Romei, suddenly the center of attention from the devils, found the situation not just embarrassing but humiliating. Her face turned burning red.

She felt more embarrassed than when she had shared her body with the devil. She wished there was a mouse hole she could hide in.

Barmas looked at Romei, who had lowered her gaze to the floor with a flushed face, snickered, and then spoke.

“You must have been quite hungry. For a great holy knight to make such strange noises in front of a devil.”

“…”

“I thought you might be hungry, so I brought something to eat. Bring it in.”

As soon as the command left his lips, a wave of evil energy flooded into the room.

They were dressed in neat maid uniforms like those worn by servants of ordinary nobles, and quickly set a meal before Romei.

On an elegant-looking plate with a concave center sat a cream soup made with steaming potatoes.

A small basket lined with soft cloth contained thick slices of bread cut into bite-sized pieces, and a glass of clear water had been brought in case she was thirsty.

Romei glanced back and forth between the delicious-looking meal laid out before her and Barmas, who had somehow positioned himself directly across from the bed, watching her.

She couldn’t understand his intentions.

It wasn’t an extravagant feast, but it was certainly too generous a treatment for a devil to offer a holy knight. He clearly had some scheme in mind.

‘Did he put something in the water? Or in the soup?’

Since none of the utensils were made of silver, there was no way to check if they contained poison.

Barmas, who had been observing Romei as she looked down at the meal with suspicious eyes, spoke up.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t put anything in it.”

“How can I believe that?”

When Romei cautiously objected, Barmas shrugged and replied.

“If the noble holy knight refuses to eat food offered by a devil, I could always force-feed you.”

He then stood up and approached the bed where Romei was sitting. As his shadow drew closer, Romei felt a crushing pressure over her entire body that rendered her immobile.

Barmas reached out to her, grabbed her chin, and turned her face toward him. Her head turned following his gesture, giving her no chance to resist.

Their gazes locked. Her blue eyes, though slightly rigid with fear, still maintained their clear light, contrasting starkly with his cruel, sinister red eyes that looked like they had been formed from all the blood flowing throughout the world.

Romei’s hands, which had been pulling the blanket to cover her body, fell limply without her realizing it.

Romei swallowed the saliva that had pooled in her mouth. She hadn’t noticed before, but he emitted a deep scent of death. It was so intense she could suffocate at any moment.

Barmas gazed at her transparent blue eyes, looking at them like the rippling surface of a lake, and spoke.

“If you don’t want your p*ssy throbbing until you pass out again, eat while I’m asking nicely.”

“…”

“I plan to keep you here. I’ll eat your soul eventually, but not now. So eat without worry, and don’t make me repeat myself.”

After whispering these words, Barmas placed a spoon in Romei’s stiff hand and returned to his seat. Romei’s eyes followed his movement. He apparently intended to watch her until she finished her meal.

Romei pondered the eerie warmth of his touch on the back of her hand, then asked:

“What do you mean by ‘keep me here’?”

“Exactly what I said. I’ll keep you locked up here, feed you, and let you sleep.”

“You’re not going to eat my soul?”

“I’ll eat your soul gradually. I tried to kill you through excessive pleasure, but since my expectations were off, I’ve modified my plan.”

Barmas answered readily, but his response didn’t resolve all of Romei’s questions.

She still couldn’t understand Barmas’s intention to keep and nurture her here, nor his statement that he would eat her soul, but gradually.

If he was going to devour her soul anyway, there was no need to provide meals. Though it sounded like a threat, there was also no reason to reassure her that the food wasn’t drugged.

As if to dispel Romei’s continuing doubts, Barmas urged her:

“If you don’t want that irritating, base noise to reach my ears again, eat now.”

“…Thank you for the meal.”

Under his stern urging, Romei forgot she was in front of a devil and habitually said a pre-meal prayer, then used the spoon he had given her to scoop up some soup and put it in her mouth.

A vivid potato flavor swirled amid the smooth cream. Suspicious, she bit into a properly sized piece of potato and chewed it.

The potato crumbled between her teeth, spreading a crisp texture. It tasted exceptionally fresh, like a newly harvested potato.

After such a long fast, even stones would taste good. Nevertheless, this was the first soup that made her appetite plummet so dramatically. But this wasn’t the situation to complain about undercooked potatoes in the soup.

Romei maintained her composure. She might not get another chance to eat if she didn’t eat now. Whether the potatoes were greenish or not, the important thing was to eat something.

With this in mind, she continued chewing and swallowing the crisp potatoes when Barmas asked:

“Does it taste bad?”

Romei, who had been looking down at her plate, raised her head to look at him. Barmas was staring intently at her face.

Romei blinked slowly, looked down at the soup once more, then raised her head again to answer.

“…It’s fine.”

She couldn’t bring herself to say otherwise, but Romei was certain she hadn’t revealed her true feelings—that the soup tasted so bad it killed her appetite.

Nevertheless, Barmas continued to stare at Romei. He rested his arm on the armrest and propped his chin with his hand. His face suggested he had much to say.

After staring at Romei silently for a long time, he eventually called Rajie, who was standing nearby, with a nod and ordered:

“Take that food away.”

“Yes, understood, Lord Barmas.”

“Ah…”

The soup she had finally gotten to eat after a long fast was coldly removed. Though it tasted bad, Romei gazed longingly at the plate as Rajie carried it away.

Having been captured by a devil, she couldn’t ask for the soup back. Just as Romei was thinking she would inevitably starve to death, Barmas said:

“I’ll give you something else instead, so eat that.”

“…Can’t I have the soup back too?”

Romei asked cautiously. After watching the soup leave, she felt desperate. Since he offered to bring different food, she thought some negotiation might be possible.

However, his response was completely different from what she expected.

“Why would you eat something that tastes bad?”

“…”

“There’s nothing more irritating than filling your stomach with something that tastes bad. Do you enjoy forcing yourself to eat unpleasant things?”

Romei was inwardly surprised by Barmas’s unexpected, piercing question.

The fact that his “something that tastes bad” referred to human souls was somewhat horrifying, but somehow he was completely certain that she found the soup unpalatable.

‘I’m sure I said it was fine, but how did he know? Can he read minds?’

While Romei was thinking this, Barmas pointed with his eyes to the bread beside her and said mockingly:

“Try that too. Now that you know I haven’t drugged the food, you can eat comfortably. Isn’t that right?”

“…”

Romei wanted to retort but held back and did as he instructed, taking a piece of bread from the basket and putting it in her mouth.

It wasn’t warm and fluffy like freshly baked bread, but it had a moist, rich buttery flavor. Compared to the potato cream soup, it tasted like heaven.

As the delicious food entered her stomach, her hunger surged dramatically. Forgetting that Barmas was watching her, Romei hurriedly devoured the bread in the basket.

However, Barmas sat quietly in his seat, observing Romei without comment.

She seemed completely unaware, but the change in her expression when eating something unpleasant versus something delicious was remarkably obvious.

While eating the soup, her face had been utterly gloomy, but with just one piece of bread in her mouth, the corners of her lips turned up slightly, and her clear, transparent eyes visibly filled with a touch of joy.

‘She can’t even lie properly like that. Well, she probably wouldn’t think of deceiving me, but considering how impudently she behaved on the bed, she might try something impertinent.’

He had restrained her hands and feet, and his subordinates were also thoroughly monitoring the woman. Being a holy knight, she wouldn’t know anyone in the demon realm, nor would she likely contract with another devil.

With nothing but her bare body and nowhere to escape to, it was perfectly suitable to keep her locked in the castle and enjoy himself until he devoured her soul.

‘I’ll get plenty of energy and obtain a special soul. Killing two birds with one stone.’

Just as Barmas was inwardly smiling with satisfaction at this thought, his eyes met directly with Romei’s.

She was staring at him with bread crumbs on the corners of her mouth. The basket was completely empty, suggesting she had already eaten all the bread that had been brought.

Through her clear blue eyes that remained uncorrupted even by pleasure, Barmas felt he knew what she wanted to say to him.