Alright. Stay calm. Let’s think this through.

99 demons and the Demon King who turned the world upside down + a lab that had been sealed ever since they were defeated + a demon summoning circle drawn in that same lab.

All of that could only mean one thing…

‘N-no way! Adrianne was one of the 100 dark sorcerers?!’

About six years ago.

There was an incident where 99 high-ranking demons appeared on the surface along with the Demon King, as if they had made a pact.

It was the work of 100 dark sorcerers who had lost their minds in their ambition to conquer the world.

As the world fell into chaos, the royal families of each kingdom moved quickly.

They formed expeditions to subjugate the demons and declared dark sorcerers as enemies of humanity.

Huge bounties were placed on the heads of dark sorcerers, with orders to kill them on sight.

Thus began the hunt for the dark sorcerers.

‘And Adrianne was one of them.’

I covered my eyes with my hand. Everything went dark.

‘Why on earth did Adrianne summon demons? What was she lacking?!’

Was being a Duchess of the Empire not enough, so she wanted the world at her feet?

This wasn’t just serious…it was catastrophic.

Even five years later, dark sorcerers were still executed on sight.

‘I never imagined my ending would be at the guillotine….’

I’d considered the possibility that Leonhart might kill me.

But…

Standing there in a daze, I slowly narrowed my eyes.

‘No, wait, nobody knows Adrianne is a dark sorcerer. So why would I die?’

The laboratory had been sealed for five years, and no one had been able to enter.

‘Except for one person.’

Cecile.

Of course, Cecil had seen the summoning circle, but she hadn’t realized what it was.

A demon summoning circle was visible only to those capable of sensing demonic energy.

That’s why, in Cecile’s eyes, the summoning circle looked like a simple stain.

If she had been able to sense demonic energy and recognized the summoning circle, she would have reported it to the Imperial Palace or the priests already.

In the end, the strange command that hadn’t made sense pointed to one thing.

The summoning circle had remained perfectly concealed all this time.

‘And from now on, I guess it’s my job to keep it that way.’

Seriously, what kind of supporting character has more life-threatening crises than the protagonist? Readers don’t care about a side character’s storyline!

‘I bet this is where everyone would’ve dropped the novel. Assuming it had any readers to begin with.’

I silently mocked the trash author before suddenly tilting my head.

‘…Hang on. Can’t I just erase the summoning circle?’

It would be impossible for an ordinary human, but I had the spirits.

The mere mention of demons was enough to make them bristle, so surely they’d destroy the summoning circle without me even having to ask.

The spirits had their heads together, whispering among themselves.

I approached them, softening my expression.

“My adorable spirit friends. What are you all talking about?”

• Rianne, we’ll play with you later. We’re a bit busy right now.

“Busy with what?”

• The fact that this is here means there’s a Dark Mage somewhere nearby. We have to catch them. I thought they’d all been wiped out, but I guess not.

“Wa-wait a minute… So you’re saying you’ll hunt down the dark sorcerer?”

• Then should we just let them go? Of course we have to catch and crush them! Gnome, am I right?
• (Nods!)

Undine’s hair writhed like living thread-worms.

Sylph released razor-sharp strands of wind, as though she might transform at any moment.

Salamander, who had been a tiny fire lizard, grew its body to the size of a crocodile.

Gnome remained in the form of a young tree, but…

Regardless, when the spirits looked like that, it meant they were furious to the core.

Guys, there’s no need for that. I’m that dark sorcerer.

‘…If I say that, things will go south, right?’

The atmosphere was ominous.

If I told the truth, it felt like they would attack first regardless of whether I was their pactmaker or not.

I could just erase the summoning circle, so there was no need to tell them the truth.

“…Do we really need to go looking for them? Because, um… ah, that’s it! You guys hate bothersome things.”

• What is she talking about? Is being ‘bothersome’ a big deal right now?
• Not at all. We’ve been waiting all this time for the day we could flay our sworn enemy alive and scatter their flesh to the winds.

“…Wh-who is the enemy?”

• God, you’re so dense sometimes. The Dark Mages! Those bastards are the reason you died!

“Huh? No, they weren’t. I chose death myself…”

• NO!!

Gnome suddenly roared.

The lion’s roar, imbued with mana, shook the entire building.

Startled, I immediately fell silent.

It wasn’t just an outburst of emotion.

It looked more like he’d had some kind of panic attack.

“G-Gnome… what’s wrong?”

Undine looked at Gnome with concern.

• Sometimes… when Gnome is seized by terrifying memories, he becomes unstable.

“Spirits have those moments too? What are the terrifying memories?”

• The memory of your death.

“…What?”

• When a pactmaker dies, spirits experience pain that’s almost like being erased from existence. So we always prepare ourselves for that day. Humans die far too soon compared to us.
• But Gnome didn’t know any of that, because you were his first pactmaker… and then that awful thing happened.

The spirits surrounded Gnome and comforted him.

Undine patted the grass-colored crown of his head where a sprout had grown, Sylph stroked his ochre-colored cheeks, and Salamander licked his four small, stubby fingers.

I could only stare at them in silence.

• Gnome, Rianne died because the dark sorcerers summoned the demons. She didn’t leave us of her own free will.
• She simply made the only choice she could to save the world. Miss Rianne didn’t want to leave us either… did you, Miss Rianne?

“Huh? Uh, yeah, that’s right. I… I didn’t… want to.”

• See? The pactmakersays so too. Gnome, if you understand, say something.
• Dark sorcerers… I hate them.
• Yes, yes. Dark sorcerers are all fucking pieces of shit, right? You can hate them as much as you want.

The building’s trembling gradually subsided.

I’d always thought spirits didn’t dwell on the deaths of humans…But they could be hurt too.

So deeply that they’d rather deny the truth than face it..

• Rianne, you don’t have to worry. We’ll catch the dark sorcerer. We’ve already worked out the entire plan.

“A plan?”

• First, we’re going to recruit some errand boys. Humans are the best at finding other humans, after all. We’ve given a lot of thought to who we should use.
• Owen’s out. He’s way too damn nice. Even if he caught a dark sorcerer, he’d hold their hand and pray for their repentance instead of torturing them. Right, Gnome?
• (Nods)

Undine continued.

• Ruspell is out too. He’s the kind of human who would kill a dark sorcerer the moment he caught them. We’d never even get our turn..
• Do you have any idea how much thought we’ve put into our torture plans? It’d be a waste if they died first.
• So we decided to leave it to Leonhart. Doesn’t he have loads of humans hanging around him? The more people he can order around, the faster they’ll find…Pactmaker? Are you even listening?”

Nature spirits gathering to plan the torture of a human.

The shock was so overwhelming my mind went blank.

“Well… Leonhart does have a lot more followers now.”

• Great. Guys, while we’re on the subject, let’s go!

“Wh-where are you going?”

• To Lord Leonhart. We’ll be back.

“No! Did you forget? You’re not supposed to let anyone see you!”

• As long as no one sees us with you, it’ll be fine, won’t it? We’ll just tell him we found a summoning circle here. Unless he’s a complete idiot, he’ll figure out the rest himself.

And then I’d be on my way to the guillotine.

“Th-then, won’t he suspect me of being the dark sorcerer?”

• You worry too much. There’s absolutely no way you’ll be suspected.

“Why?”

• Miss Rianne, a demon summoning circle must be drawn with the dark sorcerer’s own blood. The summoning circle itself is the key to identifying the dark sorcerer. How could anyone mistake them for someone else?”

That’s even worse!

I wouldn’t even be able to deny it!

My eyes darted sideways.

Gnome was looking up at me with bright, expectant eyes, silently pleading for me to let them go.

‘…What if this only ends up hurting Gnome even more?’

But I couldn’t keep hiding the truth forever.

I rubbed a hand over my tense face.

“We don’t need to go see Leonhart. I know the dark sorcerer who drew that summoning circle.”

• Wh-what?!
• …Did you just say you know?
• Why the fuck are you only saying this now!!

“Because it’s me.”

• …Huh?

“It’s me.”

• …….

“To be precise, it’s something the owner of this body did. But since I’ve possessed them, it’s as good as if I did it. So…”

I stuck out my tongue and gave them a sheepish grin.

“Hehe, sorry, guys.”

• …S-sorry? Sorry? You think saying sorry is enough?!
• Sigh, for once, I cannot take Miss Rianne’s side.
• Fuck… guys! Get her!

The spirits pounced on me.

Undine pulled my hair, Sylph grabbed and stretched my cheeks, and Salamander slapped my calves with his tail.

Only Gnome hovered in the air, looking restless.

I stood there obediently and accepted the punishment the spirits dealt out. Honestly, far from being painful, it didn’t even sting.

No matter how angry they were, my spirits would never do anything that would actually hurt me. My allies who would never betray me.

My nose stung, and a weight deep inside my chest lifted.

Until now, I had tried with all my might, desperately, to see them only as characters in a novel.

‘I don’t think I can do that anymore.’

They were just beings like me, beings that get hurt, love, and suffer.

I was the fool for deliberately drawing a line between us and keeping my distance.

‘I’m so stubborn. My heart feels so much lighter now that I’ve given up.’

• You’re smiling? Do you not realize how serious this situation is? Do you think demons are a joke?

“I’m smiling because I like you guys so much.”

• Miss Rianne, this is not a situation that can be smoothed over with words like that!

“I know, that’s why I said I’m sorry…”

• Ugh! This is so infuriating! Why did I ever make a pact with a human like you…? Gnome! Why are you just standing there? Hit her too until you cool off!

But Gnome only stared at me with his dark eyes.

“Gnome.”

I held out my palm.

After hesitating for a moment, the little tree gently landed on it.

As I stroked the sprout on his head with my fingertip, Gnome blushed and looked down.

“Gnome… were you in a lot of pain because of me?”

• …….

“I’m really sorry. I only thought about myself… no, I won’t make excuses. I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?”

Gnome hesitated with his gaze lowered, then silently nodded. The sprout swayed gently with the movement.

“Gnome says he forgives me. What about you guys? Are you going to keep taking revenge?”

Undine huffed, her face turning bright red.

• Are you making fun of us? Adrianne is you, and you are Adrianne, so how can we take revenge!
• Sigh, a spirit’s devotion is not that shallow. Miss Rianne, just because you’ve donned the skin of a dark sorcerer doesn’t mean our hearts have changed.

“I know. I feel the same way.”

• F-Fuck… that’s so cheesy…! But I’ll never forgive the son of a bitch who summoned the Demon King! Not even if I die! And no matter how much you try to stop us, Pactmaker, we’re not letting that one go! Right, Gnome?
• (Nods!)

“Yes, yes. Do whatever you want.”

Having reconciled rather dramatically, we enjoyed a brief moment of peace.

Until Sylph suddenly widened her eyes.

• Wait a minute, shouldn’t we make sure other humans don’t find out that Miss Rianne is a dark sorcerer?
• Gasp! Right! Humans hate dark sorcerers even more than we do!

Gnome’s mood instantly turned gloomy. I hurriedly waved my hand.

“Ah, don’t worry about that. Nobody knows Adrianne is a dark sorcerer.”

• How do you know that? Have you asked every human in the world?

“Think about it. When we were struggling to find the dark sorcerers six years ago, did you ever hear Adrianne’s name even once?”

• ….Huh. Now that you mention it…

“I didn’t even hear a rumor that a noble of the Empire was suspected of being a dark sorcerer. That’s how thoroughly Adrianne kept her secret.”

Back then, one of the expedition’s plans had been to track down the ones who had summoned the demons and kill them.

It was a plan that took advantage of the fact that when a dark sorcerer died, the demon they had contracted with would be forcibly returned to the Underworld.

We staked everything on this.

Because there was absolutely no chance of winning against 100 demons.

Back then, we gathered every scrap of information we could find on anyone suspected of being a dark sorcerer. Adrianne’s name was never among them.

No one even mentioned her as a joke.

That alone was proof of just how perfectly Adrianne had hidden her secret.

“As long as the summoning circle isn’t discovered, no one will ever know. So, about that, can you get rid of it for me?”

The spirits shook their heads firmly.

• No. We can’t.

That had been the one thing I’d been counting on. The answer hit me like a bolt from the blue.

“Why?!”

• Normally, once a summoning circle is completed, it maintains itself even if left alone. But this one is different.
• I don’t know the reason, but the summoning circle is designed to absorb life force on its own. That means it’s impossible to tamper with it right now.

“…Are you sure? You’re not just trying to get revenge on me, are you?”

• There’s already a shitload of life force stored inside the summoning circle! Before you can erase it, you have to drain all that life force first. How are we supposed to do that? Have you ever seen a spirit that feeds on life force? How are we supposed to do that? Have you ever seen a spirit that sucks life force?

Maybe a dark spirit, but nature spirits can’t absorb a human’s life force.

“This place has been sealed off for five years. No one’s been inside, so how did it gather that much life force?”

• Because the entire building falls within the summoning circle’s range. You didn’t have to come all the way down here. Anything living in this building would’ve had its life force drained.
• It doesn’t absorb a large amount of life force. It just takes a bit more than what a human consumes while living.
• It’s fine as long as you don’t walk directly over the summoning circle. Well, you’d lose strength and lose weight, but humans starve themselves on purpose sometimes, right?

That explained why the laboratory and the servants’ quarters were housed in the same building, and why the servants had all been unusually thin.

Given Adrianne’s personality, there was no way she had adjusted the life force absorption to be weak for the sake of the servants.

‘If people kept dying, she’d be suspected. She made it like this on purpose to avoid that.’

A hollow laugh escaped me.

I was starting to wonder if I had possessed a human being or a demonic piece of shit.

‘Cecile came into direct contact with the summoning circle. That’s why she’d grown so weak and emaciated that she eventually collapsed.’

Another fortnight, and her life probably would’ve been in danger.

The command to endure for fifteen days, and the one mentioning that they were lucky, both meant exactly that.

“Just how incredible of a demon were they trying to summon to go to such lengths?”

• Who knows? The requirements change depending on the demon you’re summoning.
• Rianne, if you’d like, we can teach you demonic writing. Then you’ll be able to read the writing inscribed on the summoning circle.

“I don’t want to go as far as learning the demon language just to find out who the owner of the summoning circle was. Let’s just erase it as soon as the life force vanishes.”

• That much life force isn’t going to disappear overnight.

“Does it take long? Two days? Three? Please tell me I don’t have to wait more than a month.”

The water spirit let out an arrogant snort.

• A month, my foot. For that amount of life force to scatter naturally, it would take over a hundred years.
• Since the natural energy has been weakened by the summoning circle, it might take even longer.

“A hundred years is manageable… What? A hundred years?!”

• At least a hundred years. Rianne, what are you going to do now?

There were already too many things to hide and protect.

Moreover, since this was a damn childcare novel, I didn’t even know how long it would take to reach the ending; living while hiding the secret of being a dark sorcerer was far too anxiety-inducing.

‘But no one has come here for the past five years. If I just add a shield, maybe it won’t be a big deal?’

“How about putting a shield over this entire building? I think I could feel at ease with just that.”

The spirits gathered and whispered among themselves.

It seemed they needed to discuss it first, since they’d never shielded an object, let alone an entire building, before.

• Rianne, I talked it over with everyone. We think it’ll work if we split the job between us. But there can’t be any humans inside.

“I’ll take care of that. Let’s head out for now.”

• Let’s put the carpet back. Everyone, please step aside.

After finishing the cleanup of the laboratory, we left the building.

The sky was stained with the colors of the sunset.

I’d told them to send the carriage before dinner, so it should be here soon.

Just as I was straining my ears to listen for the sound of the carriage, the Salamander poked me with the tip of his tail.

• Hehehe, Pactmaker, look at the Gnome. It’s fucking hilarious.

The Gnome had some kind of feather stuck in its head.

It was a black feather about the length of a finger, and depending on the angle, it glowed with a violet sheen.

“Oh my god, I can’t… Gnome, where did you get that? Did you pick it up in the lab?”

• (Nods)
• Kyaaa! Our Gnome is sooo cute! Did it drift in while we were turning the place upside down earlier?
• It’s a really beautiful color. It suits Gnome very well.

Gnome’s cheeks flushed slightly. Undine began looking around.

• Undine, are you looking for something?
• I was wondering if there’s a crow’s nest nearby.
• Why? You think sticking a feather in your hair will make you as cute as Gnome? Give it up. Even if you stuck a hundred of them in there, it wouldn’t happen.
• ..This fire lizard really doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.

I started walking slowly down the path the carriage would take.

Even though the forest path was already growing dark, listening to the spirits chatter kept me from feeling afraid.

• No, what I’m saying is, if we put a shield over the building, we’ll have to keep replenishing it with mana. Doing that for a hundred years would be a huge pain, so isn’t there a better way?
• Thinking of a method is fine, but Undine, please don’t say things that might confuse Gnome. Humans don’t live for a hundred years.
• That might be true for ordinary humans, but not for Rianne. This great water spirit will get a dragon heart for her. With that, our Rianne could easily live for ten thousand years.

A snort escaped me.

A dragon heart, my foot. As if it were the legendary elixir of immortality.

• There she goes again with her tall tales. Do you even have the power to bring dragons back from extinction?
• Why would I bring those vicious beasts back? There’s one in the king’s treasury.

Huh? They actually exist?

Gnome, who had been sitting on my shoulder, suddenly fluttered over to look up at Undine.

A moment later, Undine’s scream echoed through the forest.

• Kyaaa! So cuuuuute!

Salamander asked, sounding completely dumbfounded.

• You’ve actually seen one? Seriously?
• I’m telling you. Was it about 600 years ago? I saw it clearly with my own eyes.
• Hmm. Did the Spirit King say he’d give it to you?
• Sylph, do you think that’s possible? You know how much the King loves his collectibles. He’s always rubbing his cheeks against them and kissing them. Disgustingly.
• Then how are you going to… Wait! Don’t tell me you’re gonna swipe it?
• I can’t have a conversation with an ignorant fire lizard anymore. You’re really dragging the average down… “swipe it”? Seriously?
• Pinch it?
• Sigh… Anyway, I’ve already got a plan. You lot just sit back and watch.

This was the world of a novel.

A world where talkative spirits, a Spirit King who kisses his collectibles, and a Duchess who is a dark sorcerer exist.

Yet it no longer felt unfamiliar.

Until I return to my original world, I,  too, am a being belonging to this place. I’ve come to accept that.

Smiling to myself, I silently hoped the Spirit King would tighten the security around his vault.

Bathed in the light of the nearly full moon, I returned to the main castle and gave the butler his orders.

“Butler, build new servants’ quarters. The current building will be used exclusively as my laboratory.”

The butler looked surprised for a moment before quickly composing himself.

“…Understood. Shall we proceed with the construction through the bidding process you mentioned before?”

“Yes. Announce that all bids must include both the blueprints and a perspective rendering, then bring me the applications as soon as they come in.”

“Yes, Master.”

“And have the servants split between the main castle and the annex until the new quarters are completed.”

“It would be inappropriate for servants to stay in the main castle where you reside, my lady. Until the new quarters are finished, wouldn’t it be better for them to remain in their current lodging?”

That won’t do. The building had to be empty before the spirits could put up the shield.

“Do I look like I’m asking for your approval?”

“…My apologies. Shall I move them starting today?”

“Tell everyone to stop what they’re doing and move their belongings first.”

“Do you have any further instructions?”

“Have it finished by tomorrow morning.”

“Understood, Master.”

That night.

The lights of House Ivrante remained lit until dawn.