Dancing with the Devil

The Countess's Plot

The devil approached the balcony and used the railing as a foothold, leaped gracefully to the Countess's window. As he landed, a silver dagger whistled through the window pane and embedded itself in his shoulder blade. The Countess's lady-in-waiting recited a prayer and pushed the dagger deeper, but the burning sensation from the narrow wound was not enough to deter him. The maid's faith seemed weak, and her prayers lacked power. The devil paid no attention to her and stepped through the window.

Inside, the Countess sat by the window, sipping tea, with the knife-wielding maid standing before her. The devil gestured dismissively at the maid and focused on the pregnant Countess. Her Shar Pei, trembling behind a chair, gave a low, anxious whine.

"I have no other means of controlling you," the Countess said, setting down her cup and looking at him calmly. The silver ring on her wrist caught the sunlight. "Why don't you sit down and talk?"

The devil glanced at her silver bracelet and inquired, "Do you wish to live forever?"

The Countess laughed and pulled down her sleeves to cover her wrists. "I just want to live. You may remember that your original master's name was Edward Hunter, and his son's name was Ivan, and his grandson's name was Thompson. Now, my dead husband is Vladimir. But no matter what they're called, he's always been him."

The devil lowered his eyes and listened to her without a word.

"Since Edward Hunt's generation, every Countess has died in childbirth after giving birth to a son, without exception. As his old friend for so many years, you can guess what he did."

The open windows sent in a breeze, blowing the collars hanging from the walls.

"He killed each of his wives and then killed his sons when they grew up to replace them." The devil continued her words.

"That's right. Marriage is not up to me, and marrying him is a choice that cannot be changed. So I said, I just want to live as long as I can." The Countess sat up and stroked her swollen stomach.

The devil looked into her eyes and thought for a moment, then pulled the dagger from his shoulder and threw it at her round stomach. The silver blade stood straight in the center of the skirt, but there was no blood.

The countess froze.

The devil slowly drew his dagger and joyfully sliced open the hem of her lower belly, revealing the thick cotton underneath. There was also a collar hidden near the blade of the rag. He picked up the metal collar and studied it for a moment, then pulled the same bracelet from her wrist.

"You gave birth to a child without the Count's knowledge, and sent him out of town -- I think he must be a boy. Then you pretended to be still pregnant and planned to murder the Count," the devil put away his collar and bracelet and dropped his dagger, "And you didn't just want to live. You have tried to control me with alchemists' creations, to make yourself live as long as Edward."

The countess' face was pale.

"Unfortunately," said the devil, "I will not make the same mistake twice."

He went to the balcony and stood on the railing. Before he made the leap, he turned and said, "I'm sorry I didn't delay you longer, but I'll leave before your sister and the Guild's reinforcements arrive."

'How do you know she's my sister?' The countess, startled, asked through clenched teeth, providing the most probable answer, 'You have joined hands with the maid.'

The devil remained silent.

Black branches protruded from his back, transforming into massive bat wings that obscured the sun. He closed his eyes and sniffed, determining his direction, and then leaped off the balcony towards where Kalista was.

Kalista purchased a map and spent three days hiking through the Lena Valley, which borders Avaloria. In stark contrast to the prosperous and secure Avaloria, the Lena Valley was a lawless place rife with theft. Kalista ventured into the Valley because she had heard of peculiar occurrences taking place in the area.

The Lena Valley was lush with rain and vegetation, and its towns were enveloped by vast forests. According to the tales of travelers and locals, two weeks prior, there had been nearly ten days of dense fog enveloping the forests near Avaloria. On the final day before the fog dissipated, the entire forest had taken on an eerie blood-red hue.

Over the course of ten days, 13 individuals had vanished without a trace, and their fates remained shrouded in mystery.

In the prophecies that spread throughout the land, the golden knight who wielded the Sword of Time and Space emerged from the mists, and Kalista had dreams of walking through the mists. She is determined to find a way to travel back in time, and the misty forest is the most likely place to uncover clues.

Dressed as a teenager, Kalista took up residence as a merchant in a small hotel in a town within the Lena Valley. She was alone and did not dare to venture into the wild beasts of the forest alone, so these days she had been making preparations.

The chaos and loose laws of the Lena Valley have given rise to a substantial black market. During the day, the Knights patrolled, and when night fell, vendors of exotic goods, many of which were difficult to acquire through formal channels, emerged to set up their stalls.

Kalista spent days in the black market, taking advantage of the black market to open a new account, deposit the money Evelyn promised in batches, and then she secured a drugstore.

The store has a small front and a one-person entrance, but its shelves are filled with short-term memory sealing pills, love elixir, powerful obedience pills, and the vertigo powder Kalista once procured from Evelyn.

Kalista ordered large quantities of the potion from her boss, a stocky middle-aged man, but because of the complexity of the process and the rules of the black market, she had to pick them up in batches over several days. It was the day Kalista came for the vertigo powder. She paid the money quickly and leaned against the counter to chat with the boss.

"There are a lot of new faces here these days, mostly travelers like you who are planning to explore the forest." The boss packed the powder she ordered and gave her a small bottle of love elixir as an extra gift.

Kalista packed the bottles neatly into her large backpack and hid a few more bottles close to her chest. "Yeah? I must act quickly before they find the treasure first."

The boss smiled and waved his hand, "That group of people dressed in black, wandering around the town, asking about the town's secrets, and spending a lot of money."

Kalista raised her eyebrows. "They're looking into the disappearance of 13 people?"

"Yes, they think the missing case is related to the red fog of the forest, so they specially came to stay nearby." But this strange fog only appears once in hundreds of years, and God knows when we'll see it again."

Just as another customer came in, Kalista said goodbye to the boss and walked to the hotel where she was staying.

It's a rainy night. Most shops outside the black market closed early, and most candles were extinguished by the rain. Kalista was used to paying attention to candles and shadows around her, but the sound of rain and dark clouds muffled most of the sound and light, and she quickened her pace.

Since leaving Avaloria, she had occasionally felt a tingling discomfort in her back. When the count dies, and the countess has failed to make her take all the blame, she will not rest. She cut off her long hair, changed her image, and equipped herself with a large bag of protective drugs to minimize the chance that she would be killed.

Then Kalista felt that chilling look on her back again. The powder was not effective in the rainy weather, and she unconsciously put her hand on the dagger at her waist and did not look back.