Date- 5 April 2321
pAn,Da-n0v e1,c
Location- Southern Region, Blossom district, Sky Blossom City, Dungeon Highway, Barren Lands, Blood Rock Cave Gate Dungeon
I thought there was a loophole or a shortcut to annulling the devil’s pact hearing Park say that it was not too late, but hearing her solution I realized there was no such wonderful thing.
“The southern royal family seems to value you, do you think they will help you deal with Belphegor?” Park asked in concern, for a humanoid made from the fire her expressions were too vivid and graphic. Well that was what an Ego Elemental was I suppose.
“I don’t know but things haven’t come to that because I did not make a devil’s pact with Belphegor. So you can rest assured, he will not return to claim my soul,” I assured Park while wondering if the southern royal family fight the devil for my sake. Anna would without a doubt whereas the other members of the royal family, it was abundantly made clear to me time and time again that they would not do it for free.
“What do mean? It is not like Belphegor to leave without any gains, especially when his summoner is someone with a special soul like yours,” Park asked. No matter how many times I repeat it she did not seem to believe me, I guess Belphegor has done a number on her.
“Well, let me just say his greed got the best of him,” I said not planning to go into details of my wager with Belphegor.
“Huh, I don’t understand,” Park said in confusion, she did not understand why the boy acted mysterious when he spoke of Belphegor.
Not bothering to clear Park’s confusion I asked her, “Park what do you know about Devil Merchant Code?”
“Devil Merchant Code, where did you hear about that? Even among demons and dark races, only a few know about it and the rest treat it as a myth,” Park was astonished to hear the boy throw around the names like Belphegor and Devil Merchant Code, these were not the names a high schooler from card world should know of. She could not help but wonder what the boy had been through in the past couple of days while she was in a retreat.
“The devil merchant Belphegor told me about it,” I need to give Park a little context otherwise this conversation will not go anywhere.
“Belphegor is a devil merchant!” Park cried out in shock and then began to mumble, “No wonder, no wonder, this explains why he was so well prepared during our fights—”
Back when 100 years of her pact was coming to an end, Park had grown to become a threat to Belphegor so using the loophole in their pact and with help from some friends he wanted to get rid of his trouble’s once and for all but Park had grown to be a more of threat to him than he had thought. She had grown to the point where she and her army could fend off the army of three demon princes which even Belphegor and his army were not sure could achieve.
Since Belpegor could make use of the loophole in their pact so could Park. With her loyal army, Park planned to overthrow Belphegor, however whenever her army came close to defeating Belphegor’s army the tides of the war would suddenly change. Belphegor’s army would somehow manage to get reinforcements out of nowhere or equip themselves with new weapons of mass destruction that were never heard of in entire dark realms. Leading to Park’s current state.
Looking at Park who kept mumbling to herself I could not help but wonder about her history with Belphegor. Then I turned to look at Corey who stood there not knowing how to comfort Park, feeling my gaze she made eye contact with me before waving her hands sideways and saying, “Don’t look at me, it is a long story. But you are lucky to have survived someone devious like Belphegor without a single scratch.”
There seems to be much history between Park and Belphegor, which was a good thing for me to get the information I wanted but Park’s trauma was proving to be a pain in the ass, now I could not help but wonder what did Belphergor do to scare Park beyond her grave in her reincarnation.
“Since you summoned knowing Belphegor is a devil merchant then it means you must have traded something with him? What did you trade for his assistance? Let me warn you if devil merchant code is involved, the pact cannot be annulled forcefully,” Learning that the boy summoned Belphegor as a devil merchant Park seemed to calm down thinking that since devil merchant code was involved Belphegor should not have been able to take advantage of the boy. Since the boy seems to know little about devil merchants and devil merchant code, unlike her when she met Belphegor for the first time.
“Park, seeing that you are genuinely concerned for me I will share this with you but don’t expect me to repeat myself. Summoning Belphegor I entered a wager with the devil, that I would use 70 percent of his strength to defeat my enemies within five minutes but if I failed to do so my soul would be his. It took a little convincing but Belphegor out of his greed agreed to the wager and its stakes,” I paused to take a breath only to hear Corey ask in a low voice, “Then what happened?”
“I won the wager by defeating my enemy using the borrowed power under the specified time limit, easy. Later making use of the devil merchant code I sent him back to the dark realm,” I narrated. Seeing how without much context Park kept circling back to the same topic, I gave her something to ease her heart and forget about Belphegor and tell me about Devil Merchant Code, especially if it was worth becoming a demon merchant and it would not restrict my freedom. Of course, I would be subtle about my real intentions.
