It is not a violation of the demon’s contract rules to use humans as hosts.

Demons could not make double or triple contracts formally, that is, to grasp the entire human soul. It was impossible until the life of the contractor was extinguished and another contractor appeared.

But it was possible to take humans as hosts and occupy their shells as much as they wanted. As Jimius said, it was true that they could pick up and eat parts of the soul that fell off in the process.

If the soul of a formal contractor was a long feast, the soul that could be taken by using a human as a host was only about the amount of one or two candies.

Deceptor was a dazzlingly handsome man, but Jimius had no interest in his appearance. She was not moved by his subtle smile or the expression that completely looked down on the other person.

As he slowly circled around, Jimius thought that she felt cut off and isolated from the world.

“Do you really want to become a host? You’re saying you’ll give me your body?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“When I take over your body, your soul won’t last even ten minutes. Do you know that?”

Jimius’s lips were tightly closed. Ten minutes. It was really a short time. Could she finish everything she had to do in that time? Could she recall the memories she needed to recall without any regrets?

‘Even if I can’t, I have to.’

Jimius, who inhaled a bit of the murky air, said.

“I didn’t know, but now that I do, it’s fine. I’ll accept it.”

“You’ll accept it, huh.”

Deceptor, with his arms folded, tilted his head back and cackled as if amused. Then, suddenly changing into his ugly, blackened true form, he thrust it at Jimius and said.

“Then, human. Open yourself.”

Open. Jimius knew that it meant a conceptual state.

She had to mentally prove that she had given permission. She closed her eyes. And she thought of Eustar and Laila, King Ord, her colleagues the branch directors and deputies and members, and…

And her younger sister.

At that moment, Jimius’s body was engulfed in a pillar-like huge flame.

“Director Jimius!”

Felix, who had turned his head in surprise at the suddenly erupting pillar of fire, screamed like mad. Marnak’s knees, which were almost in a dying state, buckled.

“Director Con, no. Don’t get close to the demon…”

Marnak’s head, which had been gasping for breath, drooped forward. He seemed to have fainted. The attacks of the magicians were endless, and Byron gritted his teeth as he deflected the umpteenth fireball flying towards him.

When she opened her eyes, Jimius realized she had been unconscious from the tremendous headache and nausea she felt.

The smell of old dust stung her nose and she heard thunder from somewhere. A dim scene, seemingly someone’s house, was spread out diagonally before her eyes.

‘Whose…’

House, Jimius’s eyes suddenly widened as she was about to mutter to herself. She managed to stand without staggering, gathering her dizzy vision, and looked around the house immersed in burgundy darkness.

She knew this house. It would be correct to say there was nothing she didn’t know. The arrangement of furniture, the frames on the walls, the household items, and even the soft and rare carpet that would make shoe soles slip off.

It was the Con family mansion.

“This is your inner world.”

Deceptor’s voice was heard from behind. He cynically sneered, revealing his true demon form, and casually brushed the flaming part of his hair with his hand. It seemed to have become a habit from when he took human form.

“Acting strong, but you still can’t forget your childhood? Waa, waaa…”

Every time Deceptor’s lips opened and closed, a sound eerily identical to a baby’s cry was heard.

Jimius wandered around the mansion’s living room with a blank expression, as if she hadn’t heard his mocking sound. After taking a few steps, something cracked under her shoe with a snap. It was glass shards.

Only then did she realize that all the glass in the house was completely shattered. It looked like it had been helplessly ravaged by a huge typhoon or hailstorm.

“Hey, where are you going?”

Deceptor’s wary voice followed the back of Jimius’s head as she slowly moved. Jimius replied absentmindedly without looking back at him.

“I want to look around a bit. I have that much time, don’t I?”

“Well, I don’t think this is the time to be leisurely?”

But Deceptor left Jimius alone, leaving only a creepy chuckling sound. Jimius, who had left the living room and gone towards the hall, almost collapsed at the blurry figure she saw in front of her.

Whitish, shadow-like figures that seemed to stand up and run around passed before her eyes.

Jimius could recognize both of them. One was herself, and the other was her younger sister from childhood. The ghosts of the two sisters were playing hide-and-seek around the mansion.

Looking up, she saw something similar on the railing. It was her eldest brother who had become weaker every day saying he couldn’t continue the Con family after their parents passed away, and eventually died.

She started to look around every corner of the mansion, wondering if her eldest brother’s face had really looked like that.

— Sister, look at this! Shall we play house?

Her younger sister’s voice drew near and then quickly faded away like a passing breeze.

Her younger sister, with her hair cutely tied in two pigtails, was about seven years old now, wasn’t she? She ran off somewhere with a small set of dishes she cherished very much.

As Jimius turned a corner, her second eldest brother came out and grumbled his usual nagging.

— Hey, Jimi. Are you really not planning to get married? If you keep rejecting every suitor…

Jimius almost burst into laughter. The sound of glass shards breaking again with a crack was heard under her feet. Now that she looked, the entire floor was almost covered with glass shards.

‘Eldest brother’s room.’

Jimius, muttering to herself, stepped through the open door.

Her eldest brother, as befitting the heir who would inherit the marquis family, had mastered books in all fields. With not a single luxurious decoration, but filled only with books, it felt comfortable like a library.

In her childhood, sometimes when she didn’t feel well, she would go to her eldest brother’s room and just sit there for no reason. Smelling the scent of new and old books made her feel a little better.

But that was only until he died. After he passed away, having been bedridden from shock, Jimius had never entered his room even once. When she was at the mansion, she would tear up just at the sight of the doorknob.

— Sister, look at this, I found a jewel.

The ghost—or shadow or illusion—of her younger sister appeared before Jimius’s eyes again. Proudly showing her front tooth that had fallen out and not yet grown back, the child was holding something like a piece of quartz in her hand.

When Jimius, smiling, tried to touch the quartz, her younger sister’s figure disappeared like smoke.

Jimius looked around every corner of the mansion, almost pushing the glass shards around. There was no place without memories.

They were memories of lost siblings, and also the only treasure that Jimius had kept all along.

“Hey, it’s about time.”

Deceptor, who had followed her up to the second floor by now, said in an irritated tone. As Jimius turned around, the glass shards made a clinking, swishing sound as they were swept together under her feet.

Standing in front of him, Jimius put her hand in her uniform pocket with a calm expression. She was kicking the ground with her toes, lost in thought.

Jimius suddenly asked.

“Do demons never die?”

Deceptor raised the corner of his mouth crookedly.

“It’s not that we don’t die. Theoretically, we can’t be killed, but we can actually be killed. Why, are you planning to kill me here?”

“No, why would I have such an absurd thought? I’m just… tired. Of everything. To the point where I’d rather give you my body and soul.”

A giggling laughter was heard. It sounded like it was coming from underground.

“To elude the god of death, you need a contractor to keep the demon here. Within reach…”

“Is that so?”

There was a clatter. It was the sound of Jimius disturbing the glass shards. She took a step onto the shards and said to Deceptor.

“A contractor is needed within reach. I see.”

Deceptor’s expression, which had been grinning all along, changed slightly. At that moment, Jimius’s body leaned forward abruptly and something flashed in her hand.

“Ugh…!”

Deceptor, with his eyes wide open, tried to understand what had happened to him. He screamed rather unseemly at the terrible pain, a pain he had hardly experienced since becoming a demon.

“You wench…!”

“This is a dagger that was soaked in holy water consecrated by Branch Director Marnak for over a year. How does it taste? Is it a supreme delicacy? A pain you can’t taste anywhere else?”

Jimius, who pushed the dagger stuck in Deceptor’s neck a little deeper, continued.

“Make a contract with me. This time, a formal contract. I won’t remove this until you do.”

“Don’t say such ridiculous…”

“Shall we see if it’s ridiculous or not?”

At that moment, a dark and faint light began to rise from under Jimius’s feet. Deceptor felt an ominous flash flickering before his eyes.

It was a magic circle. Deceptor didn’t know what kind of magic circle Jimius had drawn, but how she had drawn it was clear. The way she kept dragging her feet and pushing the glass shards around…

That was the preliminary work to create the magic circle. It had to be. Deceptor let out a roar, enraged to the top of his head.

“You cunning wench, I’ll chew and swallow you from the head!”

Jimius grinned.

“Do as you please. But you must make a contract with me. If not, I will never let you go.”

No sooner had those words fallen than Jimius’s body pressed close to Deceptor.

An unfamiliar sensation kept coming from where the consecrated dagger was stuck. It had been so long since he last experienced it that Deceptor couldn’t immediately recall what it was. But soon he could tell.

It was pain. Terrible pain.

Jimius stepped more strongly on the magic circle made of glass shards and smiled ominously.

“Do you want to disappear miserably in a place like this, demon? I don’t think you do. If you want to live, there’s only one way.”