No(Beatrice Heroine route)

Instead of Sylphid, I adressed someone else.

“Femto? Mind accompanying me for a bit?”

Unsurprisingly, that statement earned me more blank stares.

“Sure thing, Sir”, Femto grinned at me mischievously. “I'm all game. If you are.”

“Really?”, asked Fisti.

“I guess Daddy is simply that much of a masochist”, Cassandra chuckled.

“What!”, Sylphid pouted. “You know I can be pretty brutal in bed too, Handsome! If you’re into that.”

“It's not that!”, I grumbled. “I just have to discuss something with her. Geez!”

And so, after dinner had completed, the two of us headed back to the master bedroom.

“Drink?”, Femto asked as she hovered over to the bar. “I’m not exactly a wine connoisseur, but Cass gave me some tips. If I ever open a maid cafe I know exactly what to serve!”

“You know why we’re here.”

“Geez, so pushy!” The devil chuckled and faced me again. “I be honest with you, Sir. When I made you that offer I was like, no way! There is no way he is beating Sylphid! I basically just made that up to shut you up, you know.”

...

I glared at her. “But you will honor your word, I take it?”

“Naturally, Sir! I am a devil of my word”, Femto stated with a smile. “You could have even asked me this yesterday, already.”

“I know but...with all that has happened, it sorta felt to the wayside. But now is as good a time as any.”

The reward Femto promised me for my victory over Sylphid.

The truth about Beatrice and Ceri.

“Are you sure about that?”, Femto still smiled but there was something under that smile that concerned me. “Sometimes ignorance is bliss, you know. You might regret this.”

“Regret or not”, I stared at her determined. “I need to know this, otherwise I will never be able to concentrate on what’s in front of me.”

The devil gave an uncharacteristically ponderous nod towards that. Then she slowly moved to the bed and sat herself down. “Do you remember what happened on the day your sister disappeared?”

...

“It's...blurry”, I admitted. “We were attacked by a monster. A huge, white one. Our brother just barely managed to drive it off. His right leg has been injured ever since.”

“Your brother didn't do shit”, Femto corrected me. “I mean, duh. He was eleven! And up against a Power Gorilla. “Well, he tanked one hit, I give him that. But for all accounts, you should have all died in these woods.”

“What happened?”, I asked with a blank expression.

“A Devil showed up.”

I remained silent for a long time. To be frank, this wasn’t completely unexpected. Based on context alone I already deduced as much. “...you?”

Femto smiled at me. “It was Asmo”, she stated. “She was on an errand in Helman and just so happened to take a stroll through the woods and chanced upon three children getting attacked by a monster. Crazy how things sometimes work out, right? Turns out you don’t need a Balance Breaker for miracles.”

“Asmodeus”, I recalled the devil into my mind. Recalled her figure when she was fighting against Dark Lord Ithere. I definitely did not remember encountering her back then. But everything about that event was hazy at best. “Then she is the one...”

“Let me finish” Femto interrupted me. “The power gorilla made the very stupid decision to go after Asmodeus. Well, monsters aren’t exactly know for their decision making skills aren’t they? You can imagine what happened.”

…

She continued. “Whelp, Asmo’s day was ruined. But when life gives you lemon, you make lemon juice. The kids were still in danger. Zach’s was ****, with his leg broken and you basically pissed yourself with fear. Actually, catatonic would be a better description. Hardly an ideal situation in a wood full of monsters.”

…

“So, Asmo decided to make the little girl an offer. Her brothers safety in exchange for her soul.”

My heart sank.

“A little girls soul is of course not worth very much, but since the proposed service was only to get you and your brother to safety it just barely sufficed.”

“And Ceri agreed?”

Femto nodded. “Of course.”

“I...I don’t remember any of that.”

“Already forgotten the part were you were catatonic? Anyways, Asmo held up her end of the bargain, you two were safely delivered back to your village. As for the little girl...”

I knew it.

I knew it had to be something like this. Turning around I moved towards the door but Femto appeared in front of me. “I’m not done.”

I shook my head. “Enough. I’ve heard enough.”

“Oh, no. You wanted to hear it and you will hear it.”, Femto stated with certainty. “All of it.”

“What is there to hear?”, I lashed out. “My sister is dead! You could have told me so from the start instead of stringing me along!”

“Your sister is not dead”, she replied calmly.

Hearing these words made me look her in the eyes again “What? But the price was her soul.”

She stared back. “Forgotten already? About that rare edge case that can happen?”

I froze. “You mean...Ceri…”

She nodded.

“Turned into a devil. Rank 12 of course, the lowest there is. But she was a hard worker. And she had the fortune of being summoned by a certain little witch and hey, twelve years later, she’s all the way up to Rank 4. She almost made Rank 3 actually, if a certain someone didn’t ruin her plans.”

For the first few seconds I had no idea what to say. My mind was completely occupied with not blanking out.

Even once my mouth was capable of moving again, the words failed to come out.

She smiled, almost somewhat sadly. “It’s weird to describe really. When you turn into a devil you keep all your memories, but your personality gets completely rewritten. Emotions, relationships, attachments… Perhaps calling Ceri dead isn’t wrong.”

I had so many things I wanted to say. So many things to ask. So many things I wanted to do. And yet I didn’t know were to start. Instead I started walking. I paced the room from one end to the other. Then I repeated the process. Without saying a word.

She was simply watching me.

Perhaps, because of this the first question I ultimately asked was utterly mundane and trivial. “What about Beatrice? Why does she look that way? Why does she look like...”

“It felt like a miracle”, she explained. “Here I was, a low ranking devil getting summoned by a little girl that looked exactly like my old self. It was as if I got reincarnated. But what does that make me?” She chuckled. “Beatrice isn’t her actual name, of course. I gave her that one when she parted with her old life. Oh, you figured the name bit out by now, right? I really don’t want to explain that.”

…

“I hated her“, she continued. “Here was basically a carbon copy of me. Only she wasn’t a poor Helmanian peasant but Zethanian nobility. One blessed with unfathomable magic power to boot. Have you ever felt jealously eat you up from your very inside? Multiply that by ten. That was how I felt.”

...

“I resolved myself back then that I would devour everything of her. It felt only fair, you know? This should have been my life from the start. Why did I have to suffer like this?”

“Beatrice…she...”

“Ah, don’t get me wrong”, she interrupted me. “I don’t hate Bea anymore. Even for a devil it’s hard to keep up hating someone for that long. I still wanted her soul, of course, but it stopped being personal a few years in. I even started enjoying her company.”

…

“Why did you never make contact?”

Femto stared at me with a completely neutral expression.

“Because I hate you.”

It felt like I was stabbed. I could only stare at the person that claimed to be my sister.

“You hate me”?, I finally managed to press out. It came more like a whisper. “Why?”

“Why?” She laughed. “Are you serious? You ruined my life! You **** me to abandon my humanity to save your worthless hide. Zachs may have been one thing but I can’t even count the many times I wondered why I did it.” She shook her head. “What a stupid brat I was.”

As I stood there, completely overwhelmed, my sister only chuckled. “See? Told ya, you would regret this. But seriously, what did you expect? I’m a devil, aren’t I?”