One Hundred Nights with the Devil - Chapter 30

Brilliant blonde hair and clear blue eyes. A beauty so profound it was hard to believe it was a human face. An imposing physique that seemed capable of leading a war to victory with just one sword.

The young man’s portrait was merely a painting created through repeated brushstrokes, yet it was beautiful enough to overwhelm the dazzling gold decorations, the pristine marble, and the elegance of the crystals that adorned the ceiling.

Elena momentarily forgot her fatigue and approached the portrait. A copper plate engraved with writing was attached beneath the painting.

His Imperial Highness, Lloyd Norbertus Bavaria—Crown Prince of Conrad, the rightful heir to the Great Empire of Bavaria founded under the protection of the Creator Eclard, the eldest son of the Conrad House who defended the West and brought glory to the Empire, and still the guardian of Swabia, Ellemann, Baden, and Suebi.

‘So it was the Late Emperor’s portrait in his youth. The portrait Bella said would remain in the castle.’

The unfortunate Emperor who suffered from a serious illness, unable to leave his bed for over 20 years, before dying three years ago. She had heard he was famous for his exceptional looks in his youth, but she never imagined it would be this much.

The man in the portrait was so beautiful that even Elena, who had been unimpressed after seeing the portrait of her own biological father—who became Pope because of his face—was momentarily stunned. And the man himself seemed fully aware of this fact, as confidence and arrogance were visible throughout his entire posture.

‘He doesn’t resemble the current Emperor, his twin brother, at all. His pride must have been quite hurt from being compared to his brother while growing up.’

Then, what about the ‘pitiful Duke’?

If Duke Dieter Conrad truly looked exactly like that portrait, just as Bella had told her, it was a truly regrettable thing. Because a man who resembled that handsome face and was pitifully kind on top of it was probably buried in one of the hundreds of graves she had just seen.

Putting aside thoughts about Duke Conrad, who was likely dead, Elena looked around the reception room some more. It didn’t take long to search the desolate room devoid of furniture. Since the other rooms on the first floor were also all empty, Elena quickly finished her check and headed to the second floor.

The main building’s central staircase was surrounded by walls hung with countless portraits. None were as large as the one in the reception room, but so many portraits were hung that the wallpaper was barely visible.

‘I wonder if Vivian’s portrait is here too?’

Elena slowly climbed the stairs, looking for a portrait of a woman with reddish-brown hair and brown eyes. It was only after a long time doing this that she realized there was a problem with the staircase she was climbing.

‘That’s strange. Why have I still only managed to climb up to here?’

She had definitely kept walking up without stopping, yet the portraits hung above did not get any closer. She counted the number of remaining steps as a test, climbed exactly five steps, and counted the remaining number again.

The number of steps had not decreased at all from the first count.

Moreover, since a spine-chilling pressure had begun to flow from the top of the stairs a moment ago, it was certain.

‘This is it. The second floor of the main building.’

The Devil was above those stairs.

Elena sighed and sat down. It was good that she had managed to find the Devil’s location, but the Authority flowing out was too strong for her to dare approach. It was as if it were warning her, ‘Do not approach.’

A Devil wary of an exorcist. This was the first time such a thing had happened. If this was the case, why did it open the drawbridge, and why did it send a drowned corpse in the moat as a guide?

‘It’s not that he won’t meet me, but that I shouldn’t approach the second floor? Maybe he’s gathered the people he spared up there. Or else…….’

She tried to think of other possibilities, but her mind simply wouldn’t work. It seemed to be because she had overexerted her body. She shook her head a few times to clear her thoughts and stood up. The dirt and blades of grass clinging to her clothes fluttered down. The hem of her fine white holy vestment was a mess from running around the castle all day.

No one was in the castle, the Devil wouldn’t let her go up to the second floor, and she had run around until her legs trembled from being horrified by the graves right after entering—she had reached her limit.

‘I want to soak in warm water…… that’s probably out of the question.’

Elena returned to the first floor, trudging along and missing her luxurious daily life. She planned to retrieve her belongings from the reception room, choose a reasonably close room she had seen earlier, and just sleep. She felt like she could fall asleep immediately even if she just lay down anywhere on the floor.

However, the moment she entered the reception room, her sleepiness completely vanished.