Chapter 4
I am now an amazing possessor who can even read.
Since I can read letters, it's time to dig through Evangelin's diary. While I'm at it, I'll find the summoning spell too. Let me summon a spirit or dragon and become an overpowered character!
I settled into position when Pudding promptly sat on my lap. Together with Pudding, I opened the diary with neat and reverent hearts.
March 9th, Year 370.
Met Count Rohanson.
It's been a while since I saw a diary that doesn't start on January 1st. Come to think of it, what year is it now?
"What year is this?"
"It's Year 392 by the Imperial calendar."
I asked Hena, who has become much closer to me lately. Even though her employer must be pathetic, Hena kindly answered.
392? I looked at the date again. That's over twenty years ago. Then this wasn't Evangelin's diary. I guessed wrong.
August 9th, Year 370.
That man proposed marriage.
It seemed the diary's owner was Evangelin's mother. There were rumors that she was about to marry Count Rohanson. She wasn't the type to write at length, so the content wasn't long and the dates jumped around a lot.
August 19th, Year 370.
Father issued a confinement order. He said that man clearly proposed to target the Duke's family. Without ever having seen him personally? He said he truly loved me. He said it was okay even without money.
Evangelin's mother must have been the third child of a Duke's family. Unfortunately, the exact family name wasn't written. Anyway, it was the story of a wealthy Duke's daughter who fell in love with a Count she met by chance, and despite the family's opposition, she married him and was disowned.
April 2nd, Year 371.
I should have listened to Dad. I want to return to the Duke's family.
So Count Rohanson's purpose was money, and after swallowing the dowry Evangelin's mother brought, their relationship became distant. As soon as I saw it, I thought, ah, this is a cliché.
Now it's that story where instead of Count Rohanson, I'm supposed to cling to the estranged maternal family. You know, the grandfather actually loved his daughter and sees his dead daughter overlapped in his granddaughter.
But... isn't that a childcare genre thing? Evangelin was too big for childcare content. It seems too late to go down the childcare route. Damn it, if only I had possessed this body a few years earlier!
The diary entries grew longer as days passed. With no one to confide in, she seemed to pour her heart into the diary. Her handwriting grew increasingly strange, and perhaps because of that, there were oddly some characters I couldn't read. The content seemed to change too....
The important thing is the summoning spell....
[How to Summon □□]
[Standing at the □
□□□ with the □□ of □□, defile the earth
With your □ □-covered hand, draw a circle
Bow your head and look up at the □
Make grapes grow from thornbushes
And make figs bear from thistles
□□ and □□
Welcome the □□ of the □□ descending to earth]
Excuse me? There's a translation error? I knew this would happen since the translation patch was taking so long!
It seems the patch isn't fully applied yet. At least some letters are visible, I suppose.
Let me just read what I can roughly see. So.... Defile the earth and draw a circle with my hand? What's this about thornbushes and grapes? Is this like planting beans but getting red beans instead? What does this even mean!
What am I summoning? The letters are already broken, and the content is unnecessarily difficult so I don't understand a single thing.
This is why famous instructors make good money. If they just arranged it clearly with numbers like 1. Draw a circle 2. Summon. How nice would that be.
My head hurts. Time out for a moment. I should put this aside until the translation gets patched. The paper won't run away.
'Where did it go?'
It ran away.
The paper I left on the desk vanished without a trace. The diary was perfectly intact, but only the paper disappeared. I searched the entire room but couldn't find it.
"Hena, did you happen to see the paper that was on the desk?"
"No...."
I was in the room all day, so when did it disappear? The only time I left the room was yesterday during my walk. Did someone clean and think it was trash while I was out?
I haven't even interpreted it yet! I haven't even tried summoning! This is why you shouldn't live lazily!
First, I need to find out who cleaned. Then I can ask about the paper's whereabouts. I grabbed a passing servant.
"Who came into my room yesterday."
"Y-yesterday? If it's yesterday, th-then it would be Donau."
"Where is he right now?"
"Well... Donau didn't come in today...."
Don't tell me this is the theft I've only heard about?
Come to think of it, the translation error might make it look strange only to me, while it appeared normal to others. While cleaning my room, they saw this amazing summoning method and just stole it. If they thought it was trash and threw it away, there'd be no reason to be absent without notice today!
"...Did Donau perhaps do something wrong?"
"He did. He seems to have stolen mine."
Evangelin was a villainess but had a setting where she was subtly bullied. I didn't want to slap people or throw my status around, so I just let it slide, but maybe I should have at least fired them earlier. No, there was nothing to steal, so they stole my otherworld overpowered route?
"Tell him that from now on, if anyone touches my things, whoever they are, I'll cut off their head."
All of them, heads! I'll just freely exercise my personnel authority.
I went straight to the butler and got Donau's home address. I didn't expect my first outing after possession to be for such a regrettable reason.
Hena, who lives nearby, accompanied me since I don't know the geography well. Pudding tagged along too, probably thinking we were going for a walk.
When I gave the coachman the address, he dropped us off at the outskirts, quite far from the mansion. From there, Hena guided the way.
"It's here."
Finally arrived! You thief, just wait. I'll reclaim my otherworld overpowered route.
Forget knocking, I just kicked the door with my foot.
***
"...Mmph... ugh!"
The girl twisted her body. Does she never tire? Donau, who had been sitting leisurely in a chair reading while drinking tea, clicked his tongue at the groans interrupting his reading.
Her mouth was gagged, but everything was interpretable. Anyway, the story would be obvious. Please spare me, I was wrong. Those kinds of pathetic words. Haha, how ridiculous, groveling blindly without even knowing what she did wrong.
Donau, who had been looking at the girl as if she were a bug, soon turned his gaze away.
No curtains were hung, and wooden boards were hastily nailed over the windows lest the inside be visible. Through the tiny gaps, a red light seeped in. Sunset had fallen without him noticing.
Now very little time remained. The redness would fade and soon darkness would arrive.
Donau looked at the paper he had been reading as if it were precious.
It was a single note Donau had picked up from the Rohanson Count's household where he worked. Last night while organizing Evangelin Rohanson's room, he discovered this treasure.
[How to Summon a Demon]
An ordinary person would have dismissed this as a child's prank. But Donau, who worked at the Rohanson Count's household, recognized with his keen insight that this was real.
Evangelin Rohanson, who had hanged herself and died, came back to life. Who else but a demon could do such a thing?
His foolish colleagues made a fuss saying she was possessed by a ghost! Turned into a demon! Just afraid of a mere girl. Low-level fools! The important thing was how Evangelin Rohanson was revived!
And who summoned the demon!
Only Donau could figure out the reason.
Evangelin Rohanson's maternal family was the Hosquin Duke's family. Count Rohanson had been receiving enormous medical expense support from the Duke's family under the excuse that Evangelin had been sickly since childhood.
While cleaning the Count's office, Donau had witnessed that dizzyingly long parade of numbers. Perhaps thanks to getting beaten for peeking at documents, the memory was still vivid.
But if Evangelin died, all that money would disappear. So Count Rohanson must have made a contract with a demon to revive his daughter!
That damn Count! Acting like a good person, but he's just another money-grubbing noble scum! Donau had long suspected the Count's dirty intentions.
And Donau would become a far more splendid noble than someone like Count Rohanson.
Standing at the end, child, defile the earth with the innocent one's martyrdom. Draw a circle with your blood-shedding hand. Bow your head and look up at salvation. Make grapes grow from thornbushes and make figs bear from thistles. Revere and worship. Welcome the angel of light descending to earth.
Preparations were complete.
He had kidnapped a girl who had been loitering outside. With Donau's blood, he had drawn the demon-summoning symbol on the floor. To draw that large symbol, Donau's arms and fingers were crisscrossed with knife marks.
Now he just had to wait for the sun to set, and then summon the demon with that girl's life as the price....
Donau recited the procedure repeatedly, then tore the paper into small pieces and swallowed them. Eating the dry paper felt strangely sweet, like eating perfectly ripe fruit.
He couldn't let just anyone see this special information. The opportunity to become special should belong only to him.
"Finally!"
And finally, the sun set. Donau struck a match and lit a candle.
Picking up a well-sharpened knife from the table, Donau danced to the accompaniment of ragged breaths. It was a waltz befitting a gentleman. As Donau moved, the candlelight flickered, and the shadow cast on the wall writhed.
Donau danced with the shadow as his partner, imagining the future after summoning the demon. Himself not in this shabby house, but under a brilliant chandelier.