A New Summoning

The place where I waited whenever I wasn’t being summoned was an empty, pitch-black space.

For some reason, I knew it was called a Personal Demon Realm, and I had erected Garmon-san’s tower there and made it my home.

Bringing along a familiar place to sleep had greatly improved the livability of the Personal Demon Realm.

Thanks to the little finger Garmon-san had left me, my own power had increased considerably as well.

If I went by the rankings I’d been taught, I was probably now around the level of a Mid-Ranking Devil.

Not that I knew any other devils, but somehow, I felt certain of it.

Considering I’d grown this much stronger without even obtaining his soul, Garmon-san truly must have been an extraordinary sorcerer.

Thinking about him too much made me cry, so I tried not to.

Still, the Personal Demon Realm was a fascinating space.

At first glance, it looked like nothing more than an empty expanse of darkness, but the spiritual particles and magical essence that composed it were exactly the same as those that composed me, which suggested that this space was deeply connected to me—or perhaps was even part of me.

The idea that the dark space itself was me made so little sense it was almost absurd, but then again, I was a devil.

I wasn’t the sort of existence that could be measured by common sense.

As if to prove that point, I had a considerable degree of freedom within this space.

For example, if I wanted to see another world, I could peer into one.

It was impossible for me right now, but if I became more powerful, I would probably be able to travel there on my own as well.

Just like, yes, how that old devil had personally come to see me while I was lying in the hospital.

That said, even though I could look into other worlds, which world I could observe was unstable, and I couldn’t properly lock onto one.

Rather than being due to a lack of power, I thought it was similar to using gate Magic without knowing the coordinates—I simply lacked enough information to identify a specific world.

Still, no matter how many other worlds I could glimpse, it didn’t change the fact that I was alone.

I could probably summon Bella, but even if I did, there was nothing in this world I could feed her.

There was still some food left in Garmon-san’s tower, but nowhere near enough.

As long as I remained in my Personal Demon Realm—or perhaps even while I was in an outside world—I apparently didn’t need to force myself to eat or drink, but Bella was probably different.

And then, at just such a moment—

Something tugged at me with an incredibly faint force.

It was so weak I nearly overlooked it, but there was no mistaking what it was.

A summoning.

Of course, it would have been easy to ignore.

A summoning this feeble was something even I, back when I was still a Lesser Devil, could probably have rejected without difficulty.

But precisely because it was so weak, such a thin and fragile call, it caught my attention.

I wondered just who could possibly be calling me.

Before the call could fade away, I hurriedly left my Personal Demon Realm, following that slender thread as I went.

When I opened my eyes and looked around, I found myself inside a room that was in terrible condition.

…Was this some kind of wooden shack?

The altar in front of me, probably handmade, was small and crude, and though it felt a little harsh to say so, it looked like nothing more than bulky trash abandoned at a garbage dump.

Though I was the one who had just been summoned with that piece of bulky trash.

A wry smile involuntarily appeared on my face.

“A-Are you… a devil? Really? Really? Did I summon you? You’re my devil, aren’t you?! Please, listen to my wish!!”

The one who timidly addressed me at first, only to grow increasingly frantic, was a young girl who looked to be in her early teens, dressed in rags, covered in bruises and mud, with even the original color of her hair impossible to make out.

Apparently, she was going to be my summoner this time.

She didn’t look remotely like someone with any knowledge of sorcery, and there wasn’t even a contract Magic Circle beneath my feet—the one thing that should never be omitted, since it was supposed to prevent a summoned devil from leaving until the contract was completed.

If some devil other than me had answered her call, they would probably have either flown into a rage at being summoned with such a garbage-like altar, or noticed the absence of the contract Magic Circle, taken advantage of the opportunity, killed the girl, and carried her soul away.

“For now, it doesn’t look like you have any sacrifice prepared to let me remain in this world, so could I have a lock of your hair? In exchange, let’s make a contract that I won’t harm you.”

I stepped forward and held out my hand to her.

I had no intention of hurting her.

If she had no proper knowledge, no money to prepare an altar or sacrifice, and yet still had circumstances so desperate that she had no choice but to cling to a devil, then first, I would hear her wish.

After all, the reason I’d felt compelled to answer that frail call was because it had sounded like the girl’s cry for help.