Cheat Awakening

"You know time works differently in the hell dimension, right?" The demon rumbled, his voice echoing in the cavernous room. "I've been here for this past entire month, and by now it's probably been a few years, or even more, back there. I'm very worried about my family, especially my wife. Even though we live in the city, there's no guarantee some bastard wouldn't dare lay his hands on her.

She's just so beautiful, it's easy for her to attract unwanted attention."

"It was supposed to be an easy task, with a good reward," He growled, slamming his fist onto the bed, creating a hole in the cheap mattress. "But just because of this bastard's rotten luck, now I'm stuck here. Damn it!"

The demon sighed and continued... "So, what's your story? What the hell are you doing here, and how did you end up in this world?"After venting his anger on the poor bed, which was also on Myne's list of collectable items, he asked curiously.

Myne, whose eyes were glued to the hole in the edge of the bed, black veins appearing on his forehead, tried his best to stay calm and not burn this bastard to death. He forced a smile on his face and replied, "Before getting possessed by you, this old man did something to me, well actually his son did, but he also was equally responsible so, today, I came here to kill him and take revenge.

But it seems like it doesn't matter now. As for my story and why I'm here, it's a bit complicated. Believe me, if you don't want to die, you better not ask about it. Anyway, let's talk about work. Your task was to torture this old man to the point that he rushes to that old hag and begs her to let him play the role of her husband, right?"

"Yes," The demon answers honestly. "After that, she'll give me my reward according to the contract, and I'll automatically return home." Though he suspected Myne was trying to fool him—there was no way he could kill him easily, the other party didn't seem that powerful after all.

Still, he didn't have a habit of poking his nose into other people's business and decided to hear this guy's proposition first before making any move.

"Well, Mr. Demon," Myne said, extending his hand, "since you seem decent, here's my deal. I'll help you hypnotize this old coot and make him fall madly in love with that old hag. In return, you have to deliver a letter for me to someone back there in hell. I don't have their address, only a name. How does that sound?

Deal?"

The demon fell silent for a moment hearing his condition, then, after a moment's hesitation, family affection seemingly winning over his cautious nature, he grasped Myne's hand. "Deal," He agreed, but not without showing his greedy nature. "But before we go any further, I want the souls of everyone in this castle as payment."

"Aren't you asking a bit much?" Myne countered with a frown. "Do you have any idea how many people live here? Over 250! Can you even digest that many souls? And what about after you run away? Many people know I came here for assassination.

You're simply throwing the entire blame on my head! Twenty or thirty, at most. And only members of the noble families. Those vampires have drunk enough commoner blood. It's time to send them to hell." His voice rose in anger, accidentally used too much on the hand that was holding William's hand, and a bone creaking sound echoed throughout the room.

"…Alright, Thirty then." After some hesitation, the demon, who was much easier to convince than Myne had expected, agreed to his request, not caring what happened to William's body anyway; it was not his.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Myne said impatiently. "Bring out the contract. You didn't expect me to believe in your verbal promise, right? Bro, you're a demon. Have some shame over your professionalism! No wonder this old man could easily bully you." He shook his head in disappointment, causing the demon to let out an awkward laugh, he had really forgotten about that.

The demon, though thick-skinned, quickly recovered from his embarrassment. He pulled out a contract made of a weird skin-like material that exuded a strong demonic vibe out of thin air. Mysteriously, their terms and conditions were already written on it, and he handed it to Myne.

It was written in both Myne's common language and the demonic language, despite the demon himself not having any idea about Myne's language.

As soon as Myne touched the contract, the Fate Ring on his hand woke up again, and this time it let out a faint golden light. Then Myne surprisingly not only can read the demonic language but also see invisible hidden conditions written behind it by the shameless demon, who was still pretending to be an innocent and easy-to-bully type guy, which was impossible to see through normal means.

The condition stated that the demon, whose name was "Drakthorn The Unseen", ( what kind of bullshit name was that? ) could collect as many souls as he wanted. This completely contradicted their original agreement, which only allowed him to consume, not collect, thirty souls from every person with a noble status living in the castle.

Additionally, the contract stipulated that if Drakthorn couldn't find the person he was supposed to deliver the letter to, or if the mission target turned out to be too dangerous, he could abandon it entirely. This was another loophole.

The original agreement stated he had to deliver the letter to --- person regardless of the circumstances (Myne hadn't written Gal's name, unsure of her identity, so he left the space blank.)

The contract also stated that if either party violated its terms, they would receive a swift but painful death. This meant experiencing their body explode like a firecracker. It was only a big deal for Myne, as demon deaths during missions were commonplace. After all, not every world was as peaceful as Myne one, and some were crawling with powerful beings.

The only troublesome part was that upon respawning in Hell, demons lost all their previous strength and assimilated souls, essentially starting from scratch.

"Don't you think you're looking down on me a little too much?" Myne said in a cold voice, throwing the contract back at the demon with a deadpan expression. "If I can understand your language, can't I read it too? And are you sure your head's all right?

You think you can fool me with this level of invisible spell?" He unleashed his King's Intimidation skill at full force, using one-seventh of his total mana. This almost gave William's old body a heart attack. The spiritual pressure Myne released was so overwhelming that even Drakthor inside him wasn't having a good time.

"Hahahaha, easy there, my friend, easy!" Drakthor seeing Myne is not easy to fool and seems really a big shot, he can't dare to mess with it, let out a chuckle with a friendly smile. "We demons are a mischievous lot. It's only natural to play a prank now and then. Look, those conditions were fake.

They can disappear with a simple puff of air." He demonstrated by blowing a gust of air over the hidden words behind the contract. They truly vanished, unfortunately without any visual effects.

With a cold stare still lingering in his eyes, Myne snatched the contract back and examined it carefully. He confirmed there were no more hidden tricks this time. The Fate Ring also remained quiet.

He reread the conditions, wrote down his and Gal's names, and dripped his blood on the document before showing it to Drakthor, holding it tightly in his hands, and having no intention of letting him touch it again. Who knew if he would try another air blast and make the words reappear?

Drakthorn, aware that he'd lost his credibility, didn't make things difficult. However, after reading Gal's full name, he fell into deep thought, contemplating whether or not to visit this unknown demon.

"Madoka Ibligor Galocer... although I have never heard about this guy, I hope he is not a dangerous guy," Drakthor said with a helpless smile after a moment of hesitation and dropped William's blood on the contract. Since the real names of both of them were written on the magical contract, deception was impossible.

The contract erupted into bloody red particles, half flowing into Myne's body and the other half imprinting on Drakthorn's soul inside William's body. Which was very normal. After all, most low and mid-level demons entered other worlds in soul form, possessing someone else's body. Naturally, they couldn't bring their blood with them to activate the contract right?

"All right, now release control of this old guy and let me hypnotize him. Oh, and don't forget to wake him up," Myne, getting up from the bed said with a hint of excitement, having no intention of correcting Drakthorn's misunderstanding regarding Gal's gender.

Drakthorn felt much more relaxed after signing the contract. It meant no more trickery from either side. He quickly relinquished control of William's body. Only he knew what he did inside the body. The next moment, William jolted awake, panting heavily. He looked like he'd just woken from the worst nightmare of his life.

However, before William could grasp what was happening, Myne cast his Hypnosis skill with a significant amount of mana to ensure it lasted a long time.

"William," Myne commanded his voice firm, "From now on, until Drakthor leaves your body, you will obey all of his orders, no matter how outlandish they may seem. Additionally, you will be consumed by a delirious love for the old hag you previously killed. You will yearn to return to her, apologize for your past mistakes, and spend the rest of your days as a devoted and obedient husband.

Your love for her will be absolute, and you will be willing to do anything to make her happy, anything means anything. You don't care how ugly she looks, she is the world's most beautiful woman for you, and you will give her a lot of children."

Thankfully, Myne had no idea about the hag's appearance. Otherwise, he surely would have vomited while issuing these commands. Even without the visual, he felt a pang of sympathy for William for his upcoming hellish life.