Diana couldn’t easily open her mouth. Despite the vitality coursing through her body, her thoughts deepened.

Death and return. A castle under high-level magic, waking up to find herself imprisoned. A half-sibling with no previous connection.

Such questions swirled in her mind, with a premonition that something was going seriously awry.

How does this child know? Why were you imprisoned here in the first place? Were you here even before I died?

“Sister?”

As she stared intently with a suspicious gaze, Noel blinked his large eyes and tilted his head.

“Bwoop. Sister. What’s wrong?”

When Diana pressed his chubby cheeks, the child’s lips protruded like a goldfish.

His unchildlike speech and behavior were bothersome, but it seemed pointless to dwell on it.

Though it was called a novel, this world was reality for her.

She released the child’s cheeks and stroked his gray curly hair.

“I’m grateful. Thanks to you, I’ve found a clue to regaining my health. Thank you, Noel.”

As she smiled brightly, Noel, who had been staring blankly at her, bloomed into a wide smile. As if truly happy. Only then did Noel look like a child.

“Can you see it too?”

“Yes, I can see it!”

Noel’s eyes followed the magical power that disappeared like smoke. His ruby-red eyes gleamed strangely.

“So this is my cure?”

“Um, it’s not the doll, but the curse mediated by magical power that becomes the medicine. You need to absorb the curse. Even toxic substances can be good for you, sister, if they contain wishes.”

Poison, curse. Absorbing such gloomy things. It was unsettling.

“How do you know all this so well?”

You’re like some kind of wizard. Haha. Diana, who had been speaking nonsensically, swallowed dryly as she saw Noel staring at her.

“Really?”

“A wizard is someone who knows how to use magic, right?”

“That’s right?”

“Then I guess I’m a wizard!”

Noel spread his small hands wide and made a round light bloom above his palm. The light, which had been as small as a firefly, gradually grew larger.

Diana couldn’t close her mouth. In this era, wizards used magic stones to wield magic.

It was said that several generations ago, wizards used the magical power within their bodies to use magic. But now, without magic stones, they couldn’t even use common life magic.

Even then, wizards were rare beings.

“Noel!”

Diana hugged Noel tightly with eyes full of emotion. A lifeline had descended before her eyes.

To think such a precious being was by her side. It seemed she wasn’t completely out of luck.

She had to embrace everything related to survival. That’s how desperate she was.

For the sake of living, there was no medicine she hadn’t tried, no task she hadn’t attempted.

Dying once is enough.

She didn’t want to die painfully again like a living corpse.

A cursed doll? I’ll absorb as many as it takes.

“Are there many such cursed objects here?”

“Yes! There are many in the warehouse!”

She should have realized it then. The meaning of having many cursed objects.

How futile her plan was to find a cure, recover her body, and then escape.

***

On the way to the warehouse. The moment she encountered that twisted and distorted thing in the damp and muggy anxiety, Diana instinctively turned and started running.

“Kyaaaah-!”

Who would have known? That she would end up in a horror survival story with her young half-sibling.

“Hueeeng! What is this!”

Diana, with her barely recovered strength, hugged the five-year-old and ran desperately down the corridor.

Behind her, a monstrous creature was chasing at a terrifying speed.

How long had she run? Diana, who had sprinted to her absolute limit, set Noel down and collapsed as soon as they entered a safe zone.

“Sister. Are you okay, sister?”

No, I feel like I’m going to die. Diana, leaning against the wall and breathing heavily, broke out in a cold sweat.

It felt like her heart was about to jump out of her mouth.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a tragic romance novel? When did the genre change to horror?!

On the way to the warehouse, she must have accidentally stepped on something, activating a magic circle, and a ghost with melting skin and disheveled hair came rushing at them.

Fortunately, the ghost seemed to be blocked by some invisible barrier at a certain point and couldn’t follow them further.

“That’s the kind of ghost that chases you more if you run away.”

Oh child. Couldn’t you have told me that a bit earlier? Her hands were trembling uncontrollably.

If there was anything she feared in this world, it was undoubtedly formless ghosts.

Noel, seemingly oblivious, just kept grinning.

“Noel, from now on, you need to tell me things in advance. Okay? This sister has poor stamina, you know.”

“What’s ‘poor’?”

Oops. I should only use polite words in front of the child. Diana unknowingly furrowed her brow.

“Sister, are you angry?”

Befitting the youngest of the villainous family, Diana too had sharp eyes. When expressionless or frowning, she looked angry.

“No? I’m not angry.”

As Noel started to whimper, Diana hurriedly comforted the child in confusion. Then, as if he had never been on the verge of tears, he smiled brightly. Diana laughed helplessly, having fallen for the fake crying.

Oh my, how cunning. I’ll let it slide because you’re cute. She ruffled Noel’s hair and began exploring again.

The wizard’s castle had trap magic installed throughout, as strong as its powerful barrier. For what purpose, who knows. The traps alone were beyond imagination.

Not only did ghosts pop out, but various weapons would spring forth, threatening their lives.

They carefully explored the interior of the castle, avoiding traps as much as possible.

As Noel had said, they couldn’t go outside. Every door leading outside was firmly locked.

The magic Noel could handle wasn’t omnipotent, so he couldn’t break the barrier.

It was amazing how the child, who had been imprisoned before Diana, had survived in such a place.

“This alone seems insufficient.”

Diana patted the head of the dejected Noel.

The cursed objects they found throughout the castle, though numerous, had a low concentration of curse and couldn’t fully restore Diana’s body.

“If only there was a terribly cursed human, that would be good.”

At the child’s unchildlike, chilling murmur, Diana casually retorted.

“If someone was that strongly cursed, wouldn’t they have died long ago?”

That’s true too. Hehe. Noel, laughing, was clearly different from an ordinary child.

Beatus’s illegitimate child. It was instantaneous how she grew fond of this child who hadn’t appeared in the novel and whom she wouldn’t have encountered before her death.

It was comforting to have a being to share warmth with in this bizarre castle full of traps.

***

How many days had passed like this? They continued to live in the castle, unable to escape.

If there was any consolation, it was that there were loaves of bread piled up in the kitchen to solve their meals.

But a bigger problem than hunger was that the cursed objects stored in the warehouse were gradually disappearing.

She became a sluggish body again, unable to move from the bedroom.

We need to get out. But there’s no way.

She waited, hoping the person who imprisoned them might come, but not even a shadow of a person could be found.

She didn’t think her family would come looking for her either, given her disappearance.

Even when she was dying before, no one came looking for her. She couldn’t hope for help from her family.

I need to find a solution.

Groaning and clutching her purple-black hair, Diana looked out the wide-open window.

It seemed to be about three stories high when leaving the corridor, but when entering the room, it was the top of the castle.

Swoosh- As the wind blew, the trees of the endless black forest swayed like waves on the horizon of the sea.

This is the Forest of Magical Beasts. When she realized this fact, Diana swallowed hard.

I don’t know what madman imprisoned us here, but just wait until we get out. Whoever is behind this, I won’t let them off easily.

Diana’s pink eyes flashed as she shifted her gaze to the hand axe on the table.

“A hand axe won’t do any good.”

Even striking the door of the entrance hall with the hand axe didn’t leave a scratch, only making her hands ache.

It only wasted her already scarce strength.

Caw-

As she stared blankly out the window, wondering how to escape from here, a crow appeared before her.

“Huh?”

Despite the bedroom being at the top of the castle, the crow was flapping its wings precisely in front of the window, looking into the room.

“A bird?”

“A scout bird?!”

Noel tilted his head in confusion, but Diana, who had been staring blankly at it, hurriedly got up from the bed.

“Wait!”

The crow confirmed Diana’s face and turned its head indifferently.

“Oh! No! Don’t go!”

Could it understand human speech? The crow looked at Diana again, flapping its wings nonchalantly.

What, what do you want? It seemed to have such an insolent expression, or was that just her imagination?

If her memory was correct, this was a scout bird used only in the North.

There must be people nearby! She couldn’t miss this opportunity.

What should I do? She needed to request rescue from the crow’s owner.

As Diana frantically looked around for something, Noel held out a gem to her.

“Sister, this. I read in a book that crows like shiny things.”

“As expected, Noel! You’re a genius.”

What else could be genius if not reading without anyone teaching you?

Moreover, this child had learned magic on his own.

Noel removed a gem attached to a doll and cast a spell on it. Diana wrapped her hands around Noel’s small ones and said,

“I don’t have the strength to reach there right now. Can you throw it for me?”

“Yes!”

At Diana’s request, Noel nodded with a solemn expression. After taking a running start, Noel threw the gem with all his might.

“Heave!”

No! How can you throw with your eyes closed! An internal scream erupted.

The gem drew a pathetic parabola beyond the window and fell downward. Our lifeline!

Caw-

As if mocking her desperate expression, the crow skillfully caught the falling gem in its beak.

Haah. I thought my life was shortening.

The crow, rising back to her eye level, snorted and disappeared.

“I hope it gets delivered well.”

Diana collapsed, watching the crow fly away. She felt strength draining rapidly from her inefficient body.

***

“Kraaak!”

In the heart of the Black Forest, said to be the source of magical beasts. A large space was created where magical beasts and densely rooted trees had been swept away.

The magical beasts that had been howling ferociously fell in an instant before an even greater predator.

It was a truly awe-inspiring speed and movement. The corpses of magical beasts piled up one by one in the wide space that had become a plain.

When the movement of the man standing alone in the midst of the one-sided slaughter stopped, silence fell all around.

Lazy blue eyes were visible beneath black hair.

A man shaped like a sleek beast.

None of his subordinates dared to open their mouths or approach, intimidated by the pressure emanating from him. They just watched the scene familiarly.

“Haah.”

The man tilted his head, closed his eyes, and suppressed the raging blood curse.

Caw-

In the space where not even the sound of insects could be heard, the cry of a crow rang out loudly.

The crow spat out something with a ‘ptui-‘, and a subordinate caught it.

The gem flickered red in his hand before going out. It was a standard distress signal.

“Captain!”

The man was taking off his wet black leather gloves with an expressionless face.

As he pulled out clean black leather gloves from his breast pocket, the man casually shifted his gaze.

“It’s a rescue request!”