When Laila opened her eyes, the strong vibration that seemed to collapse the entire house had stopped. The seismometer she had drawn on the floor, the chandelier with sharp crystal decorations, and the tapestry covering the wall had all disappeared.

In a pitch-black space that seemed to have rotted from long-term moisture, Laila was facing a clearly visible soul. It was a woman’s soul.

The dress wrapping her body looked as soft as when she was alive, but the feet visible underneath were almost bare bone, and her disheveled hair was spread in all directions as if someone had deliberately pulled it.

Laila stared intently at the woman without lowering her guard.

“Who are you?”

The woman’s lips moved. After a bubbling sound was heard a couple of times, she soon regained her clear voice from when she was alive.

“I’m Giselle. Giselle Pusher. That’s my name.”

Laila nodded.

“Alright, Giselle. May I call you that? Were you… someone who lived here? In Undill Heights……”

The word ‘family’ should have been said, but it got stuck on the tip of Laila’s tongue and palate like a nasty triangular thorn. Moving her lips and tongue slowly like a stutterer, Laila quietly exhaled.

“……a member?”

Giselle lowered her head for a moment.

“Yes and no.”

She looked down at her pale, translucent hands with a perplexed expression.

“William Undill was my uncle. I came here briefly for recuperation. With my mother. Mother wasn’t well either. She had been like that ever since she quit her job.”

Laila asked.

“What was wrong?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. The doctors said I had an illness in my chest and stomach. When it hurt, I wished I were dead, but when it didn’t, I was fine.”

If it hadn’t been for Undill Heights, I might have had to go solve this person’s problem. Laila thought.

Although she still couldn’t know the exact reason, she could feel that there was an unknown conspiracy behind Giselle’s illness as well. Fortunately, Giselle herself didn’t seem to know…

Giselle, who had been looking down at her hands, started to sob weakly. The sound pierced Laila’s sensitive ears like needles.

It wasn’t desirable for a soul’s emotions to become intense. Laila moved a little closer as if trying to calm her down.

“Giselle, can you tell me what happened in this house… in Undill Heights? I need to know what happened here.”

“It hurt so much. It was so painful and scary.”

As Giselle’s voice became agitated, the vibration was felt again.

“Because of your illness?”

Giselle shook her head at Laila’s question.

“No, it’s not that. It wasn’t the illness… That day I wasn’t in pain. It was a really good day with nothing hurting for once. But suddenly I heard a strange sound. Screaming sounds. When I came out, the servants were running around screaming. They were running into everything like headless chickens. Blood was gushing from their eyes, mouths, and shoulders. And, and…”

Giselle broke off her words and opened her eyes wide with a terrified expression.

“Levi trampled all those people and came towards me.”

Laila asked.

“Levi. Who is that?”

“My younger brother. Uncle’s son. He was my cousin. He was only ten years old and was a good child. He used to catch cicadas in summer to scare me, but he was a good child… He was trampling all those people. And he came to me and trampled me too.”

A convulsive sob burst from Giselle’s mouth. As she started crying, Laila felt a tingling pain in her hands and feet.

“There’s something scary in this house.”

Giselle whispered, and for a moment Laila thought she was talking about Badin.

But thinking about it again, Badin’s words were different. Depending on how much you can believe him, or how much you will believe him, he…

—However, they chose the wrong one to summon. They summoned the most cruel and destructive one, who is only interested in slaughtering and killing.

If his words were true, the ‘scary thing’ Giselle was talking about wouldn’t be Badin. It must be another demon, the one summoned by the people who lived in Undill Heights.

“He disappeared. But you, and many others, haven’t been liberated from this house. Why is that?”

“Liberation…”

Giselle’s expression was blank as she raised her head. As if she couldn’t understand the word ‘liberation’ itself.

She whispered rapidly in a sound like wind leaking.

“Liberation, that’s not it. It’s not like that. I have to go.”

“Wait, Giselle. Wait! Let me see you. I…”

“I have to go.”

A light that could blur one’s eyes burst from Giselle, who was trembling as if facing something frightening. The moment Laila involuntarily turned her head, Giselle’s figure disappeared. And with a thud, something fell.

Laila picked up what had fallen on the floor, feeling frustrated. It was an old, thick notebook.

The cover seemed to have been replaced several times as the seams were tattered, but the inside pages weren’t that messy. It seemed well-maintained. If there was one disappointing thing, it would be the bloodstain that darkened more than half of the cover.

‘Is it Giselle’s?’

It felt very similar yet different from her. Laila glared at the corridor that had subtly changed its appearance again, then collapsed as if crumbling.

When she opened the first page of the notebook, there were a few meaningless memos and thoughts written down. The owner of the notebook seemed to be an employee working somewhere.

As she turned the pages filled with disorganized and messy records of things needed in the kitchen or precautions to take when mopping, suddenly a fairly long text appeared.

It was a diary. The handwriting was neater than the scribbled memos before, but you could tell it was written by the same person. Laila’s lips slowly parted as she casually scanned the letters, and eventually the fingertips holding the notebook trembled faintly.

The diary read:

I heard the news that the baby I’m to look after was born safely.

His Majesty the King bestowed the name Eustar Hyanmorik upon the baby.

His Majesty and Her Majesty have already lost three children after the Crown Prince.

Eustar will not be like that. I will protect him no matter what happens.

I raised my beloved daughter Giselle healthily and now she is happy. The newly born baby will be the same.] [This is the timeline separator]

The bottle that slipped from Eustar’s hand fell straight to the floor, but there was no sound of breaking. Just before it touched the ground, the bottle suddenly stopped moving, then floated back up into Eustar’s palm.

It was Badin’s ability. Eustar, holding the bottle in his hand, looked at him with an incredulous face, then gripped it as if to pull out the cork.

“Do you want me to do something unforgettable? I’ll do it for you.”

Badin narrowed his brows with a slightly irritated tone.

“I told you our relationship hasn’t gone that far yet. I just don’t like it getting messy with glass shards flying around. Put it away this time before I close my eyes and choke you. Don’t bother me by brandishing something that only works on small fry.”

There was no change in his voice, but Eustar could feel the pressure seeping from his tone.

Something rarely experienced in the world where humans live, that sensation both burning hot and heavy – Eustar tightly gripped the bottle containing holy water. But he didn’t put it away obediently as ordered.

Eustar straightened his sword and said.

“Stop talking nonsense and reveal your true form.”

“I’m revealing it right now.”

Eustar snorted and glanced at his own sword, then continued.

“This sword has been blessed. If you were revealing your true form, there’s no way it wouldn’t have had any effect.”

Then a faint groan flowed through Badin’s teeth.

“I thought something felt off.”

He rubbed his nape as if loosening stiff muscles.

Was it because of that action? Like Laila, Eustar too was inwardly shocked to feel an eerily human-like aspect in Badin’s words and actions. It was an emotion he had never felt when dealing with Deceptors.

The Deceptors Eustar knew were beings riddled with lies and desires, and he couldn’t even think they had any other emotions.

‘But this one is different… That makes him more dangerous.’

Eustar thought. It was a fact known to any trained Tentinella member. Whether it’s a monster or a soul, the more similar it is to humans, the more dangerous it is, and one should not approach or converse with it.

I’m doing both. Eustar let out a small laugh.

“If you don’t intend to let me go easily, demon. Tell me. Where is Laila?”

“Don’t worry. She’s in a safe place. At least safer than you. I’ve hidden her away from this house for a while.”

“What do you mean by that? Hidden her from the house?”

Eustar shook his head and brushed back his long hair with his fingertips.

“You’re saying you’re Laila’s father?”

“That’s right.”

Eustar’s lips twisted to one side. To hide his faintly twitching jaw, he clenched his molars tightly. His mind was in a jumble of confusion, disbelief, and suspicion.

“I’m not naive enough to believe the words of a demon at face value.”

At that, Badin’s head tilted to the side as if snapping. Unexpectedly, he sighed with a hint of lamentation, like a human, like an old man who had lived long.

“You humans never change no matter how much time passes. Every single one of you is arrogant. Do you think you’re the center and core of everything when you live and die in just a moment? I wonder if you’re foolish enough not to know that there are facts that don’t change whether you believe them or not.”

For a moment, for some reason, Eustar imagined the stars in the sky turning into cold fireballs and exploding.

It was quiet, majestic, and unbelievably vivid, but he couldn’t understand it until the scene disappeared before his eyes.

Badin said.

“You think the stars in the sky are God’s lamps or guides, but they are merely made of ice and dust and flames. Like you humans, they are born in darkness, burn their lives, and die when time passes. Will the stars enjoy eternal life just because you don’t understand this?”