears like a baby in front of those little kids looking about ten years old would definitely become a regrettable memory. But thinking about it another way, it meant she was pushed to the corner at that point, so I hoped it would serve as a good comfort for her.
Could it be that our sincerity got through to her? With her eyes still red, Anser soon looked at us with a serious expression as if she had made up her mind.
“I can’t afford to pay you right now, but… instead, I’ll give you this as a reward.”
She casually glanced around and picked up two napkins from nearby. Then, with her index finger and thumb together, she swiftly moved her fingers as if writing something.
For a moment, I tilted my head, wondering what she was doing, but I couldn’t help but widen my eyes at the mystical phenomenon where her fingers seemed to engrave letters clearly onto the napkin.
“What’s that…?”
“It’s… it’s not a big deal, but it might help….”
With a somewhat awkward expression, Anser handed us the napkin with the letters inscribed on it. After carefully accepting it and reading the contents, I finally realized that this napkin was some sort of contract.
[ Through the Soul Pact, the contractor Anser temporarily grants the Eye of Contract to the counterpart Yuria without any compensation. This contract becomes effective when the contract document is damaged by the counterpart and can be arbitrarily rejected by the counterpart if they do not wish for the contract. ]
Wow, she wrote that long message on a napkin not much bigger than the palm of my hand. I nodded in admiration of the extraordinary magic of a demon, but suddenly, I had to stop dead in my tracks at one point.
Wait, the Eye of Contract? Could it be the one I’m thinking of? She’s willing to lend this without any compensation?
Blinking in disbelief at the contract’s content, while tilting my head, Sabrina nonchalantly asked Anser a question without hesitation.
“What is this?”
“Well… it’s a contract I’m giving you as a gift… since the only way I can repay you is with my body….”
“And the Eye of Contract here?”
What… well, hiding terms in a contract is pretty strange to begin with. Anser said that with a somewhat guilty look, scratching her cheek.
She had good reason to look that way. It was common for demons to hide the terms in contracts using magic or tools, only to later claim breaches of contract and take back souls.
Huh? So, isn’t the simplest way just not to contract with demons? But think about it the other way around. With just a soul to barter, you could gain immense power, authority, or love… not everyone could resist such temptations.
Anyway, Anser seemed to have an expression that showed she didn’t like the way her kind behaved. Perhaps she had been on the receiving end of unwanted damage from such evil acts piling up.
‘…By the way, the Eye of Contract. It seems excessive to receive this just for buying a dessert.’
I mean, if the Eye of Contract is what I think it is, it’s practically a master key limited to demons. When demons make contracts, they can’t just arrange things in their favor.
So they tend to hide things that could be weaknesses for themselves or their opponents, which is why demons have gained such a bad reputation overall.
Thus, using it is up to interpretation, but borrowing it far exceeds the level of just buying a dessert. This would only make me feel worse.
Wondering if this was really the right way, I carefully observed the contract while discreetly watching Anser’s expression.
There was a look on her face that clearly showed she was nervously awaiting my response.
…If I refuse, it would surely leave her quite heartbroken. Somehow, I decided I should simply accept it. Organizing my thoughts this way, I tucked the napkin into my pocket and bowed my head in gratitude.
Could it be that she saw me like that? Even Sabrina, who seemed unsure whether this was good or bad, accepted the napkin without rejecting it.
Even if I might never need it again, as long as it’s not torn, it wouldn’t have any effect, right? She probably didn’t want to reject it out of consideration.
“Um, um, you can use it whenever you need, okay…!”
“Yeah, yeah….”
“….”
Maybe she was happy to think she could return the favor. Anser’s shoulders relaxed a bit as her face brightened up.
Demons can be just like little puppies, huh? Sabrina and I couldn’t help but smile awkwardly at her words.
It felt strangely like I had made a familiar little demon friend out of nowhere.
*
After about 30 minutes of light chit-chat, the three of us exited the Dessert Café side by side.
Anser, though shy, had a strangely sociable nature for a demon, and it helped that she conversed well with Sabrina, who was the only one able to talk to her.
“Well, I guess I’ll be going… I have an interview today too…!”
“Take care, Anser unnie!”
“Oh, thank you so much today! Take care, guys!”
Within that short time, they comfortably exchanged contact information, and Anser left with a much healthier complexion than when we first met, smiling brightly.
I was a bit nervous because she was a demon, but she was a fun sister. Sabrina thought that to herself while tilting her head.
Next to her, Yuria was staring at Anser’s figure disappearing into the crowd from a distance.
Though she had a small stature, similar to Sabrina’s, something about her proportions made her resemble a walking doll.
Even though she wore a mask, there was something oddly captivating about her presence.
‘And… I’m sure I felt some strange power back then.’
As Sabrina watched her profile, she suddenly recalled a memory from not too long ago.
The hotel where David charged in against Nemesis to save Raine. The moment she was swept into the air by Yuria was still vivid in Sabrina’s mind.
To someone like her, who was forced to learn magic due to her teacher’s influence, it was an utterly bizarre event.
No flow of magic, no incantation, no spell—just pure magic. No matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn’t consider that magic at all. It was more like trying to make salt out of sugar.
‘So, what the hell is it? Is it… some kind of psychic power?’
As Sabrina pondered this, she couldn’t help but chuckle at the ridiculousness of the thought. Psychic powers? Ridiculous. That sounded like something out of a city urban legend.
If there were psychics in this world, they’d probably be stuck in laboratories being experimented on to create more psychics.
After all, being a psychic in this world… could have such a significant implication, it might just be enough to almost bring about the apocalypse.
‘Just a delusion… right? No, I actually hope it’s just a delusion.’
So, Sabrina desperately wished the girl wasn’t a psychic. If Yuria really were one, her fate would be unbearably harsh.
“…?”
“Ugh…! W-why? Yuria.”
Had Sabrina been lost in such a deep thought? Yuria was already quite close to her.
They were so close that with just one more step, their shoulders would brush against each other. As Sabrina realized this with wide-open eyes, Yuria, hidden behind her mask, reached out her hand toward her without a hint of what she was thinking.
“…!”
And then, she pulled Sabrina’s now cold hand toward her coat.
Sabrina was wholly flustered by the warm, inviting sensation that filled her fingertips. But whether Yuria was aware of her astonishment or not, she simply kept pushing against Sabrina’s body with her shoulder, urging her to move on.
Realizing that Yuria was in a strangely excited state, Sabrina chuckled and led her hand forward.
Today was going to be a great day. All those complicated thoughts from earlier vanished into thin air.
The date had only just begun.