I Saved a Demon, and Now He’s After Me - Chapter 2

There were many names used to refer to Eden in the Empire. The cursed white witch, the pitiful avenger who lost her entire family, the swordswoman or gunslinger of Bonito village… Not a single one of them was particularly pleasant to hear.

Clients who imagined Eden as some frightening, fierce-looking woman based on those titles alone always reacted the same way when they met her for the first time

“Uh… you’re really the Hunter?”

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

Eden replied indifferently and sprawled out on the client’s sofa. The client blinked blankly as she rested her feet on the table without permission, despite them having just met.

‘Just from her attitude, she’s clearly a Demon Hunter who works as a mercenary…’

But if one were to judge by appearance alone, she looked more suited to a beauty pageant stage than a demon-hunting battlefield.

“With those arms and legs… can you really fight demons?”

“Oh, come on. I only look lanky because I’m tall. Take a look at this—I’ve got plenty of muscle.”

Eden rolled up her sleeve, revealing a forearm covered in dark blotches. The client gasped in shock, and Eden, with a sharp inhale, flexed to show off her muscle.

“I didn’t roll up my sleeve for you to gawk at the curse. Just look at these muscles. Looks like I could lift a log, right?”

“W-well, I suppose so.”

“Then there’s no problem, right? The commission fee’s postpaid anyway, so if I can’t get the job done, you just don’t pay me. Not like I’d be around to collect it—I’d be dead.”

What a harsh way of speaking. The client finally seemed reassured by the mention of post-payment and took a seat across from her.

“So, what’s the job?”

“Well…”

The client began to explain hesitantly. His name was Damian, a lord governing the vast western lands. In this countdom, residents were required to report to Damian when buying or selling homes or land. That day, a resident had come to him with a group of outsiders to sell a mansion.

“From the moment I first saw them, they gave me a bad feeling. Their eyes were sunken, several teeth were missing…. I suppose you could say they seemed mentally disturbed.”

“You certainly observe people’s appearances quite intently.”

“Ahem. It’s not just anything, since we’re dealing with land transactions, shouldn’t we examine everything carefully? Anyway, there weren’t any particular problems with the transaction documents, so I stamped them with my seal. But starting that day, strange things began happening in the village.”

“Strange things?”

“Animals that were fine suddenly died, and trees that were perfectly healthy just yesterday withered. Since these things started happening right after the outsiders moved in, we naturally had to suspect them.”

Damian gathered the villagers and went to the mansion. Since it was a mansion, it was deep in the forest and it took half a day’s walk to reach. After walking all that way, they couldn’t even set foot inside the mansion and were turned away right at the gate.

‘Whose permission did you get to come here? This may belong to the Count’s territory, but this land was clearly purchased by us. Leave at once!’

‘These insolent bastards, how dare they speak that way to the Count!’

‘Forget it. We’re the ones who showed up unannounced.’

Damian calmed the outraged villagers and led them back down the mountain—or rather, he pretended to, then stayed behind to secretly watch the mansion from nearby.

Eventually, night fell upon the forest. And from the mansion, the sound of many voices singing began to echo.

“At first, I thought it was a hymn. But the more I listened…”

Damian covered his mouth as if he couldn’t say more. Even without hearing it, Eden could tell it must have been something blasphemous.

“Demon worshippers?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“I get the gist, but I’m a Demon Hunter, not someone who arrests people. If that’s what you’re after, you’d be better off reporting it to the temple.”

Eden muttered “Ah, what a waste of time” and stood up from her seat. Damian hurriedly reached out to stop her.

“Wait! After the song ended, we heard screams! Multiple people screaming!”

“Screams?”

Ah, this is new. Eden turned back and sat down again. If screams were heard, it could only be one of two things: either a sacrifice had been offered to summon a demon, or the demon had already been summoned and someone was getting eaten.

“As you know, knights may fight people but they don’t fight demons, do they? And if we request an exorcist from the parish, we’ll be waiting for months. We need a Hunter.”

In that case, this was her domain. Eden smirked.

“You do know that summoned demons are not just any riffraff and more troublesome than demons that just happened to cross over, right? Well then, this one’s going to cost quite a bit.”