The Possessed Evil Woman Wreaks Havoc - Chapter 43

“Five hundred years ago, the Demon God reached out with his vile hands toward the middle realm. Humans were terrified of this sudden catastrophe.”

But demons were just as scared. The Demon God was always talking about wiping out humanity, but I never thought he’d actually do it.

In hindsight, I should have expected it. From what I remember, the Demon God’s mind was eroded by time and magic to the point of near-collapse.

The Celestial God had barely managed to hold him back from invading the middle realm all those years. But once the Demon God lost his sanity, there was no stopping him.

As for me, while I wasn’t exactly terrified, it was a huge inconvenience. Did people think it was easy to draft demons to send to the middle realm?

So, one of the Lords decided to go first and assess the situation. A Lord whose power would be relatively unaffected in the middle realm was chosen.

That was me.

“The Celestial Realm sent an oracle to the middle realm, intending to stop the invasion. In accordance with that oracle, five heroes were chosen to seal the Demon God.”

That’s a lie. There was no such oracle.

The Celestial God opposed the Demon God wiping out humanity, but that didn’t mean he could actively stop him.

The Demon God was the Celestial God’s only surviving sibling. And the reason he had ended up like that was because he had been consumed by dark magic while fighting in place of the Celestial God a long time ago.

To stop the completely deranged Demon God, there was no choice but to kill him.

The Celestial God didn’t want to lose his brother, so he hesitated. There was no oracle.

Instead, some angels, understanding the Celestial God’s intentions, began to help humans resist the Demon Realm.

“The five heroes chosen were Daphne Graham, the saintess at that time; Ethan Green, who was once a foreign slave; Henry Lockhart of the Lockhart family; Nikolai Haywood of the Haywood family; and Zachary Martine of the Martine family.”

I flinched at the familiar names.

Those five were the worst combination. For one, Daphne, despite being a saintess, loved drinking and indulgence far too much.

And her issues with men were nothing short of severe. It was almost laughable for a demon like me to criticize someone’s promiscuity, but couldn’t she at least exercise some restraint on an important journey to seal the Demon God?

Ethan was the only non-noble among the five, and not just a commoner, but a freed slave. He always kept his guard up, fearing others would look down on him because of his background.

If I had to pick the member of the group I got along with best, aside from Zachary, it would be Ethan.

“Bella, you view all humans as equally beneath you.”

“…And that’s a problem?”

“No, it’s good. If you keep that attitude, we could get along well.”

Ethan, who detested nobles, seemed to appreciate my disdain for all humans, noble or commoner alike.

Looking back now, Ethan probably wasn’t entirely sane either.

He particularly didn’t get along with Daphne. Perhaps her noble birth as the daughter of a prestigious count and her status as the revered saintess grated on him?

Eventually, they began to slip away on their own, ostensibly to resolve their disputes.

Judging by their state when they returned, it was clear they had a rather… passionate way of making up.

I frowned at the thought. They were an appalling pair.

Henry and Nikolai were the epitome of nobles. They both despised me, a demon, despite the fact that I saved their lives on multiple occasions.

Especially Nikolai… Even after all these centuries, I couldn’t forget the sinister look in his eyes.

I should have killed him back then, but I held back, worried it might harm Zachary.

And Zachary…

Sigh. I took a deep breath to calm my anger.

But the high priest’s next words reignited the rage I’d barely managed to suppress.

“The expedition was led by Zachary, the second son of the Martine family. His bravery in the face of the Demon God moved the archangel Isabella, who descended from the Celestial Realm to protect him. I’m sure everyone here knows that story.”

I ground my teeth. That was nothing but a fabricated lie.

My contract with Zachary had been a spur-of-the-moment decision.

On an order from the Demon God, I was scouting several villages when I found a small settlement surrounded by monsters. The village was deep in the forest, with no hope of receiving help.

Demons didn’t particularly like monsters. Unlike demons, monsters were composed purely of dark magic—they had no intelligence and existed solely for destruction.

Demons, if I had to define it, were a mix of divine power and dark magic.

Few knew the truth of this. And those who did chose to keep silent.

Since monsters shared the same dark magic, demons could control them. However, the risk of exposure to pure dark magic was high, and excessive exposure could cause a demon to lose their sanity. Therefore, we generally kept our distance from monsters.

In that village overrun by monsters, I found a man collapsed in front of a small chapel, dying.

He had gathered all the villagers inside the chapel and was guarding the entrance, sword in hand.

It was a hopeless fight. Even then, the man didn’t retreat. He could have escaped on his own at any time.

How could someone sacrifice their life for others?

That thought crossed my mind as I looked at the man’s hair. His silver hair was stained with the monsters’ crimson blood.

Red had always been my color. I was the only demon in the Demon Realm with red hair.

An odd curiosity arose in me, prompting me to do something I’d never normally do.

“Human, make a contract with me.”

“No.”

He rejected me without a moment’s hesitation.

Having never been rejected before, I clung persistently to Zachary.

“Contract with me! If you do, I’ll give you all the wealth and glory in the world! Why won’t you make a contract with me?!”

“Ha. How many times must I say no?”

At first, my pride was hurt, so I pushed for the contract even more. I wanted to claim the soul of the human who had dared to refuse me.

But then I found myself captivated by his pure soul. Zachary was a noble human, willing to sacrifice his life for others. I wanted to corrupt that pure soul with my dark magic.

So, I ignored the Demon God’s orders to return to the Demon Realm and stayed in the Middle Realm, visiting Zachary every day.

After countless rejections, I began to wonder if we’d ever make a contract.

“Human! If you keep this up, you’re going to die!”

“……”

“Contract with me! If you do, I’ll find a way to save you! Please, make a contract…”

“Ha. You’re one persistent demon.”

One day, I found Zachary being attacked by another demon sent to the middle realm on the Demon God’s orders.

I tore the demon apart on the spot, but Zachary was dying from exposure to its dark magic.

The only way to save him was for him to contract with me, allowing my magic to combat the other demon’s influence.

In the end, we made the contract.

I was thrilled at the time, thinking I’d corrupted that noble human, but I didn’t realize just how foolish I’d been.

Promising power to a human whose goal was to seal the Demon God… Anyone who heard would have thought it a joke.

It wasn’t until Lilith caught me by the ear that I realized I’d acted on impulse.

Enduring the Demon God’s wrath just to claim a single human soul… No demon with any sense would do such a thing.

And when Zachary drove a sword through my heart, I had no choice but to admit my foolishness.

***

After the service ended, the crown prince approached me.

I wanted to speak with him in my room, but the priests vehemently opposed it. So, instead, we took a walk behind the temple.

“Where were you? I didn’t see you in the chapel.”

“There was an unpleasant face there, so I waited nearby.”

I glanced behind me in irritation. The priests were trailing after us like ducklings. When our eyes met, they smiled brightly.

Ugh. The sheer amount of divine power in their smiles made my stomach churn.

Making sure they were far enough not to hear, I whispered to the crown prince, “They’re following us like goldfish poop.”

“That’s quite the expression… Though, now that I think about it, it fits.”

The crown prince glanced at the priests and then spoke to me in a low voice, “They’re watching us, in case you and I get… too close.”

So that’s why they stopped us from talking alone in my room. Worried we’d do something behind closed doors, were they?

But something seemed off. Tilting my head, I asked, “Doesn’t the temple encourage priests to marry? I assumed it would be the same for a saintess.”

So why were they so wary of me being with the crown prince?

“You’re right. But the issue lies with me.”

The crown prince continued, “The temple doesn’t particularly like me. To be more precise, some of them wish I were dead.”

“Did they catch you selling your soul to a demon?”

“If they had, I wouldn’t be alive now, would I? They hated me long before that.”

“Why?”

At my question, the crown prince hesitated for a moment before answering.

“It’s because of my hair color.”

I glanced at the crown prince’s hair—pitch black, like the darkest night.

“Everyone in the empire knows that the first emperor had silver hair. Naturally, silver hair became a symbol of the imperial family. To the people of the temple, the symbolism of the first emperor is special. It’s said that he sealed the Demon God with the archangel’s blessing.”

The crown prince glanced at me cautiously as he spoke. It seemed he was wary because I had smashed the statue after learning the truth about ‘Archangel Isabella.’

I smiled brightly to reassure him. “Once you’re gone, I plan to smash another statue.”

The more I heard, the angrier I became. Breaking a few more statues today might be the only way to calm myself.

The priests were in an uproar over the statues being found shattered, but that was none of my concern.

“Please, just leave them be… No, actually, a little expression of anger isn’t bad.”

Better to let it out in small doses than explode later.

The crown prince muttered to himself before continuing, “The temple believes that only someone with silver hair should be emperor, to uphold the first emperor’s legacy. To them, it’s offensive that someone like me, with black hair, holds the position of crown prince.”

What a trivial reason. I looked at the crown prince’s black hair and spoke, “I like your hair color. I think it’s beautiful.”

It might be because I have a condition where just the sight of silver hair makes my blood boil. As long as it’s not silver, every hair color in the world looks lovely to me.

I swallowed the rest of my words. There was no need to tell him that his ancestor’s deeds against me still held influence over my feelings.

“…I see.”

The crown prince replied slowly.