PWH C12

“A cockroach that covets your hair and nails. Gathering its fellow cockroaches to conduct a summoning ritual to call you—”

Sher shuddered as he spoke, “Ugh. You don’t have to continue. Just hearing it makes me feel sick.”

I took a moment to organize my thoughts. Thanks to Sher, a question that had been troubling me for a while was finally resolved. I had wondered how Isabella was able to make a contract with a demon, and it turned out that she had connections with demon worshippers.

Unless a demon approaches first, the only way for a human to make a contract with a demon is by summoning one. Isabella must have obtained a demon summoning circle through the demon worshippers.

‘Isabella’s luck is quite good.’

Forced summoning is never pleasant for demons. It often makes them more irritable than usual, leading to the frequent killing of their summoners. The demon Isabella summoned must have found her intriguing, given that she wasn’t killed immediately.

“So, what kind of person is Isabella Dunkeld?”

I wanted more information about the body I now inhabited. Knowing what kind of person Isabella was would help me understand what wish she might have asked of the demon.

“Um, Lady Bella? I’m an information broker, but even I—”

“Sher. Do you think your head would still be able to wag its tongue if it were separated from your neck?”

“—I’ll tell you for free. Of course, I will.”

Sher hurriedly shared everything he knew about Isabella. “In short, she’s the black sheep of the family. The disgrace of the Dunkeld Ducal House.”

Judging by the way the Duke’s family treated me, I could have guessed as much.

Sher began explaining in more detail.

“The Dunkeld family is known for producing outstanding individuals for generations. But Isabella Dunkeld… well, she doesn’t live up to the family’s reputation. She isn’t talented in martial arts, nor is she particularly bright. Living as the untalented one among brilliant siblings isn’t easy.”

“Brilliant siblings?” I questioned his statement. “Gabby doesn’t seem particularly smart to me.”

“Gabby? Oh, you mean Lord Gabriel. No, he isn’t especially bright, and his personality isn’t great either. But he has natural talent.”

“Talent?”

“He’s the youngest Swordmaster in history. There’s even a rumor that his aura control is so precise he can clean his teeth with it instead of a toothpick.”

“…Is that even possible?”

Aura is a power that only a select few humans can manifest. From what I’ve heard, controlling it requires extreme precision, and yet Gabby can supposedly do that?

“Well, it’s just a rumor. I can’t confirm if it’s true.”

“It seems like Isabella doesn’t have a good relationship with her family. My maid also said as much. Is she shunned by her family because she’s not exceptional?”

“No, that’s not the case. The Duke and Lord Gabriel treat her that way because of the Duchess.”

The Duchess, who had been healthy, grew frail after giving birth to Isabella, eventually passing away when Isabella was five years old. After that, although she received material support, Isabella never felt her family’s love.

I clicked my tongue. “I don’t understand. Isabella was born because of the Duke’s desire to reproduce. If we must assign blame for the Duchess’s death, shouldn’t it be on him for not controlling his desires?”

Cough—!

Sher suddenly began coughing.

“I must’ve spent too much time in the middle realm. Hearing the way you put it in the Demon Realm’s terms is… hard to adjust to.”

Reproductive desire, huh. Sher shivered before continuing, “Well, humans live unnecessarily complicated lives. How can we possibly understand their psychology?”

I wholeheartedly agreed.

After hearing Sher’s explanation, I could somewhat understand why Isabella had lived as a delinquent.

“She was desperate enough to make a contract with a demon.”

Sher seemed to organize his own thoughts before speaking again, “So, Lady Bella, you’re saying you’ve been caught up in another demon’s contract. You’re being forced to fulfill someone else’s contract.”

Sher summarized my situation neatly, then asked, puzzled, “But you don’t know what Isabella’s wish was, right? If you can’t figure out the wish, it’ll be difficult to fulfill the contract… Ah. Could it be that you were the target from the beginning?”

Clack. I placed my teacup down on the table. As expected, Sher was quick to catch on.

It had been a question nagging at me since I first awoke in this body.

Demons never make deals that put them at a disadvantage. A human soul is precious. However, unless the human is truly special, a mere soul isn’t enough to pique a demon’s interest.

The cost a demon must pay to seal a high-ranking demon in a human body far exceeds the value of a single human soul.

‘They must’ve needed an appropriate human vessel to imprison me.’

No matter how powerful a demon is, they cannot extract a human soul without consent. The demon must have taken Isabella’s soul through the contract and then sealed me in the vacant body.

From the start, the target wasn’t Isabella but me. Isabella was merely caught up in a plan devised by a demon to imprison me in a human body.

And the reason there were no clues left about Isabella’s wish—

‘The longer I remain trapped in this body without fulfilling the wish, the longer I’ll stay sealed.’

I asked Sher, “Sher, do you have any way of contacting the Demon Realm?”

“Now that you mention it—”

Sher glanced at a crystal orb placed in the corner of the room and said, “The communication stone hasn’t rung in a while.”

I gestured for Sher to try using the stone.

“—It doesn’t seem to be working.”

After fiddling with the communication stone for a while, Sher finally gave up.

I wasn’t particularly surprised. It was the result I had expected.

“What about the Gate?”

High-ranking demons like myself use magic to create temporary passageways that connect dimensions when traveling to the middle realm. However, demons like Sher, who lack sufficient magic power, can’t create such pathways.

For demons like him, there are Gates—semi-permanent portals connecting the Demon Realm and the Middle Realm. The locations of these Gates are frequently changed to avoid detection by angels or humans.

At the mention of the Gate, Sher’s expression darkened. “Actually, the Gate has been closed for a while now. Sometimes it shuts and reopens, so I thought it wasn’t a big deal, but—”

“Someone has blocked the connection between the Demon Realm and the Middle Realm. Not only the Gates but also communication.”

I had an idea of who the culprit might be. It was likely the same demon who sealed me in this body.

“They want to prevent me from returning to the Demon Realm.”

But why? Why imprison me in a human body and prevent my return to the Demon Realm?

Though I was curious about the reason, I knew pondering it here wouldn’t yield any answers, so I decided to move on.

“So, which demon did Isabella make a contract with?”

Sher seemed to assume that I would naturally know the answer.

The problem was, I didn’t.

“I don’t know.”

“…You’re the Lord of Contracts, yet you don’t know? You can’t use your power to figure it out? Is that even possible?”

“……”

Normally, it would be impossible to use the power of contracts without my permission… But a foolish decision I made in the past made this situation possible.

Five hundred years ago, I lost most of my magic after being betrayed by my first contractor, Zachary. With my magic depleted, surviving in the Demon Realm for long was nearly impossible. Though my magic would gradually return with time, the chances of me enduring until then were slim.

So, I transferred part of my power to other Demon Lords in exchange for some of their magic power.

Since it wasn’t the full power, the amount the other Lords could use was limited, but it was still enough to form a contract with a human.

This was a secret known only among the Demon Lords. Lilith had silenced them, fearing that if word got out about my weakened power, I would become vulnerable.

Given the circumstances, any of the nine Demon Lords who took my power could be the culprit. Well, except for Lilith—she would never harm me.

As the silence dragged on, Sher seemed to sense something suspicious and asked eagerly, “There’s a way, isn’t there? A way to use the power of contracts without your permission?”

“……”

“I’ve given you a lot of useful information today. Could you let me in on it?”

Sharp as ever. I raised one corner of my lips and said, “I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you to ensure the secret doesn’t leak.”

“…You could just say no.”

I shrugged at Sher’s response.

I genuinely meant that I could tell him. If he was willing to risk his life to know, why not?

“I have enough mercy to grant a dying demon’s last wish.”

“You’re just telling me to listen and then die—no, thanks. I’d rather never know, so please, don’t ever let it slip by accident.”

Sher shook his head vigorously.