Redo of a Romanceless Author’s Life Devoid of Love; Another Chance at Youth

Chapter 460.

Chapter 460. An Exciting Night with Two Girls Outside the City: The Alleged Haunted Castle. (3/10) 

Vrrrrrr. Vrrrrrr. Vrrrrrr.

“Rosa, aren’t yuh going to answer that?”

“Huh? What?”

“Isn’t that your phone vibrating? Yuh’re getting a call, aren’t yuh?”

“A… call? Oh… you’re right… I am… aren’t I?”

“What’s wrong? What are yuh just blankly staring at your phone for? Yuh’re not going to answer it?”

“Well… the thing is… Did you forget where we are right now?”

“A castle, what about it?”

“Not just a castle. Where is this castle located?”

“Down a dirt road surrounded by a bunch of trees. What about it?”

“Don’t you remember why we couldn’t call your dad earlier?”

“Ah. The reception…”

“Yeah… do you have any reception right now Dawn?”

“Hmm… no… yuh’re not saying…”

“I’ve got… none…”

“Then… who’s calling?”

“Take a look.”

Huh? She’s showing her? That wasn’t part of the plan she told me about. Had things gone wrong and a real devil was actually calling her right now?

“6… 6… 6?”

“Yeah, that’s definitely what it shows on the caller ID alright.”

“The... devil’s calling yuh!” Dawn exclaimed in shock.

“Considering how I have no signal… it definitely seems that way.”

“But why? Why doesn’t he show up? Why does he need to communicate through a phone?”

“Maybe it’s because he can’t show up in person. Maybe devils don’t have physical bodies or something and perhaps they also don’t speak in the audible range for humans to hear either. Their voices might fall within a higher frequency range or something and they require a phone to modulate and filter the signal to extract their voices so they call within the auditory range of humans.”

That was actually a plausible explanation even I could buy. I don’t know if it would fly with Dawn though.

“I don’t get it… but it sounds like yuh’re saying something really smart.”

Haha… as expected. Modulation and filtering out undesirable frequencies were concepts commonly used in electrical engineering.

Who was that explanation meant to fool here exactly? Dawn or me?

Something smelled a bit fishy here.

How did Rosa manage a phone call? Bluetooth using a second phone? That seemed pretty unlikely… since you’d need to download a very niche app in advance… but I guess it was possible if she’d planned this all out in advance. Just when did she start planning though?

Hmm… the only time I could see her preparing anything would have been while I was asleep on her lap. When she was reading stories and allegedly found out about this castle through that.

However, there was one issue in all of this. I was the one who initialized the topic of god when I asked Dawn whether she believed in him. However, right after I did so Rosa sure had been quick to hijack that conversation. She really said a lot. Almost as if she’d planned that dialogue long in advance. Meaning… if I didn’t bring up that subject, she probably would have herself. She just took advantage of the opportunity I inadvertently made for her.

This way she could lead the conversation down the path of devils to acquire Dawn’s soul. I thought it’d been a coincidence and Rosa believed it was just a good opportunity to help me with acquiring a soul. However, it felt more and more like Rosa wanted to acquire Dawn’s soul for her own unknown reasons more for herself than for me.

Why though? Why did she want Dawn’s soul?

I didn’t know.

It felt as if she was hiding her motive and various things about this entire scenario from me. I’d been moving exactly as she wanted.

This girl... I really can’t let my guard down around her at all even if I love her.

It suddenly struck me that there was a hole in the Bluetooth idea using a second phone that I came up with. Dawn had her phone, I had my own phone with me as well. And as far as I was aware, Rosa only had one phone on her.

Did that mean I was wrong?

It… could be she had a second one I wasn’t aware of… but I’d definitely never seen a second one among our belongings or her ever using one during this trip. Maybe she borrowed or stole one.

Whatever, I’ll have to ask her about it later.

While I’d been preoccupied trying to solve this mystery, the girls' conversation had reached a point where Rosa said, “I’m… going to answer it… now.”

“Mmm.” It sounded like Dawn nodded back at her seriously.

“Kkkkkkkkkkkkhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

That was the signal I’d been waiting for from her. The sound of static. So a real devil hadn’t called her after all. That meant this really was all according to her plan and she’d just opted to mess with me a bit by not telling me everything.

I turned on the two-way radio I’d been holding in my hand this entire time. Yes, what Rosa’d given me earlier was the same two-way radio with the voice changer feature I’d previously borrowed from her to communicate with Officer Johnson through a payphone.

We didn’t have reception on our phones out here, so we couldn’t just make a normal call. There was Bluetooth as an option, but I’d been under the impression that wasn’t an option since we had no reception to download a new app to begin with. Thankfully, we did have these radios with us.

I pressed the button down then spoke in a low tone into the radio, “Hello...”

“Hello...” The voice that came out the other end was staticky, scrambled, and deep. It sounded very sinister and nothing like me at all.

“You… called... for me?”

“Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkhhhhhhhhhhh.” When I released the button the static continued.

“...”

“...”

“Y-Yes… we did… Great Devil.” It took a second, but Dawn eventually answered back nervously.

Her voice didn’t play through the radio though. I only heard it through the hole the same way I’d listened to their conversation this entire time.

The plan was for Rosa to trick Dawn with her phone by holding it up in front of her chest while acting like it was on speakerphone. In reality, Rosa had her radio inside the front pocket of my hoodie that she currently had on.

It gave the illusion that the audio was coming from her phone when in fact it was coming from inside her pocket. All she had to do was stuff her hand in her pocket to turn the radio off when we were done. I’d turn mine off before she did.

I had the volume on my radio turned all the way down so Dawn wouldn’t hear the static coming from above whenever I released the button for speaking. I didn’t need to hear anything from it either way since I’d be doing all the talking.

“Why… summon me… foolish… little mortal?”

“Yuh... don’t know?”

“Heh… heh… heh… of course... I know... Tis it not... for thy mother… and father?”

I could actually hear her nervously gulp down a mouthful of saliva even from up here.

“Then… since yuh’ve come… will yuh… help me?”

“Heh… heh… heh… of course… little mortal… certainly… so long as… you agree… to the terms…”

I clapped my hands together as loudly as possible for it to echo all throughout the castle before I continued, “The contract… is on… the podium… read it... carefully… or not… it’s up... to you… whether you... agree… or not… These terms… are… final.”

“What? Where’d this come from? This… definitely wasn’t on the podium earlier… when I was looking around.”

“I am… a devil… such a thing… is but... child’s... play.”

In reality, Rosa had sneakily put it down there in advance when I was walking out of the room and Dawn was distracted by me leaving. It really looked like I’d used some sort of magic from Dawn’s perspective.

“Is it… fine if my friend read the contract too?”

“Feel… free…”

“Rosa… help...” she sounded like a frightened puppy.

“Relax. He’s not going to pull a fast one on you with me around.”

“But… he said these terms are final.”

“If they suck and he refuses to negotiate, then we just have to say no and summon another devil who’ll offer some better terms.”

“Insolent... little mortal.”

“Blah blah blah,” Rosa retorted in a nonchalant, unphased fashion.

“Rosa! Don’t upset him! What if he does something bad?”

“Let him try it and see how I kick his stupid devil ass.”

“Rosa! Stop!”

“You dare… challenge me?”

“Of course. How do we even know you’re legit and can really fulfill these terms? Do you even really know where Dawn’s mother is?”

“Of course… I do…”

“And we’re supposed to just trust you on that?”

“If you don’t… trust me… then forget… about… ever finding… Aurelia… this pitiful… little mortal’s... mother…”

“Now hold on there a second. Aurelia? Dawn, is that your mother’s name?”

“Uh… yeah… it is… for this devil to know that… he must know where she is as well.”

“Do you really know?”

“Of course… I naturally… know...”