The snake was coiled in front of the door, standing tall.

I took a step to the right.

[Where do you think you’re going!]

At that, the snake quickly slithered to the right. I narrowed my eyes.

That damned snakelike thing.

“Move when I tell you to!”

[Well, try leaving if you can?]

I chuckled at the snake’s words.

I wasn’t afraid of the snake’s talk, which was thinner than my wrist.

‘Well, it’s not actually a snake, but a divine beast, anyway.’

However, the snake was more stubborn than I thought.

“Aiko!”

Each time I tried to dodge the snake and open the door, I tripped over its tail and fell to the floor with a thud.

In the end, I kept ending up facedown on the ground.

[Hehe, you’re as insignificant as a bug.]

The cunning snake reared up in front of the door and flicked its tongue.

I glared at the snake, standing tall in front of the door.

‘It doesn’t even look like a mouthful!’

Despite its small size, its strength was no joke, being a divine beast.

I even thought about grabbing the snake and throwing it out the window, but its agility was such that it didn’t easily get caught.

I narrowed my brows.

‘This won’t do.’

I felt like I would wear myself out first and not have the strength to even lift a finger.

I crossed my arms and asked,

“What do you want?”

The silver snake seemed to have been waiting, and replied,

[Make a contract with me.]

“No.”

[Why!]

‘Well, because you should be making a contract with the protagonist, not me.’

…… The words came to the tip of my tongue, but I held back.

If I revealed that I remembered my past life, the divine beast would simply get angrier and insist on making a contract with me.

[You don’t seem to realize how great it is to make a contract with a divine beast, do you? If you contract with me, my energy will naturally be shared with your body. Humans call it divine power, perhaps?]

There were two types of divine power.

One was the divine power of benevolence, gained through hard training and prayer. The other was the divine power of spirit, obtained by contracting with a divine beast.

But the former, the divine power acquired through individual human training, had its limitations.

Not only was the accumulation extremely slow, but the size of the vessel that could store the divine power varied from person to person.

However, the divine power gained through contracting with a divine beast was different. It was unrelated to the size of the person’s vessel.

It was about the contractee using the divine beast’s infinite divine power.

To put it more simply, the contractee’s vessel merely served as a passage for the divine beast’s divine power.

So if one made a contract with a divine beast, the size of the contractee’s vessel didn’t matter.

There was also one other exception: some people were born with an inherently high level of divine power.

However, that was directly connected to one’s life force.

So every time one used divine power, life force would drop, and that was the problem.

‘But such people are rare, maybe one in a hundred years.’

Such a high level of divine power was so rare that it was almost safe to say there were none.

So most priests chose to gain divine power through training.

Also, if one could use divine power, there was no need to worry about making a living for life.

That much showed how difficult it was to acquire divine power postnatally.

However, I was not interested in any of this.

Making a contract with a divine beast would draw the attention of everyone in the world, and that was far from the quiet life I wanted.

…… But something else caught my interest.

“If I contract with you, I can ride on your back, right?”

[Of course! It’s difficult in this form, but I can do it anytime in my main body!]

The snake wriggled its body and tail happily. I seriously narrowed my brows.

‘That’s tempting.’

There were often scenes in the original work where the protagonist rode on the back of the divine beast in its main form to fly long distances.

Every time I read that scene, I was really, really jealous.

I wanted to make a contract right then and there, but I resolutely shook my head.

“No, I still won’t do it.”

[Why!]

“It’s my choice.”

[Humph, you will contract with me eventually. You know how good this offer is……,]

“I know how good it is to make a contract with a divine beast, but I’ll never contract with you.”

I firmly responded.

I thought he would get angry as before, but his reaction this time was unexpected.

His snake jaw dropped open as if he was shocked.

[Why, why?]

The divine beast, blinking its eyes widely, spoke in an uncertain tone.

[Am I that bad as a divine beast? When I transform into my true form, I’m enormous……, I had to sneak here now, but……, I’m a really cool divine beast……]

The earlier momentum was nowhere to be seen.

Seeing it more deflated than expected, I was taken aback as well.

‘Is it so shocking?’

Anyway, the opportunity came back to me with the divine beast losing its spirit. I quickly stood up.