At some point, Evelyn found herself pulled into the past from a thousand years ago, when everything had happened.
[Countless monsters trapped beneath the hotel surged upward into the hotel.]
Just as the system said, the monsters poured upstairs.
The vengeful spirits who remained underground established their own rules.
―……Our territory.
―Whatever happens here…… is ours.
―Sinners……
Vengeful spirits distorted beyond recognition by grief, pain, and rage.
Their power and forms existed on an entirely different level from ordinary monsters.
Researchers and victims alike had all become vengeful spirits.
The thick iron door leading underground closed.
The basement and the hotel became separate domains.
[Six humans decided to live together.]
‘Six humans……’
Did it mean the demons, including Holloway?
‘Did it call them humans instead of demons because they wanted to remain human?’
Or was there another meaning?
If it really referred to Holloway and the demons, Evelyn had no idea who the sixth person was.
‘Usually in stories like this, the last unknown person turns out to be the mastermind or the true identity of the system.’
Evelyn didn’t have long to think.
[Abandoned by God, they came to hate everything.]
[Even so, they wished only to live quietly on the island.]
One sentence after another emerged through the darkness.
The imperial House Albrecht.
House Hasios, Marquis.
House Kersian, Count.
House Acrotic, Viscount.
House Vesk, Count.
And……
House Schneider, Duke, whose emblem was an eagle.
House Lexy, Viscount, whose emblem was a butterfly.
Finally—
the black swan of House Lodriz.
House Schneider was Cletta’s family.
The instant Evelyn saw that crest, her brows furrowed sharply.
‘So they really were involved.’
Receiving definitive confirmation made her entire body tremble with uncontrollable rage.
Their arrival on this island might not have been an accident at all.
There was only one reason she couldn’t be completely certain.
‘House Eleanor isn’t here.’
Another emblem appeared.
‘The Temple.’
There was no mistaking it.
The strange crest combining flowers and feathers belonged to the Temple.
Evelyn didn’t bother suppressing her incredulous breath.
The Temple had been part of it too.
Yet the present-day Temple was flourishing.
There was no way God didn’t know what had happened a thousand years ago.
Meaning even God was shamelessly concealing the truth.
Her teeth ground together.
The ones who deserved pity—Holloway and those children—had received a horrific punishment.
Yet God forgave His own people?
‘Once I escape, I’ll tear my own house apart first, then I’ll tear apart the Temple too.’
Just wait.
Divine punishment or whatever.
If the demons learned all this, she might die anyway.
She wasn’t afraid in the slightest.
The only thing she didn’t understand was why the Temple had participated in summoning demons in the first place.
A thousand years ago should have been an age overflowing with divine power.
‘Whatever the reason, it changes nothing.’
Even if Evelyn escaped alive, she had no intention of ignoring what she had learned.
Even if revealing everything caused enormous upheaval throughout the Empire……
With her own family involved, Evelyn refused to close her eyes and cover her ears.
That much was obvious.
How could she discover what her ancestors had done, then live extravagantly while saying she was merely a descendant and had done nothing wrong?
‘We should compensate the victims and apologize. That’s obviously the right thing to do.’
And anyone who had witnessed this past would be incapable of looking at the demons and saying—
Just stay here quietly forever and everything will be fine.
‘……No one could say something that cruel.’
Holloway, who had once been so kind, had been broken badly enough to abandon himself.
Who could possibly say such a thing to him?
[The beloved concubine of the founding Emperor, her son, and the heirs of the noble families involved with the island realized that something had gone wrong.]
A woman favored by the Emperor appeared.
A young boy shouted from inside her arms.
‘W-What do we do?! It looks like Father failed!’
Amid the grave atmosphere, a man spoke heavily.
‘My father hasn’t returned either.’
‘We prepared for something like this. Everyone, get ready.’
Every person wore a brooch near their chest bearing their family crest.
House Lodriz was there too.
It hadn’t only been the heads of the families.
Their heirs had participated as well.
Even the Emperor’s most beloved concubine had joined them.
‘They were all in on it.’
Even though Holloway carried imperial blood……
The concubine didn’t care because he wasn’t her son.
She wanted her own son to become Crown Prince, so she had willingly cooperated.
They all knew exactly how many people had been gathered at that resort……
Yet all they cared about was concealing their failure.
[They learned that divine punishment had descended upon the island. They decided to keep it completely secret.]
Evelyn couldn’t even laugh.
The people who should’ve been punished remained alive and well.
The victims had been imprisoned for a thousand years, unable to do anything.
‘And all of you lived perfectly good lives before dying.’
The demons couldn’t die even when they wanted to.
Some God.
Even though none of it had happened to her personally, frustration heated Evelyn’s eyes.
The perpetrators left on the island had apparently been dragged underground by Holloway’s curse.
But even that barely counted as punishment.
Holloway and the other demons were still serving their sentence a thousand years later.
[Because of the magnitude of their sin, divine power was withdrawn from the Temple as well. Only those who remained pure were left. However, even they eventually became corrupted with time.]
‘What an incredible punishment.’
Evelyn sneered.
Blood appeared where she bit her lip too hard.
[The island was sealed off and concealed. They decided to blame everything on the black mage.]
[Those who committed these acts were recorded as having died honorably while protecting the people. The perpetrators became heroes.]
‘Heroes……’
That word had never been created for people like them.
Evelyn’s chest tightened until she could barely breathe.
[Eventually, even those records were erased from history.]
Every stain was removed.
Until, in the present day, not a single person knew.
For the sake of a perfect secret.
Evelyn’s vision went black.
When it brightened again—
everyone stood gathered near a gate.
[They attempt to erase every piece of evidence remaining on Mars Island.]
The Temple, the imperial family, and each noble family had underground gates leading to Mars Island.
Armed knights continuously entered through them.
The knights were ordered to destroy every piece of evidence inside—
and slaughter anything still alive.
The demons, who had been living quietly inside the abandoned hotel, hoped someone would help them when the attacks suddenly began.
Everyone turned away.
Anything existing inside that abandoned hotel had to be eliminated.
It was all for the sake of concealment.
Everything.
Including the demons.
Betrayal by those noble families and disgust toward humanity twisted Evelyn’s insides.
‘If Father knows about this too……’
She no longer felt confident she could look him in the face.
Time accelerated.
The faces representing each family continuously changed.
The heads of the families passed the secret to their heirs.
Those heirs eventually became heads and passed it to the next generation.
Each generation tried to kill everyone who knew the island’s secret until not even a trace remained.
No one ever returned from the island.
So the perpetrators became convinced someone was still there.
They were terrified that whoever remained might someday escape and destroy everything.
That fear made the demons their perpetual victims.
For a thousand years.
Evelyn didn’t want to watch anymore.
Yet even when she closed her eyes—
everything remained vividly visible.
She was forced to witness every scene.
Then the location changed again.
Time seemed to rewind.
The hotel was still beautiful, as if very little time had passed since the demons were first trapped there.
Knights sent by the noble families entered.
When monsters attacked those knights—
the ones who saved them were the demons imprisoned inside the hotel.
They looked around seventeen to nineteen—
barely before adulthood.
Despite hating everything—
again and again—
the demons saved the very people who had come to harm them.
It was meaningless.
The humans set traps to kill them.
Competed against one another.
Killed one another.
Horrible acts repeated endlessly.
Even though the demons did nothing.
Even though they remained quiet and tried to hide.
The humans still desperately tried to erase them.
The demons had been punished by God.
Thrown into an abyss.
Abandoned.
They hated everything.
Yet they still refused to abandon their humanity.
They refused to stain their hands with more blood.
The humans tried to carve those demons apart anyway.
And as always—
no one helped grant the demons’ desperate wish.
Still, the demons endured.
They struggled to preserve their humanity.
Then one day—
a boy whose face was covered by a black shadow appeared.
Someone was chasing him.
The area was too dark for Evelyn to see clearly.
But for a moment, she thought she saw a faint white light surrounding the boy.
‘What is that?’
The fleeing boy was eventually caught.
The darkness deepened until Evelyn could no longer see even one step ahead.
Stab.
The sharp sound of flesh being pierced.
The boy screamed.
Fwoosh.
Light suddenly flared.
The boy lay horribly dead.
Holloway stood around his body.
Sellir.
Extenron.
And two demons whose figures were still hidden by shadows.
They all stared down at him.
There was no sound.
Their faces couldn’t be seen properly.
They didn’t even move.
And yet—
Evelyn could hear it.
The demons’ agonized screams.
‘……So this is it.’
The event that finally destroyed the last shred of humanity they had barely managed to preserve.
[After losing the person they most desperately wanted to protect, the five demons lost their reason.]
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