Chapter 48 - Ritual, Contract, and the Demon Lord
※This time, it is short.
※Contains sexual expressions toned down to the extreme.
The shore of Lake Nochant at night was dark.
One could often see fairies flitting between the trees, each holding a single glowing flower like an umbrella. To Louis, the presence of several of them watching his actions from afar was slightly irritating.
Though it might not be the right way to put it, as compensation for the trouble he had caused the fairies, he had guided the fairies released from the castle to this shore of Lake Nochant. They seemed to have taken a liking to this place more than he had expected. If they were to acknowledge this place as their nest, he had thought to erect a barrier that would keep monsters and humans away.
—But, for now.
This was no time for such escapism.
Leaving his clothes on, he entered the transparent lake.
It seemed that plants emitting a blue glow grew naturally on the lakebed. The lake shimmered faintly, as if it had trapped the universe within its gentle undulations.
The fantastical scenery suited the white stone statue in Louis's arms well.
Splash, splash.
He waded into the clear water until it reached his waist.
Louis gently pressed his lips to the forehead of the stone statue he was holding.
"It is a full moon tonight. You like it, don't you?"
He whispered, fully aware that there would be no response.
But in place of an answer, the statue released its seal.
Her hair tips swayed in the water. Her white one-piece dress also began to float on the surface.
The silver of her hair, the peach color of her lips. A translucent, pale skin tone different from the inorganic white of stone—the colors that had breathed life back into her seemed to be proof that her soul had been called back.
A soft weight settled familiarly into Louis's arms.
—Suu. A single breath leaked from her slightly parted lips.
"...Elie."
How many years had it been since he had touched her while she was alive?
"At the very least, please say so if you dislike it."
Louis called out to Elenoa, whom he was holding horizontally. He believed that his voice would reach her, even if she never woke up. If he did not believe that, he felt as though he himself would break.
Suddenly, he turned his gaze toward the darkness of the lakeshore. The night was thick, and he could not see well from this point, but there should be a grave there. There—his younger sister rested.
He was not in the mood to joke about visiting a grave right now. More than anything, the deed he was about to commit felt somewhat shady, so he averted his eyes.
The ritual began by cleansing the body in cold, clear water.
As he immersed Elenoa's body in the water, the fairies who had been watching drew near.
"Companion?"
"Fairy?"
"But, with a human."
"Dead?"
"Just sleeping."
Those of relatively low rank flew around Elenoa with concern.
With the Demon Lord here, were they overflowing with curiosity, or were they simply fools?
Louis did not welcome them, but he did not voice any complaints either. Silently, he devoted himself to purifying Elenoa's body. He was merely exposing her to the flow of water, after all.
Upon returning to the castle, he laid her on the bed in his own room.
He used magic to dry the moisture from her body.
He removed her shoulder straps, placed his fingers on the wide neckline, and carefully pulled down the one-piece dress. Her well-shaped twin peaks swayed as if inviting the man. Avoiding letting his eyes linger on the pale red peaks or her narrowed waist, he exposed her down to her abdomen. For her sake, he wanted to ensure her lower limbs were exposed to the outside air as little as possible.
A body that stirred lust lay before him.
The act of humiliating a woman was this easy.
Louis summoned a deep dish, ink, and a knife with magic.
He poured ink into the dish. There, he let a few drops of blood spill from his cut fingertip. With that fingertip, he mixed the ink and blood thoroughly. The wound throbbed with pain. Yet, he felt as though his chest hurt more.
He then brought the finger coated in blood-ink to her right cheek. He drew a pattern.
Filthy black defiled her white skin.
Then, descending from her nape to her collarbone, he traced the line of her navel while shaping cursed vines that would capture her with black lines. Around her lower abdomen, he drew a particularly large pattern—a magic circle.
Even though it was only a half-contract, the actions were the same. One inscribes the owner's name onto the subject.
It was the orthodox magical formula for a constant mana transfer contract. Based on that, he wove together characters and formulas that fused his name in ancient language, his oaths, and his constraints, and hand-wrote them onto the subject's body.
As if to cover the subject. As if to surround her. As if to take everything. Since a single stroke or a single smear could alter the result, he paid attention to every detail. Louis, who was meticulous regarding magic, was skilled at drawing intricate patterns and ancient languages with textbook-like precision. Admittedly, basic magic circles like those found in textbooks were no longer something he needed to draw by hand. Only then did the contract finally begin.
Louis gently bumped his forehead against hers. Her body heat transferred to him. It was cold. Just like stone.
But the scent that drifted gently closer was hers. Her chest, rising and falling calmly, was enough to make him feel her presence.
Even after coming this far, she did not wake.
No, perhaps she was conscious. She might simply be too weak to even open her eyelids, unable to speak a single word. Her condition had not improved in the slightest since before she turned to stone. If that were the case, how much humiliation, sorrow, and anger was Louis making her endure right now?
—Through cruel experiments from the Demon Lord, fairies gained power, was it?
"...From now on, I will do terrible things to you. Please, please—"
—Do not hate me.
Louis overlaid his lips onto her peach-colored ones. While kissing her two or three times, he placed his hand behind Elenoa's right knee and slowly pushed it open upward. The one-piece dress that had hidden her legs rolled up.
He ran his hand along her white inner thigh.
—'Is there something you want?'
When he had been asked this some time ago, he had not given an answer. He had thought it was good that he had not spoken. Now, he realized it had been a dream far too fragile.
He missed her smile, blurred by the colors of memory.
'Yes, just one thing.'
I want you.
For instance, that could be your back as you stand in the kitchen, chatting with my younger sister.
For instance, that could be a town where you, a fairy, can exist without hating humans.
It would have been enough to have only such a small world. The birdcage that had surrounded her should have been a gentle one.
"I am sorry."
If he could hear your voice again. If he could reclaim your song. There was no hand he would not reach for to cling to that.
—Yet he had not wanted to take Elenoa through such a cold ritual alone.
When his finger touched a certain point, she groaned, "Nn." He felt relief that her throat was not yet dead. When he had taken her narrow purity, she had expressed her exquisite pain with a voice tragically hoarse, but in the end, her eyes did not open.
Louis himself did not know if there was love in this act tonight.