“But Krius. The one who just saved Mary was Havel. What exactly did you do?”
“Excuse me? I found an escape route, didn’t I!”
“Right, you did. But if I hadn’t fought the skeletons until the very end before that, we would all be dead already.”
At those words, Krius was at a loss for words for a moment, and his expression hardened.
“You gave up so quickly, saying it was hopeless. Do you think you have the right to insult Havel?”
“Th-That’s…”
“Mary was trapped among those piles of rotting skeletons. As you know, it’s something that would give a normal human psychological trauma. How can you call her a ‘mad human’ and say something so cowardly as suggesting we escape by ourselves?”
Krius averted his eyes for a moment, observing my reaction, and before I knew it, disappeared from my sight.
“Huh? Where did he go?”
Looking closely, I saw Krius stealthily crawling toward the back of where Mary was.
“What are you doing, are you crazy?”
“…Lady is completely right. I have no room to argue at all.”
I took my eyes off Krius and looked up the stairs.
“Everyone stay here. I’ll go check it out.”
“Wait a moment. Are—are you going alone?”
Krius blurted out, jumping to his feet.
“Why, do you want to come with me?”
But Krius didn’t answer. Rather, he just avoided my gaze.
“Good grief. You’re quite the coward for a ghost who’s already dead.”
Without looking back anymore, I started flying up the stairs.
“L-Lady!”
It seemed like Krius was trying to stop me, but it didn’t matter.
‘We can’t just sit around down there forever.’
Swoosh—.
As I neared the top, a bizarre red light spreading from the top of the stairs completely engulfed the surroundings. The closer I got, the more intense the light felt.
“Ugh…”
Staring at it made me feel like I was going blind, so I automatically furrowed my brows. I soon reached the final part of the stairs. Through my squinted eyes, I saw the red light. In an entirely dark space, only something glowing was situated. I forced my eyes open and tried my best to figure out what it was.
‘There’s something there.’
I could see a blurry shape within the light. At first, it just looked like bizarre streaks of light, but as I got closer, the shape gradually became clearer.
‘Is it an ornament?’
Seen sparsely through the emitting red light was the intricately carved crest of the Ravenwood family. The family crest was engraved along the border of the round shape. Judging by the slightly open gap and the shape of the object, its identity was probably…
‘A music box?’
Just then.
“Lady!”
Krius flew up from behind.
“It’s too dangerous to go alone! I acted very shamefully earlier, but as a knight, I cannot just stand by and watch…”
Krius stopped mid-sentence, saw the music box, and hid behind me.
“Wh-what on earth is that?”
“You… talking about a knight’s duty, are you seriously hiding behind a lady?”
Despite my teasing, Krius couldn’t say a word and trembled all over.
“…How did you even become the Vice Commander? Are you sure you were even knighted?”
Splash—.
At that moment, I heard an unpleasant sound and looked back at the object presumed to be a music box. Through the slightly open lid of the music box, something like liquid was pouring out along with the red light. It was none other than…
“It’s blood.”
The blood slowly flowed down the surface of the music box, then spread copiously across the floor.
“That thing is definitely a music box. Seeing the family crest engraved on it, maybe… it’s a ‘heirloom’.”
“A music box? You mean… the music box that plays music?”
“Yeah.”
If this is a heirloom, it makes sense that Lilith touched it and disappeared. Because heirlooms are objects imbued with the power of an evil god. Thinking that the blood might be related to Lilith, I felt a little chilled. Since I couldn’t touch it directly, I extended my Death Scythe and opened the lid of the music box.
“Why are you opening it!”
At that moment, the red light erupted even more fiercely, and the music box began to rotate slowly. A brief sound of a winding spring followed, and a melody began to drift out. A calm, yet somehow mournful and ominous melody flowed forth. It almost sounded like a person pleading.
“Look here, Lady! Where are you going!”
Coming to my senses, I found myself standing right in front of the music box.
“Why am I here…”
But my body wouldn’t move according to my will.
“Lady!”
As I reached the very edge of the music box, the lid swung wide and swallowed me up in an instant.
* * *
In my vision, which had brightened again, I saw the music box that had swallowed me. What unfolded before my eyes along with the music box was a certain room. Seeing the Ravenwood family crests conspicuously placed everywhere, it seemed to be inside the Duke’s castle.
Of course, it didn’t feel gloomy and empty like the current Duke’s castle. It was a beautiful room exquisitely decorated with magnificent ornaments. As I was looking around the room, a girl stepped down from the bed. She looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old. Long, black, curly hair and two red eyes that sparkled as if embedded with jewels. Her appearance reminded me of Basileon.
The girl hurried toward the music box and opened the lid. Then, with a very pleased smile, she listened to the melody flowing from the music box. At that moment, the door opened, and a man walked in. He had a suffocatingly cold and rigid impression. It was a middle-aged man with the exact same black hair and red eyes as the girl.
“Chera, what are you doing here?”
When the man spoke with a deep scowl, the girl named Chera stood tall, blocking the music box.
“Father. I don’t want to go.”
“Don’t you remember saying with your own mouth just yesterday that you would go?”
“I did. But… there’s no guarantee that you will protect Basileon just because I sacrifice myself.”
One of the man’s eyebrows shot up. But soon, he looked down at the girl with an expression mixed with anger and contempt, raised his hand, and roughly grabbed her hair.
“What can you even do by rebelling?”
“…Let go of me!”
The girl resisted. She struggled and broke free from the man’s grasp, then bit his hand. However, the man didn’t show any sign of pain at all.
“…You are more than enough to be a sacrifice. Even this rebellious spirit of yours. Can you not imagine how much He will enjoy it?”
The middle-aged man wore a grotesque smile. Soon, the man’s face melted away, and the surroundings were completely dyed red.
‘Ugh…’
Not wanting to see the unpleasant scene, I closed my eyes. When I opened them after some time had passed, the girl and the man were nowhere to be seen, replaced by a vast plain stained entirely in red. The music box wound up, and the sound of music was heard again. And I was standing in an empty space.
‘Am I trapped in here?’
It was when I was standing alone in such a quiet place.
“Who’s there!”
After hearing a familiar voice from afar, soon someone came running.
“…Lilith?”
The person running from afar, pink hair fluttering. It was definitely Lilith.
“Huff… huff.”
Lilith was gasping for breath, looking exhausted from running. Facing me up close, she tilted her head to the side as if puzzled.
“Lilith, it’s me!”
“Wait. This voice… You’re the evil spirit?”
“Yeah. What’s with that reaction?”
“Because your appearance isn’t the evil spirit I know. Why are you a silver-haired woman?”
Lilith still had a suspicious look in her eyes. Was even Lilith seeing me in human form now instead of an evil spirit?
“…Actually, this is my true form.”
“No way.”
Step, step—.
While we were talking, another set of footsteps could be heard from behind.
“Lilith. Is someone there?”
My jaw dropped at the person who appeared from behind Lilith.
“Chera.”
Lilith called out that person’s name. A lonely-looking woman with long, curly black hair and melancholic eyes approached.
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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