Cooperation Proposal

Humans made deals with demons.

Such things were far from rare in the mythological tales of human civilization.

They had even become something of a flood.

The soul of a loser, the soul of a beggar, the soul of a disabled person, the soul of an ordinary person, the soul of someone good for nothing...

In all sorts of stories, demons were like starving ghosts who would eat anything. No matter how pathetic or useless the other party was, so long as they had a soul, the demons wanted it all—and would often pay through the nose for it.

For example, a beggar wanted to trade his soul for the power of a king.

Normally, that would involve such difficult questions that struck straight at the heart of universal values as:

"Are you worthy?"

"What the fuck makes you worthy?"

Yet such wildly unequal transactions were incredibly easy to pull off in mythological tales.

It made one seriously wonder whether demons were accumulating virtue and doing good under the guise of making deals.

Using the money meant for a diamond ring to buy marbles.

More miserably still, after paying the price, their elaborate schemes often came to nothing.

They were practically professional philanthropists, letting people freeload off them every other day.

And now, faced with the demon not far away, who had found himself a spot, crossed his legs, and smoked a cigar as though nobody else existed, quite a few people present found their thoughts beginning to stir, their eyes flickering slightly.

Clearly.

With Angus Fuldga's successful restoration of youth as an example before them, many of those present were tempted.

Especially several individuals who had grown so old that their teeth had been replaced with dentures, and whose bodies were riddled with ailments.

As people who were dying