The Demon’s Bargain – Part 02
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Translator: Kell
Madia’s story could be summarized as follows.
About a hundred years ago, the first Director of Fort Niedra succeeded in summoning a demon. The Director, who was over forty at the time, had spent their life collecting books from all over the world, many of which were books related to Sorcery.
After reading through all of them, the first Director finally came to the conclusion that a more efficient way to collect books was to use the power of demons. The power they wanted was the ability to “see the world”—the ability to locate books that would otherwise be gone.
The demon, on the other hand, sought knowledge. It wanted to know what the world looked like from the human perspective, and books were the perfect medium for its wish.
The Director collected books, and the demon read them.
Thus, Fort Niedra began collecting books at a tremendous rate.
The first Director lived a very long life. They lived so long that they retired as head of the family and spent the rest of their days in the library, bearing the title of Director.
According to records, they were approaching a hundred years old. Sadly, their burning passion for books could not boost what modest magical power they had.
Many great witches, including Zero, used their magical powers to maintain their physical youth. The Director’s body slowly withered, and when their life was finally coming to an end, they appointed a young man who loved books the most in their family to be the second Director.
The second Director was also an avid collector and a bookworm. He had a good relationship with the demon, and the number of books in the library kept growing.
However, the second Director did not live as long as the first one. He was not a sorcerer by nature, and it was the first Director who made the contract with the demon. The second Director, who inherited only his duties and ability, died as the head of the family and a regular human being.
From this point on, it became customary to refer to the head of Fort Niedra as the Director.
But a problem arose in the third generation. The third Director was blessed with three sons, two of whom were book lovers.
The eldest son did not read books. Since he was a child, he had never shown any interest in reading, and he distanced himself from the demon as well. He thought that if the Church found out, his family would be ruined.
He was, however, greedy. He hated the demon and books, but he wanted the right to the vein of gold. So he killed his parents and siblings, and threw them into the blast furnace.
The contract with the demon was automatically passed on to the homicidal scum.
“Rumors of the Forbidden Library only housing obscene books sprouted from the fact that the fourth Director only collected such books,” Madia said.
“Wait,” I interjected. “If that scum is the fourth Director, and you’re the fifth…”
“I know what you’re getting at.” Madia heaved a deep sigh. “That scum is my father,” she hissed. “The reason why I’m enslaved to the demon.”
The fourth Director, who had no interest in books to begin with, wanted to be freed from the obligation of collecting books. Unfortunately for him, since the contractor was the first Director, the contract would subsist until the last of the family died. The fourth Director, who was not a sorcerer, did not know how to end the contract with the demon.
So he turned to his own child.
He had two daughters. The older of them was ten years old at the time, while the other was only a newborn baby.
The older daughter was the typical Fort Niedra resident. She was close to her grandfather, the third Director, and she visited the library every single day.
While his daughter was grieving over the sudden death of her grandfather, the fourth Director whispered, “I’ll let you do the work your grandfather used to do. You like books, don’t you?”
He wanted to separate the roles of Director and the head of the fort once more. He wished to force his daughter to take on the role of the Director, while he enjoyed himself as the head of the family.
But fear gripped his heart. What if his daughter, after gaining the power of the demon, plotted revenge on him once she grew up? Perhaps she would kill him like he did his parents and brothers.
So the fourth Director suggested a change in the contract.
“I offer you my daughter as a servant. You can use her to collect as many books as you like. In return, you will watch her. She must never harm me.”
Ironically, however, the fourth Director was killed in the disaster caused by Zero’s master. Because he was out of town spending his Niedra coins, he was not able to receive the protection of the demon.
“The night my father died, the demon started calling itself the Director. It said that it would protect its domain, that it would not let other demons invade it.”
The demon claimed a huge territory against other demons. No demon of lower rank than the Director was allowed to enter its domain.
“How are you collecting books now?” Zero asked. “With half the world destroyed, collecting books sounds impossible. You would not even be able to venture out safely.”
Madia knitted her eyebrows. “The object of the first Director’s contract is knowledge. Now that I can no longer collect books, the only way to gain new knowledge is by collecting humans. It is humans who write the books, after all. If I violate this, I will cease to exist, and if I cease to exist, my sister will take over the contract.”
“Ah, that Mina girl.”
Madia’s expression softened a little at the mention of her sister’s name. “Yes. She is my treasure. I was shocked when I realized she was sent to be someone’s mate, but I’m glad it was with your party.” Her face tightened, and she looked at Zero. “I want to save my sister. I want to free her from the demon’s clutches. I want the contract to end with me. Ever since I became aware of the existence of the Grimoire of Zero, I’ve been watching its author—you, Lady Zero. I believed you could save my sister.”
“So you want us to kill the demon?” I asked.
“Can you do that?” Madia looked thrilled.
Zero gave her a grim look. “The Director has the ability to see the world. Are you certain about that?”
“Yes. Because I have the same ability.”
“What’s it like?” I asked. “Do you see everything all the time?”
“No, I only see what I want to see. If I look far, I can’t see what’s near. But the Director can see everything in the world at the same time. Only when it’s too engrossed in reading a book that it becomes blind to everything else.”
“What is the demon’s name?” Zero asked.
Madia stared at Zero blankly. “Do demons have names?”
“Unbelievable.” Zero’s jaw dropped. “You do not know how important it is to know the name of the demon you are employing?! If the first Director succeeded in summoning a demon, you must have plenty of books about Sorcery.”
“Actually… the demon burned all of them. It probably wanted to prevent me from reading books that contained knowledge inconvenient to him. If it ordered me to bring a book from the library, I, his servant, would have no choice but to obey. The copy of the Grimoire of Zero was the first Sorcery-related book that I came in contact with. The demon did not say anything about this either.”
“Completely thorough,” Zero said. “But then, what is the point of having a demon-repelling ward in the archives? You deliver books to the demon. It may as well have access to it.”
She had a point. The ward was meaningless because she delivered books to the demon anyway. No, it was meaningless even before she became the demon’s servant. The books in the library were collected for the demon to begin with; there was nothing wrong with it having free access to the archives.
“Did the demon not order you to destroy the ward?” Zero asked.
“It did,” Madia replied, “but I have no knowledge of Sorcery, so I couldn’t do it. So I take the books it likes to its room.”
Zero surveyed the room once more. “I see. Completely thorough.” This time there was admiration in her voice.
“So, what’s this about the demon’s name?” I asked.
“If we know its name, we can determine its ability. It is possible to render it powerless, even. The bigger issue, however, is that the Director is a demon who can only see.”
“What about it?”
Then I realized something. If the Director’s ability was limited to seeing, then who lured the knights away at the Demon’s Archway and killed them?
“Wait a sec… There are others?!”
“Exactly, Mercenary. There was more than one demon that provoked the Knights Templar. Not only that, but if the Director was trying its best to protect the knights, what would happen if they reached an area outside of the demon’s influence? The knights might get annihilated.”
“Y-You’re kidding! There’s more than ten thousand of them!”
“Numbers do not matter to demons. While I am here, there is no witch who can protect the Knights Templar. I made a mistake. I should have considered the possibility that there were two demons! Librarian. Did you know about this?”
Madia nodded. “The Director was expecting all of the knights to come. It used insects to create the Archway in order to bring you safely to its domain. The Director also used glowing butterflies to guide the knights who wandered into the woods back to the main unit.”
Glowing butterflies? Then I remembered what the knights said when he returned.
“But then a glowing butterfly appeared and guided me to the Vice Captain.”
“God has recognized Vice Captain Leyland!”
“So that was the demon’s doing! God’s miracle, my ass.”
Zero pressed her forehead. “The knights would not want to know about this.”
“Since we were dealing with the Knights Templar, I doubted that they would listen to the Director’s intentions,” Madia said. “So we took the advance party hostage instead. But we didn’t expect them to only send the captain and continue on their march.”
“I’m with you on that one,” I said. “So what now, witch?”
“Our only choice is to return quickly.”
“So we’re leaving the people in this fort?”
Zero pondered over it for a moment, frowning. “Oh.” She lifted her head, but immediately her expression turned serious.
“Why the long face?”
“I do have one idea.”
“Spill it, then.”
“The attendant will probably be against it. Even I, who pride myself in being a ruthless witch, feel a little uncomfortable.”
“Sounds horrifying. Now I’m getting more and more interested.”
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