One Hundred Nights with the Devil - Chapter 31

‘What is that?’

Elena blinked with a stunned face. Clearly, there had been nothing here except the Late Emperor’s portrait hanging on the wall.

‘A bathtub?’

In the middle of the empty reception room, a marble bathtub was suddenly placed. The bathtub was steaming, full of hot water. Beside it, fragrant oils and towels were neatly prepared.

At the bewildering sight, Elena instinctively stepped backward. Then, something pulled her ankle. Barely regaining her balance and looking down, she saw her slender ankle—which Bella had lamented was no bigger than a handful—was wrapped in black fog.

It was the Devil’s Authority.

A chillingly cold, absolute power that provoked instinctive fear. Elena moved her steps as the power led her.

The place she arrived at was in front of the bathtub. Elena, finally freed from the Authority constricting her ankle, carefully looked into the bathtub. On the surface of the water, which was bubbling like lava…… she was there. Her hair was completely messy from running around the castle in the wind, and sweat beaded on her forehead and neck as an aftereffect of touching the Authority.

An arrogant-looking man was observing her. Elena, who was checking her reflection, was startled and looked up. Ah. It wasn’t a person. It was just the reflection of the portrait hanging on the wall.

No, it wasn’t. The eyes in the portrait were different from before. A clear gaze was felt from the man in the painting. This was proof that the Devil was surely watching her through that portrait. Which meant…….

‘Is he telling me to wash here right now? And he intends to watch me wash?’

A Devil that raises corpses, shatters souls, and loves the moment of death, and now a voyeuristic Devil on top of that. Why are all the Devils she meets like this?

Elena swallowed the sigh that welled up, again and again. Perhaps displeased by the time she was wasting, the water in the bathtub bubbled and urged her on.

Finally, Elena stood before the bathtub. The voyeuristic gaze from the man in the portrait hanging on the wall opposite the bathtub felt even clearer than before. She bit down on her lip and pulled the knot tied behind her waist.

Tuk. The sash that had emphasized her slender waist dropped to the floor. As the pressure constricting her body vanished, a strange sense of liberation rose. Elena boldly stripped off her clothes. As she pushed the clothes neatly piled on the floor away with her foot, only the thin undergarment covering her private area remained on her body.

She didn’t necessarily have to take this much off. Elena was contemplating while touching the straps on either side.

A noise was heard. It was the sound of something strongly colliding. Elena pretended to be unaffected and concentrated on her hearing, but the sound was not heard again. Elena, gaining nothing, sighed and pulled the straps attached to her hips.

The moment she stripped off the final layer, the black fog that had constricted her ankle wrapped around her entire body.

The cold wind groped her face. It then ran over her slender neck, the full b*****s that seemed somewhat too heavy for her delicate frame, and the n*****s that peaked due to the cool air. Up to that point, it was acceptable.

But when the wind, which had been slowly crawling down like an insect, passed her waist and headed between her legs, she could not endure it any longer.

“St—”

The moment she, utterly flustered by the unfamiliar stimulation, was about to let out a plea of ‘stop.’

“……Huh?”

The black fog vanished. As if there had been nothing from the beginning. A window caught Elena’s eye as she looked around in surprise. Light was leaking through the gap in the thick curtains. It seemed the sun had risen in the meantime.

It was already the second day since she had entered the Devil’s descent site. Realizing the passage of time, a deeper exhaustion washed over her. Elena tore her gaze away from the increasingly bright light and stepped into the bathtub. Splash—as she pushed her body in up to her collarbone, the hot water loudly overflowed.

And nothing happened.

Even though she waited until the water completely cooled, the black fog did not appear. It seemed she would have to check the second floor, which had been blocked by the Authority, again. But she was too tired to stand up and head there immediately.

‘I should sleep first…… I’ll think about it after I sleep.’

After drying herself, Elena haphazardly put on the maid’s uniform that was placed nearby. The stiff fabric chafed her skin and hurt, but she didn’t even have the energy to take out other clothes from her bag. She tied the sash loosely and leaned against the bathtub.

How long had she been asleep like that?

“Ahem… hm.”

Elena, who had dozed off without even hearing the reception room door open, woke up with a start and rose. Her eyes widened as she turned her head toward the direction of the sound.

A somewhat familiar man was standing at the doorway. Tall, with oppressively broad shoulders, and a face as perfect as a drawing.

It was the man from the portrait. The handsome man who should have been confined within a frame was looking at her, alive and real. At the unbelievable sight, she unconsciously rubbed her eyes. Her vision closed to black, then brightened.

“Ah…….”

The man was still present before her eyes. She could see his seemingly solid chest moving slightly. Only then did Elena accept that he was real.

‘Now that I see him again, he’s not exactly the same as the painting.’

No. He was definitely different. For one, the man before her was taller and had slightly broader shoulders than the man in the painting. Unlike the portrait, his hair was a dull blonde, closer to brown. Most importantly, his eyes were green, not blue.

In that case…….

“Are you, by any chance, the Duke?”

“Yes. I am Dieter Conrad.”

Dieter Conrad. The Late Emperor’s only son in the portrait. The master of the West who should have become Emperor. And the survivor of Conrad Castle who had presented himself before the Exorcist.

The first thing Elena did, before exchanging names, while recalling the man’s identity, was…….

“…….”

It was to pull down the maid’s uniform that had ridden up.

Because the man, who had seen her attire—which merely exposed her thighs—acted for a fleeting moment as though he had witnessed the most horrifying sight imaginable.

……Saintess Elena, having returned after completing the sacred work, declared: ‘It has been confirmed through the deaths of 3 knights and 54 soldiers of the Hermann Barracks, and 99 outsiders, that though the Devil’s Authority may resurrect the dead and drive the living mad, it cannot corrupt the souls of those blessed by the Creator. It is self-evident that infinite glory belongs to the 117 lives who survived by protecting the souls bestowed by the Mother God, and though their bodies may not endure the time of the mortal world for long due to the Devil’s curse, their pure souls shall rightfully return to God. This is clearly a victory for the holy war serving the God Eclard and a brilliant achievement for the Empire that has maintained its faith for over a thousand years.’

Therefore, the Pope of Eclard accepted the will of God conveyed by the Saintess and held magnificent funerals for all 117 pure souls, regardless of status distinction. May the blessing of God be upon all souls, and it is right that we entrust our souls entirely to God through prayer.

— Excerpt from a proclamation written by the Archivist of the Grand Temple of the Eclard Church. 1022.