CH 201

“Zero! Why didn’t you wake me up yesterday when the Devil Lord was here?”

“I’m sorry…”

Yug and Zeal woke up properly in the morning. They felt uncomfortable as if they had been forced to sleep and asked me if something had happened to me. So I told them honestly that the devil king had come. As a result, they got angry. Sophie, who didn’t sleep and talked until morning, is still on the bed. But she’s just leaning on my back and doesn’t seem to intervene and help me.

“But he didn’t seem like a bad devil you know”

Except for the siscon aspect, he was quite the amazing person. If it weren’t for being a siscon, he would have been perfect.

“The devil king was able to forcefully come here even though there he has no contractors in this world, right? Then maybe he forced you to sign a contract with him?”

“But I have two contractors, Yug and Zeal, and my slots are filled, so it’s impossible, right?”

He said that the number of slots available to contract with spirits, demons and beasts is fixed. The number of quotas is shared among the three. The number of slots is two for reincarnated people like me and Sophie, and one for normal people. And all the slots for me and Sophie are already filled. So I was not particularly worried about being forced into a contract.

“Zero-kun…if the slots are filled, you can just open them.”

“What? Can a contract be forcibly cancelled by someone else?”

When I asked Yug and Zeal how to cancel the contract, they told me there were only two ways: either I and the contractors would agree to cancel the contract, or the contractors would unilaterally break the contract. I don’t think there is a way for others, even demons, to forcefully terminate the contract.

“If we, the contractors, die, the frame will be forcibly opened.”

“What…spirits die…?”

“While there’s no such thing as a lifespan. We can be killed.”

The fact is spirits are an extra dimensional existence, so I assumed they could never die. But then, wouldn’t spirits continue to increase in number endlessly? I thought. But I decided not to ask that. Because now Yug and Zeal looked very sad and lonely.

Come to think of it, Yug’s father used to be the spirit king. But I never heard anything about her mother. Maybe it’s related somehow.

“Sorry, I’ll be more careful.”

“Yeah…”

The atmosphere was somewhat downcast. But that doesn’t mean I cant find an alternative topic of conversation. What should I do?

“Zeros! Is my brother gone?”

As if to dispel the atmosphere, Dia popped out of Sophie. Dia, perhaps misjudging, appeared a little of the ground and almost fell to the floor. Then, following such a Dia, Shifa appeared gracefully.

“What is that way of talking to my brother?”

“I’m, i’m sorry…….”

“Sophie, calm down…”

Sophie grabbed Dia by the chest and lifted her up. She also began to prepare some magic, which I immediately stopped.

“What should I call you, then? Maybe…onii-sama!”

“What?”

A chill ran through my entire body. For a brief moment, the crisis high-speed detection was also triggered. Reflexively, I hurried to look back, but of course there was nothing there. The chill was so strong that I felt as if a sickle had been placed on my neck. This was definitely the fault of some siscon devil king.

People around me were looking at me curiously for my reaction. However, only Shifa looked convinced. Does Shifa-san know that the Devil King is a siscon?

“…I wish you would call me differently if you could…’

”Can’t I call you big brother since you’re Sophia’s big brother?”

“I’m sorry, please don’t, because it’s life-threatening…’

It’s terrifying that I get chills every time Dia calls me. Besides, Sophie’s face is getting scary. It seems that calling me big brother is not to Sophie’s liking either.

“Well… how about niisan noja?” (TN: Dia almost always adds “noja” to the end of her sentences but it doesn’t always fit in the translation)

“………, that’s fine.”

“What’s with the pause…?”

When she called me nissan, I didn’t get chills. It seemed to be safe to call me that. After confirming this, I gave my permission to Dia. The Devil King, by any chance, does he want Dia to call him “onii-chan”?

“So, what did  elder brother say to you? For example…did he say something about killing this lady……”

“No, he said something about the contract with Sophie being okay.”

There is no way that that siscon will kill Dia. I couldn’t say that, so I managed to say something that was okay to say.

“That’s great. What else did brother say?”

He said he would have signed a contract with me if a slot was open.

“What!?”

Dia froze in surprise. Shifa, too, is as expressionless as ever, but her mouth is just a little open, perhaps a little startled.

“My brother said that his contractor would not appear unless there was a strong person who was capable of meeting the conditions… Do you know those conditions!?”

“I’m sorry…I don’t know either.”

I’m glad that the Devil king considered me as quite good, but I’m absolutely sure that the condition means that you are a siscon. But I’m absolutely sure that the condition is to be a siscon. But to say now, “The condition is to be a siscon! And I’m a siscon!” I can’t say that.

“Since you have two spirits, why don’t you replace one of them with my brother?”

“I don’t think I want a new contractor if I had to terminate my contract with these two.”

“I see…”

I could tell that Dia was joking about that. I guess she didn’t think I would sign a contract with the Devil king until I had terminated my contract with one of the two.

I don’t want to become stronger by cutting off Zeal and Yug, who have helped me so much in the past. I mean, even now I’m not utilizing their strength at all, and I can only say that I’m getting carried away by terminating their contract and signing a new one.

While the six of us were talking about such things, there was a knock at the door saying that breakfast was ready. We returned the spirits and the devils back inside of us and headed for breakfast.