Chapter 98

The tremor, strong enough to rattle the windows, made them both gulp.

“Something’s happening, isn’t it?”

Carl spoke first, and Belfry nodded.

They hesitated, unsure whether to investigate or hide, when a frantic knocking startled them.

“Your Highness! Young Master Belfry!”

It was the chef.

Carl Lindbergh flung the door open, and the chef, along with several servants, stumbled inside.

Their faces were pale with fear.

Carl Lindbergh closed the door behind them, watching as soldiers rushed down the hallway.

“What’s going on?”

The chef, catching his breath, spoke first.

“There’s an… unknown monster… in the castle!”

“An unknown monster? Explain.”

Belfry, alarmed, pressed for details, and another servant spoke up.

“We just saw a… grotesque creature crawling down the hallway.”

“We were waiting nearby, so we didn’t see it ourselves, but this servant girl came running, explaining what happened.”

The chef pointed to a young woman, who was trembling, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

Belfry ordered her to report what she’d seen, and she stammered, her voice shaking, “It was like a giant centipede. Hundreds, maybe thousands of legs. Huge, big enough to… destroy a tower. I saw it in the west wing, and I ran.”

“Destroyed a tower?”

“It… It tore through a tower, then crawled into the garden, and then… into the main building. The soldiers… they can’t stop it.”

Was it breathing fire?

Carl Lindbergh, having never witnessed a monster using its abilities, struggled to imagine how it was attacking people. He cursed his limited imagination.

“It seems to be emitting some kind of… toxic fumes. The garden is… destroyed.”

“The stench is so overwhelming that they can’t even approach it.”

A servant girl, nervously chattering her teeth, glanced at the prince. Carl Lindbergh nodded encouragingly, and she continued hesitantly, “Its face… it was… human-like. And… it looked like… the Queen.”

“What?”

Carl Lindbergh’s eyes widened in disbelief.

He remembered his conversation with Viscount Drambuie.

〈Humans with magic can become ghouls.〉

〈Every human blessed by the goddess possesses magic. The only difference is the quantity.〉

〈A powerful magician, transformed into a ghoul… is a formidable foe.〉

Most of the soldiers guarding the castle were Betas. A few of their commanding knights were differentiators.

The most magically potent individuals in the castle were Carl Lindbergh himself and Belfry Hendrick, now an Omega.

Besides them, who else possessed enough magic to become a powerful ghoul?

The Queen.

The only other dominant Omega in Lindbergh Castle, the one who’d conspired with Kitchener.

He didn’t know how she’d been turned into a ghoul, but he was certain the creature was her.

A sense of dread washed over him. He touched the magic stone at his waist, then gripped the kitchen knife he’d been holding.

Belfry, who’d previously questioned the prince’s attachment to kitchen knives when he couldn’t even wield a sword, also grabbed a knife and tucked it into his waistband.

They moved closer to the door.

Carl Lindbergh pressed his ear against it.

The clang of armor, shouts and screams, echoed from the hallway beyond.

Then he heard it.

A chilling sound, like claws scraping against stone, echoing from the hallway.

The sound grew closer, then stopped abruptly, followed by the pained groans of soldiers, then resumed its approach.

The servants, including the chef, paled.

Some began to hyperventilate.

Unlike the soldiers, they were not accustomed to violence and combat.

“Stay back.”

Carl Lindbergh gripped his knife tighter, addressing the servants.

“No, Your Highness!”

The servants suddenly pushed Carl and Belfry away from the door, their actions bordering on disrespectful. But no one could fault them for trying to shield the prince, their bodies forming a barricade against the door.

Carl Lindbergh’s face hardened.

“Move.”

They’d be the first ones injured if the door opened.

“W-We’re fine, Your Highness! We’ve already contacted the palace. Reinforcements will arrive soon. Just… stay put.”

The chef, his face pale but resolute, pressed his body against the door, his voice trembling.

“I said, move!”

Carl repeated, but they simply shook their heads.

“We… We have to protect you.”

The commotion outside intensified, drawing closer.

The clang of swords, the synchronized movements of the knights, the screams…

The floor vibrated beneath their feet.

The monster was moving again.

Carl Lindbergh’s heart pounded in his chest.

He met their gazes, filled with fear and a desperate resolve.

His heart sank. A wave of helplessness washed over him.

Trapped here, waiting for Adrian Heineken, their beacon of hope, while his people were being slaughtered…

He couldn’t bear it.

“Ugh…”

A sudden wave of nausea and dizziness made him clutch his head.

“Your Highness!”

“I’m… I’m fine.”

Belfry rushed to his side, his voice laced with concern, and Carl steadied himself, leaning against the table.

Leia Lindbergh’s words echoed in his mind. 

〈You are the prince of Lindbergh, and the future Empress of Heineken. Act like it.〉

Leia had chosen to embrace her role, to stain her hands with blood.

Adrian was also fighting at the border.

“Please, Your Highness, stay back. We’ll protect you.”

The servants, their voices filled with a desperate determination, vowed to protect him.

He couldn’t simply abandon them, couldn’t let them sacrifice themselves for him while he escaped.

“If it’s just a monster, we can hold it off. The knights are highly skilled. It seems to have… weakened.”

Belfry, who’d pressed his ear against the door, reported.

The creature’s movements had become sluggish. He could tell just by the sound of its legs scraping against the floor.

Carl suddenly remembered Lulu, Marco, and Elizabeth.

“I have to… save them.”

But how?

Could a kitchen knife possibly defeat a monster that even trained soldiers, armed with swords, couldn’t subdue?

Belfry’s hand gripped his shoulder, a surprising strength in his grasp.

“There’s a passage that connects the kitchen to the storage room, and then to the main building.”

He described the route, recalling the castle’s layout.

“Ah!”

The chef, his eyes widening in realization, pushed past the servants and began tapping on the kitchen floor. He located a hollow section, then fumbled for a hidden handle.

They’d been so accustomed to the servants carrying the ingredients directly to the kitchen that they’d completely forgotten about the passage.

While he worked on opening the hidden door, the servants began piling kitchen utensils against the main door, creating a makeshift barricade.

Carl Lindbergh didn’t hesitate. He jumped down into the passage. It was dark, barely wide enough for three people to walk abreast.

“Belfry.”

Belfry followed without a word.

“If it’s the Queen turned ghoul… then it’s obvious. Kitchener and Parman are working together. They’re using her.”

Belfry pulled out a small, spherical device from his pocket and shook it.

Small sparks, like miniature fireworks, illuminated the passage.

“If that creature has a target… it’s you, Your Highness.”

Carl nodded, watching as the servants climbed down into the passage, the chef closing the hidden door behind them.

He started walking, his pace determined.

The light from the device flickered and faded, and Belfry shook it again, illuminating their path.

They reached a large, open space.

Barrels and dried ingredients, long forgotten, were scattered everywhere.

It seemed like the storage room hadn’t been used since Lindbergh Castle had been abandoned.

Carl Lindbergh noted the lack of decay and the absence of rodents.

‘Is this… magic? But there are no magic stones here…’

Belfry, spotting another exit in the ceiling of the storage room, grabbed a nearby ladder.

“Your Highness, go up first. This is the underground storage. Above us is the main storage room, which connects to the banquet hall on the first floor of the main building.”

The light faded again.

Carl Lindbergh climbed the ladder, pushing open the heavy trapdoor, and emerged into a dusty storage room filled with pantries.

Belfry, tucking the device into his pocket, followed close behind. Carl helped the chef and the servants climb up.

“Once we reach the main building, everyone must leave the castle immediately. I’ll go to my room.”

Carl, surveying the storage room, instructed, and Belfry, about to shake the device again, stopped, dropping it to the floor.

“You have to come with us, Your Highness.”

Carl picked up the device.

Contain the light. Shake. Release.

How intuitive.

He shook the device, sparks illuminating his face.

“Unless we kill that creature before we reach the main building, I have to act as bait.”

The chef, who’d been trailing behind, rushed forward, his eyes wide with panic.

“Absolutely not, Your Highness!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll grab Lulu, Marco, and Elizabeth from my room, and we’ll leave together.”

“The soldiers have already escorted them to safety, Your Highness.”

The servants protested in unison, but Carl shook his head.

“Even so, if I leave without confronting it, it might follow me. It might attack the people outside the castle.”

He located a hidden door behind a pantry and opened it, pushing the chef gently.

“I’ll just go to my room. I have a collection of magic stones there. I don’t want that creature getting its hands on them and becoming even more powerful.”

While he hadn’t confirmed whether ghouls consumed magic stones, they absorbed magic from corpses, so it was a possibility.

The chef and the servants reluctantly entered the passage. Carl turned to Belfry, his expression apologetic, and Belfry, understanding his intentions, felt a wave of exasperation.

“You’re truly infuriating, Your Highness.”

“I’m sorry.”

Belfry shook his head and followed the others.

A strange glint entered Carl Lindbergh’s blue eyes.