episode_0001

Courtesy, duty, and patience.

A person must have these three things.

This is something my father used to say.

Whenever alcohol was involved, the meaning was always explained.

‘Courtesy is a social skill that must be shown to others and is what distinguishes humans from beasts.’

‘Dori is the sunny path that a person should walk.’

‘Patience is the bitterest medicine that makes a person mature and strong.’

‘Anything other than that is incidental and not essential to life.’

Some may say it’s a bullshit philosophy, but I think it’s correct. Because my father was my giant.

Those words became my lifestyle.

I have always lived by that old legend.

But now I have thrown all that away and am here.

My father would curse me, calling me a stray animal.

My mother would yell at me. Stop. But what to do? For the first time in my life, there was something more fearful than death.

“I would like to do the deal you suggested.”

But nothing happened.

Isn’t this it?

“Hey…?”

─That moment.

Before I knew it, I was sitting on a soft chair.

There was a man in a neat suit sitting in front of me, with a small round table in front of me.

“I’m glad to see you again.”

He was such a beautiful sculpture that it made my heart ache even to see it as a man. Like a devil.

Of course, he was actually a devil.

The devil is smiling at me.

Looking at his polite appearance, he seems more like a person than a devil.

It’s still confusing, but he introduced himself as the devil.

This is my second consultation.

I’ve seen this place twice, but no matter how much I look around, I don’t understand it.

There was nothing around.

There are no walls, no floor, no ceiling, no sun, no moon. It’s just pitch black. Still, the furniture and the devil were clearly visible.

I don’t even know how I’m sitting here when there’s no floor.

I put my feet on the bare floor because it felt like a magic gimmick.

But the floor is not stepped on.

‘What happens if I fall from here?’

Wouldn’t it be like falling forever into that bottomless pit whose depth cannot be measured?

I grabbed my chair out of fear.

A warm smile appeared on the slightly pale face of a man sitting upright in a suit.

Strangely, there was no malice to be found in that smile.

He is a devil who deserves to be condemned.

The pen moves alone and writes.

“Is that a contract?”

“Yes.”

Distrust rose like a candle.

‘The opponent is the devil.’

The contract must be readable by the contract holder.

Could it be that he’s trying to scam me like a devil?

“Not at all.”

“Yes?”

Before I knew it, the devil was looking into my eyes.

Those dark, deep eyes are hard to look away from.

It steals my attention with too strong a captivating power to simply conclude that it’s eyes that attract attention.

Then, when I come to my senses, I unconsciously make eye contact with him as if I’m falling asleep. How surprised I was to learn that he could read the minds of anyone he made eye contact with.

I felt uncomfortable being the person I couldn’t even complain about.

Because not only me, but everyone in this world is not polite at heart.

“How do you plan to decide on your wish?”

“Please follow what was decided during the first consultation.”

The devil laughs softly.

The pale, complexioned person smiled so softly that he looked pitiful. Soon the devil spoke.

“No.”

“······Yes?”

“There’s more, right?”

My heart sank.

“······More?”

“Besides curing your mother’s illness, there is probably something more you want.”

A soft tone of voice, like that of a counselor, is easy to listen to.

I wondered if they were using a dumbbell, but the devil’s eyes were visible so I couldn’t even suspect it. How long did it hurt like that?

I gave up.

Because A was a devil to begin with.

‘What a human devil.’

It was so ironic that I laughed softly.

If someone hadn’t stolen my heart and expressed it in words, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to get it out.

Because I didn’t know myself either.

At the same time, it was something that should have been said.

“I hope no one remembers me.”

What I need most at this point.

Now that I know the identity of death, I am not afraid of dying.

I just feel frustrated.

But I was afraid that the people I had spent my whole life with would forget me.

True death comes when something is forgotten.

I was now able to understand words that had once passed me by.

“Forgetting is a scary thing for anyone. This is especially true if the other person is a family member. The contractor’s mind is extremely normal.”

He’s right.

The pen moves on its own and writes something.

“What will be transferred to the contractor is the current body and the right to residence at the level that the contractor has. There are two things to note first.”

The pen stopped.

The black eyes that had been staring at the contract were suddenly looking at me.

“The contractor loses too much compared to what I receive.”

Pfft! This time, a little more laughter erupted.

There is definitely an inhuman aspect to it.

This is a problem that no one considers.

“Are you saying it’s my loss?”

The devil nodded.

“The Contractor may not realize it, but the Contractor has been on Earth for eons. It has been that way so far, and it will continue to be that way.”

His words settled into my head.

“Death is not the end. Even if the contractor does not remember, the contractor has interacted with countless souls, and his current family is not the family he once was, but his eternal companions.”

In Korea, it is believed that enemies from previous lives meet as parents and children as husband and wife. If that is true, then I was getting the best revenge.

“The contractor loses it.”

The devil’s serious gaze caused reminiscence.

This is what I heard when I first consulted. Even when a person dies, there is a force called attraction, and the soul continues to communicate in the next life.

I asked if there was any way to find out.

The devil told me

Since you can’t recognize them, always be kind to the people around you.

But what value is there in a relationship you can’t even remember?

In other words, it is a rumor.

This devil has been like that from the beginning.

We value things that are difficult to understand.

“In addition to the subjective point of view, there is also the point of view held by the soul. Judging people or thinking about things does not all come from chemical algorithms engraved in the brain.”

It was as if he was appealing to me.

As if to reconsider this contract.

“This is especially true if you meet a person or soul that you had a connection with in your past life. This is the attractive force that I explained before.”

“I understand what you mean. The soul remembers. Is this what you mean?”

But would I want to do that?

no. I also like my home, and I want to live my life next to my family. So I came here. Because I can’t do that anymore.

I am giving up my life in exchange for treating my mother’s illness.

In return, you will be transferred to an alien world somewhere.

Real intention? I want to go back right away.

But there is something I want to achieve even if I die.

If so, shouldn’t we at least struggle?

The devil’s black eyes stared straight into mine.

Eventually his gaze left me.

“···To conclude, your presence becomes faint compared to other people. The attraction that has been built up over eons is disappearing. This is the loss borne by the contractor.”

Jeon Si-hyeon nodded.

They say that because I go to a place I have never seen before, no one recognizes me.

I’m an introvert anyway, so it’s more of a blessing.

“I think that being in the spotlight will only make life difficult.”

“Then I’m glad. I believe that the endless ups and downs of life are the driving force…”

I once again felt that this person had different values from mine. Isn’t this devil the ultimate ‘insa’ so to speak?

I was jealous of him for no reason.

The devil smiled softly and handed me a contract and a pen.

“For the legitimacy of the contract, the contractee’s memory is not lost even if he or she is reincarnated repeatedly. Since the price is not enough, I would like to help you in this regard. Health, talent, appearance. Anything is fine. As the contractor wishes, the contractor will be reborn.”

reborn

It also means that death is not the end.

It was also a statement that put an end to the century-old conflict that everyone had imagined, such as whether there is a life after death or whether it is the end when you die.

‘If I were born without a silver spoon in my mouth, would I commit suicide?’

It was a playful idea, but it was persuasive.

The secrets of this world should never be known to others.

If that happens, people will commit suicide for all kinds of reasons.

The fact that only I know in this world is comforting.

I accepted the pen the devil held out and pulled out the contract.

First, I scanned the contents to see what was written.

“······.”

It’s not Hangul.

The devil’s handwriting looked like a mixture of Latin and Arabic.

Both are flowing languages, but when you mix them together, it looks like nothing more than a child’s scribbles.

Or really just doodling.

The only thing that indicated that this was writing was the spacing.

There was no need to tell me to write it again now or to ask any questions.

“I don’t want anything. I just want to live comfortably. Can I write my name here?”

“Yes. But no one knows the future. The comfortable life that the contractor wants must be achieved by the contractor himself.”

What the devil said was very obvious.

Since it was a ridiculous entity, I only poked at it because I thought it might come up with a brilliant solution.

After signing where the devil’s hand indicated, he handed out the contract and pen.

“The second problem is angels.”

angel?

“An angel living in heaven?”

The devil burst out laughing.

“No. This is different from popular notions. The correct expression is not an angel who guides the dead, but a servant of God. You shouldn’t be found by them. Be careful about religion.”

“Why? Because you’re the devil?”

The devil lets out a laugh-filled groan, rolls his eyes, and then looks at me.

“There is no opposition between angels, gods, and devils as the contractor thinks. I just don’t want variables to arise in the work I put so much effort into. What would you do if an unusual mold that you had never seen before grew on the cheese you were fermenting?”

That’s natural.

“Take it off… and throw it away, right?”

“That’s right. That’s typical. The same goes for the gods of the world in which the contractor will live in the future. If a contractor engages in dangerous behavior, they will try to get rid of the contractor.”

Even though it is a dangerous story, I am not nervous.

Oh, I see. This is just my thoughts.

Sometimes I feel pathetic that I am grateful that a big misfortune has been avoided and a small misfortune has come instead.

But what can you do?

The death I had thought of until now was something that would disappear like a fire going out and fade away forever. But what about reincarnation in this world?

“Is there anything else I should take note of?”

“No more. You just need to refrain from actions that will attract the angel’s attention.”

I have no idea what it was that attracted the angel’s attention in the first place.

“What kind of behavior would attract an angel’s attention?”

“Hmm… To give a simple example, it is an act of trying to destroy the world, committing massacre, or rejecting religion.”

All you have to do is not do anything crazy.

I understand everything, but I don’t understand the last case.

“······Do you want them to trust you?”

“Not really, but angels live on faith.”

If so, it does not apply.

As a non-believer to my core, even as I was dealing with the devil, I had not the slightest respect for the Creator who existed somewhere.

“Didn’t many acts or massacres that would destroy the world take place there?”

“They are not variables. The contractor is a variable.”

Since I have no intention of doing so, I don’t think the angel needs to worry. If the angels are paying attention, I’ll try my best to become a good cheese mold.

“Do you have any more questions?”

“Yes.”

I have a lot of questions.

However, I don’t know how to organize and ask those questions, and I don’t have enough time to organize them.

I think it would take a day if I asked everything I was curious about step by step.

Even though my safety was at stake, I wanted to do it rashly.

It was because I didn’t want to look indecent.

I can’t believe having my mind read was such an inconvenience.

“Then, does the contractor, Jeon Si-hyeon, finally agree to the contract with me ──────?”

His name was muffled and muffled.

Aside from that reason, I couldn’t stop talking.

“Think about it slowly.”

I did not decline the reprieve the devil gave me.

Is this really a good thing?

It wasn’t.

─This is an action that will never be forgiven.

If you are a child, even if all of your limbs are cut off, you must survive and watch your parents die.

But what good does it do when a person dies?

I have to do well before I die.

I abandoned my duties, had no manners, and lost patience.

However, to me, my parents’ health and the rest of my life are more important than my parents’ suffering.

This is my last act of filial piety.

“I agree.”