Chapter 4. A New Contract

A disgusting stench of blood wafted from somewhere.

It was the kind of bloodiness that made one’s face involuntarily scrunch up, as if in the midst of a gruesome battlefield. Furthermore, something sticky smeared on her fingertips, as if she had been stirring through water. The sensation was so chilling that she kept flinging her hands. The headache that felt like her head was splitting was also severe.

Then, when her vision cleared, Renie faced a horrific sight.

It was the scene she had witnessed when the Holy Knights had guided her to the stables. The baggage carriage wide open. Corpses dangling, all with their throats cut. Bloodstains scattered everywhere like rainwater.

But this time was different. It wasn’t animals.

They were all people Renie knew well. The people of the Holy City, those belonging to the temple, her other family who assisted her.

“Heok......!”

Amidst the countless scattered corpses, Renie suddenly met someone’s eyes.

It was her own.

Renie Valois, with her throat cleanly severed, blood splattered, and lifeless eyes fading. Not only from her severed neck, but also from all her facial features, dark red blood was dripping.

They began to pool at Renie’s feet, who stood there blankly, and slowly climbed up her. The disgusting stench intensified, and her body gradually stiffened.

When she was submerged up to her head in that black swamp, Renie woke up from the terrible nightmare.

Her whole body felt clammy. In addition, her entire body ached as if she had been thoroughly beaten. Renie barely managed to roll her eyes and look around. The familiar structure of the room was her own bedroom.

“Ugh......”

As she slowly raised herself, the throbbing pain that encompassed her entire body intensified. Among them, her waist ached terribly as if it had been broken in two. Holding her stomach with one hand, Renie washed her face with her dry palms. Her face was covered in sweat.

What’s wrong with me?

Renie, sifting through the hazy memories like fog, soon recalled the bitter reality one by one, more painful than the nightmare.

The sound of rain drumming against the window, the roar of thunder, and the man’s lustful breathing.

‘Haa...... Damn it. How many more times do I have to be fucked for this hole to loosen up?’

The words whispered by the man who had pressed his body tightly against her, who was lying face down, as he continued his squelching thrusts.

‘Renie. Do you know what Ferno means?’

Spreading his ejaculate, which she had lost count of, inside her, the man wrote something on the floor. After writing the letters of Ferno in the universal language, he chuckled and whispered in her ear.

‘In Inferno.’

‘......’

‘In other words, the Demonic Realm!’

The sinister voice lingered in her ear. Renie covered her ears with her hands.

“......No.”

She denied it desperately. But the pain that assailed her with even the slightest movement shattered that denial. Renie clutched her head. Her breathing grew increasingly rapid.

“No. No way...... It can’t be.”

From the moment one enters the temple, their flesh is eternally bound to God. One’s body becomes something that exists solely for God. Therefore, one must live a pure and holy life, abstaining from lust and instinct throughout their life, to maintain chastity.

In the same vein, a clergyman must cherish their chastity as their life. As a servant of God, as a devout person who serves only God. That meant that the defilement of chastity was equivalent to losing one’s life.

And last night, she, the Pope, had lost her chastity.

Hot tears dripped onto the clenched sheet. With a single moment’s act, everything had become hazy. Her vision, her reason, and even her future.

A clergyman who has lost their chastity can be expelled from the Holy City at any time for not upholding the commandments.

No, in fact, that wasn’t the problem.

The very divine power that had led her to enter the temple was demonic. The position she had maintained as Pope until now, in name only, was actually something she had obtained through a contract with a demon.

Renie vividly remembered the moment last night when she couldn’t wield her divine power. It was a terrifying moment, and therefore all the more frightening. Without her divine power, she was a hypocrite with no right to remain here.

Most of all, the King of Ferno, no, that demon.

She wanted to escape this place immediately, where the demon who had crushed and raped her resided. The horrifying memories of last night kept making her restless.

‘I have to run away!’

Renie hurriedly got out of bed. As soon as her feet touched the floor, her legs gave out, and she fell, but she moved desperately. Even if she had to crawl on her knees, she tried to gather her few belongings. But that action soon stopped.

‘Where to?’

There was nowhere to go.

To be precise, she couldn’t go anywhere.

If she resigned from her position as Pope here and returned to the Valois Marquisate. Would her father accept her then? No, she would now be a complete disgrace to the Marquisate and would be immediately cast out.

What would she do then? Where should she go?

Could she stay in the Kingdom of Evreux? Should she go to another country? Or back to the Holy City? But by then, she would already be a deceiver who had risen to the papacy using demonic power.

No, would there even be a ‘then’?

Just by bringing an indelible stain upon the Marquisate, her father might end her life. Blinded by greed, he was capable of such a thing. He would consider the life of a daughter who was no longer helpful as less than nothing, and this time he would truly think of her as ‘useless’......

“My goodness. Your Holiness!”

Renie flinched at the sudden voice. Cecile, holding a tray, approached with a surprised face.

“What are you doing? Are you alright?”

Cecile helped the fallen Renie up and supported her to the bed.

“Are you feeling very unwell? Shall I call a physician?”

At Cecile’s question, which sounded like she would call someone immediately, Renie’s heart lurched. She quickly shook her head and asked cautiously, looking around.

“Cecile, how did I get back here yesterday?”

Her last memory was abruptly cut off in the rain-soaked chapel. She had no idea how she had returned to her bedroom after that.

“Don’t you remember? Last night, I heard that a ruffian suddenly attacked the chapel.”

“A ruffian......”

“Yes. I heard that you were attacked while leaving the confessional, but it seems you don’t remember. Fortunately, the King of Ferno found you and saved you. He was also the one who brought you here. The Holy Knights guarding outside were very surprised and caused quite a commotion, you know.”

Only the words ‘King of Ferno’ lingered like an afterimage in Cecile’s explanation, tormenting Renie.

The King of Ferno saved her from a ruffian’s attack? That demon must have spun such a ridiculous lie to deceive others.

She was indeed attacked. But the culprit wasn’t a ruffian, it was the King of Ferno himself. Unable to confess the truth, Renie barely hid her trembling hands under the blanket.

“Why are you sweating so much? Are you really alright without calling a physician?”

The marks left on her body would all be evidence of rape. If the physician were to find out...... Renie bit her lip hard enough to hurt and nodded firmly.

Cecile, with worried eyes, was carefully wiping the sweat from her forehead when someone knocked on the bedroom door. Cecile, who had hurried to the door, soon spoke in a bright voice, as if she had heard welcome news.

“Your Holiness. The King of Ferno has come.”

Renie’s entire body stiffened. A fear that prevented her from even moving a finger crushed her. Her breath caught in her throat.

“He says he came because he was worried about what happened yesterday. What shall we do?”

Even as she asked his intentions, Cecile flung the door wide open as if certain Renie wouldn’t refuse. She couldn’t be blamed for her actions, as she had no idea about the truth of the previous night. To Cecile, Khan was merely the benefactor who had saved the Pope from a near-disastrous incident.

Renie’s face, which Cecile had just wiped, became covered in sweat again.

What should she do? She didn’t want to see him. Should she run away right now? Was it already too late? What should she do... what to do...

While an eternity of agonizing thoughts, filled with revulsion but unable to show it, continued, ‘he’ nonchalantly stepped into the bedroom.

“I will take my leave now.”

Cecile, thinking she would be a hindrance, gathered the tray and quickly left the bedroom. The door closed, and suddenly only he and she were left in the room.

Renie retreated to the corner of the bed, groping backwards, and glared at Khan. Fear was evident in her trembling eyes.

Khan, dressed impeccably as ever, had a painful scar etched on his forehead. The scar was slightly hidden by his hair, but Renie could see it clearly. It served as a reminder of the previous night, intensifying the throbbing pain that coursed through her body. Especially the intimate area between her thighs.

He took a step closer, thud.

“D-don’t come closer.”

Renie mumbled, as if groaning, and hurriedly focused on using her divine power. As expected, now that the man was before her, the divine power she had wielded so freely until now was nowhere to be felt.

The feeling of having become a helpless human was miserable. This was especially true for her, as she had been brainwashed since childhood to think she had to ‘live usefully’.

But more than that, her fear was overwhelming. Renie’s chin trembled, as if the evil deeds the demon had committed last night would be repeated.

Lightly disregarding her plea, Khan approached the bed. Now with nowhere left to retreat, Renie clutched the sheet and glared at him. The blood-red eyes that met hers stirred her emotions wildly.

Khan chuckled, looking at her huddled in the corner, trembling like a small animal before a predator.

“There’s no need to be so wary.”

“If you were me, wouldn’t you be?”

Renie retorted in a shrinking voice, while looking for an opportunity. Even a small gap, a chance to get away from him.

Even if she didn’t know what he would do if she escaped here, it would be foolish to remain still due to that ignorance.

He was the one who had already raped her once. So, he would have no more reservations.

“You’re plotting to run away again.”

Like a beast just before cornering its prey, Khan sat leisurely on the edge of the bed. Taking advantage of that moment, Renie quickly tried to get off the bed. But the pain piercing her limbs was so vivid that she couldn’t move smoothly, and so her speed was slow, and just before she got off the bed, her ankle was firmly grabbed.

Her body tilted, and when she closed and opened her eyes, he was already on top of her. The nightmare from the hazy chapel resurfaced, and Renie struggled urgently.

“Let go of me! No, I said no! Let go, mmph!”

“Shhh.”

Khan covered Renie’s tear-filled mouth. Then, he gently stroked her waist as if to soothe her. But it was not welcome at all. Right now, that languid touch felt disgustingly repulsive.

With her mouth blocked, Renie looked up at him with trembling eyes.

“If you shout like that, everyone will come. Would that be alright with you?”

At Khan’s question, his eyes crinkling at the corners, Renie quickly inhaled. If someone were to see this scene. Her, the Pope, pinned down on the bed by the king of another country...... Renie had no choice but to close her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes. As if pleased by her obedient attitude, Khan stroked her tear-stained cheek. Feeling repulsed, she twisted her chin. His hand suddenly slipped between her legs. Renie’s entire body stiffened like a lump of scrap metal.

“Such cold treatment is too much. I even painstakingly scooped out my seed for you so it wouldn’t be discovered that I took you. Otherwise, your maid would have already noticed.”

He tapped her crotch, hidden by her underwear, as if to make her remember. Renie barely pushed away the thick forearm that had burrowed between her legs and glared at him.

Meeting her fierce gaze shamelessly, Khan smiled pleasantly.

“I’m sorry for being rough yesterday. I was a little petulant because you didn’t recognize me.”

“......”

“More importantly, we have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”

Khan’s hand slowly grasped Renie’s chin.

“Now that you know who I am, you probably remember our deal, right?”

“I, I never agreed to your deal......”

“Didn’t you? You shouldn’t say that. All the power you’ve been using until now is mine.”

Renie swallowed hard and opened her mouth with difficulty.

“That deal was flawed from the start. Because you didn’t grant what I wanted. You said you’d save my mother, but in the end, she passed away......”

“It seems you’re mistaken about something, Renie.”

Khan, who had been listening silently, cut her off abruptly. He languidly stroked Renie’s lower lip, which was swollen from being bitten so much yesterday.

“What a demon gives is a chance, not a result.”

“......”

“I gave you my power, so it was your responsibility to use it. As a result, you chose to leave that place from your childhood and escape your father, not to save your mother, didn’t you? That’s why you came here.”

Renie’s eyes, looking up at Khan, trembled. Conversely, the corners of the man’s lips, looking down at her, curved further.

“You abandoned your sick mother to save yourself.”

“No. I......!”

“If you had stayed by her side, your mother might not have died until now, you know.”

“......!”

“You abandoned your own mother to save yourself, didn’t you?”

His casual tone pierced her heart like a dagger, tearing it apart. She wanted to refute him, but her throat tightened, and she couldn’t make a sound.

Perhaps what the man said was right.

If she had stayed by her mother’s side, using the man’s power that she had safely preserved for ten years, her mother might have lived until now. But for Renie at the time, escaping her father’s torment was all that mattered......

The power of Marquis Valois was a major factor in elevating her to the papacy, but it couldn’t be said that Renie had no will in the matter. More than anything, she desperately wanted to escape her father’s torment.

“I granted what you desired. I lent you my power to save your dying mother, and I helped you escape the place you considered hell.”

Khan lowered his upper body.

“So, our contract is still valid.”

Their lips were so close that she could feel every breath.

“Of course, with the price that you must become mine.”

His red eyes, facing her closely, gleamed. What flickered within them was clearly lust. Even just his gaze made her throat tighten.

Renie let out intermittent breaths, feeling like she was suffocating.

“My heart is pounding like it’s about to burst. Renie, are you afraid of me?”

“......Are you planning to do the same thing as yesterday again?”

She wanted to ask with composure, but her voice trembled pathetically. Because she didn’t know what other terrible things this man, no, this demon, would do to her.

The man, who had been silently gazing at Renie trembling beneath him like a trapped small animal, finally opened his mouth after a long silence.

“I would like to make a new contract.”

His low voice was as sweet as the one she had heard in the chapel over a decade ago. Renie flinched at his hand stroking her cheek.

“What......”

“What I desire is to reclaim my power from you. Due to our past contract, all of my power is currently with you. I can control it so you can’t use it, but I can’t return it to me.”

Hearing those words, Renie recalled the Archbishop’s report that the King of Ferno had insisted on coming to the Holy City.

Perhaps he had come to find her for this very reason.

“There are various ways to reclaim my power, but the simplest way is to intertwine our bodies. Just like yesterday.”

“......”

“Once I regain my power, I will allow you to continue using divine power afterward. That is the condition of this new contract.”

Khan offered her a choice, just like that day in the past. But she knew it was a demon’s cunning scheme to shift all responsibility for what would happen afterward onto the human.

“......If I don’t agree to that contract?”

“Agreeing to the contract is entirely up to you, but you’re confident you can handle the consequences, right?”

“Consequences?”

“A Pope who can’t use divine power. That would be quite a sight.”

Khan was referring to the very thing she deeply feared. Just as he said, a Pope unable to use divine power would be a ridiculous figure, deserving to be dismissed as ‘quite a sight’.

She knew this was all the demon’s scheme, but at least for now, she had no way to escape that scheme. Only a deep despair filled Renie’s eyes as she realized this.

“That’s not the only card I hold. What if I told the Royal Capital that the Pope of Evreux acted rashly and ruined the goodwill visit......?”

“......”

“......What would happen then?”

His tone, as if spoon-feeding her the answer, was gentle, but in reality, it was nothing short of a threat. A vile threat that he would gladly sabotage this goodwill visit if Renie didn’t obey his will.

Leaving aside the ensuing dispute with the Royal Capital, Renie was most of all afraid of her father. If he found out that she had failed to properly receive a delegation and caused a national problem......

Her father, no different from a tyrant to her, was an absolute being who instilled fear whether near or far. The coldness and abuse she had received since childhood had deeply ingrained that fear.

Even though she had risen to a seemingly respectable position, her father was still a mountain the size of a house to her. A mountain she could never overcome, no matter how much hardship and adversity she endured.

Before her was a demon, and behind her was a father like a demon. Trapped between them, Renie would only fall into ruin whether she moved forward or retreated.

She barely regained her senses and slapped away his hand. But because she was trembling so badly, it looked more like a feeble push than a forceful strike.

“But if I don’t agree, you won’t be able to regain your power either, will you?”

“I never said that sex was the only way to regain my power.”

His hand, which had been pushed away into the air, approached again. His oily index finger touched her nape, and soon Khan tightly gripped her slender neck, as delicate as a deer’s.

“Even if I kill you.”

“......Hng.”

Renie let out a suppressed groan as her airway was blocked.

Khan tightened his grip as if he truly intended to cut off her breath. Renie scratched his forearm frantically with her fingernails, but it was useless. As her throat was constricted, her breathing became increasingly shallow, and her mind blurred. Just as her eyes were about to roll back precariously, Khan released his grip.

“Hah......!”

Renie coughed violently at the sudden influx of air.

He was going to kill me. That demon, just now, really.

She gasped roughly, consumed by panic.

“But I don’t want to do that, so I’m giving you a chance.”

His voice was no different from when he had soothed her over a decade ago. The ridiculous thing was that Renie’s situation hadn’t changed much since then.

Even with the demonic power he had given her, she had accomplished nothing on her own. The papacy she had barely clung to was a position she couldn’t maintain without demonic power, and her only lifeline, her father, still only saw her as a tool.

Her chest felt suffocating, as if she had plunged into the deep sea.

Renie, who had been panting heavily, finally shed tears.

Having been abused since childhood, Renie, even though she was now free from physical violence, always habitually kept one avenue of escape open. If she didn’t, she felt like she would truly lose her place in the world.

After becoming Pope, while considering it a position undeserved for someone like her, she rationalized it by thinking it was alright since she possessed the appropriate divine power. That was her breathing room. By considering herself as fulfilling her worth, she protected herself.

But it wasn’t hers. It was just the demon’s paltry trickery. Now that she had lost even the legitimacy of her position, the only way to create a breathing space was to follow the man’s proposal.

He was the perfect predator, and Renie was like a butterfly caught in his web. She could only escape by severing everything tied to her, no, perhaps even if she severed it, she couldn’t escape. If she went back to the past, she would never have agreed. She wouldn’t have even lifted the veil following the voice, nor would she have entered the chapel. She would have just lived like a dead person, as ‘something useless’.

But now, those were utterly useless thoughts. This situation, with the demon right in front of her, was reality.

If she agreed to this contract, perhaps she could at least live like a Pope.

All she had learned so far was how to become someone’s wife and how to rise to the position of Pope.

She had never learned how to live as ‘Renie’.

If not Pope, then just Renie Valois, a mere noble lady. If even her family turned their backs on her and she became ‘Renie’, she would surely wander the streets and die miserably. She had no strength to live alone.

Khan’s face, watching her eyes sink, looked utterly pleased. The smile on his lips was living proof. He must have known her feelings very well, that she couldn’t possibly refuse his offer.

“Would the duration of the Ferno delegation’s stay here be sufficient?”

“......”

“That period should be enough to regain my power. Ah, of course, on the condition that I fuck your hole whenever I want.”

Renie had never imagined a happy future for herself. Her life hadn’t been smooth enough to imagine such a thing.

Her childhood memories were nothing but abuse, and her life after growing up was precarious. Always wandering without finding her place, she had no leeway to dream of a prosperous future.

But perhaps she had been subtly holding onto hope. The moment she heard Khan’s murmur, she felt something crack inside her chest.

A peaceful future. A tranquil later life.

It seemed that was a dream that would never come to Renie in her lifetime.