There were a few kids around them, but not so close that he would be able to hear their voices. There was no way that they could be the one saying those things. "Are you lying, Wesley? It"s not good to play pranks on your roommate. Bad things can happen to kids at night," Juin warned, trying to appear as scary as possible. "Pfft… You"re more afraid of the bad things than me," Wesley sneered. He then stood up and said, "My bus is arriving. Have fun being weird…"
Juin watched as Wesley got onto the bus and waved him goodbye. He then sat on the bench, occasionally looking back to see if there was anyone near him.
"Am I going crazy?" Juin mumbled to himself.
"Idiots can"t go crazy, so probably no."
It was that same haughty voice from before, and Juin immediately jumped up as he looked around, startling a few kids who were near him. The kids immediately took a step back as they mumbled words like "weirdo" and "freak".
Juin ignored them as he walked around the bench as he tried to find the person hiding.
"Like I said, an idiot."
When that voice came again, Juin froze. He remembered it clearly now. That voice… It was the voice of that young man from his dream.
"No… That"s just a dream."
"Do you enjoy being tortured in your dreams?" said the voice again, in a somewhat amused tone. "I can give it to you more often if you want…"
"Where are you?" Juin asked as his eyes darted around, trying to see if he was going crazy or if there was someone around him.
"Stop looking around. I"m in your head."
"Oh great…" Juin mumbled after a moment of silence. "Now I"m certifiably crazy."
"Well, you can probably get a certification for being dumb, but I wouldn"t say you"re crazy," mocked the voice.
Juin thought for a moment before pulling out his phone. He then put it to his ear before saying, "What are you?"
"You summoned me, and I told you before. You can"t even remember that?" the voice said with a hint of a sigh.
"The museum…" Juin gasped. He then lowered his voice as he said, "The missing book and sword!"
"I don"t know about what museum you"re talking about, but I did take a book as well as a sword. Well, they belonged to my ancestors, so I"m only taking what"s mine."
"They thought I took it!"
"You? As you a weakling like you can wield it. I"ve kept them in a safe place. It"s bad enough that I"m summoned by someone like you; I don"t want to have a repeat of this in the future."
"I didn"t even do anything," Juin mumbled.
"Whether you know it or not, you did something…"
Juin sighed. "So what are you? Are you really a demon?"
"I"m King Lucifer VI. You may refer to me as Your Majesty, My Lord, or Prince Hotbod," the voice said proudly.
"Erm… Can I call you Lucifer?"
"Are you warming my bed?"
"Erm… No?" Juin replied uncertainly. Technically, if Lucifer was in his mind, then they shared the same body… and that they shared the same bed. But he had a feeling that if he were to say yes, bad things might happen to him. Like, immediately.
"Then no!" the voice said haughtily.
"If you"re truly a demon," Juin said as he stood up. The school bus he was waiting for was arriving. "Then, make yourself appear in front of me so that I can confirm that you"re not a figment of my imagination."
"I"m already above you."
Juin gulped, and he clenched his fists as he slowly lifted his head, all the while mumbling, "Please look normal… Please look normal… Please look normal…"
He really, really did not want to see that goat-like image again.
However, when he looked up, other than the clear blue sky and fluffy clouds, he could not see anything else. "Hmm… Maybe I"m really crazy…"
"You can"t see me yet," Lucifer said as he sat above Juin"s head, with one leg rested on Juin"s head, as if he were supporting his body.
"I think that"s cause we didn"t have a soul pact. When Izzy sent me here, she made you sign the contract that made you my vessel, but that was between your physical body and me. Your soul, however," Lucifer said as he moved to pace around in midair. There was a frown on his face as he tried to rearrange his thoughts.
"I"m confused…" Juin mumbled as he got up the bus and went to his usual seat, second row on the left and right next to the window, still with his phone pressed against his ear. "What do you mean by that?"
"Your current soul… was forcibly placed in the physical body…" Lucifer said as he floated next to Juin, outside the bus, without anyone seeing him. "Wasn"t it?" he asked. While waiting for Juin"s reaction, Lucifer did not take his eyes off of him. His gaze on Juin was so intense that everyone else in the bus felt a cold chill running through their bones.
If Juin were aware of what Lucifer was doing, he would have fainted right at the moment as well.
Lucifer had thought about it since last night. Juin"s soul force was stronger than his physical body, so much stronger that it could create another small world while he was sleeping, and it was a world that was constantly changing based on what he wanted. But obviously, Juin did not know about it; otherwise, he would not have called it a dream.
Normally speaking, a true weakling would not be able to contain a demon"s soul without suffering, much less a demon king"s soul, but Juin"s body managed to be his vessel, not to mention that the wheel of fate chose him to be the vessel.
For someone of Lucifer"s rank, ancient humans who tried to forcefully summon him would usually end up dead or go crazy because their body and soul would not be able to contain Lucifer"s soul form. That was why when Earthly humans tried to summon creatures for their own nefarious purposes, they would usually end up summoning lower-ranked demons; demons that would usually be trampled by the other demons in their own world.
Even then, most of the time, the demons would be too strong for them to control.
"No way!" Juin scoffed. His soul was forcibly placed into his body? That was ridiculous! He had no other memories other than ones that were with this body, and as far as he could remember, which was around age 2 when he was potty trained, he had always been with this body. As the bus moved, in a low voice, Juin said, "I"m sorry, Lucifer, but--"
He felt a sudden chill run down his spine and immediately corrected himself, "Sorry, Your Majesty, but I don"t think that"s possible."
Lucifer frowned as he floated while sitting cross-legged, avoiding the incoming cars easily, like Mario jumping over mushrooms. "Soul transference is not a rare thing in Alercane, even if there"s a price to be paid. But then, there"s usually a tell," Lucifer thought to himself. He then glanced at Juin, who was looking at his phone as if he was wondering whether Lucifer was gone, and thought, "He has no tell. His soul is as weak as an average human, but it"s special… If it"s a real soul transference, why would someone transfer his soul into such a weak body? And a teenager at that… And based on his expression, it doesn"t appear that he"s lying."
"Hey, hey," Juin mumbled as he tapped on the phone and pretended to speak into it. "Are you still there?"
Lucifer had no mood to answer him, so he merely floated up onto the top of the bus and lay there as he tried to think of an explanation… and whether or not he wanted to make a soul pact with this boy who managed to summon his soul.
Lucifer could forcibly take over the body and get rid of Juin"s soul, but in doing so, it would affect himself as well. Besides, without someone from Alercane to summon him back, or a strong summoner here that could use the forbidden spell and was willing to sacrifice him or herself for Lucifer, it would also mean that he would be trapped in this particular physical body until the natural death of the physical body... in a vegetative state.
The best for him would be to get a willing soul in a willing physical body, in which case, he would be able to wield a larger percentage of his true strength. Otherwise, he would at most be able to exert 20-30% of his strength.
"But even if I create a pact with him, he"s too weak to fully bond with me…" Lucifer thought uneasily. He knew that he was seriously injured in Alercane and that someone sent his soul here, which meant that his real body was in a fake death state. And he knew that the person was Izzy, as she was one of the few strong enough to pull it off. If his soul was harm here, she would receive a backlash, and that would be on top of whatever injuries that she sustained from using the forbidden spell to send him over.
"Izzy…" Lucifer thought over her wellbeing worriedly as he clenched his fists with a determined expression. "I"ll be back soon… Stay strong."