The Faustian Love Bargain (COMPLETED)

Chapter 18

Stella woke up and saw that there were a few missed calls from Nick and three messages- “What’s wrong? Do you need me to fetch you home?” “What did Brandon talk to you about?” “Are you fine?” She deleted them angrily and she wondered why she reacted this way. She knew he did not like her in any way. He had said he was probably going to marry Kaela Parker in the future. 

She was an ugly duckling, wishing to transform into a swan the day before. She was poor and insignificant. Kaela Parker was rich and beautiful. How could she have been so proud as to crave for Nick Smith’s love? She was blind and stupid. Brandon was right. She should leave Nick Smith for good. They only caused each other pain. She got up and packed the books he lent her. She was going to return them all.

She spotted the grey file and the old book that Micheal had lent her. Flipping through the file, it was all reports of various heart attack cases, reports about Bently Aswald and a name list of people last seen with the victims with their net worth next to their names. They were all extremely wealthy people. Bently Aswald had a net worth of a billion. She turned the page and there was a picture of eleven men at a meeting room at Smiths Corporation. Below it read: “From left: George Kwan, Paul Riravanja, Joseph Bishop, Henry Carolle, Anthony Smith, Colin Deslunger, Harold Grange, Simon Aswald, Fred Lee, James Parker, William Mousseur.” She wondered who these people were and found some of their surnames familiar. She only recognised Anthony Smith who was Nick’s father. She closed the file and began reading the old book.

The first chapter was exactly as what Micheal had described. It was a story about the leaders of a tribe trading their souls to the devil in exchange for worldly possessions. The second chapter was about a mystical stone. A souleater pleaded to God to help him return to his human form and God sent him a beautiful angel who had possession of a mystical stone. She took all his powers away and he became human once again. However, the legend said that other souleaters were greedy and they robbed the mystical stone and killed the angel. The angel forewarned that when she returned, she shall kill all of the evil souleaters and torment their leader. There were other chapters about the powers of souleaters, such as teleportation, invisibility, able to create fire and ice, heal people with wounds, withstand any attack and superhuman strength. Another chapter was about a human falling in love with a souleater and she was killed by the souleater who then turned into a murderous souleater, killing many others by night.

Then, she reached the chapter that she had read halfway. It was a story about the birth of twin kings, and it never happened in the history of the royal family. They both fell in love with the same human girl, who was known to stir their senses strangely. The king whom she fell in love with eventually betrayed her by marrying a princess. She went crazy and killed many of the king’s subjects before jumping off a cliff. The next chapter hypothesised that the split between the two kings was the result of the second king believing that souleaters should be granted the right to kill anyone they pleased, but the first king believed in abstinence. The girl was being made used of by the second king to weaken the first king’s power by killing his supporters. However, the girl retaliated and killed everyone under the second king before killing herself. The second king and his supporters were exiled and they disappeared in the middle of the sea. The first king forewarned everyone that they were not dead and could be back anytime to take revenge on them.

By the end of the book, Stella’s hands grew cold. Why was the story of King Fredrick and Prince Gregory in this book? Were they indeed souleaters? Did souleaters really exist in the world? If so, why was Nick Smith asking her to research on King Fredrick’s time?