READER'S POV

Levi took me to his room and I wasn't surprised that this turned out to be an Otaku's den because Levi has posters and figurines of his favourite characters including a bookcase of manga and anime.

Levi looked out of his door to make sure no one was looking before he closed it.

"Is there a reason why you're checking to make sure no one saw us?" I asked him.

"Why do you THINK I did it?! Isn't it obvious?! Imagine what would happen if someone saw me inviting you into my room! A human who doesn't even look like an Otaku, but a normie! You know what people would say, right?!"

"Are you a closet Otaku, Leviathan?" I asked him in a polite tone.

"Hey! are you trying to judge me? You think you're better than me, is that it? Don't you dare make fun of otakus!"

"Whoa, chill out. I was just asking," I tried to calm him down after he shouted at me.

After Levi calmed down, we sat down on some cushions before he spoke to me.

"Listen up, because it's time for a truth bomb. The fact is that no matter how much of a normie you think you are, everyone out there is an otaku in some way! Every single person! ...Well, I mean I guess I'm not technically a person but, that's beside the point!" Levi spoke in a defensive tone.

I looked around his room some more until I glanced at his bookcase which is filled with thick, hardcover books as big as encyclopedias. One book caught my eye and it's called The Tale of the Seven Lords: The Lord of Shadow Awakens. 

"What is it, human? what're you looking at?" Levi asked me before looking in the direction I was staring at. "Wait, that looks like...The Tale of the Seven Lords. Are you a fan of that, too?"

"Huh? sorry, I've never heard of it."

"...Excuse me? You don't know TSL? And you call yourself a human?! Just how clueless ARE you?! How could you not know?!"

"I'm sorry, but, there just some manga and anime that I have yet to see and read unless of course you don't mind telling me more about it."

"*sighs* fine, but, you better make sure to pay attention!" Levi told me before I nodded my head.

"The Tale of the Seven Lords, otherwise known as TSL, is a series of fantasy novels written by Christoper Peugeot. It's a heroic epic spanning 138 volumes, and it's the most widely-read fantasy series in the world. There are even theatrical versions, an animated series, and feature films too. And it's been translated into a total of 182 different languages. The 1990s theatrical version was an utter disaster, owing to the fact that they added several characters that were NOT present in the original manuscript. At the time I was like 'This producer totally needs to crawl in a hole and die!' But then the 2015 version came out, and it was AMAZING! Better than amazing! if you ask me, it showed that needlessly cramming a female leading there alongside Henry was a bad idea. That's not what he needs. What he NEEDS is a friend who really understands him, and the 2015 version proved that. Also, the most vital element of the story is that each of the seven lords is so unique. They're all so interesting in their own peculiar way. That's what makes TSL so great!" Levi spoke in a happy tone.

'Oh boy, he's on fire now,' I thought to myself with a sweat drop running down the side of my head.

"The lords are all brothers...the oldest is called Lord of Corruption. He doesn't come across as being so bad at first, but he's always plotting and planning in secret. The second oldest is the Lord of Fools, a scumbag who'll do anything for money. The third oldest is called the Lord of Shadow, a brooding recluse. The fourth oldest is known as the Lord of Masks. He masquerades as a high-status, upstanding member of society, but underneath it all, he's an inhumane monster. The fifth oldest, the Lord of Lechery, only ever thinks of sex. The sixth oldest is the Lord of Flies, and he only ever thinks of food. Then there's the seventh oldest, called the Lord of Emptiness. He's weird...you never know what's running through his head!" Levi explained the characters to me before he gave his own opinion about the characters.

"It seems most people like the oldest Lord, the Lord of Corruption, the best. Everyone always talks about how great he is. But not me, I like the third lord way more. Of course, I like Henry too. He's the protagonist. He's almost as great as the third lord. The second lord is total scum, a hopeless degenerate that leads a life of extravagance and indulgence. He's always causing trouble for the third lord. He's got these magical pigs that can give birth to solid gold piglets and he treasures them above all else. So, Henry goes and talks to the pigs, and using his wit and powers of persuasion, he convinces them to leave with him. Then, he leads every last one of them away, and he presents them to the third lord as a gift! Wow...I mean, they're SUCH GOOD FRIENDS you can almost feel it! it's enough to make you cry! Oh, and then there's that one really awesome moment when the two of them realise they both like and respect each other and they high-five! I just LOVE that part, you know? I wish I could have a moment like that."

I smiled at Levi when I saw that twinkle in his eye because he almost reminded me of Marcus, one of the kids who used to live in the orphanage, is an Otaku as well and he used to get me involved in these kind of things as well.

"...I wish I could be like the third lord. I may be a recluse like him, but we're totally different, because he's got an amazing friend like Henry. Check it out. See that goldfish in the fish tank there?" Levi pointed out and I saw a goldfish.

"He's actually named Henry. I love TSL so much that I couldn't help naming him after the main character. But I can't really high-five a goldfish, can I? The original author of TSL, Christopher Peugeot, he's actually a human, you know? That's why I'm so jealous of you guys. Humans are so lucky. You've got subscription services that let you watch your favourite anime anytime, you can go to Akihabara whenever you want..." Levi started to get a little depressed after saying this.

"Why do only you guys get to experience all the food stuff? I mean, humans' whole concept of pleasure originally came from us demons, you know? we gave it to you. So, why can't we have a little of that back now, huh? I mean, I want to be able to go to a Japanese maid cafe too. I want to hear the maids welcome me as if I'm the master of the house, to have them draw ketchup hearts on my fried rice omelette, to experience the magic of it all. I want to cosplay as Henry and then go stand in the centre of Akihabara, or maybe under that one building in Tokyo that's shaped like upside-down triangles. And once I'm there, I want to perform Henry's super-powerful signature finishing move for all to see and say the incantation that goes with it. I want to shout it at the top of my lungs! ...Actually, you know what? I want to BE Henry!" Levi spoke in an excited tone.

"Hehe, Right! Screw all the normies! Who needs 'em?" I asked him with a smile on my face.

"Yeah, screw 'em!" Levi spoke in a happy tone before he turned serious again.

"Anyway, I didn't bring you here to tell you about TSL. I didn't think there's any harm in just coming out and saying what you already know is true: Mammon is a complete and utter scumbag. It's very important that you understand this. So I'll say it one more time. Mammon is a hopeless, worthless, scumbag."

I sweat dropped when Levi called his second oldest brother that.

"Can I ask what happened to cause you be so angry at him?"

"I lent that scumbag money, and now I want him to pay me back. But being the scumbag he is, he won't do it. I wish I could force him to, but despite what a rotten waste of space he is, Mammon's still the second oldest. As the third oldest, no matter how hard I try, I don't stand a chance against him."

"I'm not surprised, they say the youngest sibling can't be superior to the eldest but, how exactly did you two become enemies in the first place?" I asked Levi.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story, but sure. I'll tell you, human."

"You do realise that I have a name..." I mumbled quietly before Levi began to tell me how he and Mammon became enemies.

"Once, a long time ago, Mammon won a prize in a convenience store promotional campaign. If you brought something, they let you reach into a box and pull out piece of paper that told you what you'd won. And the prize Mammon won was a Seraphina figurine, something I would've died to have. But, despite the fact that Mammon had no interest in it at all, he refused to give it to me."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted it...that's it. That was the only reason. I wanted it, and he said no just to torment me. I mean, how awful is that?! So, I got to thinking...Mammon's going to end up treating Seraphina like some random piece of junk. That much is a given. I can maybe handle it if he at least leaves her in her original packaging, but what if he actually takes her out of the box?! He might just do it! And if he does, he'll get dust on her, won't he?! I decided I had to save Seraphina, so I snuck into Mammon's room in the middle of the night. And what do you think I saw there?!"

"Uh, what?" I asked nervously after seeing that furious expression on his face.

"You're not gonna believe it. He didn't open the box...No, it's way worse than that. He hadn't even taken it out of the plastic convenience store bag, which he'd tossed on the floor of his room. THE FLOOR! He actually left SERAPHINA on the FLOOR!" Levi shouted in a horrified tone.

"The nerve," I asked in a shocked tone because even I know that's not how you treat figurines of your favourite characters (A/n fun fact about me: I'm a collector of Assassin's Creed figures and even I know that you have to take care of these figurines whether they're in boxes or not.)

"The Queen of the High Elves Herself! Sure, she seems cold and prideful at first, but once you get her alone, you find out that she really wants affection, she just doesn't know how to admit it, and it's soooo cute! Yet Mammon just threw her on the floor! And I don't think he'd cleaned it in three months. It was covered in junk.. Old empty cup ramen containers, tissues with dried snot and...and boogers in them. Stuff was strewn everywhere. And there she was, lying there amongst all of that! On the FLOOR! Tossed aside like so much junk! How COULD he?!"

Levi looked livid when he spoke in that angry tone and who can blame him? he's been waiting for that figure forever until someone stole it away from him.

"It was so awful that I just lost it, and flew into a rage. I walked straight over to Mammon, who was lying on his bed asleep. Then I raised my leg up into the air over him and brought my heel down onto his stomach as hard as I could. But the next thing I knew, he wasn't there on the bed anymore. It all happened so fast. He moved with the incredible speed. He grabbed me, picked me up and slammed me headfirst onto the floor in a pile driver. And the worst part is that he was STARK NAKED!"

'Ugh, now that's an image I do not want to picture!' I thought to myself with a frown on my face (A/n no offence to Mammon's fans out there.)

"...As I started to lose consciousness, I remember thinking...why does he have to sleep nude? he could at least on some underwear. I don't remember anything else after that...You've seen just how fast he is yourself, haven't you? No one aside from Lucifer or Beel has that kind of speed. But if, say, a human made a pact with Mammon and bound him to their service then he'd have to do whatever that human told him to. Which means that if you make a pact with Mammon and then ordered him to give me back my money he wouldn't have any choice but to do it."

"What's a pact?" I asked Levi.

"A pact, with a demon... Haven't you seen that in movies and such? The demon lends his strength to a human to make their wish come true in exchange for their soul."

My eyes widen in shock when he said this and I shouted.

"NO! I don't want to give up my soul!"

"Calm down, that isn't always necessary. It depends on what's in the pact.  But, well, you need to give SOMETHING to the demon to make it worth the exchange, so it's pretty much inevitable. If you don't want to give up your soul, then I'll tell you how you can negotiate with Mammon. Also, I'm sure it would be useful having him as your servant. I mean, despite how awful he is, he's still a powerful demon. But, I bet you feel worried, being dragged down here to the Devildom and all. So, I don't think it would end up being a bad deal for you, either. Don't you agree?"

I had a little think about what Levi just said and he does have a point. Mammon is a jerk and he hasn't been nice to me even once since I came here plus, he doesn't care if I get eaten by a demon or not. However, if I were to make a pact with him I can make him do things that he doesn't want to do like paying Levi back and waiting on me hand and foot.

"Okay, but, how would I go about doing that?"

"I take it this means you think this plan of mine could work, right? Excellent. You may be a human, but still...you show some promise! Regardless, if I'm being honest, I don't really care what you think. What's important is that I have a plan and I'm going to explain it to you now."

"I'm listening."

"We both know that if you walk up to Mammon and ask him to make a pact with you, he'll never agree. No, you need some leverage...a bargaining chip. You're going to offer him something in return. Something he wants so badly that he'd do ANYTHING to get it."

"Oh yeah? and what would that be?" I asked him before we began our plan to make Mammon make a pact with me.