The Demon's Temptation

"The walled district."

David stood outside the walled district, looking at the towering wall and the three-meter-high sheet-metal barrier erected beneath it.

With that barrier in the way, he could not see what was happening inside. He could only hear the people working there.

He did not dare use his mental power. Many mages sent by various schools had tried that before him, and every one of them had been arrested and thrown in jail.

There must be some device here that detects mental power...

David swallowed. Under the circumstances, observing with his own eyes was the most practical approach—and the safest.

But the sheet metal blocked his view completely, and there were no tall buildings nearby.

By rights, he should have stopped there. If the intelligence was this hard to get, he could simply forget it.

That was what David said, and what he told the demon he had contacted through his spirit realm talent. But it was not what he did.

Have I really let a demon tempt me?

A smile tugged at David's lips. He lowered his head and walked away from the sheet-metal barrier outside the walled district.

He was not giving up. He was looking for an opportunity. If he barged in now, the mages inside would discover and arrest him.

Even if he was not arrested for his dealings with a spirit realm demon, he would be arrested for prying into confidential matters. There was little difference between the two.

The former would probably get him killed. The latter would probably leave him locked up for life, since he had no one powerful to back him.

If he truly wanted to find out what lay beyond the district's barrier, he would have to wait for an opportunity—or create one himself.

He looked back at