Chapter 33
“First, drink this. It’ll help your shattered bones mend in no time.”
She stepped closer and handed him a potion.
The liquid inside was a bright, vivid red — something straight out of a video game.
Given it came from a devil, it was bound to be effective… but Juhyuk didn’t take it right away.
“I was taught never to accept anything from a devil without knowing the price.”
“You were hurt because of my pet. The least I can do is patch you up.”
She smiled as she stroked Cerberus’s head.
Then she tossed the bottle to him.
“Drink it. I swear on my name — there will be no price, and the only effect will be healing.”
“…”
A devil powerful enough to keep Cerberus as a pet swearing on her own name — that left no room for suspicion.
Juhyuk uncapped the bottle and downed it in one go.
“So, what name did you just swear by?”
“Mephisto. Heard of it?”
The name of a devil from classic literature rolled smoothly off her tongue.
It was well known by now that some of the monsters once thought to be mere fantasy actually existed.
So hearing her call herself Mephisto didn’t surprise him much.
“There probably isn’t a single human who doesn’t know your name.”
“Right? I asked just to see if my reputation still holds up.”
She smiled — a dangerously beautiful smile — and looked at him with interest.
“What’s your name?”
“Jung Juhyuk.”
“Jung Juhyuk… Juhyuk…”
She murmured it softly as she walked toward him, step by step.
The scent of roses grew stronger with each step until she stood close enough that he could feel her breath.
Then, studying him intently, she asked,
“I’ll be blunt… how are you that strong?”
Strong?
He’d barely managed to leave a small wound on her pet Cerberus.
For a devil like her to call him strong sounded absurd.
Still, he said nothing.
When he didn’t respond, she pressed further.
“No, more precisely — how did you get strong?”
“Through training.”
“That’s impossible.”
Mephisto’s tone was sharp.
“With the amount of mana you have and the way you fought just now, it doesn’t add up at all.”
She muttered to herself, lost in thought, as if her mind had wandered somewhere far away.
“Half-demon, maybe? Over five hundred years old? No, then your mana would be far higher….”
Her curiosity flared, and she began questioning herself out loud.
“Half-orc? No, then you’d have more brute strength. Or maybe you’re suppressing your mana? Impossible — I’d see right through that.”
She kept speculating without waiting for an answer.
Luckily, it seemed she hadn’t noticed the artifact engraved into his arm.
After rambling to herself for a while, she suddenly realized she’d gone too far.
“Ah— sorry. Guess I got a little excited. This sort of thing doesn’t happen often.”
“It’s fine.”
“Thanks for understanding.”
She smiled sweetly.
They said devils could beguile humans through any means — and with a face like hers, she hardly needed magic to do it.
“Since your wounds are healed, why don’t we sit and talk a bit?”
As she spoke, the scenery around them shifted.
The lava fields and red moon vanished, replaced in an instant by a grand study lined with bookshelves.
“Sit wherever you like. There’s tea and sweets — help yourself.”
“…”
With a wave of her hand, a wooden chair slid toward him.
Exhausted from his fight with Cerberus, Juhyuk sat down.
“So. Why did you bring me here?”
“Strictly speaking, I didn’t. One of my underlings brought you — said he found an interesting human.”
“And you unleashed that mutt of yours just to see how entertaining I’d be?”
“Pretty much.”
She said it so casually that Juhyuk couldn’t help frowning.
He hadn’t expected a devil to feel guilt, but her indifference still grated on him.
Seeing his displeasure, Mephisto tilted her head and said thoughtfully,
“Did I offend you? I suppose I owe you some compensation.”
She opened an ornate cabinet beside her and took out a ring, setting it on the table.
“How about this? It’ll increase your mana tenfold.”
“I don’t need anything tainted by a devil’s touch.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
She flicked the ring into the air and caught it playfully.
“Then what did you come all this way for, through such a suspicious gate?”
“Knowledge.”
No hesitation.
Knowledge about the artifact.
That was the only reason Juhyuk had risked entering a devil’s gate.
“I need information about artifacts.”
“Not an artifact itself, but information about one?”
Her eyes narrowed with curiosity.
Then her lips curved into a knowing smile.
“Hm~ so you got tangled up in one, huh?”
As expected of a devil, she was quick to catch on.
He’d already assumed she would.
“I see now. That explains how someone like you could be this strong.”
“Speculate all you want later. Right now, I want to talk about something else.”
He leaned on the desk and said firmly,
“Let me use whatever place you have that holds knowledge about artifacts.”
“Oh my, how bold.”
“You almost killed me. The least you can do is that much.”
After nearly dying for her amusement, he figured he’d earned something in return.
Surely a bit of access to her library wasn’t too much to ask.
Mephisto rested her chin on her hand, amused.
“Hmm… still not enough.”
Not enough, huh.
Watching him, she admitted she’d enjoyed his battle with Cerberus — but not that much.
“Watching you fight my puppy was fun, but letting you use my private study? That’s a bit much.”
Then her lips curved into a sly grin.
“How about this — tell me what happened to you, and I’ll let you use it.”
“No.”
He had no intention of telling anyone.
If she learned about the artifact carved into his body, she’d undoubtedly tempt him with something irresistible.
He didn’t doubt his willpower — but against a devil, caution was only wise.
Mephisto sighed dramatically.
“Oh dear…”
She didn’t seem frustrated — if anything, she looked entertained, as though this negotiation were a game.
After a brief pause, she spoke again.
“Then how about a game?”
“A game?”
“Simple. If you can resist the temptations I show you in my illusion, you win. Then you can use my library — freely, forever.”
Juhyuk blinked.
That sounded familiar.
Classic Mephisto — just like in the legends.
“And if I lose?”
“Then you’ll tell me everything about how you got so strong.”
“Didn’t you already try that trick a few hundred years ago?”
“It never gets old. It’s the most fun kind of bet there is.”
She twirled the ring in her fingers and looked at him.
“So? Will you play?”
“…”
Could he resist a devil’s temptation?
He prided himself on his discipline — but against a great devil’s illusion?
He hesitated only for a moment.
The truth was, he’d made his decision the moment he stepped through the gate.
“Alright. Let’s do it.”
How great could her temptation really be?
Hearing his answer, Mephisto grinned — a chillingly wide, inhuman smile that split her refined face.
“That’s the spirit.”
She conjured a parchment from thin air and held it out to him.
He read every clause carefully, crossed out the suspicious ones, checked it ten times, and finally signed.
“So thorough. Very well — shall we begin?”
“Start.”
No reason to waste time.
As tension stirred within him, the game began.
“Let’s keep it fair and square,” she said — oddly sincere for a devil.
Moments later, his vision blurred—
—
“…”
“…”
Mephisto stared down awkwardly, avoiding his eyes.
Juhyuk’s tone was flat, almost disappointed.
“Is it over?”
“…Yeah. You win.”
He’d won.
No debate needed.
Even Cerberus, if it had seen it, would have agreed.
“What kind of human are you, to resist all my temptations?”
“Well… when I focus on my sword, I don’t really see anything else.”
Inside the illusion, countless temptations had appeared.
Women perfectly suited to his taste.
Scenes of unimaginable wealth and glory.
Everything a human could ever crave — laid out before him.
If he’d only reached out, it could all have been his.
But he never even looked.
The instant he entered the illusion, he searched for his sword — and started training.
Mephisto had tried everything to distract him, to lure him away, but he ignored it all.
In the end, time simply ran out.
“This is ridiculous. Were you dropped on your head as a baby? Do you not have desires?”
“I have them.”
Desire for sleep, food, lust — all the same as anyone else.
But Juhyuk had something that outweighed them all.
“There’s just something more important than those desires.”
Like a gamer who forgets sleep and food when immersed in a game, Juhyuk lost himself in the sword.
To him, training wasn’t discipline — it was obsession.
A total, consuming focus no one else could match.
“…Unbelievable.”
Mephisto sighed deeply.
She still looked like she couldn’t quite believe she’d lost.
But a loss was a loss.
Reluctantly, she flicked a key toward him.
“Go ahead and use the library as you like. That key will let you come and go from this manor whenever you need.”
A rather anticlimactic victory.
But thanks to it, Juhyuk had earned full access to the great devil Mephisto’s library.
