Nothing happened.
Basileo looked up.
“It failed.”
Instead, Elodie’s head dropped.
Elodie clenched her fist again with a complicated expression, then released it.
Crack!
Lightning suddenly struck from the sky, piercing through the three devils.
“Kyaaaak!”
“Aack!”
The devils screamed and fell without even uttering a word, still reeling from the lightning strike.
Basileo exclaimed in admiration.
“As expected of Master Elodie. To use Chain Lightning at such high speed. And even adding ‘Remote Activation’ to it.”
“Thanks for noticing.”
Elodie gave a wry smile.
It seemed like magic was about to manifest in Basileo’s hand, but it wasn't time yet.
‘What Basileo pre-casted was probably Chain Lightning too. Too bad.’
She knew that Frondier had given him a hint about Reservation. But neither Frondier nor Elodie knew the exact method.
She didn't expect Basileo to be able to do it just by hearing about it. It was more surprising that he had momentarily raised her expectations.
“Make it work next time.”
“I-I’ll try my best.”
If Frondier were here, he would have said, ‘Effort alone isn’t enough’, but Elodie couldn't bring herself to be that harsh.
Bzzt—
Elodie's phone rang again, and she answered.
[Was that Basileo just now?]
“No, I did it. The Reservation failed.”
[Then Elodie should receive the reward.]
Reward? Ah, he said he would buy him anything he wanted in the capital.
“Is it okay if I receive it?”
[You cleared the mission.]
…Frondier, you were anticipating Basileo's failure from the start, weren't you?
“Right. By the way, what happened to the devils that fell? I didn’t think about them after they crashed.”
[Don’t worry.]
Frondier said.
From the lead vehicle.
Just like Pielott, he was standing on Obsidian outside the car.
After delivering his last words into the phone held to his ear, he lowered it.
“Because they’re right in front of me.”
Just as he said.
The three fallen devils were bound by Obsidian, right in front of Frondier.
“Ugh…”
The three devils groaned in pain, still feeling the aftereffects of the lightning strike. They struggled to break free from Obsidian, but to no avail.
‘Extracting information is my top priority, but would these guys even be useful for that?’
Frondier carefully observed the devils' appearances.
All three had different faces. This meant they weren't the low-ranking devils Frondier had seen before.
The lower the rank of a devil, the more similar their appearances became. So, these ones were at least a step above that.
As a devil's rank increased, so did their intelligence, which made communication easier.
In that sense, they were suitable for obtaining information, but they were still a bit underwhelming since they had shown up out of the blue.
But there was also something that bothered him.
‘Why did three of them come together?’
He had often seen low-ranking devils moving in groups, but there was no need for higher-ranking devils to do so.
It was more efficient for them to satisfy their desires or make contracts individually.
If they had a specific reason to travel together…
“First of all, what are you guys doing here?”
“W-What do you mean…?”
One of the devils asked back with a pained expression.
Well, it was a meaningless question. They were probably targeting humans out of desire.
Then should he ask what their desires were?
As Frondier was thinking that,
“Release this! How dare you treat us like—”
One of the devils shouted, then,
Thwack!
Frondier punched him, snapping his head to the side.
“K-Kh…!”
Frondier looked at the devil without any anger on his face.
“Calm down. Whether I release you or not is a conversation for later.”
“L-Later?”
“You’re the first devils I’ve met in a while. I need to get to know you.”
The devils exchanged glances.
The punch he had thrown without hesitation, and the expressionless face that followed.
This guy wasn't right in the head. They immediately came to a conclusion.
One of them gritted his teeth and bowed his head.
“Damn it, as expected…”
And that faint mumble,
“What?”
Frondier heard it.
He approached the devil who had mumbled.
“What did you say?”
“W-What are you talking about?”
“You said, ‘as expected,’ just now.”
“What does it matter if I—”
Grip.
Frondier grabbed the devil’s face and lifted him up.
“You mean you knew this was going to happen?”
“W-What are you—”
Thwack!
The devil next to him foolishly intervened and got punched in the face with Obsidian.
“What was ‘as expected’?”
“It doesn’t mean anything—”
“Do you want to die for no reason?”
Frondier looked at the devil with clear eyes.
There was no murderous intent, no anger.
It was the look of someone observing an interesting puzzle.
In other words, the devil felt like he had become a puzzle.
The human in front of him held all the choices—to solve the puzzle, or to tear it all apart if it didn't suit his fancy.
“You guys didn’t target just anyone, did you?”
Frondier didn't realize it, but a faint smile was playing on his lips.
“Did you come looking for me?”
“…Cut the crap.”
“Oh, really?”
At the devil’s words, Frondier closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
“….! Ah!”
The moment their eyes met, the devil felt a chilling fear grip him and cried out. And he realized what this human had done.
“T-This bastard, how…!”
“See? You’re not being subdued by my demonic power.”
“…!”
Even when Frondier used his demonic power, they didn’t obey.
The implication was clear.
“You guys already serve another devil, don’t you?”
“…!”
“Who is it?”
Frondier’s smile widened.
He had thought they were just useless flies buzzing around, but it turned out they had their uses.
“Which devil sent you to me?”
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