Chapter 27: Demon? Demon!

Black Cliff Territory lies at the southernmost edge of the Rose Duchy. Further south is the Night Whisper Forest, where the beastman tribes hold sway.

Here, slave trading is not an underground black market affair, but a nearly legal, publicly tolerated business.

Baron Jeffren, who rules this land, includes numerous slaves among his vast assets. Debbie was previously one piece of his “property.”

Fortunately, she escaped. With her from that mansion escaped her older sister Tibi, and the beastman friend Zofia she had met during those dark days.

However, two days ago, while out buying supplies, the two unfortunately ran into the Baron’s patrol guards and vanished without a trace.

Debbie waited all night for them to return. She slipped out of their hiding place to gather news and learned they had been caught.

Debbie had planned to sneak back into that stern mansion to rescue them, but overheard a piece of bad news from the whispers of some residents.

After capturing the two escaped slaves, Baron Jeffren publicly humiliated them in the square and executed them in a most brutal manner.

Finally, he cut off their heads and hung them on the city gate.

Debbie didn’t want to believe it, but when she ran to the gate and saw two familiar, still-dripping heads...

At that moment, Debbie’s world completely collapsed.

‘Why...’

‘That demon already took the lives of Mom and Dad...’

‘Does he have to take my last family too...’

‘Hey... Lord God of Light...’

‘If you truly exist, why do you let such a demon continue to live in this world?’

‘Did I do something wrong...’

‘...to deserve this?’

Debbie fled back to their hiding place in despair, hugging herself and crying all night.

When the first ray of dawn struggled through a ventilation gap barely the size of a brick joint high up in the basement, squeezing into the darkness filled with dust and despair, it fell upon Debbie’s dried-up eyes. Inside there were no more tears, only a nearly dead ash. The broken sobs of the night before, the hoarse questions directed at the empty deity, had all settled with the darkness, congealing into a hard, cold stone at the bottom of her heart.

The god did not answer. Never answered. Whether it was the screams when her parents were dragged away, or the blood dripping from the city gate yesterday, the high and mighty God of Light had only watched in silence, allowing the world to be filled with “demons” like Jeffren.

If the Light turns its back... then, embrace the darkness.

A low, clear voice sounded in her chest, not from outside, but from the last spark that burst out of the ashes of despair. The name of that spark was hatred.

She staggered to her feet, her eyes sweeping over this cramped hiding place. It had briefly housed three humble hopes, and now only she remained. Her gaze finally fell on a corner, where some insignificant old items brought from the mansion were piled haphazardly.

Among them, wrapped in a rag, was a heavy leather-bound book. It was a pitch-black magic tome that Debbie had accidentally knocked off a bookshelf while cleaning the storeroom. The cover was engraved with a blood-red six-pointed star magic circle. The pages were full of hard-to-decipher ancient characters and unsettling images. At the time, Debbie had found it obscure and eerie, and had hastily stuffed it back.

But when night fell, this magic tome would mysteriously appear under her pillow. Several times she tried to put it back or throw it away, but it always returned to her room by night. Then she realized it was a demon tome.

Debbie walked over, took it out of the rag, and brushed off the dust. The cold touch of the cover felt like the skin of some creature. She trembled, yet unwaveringly, she opened it. The twisted symbols danced before her eyes, but gradually she began to understand. Now, a strange instinct, or rather, a despair that gave everything, drove her fingers to continuously trace the pages, frantically absorbing the knowledge within.

When she finished reading the entire demon tome, Debbie closed it and looked at the cover design. A blood-red six-pointed star magic circle. Now she knew that what the tome recorded was precisely the forbidden array that could truly summon a demon. It was not a simple summoning, but a dark transaction—using fresh souls and flesh as sacrifices to knock on the door of the abyss.

Debbie hugged the book tightly to her chest. The cold cover seemed to seep into her bones, but also strangely stopped her last tremors. Now she no longer needed tears, nor the Light. Since the deity had abandoned this land, since “demons” roamed wearing noble crests... then let her become kindling, to summon another, deeper shadow, to tear apart that “demon” in human skin.

It took an entire day. Debbie drew the array with her own blood, offering everything she now possessed as a sacrifice to summon a demon from the other shore.

During that time, countless gazes from the abyss briefly fell upon her. Cold, greedy, with inhuman scrutiny. With a single glance, they saw through her hatred and despair. Yet none of the demons stopped. In the silence, only wordless rejection filled the air.

It was to be expected... The most valuable thing among the sacrifices she set out was no more than the body and soul of an ordinary person, which was hardly enough in the eyes of demons.

Debbie’s mind grew more and more dazed. To complete the entire array, she had lost too much blood. On top of that, she hadn’t eaten for two whole days. Her body was pushed to the brink of collapse.

Her vision flickered black, her ears buzzed constantly, and even standing became a luxury of balance. Finally, she could no longer hold on. Her body went limp, and she fell forward to the ground.

After the intimate contact with the ground, cold spread from her limbs upward, as if even the last trace of heat deep in her marrow was being drained away. Each breath became shallow and labored. The heart that had been burning fiercely with anger and hatred seemed to slow down and grow heavier.

Debbie lay quietly at the edge of the array she had drawn herself, vaguely aware that death was slowly soaking into every inch of her senses with an irresistible coldness.

‘So unwilling...’

She knew the deity looked down from on high, ignoring the pleas of ordinary people as insignificant as dust. But now even the demons in the abyss turned away in disdain from her offering, as if she wasn’t even worthy of being devoured or used.

‘Wah wah wah, what kind of garbage am I...’

‘I really am unwilling...’

Just as Debbie was in despair, the array suddenly emitted a strange, distorted sound.

“This thing is alive?”

“You...”

Before the voice completely faded, instantly every line of the array burst into dazzling red light, as if the earth had opened a bloody eye. In the center of that scarlet light, the air began to twist and condense. It didn’t appear out of nowhere; rather, it was as if some ancient shadow was being outlined from the void. A figure completely shrouded in black mist gradually took shape within it.

A demon had answered her!!!