Basileon’s heart began to pound at the sound of the stranger’s voice.
‘Could it be a human?’
Unable to speak, Basileon squinted and looked around. But in the thick darkness, he couldn’t make out any shapes. Normally, he could see clearly even in the dark, but not today.
“….”
Basileon wanted to shout, “Who’s there?” but the gag made it impossible. Even though he couldn’t see anything, he had a strong sense that someone was watching him.
The oppressive presence in the darkness pressed down on him. For a moment, Basileon thought this might all be a nightmare, but he quickly dismissed the thought. It was far too different from the nightmares he experienced every night.
‘….’
The idea that a survivor had kidnapped him while he was asleep and moved him was utterly absurd.
‘They couldn’t have touched me.’
Because of the curse, no one could touch him while he was asleep during the day. Of course, it was night now, but trapped in the windowless chamber, Basileon couldn’t tell whether it was day or night.
‘Human, me.’
The evil god had never appeared before him in human form.
‘How on earth…;
Basileon could not make sense of the situation. He was certain that the person in the chamber had to be a survivor. Then.
“Hehe.”
A chilling laugh echoed from the darkness.
“Pfft. You want to know who I am?”
“….!”
Basileon tensed with intense agitation, glaring fiercely into the unseen darkness. The chains binding his body rattled violently with his rage.
‘How dare you…’
The reason for his anger was that the human in the darkness was imitating Evien’s tone of voice.
“Basileon! Are you curious why you’re here?”
A strange and unsettling voice, impossible to even determine its gender. Enraged, Basileon glared into the void with eyes blazing like a beast.
“Basileon… when you look at me so frighteningly like that, my heart aches and trembles.
It feels as if I might die.”
“….!”
Basileon realized that those words were exactly the same as what Evien had said last time.
* * *
It was clearly night, and Basileon had disappeared somewhere.
[Map]
! Basileon Ravenwood 〈3rd Floor, Duke’s Bedroom〉
‘According to the map, I’m definitely supposed to be in the room…?’
First, I searched Basileon’s bedroom thoroughly.
“Basileon. Basileon!”
He checked under the bed, searched inside the large wardrobe, and even looked behind the curtains.
“You’re saying you want to play hide-and-seek with me? But you’re hiding too well—I have no idea where you are!”
The room was so large that there were countless places to search. Yet, Basileon was nowhere to be found.
‘Could it be… because of that piano cover incident last time, he’s trying to stay away from me now…?’
Suddenly, that thought made me feel down. I thought he would keep coming to see me every day.
‘He definitely liked it at first, but later he must have felt disappointed.’
I sat gloomily under the bed, but I didn’t sense any presence at all.
“Stop, come out now… Basileon.”
By now, I began to wonder if something had actually happened.
‘He couldn’t have suddenly broken free from the brainwashing. Does it make any sense for him to disappear during the night, when he’s supposed to be active as a killer?’
[Map]
! Basileon Ravenwood 〈3rd Floor, Duke of Ravenwood’s Bedroom〉
I widened my eyes and stared intently at the map.
‘Could it be… this map gave me false information?’
I stared at the dot marking Basileon’s location and the label indicating the place, as if having a staring contest. Then.
[Map]
! Basileon Ravenwood 〈3rd Floor, Duke of Ravenwood’s Bedroom〉
….
[Map]
! Basileon Ravenwood 〈3rd Fl… Duke of Ravenw…〉
[Map]
! Basileon Ravenwood 〈3rd fl… Evi…〉
‘What the?’
The words indicating the location twisted strangely, rearranging letters and adding consonants and vowels until they formed a single message.
[Map]
! Basileon Ravenwood 〈Run, Evien.〉
‘….!’
The moment I saw that sentence, a chill ran down my spine.
Whoooosh—.
The wind howled violently, rattling the windows and whipping the curtains around.
‘Run…? What does that mean?’
The candles in the room flickered, and the shadows seemed to dance as if they were alive. As fear surged, even the surroundings began to look terrifying.
[Map]
! Basileon Ravenwood 〈N…〉
…
[Map]
! Basileon Ravenwood 〈Now!〉
The moment I saw those words, my body moved instinctively. I flew out of Basileon’s room and the Duke’s castle, rising into the air.
* * *
“Heh heh heh! You’re here because it’s your choice, Basileon!”
Once again, the unpleasant voice pierced Basileon’s ears. The tone, mimicking Evien, irritated him greatly. As he tensed his body, the chains rattled wildly once more.
‘You’re saying it’s my choice?’
At that moment, a small light appeared in the darkness. A faint candle flickered on, illuminating a portrait of Evien Montrose hanging on the wall.
‘….!’
It was the very portrait that had disappeared after Evien’s funeral. The painting perfectly captured the image of a beautiful and elegant noblewoman. Evien’s silver hair in the portrait flowed gently over her shoulders, and her strangely radiant purple eyes were deep and captivating.
‘Evien…’
Perhaps because of the beautiful Evien in the portrait, Basileon’s heart stirred. He stared blankly at the painting, and before he knew it, it began to change in a disturbing way. Blood started flowing from Evien’s eyes in the portrait, soon followed by her mouth and nose. The red blood gradually stained the entire portrait and began to trickle down the wall.
‘…Is this a hallucination?’
A cold and cruel voice cut through the darkness.
“Do you want Evien Montrose?”
Tuk—. The human released his gag from a direction Basileon couldn’t see.
“Say it. That you want Evien Montrose.”
Basileon wasn’t even sure what his feelings toward Evien truly were. At first, he had thought she was merely a means to ease his guilt. Before he realized it, she had become his only companion to talk to, and now he found himself obsessively fixated on her without even knowing why.
‘Even if I say I want her, a dead person won’t come back.’
“…I don’t want her.”
“Lies.”
The unknown human laughed mockingly at Basileon. Basileon glared into the darkness with murderous intent and spoke.
“…You… you’re afraid of me, aren’t you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I sense fear in you.”
“That’s nonsense.”
“…Just wait. I’ll hunt you down to the very end… and tear you to pieces.”
Basileon was breathing hard, like a beast ready to lunge forward and rip out its enemy’s throat at any moment.
“Basileon. Haha… You don’t even know who I am, do you?”
“No way, do you really think… I can’t break free from a mere shackle like this?”
“Don’t be so arrogant, Basileon. Do you even know where Evien Montrose’s corpse is?”
At the sudden mention of the word ‘corpse’, Basileon’s eyes wavered, losing their focus.
“You clearly don’t know. Foolish Basileon. From now on you’ll be trapped here forever. And Evien’s corpse—the one only I know about… what I do with it will be up to me, won’t it?”
At those words, the last thread of sanity Basileon had been clinging to snapped, and his eyes lost their focus.
Tuk, tuk—.
“Huuh?”
And then, the sound of chains being torn apart echoed through the darkness.
“…It’s a monster.”
The unpleasant voice rang in Basileon’s ear. It sounded noticeably shaken—as if it had only just realized that Basileon was powerful enough to break those chains.
Basileon shattered every chain with overwhelming force and immediately located the human hiding in the darkness. With senses sharper than anyone else’s, he struck straight for the human’s vital point.
Pak!
He had definitely aimed for the throat—but the sensation at his fingertips was wrong.
‘…It’s not human.’
Whoosh—
The lights in the chamber flicked on, and the true identity of what Basileon was holding was revealed.
Hi! Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. Please continue to support this novel by giving it a good rating on Novel Updates. Thank you! ^^ ❤︎
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