* * *
“There, it is finished. Read it over, and if you have no objections, place your thumbprint at the bottom.”
As the quill, which had been moving on its own in mid-air to write out the letters, came to a stop, the demon John spoke to the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince reached out his hand to receive the contract.
With a snap of the demon’s fingers, the completed contract fluttered through the air and landed in the Crown Prince’s palm.
As the Crown Prince’s eyes scanned the contents of the contract quickly, they stopped moving when they reached a certain section.
The demon John watched anxiously as the smile faded from the Crown Prince’s lips.
He wondered if he had demanded too high a price, but then the Crown Prince raised his head and looked at him.
“…Is Joel’s physical body absolutely necessary?”
“Well, of course it is. There must be a vessel to hold the soul for it to be revived.”
“Then does it have to be Joel’s body? For instance, replacing it with another body…”
“That is impossible. The only vessel perfectly suited to an individual soul is its original body. Even for someone like me, there are things that are impossible. Why? Is your fiancé’s appearance not to your liking?”
Immediately, the Crown Prince’s eyes flashed sharply, as if warning him to watch his tongue.
The demon grumbled internally about how picky this young brat was being, but he hurried to acknowledge his slip of the tongue and apologized.
Unaware that Joel’s corpse had disappeared, he began to persuade the Crown Prince fervently once more.
“If you’re worried about the body being decomposed, don’t be. I understand that this human named Joel hasn’t been dead for very long, and reversing a certain amount of decay is easy enough. Even if the condition is poor, as long as the bones, hair, and flesh remain, it will suffice.”
“Joel’s body… is gone now.”
As the Crown Prince spoke with difficulty, the demon John cried out in surprise.
“What? The body is gone? What on earth do you mean?”
“His Majesty the Emperor did not approve of my obsession with Joel’s remains and had them cleared away. I suspect they were burned… In such a case, what happens to our business?”
The Crown Prince asked in an anxious tone. He still held onto a thread of hope, believing the demon would suggest a way somehow, but the demon shook his head gloomily and heartlessly.
“In that case… reviving him will be difficult.”
“Damn it.”
The Crown Prince kicked the wall, unable to overcome his frustration. The demon John was equally disappointed.
He had been on the verge of grasping a massive sum of two million gold coins, but the plan he had built while listening to news from the surface for so long was about to turn into nothing.
Making a contract with a high-ranking, wealthy human like a member of the Imperial family was a rare opportunity.
Having waited for this day for nearly a month, the demon John was feeling quite agitated.
He quickly suggested letting the Crown Prince meet Joel’s soul, but the Crown Prince—who seemed ready to give up everything for his dead lover—showed a lukewarm response for some reason.
He didn’t seem particularly drawn to the offer of meeting a ghost. Just as the demon, anxious that the Crown Prince might cancel the deal, was about to add.
“Meeting a soul is simpler than reviving the dead, so the price is cheaper. Out of the goodness of my heart, I’ll take only two hundred thousand gold coins.”
“Is it possible, perhaps, to turn back time?”
The Crown Prince threw out an unexpected question.
The demon was so taken aback that he lost his words.
Turning back time was something he had never even considered.
It was not something possible with ordinary magical power.
It was an incredibly difficult task, so much so that he couldn’t guarantee it even if he poured in every drop of magic he had gathered since ancient times.
However, the more difficult the task, the greater the reward.
The thought that he might be able to obtain something more valuable than two million gold coins flashed through his mind, and the demon John could not hide his excitement.
“Hmm, hmm. Well… I’ve never tried it, but I suppose it might be possible. However, the price for that would be very steep.”
“I will pay whatever amount of money is required.”
The Crown Prince answered immediately.
If he could only meet Joel again, he was willing to hand over every asset he possessed to this creature.
He didn’t care if he had to wear rags until he died and eat only scraps of rye bread.
He expected the demon to quickly draft a new contract and present it, but the demon shook his head as if to say that wasn’t it.
“Now, my respected Crown Prince. Think about it. Isn’t turning back time truly a miracle? That simply cannot be compared to reviving one dead person. It’s a task that may or may not work even if I exhaust all my strength—do you think that can be done for just a few coins?”
“Tell me exactly what you want.”
“Hmm… If you give me your soul, I shall see what I can do.”
The demon smacked his lips as if he were facing a very delicious meal.
The Crown Prince felt a chill at the demon’s bizarre demand, but he still couldn’t let go of his attachment to the deal.
He questioned the demon again.
“What does ‘giving my soul’ mean specifically? If I give you my soul, what happens to me?”
“To put it simply, after you die, your existence will vanish forever. Every human, upon death, goes to one of three places: Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell. But if you contract with me using your soul as collateral, you will not go to any of those three places. Instead, you will disappear as nourishment for my magic. But! Being consumed by me won’t hurt at all, so there’s no need to be afraid.”
The demon spoke as if the only obstacle to choosing to give up one’s soul was the pain of being eaten.
But in the face of the fear of one’s existence vanishing forever, the pain of being eaten was nothing.
Furthermore, if there was an afterlife, it meant there was a chance to meet Joel in death.
If he gave up his soul, wouldn’t he be parting with Joel forever after he died?
When the Crown Prince asked about this, the demon John burst into a hearty laugh.
“You won’t be able to meet your fiancé after death anyway. Your noble and good soul might go to Heaven, but that soul you called your fiancé won’t be going to Heaven. Never.”
For some reason, the demon seemed certain of Joel’s future.
The Crown Prince felt suspicious and asked, “How can you be so sure?” but the demon diverted the conversation, saying, “That is none of your business. Even if you keep prying, I cannot speak further on it, so let us not waste each other’s time.”
“Anyway, if you truly loved that fiancé, wouldn’t you be willing to offer up your soul for him? In truth, you haven’t given your lover anything until now. When he was framed as a criminal, you put your own feelings first and showed him no mercy, eventually causing his death. And what about after you learned the whole truth? In the name of the ‘greater good,’ did you not ignore your fiancé’s injustice in the end? And now, while his father is dying from the pain of losing a child, you are preparing to marry someone else! I’ve heard what the people of the world say about your former fiancé. Every one of them says it’s a relief he’s dead.”
The demon’s cunning tongue poked mercilessly at the Crown Prince’s guilt.
To the Crown Prince, who buried his face in his hands in agony, the demon whispered in a seductive voice.
“So, think about it. Turning back time will be something incredible, beyond comparison to just saving your fiancé. Those cruel things you did to him… Reviving him would only allow you to apologize, but turning back time means those things you did will have never happened at all!”
The words that he could completely erase the past where he had hurt Joel came to the Crown Prince as the ultimate temptation.
He looked toward the demon, who wore a devious smile, and asked in a panting, pleading voice.
“If… if I give you my soul, how far back can you turn time? I want to take back as many of the painful memories I carved into that poor child as possible.”
“Since you speak so earnestly, I will do my best. Let’s see… I think I can turn it back about three months.”
The Crown Prince’s eyes sparkled with hope.
It was a great shame that he couldn’t go back to the very moment he first met Joel, but going back three months wasn’t bad.
Around that time was when he first had a relationship with Joel in the forest.
He was grateful just for the fact that he could properly fix that first step, which had started without respect or consideration.
Thus, the Crown Prince placed his thumbprint on the newly drafted contract the demon presented without any hesitation.
Just before the massive flow of time came to a stop, his face was filled with ecstasy.
That was the final moment of the vanished past.
* * *
Oml.