"...If I lose this bet, I become your slave?"
[Jonne], wary as if she couldn’t easily trust the chance I had just handed her to turn everything around in one stroke, asked again.
"Of course. I’m not like those demons who cheat people through contracts."
I answered without showing the slightest caution in return.
Cheating [Jonne] through a contract, when she was practically the archenemy of the "Young King" who was always cheating in contracts, would have meant making an enemy of her completely.
"So... will you accept?"
In a city where every knight had fallen silent, a lone demon’s question rang out.
A voice without the slightest trace of noise gradually echoed through the city.
And when that echo had almost faded away, the tyrant slowly began to open her mouth.
And the answer to that question came first through her actions.
".........Hoo..."
Then the tyrant spoke.
"...Fine. I’ll [Contract]."
If a demon personally declared that it would make a contract, then it had to carry it out without fail.
Part of that was pride, but more than that, the act of [Contract] itself was one of the defining traits of demonkind.
There was a reason demons were known in the Central World as surprisingly reliable partners in a deal.
Rumble...!!!
"...Follow me."
While I paused for a moment, [Jonne] summoned a massive gate leading to the [Netherworld Gates] she guarded.
As expected of one of the [Primordial Demons], even in this ruined state she endured the backlash with monstrous control over her magic power, spent what was needed, and immediately stepped into the gate, jerking her head for me to follow.
"......"
I gave a small nod and slowly started toward the gate.
"...Wait."
But I hadn’t gone very far before I stopped.
"There’s something I want to ask you."
Because behind me, the [Hero], Leon Cromwell, had called out.
"...Who are you? What exactly are you, that you came to this [Eldorado] and managed to stop [Jonne]?"
His voice was pitched higher than usual, carrying a hint of hope.
It seemed Leon was betting on the possibility that I might become an ally of [Eldorado]. Even if I was a monster, if I could stand on his side, Leon Cromwell was the kind of man who would accept that.
"I’ll answer that question with this instead."
After looking at Leon for a moment, I pulled out the cloak Ermesia had given me before and tossed it to him.
"!! ...This is..."
Leon caught the cloak, immediately recognized it as his own, and widened his eyes in shock.
A moment later, he lifted his gaze from the cloak and looked back up at me.
"You... were sent by Ermesia?"
Just as Ermesia had said he would, Leon spoke her name.
"Yeah. Put simply, that’s about right."
I gave him a short answer, then resumed walking.
"I’ll be coming back here anyway, so if there’s anything else you want to ask, I’ll tell you later."
I’ll be coming back.
It was practically the same as declaring that I would beat [Jonne] in our bet and return.
Leon faltered for a moment at that, but he didn’t voice any further questions.
Instead, he answered me calmly.
"...Understood."
Hearing Leon’s reply behind me, I arrived right in front of the gate and stretched out one hand through to the other side.
"...Just as I thought. This feels familiar."
The thick, eerie air of hell brushed against my arm.
It used to be an environment I didn’t like much.
But now, that air, which felt as though I hadn’t breathed it in for a very long time, seemed strangely welcome.
"...Shall I go?"
After standing still like that for several minutes, I let a faint smile touch my lips, drew in one deep breath, and threw my whole body beyond the gate.
Carrying expectations greater than before... no, greater than ever.
Beyond the gate, hell looked almost exactly the same as it had in Adelio’s memories from a few years ago.
The night sky formed from condensed magic power, the wasteland-like ground strewn with rocks, and even the deeply ominous atmosphere.
Just as when he had lived here, most of it had not changed.
If there was one thing that was different—
"Why did you take so long?"
It was the demon waiting for him.
"All you had to do was come through the gate. What were you doing that made you this late?"
[Jonne] brushed back her golden hair and glared at him irritably.
As befitted the king of demons who stood at the pinnacle of magic, it seemed she had already dealt with the backlash she had suffered in the Central World.
"Good. So she does intend to honor the contract."
I had been worried she might do what [Viole] had done—change the terms however she pleased, charge at me immediately, make me fight all her subordinates, or force me into multiple battles.
But whether out of pride or something else, it seemed she had no intention of pulling anything like that.
"It’s been a long time since I came here, so I was a little tense. More importantly, have you chosen my opponent?"
Adelio changed the subject while pretending to glance around.
Naturally, if it had been [Noir] or [Blanc], they would have seen straight through what he was thinking, but [Jonne] failed to notice and let it pass.
"I have. As it happens, he’s coming from over there right now."
In the direction [Jonne] pointed, a long-haired yellow demon was approaching, his massive wings beating through the air.
"......"
Seeing the demon draw closer, Adelio kept silent. His prediction had been correct.
"So she picked him after all."
Long yellow hair, yellow eyes of the same shade, a sword hanging at his waist despite being a demon who specialized in magic, and the face of an old man marked by the passage of time.
There was only one subordinate of [Jonne] who matched all of that.
"Agera."
Though nameless, he was indisputably hell’s greatest swordsman, a monster of swordsmanship who was the grandfather and teacher of the [Ogre] known as the [Sword Demon].
A demon whose skill would still stand at the very peak even three hundred years in the future—perhaps a swordsman even more suited to the skill [Sword Demon] than that person.
"I heard you summoned this old servant, my lord."
The founder of [Oboro Style], who had devoted his entire life to the sword, came to stand before him.
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