VR 24 H CH 02

Two days later.

Creak. Creak.

Whenever the wind blew, the old window frame made a filthy, unpleasant noise.

After the funeral, Er had been dragged here by the servants who had been busy criticizing her. This was the detached residence.

‘It’s a huge house, but it’s practically falling apart. And it’s cold.’

Er sat on a chair placed on the rotten wooden floor, looking at herself in a mirror.

“Haa.”

Violet eyes and shimmering golden hair. A delicate body with a subtly full chest…

‘She looks incredibly young. And she’s pretty, too.’

It wasn’t as though the face was outside her tastes.

‘But she’s too small and soft. She looks weak.’

Er lowered the mirror.

‘All right. I’ve finally gotten over the initial shock of being reincarnated. How about I organize the situation?’

Er picked up a piece of paper lying around the room and began writing down the situation.

Me in my previous life

My name (soul): Erquana Riet
Affiliation: The ruined Kingdom of Evil, Duchy of Nirm.
Former position: Leader of the Nirm Duchy’s secret organization, Chronicle Rim.
Cause of death: My last memory is fighting the Imperial army on the day the Duchy of Nirm fell.

She drew a line across the page and began writing the next section.

Me now

2-1. Current body: Erne de Medina

2.2. Affiliation: Nephilim Empire, controlled by Crown Prince Kiers (the world’s greatest and number-one nation)

2.3. Position: The official half-wit of high society

2.4. Family relations: The daughter of a young lady from the Medina family, one of the Empire’s Ten Great Noble Families, who ran away with a wandering mercenary and had a child with him.

Her mother died while they were fleeing, and her father left the child with her maternal relatives before disappearing.

‘Basically an orphan, a half-noble girl left in her grandmother’s house. She’s completely an unwanted duckling on the river.’

She had already been cursed and suffered so much in her previous life for being a villainess.

Haa.

A small sigh escaped her.

‘Of all things, reincarnation! Me, reincarnated!’

Erquana in her previous life hadn’t merely been a villainess.

She was one of the Four Highmasters.

The four strongest people in the world, said to have transcended humanity.

The only woman among them, and the strongest magic swordswoman.

‘Of course, I was stuck doing backbreaking work in that damn Duchy of Nirm.’

The Duchy of Nirm was a country no larger than a city, located at the very edge of the Empire.

The country bordered the desert, leaving it with practically nothing but a barren environment…

‘And dungeons overflowing with monsters appeared all around it.’

The Duchy of Nirm.

A country built on abandoned land.

A land of criminals where only the forsaken gathered.

The country survived through theft, smuggling, illegal drug production, and all kinds of other crimes.

‘It was even the only place in the entire world where slavery was legally permitted.’

In her previous life, Erquana had been dragged into dungeons and forced to mine magic stones as a low-ranking slave.

‘As a child, I was always cold and hungry.’

If she hadn’t miraculously learned swordsmanship and grown strong, she would have died miserably in a dungeon.

‘It would be easy to summarize my great turnaround in life as going from the lowest-ranking slave to a high-ranking officer and commander of the Duchy of Nirm.’

But it wasn’t that simple.

Er had spent her entire previous life as a slave of the Duchy of Nirm.

‘All because of the heartstone embedded in my chest.’

The Duchy of Nirm implanted heartstones into the bodies of members of its secret organizations.

‘And the people at the top of the Duchy of Nirm possessed the seals that controlled those heartstones.’

If a subordinate refused their master’s orders, they could manipulate the heartstone inside the person’s body, inflicting pain worse than hell until they died…

‘In my previous life, I was forced to live my entire life as a villainess.’

Still, she had no regrets.

Even in such an environment, she protected her comrades and did everything she could to save as many people as possible from being sacrificed by the Duchy of Nirm.

‘Of course, the Empire, essentially the Duchy’s parent nation, couldn’t tolerate it forever.’

The Nephilim Empire eventually went to war with the Duchy of Nirm, citing crimes such as slave trafficking and kidnapping.

What happened afterward was even more absurd.

Once the war began, the people at the top came up with…

<Let’s possess the body of our strongest warrior, Erquana, with the Demon God and win the war.>

…such a ridiculous plan.

‘Fortunately, the ritual failed.’

And there was an unexpected benefit.

As a side effect of the summoning ritual, the heartstone embedded in Erquana’s body shattered.

‘And I slaughtered every single member of Nirm’s royal family and nobility. I have no regrets about that.’

It had been an exhilarating moment of revenge…

Er unconsciously licked her lips.

In any case, because of the side effects of the ritual, Er had very little time left to live.

After evacuating all her subordinates, she sat alone upon the throne and waited for the Imperial army.

<Come. If they’re the Imperial army, the greatest warriors on the continent, they’re more than worthy of seeing me off at the end.>

She crossed her legs and spoke with a smile.

<It’ll be the final dance of this life. Come in all at once. Let’s have some fun.>

“Waaaaah!”

And countless Imperial soldiers rushed toward her.

In her previous life, she had been a magic swordswoman who wielded a butterfly-patterned fan and a long silver sword.

The butterflies that spread from her fan flew out, knocking Imperial soldiers unconscious one by one.

And her final stand, facing more than a thousand Imperial soldiers alone…

…was…

…pretty damn cool…

‘…I thought.’

Er’s face flushed.

‘Ah, I didn’t know I was going to reincarnate!’

If she had known this would happen, she wouldn’t have acted so dramatically!

‘It sounds like something straight out of chuunibyou!’

Chuunibyou.

The condition said to affect those progressing through the intermediate mage stage.

It referred to the period when people became intoxicated with their own uniqueness and intelligence, constantly going around with a “Kukuku” laugh and saying things like…

‘I’ve come to understand the darkness of this world.’

Bang!

Just then, the door was violently thrown open.

Er quietly turned the paper over.

“What are you doing again? Can you even write?”

Thud.

The maid roughly placed a tray of food down.

“It’s mealtime, my lady.”

Er muttered inwardly.

Special note:

The original owner of this body was named ‘Erne.’

My previous self was also ‘Erquana.’

Both of us had the same nickname.

‘My previous name was difficult to pronounce, so everyone called me Er.’

“Since when did you start calling me Er?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? Oh, right. They said your memory would be unstable because of the drug that put you into suspended animation. Honestly, you’re unbelievable.”

The maid’s name was Milla.

She was the girl who had spoken rudely to Er at the funeral.

“Yeah, I told you my memories of the funeral are incomplete too. I barely remember what the priests were saying. That drug must have been incredibly strong.”

She was gullible enough to believe Er’s ridiculous excuses without much question.

‘And she’s been my source of information these past few days.’

Milla said,

“You said you hated the name Erne, my lady. You said names ending in ‘-ne’ were foreign names your father had given you. And even to the Imperial citizens, it was a strange name, so everyone called you Lady Er.”

“…So that’s why everyone calls me Er. I remember now.”

Er spoke calmly.

In any case, she probably wouldn’t have to struggle to get used to her new name.

“The capital is in such a terrible state, and you still went and caused trouble. How angry do you think the rest of the family will be?”

Milla sighed.

“Where is the rest of the family?”

“The head of the household is ill. The rest of the family members are staying at a resort.”

The girl had died, and they were staying at a resort?

‘Yep. This family is a complete mess.’

Er fell silent.

“My memory is going to be unstable for a while, so please take good care of me.”

“Ah, yes.”

Milla answered absentmindedly and turned around.

“But, Milla.”

Er spoke quietly.

“Have you ever seen my jewelry box?”

Milla turned around with a stiff expression.

“How would I know? You never trusted someone poor like me enough to let me touch your valuables. Especially after I told you my younger siblings didn’t have enough money for food!”

“Really? All right. You can leave.”

The moment Milla left, Er jumped to her feet.

‘A little probing was all it took. Not difficult at all.’

The instant Er asked whether Milla had seen the jewelry box, Milla had briefly glanced around the room.

The place where the valuables were hidden was probably somewhere in this room, in a location that wasn’t easy to access.

For example…

‘Under the bed.’

Er pulled out a hairpin.

Then she removed several beads attached to it and rolled them across the floor.

The beads hesitated briefly somewhere before coming to a stop.

Right…

‘Under the bed.’

Er smiled slightly.

‘Quite a clever secret door.’

Using the pin, Er pried at a hidden crack in the floor.

Then the floor opened with a long, creaking sound.

‘A basement? What terrible taste.’

Er climbed down the creaking ladder and thought.

She searched for a magic-stone lamp hanging on the wall and lightly touched it.

The entire space immediately lit up.

“This is…”

Er’s eyes widened.

“A Demon God summoning ritual?”

There were suspicious bird feathers and some reddish substance lying on the floor, surrounded by a bright red magic circle.

After examining the magic circle closely, Er realized that, fortunately, the red substance wasn’t blood but something resembling paint.

And the chunk of flesh was just smoked ham.

As for what was stuck into the ham…

‘This dagger. Isn’t this an incredibly expensive holy relic?’

Apparently, the original owner had managed to obtain a genuine holy relic from the Demon God cult.

‘There’s an enormous amount of demonic energy. But even if the holy relic is genuine, there’s no way a Demon God would be summoned by such a pathetic ritual…’

As Er was thinking, she discovered a half-burned piece of paper in the middle of the magic circle.

“What is this? A letter?”

<I, Erne, offer a sacrifice and make a wish.

I want to fall in love with the best man and have a wonderful romance.

And I’ll become the best lady.

Please make sure only good things happen to me.

And… I don’t want anyone to find out about…>

‘What is this childish writing?’

That was when it happened.

Beep.

“Hm?”

Transparent letters appeared before her eyes.

At that moment, Er’s survival instinct…

…exploded.

‘These are harmful letters.’

Looking at the words written on the transparent window, Er thought.

“No.”

Er answered firmly.

“Penalty? What are you talking about? No! Absolutely not!”

“Yes.”

“No, I… Who are you?”

Er whipped her head around.

Someone was staring at her from the middle of the dark room.

“Nice to meet you. I’m the youngest member of the Demon God family. I’m the Demon God Certus Yoon. Please call me Yoon.”

Er looked at him.

First, his most obvious characteristic was…

‘A pretty boy who looks about fifteen, wearing a black suit?’

And Certus?

That name sounded familiar.

<I’ll descend into your body as the Demon God Certus. You, the strongest warrior of our duchy, will make an excellent sacrifice. Heh heh heh!>

Damn it.

That guy?

“Are you the Demon God? Were you the one who caused all this?”

“Yes, customer.”

“Who are you calling customer… Forget it. Don’t call me that. Just explain what’s going on.”

“Yes, I’ll explain, customer.”

“……”

He was an unexpectedly irritating character.

“You, inside that body right now. You’re Erquana, who was offered to me as a sacrifice six months ago, aren’t you?”

Er flinched.

“Don’t tell me you came to collect the soul of your sacrifice. As you know, that ritual failed.”

“That’s right. Thanks to that, I was only partially summoned…”

Yoon spoke in a slightly sad voice.

“I was stuck in the portal between the Demon Realm and the human world for six months…”

“Oh, that’s unfortu…nate?”

“Yes, customer.”

“Stop calling me customer.”

“Yes, you customer bastard.”

“You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you?”

In any case, Yoon continued.

“And six months later, someone performed another ritual to summon me…”

“So you eagerly answered just so you could make it to the human world somehow?”

“…Yes.”

So you were the pathetic Demon God who came because of that pathetic ritual…

“But the tragedy continued. The original owner of the body that summoned me. A woman named Erne. She died of a heart attack from the shock of summoning me.”

…The more she heard, the more this situation seemed to pile one disaster on top of another.

‘Well, if an ordinary human somehow succeeded in summoning a Demon God, it makes sense that she would die because her body couldn’t withstand the power.’

Finally, Er learned the cause of Erne’s death.

“But then why am I inside this body?”

“Yes. That’s related to the system of the Demon Realm.”

Yoon continued.

“To explain that system…”

Someone offers their soul and performs a summoning ritual.
The summoned Demon God grants the wish.
The Demon God receives the sacrifice’s soul as payment and returns to the Demon Realm.

“This process cannot be skipped in any way. It’s a rule of the Demon Realm. Once a wish has been registered, I have to do something in order to return. In other words, I’m currently stuck at step two.”

“Really? Then you just need to grant the wish written here. Yes, good luck. I’m leaving.”

Er tried to draw a line between herself and the situation, sensing something ominous.

At that moment, Yoon suddenly appeared right in front of Er’s eyes.

“You customer bastard, why are you pretending not to know?”

“……”

“Look carefully at my body. Don’t you notice anything strange?”

“What’s strange about…”

Er looked at Yoon.

There was one thing that seemed strange.

‘If he’s a Demon God, he should be a being comparable to an actual god.’

She could certainly sense considerable magical power from this boy, but that was all.

It couldn’t be called the power of a Demon God.

“You noticed.”

Yoon spoke solemnly.

“Customer bastard, the truth is, right now I’m…”

“……”

“I’m completely broke.”

“What does a Demon God know about human slang?”

Er asked warmly.

Yoon ignored her and continued.

“Anyway, when my only lifeline, Erne, died, I ended up…”

“…You brought a dead person back to life?”

“Yes. And because I was worried that this summoning circle might be discovered, I moved Miss Erne’s body upstairs and placed it on the bed in her room.”

But the person who came back to life was Erquana, who had entered Erne’s body.

“In industry terms, this situation is called double booking. The wish fulfillment and the sacrifice were contracted separately.”

“So what exactly am I supposed to…”

Er asked with an uncomfortable expression.

Yoon spoke shyly.

“So, customer bastard, you need to fulfill the granted wish so that I can return home.”

Er looked at the half-burned letter floating before her eyes.

“…If you mean the wish, you mean this? True love. Becoming the best lady. This?”

“That’s right. Actually, this resurrection wasn’t free.”

Er smiled warmly.

“I’m a commander who knows nothing about granting wishes.”

If possible, she just wanted to enjoy her resurrection for free!