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RATH 9
TL: Eevee
1. What is this. Scary. (2)
Rage.
That was the only thing that could explain the emotion burning within those eyes.
“It will be difficult.”
In all seriousness, as someone who uses magic as her primary focus this training is disadvantageous for her.
Magic requires a lot of preparation.
If you want to strengthen magic you need a catalyst or a magic formulation, ranged rather than close combat is easier, and if a swordsman comes into close quarters then all you can do is run like your life depends on it.
There’s a reason why magic users are split between magicians and mages even though both use magic.
The specialties between magicians who focus on a single massive shot compared to mages who utilize fine mana management for prolonged fights is completely different.
No.17’s base is as a magician.
Perhaps the primary training centers are skilled at teaching magic lately, but she’s the best magician I’ve seen from them to date.
But magicians always perform at their peak when there is someone protecting them.
In the current 1:1:1 format, especially when the both the other opponents focus on using a sword, she can’t help but fall behind.
In that case there are two methods.
Using assorted tools and a focus on close quarter combat to switch to a mage-type, or contracting with a summoned spirit and supplementing your fighting potential.
And the quickest method is naturally, the latter.
To begin with, mages need to suffer for at least a year on the battlefield before they can be accepted as mages.
And even then as newbies or brats.
If they can’t accept this process then rather than a mage, they’re treated as a flying maggot or a meat shield.
In reality, a mage is a crappy job where no more than three out of ten survive after being deployed to the battlefield, with no guarantee that you’d survive after that either.
When the enemies’ number 1 priority targets conveniently come down to the front lines it’s even easier to hit them, and the world’s advanced in leaps and bounds lately, special arrows that tear through magic barriers like paper have been developed, so this is an era where if you have the funds, you can snipe off skilled magicians and mages from a long way away.
Because of this, rather than bothering to teach them those things for ages, it’s much better to bring out a big, meaty summon to take a hit and train as a magician raining down overwhelming firepower from afar.
The disadvantage is that the mana consumption is massive, but normally a rearguard magician is never thirsty.
Because they have a mana potion at their mouths pretty much 24/7.
The downside being that they have to go to the toilet frequently.
In the past where I was cursed enough to have to participate in the great war I developed special diapers and made the magicians piss in their pants.
My, did I get a lot of resentment then.
But it’s not like I wanted to do that either?
It was hard enough that if the magic artillery had to be stopped because one asshole had to go the bathroom the enemy’s main force would swamp us immediately.
Those magicians didn’t understand my efforts in developing a diaper that wouldn’t stink even when they pissed themselves.
And so let’s get a good sla
 I mean summon.
There was something I wanted to experiment as well.
First, draw a summon circle on pre-prepared ground.
“This
 isn’t this a summoning circle for devils?”
Oh ho. The primary training centers, it seems they’re teaching them really well lately. To think she’d understand what type of magic formation just by looking at it.
As the representative of the tertiary training instructors, I should send them a word of praise later.
Words don’t cost money.
“So you know.”
“Aren’t contracts with devils banned under the Empire’s laws?”
I sighed seeing No.17’s slightly surprised face.
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What is this moron saying.
“Long before we committed the crime of making a contract with devils, we’re already members of an evil organization and hence perfect criminals.”
“Ah
.”
As No.17 made a stunned expression I continued drawing the formation.
Ah, now that I think of it, they don’t teach them this in primary training. As a splendid instructor I might as well tell her.
“And if you look closely at the Empire’s laws, making a contract with a devil isn’t strictly outlawed either.”
“Eh? What on earth is that
”
Even though I look like this at one point, I’d spent a number of years in the imperial court that stank of blood over the right of succession.
I diligently learned the laws because I didn’t know when my head would be sent flying if I didn’t.
Simply in terms of the Empire and international laws, I can go toe to toe with one of the Empire’s judges!
“Contracting with a devil is not a crime. Making a contract with your soul as the price is.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
No you moron.
“Normally all summons are restricted by their class.”
Spirits and beasts are a given, you can even summon gods from other worlds here.
You even get cases where you get familiar names like Zeus, Odin and so on.
In addition, the major league of the 72 demons in the Lesser Key of Solomon, the Qliphoth, the mythologies of Greece, Northern Europe, the Orient and their demon kings and so on can all be summoned.
But among those, the devils’ destructive powers are unmatched. The reason being is the price of their summon, a soul.
“Only devils make a contract with souls as the price.”
They’re scammers among scammers.
Like loan sharks lending one million won and tearing back ten.
“Souls are the realm of things not even gods can interfere with, that only the creator gods who created the world and tasked the gods with looking after it can touch. A scam contract that tears that realm out under its name. because of this, those that make contracts with devils can use their souls as a price to obtain great strength.”
The running costs are too high.
If you were given a catalogue you’d never ever choose them, but unfortunately there are few specialist texts on summoning, and the ones that are on the market are so pathetic compared to what I know there’s no point even looking at them.
“And that’s why contracts are prohibited. Because devils are beings that infringe on the inviolable territory called the soul.”
“Then isn’t it right that we shouldn’t do it?”
No.17 said, tilting her head after a short moment to think.
Her appearance that actually matches her age is quite cute.
“Think differently. If devils are assholes that scam people using souls as the price.”
Thak!
The magic formation drawn with chalk was complete. Hm. This should work.
If it doesn’t then No.17 becomes a criminal, but since she’s a member of an evil organization she’s already a budding criminal.
Well, the important thing is.
While a soul might get forked over to a devil, it’s not my soul so that’s not a problem.
Even if I did try myself, I have absolutely no mana so it’s impossible for me to summon.
Even when I tried to contract a summon that someone else summoned I was refused.
Really, to hear from a devil that my soul was rotten, just what kind of bullshit is that?
And so, this will be my sacrifice for this experiment. The experiment name is.
“We can scam devils too.”
Will it be on the level of a certain demon’s contract?(1)
#2 Their story: the archdevil’s master’s story.
“We can scam devils too.”
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What kind of revolutionary bullshit is this?
I said I wanted to get stronger, but I never wanted to be a criminal.
But, after listening to the instructor’s words, I’m already a future criminal.
If I get caught by the Empire’s soldiers, killing myself before I brought shame to my family was the right way to go.
‘Real seal or no. Should I just give up and get married?’
The more that I thought, the more shame I felt thinking whether this was what I came to an evil organization for.
The reason I was getting stronger was over food? I, the daughter of the Nermia earldom, one of the great families even among the many in the empire?!
‘No, this
 this is all that damn No.1’s fault.’
To think he’d use someone coming to help him.
Worse, he’d put six cuffs on my wrists, seven on my ankles.
Clusters of cuffs on these frail wrists!
Even in the Empire which gave zero rights to criminals they didn’t even treat the death row inmates like this, and he did this to me, a weak little girl!
To think he’d use all sorts of magic formulations and cuffs on someone who was trying to help, I felt to the bone why the phrase biting the hand that fed you existed.
And after that, as if his desire he’d been suppressing burst after that one meal, No.1 started running like a man possessed, and after that the number of meals I had were getting less and less.
To be honest, after the first few months of hell that the instructor put us through, the training itself wasn’t that difficult.
On the contrary, they were amazingly normal and effective, and I was actually somewhat satisfied by the theories that I’d never heard of even in my family.
But that all changed after No.1000 failed to eat once, just once.
To the point that if I could go back to the past, I would run at myself of that time and stop me.
“Now that I think about it, No.1000 never missed a meal?”
All of a sudden the unfairness of the situation came to words, and No.1 agreed, and as a result of us cooperating we stopped No.1000 from claiming first place.
Her attacks that seemed like they were really going to kill us had our nerves on end, and I started to regret why did I put myself through this misery, but being faced with No.1000’s sorrowful expression at mealtime filled me with a quaint satisfaction.
It went without saying I was on edge at that meal. I ate only using my fork.
Because No.1000 could have charged in at any moment, the knife in my left hand had to be on standby at any moment.
But No.1000 only cried and watched, she didn’t lunge for the food.
After the food was gone, when I finally relaxed, the instructor said this to me.
“No.1000 knows the law of the strong feeding on the weak more than anyone else. That’s why she feels resentful.”
I replied instinctively at those words.
“That she was attacked by two people?”
“No, that she couldn’t hold out against Just. Two. People. And her weakness that prevented her from eating what should rightfully have been hers.”
Words that were difficult to understand. But unlike normal, the instructor smiled, a smile that sent a shiver down my spine, and disappeared after saying one more thing.
“You kids, may have awakened something that should have best been left sleeping.”
It was when I could no longer see the instructor’s back, that I realised that my back was soaked in a cold sweat
The next day, No.1000 used sword ki.
The week afterwards, No.1000 started awakening to magic by herself.
And after some more time passed, we could no longer beat No.1000 even with our combined assault, so naturally the alliance dissolved.
And when I realised it, I was the weakest among the three.
When it was easier, I could have made a contract with No.1 and just took turns eating and solved it peacefully like that, but even if I said that now it was far too late.
After a day, then two passed, the sense of danger was at my throat.
And my hatred for No.1 rose up again.
Although this is partially my fault, I don’t want to admit it!
“I offer my name and mana, and call your name.”
I’m reading the lines like I’ve been told to, but this feels weird. The lethargy that comes with all my body’s mana draining from me.
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Not all devils are equal.
Low ranking devils can be contracted even without your soul if you’re skilled enough, but high ranking beings, if handled wrongly can lead to a small kingdom’s downfall.
The dangers of those have been documented far and wide.
Summon chants might be found in hidden old ruins of an era long gone, and as cases of accidental summons came to light, parts of the summon chant were made public, and the Summoners’ Association made an announcement that any summoning chants with that part present should not be carried out.
And as a House of magicians, the Nermia family made frequent use of summons and had all sorts of knowledge on chants, and knowledge on devils as well, but this was the first time I’d encountered a chant like this.
“Thy, gatekeeper of Muspelheim, the great giant that set a world ablaze.”
Ah, my head is screaming at me to shut my mouth, but this mouth of mine doesn’t show any signs of shutting.
What, set a world ablaze?
Forget high-ranking demons, if it’s like this it wouldn’t be weird to expect an archdevil, or even a demon king.
“The one who completes the twilight of the gods, I call your name.”
Ahh, twilight of the gods. It even sounds dangerous!
“The great giant of fire Surtr, descend to this realm, appear before my eyes!”
Ahh, it’s too late. I have crossed the river of no return.
With the fatigue of magic draining from my body, I felt my heart hammering.
Ahh. This. Yep. Fear. This is because of fear.
“Are you that pleased?”
“Wh, what do you mean!”
As I looked at the sparkling magic formation, I snapped at the instructor’s voice behind me. Ahh, I can’t afford to be hated

“Then. What’s that smile?”
Smile? I’m smiling? What kind of monstrous accusation is that?
Here, my heart is hammering with fear, there’s no way I’d be smiling?
Haha. Really. Damn it.
I stared wordlessly at the instructor who’d brought a hand mirror out from somewhere and was reflecting my face.
Damn it. Talk about prepared.
Alright. I admit it. In the mirror there was a crazy bitch that was giggling like a maniac. With my face.
Alright. My heart is beating a bit, no, wildly fast.
The strongest nation in the continent, the Karuan Empire. And one of the great magician families that you’d rate on one hand within that Empire was the Nermia family. Even I, who’d read almost all the books in the family, had never heard about this giant called Surtr.
But, I can tell just by the chant.
This is an archdevil that would only be named in myths!
As a magician family, as a magician.
There is no way I could pass on learning something that no one else knows.
Judging by the instructor’s words, I could make a contract even without using my soul, but there was no guarantee of success.
A dangerous gamble, with my soul on the line.
If you weren’t excited here you weren’t a magician, no?
How much time passed?
When the brightness of the magic formation reached its peak, a giant with a body red as fire appeared emanating an intense heat.
Bang!
“Are you the ones who brought forth Surtr, the master of Muspelheim!”
The giant of fire appeared by slamming his hand onto the ground. The moment my body filled with delight in the spirit.
“The price of your contract is naught but
 Eh?”
The giant of fire who had been indomitably speaking made a very shocked expression before looking at the ground he’d slammed down on.
“Yep, naught. Zero. Nothing.”
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The instructor’s fiendish voice echoed in my ears.