chapter 04-
I am now an awesome transmigrator who can even read letters.
Since I can read, it’s time to go through Evangelin’s diary. And while I’m at it, I’ll find the summoning spell too. Maybe I can summon a spirit or a dragon and become ridiculously overpowered!
I got ready to read, but Pudding quickly climbed onto my lap. With Pudding and a neat, solemn heart, I opened the diary.
March 9, Year 370
Met Count Rohanson.
It’s been a while since I saw a diary that didn’t start on January 1. Wait… what year is it now?
“What year is it this year?”
“It’s Year 392 in the Imperial calendar.”
I asked Hena, who had become much closer to me lately. Even though her employer was being foolish, she kindly answered.
392? I checked the date again. That was more than twenty years ago. Then this wasn’t Evangelin’s diary. I picked the wrong one.
August 9, Year 370
That man asked me to marry him.
It seemed the diary belonged to Evangelin’s mother. It mentioned marrying Count Rohanson. She wasn’t the type to write long entries, and the dates skipped ahead quickly.
August 19, Year 370
Father placed me under house arrest. He says that man proposed because he is aiming for the ducal family. But Father has never even met him. He said he truly loves me. He said he doesn’t care if I have no money.
It looked like Evangelin’s mother was the third daughter of a duke’s family. Sadly, the exact family name wasn’t written. Anyway, it was the typical story: a rich duke’s daughter falls in love with a count she met by chance, marries him despite her family’s opposition, and is cut off from her family.
April 2, Year 371
I should have listened to Father. I want to go back to the ducal house.
But Count Rohanson’s goal had been money. After taking the dowry Evangelin’s mother brought, their relationship became distant. The moment I read it, I thought, Ah, this is such a cliché.
Next comes the part where the heroine returns to her estranged maternal family. The grandfather secretly loved his daughter and sees her in his granddaughter. You know that kind of story.
But… isn’t that more like a childcare novel? Evangelin is too old for that route. I’m too late for the childcare storyline. Damn it, if only I had transmigrated a few years earlier!
As time passed, the diary entries became longer. It seemed she had no one to confide in, so she poured her heart into the diary. The handwriting became stranger over time, and maybe because of that, some letters were hard to read. It almost felt like the content itself was changing.
But the important thing is the summoning spell…
[How to Summon □□]
Stand at the □
Defile the land with the martyrdom of the innocent
Draw a circle with your □-stained hands
Be moved and long for □
Make grapes ripen on thorn bushes
And figs grow on thistles
Revere and worship
Welcome the □ of □ who will descend upon the earth
Excuse me? The translation is glitched!
I knew something was wrong when the translation patch took forever. Looks like it’s incomplete. Well, at least I can see some of the words.
Let me try to understand what I can… So I have to defile the land and draw a circle with my own hands? What’s with the thorn bushes and grapes? Is it saying beans will grow where you plant beans—or something else entirely? What does that even mean?
What am I summoning? The letters are broken and the content is unnecessarily difficult. I can’t understand any of it.
This is why top tutors make so much money. If they just organized it clearly like:
Draw a circle
Summon
How nice would that be?
My head hurts. Time out. I’ll leave this alone until the translation patch updates. Paper doesn’t run away.
‘Where did it go?’
It ran away.
The paper I had left on the desk disappeared completely. The diary was still there, but only the paper was gone. I searched the entire room, but it was nowhere to be found.
“Hena, did you see a paper that was on my desk?”
“No…”
I had stayed in my room all day. When did it disappear? The only time I left was yesterday for a walk. Did someone clean while I was out and throw it away thinking it was trash?
I haven’t even finished interpreting it! I haven’t even tried summoning! This is why you can’t live lazily!
First, I need to find out who cleaned the room. Then I can ask where the paper went. I grabbed a passing servant.
“Who entered my room yesterday?”
“Y-yesterday? That would be… Donau.”
“Where is he now?”
“Well… Donau didn’t come to work today…”
Don’t tell me this is the legendary hit-and-run theft?
Thinking about it, the translation glitch only affected me. To others, it might have looked completely normal. While cleaning my room, he must have seen the amazing summoning method and stolen it.
If he thought it was trash, there’d be no reason to skip work today.
“…Did Donau do something?”
“Yes. I think he stole something from me.”
Evangelin is supposed to be a villainess, yet she gets bullied. I didn’t want to slap people or throw my status around, so I stayed quiet—but maybe I should have fired him sooner. Of all things to steal, he stole my overpowered fantasy route?
“Tell everyone that if anyone touches my belongings again, I’ll cut off their head.”
Everyone’s getting fired!
I immediately went to the butler and got Donau’s home address. I didn’t expect my first outing after transmigrating to be for such a sad reason.
Since I didn’t know the area well, Hena, who lived nearby, came with me. Pudding followed along too, probably thinking we were going for a walk.
After telling the coachman the address, he dropped us off far outside the estate. From there, Hena guided the way.
“It’s here.”
Finally! Thief, just wait. I’m getting my overpowered route back.
Forget knocking. I kicked the door open.
“…Mmph…!”
The girl twisted her body. Wasn’t she tired yet? Donau, sitting comfortably in a chair drinking tea and reading, clicked his tongue at the noise interrupting him.
Her mouth was gagged, but he could guess what she was saying. It was obvious. Please save me. I was wrong. Pitiful begging. How ridiculous—begging without even knowing what she had done wrong.
Donau looked at the girl like she was an insect and then turned his gaze away.
There were no curtains. The window had been covered hastily with wooden boards nailed in place so no one could see inside. Red light seeped through small cracks. The sun was setting.
There wasn’t much time left. Soon the red would fade, and darkness would come.
Donau looked lovingly at the paper he was reading.
It was a single sheet he had picked up at the Rohanson estate where he worked. He had found this treasure while cleaning Evangelin Rohanson’s room last night.
[How to Summon a Demon]
To ordinary people, it would look like childish nonsense. But Donau, who worked at the Rohanson estate, recognized it as real.
Evangelin Rohanson had hanged herself—and then came back to life. Who else but a demon could do that?
His stupid coworkers panicked, saying she was possessed or had become a devil. Idiots! The important question was how she had been brought back to life.
And who summoned the demon?
Only Donau had figured it out.
Evangelin’s maternal family was the Hosakwin ducal house. Count Rohanson had been receiving enormous medical funds from them, claiming Evangelin had been sickly since childhood.
Donau had once seen the long string of shocking numbers while cleaning the count’s office. He had been beaten for looking at the documents, but he still remembered clearly.
If Evangelin died, that money would disappear. So the count must have made a contract with a demon to revive his daughter!
That damned count! Pretending to be kind when he was just another greedy noble. Donau had known his true nature for a long time.
And Donau would become a far greater noble than Count Rohanson ever was.
He reread the spell:
Stand at the end.
Defile the land with the martyrdom of the innocent.
Draw a circle with your bloodied hands.
Be moved and long for salvation.
Make grapes grow on thorns and figs on thistles.
Revere and worship.
Welcome the angel of light who will descend upon the earth.
The preparations were complete.
He had kidnapped a girl who had been wandering outside. With his own blood, he had drawn the summoning circle on the floor. His arms and fingers were covered in knife cuts from drawing the large pattern.
Now he only had to wait until sunset and offer the girl’s life to summon the demon.
After memorizing the procedure several times, Donau tore the paper into pieces and swallowed it. The dry paper tasted strangely sweet, like ripe fruit.
Such special information could not be seen by just anyone. The chance to become special belonged only to him.
“Finally!”
The sun set. Donau struck a match and lit a candle.
Picking up the well-sharpened knife from the table, he began to dance to the rhythm of the girl’s desperate breathing. It was a waltz, the kind a gentleman would dance. The candlelight flickered, and his shadow moved wildly on the wall.
Dancing with his shadow as his partner, Donau imagined the future after summoning the demon—not in this shabby house, but beneath a brilliant chandelier.
