The Devil's Contract Lover - Chapter 67

“Guest, please.”

“Could you draw for me? I’m really unlucky with my own hand…” Outside the street corner shop, the guest wearing a white sunhat looked troubled.

“I can’t, fate must be held in your own hands.” The fortune teller’s hood obscured most of her face, but her dark, glossy long hair and a stretch of her fair wrist visible outside her sleeve showed she was still young.

“…” The guest paused, then picked up her bag: “I’m sorry, then I won’t have a reading today. Do I need to pay now?”

“No need. It’s truly good that you’ve made up your mind.”

The guest held her sunhat, nodding slightly as if in salute, and disappeared at the end of the road.

The fortune teller watched her go, then moved her fingers: “I was still very curious after all!” She quickly drew a card from the deck, pulling out the Reversed Lovers.

“Hmm, I hope the decision she makes is the relatively better one.” Taking off her hood, Yao Yuan stretched: “Xing Kong, that’s enough for today. The fortune teller career experience is over!”

A perfect human figure emerged from the shadow. Xing Kong expertly packed away all the tools. With a snap of her fingers, the entire shop vanished without a trace.

Yao Yuan hugged the demon lazily: “I did a good job, right?” The clothes she was wearing switched to a different dress upon contact.

“Not bad.” Xing Kong placed one hand on her head, while the other marked off a grid about a third of the way down a scroll.

This was the method they devised to proceed concurrently with waiting for the age of magic to descend.

By incrementally adding to her experience and the traces of her existence, the percentage of her lost past would become smaller and smaller. As they wandered the world, memories would gradually enrich her very soul.

Initially, Yao Yuan wanted to ask Xing Kong if this cumbersome method seemed more time-consuming than just waiting, but as their journey unfolded, she buried the question in a place in her heart where it wouldn’t be brought up.

“Last week’s waiter only lasted a day, but the week before’s street singer was quite interesting.” They walked hand-in-hand down the street: “Xing Kong, you sing really well! How about we try that again?”

“Next time you sing, and I’ll play the instrument.”

“Then never mind, hahaha.”

They needed no navigation and had no specific destination, because they could go anywhere.

“What should we try next? I forgot what I wrote down before.” Yao Yuan looked at the paper in Xing Kong’s hand.

“You wrote ‘esports player’, but you added a note afterward: [My hands are too slow, forget it]. Do we need to use magic?” Xing Kong continued walking forward.

“No, that would only give others a bad, cheating-like experience! What’s the next one?”

“You wanted to run a cat café for a few days, take lots of cute cat photos and videos, and upload them to the internet for likes.”

“That’s a good one. Let’s use magic to conjure the cats. We’re both beginners, no need to bother those little darlings.” Yao Yuan smiled and stretched lazily.

As she took the next step, the ground suddenly vanished beneath her. Xing Kong reacted quickly, spreading her wings and catching Yao Yuan in her arms. The ascending momentum was halted by a chain, the other end of which was held by a silver-haired demon.

“The two of you seem very happy these days? Unfortunately, Her Highness’s mission requires your serious completion.” Barbatos released her grip, and the silver chain turned into dust.

“What does the Demon King’s command have to do with me?” Xing Kong curtly refused.

“Don’t forget that your master has a contract with Her Highness. Do you hope Her Highness enforces the contract forcefully? Oh, wait.” Barbatos adjusted her glasses: “I should say, do you hope Her Highness terminates the contract?”

The atmosphere began to chill until the Demon King’s crisp voice rang out.

“Barbatos, help me hold the donuts.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The silver-haired demon looked at the Demon King with infinite affection. She took the paper bag from the shopkeeper on the street, pulled out a donut, broke it into small pieces, and fed it to the Demon King.

The two of them had an unusually powerful presence, yet no one around them looked their way. Magic was truly useful; even the shopkeeper was calmly going about their business.

“Delicious. The chocolate in the human realm is truly different.”

The chocolate on the Demon King’s lips was carefully wiped away by Barbatos. Yao Yuan got goosebumps from the display of affection.

“Your Highness the Demon King, what is your command?”

“Right, I said I needed you to deliver a package before, but you need to help farm first.”

Wait, why would delivering a package and farming be linked? Even if they could be forcibly connected, I can’t imagine why Her Highness the Demon King would assign such a task.

Is it to first dig a grave in the field, and then go to the hero and deliver a package of death? So, should I listen obediently now or immediately switch sides and sacrifice myself when I see the hero?

“Stop spacing out, what are you thinking?” The Demon King interrupted her wandering thoughts, amused: “You’re very familiar with the recipient of the package. Her name is…”

[Qiao Shanshan]

When she was seated on the sofa in the Demon King’s castle again, Yao Yuan was completely stunned. Shanshan, Qiao Shanshan—that name had once been erased, but now it gently drifted back, spinning in her heart like a leaf blown by the wind.

“Don’t be too sad. This is just one of countless worldlines where a Shanshan exists.” The Demon King continued eating her donut: “For a true god, as long as there is one worldline where they are not dead, they are eternally immortal.”

Hearing the news that Shanshan was still alive slightly lessened the sadness in Yao Yuan’s heart: “I have to deliver a package to Shanshan in another world?”

“That’s right! Have a strawberry one, um. Anyway, we—the demon you know—have the ability to travel between worlds.” After wiping her fingers clean, Her Highness the Demon King tapped the void, and a door of light appeared in the air.

The door of light was sealed by a golden and purple spiral entanglement. The Demon King carved a mark with her finger and finally branded it with her own emblem before the door opened inward.

A thick book slowly floated into the Demon King’s hand amidst the surging magic. The densely sealed magical arrays on the surface were undone one by one, flying out like magical arrows, finally revealing the true face of the cover: a purple background with a girl lowering her gaze. The image was pieced together by silver silhouettes, outlining wings and hands clasped at the fingertips.

“This book took me a lot of effort! It’s still incomplete, after all, it’s just a replica.” Her Highness the Demon King rubbed her wrist: “No more nonsense. The delivery step is very simple. You just need to eliminate a certain succubus in that worldline and prevent her from delivering a fake, tampered book.”

“I see. So Shanshan died initially because she received a fake book?”

“No, every world is different. In some worlds, she received a tampered true book… Thankfully, there was a worldline where she received the true book, or I wouldn’t have had the chance to rescue her.”

“This book looks a lot like a fairy tale.” Yao Yuan looked at the exquisite cover and thought of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales.

“Hehe, the genuine article is the Book of Genesis.”

“Wow?!” She quickly withdrew her hand, which had wanted to touch the book. Is that an entire world?

“Don’t feel too much pressure. The one we have is a copy, used to connect to the true book.” The Demon King comforted her: “The most important thing is actually to help the Shanshan in that worldline defeat the succubus.”

“I completely understand. And the farming mission refers to?”

“Hehehe, you’ll know once you get inside!” The Demon King flipped open the book on the table: “Don’t worry, once you’ve made the delivery, this King will give you a super amazing return gift.”

Darkness. Absolute darkness enveloped Yao Yuan.

She opened her eyes amid a faint caress and screamed out “Wah!” Stars surrounded her. Is this a vacuum state? Her scream certainly didn’t travel, which further confirmed it.

“Don’t worry, this is just a normal phenomenon when the world is first created.” Xing Kong’s voice sounded, immediately calming her heart rate.

“Hahaha, so it’s the beginning of the world… Wait?!” Yao Yuan frantically complained in her mind, unable to speak out loud.

[How many billions of years do we have to squat here??]

[It’s okay, Her Highness the Demon King is accelerating the process. After all, the Book of Genesis is in her hands.]

Soon, the surrounding scenery made Yao Yuan put aside her fear of being trapped in the void for billions of years: she and Xing Kong, as guests from another world, seemed to be exceptions; only the surrounding nebula was accelerating.

Quickly, a planet—which, when viewed from above, showed a special marker like a layer of magic net—was born into their view. After the adorable little ball appeared, the magical torrent instantly stabilized. It seemed the acceleration had stopped.

A strange feeling arose in Yao Yuan’s heart. Does this count as experiencing the birth of life? It felt like some mysterious change was affecting her soul.

The shadow carried her slowly down, finally landing on the newborn planet. The whole world was stained with a beautiful purple hue, and plant-like fuzz swayed in the dense wind element.

If the Demon King’s previous statement was correct, this should be a world close to the World Tree’s leaves? At least a world progressing toward being one of the leaves.

“Xing Kong, do we count as the first humans!” She excitedly spread her arms and spun on the nascent planet.

“You do.” The demon pulled out the earlier paper, checked it carefully, and added a line: [Experience the beginning of the world] then checked and crossed it out.

“This is great. And what do we need to do next?”

[You don’t need to do anything. Your arrival here is equivalent to sowing the seeds~] The sky was filled with golden characters, clearly indicating the Demon King outside was causing this.

“When you enter a world, you bring a lot of initial elements with you.” Xing Kong casually picked up a strand of hair from Yao Yuan’s shoulder and dropped it into the primitive pool.

[Exactly. This way, we can ensure that the life derived in the future won’t run into any unforeseen problems.]

The sight of the huge characters floating across the sky was a little terrifying, but she got used to it after a while.

[However, this book will soon slip out of our control, after all, it’s a copy of the Book of Genesis. If you don’t come out by then, you’ll have to witness billions of years of evolutionary history.]

“Then should we come out now?” Yao Yuan shouted up at the sky.

[Do you want to try creating life with Xing Kong? I won’t peek.]

This time the characters changed very quickly: [Hurry! I’ll send you back in 12 hours~] All the gold in the sky was instantly cleared, leaving only pure white, thick clouds.

“…”

“We can try.”

“Eh, eh, can we actually?! But, but there’s no room here… although there’s no one else either…” Yao Yuan looked at Xing Kong in surprise. I didn’t expect this from you, Xing Kong?

“Yes, creating a special life form.” The demon seemed interested: “This primal state is very suitable.”

“Xing Kong, how were you born?” Yao Yuan eagerly tugged at her sleeve.

“…”

After a long period of silence, Xing Kong condensed a block of magic power and casually tossed it into a nearby purple pond: “All demons are born in Hell. You can think of the abyss energy as a seed.”

“I understand. And then Lady Barbatos put the magic power into the seed, right? Do you think Her Highness the Demon King—ooh, chi, chi, chi!”

And just like that, on the primitive planet, the scream of the first human was carried away by the demon.