Right before dying, perhaps she thought of her friends. Romei saw her companions in her dream.

Romei observed the entire scene from above, seemingly watching her life after death. She felt like a soul floating without a physical body.

Below her feet lay her corpse, sprawled at the entrance to the stream where she had planned to arrive. Her clothes had been completely stripped off.

Romei looked down at her dead form with detachment and thought:

‘I wonder if my corpse will decay.’

She hadn’t died through natural aging. Nor had she been killed by an enemy’s strike to a vital point.

Without realizing it, she had been repeatedly violated by a familiar until she lost consciousness, then had her soul devoured by a devil—surely her body wouldn’t return to dust like others’ corpses.

The thought was somewhat grotesque, but there was nothing to be done. She had already fallen into the trap and closed her eyes feeling her soul shatter. Only God and devils could reverse death.

God didn’t casually resurrect dead humans, and devils existed to devour human souls, so they wouldn’t bring back those they had killed.

While peacefully absorbed in these thoughts, her friends suddenly appeared. They must have realized she was missing and come looking for her.

“Romei! Where are you!”

“Answer if you can hear us! Romei!”

Their voices calling her name while looking around revealed anxiety and impatience. They seemed worried that something bad might have happened to her.

Nevertheless, Romei was happy to see her friends searching for her. She felt relieved that she was the only one who had died, and her friends appeared unharmed.

While Romei felt reassured, her friends searching the forest discovered her corpse and approached it. When their voices shouting her name through the forest stopped, the surroundings became instantly quiet.

They surrounded Romei’s corpse with shocked, despondent faces. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing with their own eyes.

“Romei…?”

“Get up, Romei.”

“Hey, we don’t fall for this kind of joke. So stop scaring us and get up already! Get up, Romei!”

Watching Enoch get angry at her unresponsive corpse, Romei felt a heavy pain in one corner of her heart.

If only she could approach them and comfort them, telling them not to grieve too much, but God wouldn’t allow her soul to touch the earth.

Meanwhile, Aron took off his uniform jacket and covered Romei’s body. The other friends, all with sad faces, gathered around Romei.

“Get up, Romei.”

“This wasn’t part of our plan.”

“We haven’t even found traces of the devil yet. Right? We were supposed to find it together, Romei.”

“That’s right. You said you’d be bait, you never said anything about dying.”

“Please open your eyes.”

Watching her friends deny her death with tear-filled voices, Romei unconsciously spoke:

“Don’t be too sad. I’m fine.”

“Romei, please tell me you’re just sleeping…”

“Don’t cry too much. If you catch the devil for me, that will be enough.”

But her words didn’t reach their ears. Their conversations passed by each other hopelessly.

Romei tried to embrace and comfort Aron, David, Edward, Martin, and Enoch in turn, but no matter how she reached out, not even a strand of their hair could be touched.

‘I hoped they wouldn’t be too sad, but in the end, they’re crying because of me.’

Romei thought this while taking in her friends’ grief-stricken faces with a pitiful gaze. But at the same time, she felt relief. It was comforting to know that someone was grieving her death.

The only regrettable thing was that she, Romei, had died without being able to comfort such friends.

“I really enjoyed the time I spent with you all as friends. It was fun and joyful.”

“…”

“So I hope you all… come to me slowly.”

Romei felt her soul being drawn up into the sky. The time for true death had finally arrived.

In her gradually fading consciousness, Romei closed her eyes peacefully. Then, like being pulled up from the deep sea, her consciousness rapidly rose toward the surface.

And finally, as she emerged above the water, escaping the firm pressure that had been compressing her entire body, Romei took a deep breath and opened her eyes wide. The sensation was exactly like being pulled out after nearly drowning.

Romei breathed roughly and tried to identify what was in her field of vision.

Surprisingly, she saw something like an unfamiliar yet familiar ceiling. It seemed so real, as though she wasn’t dead but alive.

‘Could it be that I didn’t die but fell into another trap?’

Romei shuddered at the sudden ominous feeling. The thought that she might have to experience that hellish pleasure again made her knees weak, unlike her usual self.

‘That can’t be. I definitely died. The feeling of my soul separating from my body was vivid. The devil must have eaten my soul.’

While Romei lay still, trying to understand her situation in confusion, an unfamiliar voice was heard.

“So you’ve finally opened your eyes.”

It was an intensely cold, low voice. Just being addressed by that voice made her body instinctively shrink from its overwhelming presence.

Romei’s heart began to beat rapidly with fear. She quietly swallowed the saliva that had collected in her mouth.

The man slowly walked toward Romei. The owner of the voice entered her field of vision.

Their eyes met.

Gazes locked.

The moment she met those blood-red eyes, Romei knew. He was not an opponent she could handle.

He was unfathomably evil and strong enough to inspire fear in anyone who saw him. He seemed like a being molded from the condensed evil of the entire world.

Romei had never seen a devil looking like the very definition of sinister in her life.

Looking at Romei’s blue eyes filled with terror and fear, he let out a faint smile and coldly caressed her cheek.

“You’re definitely in your right mind. I can tell by the way you’re looking at me.”

“…Who are you?”

It was an absurd question, but she couldn’t help asking. Especially since her opponent was a devil, and she couldn’t understand why she was here.

When Romei asked boldly despite being extremely wary of him, the corner of his mouth slightly turned up.

“You’re much more lucid than I thought. I didn’t expect to hear such a question—it’s more interesting than I anticipated. Humans who remain this mentally sound after falling into that trap are rare.”

“…”

At the devil’s words, Romei quietly closed her mouth. She had vaguely suspected it, but it seemed he was indeed the culprit behind the recent disappearances.

Moreover, now that she looked closely, the familiar with the face of a storybook prince who had violated her endlessly resembled him perfectly.

‘After setting that terrible trap, he must have used his doppelganger to extract souls…’

Yet there was still too much she didn’t understand. But what puzzled her most was how intact she remained despite his proximity. It was impossible for a devil not to devour a soul right in front of him.

Romei asked, “Did you bring me here to eat my soul?”

“That was the plan. But I was also curious. You’re the first person caught in that trap whose mind has remained so intact.”

“…”

“So I thought I’d check a few things before devouring your soul.”

After saying this, he promptly pulled back the blanket covering Romei. This revealed her n*ked body, which had been cleaned while she slept.

Shocked by her embarrassing state, Romei desperately reached for the blanket to cover herself, but it was useless. The man who had been caressing her cheek grabbed her chin, preventing her movement.

With her chin held by him, Romei lowered her eyes, avoiding his gaze, her face reddened with shame. Her breath trembled faintly between her lips.

“Why are you trembling so much? You didn’t care when you were having a good time with the familiar I created, but now you’re suddenly embarrassed about being n*ked?”

“…”

At his insulting words, Romei bit her lip. She recalled how she had felt pleasure while being violated by his familiar, not knowing what it was.

That was far more shameful than showing her n*ked body to a devil.

While Romei trembled her eyelashes pitifully, enduring the shame, the devil calmly took in her appearance and spoke, raising one corner of his mouth in a crooked smile.

“Well, there’s no need to be so frightened. I don’t know what man you mixed bodies with in your hallucination, but you’d feel much better doing it with me instead. A familiar only does what it’s told, but I do things without being told.”

“…”

“You’ll experience pleasure on a completely different level than what you felt in your dream. How about it, doesn’t that tempt you a little?”

Romei wasn’t tempted at all by what he was saying. While she had felt desire during the trap due to the effects of the hallucinogen and aphrodisiac, the current Romei was her usual self.

Therefore, she didn’t feel s*xual desire like in the dream, nor did she crave pleasure.

She was simply afraid of the excessively evil devil before her, and ashamed of herself for having relations with a man in what she thought was just a dream, unaware she had fallen into the devil’s trap.

When no answer came from Romei despite his waiting, the devil, seemingly deciding that physical communication would be faster than words, reached out to her and kneaded her br*ast.

At that moment, a familiar pleasure spread throughout Romei’s body. A sensual moan escaped between her lips.

“Hnngh…!”

“Does it feel good when I touch your br*asts?”

“Mmm, ah…”

“It seems you like it.”

The devil said this while fondling her br*asts and flicking her n*pples. Although Romei only moaned without answering, he interpreted it as he pleased.

Romei wanted to say that she shouldn’t be feeling anything from the devil’s touch, but regardless of her will, her body was diligently heating up with pleasure.

Around the time her breathing became not just warm but hot, the devil, who had been carefully observing Romei’s appearance as she became entranced and soaked in pleasure, spoke to her as if doing her a favor:

“Hmm. This alone seems insufficient… Of course, there’s a limit to how much pleasure br*asts can provide. Shall I make you feel even better?”

“Aah! Mmm…!”

The devil moved his hand from her br*asts downward, delving between her legs. At his touch on her intimate area, Romei unconsciously spread her legs.

The devil, with the behavior of someone who had been waiting for this, inserted his finger into her opening.