It was a doll. A disturbing doll crafted to mimic Evien’s appearance. Its mouth was twisted into a grotesque smile, and its joints were bent unnaturally. Basileon, with unfocused eyes, set the doll down.
Clatter—
It sounded as if the human in the darkness had used the doll as a distraction to make their escape. Basileon sharpened all his senses, detecting the direction of the fleeing sound. The Duke of Ravenwood’s castle contained countless hidden chambers and prison-like spaces. Even someone like Basileon couldn’t know exactly where this chamber led, or which floor it was on.
‘Up the stairs, then to the right.’
However, he could detect the general direction in which the human had vanished. Basileon trusted his senses and began to run.
* * *
‘I’m scared.’
I rose high into the sky, far enough that the Duke’s castle was no longer in sight, yet not so far as to leave the duchy’s territory. If I had to escape somewhere, the sky—where no one could reach me—seemed the safest. Before I knew it, Ravenwood Castle had vanished from my view, leaving only mist-like clouds.
“Haa, haa…”
My heart pounded violently, and my breath began to come in short gasps. The exhalations slipping between my lips grew irregular, and I felt the onset of breathlessness. This symptom had followed me since my previous life.
It felt as if someone might appear at any moment and start hurling insults at me. As if I were about to be shoved into a dark locker for hours again. A suffocating tightness closed around my throat, making it hard to breathe. Whenever I experience extreme fear or stress, my breathing falters like this.
‘I need to go down.’
I came up here because it felt like the safest place… but it actually isn’t. Up this high, there’s not enough oxygen, so I need to go down right now.
‘I’m not even human, so why am I having symptoms like this?’
I couldn’t understand it at all. Ever since becoming an evil spirit, even the only advantages I had were disappearing. I didn’t get hungry without food, didn’t get sleepy without rest, and there was no chance of falling ill.
‘I’m already dead.’
But as time went on, I was experiencing urges and symptoms more and more like a human.
“Ha… gasp…”
Just flying—something so simple—felt unbearably difficult now.
‘Going down should be easy…’
But my body wouldn’t obey. I forced myself to descend little by little, and as I did, the vast Ravenwood territory and the distant shape of the ducal castle slowly came back into view.
“Thank goodness…”
…Or so I thought. Because the next thing I knew—
Pop—
I blacked out, and my body plummeted… down, down, down.
Before I knew it, I lost consciousness and fell downward, downward.
* * *
As Basileon climbed the stairs, he realized that the hidden chamber was connected to his own room.
“Right.”
Basileon immediately drew his Flamberge. The air around him felt as if it had frozen, thick with tension. Sharpening all his senses, he pursued the fleeing human until he stopped in front of a certain room.
‘….’
He could clearly sense the presence of a living human inside the room. But it wasn’t the person he was looking for.
‘Lucky me.’
He glared at the door once before quickening his pace again. Reaching the end of the corridor, Basileon looked up toward the top of the stairs.
‘Did they go up?’
The moment he was about to take a step forward—
“L, Lady Evien has collapsed outside.”
Voices of the ghostly servants rose from one floor below.
“What on earth is going on…”
“We can’t make contact, so there’s no way for us to help, this is bad.”
“Should we inform the Lord?”
“He’ll definitely be angry…”
Basileon ran towards them without hesitation.
“Tell me.”
“Oh my! T, The Lord is here.”
“What happened to Evien?”
“Lady Evien has lost consciousness and is lying inside the rose garden outside the castle.”
Basileon immediately turned back to the rose garden.
‘Damn it. As expected, did I fail?’
In the urgent situation, Basileon was able to convey a message through Evien’s map. Given how much focus it required, it wasn’t surprising that he had failed, especially considering he had momentarily lost his composure.
‘Please.’
Basileon ran with all his might.
‘What if something really happened to Evien?’
“Evien’s corpse… It’s up to me to decide what to do with it, right?”
The words he had heard earlier came rushing back, and his face instantly went pale.
‘A corpse… there’s a corpse?’
After Evien’s death, Ravenwood Castle was thrown into chaos. Her body had disappeared. Everyone was mobilized to search for Evien Montrose’s corpse, but it was nowhere to be found.
“Damn it.”
When Basileon arrived at the rose garden, he began searching every corner for Evien. Though the maid had said “inside the rose garden,” the garden was actually enormous.
“Evien! Evien Montrose!”
Basileon ran back and forth, and only when he was nearly exhausted did he finally spot her. Evien was lying in the garden.
“Evien!”
He knelt on one knee and carefully examined Evien’s condition. For some reason, she seemed even more opaque than when he had last seen her. As time passed, her appearance seemed less like an evil spirit and more human. Her cheeks, tinged with a reddish hue, looked truly like those of a living person.
“…What on earth happened?”
As Basileon approached Evien to check on her, he felt genuinely perplexed. How could he possibly determine if someone already dead was “okay”? After all, a dead person couldn’t die again. It was a situation Basileon had never encountered before. Judging by her outward appearance, Evien didn’t seem to be in bad condition. In fact, she even looked healthier than usual, her complexion more vibrant than he had ever seen.
“…Please, answer me.”
Thinking it over, he realized that lately he had often found Evien asleep in his room. Since it had never happened before, he had been quite startled to see her sleeping, but he had simply assumed she was playing a prank.
‘Was she really asleep?’
While Basileon was deep in thought, Evien tossed and turned in the spot where she was lying
“Uhm…”
“…Are you awake?”
“Basileon… Heh… You’re pretty…”
But it was just sleep talking.
“What?”
He looked at Evien with a bewildered expression. An evil spirit that even talked in its sleep.
“…Come here.”
Evien stretched out her arm, as if mumbling in her sleep.
“What are you talking about?”
“Come here. Listen to me, you damned things!”
Whatever dream she was having, Evien alternated between muttering curses and grinning broadly in her sleep. Basileon first calmed his startled heart—at least he could see that nothing bad had happened to her. Next, he needed to wake her and find out what had occurred, but he had no idea how to go about waking her.
“Don’t do that.”
Evien, who had been grinning and muttering curses, was now shedding tears.
“Evien?”
“…You damned b*stards.”
She cried deeply, clearly in a lot of pain. Basileon saw his own nightmare reflected in Evien’s suffering.
“….”
“Hold me. Just like last time…”
And still trapped in her nightmare, Evien spoke with desperation.
“…I can’t hold you.”
Basileon replied hollowly, but his eyes betrayed a subtle tremor. Evien winced as if in pain, crying again and again.
“But, if even this is alright…”
Basileon hugged Evien. Or more precisely, he embraced the empty air where she lay.
“It’s warm.”
Evien spoke. Surely, she shouldn’t be able to feel anything—but it felt warm. The moment he heard that, Basileon felt an actual heat coursing through his body. He noticed Evien shifting slightly as she moved in her sleep. He hadn’t expected her sleep-talking to be so animated, and a small smile naturally spread across his lips.
“It’s like holding a burning flame.”
Basileon, taken aback by Evien’s words, scrambled to pull back.
“You mean it’s hot?”
“No. I mean it’s good.”
Basileon’s ears turned red.
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