The Possessed Evil Woman Wreaks Havoc - Chapter 28

When I abruptly claimed to be the saintess, the priest’s face turned pale, and he said to me, “First, I will report this to the High Priest. Whether you are truly the saintess or not will be for him to determine.”

Saintess, really—ah, right. I’m not actually a saintess, am I?

Though it bothered me that they wouldn’t immediately acknowledge me as the saintess, I decided to be lenient since I was trying to deceive them anyway.

The priest hurriedly left the room. Once it was just me and the crown prince left, he let out a sigh.

“Lady Bella, what on earth is going on—?”

“If you have eyes and ears, you should understand. From now on, I am the saintess of this empire.”

“Even seeing it with my own eyes, it’s hard to believe.”

The crown prince rubbed his face dryly before continuing, “For starters, I don’t understand why that priest said you have a lot of divine power. At the ball, when I checked, you had very little magic. That’s why I thought there wouldn’t be any issues disguising it as divine power—”

It seemed the crown prince had assessed the amount of magic in my body when we met at the ball.

Certainly, with the amount of magic I had then, no one would have thought of me as a saintess, even if I had disguised it as divine power.

“A lot has happened since then.”

I briefly explained what had happened. I mentioned that I had regained my magic, causing the duke to call for a priest. The crown prince shook his head.

“If I had known your magic was this strong, I would have found another way; I wouldn’t have brought you to the temple like this.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

I didn’t think humans would react this way over this amount of power—no, this amount of divine power? Anyway, I didn’t expect such a response over this level of strength.

I had briefly forgotten how weak humans were.

“It’s your fault for not checking again.”

“…Yes, it is my fault.”

The crown prince looked at me with a complicated expression—somewhere between trying to hold back laughter and disbelief. It was a difficult expression to define.

“So, Lady Bella, are you really going to become the saintess?”

At the crown prince’s question, I nodded. He didn’t seem to like my answer.

“May I ask why? No matter how I think about it, I can’t see why someone like Lady Bella, a high-ranking demon, would want the position of a saintess.”

“That’s none of your business.”

“……”

The crown prince hesitated at my firm response.

In truth, it wasn’t a grand reason, and I could have told him, but—

Right now, the crown prince was looking at me with great suspicion, as if I had some grand scheme behind wanting to become the saintess.

Of course, I did have a reason, but it wasn’t anything remarkable.

Among demons, appearances were important. So, I chose to remain silent.

In the end, the crown prince gave up trying to understand my motives and issued a warning of sorts.

“Lady Bella, I am still the crown prince of the empire, after all. I can’t simply sit by and watch a demon become the saintess.”

Listening to the crown prince, it seemed he wasn’t completely indifferent to the fate of this nation. But what would he do if he didn’t just stand by and watch?

“You talk a lot for someone who sold out their country.” I scoffed.

“When did I ever sell out the country—”

The crown prince seemed indignant. He was closely tied to the temple, yet he had made a contract with a demon. If that wasn’t selling out the country, what was?

“You, calling Dantalion ‘master,’ is fine, but I can’t be the saintess?”

The crown prince had no rebuttal and no longer argued against my decision.

It had been quite a while since the priest had left the room, and he still hadn’t returned. Tired of waiting, I decided to go look for him.

I said I would go alone, but the crown prince insisted on following me, saying he was worried. He was sharp, as always.

Well, in any case, I had no intention of causing trouble at the temple today. The temple needed to stay intact for me to maintain my position as the saintess for a long time.

Opportunities for such a grand blasphemy wouldn’t come twice.

I walked around the temple with the crown prince. As we wandered, I memorized the temple’s layout.

Just in case I ever changed my mind and decided to loot the temple, it was good to know the structure.

Then, my eyes caught sight of a large statue placed in the center of the temple.

I sneered at the sight of it. “Is that supposed to be the celestial god?”

“Yes. It’s a statue carved in the image of the celestial god.”

“Quite an exaggeration.”

“You’re speaking as if you’ve seen the celestial god yourself.”

“I have. He doesn’t look nearly that dignified. He has a dazed expression.”

Hearing my words, the crown prince looked around in shock. After confirming that no one was nearby, he sighed in relief.

“Lady Bella, no matter what, you shouldn’t say things like that in the temple.”

“You seem very concerned about others’ opinions.” I chuckled, unconcerned.

The crown prince asked me in a worried tone, “But Lady Bella, if you pretend to be the saintess, wouldn’t you risk incurring the wrath of the celestial god?”

It was an unnecessary worry. First of all, the celestial god had disappeared when the demon god was sealed.

Besides—

“Have you ever considered that the celestial god might have an odd taste for enjoying blasphemy?”

“Of course not—wait, really?”

“That’s a narrow-minded view. You should fix that.”

My words seemed to confuse the crown prince further. While he was trying to process what I had said, my gaze shifted to the statue of an angel placed next to the celestial god’s statue.

Among the several angel statues, one caught my eye.

I was filled with an odd feeling. Was it just my imagination, or did that angel’s face resemble mine when I was in my demon form?

“What’s that?”

I gestured toward the statue, and the crown prince obediently answered.

“It’s a statue of the Archangel Isabella.”

“Archangel Isabella?”

My expression hardened instantly. An angel with the same name as mine—it seemed strange, but could it be—

Seeing my rapidly changing expression, the crown prince realized something.

“—You didn’t know, did you? What the temple did.”

“Explain. Why have I become an angel?”

Archangel Isabella. In truth, that was me. More precisely, someone had disguised the demon Bella as Archangel Isabella.

The crown prince slowly explained to me.

Five hundred years ago, five heroes set out to seal the demon god. The leader of that party was Zachary Martine, the first emperor of the current empire.

The reason Zachary Martine could lead a group of renowned heroes wasn’t just due to his overwhelming strength; it was also because he was a hero chosen by an angel.

That was how history remembered it. But the truth was completely different.

“If people knew that my ancestor was not chosen by an angel but had instead made a contract with a demon, it would be hard for the war against the demon god to be remembered as a purely human achievement. That’s why your true identity has been kept a secret, passed down only to the emperors and their successors.”

“So they erased my existence and turned me into an angel—”

I was at a loss for words.

According to our contract, I had helped Zachary seal the demon god.

I had made many sacrifices in the process. If we hadn’t succeeded in sealing the demon god, I would have been killed by him.

After sealing the demon god, Zachary was supposed to give me his soul as per our contract. Instead of fulfilling his promise, he tried to kill me.

And now this.

I had thought they would simply erase my existence entirely, but to disguise a demon as an angel…

I thought I was the most blasphemous being, but it turned out there were even worse offenders.

‘I should have listened to the demon god.’

Suddenly—

“Foolish child. Despite my warnings not to grow attached to humans, you ended up making this choice.”

A chilling voice echoed in my ears.

‘It can’t be the demon god’s voice.’

I had sealed the demon god with my own hands. Five hundred years ago.

So this was my memory.

The scene before me began to change. A moment ago, I was in the temple; now, I was kneeling before the demon god.

The usually kind expression of the demon god was now cold as ice. His body exuded a murderous aura.

This was a memory I could never forget.

“My dearest child. Why have you disobeyed me?”

This was the day the demon god discovered that I had made a contract with a human.

“I’m merely fulfilling the contract.”

“But is that truly all there is to the contract? You agreed to help the human hero seal the demon god. As the Lord of Contracts, you cannot be unaware of the loopholes in this agreement.”

“……”

The demon god was right. The term “help” was too vague.

Even if I only placed a single pebble in the hero’s path to the demon god, it would still be considered fulfilling the contract.

From the start, I had intended to exploit that loophole. I wanted to witness the hero’s downfall firsthand, to mock him as he fell. When I first made the contract, I had no intention of genuinely helping him…

“Child. You are following in the footsteps of your predecessor. Despite how dearly I have cherished you.”

I was going to die. Today, here and now, I was going to die.

If that was the case—

I began gathering the magic within my body.

Even if I faced the demon god with all my strength, I had no chance of winning.

But—

Even if I were to die, I would weaken the demon god as much as possible before I did.

Perhaps, after my death, my contractor would have a better chance of protecting the humans he loved from the demon god’s wrath.