Survival Guide After Accidentally Kissing a Demon - Chapter 318

Chapter 318

“Honored sir-”

The crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling refracted a riot of colorful light.

A thick dark-red carpet covered the floor, and exquisite oil paintings hung on the walls.

Silver tableware and crystal wineglasses gave off a faint cold gleam.

The private room in the Sainthos noble activity venue was decorated with extreme luxury.

“Perhaps His Highness has already explained the situation clearly for me. I am somewhat curious how you intend to summon the soul and exorcise the ghost. Oh, I mean, how exactly will it be carried out?”

Removing her white velvet gloves, Duchess Constance picked up her teacup and took a sip, speaking politely.

“I do not mean to question you. I only wish to know what special items must be prepared in advance, or what ritual must be followed.”

So Duchess Constance was asking about methods to summon souls and exorcise ghosts.

Hearing the conversation, Beili’s mood dimmed slightly.

Across the exquisite glazed dining table, the boy sat diagonally opposite, yet his pitch-black gaze remained fixed on the butterfly on the hat.

Then he laughed softly.

Duchess Constance, not understanding why, touched her feathered hat and asked uncertainly,

“Your Highness, is something wrong with my hat?”

The boy gently shook his head and said with a smile,

“No.”

But Beili understood that laugh.

He was laughing at her for placing her feelings in the wrong place.

“Excuse me.”

The boy said lightly, suddenly standing up.

“Where is Your Highness going?”

The Mage beside him quickly asked, sounding very worried that the boy would leave his sight.

-It was as if he had received someone’s order to keep watch over him no matter what.

“I saw a friend. I would like to speak with her outside.”

The boy answered slowly, then stepped out of the private room.

Beili left several Morpho Butterflies behind and ordered them to disguise themselves as a color close to the feathered hat. Then she flapped her wings and quietly left the private room as well.

She soon caught up to the boy.

Because the boy was standing quietly in the corridor outside the shop, waiting for her.

Behind him, the butterfly changed back into human form in the blink of an eye.

Her plan was simple-knock Ashera unconscious and imprison him in the Dream Cage again.

Or quickly build another Dream Cage that belonged to the boy.

The Mana she had accumulated was enough to support this.

Beili took the initiative to speak.

“Lisa and her husband, whom I once took you to meet…”

“Yes, they are already dead.”

The boy said, his tone carrying a smile.

The boy’s words offered no explanation, leading the listener toward the conclusion that he had killed them.

Beili lightly blinked her black-covered eyes.

“I asked the Book of Truth. They were not killed by you. They were killed by people sent by the Nauze royal family.”

She spoke calmly.

Because the matter of a commoner killing a royal had never truly passed with time.

Even though Beili had used the closing Hunt Banquet to help Lisa escape,

after the Book of Truth spread, they still found Lisa’s location.

“That is truly a pity-”

The boy said softly.

“Because the two of them were the first people I wanted to kill after leaving the Far North. But just as I was about to kill them, I discovered when I arrived that their heads had already been cut off.”

He spoke as if discussing something insignificant. Only the final sentence was tinged with emotion.

“So I killed all those Mages.”

“After killing the Mages of Nauze, you discovered that the second Contract you signed with me had not been lifted. It was restricting you, preventing you from rapidly obtaining Mana through large-scale slaughter.”

In truth, part of the reason Beili had been able to stay calmly in Butterfly Valley guarding Duchess Constance during this period was that she believed the Mana in her body was higher than the Mana in the boy’s.

As long as the boy killed people, he would definitely suffer backlash from the Contract.

“Ashera, I only want to ask you one question. Did you release the Book of Truth?”

This was very important.

She had taken Ashera to the third floor of the library building. He knew where the Book of Truth was.

The boy answered with a question instead.

“The appearance of the Book of Truth, did it bring you many surprises?”

If “surprises” referred to Lisa’s hiding place being discovered and Duchess Constance learning her secret…

“Answer me-”

Anger colored her voice as Beili raised a hand and pressed the boy against the wall.

Dust fell in a soft shower from the top of the wall.

Her long, sharp black nails pierced into the skin by the boy’s collarbone, and blood slowly seeped out. Beili did not notice.

She only knew that the boy was merely smiling without answering.

Smiling without speaking might also be his answer.

“Since you do not intend to answer me, I will take it as your admission.” Beili sighed. “Go back to the Dream Cage.”

Losing patience, swarms upon swarms of Morpho Butterflies appeared behind her.

Like a fierce wind sweeping up withered autumn leaves, the swarm of Morpho Butterflies dancing behind her dragged black mist with them and silently lunged toward the boy.
But in the very next second, another kind of black mist drifted out of the boy’s shadow.

Like countless black threads, slender and tough, they bound her Morpho Butterflies in the blink of an eye.

The Morpho Butterflies struggled, but they couldn’t break free of the black threads.

The two black lights collided with a sizzling crackle.

The air around them seemed to warp under the force of the two currents of Mana.

Had he killed a lot of Mage in Tilisha? How had his Mana recovered so quickly?

Sensing the swarm of butterflies writhing in pain, Beili realized what had happened.

After all, Beili had been asking a civilian every day about Ashera’s location.

According to the answers given by the Book of Truth, he had stayed in Tilisha the entire time.

If he had been in Nauze, or returned to the Far North, it would make sense for his Mana to grow. But he was in Tilisha.

That was the kingdom where Mana was most barren.

“If you truly want to surpass me in Mana, Little Butterfly.”

The boy looked at her and said softly,

“Killing people is the fastest way.”

Killing people.

“If you kill, you’ll violate our Contract. You’ll receive punishment for breaking the Contract.”

Could the second Contract placed on him have failed…?

“As long as I make a promise, someone will kill people for me and send them over.”

The boy answered in a quiet voice.

“The king of Tilisha?” Beili guessed. “You had him kill people for you by promising to bring Lance back…?”

Beili sighed inwardly.

“You won’t keep that promise.”

“You really do understand me.” The boy nodded and said softly, “No wonder I fell into your dream trap, even though looking back now, that dream was full of things that didn’t add up.”

Beili’s thoughts stalled at his words.

By the time she came back to herself, she sensed that the boy had suddenly vanished.

In the next second, the two of them had switched places.

Fine black threads rapidly coiled around her.

From her feet to her head, loop after loop, binding her tightly.

In the end, they became a black oval like a silkworm cocoon.

Like a butterfly trapped inside black cocoon silk, Beili couldn’t move at all.

The boy slowly raised his hand.

The “black cocoon silk” was lifted by an invisible force.

Then his fingertip tapped lightly.

Bound by that force, she slammed hard into the wall and stuck there firmly.

“Oh, it’s you-”

At that moment, a familiar voice rang out, both shocked and furious.

Beili quickly released her Mana through layer after layer of fine black threads, sensing what was happening outside.

In the corridor.

Mrs. Constance seemed to recognize her through the Black Cocoon on the wall.

Her face instantly burned with rage, her exquisitely made-up features twisting in anger.

“How dare you secretly follow me? You have no manners at all!”

She cursed, then seemed to notice the boy’s injuries.

“Look at what you’ve done, you ignorant wild ghost. How dare you injure Prince Lance of Tilisha.”

“You reckless thing, get out of here this instant! Get as far away as you can!”

“It was wrong of me to follow you, Duchess.”

Inside the Black Cocoon, Beili said this to the woman.

“Just think of it as me hitching a ride. We have nothing to do with each other now, and I don’t have to listen to any of your orders.”

Her tone was calm, as if being trapped in a Black Cocoon and hung on the wall had never happened.

“If you’ve already discussed a method for exorcising ghosts with Tilisha’s exorcist, then return to Constance Castle first. I’ll go back later and cooperate with you.”

Beili drove her away.

On the other side, when Tilisha’s Mage saw the two people fighting, he tactfully raised a hand and gestured for the woman to come over.

“This way, Madam.”

Mrs. Constance looked at the girl who had turned into a black chrysalis, then at the boy who had bound her to the wall. With a cold snort, she quickly turned away.

…

“There is one thing I forgot to tell you-”

Seeing the woman leave without looking back, the boy said to the girl inside the Black Cocoon,

“The advice that Mage gave her was to kill you with a specially made poison.”

His tone was unhurried.

“The poison is already in her hands. Do you think she will kill you for the sake of her goal?”

Beili remained quiet and did not answer the boy’s question.

Because in her heart, the answer was not no.

“See?” The corners of the boy’s lips lifted slightly. “In your heart, she is very important. But in her heart, you are dispensable.”

“I don’t need you to remind me of that.”

Beili’s tone was calm, but there was a faint ache in her heart.

An ache. Actually, it didn’t hurt that much.

Once Ashera saw the scene of her and Mrs. Constance completely breaking with each other, he would no longer focus his attention on Mrs. Constance.

That was what Beili thought.

“Are you sad because of her?”

The boy seemed to sense her emotions and said in a relaxed tone,

“It’s fine if you are. It will let you clearly understand that this person is not worth clinging to. Neither is this world.”
What would Ashera do to her?

Maybe he would throw her back onto that circular stone platform in the Far North.

Then he would take away everything except food and clothing. If that happened, she really would have no way to leave that platform.

Her Mana had grown a great deal by now, but compared to Ashera, she was still far behind.

“But you don’t have to be afraid,” the boy said, his voice turning gentle. “I’m not like him. I won’t drag you down to Hell. I know you’re afraid of what you have to go through before going to Hell, so I’ll turn this place into Hell…”

Before he could finish, Beili suddenly sensed several powerful spells hurtling toward the boy.

The spells came with ferocious force, but the instant before they struck him, a pure-black wall as thin as paper rose swiftly and blocked them completely.

Another spell had been coming down in her direction, and it too was stopped by that thin black wall.

Then several people in black cloaks appeared on the rooftops of the surrounding houses.

Beili extended her Mana outward and sensed them. She quickly recognized their attire. They were Mages of Sainthos.

“Your Highness, please come with us. His Majesty the King of Sainthos requests your presence.”

One of the Mage called out loudly.

Along with the voice from afar came the sound of hurried footsteps.

Beili sent her Mana in that direction and discovered that the woman who had already gone downstairs was rushing back up again.

Had that magical attack just now been cast by Madam Constance?

Had she left earlier to go to the imperial city for reinforcements?

Beili froze slightly, then her brows drew together.

Within her perception,

a figure stopped Madam Constance from getting closer, while warning the surrounding Mage,

“The person standing here is His Highness Prince Lance Fitzgerald of Tilisha. I will report the magical attack you just launched to His Majesty the King of Tilisha exactly as it happened…”

“This is Sainthos! Don’t think I’ll be grateful just because you helped me drive out a ghost. Ours was a fair transaction, so move! Stop blocking me!” the woman snapped, cutting Lance off as she shoved him hard to the side.

Then-

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

The woman strode quickly toward them in her heeled leather boots.

Beili’s perception landed on the boy. He was turning his head to look at Duchess Constance as she approached, his brows slowly knitting together.

“Duchess.”

Beili spoke from inside the Black Cocoon, her voice cold as she addressed Duchess Constance.

“This is my private matter. You don’t need to interfere. It has nothing to do with you.”

She was hinting for the woman to leave at once.

The woman did not look at her. Instead, she lifted a hand and pointed at the boy, saying loudly, “Even if you are a Prince of Tilisha, you cannot treat a lady this way!”

“Duchess, just as she said, you have nothing to do with each other.”

The boy still wore a smile, repeating the words in a gentle tone.

“Besides, didn’t you already publicly announce that she is no longer your daughter?”

“Shut up-”

She heard Duchess Constance say furiously,

“She is using Luoluo’s body. Even if she is not my daughter, she is still mine.”

“Yours?”

The boy laughed under his breath.

“Yes, mine! As Duchess Constance, I order you to release her!”

As soon as the words fell, the woman rapidly began chanting an incantation.

But the sound of the spell suddenly stopped.

The woman could no longer speak.

A sudden silence fell.

Beili’s heart skipped a beat.

Under her perception, in the image formed of gray and white, a hole appeared in the woman’s pale neck.

It was as if a black icicle had pierced through the back of her throat.

Her sensing Mana recoiled instantly in terror.

In a daze, Beili felt as though, within her black field of vision, scarlet blood was dripping down, splattering into bloom after bloom of red.

She heard the sound of blood flowing, then spilling again and again onto the ground. Someone collapsed to the floor with a thud.

Her hands trembled as she tried to break free from her restraints,

but she couldn’t.

She couldn’t.

When she did not struggle, the Black Cocoon was a soft silk quilt. The moment she struggled, it turned into hard steel.

Inside the Black Cocoon, Beili opened her mouth, but not a single word came out.

Her thoughts were like a receding tide, white waves mixed with dead fish bones and crab shells reeking of rot and brine, smashing heavily against the reefs before swiftly retreating into the icy sea.

The woman who had once been her mother for a short time was dead.

Beili thought in bewilderment.

Long, sharp nails scraped against the black cocoon silk.

The sound was even harder and more piercing than chalk scratching across a blackboard.

The surface, as hard as black diamond, suddenly loosened and softened beneath the scraping nails.

Riiip-

The black silk cocoon was torn open from within.

Beili’s lashes trembled. She opened her eyes and woke up.