“So the owner of the crying voice was you.”
Standing behind Ris, who turned back with blank eyes, was an overwhelmingly imposing handsome man.
Before leaving this village, Rastan had been making a final inspection with his unit, checking whether any remnants of the enemy army were hiding, and had come after hearing her crying.
Rastan clicked his tongue softly and lowered his body by kneeling on one knee on the ground.
“Your injuries are severe as well, so at times like this, shouldn’t you take care of yourself first?”
And he brought his hand close to Ris’s back.
The next moment, with a very faint resonant hum—uuung— a soft light emerged from Rastan’s hand.
At the instant Ris’s eyes widened, not only the fairly deep wound carved into her back but also the wounds covering her entire body healed in a single moment.
“…!”
Her eyes opened as wide as they possibly could.
A red color swirled in Rastan’s eyes, but since dusk was falling and Ris had no time to look at his eyes, she didn’t notice.
Watching her stare at her own body with disbelief, her mouth hanging open, Rastan silently rose to his feet.
At that moment, Ris suddenly threw herself face down onto the ground, tightly grabbing the hem of Rastan’s trousers and clinging to him.
“S-Sir healer!”
“I’m not that kind of…”
“Please! Please save my mother and younger sister too…! They were attacked by a monster from the enemy army. Please, please… Sob…”
Only after hearing that did Rastan understand why this family hadn’t been moved to a physician. They were in a condition that an ordinary physician couldn’t treat.
Wounds inflicted by monsters required not only treating the torn areas, but also detoxifying and purifying the contaminated blood throughout the entire body at the same time, making the treatment extremely difficult.
Therefore, unless they were high-ranking nobles, most people couldn’t even meet the rare healers there were and were simply left to die.
“Hoo…”
He hadn’t come to involve himself in the life and death of humans, but it wasn’t easy to turn away when a young girl clung to him like this, crying and pleading so desperately.
In the end, Rastan saved the three, mother and daughters, who had been on the verge of death.
The wounds on their bodies disappeared instantly, and as their dark bluish faces returned to their original color, their breathing also became steady.
“They will wake up soon.”
With an expression of disbelief, Ris touched her mother and sister’s faces and once again burst into tears.
“Thank you… thank you! Sob…”
Then she quickly wiped her tears with determination and blocked the path of Rastan, who was about to leave.
“My name is Iris!”
“Alright, from now on, take good care of your family…”
“I thought you were a healer, but now that I see, you are a high-ranking officer, aren’t you? I can tell from your clothes.”
Without giving Rastan a chance to say anything, Ris sniffled and shouted loudly.
“I will devote my life to becoming a member of your unit and helping you, Officer! I am very strong!”
At the spirit of the innocent teenage girl, Rastan pressed his forehead.
“Being somewhat strong alone isn’t enough to appoint an untrained child as a soldier.”
However, she didn’t give up and continued clinging to him.
“Please let me repay your kindness! I will do anything! I will even sell my soul to a demon!”
“…You shouldn’t say such things carelessly.”
Rastan firmly refused Ris, who clung to him desperately, and returned to the temporary barracks set up near the village.
He thought she would leave soon, but from that day on, Ris began lingering around the unit, cheerfully helping with various small tasks.
As she became familiar with the unit members, she eventually began secretly hiding in the nearby forest during their training hours and imitating their training movements.
Even after persuading her and sending her away several times, it was useless. In the end, raising both hands in surrender, Rastan quietly called Ris to a secluded place and made her a proposal.
“You must have noticed that I’m not an ordinary human.”
She quietly nodded, carefully watching Rastan.
Even a high-ranking healer needed to rest thoroughly for more than an entire day after healing just one patient injured by a monster.
However, Rastan had healed three people almost simultaneously, and even afterward, he showed no sign of needing any rest at all.
“…In truth, I am a demon. If you truly wish to become a soldier, will you make a soul contract with me in order to become stronger?”
This was a proposal he made because Ris wasn’t someone who wanted to become stronger merely to satisfy her vanity.
She wanted to repay his kindness, but Rastan also hoped that Ris would become strong and not be easily injured on the battlefield.
“It is fine if you refuse. However, if you refuse, I will erase your memory of this moment.”
It was a situation where fear would have been the natural reaction, but Ris repeatedly bowed her waist with a joyful expression.
“Thank you for giving me this opportunity! I will always do my best!!”
“Huh…?”
Since it was the first time he had seen a human accept a contract with a demon so easily, Rastan couldn’t help but be surprised.
In the end, through her contract with Rastan, Ris obtained power that surpassed the strength of ordinary humans and came to swear eternal loyalty to him.
“…S-so. That means you also made a contract with a demon, no, with Rastan?”
I stammered slightly in surprise.
“Yes, that is correct.”
In truth, seeing Ris’ monstrous strength and running speed, I had wondered at times if this might be a physical-type ability.
It certainly wasn’t strength that a woman around twenty years old could normally possess, yet it seemed I hadn’t held much suspicion toward her until now.
“But is it really okay to talk about something like that so openly?”
“You are not just anyone, but Madam, and since you have heard about Master, it is fine.”
I was bewildered by the fact that she had made a contract with a demon, but seeing her answer so readily to everything I asked, she was indeed the Ris I knew.
Unlike Rastan, she didn’t try to deceive me, and that eased my mind a little.
“Ah, then what about Raven? What exactly is he? Is he just a crow beastman?”
“Hmm, he is a demon. I believe he is a demon of mid-to-high rank in the hierarchy.”
“So he is also a demon…”
I pressed my forehead.
“No, then that means there are two demons in this manor, and at least one human who sold their soul to a demon.”
The cryptic words I had heard long ago from Frederick, the ghost in the underground crypt of the Lansval estate, flashed through my mind like lightning.
[There are beings around you who are not human.]
At the time, I had thought he was referring to ghosts like himself, but…
‘It meant that there were several demons around me…’
At the same time, I understood why he hadn’t explained further and had chosen his words carefully.
‘A fading soul couldn’t go around carelessly revealing the existence of a Demon God.’
At that moment, Ris, who had been watching my expression, came beside me and tightly held both of my hands. Her hands, hardened with thick calluses, warmly enveloped mine.
“Although Master is a demon, to me, he is like a God. He is not an evil person like you think.”
‘A demon is not evil?’
Did she really think that made any sense?
However, Ris continued speaking with a serious expression.
“So please, Madam, please reconsider. I know you must have been shocked, but rather than those two words ‘Demon God,’ please believe in the Master you have seen until now.”
Her words, voice, and expression were filled deeply with sincerity.
“…Thank you for telling me your story today, Ris. Thanks to you, I learned a side of Rastan that I didn’t know. But since it’s such a serious matter… I will think about it carefully.”
“Yes, you should. Once the shock passes, your thoughts might change.”
Ris nodded willingly, yet spoke in a pleading voice.
“I only told you this because I hoped that you wouldn’t hastily abandon Master, Madam.”
I had thought that the servants of the ducal estate had merely noticed the change in the atmosphere between Rastan and me, but now it seemed they were all quietly anxious.
‘It seems Lis, who is close to me, came as a representative to change my mind.’
“Even by human standards, His Grace is truly a good master. …And a good person.”
“…A person.”
When I slowly repeated it, Ris nodded with an ambiguous expression.
“I thought that if I could repay Master’s kindness, it wouldn’t matter even if my soul went to hell. But now, as long as I properly assist him, I will automatically follow Master to heaven, so it is an enormous gain.”
For a moment, I wondered if she had misspoken and asked again.
“A demon going to heaven? What do you mean by that?”
