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Chapter 2………………………………..
Rattle, rattle, rattle…
Despite the warm chamomile tea, Isu’s hand holding the teacup trembled as if she had been dropped into the Arctic. Wendy looked at her with even greater concern than before.
Ever since Radian had told her the date, she had neither washed nor eaten, spending the last two hours clutching her head and groaning. Every so often, strange words slipped out—words Wendy couldn’t understand but that still made her flinch.
“Ha… fuck…”
Like that.
“Wendy.”
“Y-Yes! Lady Radian!”
“Could you step outside for a moment? No matter what you hear, don’t let anyone come in. Please. Absolutely no one.”
A noble lady was asking instead of commanding. There was no way a mere maid could refuse.
“Y-Yes… I will.”
“Thank you.”
Wendy grabbed the doorknob to leave, but hesitated before turning back around.
“Um… Lady Radian, you’re not thinking of doing something bad, are you…?”
Radian flinched. Was she some kind of mind reader? Feeling as though her thoughts had been exposed, Isu stammered.
“W-What bad thing…?”
“Like… jumping out that window…”
Ah, that. Isu let out a small laugh and waved her hand dismissively.
“It’s not like that, so don’t worry.”
Though there was something she wished she could throw out the window.
Hiding her true thoughts behind a pleasant smile, Radian watched Wendy leave and shut the door.
Click.
The instant the door fully closed, a furious shout rang through the room.
“Beelzebuth—!”
The booming voice sounded nothing like the timid Radian everyone knew. Even the birds perched outside the window startled and flapped into the sky.
Wendy jumped in surprise and instinctively reached for the doorknob again, but then remembered Radian’s warning.
Absolutely don’t come in. Don’t. Don’t…
After agonizing for a while, Wendy finally let go. To servants, a master’s command was absolute. In the end, she retreated far from the door and waited anxiously.
Meanwhile, inside the room, the demon and Radian stood facing each other.
The demon had answered the summoning still holding the posture he’d been in while drinking tea. Perhaps because he felt guilty, he couldn’t meet Radian’s eyes directly.
“Marbas.”
“Ahem… what is it?”
Radian’s expression was far from ordinary. Her chest rose and fell sharply as she bit down hard on her lip.
Driven by a burning thirst, she gulped down the now-cold chamomile tea in one shot and glared at Marbas.
“Are you insane? Or just crazy?”
“Your language… is rather harsh.”
“Do I look like I’m in the mood to be polite? What the hell were you thinking, bringing me back here?”
To this hellish place!
Radian had every right to react this way. Here, she had met the worst death imaginable. Memories she once cherished had become a horrific nightmare in the end.
Beelzebuth awkwardly scratched the bridge of his nose and began making excuses.
“One of your funeral customs is… cremation. By the time I awakened you, your body had already disappeared… so…”
“So because our contract still had two years left, you turned back time to two years before my previous life ended? Did you seriously think I could be happy spending another two years in this house?”
“If you think positively… even a single small flower blooming by the roadside can bring happiness… Ahem. I’m sorry.”
Unable to withstand Radian’s murderous glare, the demon finally apologized.
“Send me back. If I can’t live as twenty-one-year-old Radian, then let me live as twenty-one-year-old Isu instead.”
“That… is different.”
“How is it different? Explain properly.”
Even after twenty-one years, how could she forget?
The day she had been betrayed by the one she loved and burned alive.
Thinking of that unbearable memory, Radian bit down on her lip again.
“Before, just before you burned to death, I personally extracted your soul and placed it into another body… but this time, you died naturally and your soul separated from your body on its own… reconnecting them is difficult. With my current power, I can’t send you back.”
“No, whenever I was in danger, you always came. So why not this time? What were you even doing?”
“Because I didn’t know you were going to commit suicide!”
Beelzebuth lowered his gaze to meet hers, growling in a low voice. His black eyes glimmered strangely with crimson pupils.
For a split second, Radian forgot to breathe at the sight of his face so close to hers.
Now she’ll finally shrink back a little.
Just as Beelzebuth relaxed internally—
“I told you it wasn’t suicide!”
Radian shrieked.
The sharp voice rang painfully in his ears, and Beelzebuth grimaced as he took a step back.
“Tch…”
Because Radian’s soul originally belonged to this world, when she lived as Isu, the bond between body and soul had never been particularly stable. Since childhood, Isu had faced far more life-threatening situations than other children.
And every single time, Beelzebuth had protected her.
After twenty-one years of that, Radian had unconsciously come to see him as something like a guardian angel.
And besides, the situation she was trapped in now felt unbearably unfair.
“It… wasn’t suicide…”
Radian’s green eyes became clear and shimmering like a rain-soaked forest.
Mom. Dad.
Everything Isu had treasured for twenty-one years was gone now. Even if she lived two more years, it was meaningless.
How could she possibly be happy surrounded by people who constantly belittled her, and by those who had betrayed and killed her?
Overcome with grief and resentment, tears streamed down Radian’s face.
The demon immediately grew flustered.
Back when she had been a fragile infant constantly in danger, Beelzebuth had stayed by her side almost like a nanny, twenty-four hours a day. Because of that, he was weak against Isu’s—no, Radian’s—tears.
Carefully, he reached out and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
His cold, smooth fingers brushed against her warm, soft skin, and Radian looked up at him with sorrowful eyes brimming with tears.
They stood close enough to feel each other’s breath. Radian’s lips parted slightly, as though she wanted to say something.
“You… quack demon.”
Crash.
The mood shattered instantly.
Beelzebuth dropped the tender expression from his face and returned to his usual stiff demeanor.
He stepped back and raised his middle finger and thumb together in preparation to snap.
Knowing exactly what that meant, Radian leapt to her feet.
But Beelzebuth was faster.
“Beelzebuth, where are you going?!”
“I’ll come back once you’ve calmed down.”
“Beelzebuth! This is a breach of contract, you know that?! Grounds for termination, you crazy bastard!”
Snap!
“…Wait, you seriously disappeared?”
Grinding her teeth, Radian shouted for him again.
“Beelzebuth! Beelzebuth! Beelzebuth!”
Normally, calling his name once was enough to summon him. But even after dozens of calls, Beelzebuth no longer answered.
“So annoying…”
Unable to contain her anger, Radian pounded the pillow repeatedly. But instead of calming down, she only stirred up clouds of dust and started coughing.
“Cough… Beelzebuth, you useless quack demon…”
To air out the dusty room, she unlatched the window.
Clunk.
Sunlight poured through the wide-open window and over Radian.
As if ignorant of her mood, the weather outside was bright and cloudless.
Looking up at the autumn sun high in the sky, Radian let out a long sigh.
Knock knock.
A faint knocking sound came from the door.
“Come in.”
With a creak, Wendy entered the room.
Judging by how timid she looked, she had clearly heard all the yelling.
Realizing this, Radian quickly forced a bright smile. Wendy awkwardly smiled back and asked carefully:
“Lady Radian… it’s almost lunchtime. Shall I bring your meal?”
Meal time. Now that she thought about it, she was hungry.
Her last meal had been a single cup of coffee. How unfair was that?
If she’d known this would happen, she should’ve at least gone out and eaten a full imperial feast.
No, forget that—even a single bowl of black bean noodles would’ve made her death feel less unfair.
“Yeah. I’ll eat. I just need to go downstairs, right?”
“You’re… eating downstairs?”
Wendy stared at her in shock.
Radian frowned slightly, wondering what was wrong, then dredged up memories from over twenty years ago.
“Ah.”
Back then, Radian always ate alone in her room. She thought it was more comfortable that way—for herself and for them.
It was the time when she believed that if she alone endured things, everyone else could be happy.
Not realizing that happiness had been built on nothing but sand.
Radian nodded.
“Yeah. I want to eat downstairs. Can you help me get ready a bit?”
Wendy nodded and began attending to her.
While Radian chose her clothes from the wardrobe, Wendy approached carrying a corset made with whalebone.
The moment she saw it, Radian’s face stiffened briefly before she shook her head.
“No corset. I’m never wearing one again, so just throw it away. Or sell it.”
“Pardon?!”
Startled, Wendy forgot herself and blurted out the response.
Radian truly seemed different.
For the past three months, she had locked herself in her room, eating so little she’d become gaunt enough to resemble a skeleton. Yet even then, she’d obsessed over tightening her already-thin waist, ordering the smallest junior corset made for young girls and wearing it from morning till night despite never leaving her room.
Shaken by the sudden change in Radian, Wendy finally gathered herself and helped her into her dress.
She had already washed her face earlier, so now it was time for makeup.
“Keep it simple,” Radian said.
Wendy lightly dabbed cosmetics onto Radian’s pale skin, untouched by sunlight. Her complexion was so flawless and freckle-free that only a thin layer was needed.
Snap.
The powder compact closed with a cheerful sound.
Even with only light skin makeup and red-tinted lips, without any eye makeup at all, Radian looked astonishingly beautiful.
As the makeup finished, Radian’s eyelashes fluttered and she slowly opened her eyes.
In the mirror stared a woman with fresh green eyes like a forest touched by misty rain.
Perfectly symmetrical almond-shaped eyes.
A nose neither too large nor too small, elegantly raised.
Soft lips with just the right fullness.
I really was beautiful.
Until the day she died, she had never once thought so.
But now, seeing herself again, she realized there could hardly be another face as lovely as this one.
In her previous life, right up until the moment she died, she had believed her husband didn’t love her because she wasn’t pretty enough, and had become obsessed with beautifying herself.
Recalling those bitter memories, Radian gazed quietly at her reflection.
At that moment, Wendy had just finished twisting up Radian’s hair.
Her wavy green locks were gathered into a rounded style, revealing the graceful line of her neck.
Each soft stroke of rosy blush across her delicately raised cheekbones brought more life into her face, like a rosebud slowly blooming.
Before long, the exhausted woman who had once stood before the mirror was gone.
Only the fresh, vibrant Radian in her early twenties remained.
Turning her head from side to side, Radian carefully inspected herself.
Wendy stared blankly at her handiwork.
Radian was someone worth dressing up. Wendy had served many noble families before, but she had never seen anyone this beautiful.
Though admittedly, Radian rarely gave anyone the chance to style her.
Battle preparations complete, Radian rose from her seat.
