The Magician’s Apprentice

I surrendered myself to the sensation of my body and soul being pulled somewhere, and when I came to, I was standing atop a circular pattern drawn on a stone floor.

And before me stood an old man who looked every bit the stereotypical wizard.

He was probably the magician who had summoned me. …Probably?

“You have come, devil. First, accept the sacrifice that anchors you in this world, then state your name. After that, you shall form a contract with me.”

By “devil,” he was probably referring to me.

After all, I’d eagerly accepted the old devil’s proposal and decided to live on as a devil, so naturally I was supposed to be one now.

At the time, I’d been overjoyed by the possibility that I might not have to die, but what exactly was a devil supposed to do?

Right after becoming one, I’d been waiting in some mysterious pitch-black space, only to be summoned almost immediately afterward.

Tilting my head, I looked down at my feet and saw an adorable little rabbit with its hind legs tied together.

Apparently, this was the sacrifice the old man had mentioned.

The old man stared at me as though telling me to hurry up.

Wait, by sacrifice… did he mean the kind that got killed?

I’d never killed a rabbit before, and besides, there was no way I could kill something this cute…

Not that I’d be able to kill it even if it weren’t cute.

“Um, excuse me. What exactly… am I supposed to do?”

Apparently, my new life as a devil? had stumbled before I’d even taken the first step.

Standing on the roof of the tower, I gazed up at the moon in the night sky.

In the end, after that, I told the old magician—whom I later learned was named Garmon Paffel—everything I remembered about how I’d ended up this way, answering each of his questions.

Garmon-san had worn a troubled expression at first, but ultimately he promised to treat me according to the fact that my mind was still human.

I was surprised that Garmon-san so readily believed my story, which must have sounded almost impossible, but apparently a devil couldn’t lie while standing inside that circular pattern used for contracts—a magic circle.

Devils were apparently known for carefully twisting their words to deceive their summoners even when they couldn’t outright lie, but my story had apparently been so absurd that there was no room for that sort of trickery.

Originally, Garmon-san had intended to summon a lesser devil to guard this tower and handle miscellaneous chores, and yes, that meant I was currently classified as a lesser devil.

He still wanted me to take care of those miscellaneous tasks, so it was decided that officially, I would be treated as his apprentice.

I would serve Garmon-san as his apprentice, while Garmon-san would teach me during his lifetime and give me the little finger of his right hand after his death as part of our contract.

Frankly, I had absolutely no desire for someone else’s little finger, but apparently devils absorbed pieces of a practitioner’s body or their soul to strengthen and sustain their own existence, so I was told I’d definitely need it eventually.

Apparently, when a lesser devil grew stronger and advanced in rank, it became a mid-ranking devil, then a high-ranking devil, while above even those stood the Devil King, an existence akin to the ruler of all devils.

However, becoming a Devil King apparently required more than simply becoming stronger; there were other conditions as well, though Garmon-san said he didn’t know the details himself.

For now, I supposed it was enough to remember that Devil Kings were something special.

There was one other thing I’d received: a new name to replace the human name I’d lost the ability to remember after becoming a devil.

At first, Garmon-san had told me to come up with one myself, but no matter how hard I tried, nothing came to mind, and eventually I realized that apparently this devil called “me” simply lacked the ability to decide his own name.

Accepting a name bestowed by someone else was apparently equivalent to accepting that person’s dominion over you, but as I was now, I didn’t really have any choice except to entrust everything to Garmon-san anyway.

Besides, this old man had treated me kindly despite my knowing absolutely nothing, so I felt that if he chose a name for me, I could gladly accept it.

And so, my name became Lept.

“Is the moon really that unusual to you?”

Garmon-san called out to me as he climbed the stairs leading up to the rooftop.

At his question, I tilted my head slightly and thought about it.

It was true that I hadn’t been able to see the moon after being admitted to the hospital, so I suppose I could have called it unusual, but that wasn’t actually why I’d been staring at it.

“It’s not so much the moon itself that’s unusual… It’s the fact that there are seven of them floating in the sky. They’re all huge, too, and they look like they could crash into each other. It makes me wonder how gravity even works here.”

Yes, what fascinated me now was the sight of those seven moons—or, more precisely, this entire world that was separate from Earth.

At my answer, Garmon-san nodded in understanding.

“Devils are apparently summoned into all manner of worlds. I don’t know what this ‘gravity’ you speak of is, Lept, but the moons have collided before, you know? According to myth, the eighth and ninth moons, where the gods Leno and Yuno dwelled, collided and fell toward this land.”

…Garmon-san had just casually said something absolutely outrageous.

How had this world not been destroyed?

Seeing the stunned look on my face, Garmon-san burst into hearty laughter.

“Everyone who lived in this world joined forces to shatter the falling moons. Dragons, giants, demons, the Demon King, and heroes all united as one.”

Dragons, giants, demons, Demon Kings, heroes—the stream of otherworldly terms made my heart beat a little faster.

Back when I was human, I’d never been particularly obsessed with anything, but I had played a fair number of games.

My favorites had been RPGs—role-playing games.

And now, the sort of fantasy world I’d only ever seen in games was unfolding right before my eyes.

…Though I supposed the fact that I’d become a devil myself was already pretty fantastical.

“Well, the night sky and the moons aren’t going anywhere. You should go inside and sleep for tonight. You probably can’t catch a cold anymore, but your mind can still grow weary.”

I obediently nodded at Garmon-san’s words.

It was probably difficult to notice because I was still mildly excited, but after everything that had happened, there was no way I wasn’t exhausted.

I was a humanoid devil, and apparently humanoid devils could sleep and eat just like humans did.

Normally, devils weren’t supposed to be capable of taking human form until they’d grown considerably stronger, but apparently the one who had passed his existence on to me—the old devil—had most likely been an exceptionally high-ranking devil.

After all, I’d been told that creating an entirely new devil was something only an existence on the level of a Devil King could accomplish.

The bed I’d been given was even harder than my hospital bed had been, but even so, savoring my incredible good fortune, I peacefully drifted off to sleep.