Transmigration: I Made A Deal With A Man in Yellow

"Use your Story System." I said as I watched Elfriede struggling to control her awakened powers.

She had just awakened and didn’t know what kind of abilities she had. I knew that in this time the number of human Awakeners were less compared to now, so it made sense that they weren’t taught about it in the orphanage because the caretakers didn’t know if all children would awaken.

I knew that it was frustrating just watching the memory without doing anything.

You may question why I am suddenly trying to be kind—that is because I am! I am not some kind of monster!

Watching a young kid fighting for her life against a vile creature was indeed not a fun watch, even if the grown version of that kid decapitated me twice and burnt me alive...

Yeah, I still hold a grudge. It was very painful.

While watching Elfriede, I saw that she muttered something but I couldn’t quite hear what she spoke, but as soon as she did, I felt her mana react with the ice around the room.

"Ah, she has finally figured it out."

The demon who had been smiling a while ago, stopped smiling, but before he could speak Elfriede lifted her hand and pointed her palm open towards the demon.

Then in reaction the ice that covered the groundreacted and dozens of sharp icicles formed from the ground and lifted up in the air.

At her signal, all the icicles shot towards the demon.

"Tsk."

The demon looked to his left where the rapier was and dashed towards it and grabbed it.

The icicles were already on him.

The demon raised the rapier up and cut the first icicle. Then the second came, the third and the fourth.

The demon swung up and down the rapier as he cut the projectiles down with swift movements until the last one.

Before the demon even knew, Elfriede had already closed the distance between them.

She had used the icicles as a distraction so she could catch him off guard.

What was interesting to me was that her sudden burst of speed felt a bit abnormal.

Elfriede’s sword was already slicing through the air to cut Liliane’s torso.

The demon who had been caught off guard, quickly twisted his torso to the side, avoiding the blade.

He then tried to counter attack by performing a thrust at Elfriede’s head but—

Stab.

"Huh?"

The demon muttered in confusion as he saw that his left arm was impaled by a sharp icicle which protruded on the other side of the arm.

Elfriede had been hiding an icicle behind her and only used it when the demon got distracted.

"I hope you feel a lot of pain." Elfriede said coolly.

"You hurting me means also hurting your sister." The demon snarled.

"I have no choice."

"Just because you can now use your abilities, don’t think that you can win."

The demon clicked his tongue and tried to step back to create distance between them but his movement was stopped when his legs were suddenly trapped by something.

His feet until the knees were frozen completely in ice.

"How is this—"

"I have awakened a Main Story that lets me manipulate frost and ice." Elfriede interrupted him.

"And since we’re surrounded by ice, I can control it however I wish, meaning that you’re currently in my domain, which puts you in great disadvantage."

She paused, and when she spoke next her voice sounded colder.

"Give my sister’s body back if you don’t want to be frozen alive."

The demon looked at her for a second with a blank expression before he broke into laughter.

"Hahaha, did you seriously just try to threaten me?"

The demon continued to laugh to the point that tears came out of his eyes.

Elfriede just frowned at him.

"Hah," The demon cleaned his tears with the back of his hand holding the rapier. "I haven’t laughed like this in a while."

"Listen here, if you try to freeze me to death, you’ll only be killing your sister. I can escape whenever I want, plus your sister gave me her soul already so can’t save your sister even if you kill me."

"Give her soul back!" Elfriede demanded.

"It’s the price she paid for wanting to gain strength, and I don’t want to."

"You bastard!" The ice crept up until I was covering half of his body.

The demon scoffed.

"She was doomed from the moment she accepted my offer. You cannot save her."

A hint of sorrow passed through Elfriede’s face at the demon’s words, and unfortunately, he was right. Once someone willingly sold their soul to a demon, there was no taking it back because that soul no longer belonged to them. The demon could do whatever it wanted with it—consume it, corrupt it, or simply turn the person into its slave.

It was already over for Liliane.

"If you accept my offer as well, you can still be with your sister—"

"No." Elfriede immediately interrupted him, her voice firm despite the tears in her eyes. "I’m not selling my soul."

The demon clicked Liliane’s tongue in annoyance. "Tsk. Then die."

Dark red energy immediately wrapped around Liliane’s body as the demon tried to break free from the frost restraining him. However, just as quickly as the energy appeared, it suddenly flickered and disappeared.

The demon’s expression changed.

"What the hell? What’s happening—"

His words suddenly stopped.

The menacing red in Liliane’s eyes flickered before slowly returning to their original amethyst. At the same time, the cold expression on her face disappeared, replaced by the familiar face of the girl Elfriede knew.

Then, Liliane’s soft voice came from her lips.

"Sister... it’s okay."

Elfriede’s eyes widened. "Liliane!"

"I made this choice, so now I have to pay for my sins." Liliane’s voice trembled as she struggled to speak. "I managed to take control again, but I don’t know how long I can hold him back. You have to do it now. He’s lying to you. He can’t escape that easily because he’s a weaker demon. Once he has a host, he can’t simply leave whenever he wants."

Elfriede’s expression fell as she understood what her sister was asking her to do.

"But... how can I?" Her voice cracked as fresh tears ran down her cheeks. "How can I kill you? You’re my sister. You’re my family."

Liliane slowly shook her head and gave her a small smile.

"Despite everything I said earlier... you still call me your family."

"Don’t be silly." Elfriede wiped her eyes, but more tears immediately replaced the ones she had removed. "That was just an argument between sisters. Something like that could never break our bond. And you weren’t in your right mind." Her lips trembled. "I’m sorry too for the things I said."

Liliane stared at her older sister for a moment before tears began falling from her own eyes. She bit her lower lip, desperately trying to stop herself from crying.

"Your kindness really has no bounds, Sister." Her smile trembled. "So please... just do it before I—ugh!"

Liliane suddenly dropped her rapier and grabbed her head with her hand. Her body leaned backwards as if something inside her skull was trying to tear its way out.

"Please!" she cried. "He’s fighting back for control! Do it now!"

Her voice distorted halfway through the sentence, constantly changing between her soft voice and the demon’s deep one. One of her amethyst eyes suddenly turned red again, its pupil narrowing into a vertical slit.

"Go back inside, you annoying little pest!" the demon growled through her mouth.

"No!" Liliane screamed back, clutching her head even harder. "This is my body! You’re the intruder here!"

Her other eye began flickering between red and amethyst.

Liliane looked desperately toward Elfriede.

"Please, Sister... just do it."

Elfriede’s shoulders trembled violently. For several seconds, she remained frozen, unable to bring herself to move. Then she slowly raised her sword with both hands and pointed its sharp tip toward Liliane’s heart.

The sword trembled almost as much as she did.

"Okay..." Elfriede sniffed as tears continued streaming down her face. "I’ll do it."

Liliane slowly removed her hand from her head and looked at her sister. Despite one of her eyes still glowing red, a peaceful smile appeared on her face.

"I will always love you, Liliane," Elfriede whispered.

"I love you too, Sister." Liliane’s smile grew slightly. "And please... tell the others that I love them too. Tell them that I’m sorry."

Elfriede nodded repeatedly, unable to stop herself from crying.

"I will."

She tightened both hands around the hilt of her sword.

For a moment, she couldn’t move. Her arms trembled as though her entire body was fighting against what she was about to do. The person standing in front of her wasn’t some monster or enemy she had spent years preparing herself to kill.

It was her little sister.

The same girl she had grown up with, eaten with, trained with, laughed with, and promised to protect.

Yet now, protecting her meant doing the one thing Elfriede never would’ve imagined herself doing.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment before opening them again.

Then she pushed the sword forward.

Stab.

The blade pierced Liliane’s chest and sank deep into her body until the hilt nearly touched her clothes.

Liliane’s body jerked.

"Cough!"

A mouthful of blood spilled from her lips and ran down her chin. More blood flowed from the wound in her chest, coating the blade before dripping onto the wooden floor beneath them.

At that exact moment, the demonic energy surrounding Liliane disappeared.

Completely.

The heavy pressure filling the room vanished with it, and both of Liliane’s eyes finally returned to their original amethyst colour. There was no more red, no vertical pupils, and no trace of the demon that had been controlling her.

But the light in those amethyst eyes was slowly fading.

Elfriede immediately released the sword and caught Liliane as her legs gave out. The frost that had spread throughout the room slowly began to melt as Elfriede lowered herself to the floor, carefully bringing her sister down with her.

She rested Liliane’s head on her lap.

"No... no, no..."

Elfriede’s tears wouldn’t stop.

She held Liliane’s hand tightly with one hand while the other gently caressed her pale face, brushing strands of silver hair away from her eyes.

Liliane’s breathing grew weaker with every passing second.

Yet she was smiling.

There was no fear on her face anymore.

Elfriede lowered her head, tears falling from her cheeks and landing on Liliane’s face as she gently stroked her hair.

"Rest well, my dear Liliane."

Liliane’s fingers slowly loosened around hers.

Then her hand went still.

I watched silently.

For once, I didn’t have anything sarcastic to say. There wasn’t some stupid joke sitting at the back of my mind waiting to come out. I simply stood there and watched Elfriede hold her little sister’s body against herself while crying.

Then something spoke inside my head.

[’■■■’ is deactivating its Authority.]

My eyes widened slightly.

What?

Before I could even begin thinking about what that meant, another notification appeared.

[Congratulations, you have earned a Relic.]

A relic?

Wait, what did I—

My vision suddenly turned black.

There was no warning this time. The room, Elfriede, Liliane’s body—everything disappeared at once.

When my vision finally returned, I found myself back in the real world.