TBR CH40

The candle flames in the room flickered erratically, arranged on the cold marble floor according to the specific markings on the parchment scroll.

Edwin had always had the habit of tightly securing the doors and windows, and now, with the dark purple curtains drawn, not a single draft could enter the room.

His movements were meticulous, ensuring that the summoning circle drawn and the contract had no errors. The flickering candlelight illuminated half of his face, while the other half was engulfed in shadow.

No matter what, his gray eyes seemed as though they would never be fully lit. In this moment, they resembled an endless vortex.

The bishop knelt on the ground and lit the final candle. Then, he felt the wound from the silver dagger he had used to draw blood beginning to warm, and the silver coin in his hand, one that held his heart, now hummed as if melting.

Even so, he gripped it tightly.

The summoning circle on the ground emitted a bright red light. The blood that had almost dried up on the floor now appeared as fresh as if it had just flowed from the veins.

Then, all the candles went out.

Though night had already fallen, Edwin felt the weight of the darkness for the first time. In the dense blackness before him, he heard footsteps, faint though they were.

Something living was in the room with him.

Everything around him was eerily quiet, until Edwin was found.

It felt like his heart was suddenly gripped tight. When the demon’s fingers touched the face of the human bishop, he still felt an intense palpitation.

This was not an emotional response, but a physical sense of rejection.

The demon despised being looked at directly.

Edwin struggled to recall the content from the book, closing his gray eyes. He felt the demon’s fingers roaming across his face, forcing him to slightly tilt his head and expose his face fully.

The demon was appraising him. He tried his best to appear humble and cautious, but he heard a very faint laugh.

“The Archbishop of the Holy Church…”

It sounded like mockery, almost like the demon was speaking to itself. He heard it evaluate him:

“You have a soul destined for damnation. It yearns for the heaviest and lightest things in this world. Stop pretending to be humble. You don’t believe in the divine at all. Desire and ambition are insatiable.”

Being mentioned in terms of his rank at this moment was hardly a compliment; rather, it emphasized the absurdity of the situation.

“Since you have a request for me, then, state your wish, dear Archbishop.”

Edwin vaguely felt that something was off, as if things were slipping in an unexpected direction.

However, everything seemed to be progressing smoothly, and he could not think of anything more he had to lose.

So he said, “I have some enemies.”

Another faint laugh followed, laced with a subtle sweetness and regret. His face was ambiguously stroked.

“Probably not just that.”

“Yes,”

Edwin admitted, “For now, the situation seems manageable, but I’m not sure how bad things will get when certain things are exposed…”

Even with his eyes closed, he could feel the weight of the demon’s gaze.

Had his secrets been uncovered?

The candles in the room had gone out, leaving it pitch black. Even if he opened his eyes, he wouldn’t necessarily be able to see the demon before him.

But the bishop still subtly trembled as he blinked, silently sending a probing glance, only to meet the demon’s ruby-red eyes.

No matter what, Edwin bit his lip, not hearing a response, and continued:

“I must escape my current situation, hold onto my power, and climb to a higher position.”

“Allow me to remind you,”

The demon used a respectful tone, but there was no respect in it. Instead, it felt like mockery.

“Above the position of Cardinal, there is only the Pope. Or do you have greater ambitions?”

“…The Royal Family.”

Edwin whispered, his expression unchanged. Moving from Archbishop to Pope was already extremely difficult.

And he seemed unaware of how terrifying his words were.

He heard the demon before him laugh:

“Now I understand why you have so many enemies.”

“Alright,”

The demon’s fingers began to move lower, nearing his lips. Edwin had never been this close to anyone, and he struggled to suppress the urge to pull away, maintaining his kneeling posture and keeping his back straight.

“Making a deal with a demon comes at a price, dear Archbishop. What can you offer me?”

This was a negotiation. As Edwin realized this, every muscle in his body tensed.

However, what worried him about this question was not what he could keep, but what he could offer.

“Everything,”

The bishop finally opened his eyes, and his gray pupils looked like smoke rising from burning embers, spreading endlessly.

“What I have now, what I will have, my complete soul, you can demand it all.”

What a declaration.

Clearly, even the demon before him now had a new understanding of the words “by any means necessary.”

The demon, no—Tarksius—snapped his fingers gently.

Edwin felt his whole body burning, and even heard the sound of his blood boiling. His tightly clenched left hand involuntarily loosened, and the silver coin fell, but instead of hearing it hit the floor with a clink, it appeared in Tarksius’s palm.

Tarksius examined the coin, which bore the face of the current emperor of the empire.

The moment the demon took the coin, it symbolized his acceptance of the summoner’s terms. Their souls were now bound together by a contract.

The bishop clearly sensed the link between his soul and the demon’s. This strange sensation made him instinctively place a hand over his heart.

Edwin knew that the contract was irrevocable, unchangeable.

But unfortunately, that was only on the surface.

Putting aside Tarksius’s identity as a dark god, the contract to summon the demon Tal had long been useless to him. Even if it were still effective, Tarksius’s strength was such that with a mere flick of his fingers, he could rewrite the soul contract.

As for the demon Tal…

Edwin suddenly raised his eyes, the heat in them still burning, but now focused intensely on the demon before him.

There was something wrong. This naked premonition finally crawled up his spine, hot and sharp.

“You…”

“Caught on, huh?”

Tarksius smirked, his crimson pupils gleaming in the darkness, like the clearest wine. Edwin finally understood the confusion that had been lingering in his mind. The usually calm bishop’s pupils slightly contracted.

Tarksius spread his hands, his face showing a hint of regret, though it seemed more like a mere surface gesture, not genuine:

“It’s unfortunate, Archbishop, but I think you’ve chosen the wrong summoning target.”

Edwin had realized this at that moment.

The moment the soul link was formed, he could clearly feel the demon’s power—it was not the vast magical strength of a lord-level demon that he had hoped for, but something far weaker, far smaller.

The demon before him had disguised himself well.

This contract had come from the deepest corner of the Church’s library, fulfilling all the requirements for summoning an ancient demon. It felt like a forbidden secret.

The conversations and trials they had exchanged were all very real. Given the information on the contract, Edwin had never doubted the demon’s power.

But now he could clearly sense that the demon’s aura was almost negligible.

He was simply a low-ranking demon.

In the Church, the clergy were human, drawing strength from the God of Light through prayer, and their authority was inherently opposed to demons. While humans couldn’t face higher-level demons directly, lower-level demons causing harm in the world was within the Church’s jurisdiction.

The classification of demons was very strict, and the differences between the ranks were as vast as a chasm.

From the White Tower where the bishop resided, one could look down on the square, always shrouded in the holy aura, which had long since been the place where many low-ranking demons had perished.

It was all a lie.

And Edwin was the deceived human. His soul was now bound to a weak demon, which not only offered him no benefit but had also worsened his situation.

He couldn’t even harm the demon—he wasn’t even allowed to consider it indirectly.

Tarksius was watching Edwin’s expression with great interest. To be honest, the bishop’s performance earlier had left a deep impression on him. His ambition was like a fire that burned everything, and his soul radiated a resolute light because of that fiery temperature.

What would he think when he realized that everything he desired had become a mirage, merely a demon’s joke?

Edwin’s face had turned pale. Tarksius could clearly see the fleeting hesitation and vulnerability in his gaze—something inherent to humans. But what surprised him was that Edwin had accepted the truth so quickly.

He sounded exhausted, his pupils clouded over by a dark gray mist:

“…What do you want?”

Tarksius casually told a lie:

“Like you, Archbishop, I also have enemies I don’t want found by them.”

The young demon’s form became clearer in the bishop’s eyes, now adjusted to the darkness. Edwin lowered his eyes, his fingertips pressing into his palms, sinking deeply into the skin, leaving dark red bloodstains.

But he knew some mistakes were irreparable, and he could only accept them and reflect on them.

“There’s a condition about distance in the contract, isn’t there?”

Without needing to recall, the various details of the contract were already in Tarksius’s mind. He spoke maliciously, his voice soft:

“I’m afraid you’ll have to hide a demon inside the Church.”

This was, after all, the true goal of the dark god. The dark book urged him to stand before the Holy Son, showing himself as harmless, and to stop the so-called system. To do so, Tarksius needed an opportunity to infiltrate the Church of Light.

What was crucial was that this opportunity had to be unrelated to the Holy Son to ensure his current state and the woven lies were flawless.

However, Edwin had truly surprised him.

The bishop’s soul was the complete opposite of his quiet, composed exterior. Just looking at this “devout” man, who was so close to the highest echelons of the Church, one could easily apply all the beautiful adjectives of piety to him. And he was still young, yet he had already mastered the gifts of the God of Light that slipped through the cracks of his fingers.

Perhaps, within the current Church, only the Pope and the Grand Knight’s strength could suppress Edwin.

His soul burned relentlessly, flashing with a desperate brilliance.

Such a dazzling soul, Tarksius thought, no matter which lord-level demon he summoned, would probably never resist this kind of temptation. But unfortunately, the contract Edwin found was his.

Although Tarksius wasn’t as powerful as Tal when he hastily wrote the contract to summon himself, he had an incredible gift for disguise and survival skills. So, his contract exuded the aura of a powerful demon lord from start to finish.

The purpose he had left the contract for…

Tarksius suddenly stopped his thoughts, as continuing down that path led to things he was unwilling to touch at this moment.

He leaned closer to the silent bishop.

Now, everything was clear. The demon before him was sly and cruel, like some kind of beast, but with beautiful garnet-red eyes. These eyes were enough to beguile the human heart. Staring into them for too long, one would feel a strange sense of drunkenness.

Tarksius smiled courteously at Edwin:

“We haven’t introduced ourselves. You can call me Tal, demon Tal.”

A name that had never been heard before, belonging to no demon of a rank higher than a lord.

At this point, the bishop had already stood up, though it was unclear how he felt about summoning a low-ranking demon despite following the rites. His tone, however, had completely leveled out:

“My name is Edwin. As you can see, I am the Archbishop here.”

“You…”

At this point, Edwin finally reacted to the too-close proximity, stepping back slightly in resistance.

“What I can do is let you stay in my room. Any other place within the Church is not safe for you.”

The bishop’s arrangement seemed fine to Tarksius.

Though, Tarksius planned to take a stroll through the Church tomorrow morning.

Some things were not suited to be delved into when one was exhausted. As the star trails gradually slid to the other side of the sky, the human and demon in the room silently reached some kind of strange harmony.

Edwin lowered the heavy dark curtains of his four-poster bed, covering the shadow of the demon behind them. Although trying to pretend it didn’t exist, this was still somewhat powerless.

Tarksius, too, thoughtfully refrained from pointing out the bishop’s unusually calm breath, clearly not asleep.

Staying up all night in a state of exhaustion was probably not very pleasant. But as the cause of it, Tarksius didn’t feel guilty. He wasn’t particularly concerned. For the bishop, after all, they couldn’t harm each other, and this fact couldn’t change.

This was the first night of human and demon cohabitation.