I Saved a Demon, and Now He’s After Me - Chapter 39

“Bezel, do you know how to crack an egg?”

“Yes. Of course I do.”

Why on earth would she ask that? Just as Bezel wondered if she was asking him to crack it for her and reached to take her egg back when,

“Not so fast.”

Eden grinned, then cracked the boiled egg against his head.

“Ahahahahaha.”

…What could possibly be so funny? Bezel brushed the bits of shell from his hair and forced a smile. What a strange woman. Still, with her around, there was never a dull moment.

After laughing for quite a while, Eden finally stopped and roughly peeled off the shell stuck to the egg. Just as the egg’s white flesh was fully revealed and she opened her mouth wide to take a bite, the cabin door opened and men in crisp white uniforms poured in one after another.

“It’s the White Knights.”

Murmuring voices came from the seats in front and behind. The Holy Knights were called the White Knights because of the white uniforms they wore.

‘Did they get another report about demon worshippers somewhere? Seeing that many people heading out, it must be something big.’

Eden watched the White Knights file in one by one, thinking nothing of it.

Maybe because the world was getting harsher, demon worshippers had been increasing lately. She’d heard the knights were running all over the country without even time for vacation, and today they seemed to be heading somewhere in the south.

Well, it wasn’t her concern. There was no way their destinations would overlap in this vast empire.

‘Wait, no, hold on. You know what they say about unlikely things happening… Could the demon I got commissioned for also be one summoned by worshippers?’

She hadn’t met the client yet, so she didn’t even know what kind of demon she’d be dealing with.

The information broker who passed along the commission had only given her vague details: ‘Apparently three or four demons showed up. One looks like a spider, another is built like a centaur, but you’ll have to check the details when you get there.’

If it was centaur-like, then it at least had half a human form, so it would be a mid-rank demon. Difficult to take down, but worth the money. That alone was reason enough to go, but she also had Bezel, a wielder of divine power whose mere presence terrified demons.

‘Even one demon appearing would throw people into chaos, and now there are several at once? That doesn’t happen often.’

Eden thought as much but accepted the commission anyway. One or a hundred, what difference did it make? She’d just cut them all down!

If she could wipe them all out at once instead of running around everywhere taking them down one by one, that would actually be better. It would be tiring but… if she thought of it as training, it wasn’t impossible.

But this changed things. If the demons she had to deal with were summoned by worshippers, there was a high chance they’d be high-ranking demons in human form.

No matter how strong Eden was, she was still human. She could easily dispatch lower-ranking demons, but even with every consecrated weapon at her disposal, catching even one high-ranking demon barehanded wasn’t easy.

For this reason, most Hunters avoided facing high-ranking demons. No matter how good the money was, life came first. It wasn’t like they could take that money with them after death, and such work was usually left to exorcist priests who at least had divine protection.

But Eden couldn’t simply abandon commissions with peace of mind like they could. She had resentment piled up in her chest. Though she hated all demons, demons in human form were especially repulsive. It was a demon in human form that had devoured her parents.

Beyond her particular feelings toward that type of demon, she also had a clear purpose: to find her enemy and get revenge.

They say to catch a tiger you must enter the tiger’s den. Eden too needed to meet human-shaped demons to get information about that demon. She might catch a clue about where it was, and above all, she needed practice for when the time came to face it.

‘Better get some protein in me first.’

That was enough serious thinking. Straining her brain before a fight would only waste stamina.

Eden shoved the egg she was holding into her mouth. One cheek bulged out, following the round shape of the egg.

Food really does taste best when your mouth is full. Just as Eden thought this and was about to move her jaw, she locked eyes with one of the Holy Knights who had just entered the cabin.

“……”

A strange silence fell. Bezel, who had been watching Eden from the side, seemed to sense something odd and tapped her.

“Eden?”

Eden didn’t answer. Not only could she not speak with the egg filling her mouth, but the sudden reunion left her so flustered she couldn’t even think of what to say.

“…Eden?”

The voice calling her name wasn’t Bezel’s soft voice, but a deeper, masculine one.

Ah, this is really annoying. Why now of all times…