12 Chapter 12 The Duty I've Chosen

Eddie stood by staring at the man, Wolf Crophstein, and he stares at me. Like a starving wild animal. It still disgusts me and sends chills through me.

"Eddie." I say. "Will you trust me?" This would be a sure kill answer of 'fuck no! Get back.' But he doesn't answer me and, openly frustrated, opens the gate. Why the fuck is he obedient to me right now? He literally has no reason to actually trust me aside from the whole eight years he raised me in his house. I'm not gonna question this as he opens the gate slowly.

Wolf steps out lazily and ducks under the gate to step in front of me and, instead of kneeling, sits cross legged in front of me with his head down low enough to hit my stomach. He shrank himself down low enough for me to reach his head. I step close to his ear and start to ask my questions until he suddenly takes hold of my back and makes me step closer to him. He sat up a bit and holds still again. I heard Eddie jump from the movement but he didn't move.

I ask my questions one last time. "What are you sins?"

"... Living." What the fuck kind of life do you go through to give that answer?!

I pull back forgetting that I need to check his corruption. I saw it and he was a white as a ghost. Like Markus, he had no sins lift in him. Not a single black dot, but there was one eerie exception. His veins were showing up red as if his entire DNA was the corruption, but it wasn't corrupt. Rather than that, it was simply something that usually wouldn't be seen as a natural thing.

I eventually came to one conclusion. He was a halfling. Someone with human blood and the blood of a devil race in his veins. Devil's exist in another dimension though, and only come to this world through a summons of some kind. Some summons often fail and the devil is sent back. In rare cases of the failure, the devil will stay at the cost of the summoners life, letting it roam free with no objective or reason.

If he is one of those, I don't know if it's even possible.

I have to ask. "... Why do you want to be cleansed?"

"... I have been told I am cursed from birth. I want it removed."

"... I'll ask again. What are your sins?"

"... Living." It's his only answer. He doesn't have any idea why that's his answer but that all he knows. I ask him the same way I asked Victoria.

"Do you wish to be cleansed?"

"Yes."

"Where is your faith?"

"... My faith?"

"Do you have faith that I can cleanse you?"

"Why does that matter."

"... It's to have the consent to take your blood and replenish it. Without this agreement, I cant cleans you. And you must have full faith in the god I follow to be cleansed, else you will be rejected and die."

He looks me in the eyes intensely. His nose is too close for my comfort zone. Back up. "... Where is my faith? ... I will leave my faith to you then."

Because the answer was different, I felt that same cool link to my heart like the staff at home. I can't do it. This is completely different.

"... I can't cleanse you." I tell him. He gives me a face of distress.

"... Why?" He mutters. I can hear him holding back his bloodlust, but I hold on to my composure.

"Because there's nothing to cleanse. You're completely fine." I say with my best smile. His looks confused now. "However, there is something that is in you that isn't normal."

"What?"

"Your a halfling. Someone with Devil blood. So are only able to make contracts while still holding a free will of your own. So I have a proposition for you."

"... What is that?"

"Become my familiar and live with me as my servant." His eyes light up like an excited puppy.

"WHAT!?" Jesus, Eddie! "Hell no! You are not letting that in the house! He's a fucking criminal!"

"What did he do exactly to be a criminal? Well... Aside from probably stealing food from people."

"... Uh... Huh?"

"See? He just has devil blood. But that doesn't mean he did anything to purposely harm the whole of society."

Eddie takes a long while to think. "...How the hell are we even gonna get him out of here? He's not suppose to be in here in the first place, but the judge kept holding off on his sentence."

"Wait is he on death's row?"

"Yeah. He has been for about a few centuries now. He last time someone tried to kill him they ended up in his position but he hadn't moved. Like his body was curse to never die."

Oh my god I hope this guy is a Phoenix devil! That would be so fucking amazing!

"I'm keeping him." Fuck! I said it on impulse.

"No!"

"I take full responsibility!"

"I said no!"

"Why not?" A familiar voice echoes down the hall that sent chill down my spine. Fuck. That. POPE! "Give the boy a pet. I'm sure if he really wanted a devil as a familiar, things would get very interesting for his first day of school. Don't you agree, Wolf?"

Wolf holds me close in a tight hug. That got awkward really fast for me. "I don't mind being a pet, then."

"No. Your a familiar. There's a big difference." I say trying to get out of his grip.

"How the hell are you gonna keep up with a devil!? With a familiar contract it gets harder to control them because they have a free will unlike the 'pet' contract." Eddie rushes to explain.

I know all of that already. I know how the contract system works. There are about four or five I think. The servant, the familiar, the pet and the slave re all the ones I know. Each one in order of freedom and free will. Servants have more freedom to do as they please so long as its within their masters will, the familiar must obey the will of the master unless it hinders the masters immediate safety thus allowing them the free will to chose to obey or not. While the pet does the same they do not have the free will but the better judgement. We're as the slave is a complete puppet to be used for whatever the master wishes.

One thing I learned from having anything as a servant is giving the selected servant your complete trust to obey you with no limits to restrictions. It's the heaviest gamble to have and thus the hardest to actually use for anything that's not human. I learn this the easiest way from watching one of the members fail to summon one and another fail to make it a servant. A pretty gruesome experience for an adolescent.

"I'll make him my familiar and take full responsibility for him. For everything he does. It'll be the buty I've chosen." I say with full confidence that I can control him. Yes, this is me reverting back to an arrogant person wanting control of something like my previous life, but I going to do this a bit different. Not for my complete benefit, but for an experiment.

"Then how will you make the contract?" The pope asked.

"... Like the devil staff you gave me. I noticed what you tried to do when you gave me that book. You tested me with it and I didnt realise it was actually the real book since I've never seen the real thing before. But I was right to say it was different. It's not the blood church book, but rather the summoners guide for a blood link. Pretty sneaky of you don't you think?"

He flinched. I'm right. "Well. So you awaken that thing too? I am genuinely surprised it didn't kill you the moment you did."

So he was hoping for it to kill me. Not really surprising after knowing what I am. I better be more careful of everyone from the inner walls.

"Would you let me be a witness to your contract then. This way it will make it easier to let him leave here."

"I don't care." I'm held tighter suddenly forgetting that Wolf was still hugging me. For the love of... I push him away for some air space and he returns to his first position of hovering over me. "I'm going to recite the vow from the book." It tell the pope.

"Then, if you please."

I place my hands on Wolf's shoulders and begin as he looks me in the eyes still with that excited look from earlier.

"We make a vow with our blood to stay true to the teachings and follow our gods rule;

As we humble ourselves to the world and teach them just the same."

I feel that link once more on my heart and it instantly warms up, unlike when I did it with the staff in my hand. Was this what the acceptance feels like?

"... There's another like me with you?" Wolf suddenly says.

"Hm? Oh it's a staff with. A devils soul in it." So he can feel when there are others. Which means he and the staff are now connected. This is even more interesting. For now let's get. The permission to leave.

"Well done." The pope says. "Shall we go then, you three? By the way. How did your cleansing go for your followers? I dropped their sentences for you so you could judge the whole yourself."

So he's the reason for that? What the hell is this man scheming? "... Not as expected, but the results were well enough." I answer halfheartedly.

He smiles strangely. "Is that so?" We enter the elevator and return to the surface. The pope and Eddie have been discussing where to put me for school for the longest now. The pope kept insisting to put me in the "advanced" courses while Eddie says I'm not educated far enough to be so highly regarded. Not really sure how to react to that one, but I don't think he's wrong about my level of knowledge right now. I've only read history books and know very little spell books. The only thing I should probably be proud of is that I've memorized every bible and law book for each god so I can know more of what they are capable of.

I suppose going to basic classes will do if I want to see where exactly I stand.