The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (31 page)

“
You.. aren’t
you just a goody goody..?” There was a weird tone to her voice
as she asked, and I was tempted to look back at her. It didn’t
sound like an insult, not at all.

“
Maybe, but I should
make the most of what I can do. That’s my path.”

“
Thanks… even
if this doesn’t work… thanks for wanting to help us. I
can’t even begin to repay this.” Lilith spoke in a small
voice, almost like she was still afraid I’d leave at the first
chance.

“
Oh, don’t
worry about it. In fact, can you keep another secret? This one, you
can’t even tell the other demons. Just between you and me,
deal?” I turned around and asked with a smile, setting the book
down for now. Lilith was sitting cross-legged, abandoning her
sensuous poses from before and fidgeting with her hands. When she
noticed I had turned around, she quickly put her hands to her side
and nodded, smiling.

“
Deal.”

“
Part of my unique
magic makes payment really unnecessary.”

“
What do you mean?”
She tilted her head, both sexy and cute at the same time.

“
My special magic is
to change the nature of something. Originally, this allowed me to
change one spell into another. But recently, I’ve begun to
change objects as well.” I held out a single silver coin to
demonstrate, closing my eyes and focusing on my Customize spell to
quickly change it into a gold coin.

Lilith’s eyes went
wide at the display. “That’s…”

“
Yeah.”

“
Cheating!”

I tilted my head back and
laughed as she suddenly shouted that out, “Yup. That’s
why I can’t teach this magic to other people. If it became
widespread, then the economy of the world would collapse.”

“
You…
really.” She shook her head and smiled. “You could buy
any treasure you wanted, build your own kingdom, and this is what you
do with yourself. I might just fall for you, Jin.”

“
Hey now, I know
every man wants a harem, but don’t you have a kingdom to
manage?”

She grinned at my comment,
“Oh? What’s a harem~?” She asked in her seductive
tone, so I wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. I decided to
play it safe and think she was, though I was blushing fiercely when I
explained.

“
A harem is when a
group of people all try to get the attention of one person, either
romantic or sexually.”

Seeing my blush, Lilith
laughed loudly. “Oh boy, I know what a harem is~. I was just
seeing if you’d actually explain it.”

I shook my head with a
sigh, still blushing. “You… I’m surprised you are
teasing me like this. Aren’t you afraid it’ll distract me
from fixing the contract?”

“
Not really? I enjoy
talking with you. And from what I’ve seen, you wouldn’t
let yourself be distracted if you really thought it would be an
issue.”

I smirked. “I don’t
know, you seem quite good at distracting me. Any warm-blooded man
would have a hard time focusing around you.”

Lilith stuck out her lower
lip, pouting. “Only the warm-blooded ones?”

I laughed, clutching my
side, “Oh, right, there are cold-blooded sentients here too, so
add them to the list.”

“
That’s
better! Jin, do you really think you’ll be able to help? Nobody
would blame you if you fail, you know?” She looked down and to
the side as she asked, and I could tell she didn’t expect any
of this to work.

“
Hey, that’s
not the kind of thing you should be asking, right?” I smiled to
her. “If you think you can trust me, then do so. I’ll
definitely fix this.”

She nodded again, smiling.
“I can trust you. After all the secrets you’ve told me, I
know that much.”

“
Also, I know you
are a succubus and all, but isn’t your personality a bit too
much on the cute side?” I teased her with a smirk, and she
puffed out her cheeks to pout.

“
I told you, we
aren’t sex demons! We’re just good looking! Wait, cute?”
Suddenly, my words seemed to register and she blushed a bit. “Er..
thanks. I don’t think a human ever said that about me…
when they actually know what I am.”

“
Then they’re
missing out. I’ll be the first one to admit that you have one
of the best bodies I’ve ever seen, but that’s about where
the comparison between you and the succubus stories I’ve heard
about come to an end. There are times that I wonder how you can lead
the entire demon race, with your personality.”

“
And just what is
that supposed to mean?” She turns a glare towards me, and I get
the feeling explaining quickly would be good.

“
Well, you just seem
too nice, really. I expected the leader of the demon race to be some
hardass that would sooner torture information out of people than ask
for it.”

“
Ah.. there are
those like that too. Most of the ones that give us a bad reputation
are the criminals of our kind. I have been queen for as long as I
have because, while I am the strongest among us, I am also the most
fit to rule. Aside from our appearance, we aren’t all that
different from you humans. There are actually quite a number of
demons living on the surface in disguise. Though, for their safety I
won’t tell you who. I may trust you, but I would not risk
speaking the words that could allow them to be targeted. The ears of
the heavenly host extend far.”

“
So.. they could spy
on you, even in your own realm?”

Lilith nods, a pained
expression on her face. “The King of Heaven may hear anything
spoken in the light, while the Queen of Hell hears all that is said
in darkness. Remember that.. if you ever need my help, just call for
me in the dark. If I can, I’ll be there. You’ve earned
that much.”

I smirked to her, picking
up the book and moving to sit next to her on the bed, mostly so I
could pat her head playfully. “You never planned to let me off
without a reward, did you?”

She smiled over to me, and
leaned against my arm. “Nope. Not in my nature to leave a favor
unpaid. And this is perhaps a favor that will last as long as I do. I
have to start early.”

“
Sounds like you’d
join me for my adventure if you thought you could get away with it.”

“
In a heartbeat.
It’d be many times more fun than managing the court. But, I’ll
settle for you relying on me when things get bad, or you need
something from me.”

“
That I can live
with. You know, I’ve already got a contract with a high ranking
elf mage. Adding the queen of demons to the list gives me quite the
powerful allies.”

Lilith laughed against my
arm as I went back to reading. “You, mister, know how to get
around. Guess you have your harem after all.”

I smirked down to her,
“Maybe. But at least I’m not one of those people that has
a harem and is oblivious about it, right? I always hate stories like
that.”

“
Right? People who
can’t appreciate the women around them don’t need that
kind of attention.”

“
Yeah.” I
finally finished my first read through the book, and had an idea.

“
Huh.. I need to add
yet another piece to the ritual. A spell that lets me analyze your
magic to identify which pieces are part of the contract. Then, I can
use that to target those pieces for the next step.”

Suddenly, Lilith begins
squirming against me, speaking in a high pitched voice. “Oh
my~, our hero is going to take a peek at my very being. How
naughty~.”

I laughed again, shaking
my head. “Must everything be an innuendo with you?”

“
Yup~. You know,
that’s probably where the whole sex demon thing came from, now
that I think about it. I just really like to tease people.” She
grinned up to me, and I kept laughing.

“
I can see that.
But, if I can make the magic to analyze the different pieces of your
aura, I can probably do both the separation and integration as one
rune, leaving only the linking.”

“
Oh, well, if that’s
the magic you need, could you adapt a magic that lets you analyze
curses?”

“
Maybe, but I’d
have to cast it at a master level to get what we need, so that would
have to be a powerful ritual. You are quite knowledgeable, you know?”

“
I’ve been
around longer than you can imagine. I learned a few things down the
road~.” She sticks her tongue out at me playfully.

Really, she’s
saying that, but doesn’t she really act like a kid at times?

“
Did you just think
something rude?” She narrows her eyes at me.

“
Of course not. I
take it you can have the ritual prepared for the analysis? I’d
like to test it before moving on to the next stage.”

“
I can take care of
that. I’ll have a room set up for you tomorrow for that. It
should take until then to get the materials and circle set up. What
did you mean about only needing the one rune for both separating and
integrating, though? Wouldn’t that naturally take two runes?”

“
Well, if you look
at it normally, yes. But, if I can isolate the components, then I can
identify them as the target of a single rune, and use existing ones
to remove and replace them. So, I’ll just need to make a rune
that targets properties of a target’s magic, and one that links
two items together. That last one is the one that’ll give me
trouble, since one of the objects is something I have no access to.”

Lilith nodded against my
arm, looking towards the book. “Do you need me to get you
another book for your research?”

“
No… I don’t
think it would help. There’s one main problem with this whole
thing that I was worried about, but this book had the answer for it
after all.”

“
Oh?”

“
Yeah. I was worried
that even if I got the spells made, I wouldn’t be able to do
what you need because my skill with the spells would be too low. But,
according to this…”

“
You can use certain
elements in the ritual to boost your spells to their maximum
potential, right?”

I smirked down to her.
“Right. Figures, I could have saved a bunch of time if I had
just asked you about it.”

Lilith detached from my
arm to strike a pose that showed entirely too much cleavage. “Well,
I
am
the queen of all
demons. It would be entirely improper if I didn’t know about
magic.”

“
True, true. So, you
can have your people work on the ritual to get it ready, and we’ll
work on the runes. I’ve got an idea for one, but the other will
take some thinking.”

“
Well.. if you’ve
already got an idea for one, it shouldn’t take too long to
realize it. You should even be done well before your deadline~.”
She smiled up to me and nodded quickly.

“
Well, I can hope
so. If I am, mind if we stay for the extra few days to train after we
are done?”

She grinned up to me and
nodded again. “Jin, if you can solve the problem between the
demons and angels, you can stay here whenever you want.”

I couldn’t help but
let out a laugh. “Well, that certainly would save on expenses
with the inns.”

“
I would hope that
the chambers here are of a nicer quality too! I know it has been some
time since I visited the mortal realm, but if this can only be
compared to a common room in an inn, I might start pouting.”

“
No, this is
definitely a step above anything you’d find in an inn, or most
houses. It is fit for a queen after all. Even if it is a lewd queen.”

“
Oh, you~. Flattery
will get you everywhere.” She winked playfully to me, and we
both laughed. Finally, I got back up and returned to the desk.

“
Okay, now to get to
work. I should have the first rune done tonight, and then I’ll
teach it to you. It won’t have as many uses as my first
creation, but I think you could still find some interesting things to
do with it.” I grinned and grabbed the pen and paper, closing
my eyes to focus.

I had learned when
creating Rewrite that to make a rune, you focus on the meaning you
want to give, and the shape will flow naturally. The thing most
people get obsessed with is that they focus too much on the shape
itself, when it’s the meaning that gives a rune power. In a
sense, there is a theoretical rune for any definition, and all I am
doing is discovering them.

As I had the definition
clear in my mind,
Objects born of a single
origin
, the shape gradually began forming in
my head, and I used the paper in front of me to begin drawing it.
This definitely wasn’t as powerful a rune as Rewrite, but at
the same time it could be, since it could cover any distance.

At some point, Lilith must
have moved to stand behind me, because she let out a soft gasp when
my hand finally stopped moving. “This…”

“
I call it ‘Twin’,
meaning ‘Objects born of a single origin’. I’d like
to test it, if you don’t mind?”