Romei, who had been peacefully floating in the pitch-black sea of unconsciousness, suddenly felt a very clear hunger. It was a terrifying hunger, making her feel she might die if she didn’t put something in her mouth right away.

‘But I’m still so tired…’

Romei thought with her eyes still closed. Of course she was hungry, but sleep felt more urgent right now.

Thinking she would eat after getting just a little more sleep, she closed her eyes again, pushing the hunger aside. But once she became aware of it, it was impossible to ignore. Like a hole that gradually widens once punctured, her hunger grew increasingly intense.

Romei struggled internally.

‘Ah, I’m too exhausted and want to sleep more… but I’m also starving. What should I do?’

After deliberating for quite some time, Romei overcame her fatigue and laboriously lifted her eyelids. With each blink, her eyelids felt stiff like rusty hinges. She could imagine her eyes were bloodshot even without looking in a mirror.

As she repeatedly opened and closed her eyes slowly, trying to shake off the drowsiness, memories she had forgotten while sleeping heavily suddenly flooded back.

After losing consciousness in the trap, she had been dragged away by an evil being whose mere presence literally overwhelmed people. She had been stripped n*ked, violated. He had whispered vulgar words into her ear to humiliate her, and even forced her to receive his seed.

The moment all those memories of flesh-colored encounters returned, Romei’s drowsiness completely vanished, and she bolted upright. She quickly began checking her physical condition.

Except for the restraints on her wrists and ankles, her body was clean with no major wounds. Her n*pples were swollen and red, painful at the slightest touch, and her lower body felt raw. But otherwise, everything, including her soul, was perfectly intact.

This made the situation extremely suspicious to Romei.

“He couldn’t have not eaten it…”

The devil had brought her here to consume her soul. He had boldly declared to her that he would kill her through excessive pleasure and absorb her essence and soul.

Under those circumstances, it was inconceivable that he hadn’t eaten her soul. It made no sense that such an evil and fearsome devil—textbook in his malevolence—would leave her soul completely intact.

‘Is he planning to catch me off guard? To strike from behind when I let my guard down and then devour me…’

Romei thought this far before shaking her head.

He was a devil so evil that his mere presence overwhelmed people. He had no need to make a defenseless human who couldn’t use holy power let down her guard. If he wanted to kill her, he could do so at any time.

“I wish I knew what he’s planning, but I can’t figure it out…”

Romei muttered with a sigh, fidgeting with the restraints on her wrists. She was trying to find a way to remove the restraints blocking her holy power.

However, the sturdy metal restraints were smooth without even a tiny keyhole. They seemed to be magical items.

Romei sighed deeply and fell into thought. She needed to organize everything that had happened to her. Only then could she understand what the devil wanted from her and why he had kept her alive.

First, it was clear that all the disappearances in Picardin were this devil’s doing. She still didn’t know how he had set traps without leaving any traces, but he must have fed aphrodisiacs to people caught in his traps and used his familiars to separate their souls from their bodies, just like he had done to her.

‘Aron was right. He said extreme pleasure could separate a person’s soul from their body, and truly, that was…’

It was a sensation she had never experienced before.

Romei blushed slightly as she recalled the man who had roughly violated her and the devil who had toyed with her until she fell asleep.

Despite being under the influence of an aphrodisiac and discovering what pleasure was, she felt ashamed of herself for enjoying being violated by the devil and his familiar. Yet the pleasure they had given her was so intense that her feelings were complicated.

But now wasn’t the time to focus on her emotions, so she concentrated on recalling the situation after waking up from the trap and the devil’s words.

Before long, she reached one conclusion.

‘That devil found me fascinating.’

Her memories were hazy after being forced to consume the aphrodisiac through his tongue, but from their first eye contact and when he spoke those lewd words, he seemed intrigued by her mental clarity.

He found it interesting that she returned to her normal self without begging for more pleasure despite having tasted it.

‘Is that why he took me from the trap? But I definitely felt my soul separating from my body then…’

While Romei was seriously organizing the sequence of events that had happened to her, a resounding noise demanding food came from her stomach. The sound was so loud it echoed throughout the large bedroom.

Romei covered her stomach in shock. The sound was so thunderous that she felt embarrassed even though she was alone.

‘Come to think of it, I woke up because I was hungry.’

She realized she hadn’t eaten properly since falling into the trap. She needed to eat something, but she was now captive to a devil who wanted to consume her soul. It seemed unlikely that he would provide her with a proper meal.

Yet she couldn’t go out to find food in her current state of undress. She still didn’t have a single thread of clothing on her body.

‘I can’t go outside like this. But I feel like I might collapse from hunger.’

Perhaps after failing to kill her through excessive pleasure, he had switched to starvation. Either way, he could obtain her soul if she died.

‘What a terrible being. Planning to starve someone to death to consume their soul.’

She muttered inwardly and was about to lie back down on the bed when someone knocked on the door and, without waiting for a response, flung it open and entered.

Romei looked at the intruder with wary eyes and pulled the blanket to cover her body. It was a man she hadn’t seen before, who, while not as powerful as the devil, had an aura of evil swirling around him.

The man with bright turquoise hair strangely had a bandage wrapped around his forehead. Blood had seeped through the white bandage, suggesting a significant injury.

‘He looks fine everywhere else, just injured on his forehead?’

While pondering this question, the man spoke. His expression revealed no emotion, and though his voice was soft, it was extremely businesslike.

“A meal will be brought up soon according to Lord Barmas’s orders. If you want to live, stay quietly here.”

“Barmas…?”

When Romei murmured the unfamiliar name she had heard from the man’s lips, he briefly grimaced, narrowed his eyes, and warned her firmly.

“It would be wise not to casually speak the name like that in front of Lord Barmas. My master does not forgive mistakes. If you address my master that way, your head might unexpectedly roll at any moment.”

“…”

Romei blinked slowly at his explanation. His warning seemed odd to her.

She was already marked for death. She couldn’t understand why he would warn her to keep her head attached.

If she had learned one thing from his warning, though, it was the name of the devil who had brought her here.

Barmas.

Romei thought the name suited the man’s appearance well. If one were to create a being with the name Barmas, it would be like that devil.

But that was all Romei could know. While she had been a fairly good student and remembered the names of many devils, this was a completely unfamiliar name.

‘Captain Brodie might know. He’s been fighting devils for a long time.’

But for Romei, still practically a rookie, she knew nothing about a devil named Barmas. It was unfortunate.

When no response came from Romei, the man belatedly realized he hadn’t introduced himself and finally did so.

“…My name is Rajie. I’m a familiar serving Lord Barmas.”

“…”

“And I’m also one of your monitors.”

“Are there others monitoring me besides you?”

When Romei asked, Rajie calmly replied.

“Every servant in this mansion and every familiar following him will monitor you. So it would be wise not to think about escaping.”

“I see…”

Rajie’s words were quite polite, but each one was meant to intimidate her. Nevertheless, Romei wasn’t as frightened as she thought she would be. Compared to the devil called Barmas, whose mere gaze had paralyzed her, this felt almost comfortable.

Romei cautiously asked him:

“Will I not be given any clothes?”

“There were no orders to clothe you.”

“I see…”

Romei responded with disappointment.

The familiar was acting according to Barmas’s orders. It seemed she would need to speak directly with Barmas to get clothes.

‘That devil doesn’t seem likely to give me clothes easily.’

Barmas truly treated humans with contempt. She could clearly sense that from their brief conversation.

Someone who didn’t see people as people was unlikely to readily provide her with clothes. But she couldn’t continue living in this lewd and shameful nakedness.

She was thinking about looking for something to wear once the familiar left her alone when suddenly, someone flung the door open just as Rajie had done.

“Ah…”

It was Barmas.

He was immaculately dressed in a black shirt, black pants, and black shoes, seeming to have never roughly violated her.

Among all the black items he wore, only the garnet pin securing his collar and his red eyes, which matched the pin’s color, emitted an ominous light.

He had merely opened the door and entered, but his overwhelming presence made Romei involuntarily shudder.

Simultaneously, a loud noise proclaiming her hunger echoed from Romei’s stomach. This drew the attention of everyone in the room to her.