Chapter 32
Ominous Contract (3)
“…Ha.”
“Ahaha.”
A hollow laugh burst out. He laughed along with me.
However, the air was tightening in the opposite direction.
But it’s okay. It’s still okay for now.
Because I had a rough idea of how to control this two-faced demon.
I softly called his name, the name he chose to be called.
“Therion.”
“Yes?”
He answered gently, lowering his eyelids slightly, and looked at me with a well-composed expression.
It was as if he was saying, if you have something to say, say it.
Something to say. Yes, I have something I believe in.
‘So. I don’t know why, but.’
“Didn’t you say you didn’t want me to hate you?”
He clearly said it himself. That he didn’t want me to hate him.
His slowly tilting cheek suddenly stopped.
“Ah…”
He let out a sigh that seemed both understanding and not.
Then, with a bright smile, he brushed away the hair that had fallen over his eyes. He looked genuinely happy.
“You’re quite perceptive…”
“You were acting like you were going to openly favor me.”
“Still… you’re brave. How do you know when my mind will change?”
Yes. That’s right.
If it’s going to be flipped by his whimsical interest like turning his palm, then the positions we stand in were never equal to begin with.
Just like how he sat me on his lap.
‘The beginning is always important.’
This won’t accomplish anything.
“…?”
I removed his hands that were persistently holding my body, and stepped down to the floor.
I staggered for a moment, losing my balance, but managed to stand properly by leaning on the altar.
Holding my dizzy forehead, I looked at him again.
“Therion. You know this curse well, don’t you?”
“…Yes. I know it well.”
My stiff lips curled up on their own this time.
“Then… haven’t you thought about this?”
“…What thought?”
…Haahh, I didn’t like this because it hurt.
“If I’ve already regressed hundreds of times. If I’m alive because I can’t die.”
I rubbed the altar I was leaning on once. I looked anew at the altar engraved with the pattern that had faintly appeared on my wrist.
It’s a solid stone. After confirming that, I made up my mind.
“The thought that I wouldn’t mind dying hundreds more times due to your interference.”
I closed my eyes tightly and slammed my head against the solid stone altar.
“……”
I didn’t feel the bang sound, nor the dull pain I would have felt if my head had cracked.
Just as I was starting to wonder if this world without any pain or sensation was true death.
“…Haah.”
I heard Rimos Therion’s faint sigh.
When I opened my eyes slightly, Therion had lifted me into the air with magic.
“…Haha.”
My death was prevented.
With this, I was certain.
Smiling brightly, I reached out my floating hand and grabbed his collar.
“How many of my lives can you follow and interfere with?”
Because I was floating in the air, my gaze was higher than his, so I could easily grab his collar.
He looked up at me with a blank expression.
“…You’re smart.”
“Because I’ve lived hundreds of times.”
‘Yes. I’ve lived hundreds of times.’
If this demon could freely cross timelines or dimensional branching points.
He would have retrieved the curse before I reached hundreds of regressions.
Or, even now, knowing that I had taken the curse, he could just retrieve it.
‘But he couldn’t do that.’
It was clear that there were significant restrictions on going back to the past or following the life after regression.
Didn’t he say it himself? That because this curse carried excessive causality, I was able to go back to the past.
Taking a deep breath to calm my pounding heart, I spoke without backing down.
“So if I commit suicide here and move on to the next regression… I’ll find a way to die on my own faster than you can find me.”
The smile had disappeared from his face.
“…Lady Edith.”
He carefully reached out and grabbed my shoulder, then lowered me to the floor while whispering gloomily.
He looked so happy before, why suddenly.
‘Did I provoke him too much?’
Seemingly unconcerned that I still had his collar in my hand, he gently lowered me to the floor and said.
“Then I have no role at all.”
His muttering voice, as if saying I don’t need any help from him to be this confident, was tinged with an untraceable stickiness.
…But it’s true.
“Yes, Rimos Therion. You have no role in my life.”
“……”
At that, he made a pained expression as if he had heard harsh words from a precious person. The weight pressing down on my shoulders disappeared.
…Why is he making such an expression?
‘…Ha.’
Even though I knew it was a fabricated expression, I ended up adding words I hadn’t intended to say, as if chewing them.
“Until now.”
“…Then, what about from now on?”
“Things will change one way or another after we make the contract.”
In any case, he was the only connection to the curse found in this ruins.
Using him was also the only way to deal with the demons that might still remain outside.
‘I just need to avoid getting caught by the priest.’
Since he had been pretending to be a holy mage and even acted as if he could heal with divine power, he should know how to conduct himself.
I extended my hand to him.
“So, let’s do it. The contract.”
“……”
As if it had never happened that Therion had eagerly grabbed my hand before, he now wore a shy expression and carefully enveloped my outstretched hand with both of his.
My hand, tattered and soaked with blood, was completely hidden within his hands.
His hands looked impeccably clean, as if they had escaped the commotion entirely.
“Is it okay to make the contract?”
‘Since when did you ask permission for your actions,’
But since this demon’s attitude had consistently been strange, I swallowed my words, thinking it wouldn’t do any good to rebuke him.
“Yes, as I said earlier, I’m adding one more condition. Respect me.”
As I emphasized this while staring at him intently, he nodded and smiled faintly.
“You are a human worthy of admiration.”
‘No, not admiration, but respect…’
Before I could correct him, Therion carefully lifted my hand and brought it to his lips.
“I, ■■■■■, as the demon of unspeakable mysteries…”
A strange language, or something too suspicious to even call a voice, that humans couldn’t pronounce or understand flowed from his mouth.
“swear to stay by Edith Crowell’s side for this lifetime, cooperate in finding a way to end the curse, and also respect her.”
He looked at me, moving only his eyes. I nodded briefly in response.
“…Very well.”
“Yes. In return, you, Edith Crowell… show me your hundreds of memories that no one in this world could ever know.”
As Rimos Therion continued speaking, the darkness grew increasingly thick.
“I want to be the only one who shares your unknown.”
And by the time he finished his last sentence, even the lantern had been swallowed by the darkness, and I could only feel his voice and… the cool breath touching my fingers.
Without hesitation, I blurted out.
“…Yes, let’s make the contract.”
It happened in an instant. A sensation like freezing solid and cold crept up from my fingertips.
My whole body stiffened, and my shoulders felt heavy.
It felt like I was about to be crushed by the darkness.
But I couldn’t lose my mind after coming this far.
I managed to open my mouth.
“I need your first cooperation. Please take care of the demons that have appeared in this gorge.”
“Alright. Since we’ve made a contract, you need to know how useful I can be, Lady Edith.”
In the darkness, I could see his purple eyes slightly creasing in a smile, though I wasn’t sure if it was an afterimage of light flickering or if his eyes were really faintly glowing.
Meanwhile, the chilling pain creeping up from the hand he was holding grew increasingly intense, reaching a level of agony as if icy thorns were scraping against my bones and growing jaggedly.
“Ugh.”
Unable to bear it any longer, I bent over.
As if telling me to endure, he gripped my hand even more tightly and with his lips…
“…?”
He bit the tips of my fingers.
What are you doing, how disgusting. The shock almost made me forget the pain.
His gentle voice came from the darkness.
“I’ve never been so excited for a banquet before.”
“…A banquet?”
I only learned later that when a demon speaks of a ‘banquet’, it refers to the fulfillment of the contract.
If I had known, I would have prepared myself mentally beforehand.
“…!”
The next moment, I was certain that what I had seen until then was too lukewarm to even be called darkness.
True darkness with no form whatsoever had suddenly surged in like a tide and swallowed me.
It was a total blackout.
🥀
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