The Possessed Evil Woman Wreaks Havoc - Chapter 26

The dog seemed uneasy, even after learning what kind of humans were suffering in the abyss.

Well, those screams weren’t exactly pleasant to hear, so I could understand.

Besides—

“Is it because they’re the same kind as you?”

I asked the dog, and it visibly flinched. I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know you were human?”

I may be younger than the other demon lords, but I’ve lived for centuries as a demon. Just because a human soul takes the form of a dog doesn’t mean I wouldn’t recognize it.

“Who is your contractor?”

A human soul couldn’t be in the Demon Realm and still remain unscathed unless they had made a contract with a demon.

The dog avoided my gaze, refusing to answer.

Well, whatever demon had contracted with this human, it wasn’t my concern. As long as it didn’t cause me any trouble.

‘Wait a minute, trouble?’

The word “trouble” suddenly stuck in my mind, like I’d been affected by another demon’s contract before.

But my mind felt heavy, like a waterlogged sponge, and I couldn’t recall the details.

“Are you scared of me?”

I asked the dog, which was slowly backing away from me. After hesitating for a moment, it nodded.

“Do you think I’d harm someone else’s contractor, as the Lord of Contracts?”

Among demons, harming another demon’s contractor was considered extremely rude. The other demon would have every right to kill you.

The dog seemed to relax at my words and stopped moving away.

It still looked worriedly at the souls in the abyss.

What happened in the abyss was beyond my power. I couldn’t pull souls out of there, but I could reveal the truth about it.

I said, “There is a way to escape from there. If a soul truly regrets and repents for their sins, they can escape from that hell.”

The dog stopped whining when it heard this, seemingly relieved that there was a way to end their suffering.

“But do you really think they’ll repent for their sins?” I asked with a bitter smile.

If you listened closely, you could hear the souls in the abyss begging for forgiveness, claiming to regret their actions.

But if they were genuinely remorseful, their punishment would have ended long ago.

Thus, all those cries were lies.

The fire burned the sins engraved upon their souls. The pain of a burning soul was unimaginable.

Even in the face of that agony, those souls did not repent. They regretted that their actions led to their current suffering, but they did not regret the actions themselves.

That’s why most of those souls could never escape.

I had only heard rumors of a soul escaping from there, but I had never seen it myself.

Anyway.

I looked down at the puppy. Its fluffy fur was cuter than I expected.

Was that why I felt inclined to be lenient with it, despite it being human?

“Paw.”

The dog turned its head away.

“Are you being prideful just because you’re human? How arrogant,” I muttered. The little creature had dared to refuse me, but oddly enough, it didn’t upset me.

When I asked for its paw again, the dog obediently held out its front paw this time.

However, as soon as its paw touched my hand—

‘Huh?’

I realized my hand was turning translucent.

And then, at that moment—

I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was Jessie’s worried face.

“My lady! Are you awake?”

I looked around. I was back in my room in the now-familiar ducal estate.

It seemed I had just had a strange dream.

***

“My lady, you were unconscious for a whole day.”

Jessie filled me in on what had happened while I was out.

“The family doctor said there was nothing physically wrong with you, but you still wouldn’t wake up. Gabriel the chimp—I mean, His Grace the young duke was extremely worried. You should have seen him.”

Jessie told me how the duke and Gabby had been worried about me while I was unconscious.

‘Isabella would’ve liked hearing this.’

I half-listened to Jessie as I assessed the magic I currently held. It was about a tenth of my original power.

‘It’s still mostly sealed.’

But at least I could see a glimmer of hope. With this amount of magic, no human in the empire could defeat me in a one-on-one fight.

If Gabby dared to act up again, I might just use force to fix his attitude.

‘But I should still be careful.’

A human body was far less durable than a demon’s. Besides, there were many other powerful beings in the middle realm.

For now, it was better to lie low.

I began formulating my next plan in my head.

Now that I knew Isabella’s wish—

‘But how do I make them regret it?’

Could I really make Gabby and the duke regret neglecting Isabella?

I recalled the abyss from my dream. Even in the agony of their burning souls, those people did not repent. Which meant I couldn’t force Gabby and the duke to regret their actions through violence…

For someone like me, who had solved most problems with brute force, the answer wasn’t clear.

‘I suppose I’ll have to use my head.’

For a moment, I remembered something Amon had once said to me.

“Bella, if you ever need to use your head, it means you’re screwed.”

I had always thought Amon was just a useless idiot, but today, it seemed he wasn’t entirely devoid of insight.

Anyway.

The abyss I saw in my dream—it felt too vivid to be just a dream. It was as if my soul had traveled to the Demon Realm while I slept.

And the human soul I met there—the one called Isabella? Could it be…?

I wanted to go to the Demon Realm right away to confirm it, but I didn’t have enough magic for that.

‘If I could just regain half my magic, I could open a path to the Demon Realm.’

I needed to think of a way to wring regret out of Gabby and the duke.

As I was lost in thought about my next steps, one word from Jessie’s ramblings caught my ear.

“—Sending a priest will take too long, so they’ve decided to take you to the temple!”

“Temple?”

I repeated, and Jessie explained further.

“Since you keep coughing up blood, they’ve decided to take you to the temple for treatment. It wasn’t supposed to be allowed, but the duke requested it from His Majesty the Emperor, so—”

I tuned out the rest of what Jessie was saying.

A temple? They expected me, a demon, to go to a temple? Not for plundering or desecration, but to receive treatment?

I made a disgusted face.

As a demon, just being in a space filled with divine power made me feel nauseous.

“No way. I’m not going.”

I declared.

***

But things didn’t go the way I wanted.

I had clearly refused to go to the temple, so how had it come to this?

I glared at the crown prince sitting across from me. We were in a carriage headed for the temple.

This morning, the crown prince had suddenly appeared at the ducal estate with an extravagant carriage. He had come to take me to the temple.

Since I needed to keep pretending to be Isabella until my sealed power was fully restored, I reluctantly boarded the carriage to avoid arousing the suspicion of the duke’s household.

Sensing my icy glare, the crown prince smiled brightly and said, “The duke must be very concerned about you, Lady Bella. Normally, it would take months to see a priest, but I used my influence to expedite it—”

“I never die alone. If I die, I’ll make sure to take at least one of you with me.”

I lightly placed a finger on his forehead. The magic gathered in my fingertip pulsed faintly. If I pressed just a bit harder, I could blow his head off in an instant.

“I think you misunderstand. I’m not taking you to the temple to make things difficult for you, Lady Bella.”

“Explain.”

“It seemed like you were in a difficult situation, so I came to help.”

“Difficult situation?”

“Yes. The duke said you were ill and needed a priest’s treatment. But if the priest were to sense the magic in your body, that could be problematic. So I came.”

He was right. If the priest detected my magic, everyone would know I wasn’t Isabella. Or they’d assume I had obtained magic through forbidden means and burn me at the stake.

I reminded myself: a human body dies if it burns.

“It would certainly be a problem if those lackeys of the god discovered my true identity.”

“By ‘lackeys of the god,’ you mean the priests, correct?”

I nodded at the crown prince’s question. He looked bewildered and muttered to himself, “To call the priests, whom even nobles dare not offend, ‘lackeys of the god’…”

After collecting his thoughts, he got back to the main point.

“Lady Bella, you can’t avoid the priests forever. Even if it takes some time, Duke Dunkeld has the authority to summon priests to the estate. So it might be better to meet a priest today with me by your side.”

“Do you have a way to hide my magic?”

“I have something my master gave me.”

Master?

I tilted my head at the unexpected term.

I remembered how Zachary and I addressed each other. He always called me Bella.

In contracts between demons and humans, the demon was usually the dominant one. But still, it was rare for a human to call the demon “master.”

“I’ll respect your preferences.”

“—It was a condition of the contract. It’s not my preference.”