PWH C8

Gabriel was about to scold Isabella again. “That rascal—!”

“Enough.” The Duke’s intervention put an end to the sibling quarrel.

The Duke held his head in his hands. Today, more than ever, he missed his late wife. He often wondered, ‘If my wife were still alive, would these two have turned out differently?’

How had it come to this, with only two children who both turned out like that?

One was called an evil woman by society. The other… ha, just thinking about his heir made his head hurt.

Perhaps, after his wife’s death, he was partly to blame for turning his back on his children.

But the Duke quickly dismissed that thought. It couldn’t be his fault.

Though he had never been a loving father, he had raised them with wealth and allowed them to indulge in anything they wanted. In another family, Isabella would have been removed from the family registry long ago, but she still bore the Dunkeld name. That meant he wasn’t a bad father.

The Duke addressed Isabella first.

“Isabella. Your joke has gone too far. Even as nobles, we cannot take the lives of commoners so easily. Surely you understand that, right?”

Isabella flinched slightly at his words, as if she genuinely hadn’t known.

***

‘I momentarily forgot that separating a human’s head from their body would kill them.’

A demon only dies if their heart is destroyed. After being in the Demon Realm for so long, I had forgotten that, unlike demons, there are many ways to kill humans.

I never actually intended to kill the servant. I was trying to maintain my disguise as a human, after all. Even the real Isabella, infamous as she was, had never killed anyone.

‘Among humans, killing another human is a big deal.’

Though apparently, killing in war is acceptable? Their logic that it was fine to kill under rules they themselves made was beyond my understanding, but what could I do?

In the end, I would never understand humans, nor did I wish to.

The commotion in the dining room ended with the Duke’s intervention. The Duke expelled the servant who had mocked me from the Duke’s household. Without a letter of recommendation, the servant would likely never work for another noble family again.

Back in my room, I fiddled with the handle of the table knife, my expression indifferent.

Then—

Thud!

The knife I threw embedded itself into the wall.

“Ah, my lady.” Jessie, who had been attending to my bedding, called out to me with a trembling voice.

“How did the knife… how could it…?”

I looked at the knife lodged in the wall. My magic had definitely grown stronger.

‘It seemed to have grown after my conversation with Gabby…’

Twice now, my magic had returned. Both times had been when I was with Gabby.

Could Isabella’s wish be related to him? But something about it didn’t sit right.

“Jessie, did I ever keep a diary?”

Jessie shook her head in response to my question. “I’ve only been your personal maid for a few months, but I’ve never seen you keep a diary during that time, my lady.”

I clicked my tongue in disappointment. I thought a diary might help me understand Isabella’s inner thoughts.

Night had already fallen. I lay down on the bed.

As much as I hated to admit it, this bed was softer than anything in the Demon Realm.

I must have been exhausted. Not long after laying down, I fell into a deep sleep.

***

“That’s Lady Isabella, isn’t it? The one from all the rumors.”

“Goodness! That rascal?”

I could hear people whispering around me.

I looked around blankly before glancing down at my clothes.

A fancy dress made of layers upon layers of fabric. As I looked around, I saw an opulent ballroom.

I had been lying in bed, so why was I here, dressed like this?

The humans around me looked similar. Dresses with voluminous skirts, sparkling jewels, colorful feathers used as headpieces. There wasn’t a single unadorned person here.

‘Judging by how they’re dressed, is this some mating display?’

There were monsters that grew bright spots on their skin during mating season. Humans seemed to be similar.

Seeing the elaborately dressed humans, I mumbled to myself.

Or at least, I tried to mumble, but my mouth wouldn’t open. My body wouldn’t move of its own will either.

I quickly understood why.

‘It’s Isabella’s memory.’

I was witnessing a scene from the past. I was watching a memory.

“Did you know Lady Isabella made her debut at eighteen?”

“Of course. Usually, it’s at sixteen, but she was exceptionally late.”

“Do you know why that was?”

My head moved, not by my will but according to Isabella’s memory.

I saw a group of women gathered together. Judging by their attire, they seemed to be noblewomen. Even though they made eye contact with me, they didn’t stop talking.

“Normally, a debutante is escorted by family—a father or a brother.”

The red-haired woman leading the conversation looked directly at me and smiled brightly. Her vivid red lipstick made her smile even more striking.

“Unfortunately, Lady Isabella couldn’t be escorted by her family. So she postponed her debut for a year, then another year. Eventually, she attended the debutante ball escorted not by her family, but by one of the vassals.”

Malice shone in the red-haired woman’s eyes.

I clenched my fists. My nails dug into my skin, causing pain. But it wasn’t my will that made me do it.

“Why did no one escort her? She has both the Duke and the young duke as family.”

Another woman, likely one of the redhead’s lackeys, asked the question.

As if waiting for it, the red-haired woman’s lips spread into a wide grin. “Well, she did kill her mother, didn’t she? Everyone knows that, right? The Duchess fell ill and died after giving birth to Lady Isabella.”

As a demon, I found their chatter amusing, even entertaining.

These well-bred noblewomen probably believed their words carried malice.

If this hadn’t been Isabella’s memory, I would have gladly shown that foolish woman what true malice looked like by sewing her lips together.

But the human Isabella seemed to be different. Just hearing this level of malice made her heart race.

The red-haired woman smiled sweetly at Isabella as she delivered her final blow. “Honestly, it would have been better if Lady Isabella had never been born. Then the Duchess would still be here, the Duke would still have his wife, and the young duke wouldn’t have lost his mother.”

Hearing that, I marched right up to the red-haired woman.

‘If she thinks talking about a mother is my weak point, she’s mistaken. I never had a mother.’

Born from the fires of hell, I had no mother. So no matter how much they talked about mothers, it wouldn’t affect me.

Of course, that was what I wanted to say. What Isabella actually said was different.

“Lady Bloombell, repeat what you just said. Say it again in front of me.”

With a trembling voice, Isabella spoke to the red-haired woman. The woman looked at her, feigning ignorance.

“What did I say, Lady Isabella? I was just talking about how beautifully decorated the ballroom is. I don’t think I said anything to upset you…”

The other women around them nodded in agreement.

From the beginning, this group had been full of malice toward Isabella. She had no allies here.

‘If you can’t even remember your own words, you’d be better off without that deceitful tongue.’

Again, that was what I wanted to say. But the real Isabella just trembled.

Ugh.

I felt a pain I had never experienced before. This suffocating feeling in my chest—losing an arm to a monster hadn’t felt this miserable.

After standing still for a while, Isabella grabbed a glass of wine from a passing servant. Then she poured the full glass over the red-haired woman’s head.

“Lady Isabella! What do you think you’re doing?!”

The woman, whose dress and makeup were now ruined, protested to Isabella.

I wanted to scream too.

If you’re going to do something like this, do it in secret. Why make such a scene?

If it were me, I would have quietly siphoned off some of the Duke’s money to hire an assassin…

“Your dress—it looks similar to mine, doesn’t it? How dare the daughter of a mere count copy the dress of a duke’s daughter?”

I—no, Isabella—spoke in a haughty voice.

Then she threw the glass onto the floor.

Crash!

I turned around and left without hesitation, ignoring the whispers around me.

As I walked away, I suddenly stopped in front of a window. My reflection appeared in the glass.

‘Help me.’