Chapter 18
[Notification: You have purchased a Low-Rank Contractor Draw Ticket!]
[Low-Rank Souls: 628 -> 328]
……The die had been cast.
Now there was one more life I was responsible for.
Having steeled myself, I placed my hand on the mirror and infused it with mana.
The glass rippled, and a scene began to appear.
“Where is this……?”
The scene reflected in the mirror was an old-fashioned mansion deep in the mountains.
It was impossible to tell how long it had been abandoned; grass and vines had grown wild.
……It could easily be called a ruin, but the mirror wouldn’t show it for no reason.
“……Let’s zoom in.”
I gestured over the mirror as if zooming in on a phone screen, and the area around a window magnified.
Unlike the completely overgrown exterior, the inside of the house was neat and tidy.
My gaze swept over a hallway without a speck of dust, then stopped at one of the rooms.
……A room with its curtains half drawn.
A brown-haired woman with a bob cut, wearing a white blouse adorned with a black ribbon, sat on the edge of the bed.
“……She has such an aristocratic air about her.”
As I was admiring her appearance, a status window appeared before my eyes.
[Notification: A human seeking a contract has been detected!]
[The target is currently in mortal danger.]
[Connecting to the contract target’s voice.]
“……I can’t escape this mansion, no matter what I do.”
She tilted her head and clutched the blanket tightly, then kept muttering with unfocused eyes.
“I’ve tried to get out of this mansion hundreds of times, but every method I tried failed. That’s when I realized. This mansion itself is a devil that traps souls.”
She gripped the blanket with a trembling hand.
Soon, she took a short, deep breath and turned her gaze toward the door.
“This time…… will it be different?”
The woman twisted her body and rose unsteadily from the bed.
She carefully opened the door and began running down the long, dark hallway.
She went down the stairs, passed through the parlor, and finally reached the mansion’s front door.
She swallowed, grabbed the doorknob, and flung the door open. Sunlight streamed through the gap.
“……!”
The space beyond the door was the bedroom where she’d been muttering to herself in a wretched state just moments earlier.
As I watched her look despairingly at having returned to the bedroom, I was just as dumbfounded.
“Why……? Why can’t I get out……!”
In the end, she clutched her head and screamed in a voice that seemed ready to tear apart.
“……Please, please let me out! Anyone, just help me!”
[Notification: A prayer from a human with a strong survival instinct has been detected!]
[A soul contract with the target is possible.]
[Contract Target: Sophia]
[Occupation: ???]
[Current State: Panic / Fear]
[Remaining Survival Time: Infinite]
Infinite remaining survival time……?
I didn’t know what kind of situation this was, but there was one thing I could be sure of.
Something abnormal was definitely happening in that mansion.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but……”
After seeing with my own eyes that she couldn’t escape the mansion, I wanted to help her.
Having made up my mind, I pressed the button to offer her a contract.
[Passive Skill ‘Devil of Contracts’ activated.]
[A standard Soul Contract has been generated.]
[Contractor: Sophia]
[Contract Manager: Imp Asmode]
.
.
.
[Notification: Contract registered!]
[Starting voice connection with the contract target.]
“Hey, you there. Can you hear me?”
“……?”
“This isn’t a hallucination. Your name is Sophia, right? Are you trapped in that mansion?”
“……Ah, yes! I am!”
Sophia looked sorrowful as she heard my voice suddenly echoing in her head.
She held back her tears, tapped her chest with her fist, and spoke in a weak voice.
“Ah…… I can’t remember how long it’s been since I heard a person’s…… a person’s voice……”
“Sorry, but I’m not human.”
“Pardon? Then……”
“I’m a devil. But I’m not the same kind as the one that trapped you. Actually, I saw you return to your bedroom when you tried to leave the house a moment ago.”
“Y-You saw that. Then you saw me making a scene, too……”
“I saw everything. But that’s not the important thing, is it?”
I surveyed the inside of the mansion through the mirror.
It had a luxurious air about it, but I could sense a devil’s soul inside.
……And it felt like a devil’s soul of a higher caliber than even the high-rank devil Han Seorin had fought.
“The important thing is getting out of this mansion, right, Sophia? I’ll help you escape. In exchange, will you make a contract with me?”
“……”
She hesitated for a moment.
A devil suddenly whispering in her head and asking her to make a contract with it.
Rationally, she should have refused.
But perhaps she’d already been pushed to her limits in this mansion, because she nodded without hesitation.
“……Three hundred times. That’s how many times I’ve tried to escape this mansion. At last, something’s changed, so I have to try something. I’ll accept your contract.”
[Consent from the contract target confirmed.]
[Finalizing the soul contract!]
[Time Until Bodily Collapse extended by '3 days'!]
[Time Until Bodily Collapse: 3 days 18 hours 57 minutes 53 seconds]
“……Thank you.”
Thanks to Sophia, the time until my bodily collapse was extended by three days.
I sincerely thanked her and resolved to get her out of this mansion.
*
“……Damn it. Nothing works at all.”
Sharing Sophia’s view, I tried all sorts of things to help her escape the mansion.
Escaping through the ventilation shaft.
Breaking through the wall.
Even jumping off the balcony.
We tried all kinds of things, but even if she made it outside, she’d lose consciousness at some point and end up back in the bedroom.
“What even is this mansion? And how did you end up in a place like this?”
“Actually, I don’t remember anything. When I came to, I was lying on this bed.”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Sophia began calmly explaining.
“I think I came here to look for my younger sibling.”
“Your younger sibling?”
“Yes. But I can’t remember their face or their name. All I remember is their voice.”
Sophia touched her temple, searching her memories.
“That’s all. I came here because of my younger sibling, and when I came to, I was lying in this bed.”
“……”
Was this girl suffering from long-term memory loss or something?
The more I listened to her, the more it felt like I was getting trapped in a maze.
In the end, I had no choice but to make a decision.
“Can’t be helped. Let’s use the devil’s power.”
“……Pardon? The devil’s power?”
“I can’t be sure either, but…… if this mansion is a devil, and we use the devil’s power here, something might happen.”
“……Yes. Understood.”
Sophia raised her slender arm and clenched her fist.
Then, as I instructed, she took a deep breath, drew out the malice in her heart, and steeled her resolve.
At last, her soul activated, and a black aura formed around her body.
Sophia’s eyes turned red, and she pointed a finger at the wall.
-Pew!
A dark crimson beam shot from her finger.
It smashed through the wall and opened a hole, but beyond it was nothing but a black space, not the outside world.
“Huh……?”
A moment later, the collapsed wall regenerated and returned to normal before she could even blink.
……Even the devil’s power didn’t work?
What kind of space was this mansion?
‘Haah, I don’t even know where this place is, so I can’t get help from Han Seorin or Lee Minjeong!’
After that, Sophia and I tried all sorts of things through trial and error, but she still couldn’t escape the mansion.
In the end, I shook my head and decided to apologize to Sophia.
“……I’m sorry. I tried to help however I could, but it seems this isn’t somewhere I can do anything about yet.”
“No. It’s all right. It was a pretty nice experience, getting to spend time with you, Lord Devil. I was always alone.”
“Once my Authority grows stronger, I’ll definitely come back and save you. So please hang in there until then. I’ll come visit whenever I have a little time.”
“……All right. Kind devil. I’ll wait. Please make sure you save me.”
Though her eyes were lifeless, she gave me a faint smile in reply.
……But the hand holding her teacup was trembling.
Gritting my teeth, I cut off communications with Sophia.
……I knew I didn’t need to worry, since her remaining survival time was infinite and I planned to keep in touch with her.
It was just then, as I grew gloomy at the thought that I’d failed to save her.
*
“……”
The communication with the devil had been cut off.
As the kind voice that had echoed in her head disappeared, a suffocating silence settled over the bedroom.
Sophia stared down at her teacup for a while.
“The kind devil said they’d definitely come save me.”
Sophia began murmuring to herself like she was repeating a mantra.
“I just have to wait a little longer.”
For Sophia, who had failed to escape hundreds of times, Asmode’s appearance had been nothing short of a miracle.
Though Asmode couldn’t save her right away, at least now there was someone who hadn’t given up on her.
“……They said they’d save me, so when they’re in trouble, I should save them too.”
Just as Sophia looked at her reddened eyes reflected in the teacup and let out a bitter laugh,
black mist rippled around her, and a devil resembling a black peregrine falcon was summoned from within it.
"Now, you lot. Gather as many souls as you can in the mortal world for my savior."
She gave the devils her orders with practiced ease.
She looked forward to the day when Asmode would unleash his Authority and free her from this mansion.
[Notification: ‘Sophia’s’ soul has been activated.]
[‘Sophia’ is sealed in the special domain ‘Mansion of the Eternal Corridor’.]
[Seal Release Progress: 3%]
[The higher the Contract Manager’s rank, the higher the seal release progress.]
[First Seal Release Condition]
- Contract Manager ‘Asmode’ must advance to a B-rank Contract Devil.
[Notification: Mysterious devils are automatically offering their souls to Asmode.]