"Ha ha ha! I'm finally out!"
Jeri laughed.
But as he laughed, he began to feel a little sad.
Seven years.
He, a mighty Demon God, had been trapped inside a little girl's body for seven whole years! Although seven years was nothing to a Demon God who measured time in millennia, seven years of being unable to sleep or perceive anything really was no different from being in prison.
Every moment of those seven years, Jeri had wanted to slaughter the offspring who had tried to summon him.
Though he had to admit, those offspring had perfectly fulfilled his demands:
--The vessel must be beautiful;(√)
--The vessel must be an innocent, pure child with no evil thoughts;(√)
--The vessel must be flawless, with comprehensive, all-around talent;(√)
--The vessel's personality and character must also be impeccable, kind, gentle, and obedient;(√)
--The vessel must have the luck of the chosen.(√)
Even now, Jeri didn't think there was anything wrong with his demands.
As a Demon God, was it really too much to want a beautiful, perfect vessel that was easy to corrupt?!
If Angell had seen those requirements, he would've tossed them back and told the other party: Of course they're excessive! Not one of these five requirements is specific enough for a normal person to find a suitable candidate.
--Beautiful? What kind of beautiful? Male? Female? Hair color? Skin color? Race? Eye color? Build?
--Innocent? Innocent in what way? Physically? Mentally? An idiot who thinks about nothing is the purest of all. Is that what you want?
--Talent? If someone has comprehensive, all-around talent, can they even be called human?
--Personality? Good grief, you're asking for a perfect person!
--Luck? If they're really that lucky, why would they get picked by you?
Clients who didn't even know what they were asking for were the stupidest and most difficult to deal with. They were usually the ones who came up with the "the first one was better" option!
But a Demon God's offspring had no right to refuse him. They could only find a way to meet the requirements for his arrival.
And through their efforts, they really did find a suitable candidate.
That candidate was Enlise.
Jeri didn't actually know where his offspring had found this vessel, and he didn't care.
It was like how people didn't care how their dinner plates were made.
As a plate that perfectly met the requirements, Enlise could easily accept the Demon God's power. Unlike other vessels, her body hadn't collapsed or her mind shattered. Instead, she had effortlessly fused with the Demon God's power.
According to the Demon God's script, he would then easily corrupt the girl's mind and body, use her as a medium to project himself onto this Plane, tear open a rift in space, and reignite the war between the two worlds.
But the Demon God felt as if he had been locked inside a Blank Cage!
Monsters fed on humanity's negative emotions, and the Demon God was no exception.
But Enlise couldn't provide enough negative emotions.
It wasn't that Enlise had no emotions.
As a human, the little girl was perfectly normal. She could be happy, angry, and startled. It was just that, for some reason, she repressed herself to an extreme degree. She even held back her happiness when it passed a certain threshold, like an unripe fruit that couldn't be swallowed.
If the child had been a true saint, the problem would've been easy to solve.
Without nourishment, the Demon God's power would quickly dissipate, and Jeri could return to his original place and wait for the next summoning.
But the girl did have one emotion she couldn't control.
Fear.
The girl feared her guardian, but she was even more afraid of being abandoned by him. She feared this world, but she couldn't escape it.
Under normal circumstances, fear would turn into more aggressive emotions like anger and resentment, directed at others or at oneself.
But Enlise did neither.
Under extreme circumstances, she did feel a little resentment toward her former guardian, but she never went so far as to see him as the root of her misfortune. She resented her own incompetence, but she never wallowed in self-pity or went so far as to want to give up on life. Only an endless stream of fear welled up inside her.
Her fear was like the sweetest fruit, nourishing the Demon God's power, but it was also like a chain, binding the Demon God firmly inside her body.
For a while, Jeri even suspected it was a trap laid specifically for him.
But the Demon God's offspring knew nothing of his predicament. They sensed that the Demon God had arrived, but didn't understand why he wasn't corrupting the vessel. They could only assume that the vessel was too young and hadn't yet grown enough to satisfy him.
So they decided to have the vessel's guardian raise her until she was almost grown.
And so the Demon God was trapped for seven years.
Only recently had things begun to change.
For some unknown reason, the girl's fear had diminished and her positive emotions had grown. But there seemed to be an especially abundant feast near her. Last time, just a tiny trace of its presence had slipped in, and the Demon God's power had expanded several times over.
Jeri felt that the moment he escaped was near.
Sure enough, just now, for the first time, he had sensed an intense negative emotion deep within the girl.
Jealousy!
The Demon God seized the opportunity. He broke through the constraints of the Blank Cage and could finally see the world through the girl's eyes, hear it through her ears, and feel it through her touch!
Of course, he still couldn't completely control the girl's body, but that was only a matter of time.
Human desire had no limits.
As long as he could influence the girl directly, he could make this vessel degenerate into a pile of mush.
Just like now, the girl's jealousy was still churning.
The Demon God immediately amplified the emotion.
"That's right! Just like that! Hate! Be jealous!" the Demon God laughed.
Enlise couldn't hear the abnormal creature's mad laughter. Her mind was occupied by two questions: "What does that boy have that made Mr. Angell choose him?" and "Can't I do it? Am I not as good as him?"
Thinking this, Enlise finally couldn't hold back any longer. She turned and headed outside.
By the time her classmate realized what was happening, Enlise had already disappeared.
"Mr. Angell, I heard you're planning to take on a student?"
After leaving the third floor of the shop, Enlise went straight upstairs to find Angell.
Angell was curled up among the piles of books in his bedroom, studying a fashion magazine from Xiesse. He frowned at her question. "A student? Why would I take on something so troublesome?"
He couldn't even be bothered to keep pets.
It was lucky that Mithril and Enlise were so undemanding. Otherwise, Angell would've had to hire one employee just to scoop litter and another to provide psychological counseling for the little girl.
But Little Enlise wasn't as easygoing as usual. She pressed him, refusing to give up. "But I heard you gave Mr. Bolo a patent fee and even went to deliver it in person!"
"I think that happened." Though the order should've been reversed.
He'd gone over in person to settle the score, only to discover that the brat had actually come up with something good, so he gave him a patent fee.
Enlise didn't know any of those details. She just pressed on: "So you really think highly of him? Then can you tell me what he did to earn your praise?!"
...Why did this feel like he'd been caught cheating?
Even someone as slow as Angell finally realized the little girl was in an odd mood.
But realizing it didn't help.
Angell had never been the kind of sensitive, perceptive person who could solve a little girl's troubles.
"You want to know what he did that I praised?" Angell confirmed. "Sure!"
As he spoke, Angell pulled a box out from under the desk.
It was a package that had arrived only a couple of days ago, and the postmark was still fresh.
Angell opened it and took out several books: Introduction to Recorder Repair, The Principles and Repair of Recorders, Small Radio Stations and Networking Applications, Wireless Fun: Radio Communications, Magnetic Materials, and Magnetic Physics.
Angell handed the books to Enlise. "If you understand these, you can probably figure out the principles behind that Mass-Produced Magic... Ah, no, you'll need a few more."
Ignoring Enlise as she struggled to catch the books, Angell turned back to the stacks and pulled out several more books on magical theory, each as thick as a brick.
He piled those on top of the books in Enlise's arms.
The stack was already taller than Enlise.
And since Angell hadn't arranged them properly, it was wobbling precariously.
Enlise hugged the books with both arms. There wasn't even room for the Magic Wand she'd had earlier, so she had to hang it from her arm.
Dazed by the pile of books, she could only ask blankly, "If I understand all this, can I do what Mr. Bolo did?"
"You can do it better than him," Angell said. "That brat just wanted to play games. He probably doesn't even know what he invented! If we had a clearer understanding of the principles, that'd be a huge help to me!"
"I understand!" Enlise's eyes lit up at that.
No one knew exactly what the girl had understood. Enlise then carried the pile of books, taller and heavier than she was, and wobbled out of Angell's room.
Fortunately, her room wasn't far from Angell's.
Before long, sounds came from the direction of Enlise's bedroom: a door opening, someone falling, and a pile of books crashing to the floor.
Angell didn't go to help.
Enlise wasn't the sort of child who needed an adult to help her just because she'd taken a little tumble.
Instead, a voice came from Angell's shadow:
"Are you really just going to let her go, meow?" A pair of cat eyes with different-colored irises emerged from Angell's shadow. "Something about the smell on that child seems a little off."
"Not for now. Enlise is much more stable than I expected. Forcing ourselves into it might make things worse," Black Robe replied to the Black Cat as if speaking in riddles.
Angell was concerned about something else. "Compared to that, I've only just noticed that the Magic Wand seems to have a transmitting spell on it?"
"It does. These Pseudo-Wands were prepared for the festival, meow. The performances needed to be in sync, so a transmitting spell was added... By the way, did you really think it was enough to sell the things without checking them thoroughly?" The Black Cat stared at Angell in disbelief, once again sighing at the depths of the dog planner's shamelessness.
"I checked every single one! I made sure they couldn't hurt anyone!" Angell defended himself.
How could he not be careful with something he was selling to children?!
If even one of them had caused an accident, it would've been a huge problem!
So, not only was the spell attached to the Magic Wand completely harmless White Magic, but Angell had also added a softening spell to every wand. It wouldn't even hurt if you hit someone with one!
As for the transmitting spell inside, Angell had actually checked it before. Since the spell itself wasn't harmful, removing it would've required replacing a magic crystal, which would've cost too much, so Angell had simply pretended not to notice it.
After all, that spell couldn't do anything.
But given Enlise's current state, something unexpected could happen.
"Is it serious?" Mithril asked worriedly.
"Let's observe for now," Angell said slowly. "Tonight will be crucial."
Tonight really was crucial.
Demon God Jeri thought so too.
He had finally escaped the Blank Cage and shared the girl's senses, but this was only the first step in the Demon God's arrival. After that, he had to gradually corrupt her thoughts, take control of her body, and occupy her completely.
This kind of corruption usually began in a dream.
Dreams were expressions of people's subconscious and a passageway to their hearts. Once he occupied someone's dream, he could reach the deepest part of their mind. That was why this was the most conventional method of corruption, chosen by most Monsters.
The Demon God had been trapped for seven years. He didn't want anything to go wrong.
So he decided on the method with the fewest chances of failure.
And so, when Enlise entered the Dream Realm again that night, she dreamed of the Orphanage she hadn't visited in a long time.
Since the last time the Orphanage had collapsed in her dream during the "recruitment" incident, Enlise had never again had the nightmare that used to terrify her so much she couldn't even cry.
Returning to the source of her Nightmare, Enlise found she could now look around the place calmly.
There wasn't really anything worth being afraid of here.
--The tables, chairs, and counters that had once seemed so huge were actually ordinary-sized. The place where the terrifying Monster heads had been displayed was really just a Message Board, with some ancient Hero quests still hanging on it: "Capture thirty Slimes," "Find the growing grounds of Flame Grass," "Huge reward for the chest hair of the Werewolf Leader on the third level of the Abyss (yes, the handsomest one)."
They actually seemed rather interesting. One could vaguely glimpse traces of the adventures and battles of Adventurers from the Magic Era.
The place itself had never been the terrifying part. It was the Monsters that had used it!
Thinking this, Enlise walked up to the counter. She noticed a Message Board lying beneath it and bent down to pick it up.
That was when Enlise saw a pair of legs.
A woman's legs.
Enlise looked up and saw the female receptionist standing before her. Her smile was wooden, and she stared at Enlise with hollow eyes. Her stomach had been torn open, and blood dripped steadily from it.
Enlise still felt no fear.
As if she had known this would happen, she calmly raised the Magic Wand. Enlise didn't understand why she was holding it, but dreams were simply illogical like that. She began to chant:
"Summon: Attack Receptionist Cat!"
"Meow meow meow!"
As a white light flared, a large group of cats leaped out of it and pounced on the female receptionist.
A cat fight was a brutal affair. Enlise couldn't get involved.
The scene quickly descended into chaos.
"Sorry, spare me!"
The female receptionist shrieked.
The voice wasn't the wooden female voice Enlise had heard before, but a deeper, more androgynous one.
And as "she" screamed, the receptionist's form began to change. She became a translucent Alien Creature covered in Tentacles, with no trace of a human shape left.
That appearance couldn't even stir Little Enlise's sympathy, and the cats showed their enemy no mercy.
As the cats clawed at it, the entire scene began to collapse. The Adventurer's Guild hall was torn to pieces for the second time, and liquid rushed in through the wreckage, flooding the entire building. Everything around them began to decay, like an underwater city tens of thousands of years in the future.
But Enlise and the cats weren't affected by the liquid and could still move. That meant the cats' attack was still ongoing.
The Shapeless Being had been reduced to a mushy mess, like a dormitory sofa leg.
"Sorry, I won't do it again! I swear! Please spare me, boo-hoo," the other party cried. "I'll grant any wish you have! I'll give you everything you want!"
Enlise wasn't fooled by such a flippant promise.
Instead, a Calico jumped onto Enlise's shoulder. "Hold on a moment and listen to what it has to say, meow! Even if we tear it to pieces, it'll only make us feel better. We won't get anything out of it, meow."
This Calico had been slacking off to the side ever since being summoned, but for some reason, it had an unusual amount of influence among the cats. Sure enough, all the cats stopped attacking and looked at Enlise.
The Alien Creature also realized its fate was in Enlise's hands.
It pitifully extended a Tentacle, trying to curl it around Enlise's leg, but before it could touch her, a Maine Coon pinned it down with one paw and slashed it with a claw.
The Alien Creature cried out in pain.
Damn brats. If I hadn't been trapped for seven years and weakened so much...
The Alien Creature thought this, but had no choice but to ask meekly, "Dear child, what do you wish for? Whatever it is, I can make it come true!"
"Mm, I don't think there's anything in particular I want, because Mr. Angell has already given me everything in the real world," Enlise said. Instead, she turned to the cats. "What about you? What do you want?"
"MeowMeowMeow, dried fish!"
"That's right, dried fish, meow!"
"I want dried fish too!"
The MeowMeows quickly reached a consensus, so the Shapeless Being waved a Tentacle, and dried fish began swimming around like fish in the underwater Dream Realm, making the cats' dreams come true.
"You bunch of stupid cats!" Calico nimbly caught a few pieces of dried fish and stuffed them into his mouth, but he scolded his companions in exasperation. "Food in the Dream Realm is just a dream! Eating it won't do you any good!"
As Calico spoke, he rubbed against Enlise's face. "Young Lady, you can't be as stupid as they are. If you want to make a wish, something intangible would be better... But since I've been working overtime all night, could you let me take tomorrow off, meow?"
"No. You have to get Mr. Black Cat's permission!" Enlise said mercilessly.
She would never agree to anything that harmed Mr. Angell's interests!
"Bosses really are all the same," Calico said mournfully, leaping into the sea of dried fish to gorge himself.
But the Alien Creature still didn't give up.
On the contrary, It felt things were finally getting somewhere.
--Although this dream was being guided in a completely different way from what It had hoped, they'd still reached the point of making a wish. As expected, foolish humans couldn't escape their desires.
Its voice grew ever more coaxing. "That's right, sweet child. Make a wish! Instead of some insubstantial object in a dream, I can give you something even better! Would you like a beauty that everyone adores, or the charm to make handsome men of every kind fall at your feet? Do you want immense power, or wisdom that knows everything? I can give you all of that!"
"Really?" Enlise was tempted.
"Of course!"
"Can I take intangible things I gain in a dream, like knowledge or memories, out of the Dream Realm?"
"Of course!"
"Then I wish for all those books Mr. Angell gave me during the day!" Enlise said.
"?"
With Enlise's wish, a huge pile of books came tumbling down, scattering across the broken floor.
Enlise picked them up, chose the most basic one, and held it out to the Shapeless Being. "I don't really understand what this book says. Could you explain it to me from the beginning?"
"???"
The Alien Creature stared at the book, twitching, unable to understand what the little girl was thinking. "There's no need to go to all that trouble. I can give you powerful, invincible magic directly!"
"I don't need that!" Enlise said. "Just having magic won't help Mr. Angell! He said so today, too. He needs to understand how these things work."
"Then I can pour the principles of everything into your memories!" the Alien Creature said. "Becoming omniscient and omnipotent would be a little tricky, but it's not impossible!"
"I don't need that either!" Enlise refused again. "A bookshelf with two legs is useless. Mr. Angell has books all over his room. If he wants to look something up, can't he find it? What he needs is someone like Mr. Bolo, who can invent useful gadgets to solve real problems!"
"Then I'll give you the Eye of the Prophet, which can foresee everything and guide everything..."
"I need that even less! I don't have the wisdom to bear the future, nor the courage to shoulder other people's fates! Someone like me is already content to follow behind Mr. Angell. I don't need to see things that are better left unseen!"
...Was this girl really stupid, or was she wise in her own way?
The Alien Creature twitched as It spoke. "You keep going on about Mr. Angell. Can't you think about yourself for once?"
"Thinking about myself is exactly why I want to help Mr. Angell achieve his goals!" Enlise said with admiration. "Mr. Angell seems to see a world far broader and greater than the one I know. So I want to see what the world he hopes for will look like when it's complete."
There was no saving this girl. That Black Robe had completely brainwashed her.
The Alien Creature pressed a Tentacle to Its forehead and sighed.
After the Alien Creature had tried to dodge her requests several times, Enlise finally noticed how reluctant It was.
Hugging the Brick-Thick Textbook, she looked down at the strange creature and said, "You've said all that, but could it be that you actually can't do it?"
Can't do it...
Can't do it?!
"!" The Alien Creature bristled—though It didn't actually have any fur. "Who, who said I can't do it? If you want to learn, of course I can teach you!"
As It spoke, the Alien Creature took down the Adventurer's Guild signboard to use as a Blackboard.
"Go sit over there! I'm starting your lesson right now!!!"