But the woman’s form wavered like a flame, without rest, confusing Evie’s eyes.

Additionally, the woman, who had been standing still, suddenly turned her body. As Evie looked in surprise, another figure appeared before her.

“It’s a snake.”

Yubia whispered in Evie’s ear.

“A snake? Suddenly?”

Evie feigned confusion, and the two figures began to do something before her eyes.

The shape Yubia had called a snake knelt in front of the woman. As if receiving a knighthood. The respectfully lowered body was unmistakably male.

The woman handed something to the snake. It seemed small, light, and thin at a glance. A handkerchief?

The snake accepted it with both hands and pressed it to its mouth.

Evie silently watched this scene.

As the snake, excluding Evie and Yubia, reenacted something, it suddenly turned its head towards Evie.

Along with that, Evie’s body sank downward.

“Kyaa!”

Evie screamed at the sensation of something grabbing and dragging her.

She desperately looked for Yubia but could not see her. In the meantime, darkness and light quickly swept past her eyes, and her mind was in chaos.

Just when she thought she would be dragged on endlessly, a creeping voice reached Evie’s ears.

“Already here to meet me?”

At that creepy voice, Evie swallowed a gasp. And she realized with even greater horror.

A huge and pale snake was coiling around Evie. She was trapped in the snake’s tail, unable to move an inch.

The pillarlike thick snake squeezed Evie’s body. She felt suffocated, and her body seemed to crumble.

When Evie could not bear it and let out a moan, the snake chuckled and whispered.

“I’m happy, I’ll eat you well.”

The snake opened its mouth wide and charged at Evie.

To escape, and to wake up, Evie struggled desperately.

So just before the snake could swallow Evie, she was able to open her eyes.

.

.

.

Evie drew a deep breath as if she had just come out of the water.

When she opened her eyes again, she was sitting in the reception room of the twostory house.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m not okay……”

Evie answered Yubia’s question with a pale, scared face.

She rolled up her sleeve to find goosebumps all over her arm.

Though her mind was a blank, she knew something terrible had almost happened.

So Evie moaned at Yubia.

“You said it wouldn’t be dangerous……”

“The snake must have felt us spying. So it chased us.”

Yubia said with a dispirited face. Evie could only sigh heavily.

She had hoped it was a fool, but the snake Evie had to catch was not only cunning but also extremely creepy.

With attention to the characters’ names and genders, here’s the translation of the passage:

Thinking she had ended up in a bad situation, Evie pressed her forehead.

While Evie caught her breath, Dius asked Yubia.

“Did you check?”

“Yeah, I saw the snake too. So now I can distinguish it.”

“Then can we chase it right away?”

“Chasing it is easy. But going into where the snake is hiding is difficult.”

Dius’s eyes narrowed at Yubia’s words.

“Is the place where the snake hides also a base of the Night Clan?”

“No, we really hate gathering together.”

“But you said three were gathered earlier.”

“They’re not gathered, they’re trapped. In an arena.”

Both Dius and Evie were surprised at Yubia’s calm answer.

“Arena?”

“Yeah, some wealthy man in Bis made it. Normally, they make mercenaries or beasts fight, but secretly they also hold matches using the Night Clan.”

The infamous Night Clan being trapped in an arena and treated like fighting dogs, it was a story hard to believe.

But there were more astonishing stories.

“The chaos in this village last Sawol, that was also because of the arena.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Originally, the Night Clan attracts curses. But with three gathered there, a high density of curses was drawn to this region.”

The Night Clan is cursed humans and humans wearing curses. So when the new moon comes, they invariably attract curses.

With as many as three of those beings, it might have been natural that a disaster occurred here.

Evie was horrified at the fact that Yubia had told her, and once again she shuddered and was surprised.

‘…Isn’t it four, not three?’

Last new moon, Yubia was also near this village.

So did Yubia also somewhat contribute to that extraordinary curse?

“Don’t worry, I don’t call curses.”

Yubia spoke in a calm voice, sensing Evie’s suspicion.

Then, she fumbled inside her clothes and pulled out a pouch.

It was a pouch big enough to fill even an adult man’s hand, and inside it was full of tiny crystals.

“Salt of Manyanya?”

“Yeah, if you have this, even during the new moon, curses don’t gather. But you have to get new salt every month.”

Yubia spoke reassuringly, and Evie finally understood why she had asked for so much money.

Anyway, an arena, a new obstacle, made Evie’s head ache.

“Butler, is infiltrating the arena possible?”

“Aren’t you pushing people too hard……?”

“What can I do, I can’t do it myself.”

“You can’t, but if you do, you’ll do better than anyone.”

It was when Evie was subtly laying the groundwork to send Dius to hell’s gate.

She felt Yubia staring at her intently.

So when she turned her head, Yubia spoke in a very serious voice.

“That arena is a really bad place.”

Of course, the arena could not be good.

“You mustn’t ignore it. You said you were going to be a holy maiden.”

This guy, hitting the sore spot again.

It seemed that Yubia wanted Evie to get angry at this situation, not knowing how powerless Evie’s anger was.

Feeling burdened, Evie was thinking about what to say when a creaking sound resonated from the ceiling.

The sound of someone stepping down the stairs from the second floor.

‘The Count?’

That footstep sounded like it was angrily stomping down the stairs, so Evie was certain it was the Count.

The quick footsteps echoed in the firstfloor hallway, and then the clear sound of the front door being kicked open and someone leaving was heard.

The conversation stopped at Count’s sudden departure, and Evie naturally decided to change the subject.

But there was no need for that.

Yubia had already lost interest in the ongoing conversation and was looking out the window at the Count’s retreating figure.

“Why are you doing that?”

Somehow, Yubia seemed very interested in the Count, so Evie asked.

Then, Yubia hesitated for a long time before speaking.

“Do you know?”

“What?”

“That man is also cursed.”