Steel rings the bell of someone's house. The house itself isn't the biggest he ever saw. But it is sure bigger than his apartment.
Everytime he visits this place it always irritates him. It isn't like he even needs a place this big but seeing others have it makes him wanna have it too. He is just so much jealous.
Soon, he feel like someone is watching him through the camera placed on the bell. He waves at the camera with a forced smile.
That camera is only able to see cause he made his presence known. Otherwise, such a flawed technology would be useless against him.
He feels pity for these humans. Depending on such a insufficient guarding tech that he can breach without effort. But he also can't break the locks. So he gives credit where it is deserved.
The camera keeps on staring at him for a while. But then a voice speak.
"Steel?... Is that you, Steel? oh wait, it is you. Please come in…"
He sighs and enters the house. It is warm and quite spatial inside. The walls are decorated with things humans like. It is clean and quiet place to live. Twenty of Steels can live inside this house alone.
It is hard to understand why would a single human would need a place like that?
'show off…'
Only after few seconds, he was greeted by someone.
"Steel, it is you. I totally forget about you… for some reason… so please forgive. You should sit down in the guest room."
It is a woman. Her name is Jane. She's as tall as him, her skin is pearly white and she is quite energetic. He sometimes wonders how can someone be so jolly all the times. Humans are so distinct with one another. It is almost scary.
Steel goes to the guest room and sits in the couch. He has been here few times but every time it feels like he is in some expensive restaurant. But that emergence is broken by all the litter around the room.
'She should really clean this place. What is she? A devil spawn?'
Steel waits for few minutes and then she finally come back with sweets. The sweets made him happy but he didn't let it show.
"I don't know how I forget about you. It's like you disappeared from my mind…"
Steel ponders for a few seconds and replies.
"what can I say. I don't have a very rememberable face.."
Her forgetting him is cause of his elusive nature. But he isn't gonna tell her. It is always amusing to see reactions of people though.
Jane replies.
"Well, what brings you here…"
Steel stares at her for few minutes.
The atmosphere suddenly grows a little dark and quite awkward as the silent came out of nowhere. In reality, he is just playing with her.
He needs to be a confident and intimidating if he wants to take advantage of people. Or try to be. Not like he has a very intimidating face.
Steel replies with a grin.
"You remember, right? That I am basically blackmailing you..?"
Then it finally clicks in Jane's mind. She grows quiet and thinks about for a full minute before answering.
"… Did I really forgot that? Wait…I did, huh? Wait a second? what?..."
Steel remembers that day so clearly when it all happened.
'how much long ago was it? Oh yeah, four years...'
It wasn't a special day or anything. He had no home or any place to shelter himself from the cold night. He could steal some things once a day but it wasn't practical.
Using his ability to steal again and again could break the elusive nature. If the presence of the stolen object is found then his presence will be opened to everyone too. Then new troubles will make his life more difficult.
But it isn't like he couldn't manage living like that. He still lived. Even if that life was equal to a street rat.
However, that life of his changed when he somehow stumbled upon somebody in trouble.
It was a young Jane, not that young though. He is pretty sure that she is much older than him. Probably in her thirties. But she still looked just as beautiful as the present day Jane and she was against some street rats like him.
The human community isn't like a fair system. Steel would say that it is just like the jungles of the West world.
Strongest ones survive and thrive in life. In humans, Strength is money, fame and Soul power. Strongest ones can do whatever they want.
And those who are weak die or have to survive on the scrapes. But humans aren't as smart as Devil spawns. They can't see how outmatched they are against their opponents. So that's what happened.
From the outside, Jane could look like a delicate flower. But in reality she is one of the perfected humans. A human with soul ability.
Steel knows what she can do. All cause he forced her to tell him. Blackmailing is so fun.
But he still doesn't understand how human souls even work and Jane's soul is just odd like her abilities.
In the perfected path, she has [promised hit], [Single path] and [Known promise].
[promised hit], let her deliver the pain of the future in advance. So the attack that hasn't even land will hurt the opponent. But that promise also needed to be fulfilled. Otherwise, there won't be any advantage.
And so [single path] comes in, it gives her a single hit that will hit them no matter what.
Both works so well together that she can promise a hit in the future which can surprise or disorientate the opponent. Then the [single path] will make that hit possible.
And she can do it again and again, until the opponent is defeated.
Last is [known promise], it let her feel the pain of the future that will be delivered to her. But only the tenth of that pain.
So she can essentially see the future.
With these abilities and her own combat experience. She can deal with these streets rats without much difficulty.
When Steel saw that fighting skill of hers. He felt quite scared of her. He didn't wanna get dragged into it for no reason. His nature isn't that kind so why he would be caring about some nobodies. They decided to run into the den of a devil spawn. In this case, try to attack a perfected human.
Steel was gonna run away. But he stopped and saw a street rat coming to attack her from behind.
Past Steel wasn't really aware of her abilities. So he had thought that she was in danger. And for whatever reason, Steel decided to take action. Perhaps the past Steel was a little gullible or just greedy to expect a reward for helping her or something.
Jane had dealt with the other rats. So she was catching her breath. And the rat came from behind to attack her on the back but before the rat could attack.
Steel came out of nowhere and put of a broken glass shard on his neck. Then he said in a whisper.
"Wanna die?"
Steel never thought of himself as a hero. But sneaking up on someone from behind did felt really cool. He felt like an assassin. And his threat worked too.
The rat got so scared of Steel that he fell down and ran crawling away. That did put a little smile on his face.
After that, all the rats ran away with their tails between their legs. They didn't really have tails though as they were human. Steel just wanted to confirm that.
Jane just look at Steel and sighed. Then told him to follow her. He was suspicious but he followed her anyways.
He kept a distance of three meters away form her. He can run away if he felt like she was dangerous.
Then he found himself in front of a little restaurant and she invited him inside. Ordering something for him to eat.
He was hungry but he didn't feel like that she was paying him back for his kindness. Can humans really be so kind? It was hard to believe.
So he asked.
"What is this…?"
Jane replied with a joke.
"it is food. Haven't seen it before?"
Steel just stares at her and then she replies.
"Well, I am just indebted to you for helping me, kid. Not out of good morals though. It is one of my attributes, the imperfect one. It makes me indebted to them who helps me and if I not pay that debt back then I would be in trouble. But you technically have saved my life. Cause of that the debt is big. So kid, you have a whole month worth of free food. You sure are luck…"
Steel wonders for a moment. Trying to understand everything that she said about that attribute.
He asked.
"So I can even ask for whatever I want…?"
Jane just rolls her eyes and answers joking.
"yeah but You are too young to be asking for spending night with me. That would be really awkward, you see. I am old enough to be your mom."
Steel smiles darkly and pushes the food away. Then he says.
"instead of the food, I would like to know about your Soul Goal and other attributes…"
Jane finally come to under the little devil that was in front of her. Not like devil spawn, but this little devil was an opportunist.
Steel just feel like helping other humans isn't that bad of a thing. Maybe he should be doing it often. Like who knows. Maybe you can get yourself a jackpot or in Steel's case, get a walking opportunity to rise in the world a little.