CH 1

It truly was a devil.

She had two jet black horns close to her temples, and black dyed wings on her back.

Her dress was just as dark as her horns and wings, and she looked captivating, even though she had no extravagant accessories, or much exposed skin.

Her charming, waist length hair stood in contrast to her jet black horns and wings, with its pure white color.

“Hmm, it’s been a while since I was last summoned into this world.”

The voice coming out of her thin, deep red lips was also beautiful, and it was heard by the boy standing in front of the devil.

The boy looked up at the devil hovering above the magic circle it just came out of, was captivated by her beautiful face, and was unable to speak.

“Well then, human who called me, what is your wish? In return for granting your wish, I will take something precious from you.”

Said the devil, with a grin on her face.

Devils had immense power.

Dreams and desires far out of the reach of human hands could easily become reality with the help of a devil.

But if that dream did come true, the devil would receive compensation. What that compensation was would depend on how big the request was, and some people even paid with their lives.

The devil looked down on the boy, with a puzzled expression.

“What is the matter? Are you too scared of the compensation to make a wish?

Oh but you summoned me, so that won’t do. Let me see inside your heart…”

This devil could see through the hearts of humans.

Tired of waiting for the boy to make his wish, she decided to forcibly look for herself, but before she could do it, the boy screamed his wish.

“Please m-marry me!!”

“…Ah?”

◇ ◇ ◇

Theo Aspel was a pitiful boy.

He had no memory of the parents that abandoned him when he was very young, and was raised by an elderly couple.

To him, the elderly couple were his parents.

They had no children, and treated Theo like a grandson, raising him with a lot of love.

Theo also loved this kind elderly couple, and was always with them.

But they did not live long enough to see him reach adulthood.

Around the time when Theo turned twelve, both passed away, almost at the same time.

Theo was very sad, and he cried and cried…

He was overwhelmed in despair, but made up his mind to do his best to live by himself, so the elderly couple wouldn’t worry about him.

In this world where monsters lived just outside of town, the most important thing needed to survive was power.

If you had power, you could take down monsters, sell their materials, and obtain money.

You could not survive without money.

There weren’t any places that would hire a twelve year old with no relatives, so Theo had no choice but to join the mercenary guild that specialized in hunting monsters.

But Theo had never held a sword and could not use magic, so he could not hunt even a weak monster on his own. He tried to assist various parties in any way he could.

He mostly assisted the mercenaries that bore the brunt of battles by doing things like carrying their baggage.

Since he basically did chores, his pay was much lower than everyone else’s, but that was all Theo could do, so he did not complain.

If anything, he was just glad to be receiving any money at all.

Someone like him, that did miscellaneous work, was surprisingly helpful in a party. Being able to focus on battles without worrying about carrying healing potions or retrieving materials made things much easier.

But Theo was only thanked for his work in the beginning, and soon people would become too accustomed to it.

He would be yelled at for being slow while carrying a lot of baggage, and taking too long to retrieve materials.

If they were defeated by monsters and failed a quest, they would blame it on Theo for being weak, even though he only did chores, and his contract stated he would not participate in battles.

After the same thing happened many times, Theo would be kicked out of the party.

Every time it happened, Theo felt hurt and depressed, but he had to work to survive.

Theo was now fourteen, and the day before, he had been kicked out of yet another party.

After being kicked out of too many parties to count, you would think he would be used to it, but he was sad.

He was very hurt by what he heard this time, when he was being kicked out.

“Why are you so weak? Didn’t your parents teach you magic or how to hold a sword?”

Those words reminded Theo of the elderly couple that raised him.

They were very kind, and raised him the best they could, but didn’t really leave him anything special, just a little money and a small house.

Because of his weakness, someone insulted the people that raised him, and Theo felt irritated at himself because for just a second, he resented the elderly couple because they didn’t teach him anything.

The day after being expelled, Theo went to the library to read.

He had been reading about all sorts of monsters to become better at ripping materials off them but that day, Theo felt he wanted to become stronger, so he was reading books about magic.

He felt it would be worth it even if it helped just a little.

That was when Theo found it.

The technique to summon a devil.