CH 135

“The Devil's Contract.”

Translated by Dawn

Edited by Dawn

“The Devil’s Contract.”

“Oh, brother! Oh, brother, oh, brother, Oh, brother—!!”

My sister Laura jumped into my arms and hugged me, calling out to me. If this were any other woman, I would certainly avoid her, but as expected, I wouldn’t be so heartless as to refuse the embrace of my sister who shares my blood. …Just so you know, I’m not a siscon, alright?

“Laura. Will you let me go already?”

“Sniff, sniff. Wow, it’s the smell of big brother Roland.”

“…..”

…Little sister, haven’t you gone down a path you shouldn’t have gone down while I haven’t been watching you for a little while? Even though I’m your brother, sniffing a man’s smell is, let’s face it, perverted, right?

I sensed the smell of danger coming from Laura and quickly pulled her off of me. She looked disappointed, but I could feel that she was staring at me so intently that I thought she was going to drill a hole in me without taking her gaze off me.

“Quickly, Mark. Guide me to father.”

“Ah, that’s right. I was too excited to see you again, brother. This way.”

From there, I followed my younger brother’s directions to my father’s room. I said “guide,” but I knew this mansion well because I had lived there until I was 12 years old.

I hardly saw any servants in the house, probably because of the epidemic. By the way, the reason why Mark and Laura were not sick was that just before I left the mansion, I told Mark, “If possible, you should also learn recovery magic. If a plague spreads, the territory will be in trouble.” They had faithfully carried out this advice and had mastered recovery magic before the disease broke out.

However, since the level of recovery magic was low and only effective in slowing the progress of the disease or making it less likely to spread, Father Randall was already infected with the disease when the outbreak began.

Fortunately, my mother Clarice and my twin siblings Mark and Laura managed to prevent it with recovery magic because it was before they were infected, but it was too late for Randall.

I went to my father’s bedroom, which he always used, and there I found my father, Randall, looking blue and groaning. Mother Clarice was there, too, standing by as if concerned about Father’s condition.

“Ara, Mark. What’s going on? …You are, Roland. Right, Mark told me you’d be here.”

“How is Father?”

I asked her about Father’s condition, but she just shook her head and did not answer in detail. Perhaps she somehow knew that he would not be able to live much longer. But that was with the caveat that it would have been if I hadn’t been here.

“For now, we have to get him in a state where we can talk to him. [High Heals]”

For the time being, I restored Randall’s strength that he had lost due to his illness in order to get him to regain consciousness. Then, Randall’s eyelids opened and he regained consciousness.

“D-dear!”

“Father.”

“Father.”

“Mmmm, everyone…and Roland? Well, did you come here to mock me, this me who banished you…”

“That’s one thing, but I’m here to offer you a certain contract. A devil’s contract.”

“A devil’s contract?”

My father looked doubtful at my words but waited to hear what I had to say. After some pause, I decided to offer him a certain condition.

“Father knows what will happen if you die here and now, don’t you? With Mark not yet of age, he will be judged too young to take over the Malbert family, and it is obvious that other nobles will interfere with the management of the estate as his guardians.”

“…I know.”

“Then you cannot die here. And for my own convenience, I can’t have my father…Baron Randall von Malbert die now. So let’s make a deal.”

“A deal?”

I offered Randall a condition. In exchange for curing his illness, he must publicly announce that he had removed Roland, the eldest son of the Malbert family, as a candidate for the next head of the family, and had chosen Mark, the second son, as a candidate, and write a letter to the king to that effect.

And that he would not try to bring me back to the Malbert family after my banishment. In exchange for these two conditions, I offered to cure him of his illness.

The fact was, although my banishment had spread like a rumor, it was still just a rumor, and the Malberts had avoided mentioning it publicly because it would have been bad for their appearance.

Therefore, information about the family’s history had spread on its own, leading to the appearance of groundless rumors that the eldest son of the Malbert family was killed by the current head of the family in a plot to make the second son the next head of the family, or that the eldest son was cursed by a mysterious, unidentified curse and turned into a monster in appearance.

The Malbert family had been preparing to announce my banishment from the family for some time, but there was no good time to do so, and in the end, the announcement of the banishment of the first son was delayed. Although it was for a legitimate reason, it was a very rare case to expel the eldest son and hand over the reign of the next head of the family to the second son. In order to dispel such rumors as much as possible, they wanted to announce the banishment in a way that would satisfy everyone, emphasizing that there was a good and just reason for the banishment this time.

In the meantime, an epidemic broke out in the territory, and it was no longer possible to make a public announcement.

“In exchange for curing your illness, I’ll let you live some more of your life if you swear that you won’t do anything to bring me back to the Malberts…what will you do?”

“…you have the means to cure this illness?”

“Otherwise, this condition itself wouldn’t hold, would it?”

“….”

For a while, silence took over the place. He was probably sorting out some things in his head. Then, when he exhaled one breath as if he had finished sorting things out, Randall responded.

“All right. I will take those terms.”

“Then sign this contract.”

“This is…”

“It is [Death Contract]. It is an enforceable contract that provides certain conditions, and if those conditions are broken, the person who signed it will pay for it with his or her life. If you are sure that you will abide by the conditions I have presented to you, then sign this.”

Randall signed the death contract I magically created. It took him a long time to finish writing it because of his weakened state, but he managed to sign it. If my conditions were violated, Randall would die.

“Okay, now we have a deal. Now I’m going to start the treatment.”

After declaring that, I cast a spell.