The Possessed Evil Woman Wreaks Havoc - Chapter 118

After sending Sher off, I returned to the mansion with Nigel.

The whole way back, I felt inexplicably downcast.

Nigel seemed to notice my mood and tried to strike up a conversation.

“Hey, about Belial….”

“Hm?”

“Uh… she’s pretty?”

“Is that your type?”

I stared at Nigel in disbelief at the random nonsense he spouted.

“Come on! She’s not my type, okay? I just thought I’d pay a compliment since she’s your family.”

“Family? That demon and me?”

“Aren’t you? You’re both demons. Both lords. From what I overheard earlier, didn’t she say she raised you or something?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at Nigel’s innocent reasoning.

Looking at demonic relationships through the lens of beastkin.

“Not family. That thing is… more like a bothersome gnat.”

I gave Nigel a rough explanation of my relationship with Belial.

Maybe because his comments were so absurd—

My gloom gradually began to lift.

That’s how we arrived at the mansion.

Back in my room, no one was there.

I settled comfortably onto the sofa and began reading through the books I had brought from House Graham.

Nigel sat beside me, glancing occasionally at me reading.

I quickly got absorbed in the book.

Normally, books packed with text and no pictures weren’t my taste, but…

The content was surprisingly engaging.

“Demons are the embodiment of evil in this world. Their wicked existence brings nothing but misfortune to all. If someone offered to grant me one wish, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second—”

“Bella. Can you not read that out loud? At least not so loudly….”

Nigel cut in, seemingly annoyed by my dramatic reading.

Puzzled, I asked him, “Is this unpleasant to hear? Why?”

“Hey, my best friend is a demon. You think it feels great hearing stuff like that?”

Did he just say best friend?

I glanced at Nigel’s face. He didn’t even realize what he’d said.

Which meant he thought that way subconsciously.

Smiling fondly, I said, “I consider you a close friend too.”

“Your only friend, more like. Ack! Why do you keep throwing stuff at me?”

Nigel dodged the cushion I tossed at him.

Seriously, he had a knack for saying unnecessary things and getting smacked for it.

I shot him a glare, then resumed reading.

The book was full of harsh insults toward demons, but from a demon’s perspective, it wasn’t even offensive—just laughable.

“This author’s tone is ridiculous. Listen to this: ‘If your day was worse than usual, it must be because a demon brushed past your sleeve.’ Can you believe that?”

I smirked as I read the absurd passage.

Books like this are the problem. Because of these ridiculous texts, humans misattribute their mundane misfortunes to demonic trickery.

I began reading again.

“There are many ways a demon can ruin a human life. One of them is a curse. …A curse?”

That last word didn’t come out as mockery—it slipped out from genuine curiosity.

“Nigel, can demons cast curses?”

“Why are you asking me? You’re the demon.”

True enough.

I was the demon here… and yet this was the first I’d heard of demons casting curses.

After reading a bit further, I realized what the book meant by ‘curse.’

“So it’s just a demon acting like a demon.”

The author had described the lives of people who became miserable after dealing with demons and called that being cursed.

“Do humans think we’re such a bored species? That we waste time cursing humans—”

I trailed off.

Come to think of it, we were a bored species.

Lesser demons scramble to survive, but higher demons don’t have much to do in the Demon Realm.

Aside from occasionally stomping down other demons trying to rise up.

So, bored demons wander to the Middle Realm to amuse themselves.

It’s called a demonic curse, but really, it’s just a bored demon toying with a human.

Nigel clicked his tongue and asked, “What’s wrong with your species?”

“Why are you making it sound like it’s my fault?”

I continued, “Am I supposed to keep the other demons in check or something? Humans don’t even care if their neighbor dumps trash on the street.”

So why are you nitpicking me?

Do I seem like an easy target?

I glared fiercely at Nigel, and he raised both hands and shook his head as if surrendering.

“Yeah, my bad. Of course this isn’t your fault.”

Accepting Nigel’s apology, I returned to reading the book.

But…

When I skimmed through it before, I hadn’t noticed—but now that I examined it more closely, I saw Isabella’s handwritten notes throughout.

Contrary to her reputation as a delinquent, Isabella had elegant handwriting.

I’d seen it somewhere… recently, in fact…

Then I realized what felt so familiar.

‘It looks like Daphne’s handwriting.’

The same script I’d seen in Daphne’s diary. Isabella’s handwriting bore a startling resemblance.

So much so that I wouldn’t question it if someone told me they were written by the same person.

Maybe it was because they were relatives?

That’s what I figured and let it go.

Anyway, reading Isabella’s notes let me infer what she’d been thinking.

“It seems Isabella thought someone had cursed her,” I muttered, frowning slightly.

Why would she think that?

I began pondering it carefully.

For starters, she lost her mother at a young age.

By human standards, that would be considered quite tragic, wouldn’t it?

Just in case, I asked Nigel, adding, “I was born without parents in the first place, so I can’t imagine how painful it would be to lose one.”

“Well, I was born without parents too, you know? But from a human perspective, I guess it’d be considered tragic?”

Ah, right. Nigel wasn’t human either. I’d have to decide for myself.

To humans, family is important…

“So she must’ve been unhappy. And the parent she had left was a lunatic.”

I folded my arms and thought carefully about the duke.

Theodore Dunkeld.

Isabella’s biological father.

A man who adored his wife but remained indifferent to the daughter who looked exactly like her.

Yet despite that, he still spoke of family—so he couldn’t have been entirely unfeeling toward Isabella either.

The contradiction in the duke’s character made me frown slightly.

“When you live in the same space, even with a demonic beast, you grow attached.”

Even I initially brought Blackie into the castle for treatment.

But over time, I grew fond of him, and he became my irreplaceable companion beast.

And yet the duke showed no affection for his own blood.

Gabby was no different.

The duke’s cruelty overshadowed it, but Gabby, too, was indifferent to her only sister.

…He didn’t seem like such an unfeeling person, though.

Thinking about all this, it wasn’t hard to understand why Isabella thought she’d been cursed by a demon.

But I was certain no curse had actually been cast.

It wasn’t the work of a demon either. If a demon had been messing with Isabella’s life, I’d have sensed it long ago.

No, this was just the duke being a failure of a father.

And even if there was a curse…

“That still doesn’t absolve the duke. If anything, a father’s love should be enough to overcome such a curse.”

“Well, you’re not wrong.”

Nigel agreed with my sentiment.

I shut the book with a loud thump.

I had a lot on my mind.

Just how deeply must Isabella have been hurt by her family’s coldness to assume some outside force was to blame?

‘Isabella, I’ll make sure the duke regrets it thoroughly.’

What I needed now was one decisive blow. Something that would force the duke to confront his indifference toward Isabella.

I murmured, “What if I faked my death right in front of him?”

“Huh? But you’re terrible at acting.”

“Well, if I can’t fake it, I could always go out and get stabbed for real…”

“You—! Could you not say things like that?!”

It was just a joke, but Nigel clearly took it seriously.

Then again—

Nigel was the one who rescued me the day I was stabbed by Zachary’s sword and left for dead. That memory must still haunt him.

So it wasn’t surprising that he reacted so sensitively.

Seeing Nigel’s face flush red and blue, I quickly added, “Just a joke. You think I’d actually go get stabbed somewhere?”

“Don’t ever joke like that again.”

“Fine. And besides, there are very few people capable of actually stabbing me.”

Five hundred years ago, I was caught off guard. But now…

Unless I willingly offered up my body, no one could injure me like that again. At least, not in the Middle Realm.

I declared confidently.