"So what will we be doing today?" asked Seir to me.
I lifted my face and looked at them. With sorrow, I said, "I don't know." I turned to look around as people kept staring at me. I could feel the weight of their gazes as I tried to avoid them.
Seir said casually while playing with her chopsticks, "Don't be so timid, for just a little thing!!"
"A little thing? You said… It's a big thing."
"Well, for humans, it's surely a big thing, yet it's not."
"What are you talking about?"
"You are referring to yours, right?"
"No, I'm not... I am referring to the situation."
The people around us started to whisper amongst themselves; their curiosity peaked during our conversation. I could sense their judgement, making me even more uncomfortable.
"Huh… I just don't understand how your mindset works."
"Because you are a human, and I am not one of yours."
"If it's your words like that, I will assume all demons are thirsty like you... Now, today, I want to know and gather some information about the meeting."
Suddenly, Seir said, "Done!"
I was puzzled by what she had just said. I asked, "What did you mean by done?"
"It's done…"
"Don't say you just found some information about the gathering."
She lifted her head, leaned her head towards my face, and said, "It's not some information, but it's the information. I've managed to gather all the details."
I was taken aback and said, "Yet, I have just said to you a second before... and now you said, You have gathered all the details and the information."
"Right…"
"How the hell did you do it?"
"Well… It's a demon's secret art."
As I kept looking at Seir and Gremory, I realised they were prophecy demons; they could see the past, present, and future, yet I still didn't know how far they could see the past and future. I asked both of them, "You two are one of the prophecy demons, right? You can see the past, present, and future, yet how far can you see the past and future?"
I saw Gremory not take any interest in my question, yet Seir seemed to want to answer the question. She put her chopsticks on the table and started to explain it to me.
"To answer your question, you need to know two types of fate... you know these two types of fate?"
Two types of fate? Was she talking about fate from God and fate from humans? I said, "You mean certainty of fate from God and uncertainty of fate from humans."
"There you go... You already know the two types of fate; imagine you are walking in a line, and in every step, you face a lot of crossroads with a lot of paths, yet all these crossroads will face the same one line at the end. That's how we see the future. We can see the end of all the paths, yet we can't see all the crossroads at the same time; there is a limitation on how far we see all the crossroads.
"You mean you can see God's fate for humans, such as death, life, and soulmates? And you can't see the fate of the human itself?"
"Correct, we can see when humans die, live, and get their soulmates, because these fates are from God, and they will not be affected by human actions, so no matter how stupid, dumb, or smart they want to avoid this fate, they still face it. Yet, we can still see the fate that can be changed by humans, like getting rich, smart, or anything else, and how their actions affect this fate. But our vision of this type of fate through human action is limited; I can only see a year in the future. On the other hand, Gremory, I believe she can see these fates a decade in the future."
"So basically, you two know everything in this world for a year to you, Seir, and to Gremory for a decade... How about the past?"
"Past is easy to see because the crossroads and all the paths weren't changed at all, so we can easily follow the road quickly. I can see a century of humans' past, and Gremory can see a millennium."
"That's so far, century and millennium of the past, and last thing, what about the present? I knew the concept of the past and the future, so why is there a concept of the present? What do you see in this concept?"
"The present isn't about vision, but about how we are aware of this world. For example, I know what Cai Ying is doing at the moment, which means I know the present of this world. It can be connected to the future."
So they were aware of everything that had happened in the past, like the duel challenge. "So you aware of the duel challenge that would be in you?"
"I am not aware of that challenge."
I was shocked and puzzled. How could she not be aware of the duel if she could see a year in the future? "How??"
"As I have explained before, I couldn't see all the paths of each crossroads, so when she suddenly challenged me to the duel, it wasn't in my vision; I didn't seek that path, so it was out of the blue; maybe there was something around her or in her mind that triggered her action that was different from my vision…"
"So when one path was incorrect from your vision, you will restart your vision again, and start to seek that path that is correct... And this stuff keeps repeating for every incorrect path you have sought."
"Correct…" Seir's gaze turned to a waitress walking around the dining room, "As you can see, that waitress, if my vision is about that, she will be alright for an hour, so I seek a correct path…BUT!!" Immediately, the waitress fell to the ground suddenly and spilt everything, "If that waitress fell like that, so I sought the incorrect path, and restarted it again in the new path, which is correct…"
"You are just gambling on which path is correct and incorrect…So it's based on your luck…"
"That's why there is the present…"
"What do you mean?"
"To seek a correct path, I need to know what the situation of the present right now, for example, that waitress before, if I didn't see anything about the present right now, my vision would show that the waitress will be alright for an hour, but if I checked around about the present, I would see some assholes who tried tripping her…So to determine which path I seek is correct, I need to see the present around the subject, and the paths of the other subjects…That's why it's about the past, the present, and the future…"
"Well, it's your thing, not my thing…" Still, there was something I wanted to know more about them, I turned my gaze to Gremory and said, "There is something I want to know about you, Gremory…" I asked, hoping to gain Gremory's interest. As our eyes met, she still didn't care so much, yet she said, "Go on! What is that?"
"As you can see, you are a chaotic evil, and cunning, like some books describe you, one of them says, 'Gremory can be an ally as long as the summoner be friend with her.' Yet, why after I summoned you, you weren't evil maybe killed me on the spot, or tried to mislead me to my doom, Why didn't you do all of that?"
Her face began to change from indifference to curiosity. She leaned in closer, her eyes narrowing with intrigue. "Well, have you generalised me as a lesser demon being? Or what? I am a royalty and noble demon, even though we are a demon, we have our own sense of honour and loyalty. May I know an example of what the book told about me?"
"Sometimes she can help you in dangerous situations, though there are high chances that she's the one who put you there. Sometimes she can be your greatest enemy, all because of some small thing you did accidentally offend her…That's how they told about you…"
Gremory's expression hardened as she absorbed the information. "So, according to the book, I am a complex character who can be both helpful and vengeful. It seems they have captured the essence of my dual nature." She paused, her voice laced with a hint of intrigue, "Let's make another example like Seir did about her power…What is the biggest thing the demon wants in your mind?"
I tried to answer her, "As I remember and look around me, maybe some types of blood and human flesh?" Suddenly I heard some chuckles from Seir, yet from chuckles it became a loud laugh.
"WHAT ARE YOU? AN IDIOT, HUH? HAHAHAHAHA" Seir's laughter echoed through the room so that everyone could hear her, causing me to shrink back in confusion and embarrassment. I looked at Gremory, and she showed some great chuckles behind her hand. Gremory's amusement added to my confusion, making me wonder if I had said something truly foolish…
"So what is the desire of a demon? If my answer amuses all of you…" I asked Gremory.
Gremory put her hands down and tried to regain her composure. She started to explain it to me, "Let's make it simple: who is stronger, a human or a demon?" Immediately I wanted to say human, yet Gremory added more in her sentences: "Without any help from above…"
"Well, if that's happening, I can't believe I say this, I guess the demon is the stronger…"
"How about we go back to when the demon got kicked out of heaven and sent out to hell by God, What was the ambition or the main goal of that demon at that time?"
"To bring humans into hell?"
"Correct, so to make humans into hell has a lot of ways; even King Solomon got misled from God's path by the plan of one of the Four Queens of Hell. The biggest desire of demons is to mislead humans from God's path. So if I killed you after you summoned me, I wouldn't have anything to gain."
"So you desire to mislead me from God's path?"
"My desire is your mind…"
"My mind??? I am more confused right now…"
"We are a royalty or noble demon so we have loyalty and an oath towards our contract. When our contract is sealed, I will honour it no matter what happens. Yet, humans are different, when the contract is sealed, it seems they think we are submitted to them. If the human is clueless, he will mislead from God's path in a few days. In that time, the human will start to break the contract, and we as the demon will easily have their soul."
I remembered about Lucifuge story, "I see, I heard and read a story about the demon contract. Some noble or high demons will have benevolent contracts, like donating some wealth to the poor and giving the demon one coin of gold or silver every month, first I thought it was an easy contract, yet humans are always unpredictable. They may initially comply with the terms, but their desires and motivations can change rapidly after they get everything they want; wealth, health, and power."
"You know it well, so when some humans thought we needed human fleshes and blood, I think that humans just got tricked by a silly ghost or lesser demon. I admired some presents that represent love, and for Seir, I believe she liked some presents that represent her nature: swiftness and speed."
"So you will not kill me?"
Gremory and Seir started to look at each other, and Gremory said, "For now, I don't have any mind for doing that…And I just killed some people who annoyed me, like Queen Eisheth Zenunim…"
Seir burst her mouth after hearing that name, "I am amazed, You are just casually saying that name…"
Gremory said, "What? It's just a name…Queen Eisheth killed or absorbed the humans to show God how fragile and easily humans get tricked. So she killed and absorbed all humans who had fallen from God's path…When the humans just keep in God's path, I will not kill them...And we are former angels, you need to know that, we aren't a lesser demon."