The Devil's Contract Lover - Chapter 37

“Please present your invitation.” The butler held out his hand to the group. The clearly visible stitching flaws on his glove made Yao Yuan breathe a sigh of relief; she had almost thought she had traveled to another world.

Da Ju pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket and handed it over: “Are you referring to this?”

The butler unfolded the paper: “Indeed. Welcome, Mr. Joshua.” Two male servants emerged from behind, holding Da Ju’s arms, one on each side.

“Hey, hey, what are you doing? I don’t have time to play with you!” No one heeded his struggles as he was dragged backward, his arms crossed.

Yao Yuan’s lips parted, but she said nothing: She didn’t know exactly what Starry was up to right now, and besides, those people were probably just acting and had no malicious intent.

“Wait a minute!” Da Ju howled, pointing at Xiao Yu: “She’s my bodyguard and must come with me!”

“Very well.” The butler walked forward without looking back. Xiao Yu glanced at Yao Yuan, and after receiving a nod from her, she slowly followed.

The door to the hall slammed shut.

Yao Yuan shook her head. The pain that had come with the ringing bell was gone; she felt no abnormality whatsoever.

Starry took her hand and walked towards the outer perimeter, bypassing the corridor with the smell of blood. All the curtains were tightly drawn, and most areas were lit only by candles, not electric lights.

They followed the stairs up one floor, leaving the faint sounds of laughter and revelry behind them.

“Does this place require solving puzzles to access?” Yao Yuan reached out and pushed the wooden railing on the second-floor balcony. There was a conspicuous lock on it, but she didn’t know where the key was.

【Down.】A short, abrupt sound echoed in her mind. Was it intuition again?

“How did you two get up here!” Clomp, clomp, clomp, someone wearing boots quickly approached.

A staff member dressed as a maid rushed to intercept them: “The—the banquet isn’t over yet. Please return to your room and wait, honored guests.”

This inexperienced actor managed a clumsy half-curtsy, clearly focused entirely on how to herd the two overly proactive visitors back into the group.

“Okay.” Since the voice in her mind also told her to go downstairs, Yao Yuan readily agreed.

The maid was fortunate. On the way down, they ran into the first group of visitors who had successfully passed the second room, and she hastily mixed them into the group.

A total of seven people were led directly to a reception room on the other side of the main hall. From the central aisle, they could still hear Da Ju’s voice, seemingly talking to someone.

The door clicked shut and locked, and the staff member enclosed a group of young men and women in the room.

Before anyone could do more than exchange glances, the broadcast played a static-filled background narration: “…The pleasant banquet is over, but as honored guests, you have discovered some disturbing clues. Now is the time to escape, but be careful not to alarm the vigilant servants.”

The broadcast stopped. A boy with a buzz cut immediately stepped forward: “Let’s split up and look for clues just like before. Be careful not to trigger any traps.”

The people around him nodded. With a leader, this kind of escape room was relatively easy.

“Starry, you look on the left; I’ll take the right.”

Yao Yuan didn’t stay idle either. She actively went to the far right side and began searching the bookshelf, first flipping open books to see if there were any clues.

“Ah~~~” A sharp scream startled everyone. She quickly turned around, only to see a girl in a jacket timidly collapsing towards Starry: “I’m so scared of bugs~~” That’s way too exaggerated, sis! Yao Yuan stared wide-eyed at the jacket girl’s performance. She was at least a few meters away from Starry, with another girl standing between them, so why did she lunge backward toward Starry?

The Devil remained motionless from expression to toe, only catching the back of the girl’s collar with one hand when she was about to collide with Starry’s shoulder, unceremoniously tossing her aside. The movement was even more decisive than when she usually used magic to dispose of trash.

A boy searching by the sofa quickly caught the girl: “Why did you push her!” The Devil’s lips curled slightly upward: “Do you still need your eyes?”

“You!”

“Wuwuwu…”

The people around loosely gathered, some watching the spectacle, others trying to mediate. Everyone momentarily forgot about solving the puzzle; watching a drama was more fun than solving puzzles.

Yao Yuan looked at the noisy scene opposite her and shook her head helplessly. Honestly, the Devil won’t be the one to suffer, anyway.

Pat-da. The bookshelf seemed to have shifted. Her eyes lit up: Not bad. I get to see a mechanism that usually only appears in TV dramas. She pushed hard with both shoulders. Unexpectedly, the bookshelf was very light, and its bearings were so smooth that it instantly spun her inside.

Several staff members grabbed her in a frenzy. Before Yao Yuan could react, they lifted her into a coffin and quickly closed the simple cardboard lid.

“Don’t worry, you’re playing the victim in this round,” a staff member whispered a reminder. Someone lifted the makeshift coffin, and it quickly began to move, swaying slightly.

Before long, the swaying stopped. She and the coffin made contact with the floor, and the sounds of hurried footsteps around them faded away.

[Did the staff put the coffin down to scare people?]

The coffin had a pillow and thin mat inside, which was quite comfortable. Yao Yuan simply closed her eyes… No! I can’t be this lazy. I finally came out to play.

Yao Yuan gently nudged the coffin lid. The cardboard was too thin, so to avoid damaging the prop, she could only graze it little by little.

After moving the coffin lid aside, she climbed out, holding her skirt, and looked around with interest: There were many atmospheric decorations casually placed here, suggesting a storage room, perhaps a basement.

She took a step forward and accidentally kicked a shovel, quickly steadying it. Was this shovel a tool used for the amusement park’s garden, casually stored here by the staff? Or perhaps it was meant for a staged burial scene.

As she was examining the shovel, footsteps suddenly sounded behind the door. Startled, Yao Yuan jumped back into the coffin with the shovel, closing the cardboard lid with unbelievable speed. Unfortunately, she couldn’t align it perfectly from the inside, leaving a sizable gap.

Just as she lay down, a gloomy voice sounded outside: “Alright, now it’s just the two of us.”

Yao Yuan tensed, her eyes wide. Was this voice the low-budget Robin Hood she had encountered at the beginning? Could he see through objects?! Or was she found out when she activated the mechanism…

Fortunately, another voice soon chimed in.

“What, didn’t I tell you to wait a little longer?” The voice was very alluring—though masculine, it resonated deep in one’s heart, bearing a slight resemblance to Starry’s.

Of course, Starry’s voice is still much better.

“Damn it, didn’t I already sacrifice my roommate to you! You said you couldn’t lie, but you haven’t given me anything! How many times are you going to fool me!” Low-budget Robin Hood’s voice was hoarse, filled with fear and anger.

The beautiful voice lowered: “Oh? Were the materials for the current sacrifice ritual not granted by me? Human, you are too greedy.”

“Wuwu… I only wanted to be rich and have women! That should be easy for you! And, and I need to kill a few more people…”

Lying inside the coffin, Yao Yuan was drenched in cold sweat, her right hand tightly gripping the shovel: The guy outside… is he also a human and devil combination?!

What should she do now? Waiting for Starry to arrive was certainly the safest option. But what if the devil outside recovered their strength and discovered her lying in the coffin? Would Starry even make it in time?

“It can’t be helped. It’s your own fault for expecting to pay no price.” The seemingly devilish voice was full of contempt: “Those souls can only be acquired partially through sacrificial magic; they are completely~ insufficient.”

“Then what are you going to do!” The man sounded desperate: “I’ve already killed people! I clearly caught a target… but I don’t know why it disappeared.”

“That’s why I told you to wait. Once my power is restored, I can draw a second sacrifice array.” The pleasant voice chuckled: “It’s very easy. You’ll get used to it. Just provide more souls; money and beauties are nothing to worry about.”

“It’s a deal! If I kill one more person, you’ll give me money, lots and lots of money!”

Bang! Low-budget Robin Hood punched the coffin. The cardboard instantly vibrated and flew off.

Yao Yuan’s heart intensely skipped a beat. She dared not blink. An ominous premonition screamed loudly in her ears.

【I don’t want to die here—】

The man who reflexively leaned down to cover the coffin lid peered inside, immediately mirroring the horror on the face looking back at him: “You…” Before he could yell, the shovel slammed down hard onto his twisted face!

Yao Yuan scrambled out of the coffin, swung the shovel, and delivered another blow to the back of the still-struggling Low-budget Robin Hood’s head: Are you kidding me? If I don’t completely knock him out, it becomes a two-on-one fight, and I’m not crazy enough to seek death.

Fortunately, this guy had a contract with a devil, not a fledgling vampire. The man crumpled to the ground like a noodle, motionless.

Having temporarily dealt with one nuisance, she raised her face to look at the unfamiliar devil.

The devil in front of her bore a slight resemblance to Starry, perhaps a common trait among devils: alluring, with mesmerizing eyes, tall, extremely handsome… hmm, it was clear this one was male, if devils had gender distinctions.

The male devil’s ears resembled an elf’s, and his face carried a distinct, non-human quality, a deliberately seductive look.

“Girl, let’s make a deal.” The devil placed a finger on his lips, and runes seemed to flash in his pupils: “Sacrifice the person on the ground to me, and I will grant your wish.”

A strange electric current died out in her consciousness. Yao Yuan took a deep breath, adjusted her breathing, and took a step back, maintaining a safe distance from the guy opposite her: “Could you please step away? He has committed a crime and must be handed over to the police.”

If she could, she would naturally want to arrest this instigator as well, but her fighting power was far too insufficient. Right now, she was only relying on the weapon she held to dare confront a temporarily weakened devil.

The devil raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised that Yao Yuan would refuse: “Is that so? That’s truly a pity.” While saying it was a pity, he didn’t give up and walked toward her.

“You, you stay away from me! Be careful, or I’ll hit you dead!” The coldness of the shovel pierced her palm. Yao Yuan was at her breaking point. She had never tried to fight a person, let alone a devil… She wasn’t a protagonist armed with blessed weapons. Who knew how many pieces she would be broken into? Maybe she would be shattered into smaller bits than Chicken McNuggets!

Thinking of this, saliva unconsciously moistened her tongue, carrying a hint of a metallic, bloody taste.

“Relax, girl.” One step, two steps, three steps. He stopped, then grinned: “But~ I apologize. I wouldn’t want to abandon my contractor.”

【Behind you.】Inspiration swirled into a storm, manifesting as a highly delayed scene: The devil was about to accelerate and attack from behind!

Trusting her intuition entirely, Yao Yuan spun around violently, swinging the shovel with all her might!

“Ping Dang——!!” A bone-jarring impact sound. Her wrist ached as if she had swung a sledgehammer into a giant rock.

The handsome devil fell backward with an expression of disbelief. The confidence in Yao Yuan’s heart was thoroughly ignited by the situation.

Devils are nothing special! Arrogance swelled within her: The so-called devils were merely monsters who used magic to throw their weight around. Once stripped of their special abilities, they were just creatures with slightly stronger physical capabilities—not scary at all~ “Hahahaha.” She laughed wildly and raised the shovel again: “A mere devil, die for me—” Her smile suddenly froze. The devil below her had only a very faint red mark on his face; he was barely injured. He licked his lips, and runes pulsed in his eyes.

【Oh no, this is bad.】

Just one second before thorns were about to pierce her chest, the ground beneath Yao Yuan gave way, and she fell into a cold embrace. The handsome man, realizing the severity of the situation, acted decisively, tearing through the doorway and then penetrating several walls in rapid succession.

“Ha, haha…” Yao Yuan let out two awkward laughs: “So, your magic power is restored already…”

Starry had no intention of pursuing the other devil. She leaned lightly on her lover’s shoulder: “A mere devil?” Her voice was overflowing with a deadly tenderness.