3 The Hell? It's Speaking!

"Commander Adramelech! One of your pets have escaped from their cage!" a soldier exclaimed.

"The hell? Which one was it?"

"It was the cat that was found in a recently destroyed village! Its power is said to be unknown!" the soldier replied.

"Find it and bring it to me. It shouldn't be too powerful, since it didn't attack me when I found it," the commander ordered.

"Understood!" The soldier said.

Door slamming shut, the commander exhaled a heavy breath as he sent the soldier off.

"Damn, I forgot to establish a contract with that thing..." the commander thought.

"My plan to take over the Demon Army is slowly blossoming.."

********

"So I really am a slave..." I thought as I placed a brick.

I have been in Hell for a fortnight. Ever since then, all I have been doing is labor. The thing is, there are other slaves as well. However, they were all evil, go figure. Honestly, I thought that Hell was worse than this. Although I didn't particularly enjoy it, a life full of labor isn't that bad. Maybe because I have a above average physique, who knows.

Everyday, the group of slaves I am in, Group A, work on building or rebuilding. It seems like in Hell a lot of stuff gets destroyed.

Our group has been regarded as a highly useful one, according to Abdiel, who is the slave manager of our group. We get stuff done quickly, so in return we receive rewards. However, the rewards are just a break when doing labor.

The day was as always the same. Same old red sky, same old work. Our group finished up our work and headed into our camp. It was time for our break. Sitting on the ground, we formed a circle, chatting with each other as we ate our food for the day.

"That reminds me, since we're talking about our past lives, what have you guys done to be sent here?" one of the slaves asked.

"I robbed a whole village and massacred them. The looks on their faces were so funny! You should have seen them," one of the slaves said.

"I killed this one kid because he was annoying." another said.

"There was this one old hag that was so slow when walking, I just killed her." one slave said while laughing.

When I said they were evil, I meant it. These guys are complete psychopaths. Before I could leave, I was asked a question.

"How about you? What'd you do to get sent here?"

"I am not obliged to answer," I said.

"Tch, that's no fun," one of the slaves said.

I couldn't stand these scum. I quickly finished my bread and left the group, using my remaining time to explore around the area we were sent to. It was a destroyed village. If one concentrated on smelling enough, you could smell blood.

While walking, I suddenly heard rocks being moved inside the house I was walking by. Curious, I peeked through the destroyed door frame. What I saw surprised me.

It looked like a cat, but enlarged. It had all black fur and a slight tinge of orange to its tail. The cat like creature was poking his head through the rubble, seemingly searching for something. However, seems like due to my yelp of surprise, it stopped and looked at me.

Its face looked like this ➝ ( ⓛ ω ⓛ ). It had orange eyes, and whiskers.

"Who are you, nya?"

The hell? It's speaking!

"M-my name is Hiroshi Shimizu," I reluctantly answered while turning my head to avoid the cat's gaze.

No response. All I heard was rocks clashing against each other. Hesitantly, I turned my head back.

The cat was ignoring me... It seemed that it was bent on finding something.

"W-what are you searching for?" I said.

"A scroll, nya."

Scroll? That reminds me, I do remember picking up a weird looking scroll with unrecognizable letters on it..

"Is it this?" I said as I pulled the scroll out my pants.

As the cat turned his head, its eyes widened. Seems like this is the thing it is looking for. Before I could give it to the cat, it suddenly decided to attack me.

The cat's claw stretched out in front of my face. Instinctively, I wielded the scroll to protect my face. As I thought I was going to die by the paws of a cat, a light shined brightly when the cat touched the scroll.

When the light faded, I was surprised to see that this cute cat was suddenly bowing down in front of me.

"Why are you bowing down in front of me? Weren't you going to kill me?" I said.

"A familiar, or pet as you humans call it, can neither show hostility or kill its contractor, nya.." the cat said.

Contractor? So your saying that when the cat touched the scroll, it became my pet? I mean I can't really complain, but it was honestly an unexpected development. I've always wanted a pet.

However, my joy was quickly ended. Hearing footsteps, I turned around and saw a group of soldiers heading towards the house.

"Hand over that creature and we won't have to do things the hard way," the soldier in the front said.

"No way! I don't even know who you are!" I exclaimed.

"Hmph, your choice. Men, fire your spells."

Before I knew it, a whole array of circles appeared.

"Wait wait wait, is this magic? Sh*t, am I going to die?"

I looked around, trying to find a way to escape. However, I was in extremely disadvantageous terrain. I would just trip over rubble if I tried to run.

The circles submerged and became bigger, until it fired. A huge black lightning bolt flew towards me.

"Seems like it's the end for me," I said as I threw my body in front of the cat and closed my eyes.

But when I reopened them, I was still standing. What I saw was the dumbfounded look on the soldiers and my unscathed body.