(This chapter might be disturbing in explicit way. No gore or smut.)
Flipping the page of the newspaper and sipping from the cup, I placed the cup of warm milk back on the table.
"Oh, they managed to injure the vigilante? It isn't surprising to be honest. The vigilante is weak, the surprising thing is that she managed to kill that many without getting caught." I murmured to myself as I continued to flip the pages. The vigilante wasn't important enough for me to give my attention.
Rustle
Folding the newspaper and placing it on the table, I gulped down the warm milk in one go and then turned to the right.
The room was bright, directly taking the sunlight, and the interior was mostly white. A dozen of small and white beds were arranged side by side and opposite of each other. Except for one of them, all of them were currently unoccupied.
On the occupied bed was a young woman around 18, lying with her eyes closed and breathing deeply. A pure white blanket covered everything but above her neck.
Her pitch-black hair was resting on the white sheets and her already pale skin was white as paper, blending with the pure white sheets.
Occasionally, the corners of her eyes twitched along with her long eyelashes.
Yet, she didn't move. Her body stood like a statue.
"Can't you just wake up? They will chew me alive if something happens to you in the first week on my watch." I complained to the sleeping girl.
I didn't even know if she was alive or not. It was just frustrating.
She was already a devil's puppet in the first day but the higher ups wouldn't care this. The thing they would care about is just Isabella Rose, the heiress of the Rose dukedom got in this state on my watch.
'Fuck... I should have reported my suspicions when I first noticed her being strange. Now it is going to bite my ass...'.
Cursing at my past self again, I looked around.
There was no one in and around the ward. This made my job easier.
Now that I waa close to this girl without causing a serious misunderstanding, I could throughly inspect her.
Removing my glove with my teeth, I put my hand on Isabella Rose's forehead. Slowly releasing slivers of blue mana into her body, I manipulated these mana threads to get information about the state of her body.
What I have discovered wasn't good but not terrible either.
'Her mana ways are clogged and devilish mana flowing through her veins.'
Fortunately, it was just a small amount of devilish mana, most of the devilish mana was residing in her heart as bindings. If she were to alive, there was a chance to save her life.
'Even if she is not alive, I will just resurrect her with necromancy... That will at least earn me some time until I make some sound excuses.'
After confirming my suspicions, I withdrew my hand and rubbed my chin.
'As expected, she signed a contract with a devil. Such an idiot.'
Making a contract with a devil in most cases, weren't different than a no-brainer move. The devils were natural masters of bending the meaning of the words. They could also bend and twist the words of their soon-to-be contractor to gain more from the contract.
For example, if you were to say that you will give them part of your blood, they would take a part of your blood and some parts of your blood relatives, or even more.
'Though, a contract isn't all-powerful. If I learn the contents of the contract, maybe I can terminate the contract. Though to do that, I need some part of the devil. Killing it also a way but killing a devil is never easy.'
However, there was a main problem. How was I going to learn the contents of the contract between Isabella Rose and the devil?
"First, I should check the contract mark. Every devil's contract mark is different, some of them has clues about the contents of the contract while some of them even gives information about the said devil."
First, I looked at every inch of Isabella Rose's visible parts– her hands, feet, soles, even the inner parts of her ears, eyelids, mouth, and lips. Although I felt strange because I was examining an unconscious young woman, I needed to do it.
Yet, there was no trace of the mark in her easily visible parts.
Nothing to do, I looked around once more to confirm if there was anyone close before removing Isabella Rose's black shirt and moving my hand deftly across her bare chest, belly, and back. Still, there was no mark on the sight.
Touching wasn't the work of my lower body thinking instead of my brain, but it was a normal procedure.
'Should I stop?' I pondered for a moment but immediately shook my head.
I already saw her naked chest and back to find the mark, there was no need to be a coward and stop the inspection in the middle. I was just following the procedure, nothing more.
My hand moved to her pants and I calmly, without any ulterior motive, proceed to strip away her pants.
'It is a job. This is necessary. I'm not a pervert.'
I once more reminded myself that it was to sake of the job. I wasn't a pervert. Really.
I wasn't curious about a girl's naked body or anyone's bare body at all. After all, I accidently caught glimpses of the naked bodies of women while reading their memories. At least, there were a few dozens of them.
So, stripping a young woman bare, who was also unconscious, wasn't stimulating experience but conscience hurting.
With laying Isabella Rose completely bare, first I looked at her body with my eyes but still couldn't see any mark. Without any choice but to do his, my hands moved once more on her pale skin, this time on her lower waist. The Then when my hand reached to her inner thighs, I finally detected an foreign texture.
"Alchemical skin?" I muttered out and slowly rubbed her skin.
Upon closer inspection, I confirmed it that, there was an alchemical skin covering her inner thighs.
Carefully tearing through this artificial skin while my face got infinitely close to her intimate part, I revealed the devil's mark that was hidden on her inner thigh to my eyes.
"Thank goddess. For a moment there, I felt like a closet pervert." I muttered as I let out a sigh of relief.
Sadly though, the mark right in front of me was merely a mark. The devil didn't leave any clue to the mark. However, with just one look at the mark, I could tell that this devil was magic focused devil with stealth abilities.
After getting the information from the naked young woman called Isabella Rose, I quickly dressed her before someone came inside, and then I pulled the blanket to her neck.
After that, I sat on the chair and looked at the girl's face.
I felt like a shit after what I have done to an unconscious you woman but I suppressed this feeling.
'It couldn't have been helped. She shouldn't have signed a contract with a devil.' I relieved my conscience with similar thoughts.
However, I still didn't know the content of the contract. Yet, something crossed my mind.
'From what I can tell, my mind reading is directly reading from the physical body. Because I couldn't read Lars original memories, who is possessing a corpse.'
So, this was plausible.
'However, this must be different for this girl. Her heart is still beating, her lungs are working properly, and her body reacts to my touch. Even if her soul is already taken by the Death, maybe I can read her body's memories.'
While thinking this, I wore my gloves before wiling my hands on my clothes. Then I made myself comfortable in the chair and closed my eyes.
If someone were to enter inside while I was reading Isabella Rose's memories — if there was any I could read — they would think that I simply fell asleep.