Eustar felt Laila’s palm against his cheek trembling faintly. It was a fragile and pitiful trembling, so unlike her usual calm and indifferent demeanor that it was hard to even imagine.

He closed his eyes for a moment to fully feel the sensation of their skin touching.

The brief time of waiting for their breaths to align, diverge, and overlap again was strange. Sweet and confusing. Like a kiss.

“I am.”

As Laila spoke in a trembling voice, Eustar opened his eyes to look at her.

Eustar’s finger lightly touched her lips, which she had been biting firmly. Startled, Laila tried to pull her head back, but her fingertips dug into Eustar’s hair.

“I’m the one who’s harmful to you, Eustar. Not you. You could never be harmful to anyone. You can’t be that kind of person.”

After a moment of silence, Eustar smiled, lifting the corners of his mouth.

“Laila Kristrad, if you knew what I sometimes think when I look at you, you wouldn’t be able to say that.”

For a moment, Laila felt she understood what he meant.

Usually, when he spoke so vaguely, she would just tilt her head in confusion, but today was different. Maybe it was because all her senses were heightened, or maybe for some other reason…

“Eustar!”

Suddenly, Laila screamed in a piercing voice. Startled, Eustar tried to embrace her but couldn’t.

The moment he pulled at Laila’s waist, Eustar felt something cold tightly constricting his neck. In a split-second decision, he pushed Laila away.

“Oh my goodness!”

Laila cried out in shock again. A long, opaque arm had suddenly protruded from the ceiling, bent like a broken snake, and was strangling Eustar.

As he was pulled upward, he must have bitten his tongue slightly, as a reddish trickle of blood seeped between his lips, which were rapidly turning blue.

—This one, I must have.

An eerie voice was heard from somewhere. At that, all the furniture in the room began to rattle as if trembling in fear.

It’s that architect. Eustar recalled what he had heard from Badin, but he had no way to convey this to Laila.

He couldn’t even breathe properly, let alone speak, and the more violently he moved, the tighter the slippery yet rigid arm constricted his neck like a noose.

—This one’s desire is so sweet. I’ve never tasted such sweet and intense desire before. Ah, delicious. So delicious…!

Laila took out a crystal bottle and poured the water it contained. Although it was blessed water, the arm gripping Eustar didn’t budge.

Cut it. Badin’s voice suddenly penetrated Laila’s mind. Cut that thing.

There was no time to think. Laila drew the thin sword she wore on the left side of her leather belt and gripped it tightly with both hands.

“Eustar, lower your head!”

Though it wasn’t easy to lower his head at will, Eustar tried his best to tuck his chin down. Colored dots began to flicker before his eyes, and his whole body felt languid as drowsiness threatened to overwhelm him.

—Ahhh…!

Just as his blurring vision suddenly cleared, Eustar’s body dropped abruptly. Thankfully, there was a bed below, otherwise something might have broken.

“Cough! Hack…”

“Eustar!”

Laila rushed to him, still gripping the sword. His skin, which had been a dark purple, was now flushed red and mottled.

—No! No! You can’t escape from me! You can’t run away! No, don’t leave me. I can’t live alone. If you run away, I’ll kill you! Ugh…

“…Sword.”

“What did you say?”

Eustar, who had been coughing while clutching his neck, reached out his hand.

“Give me your sword, Laila.”

Laila placed the hilt of the thin sword in his hand. Compared to the sword Eustar usually used, it was ridiculously light and thin, but it was sufficiently imbued with magical power.

He glared at the grotesquely writhing arm that had been cleanly cut off, then stood up straight, holding the sword upright.

Then, using the bed’s rebound, he thrust the sword into the center of the ceiling. The thin sword, without breaking, penetrated the ceiling with surprising ease, almost to its hilt.

—Argh—!

After the hideous scream, there was a cracking sound. It was the sound of the entire ceiling cracking, centered on where the sword had been thrust.

“Get away, Laila!”

Eustar shouted as he got off the bed, and Laila quickly backed away. At that moment, part of the ceiling collapsed as if rotting away, and a soft mass poured down.

“That’s…”

Even without his monocle, Eustar could see it. Without touching it directly—he didn’t even want to get close, let alone touch it—it was clear that it either had substance or was something with very strong obsession.

Laila knew it was an old ghost. Something that had stagnated in one place for so long that even its soul had rotted into a mushy state. She saw a pale gap shimmering above the writhing mass and pushed her hand into it.

—No, I don’t want to…! Ugh…!

The slippery mass made squelching noises as it scattered here and there, then suddenly stopped.

And then, hazy memories flooded into Laila’s mind like a tidal wave.

They were terrible memories. Most were ashen or blood-colored, and some were as black as harmful mold. The owner of the memories was a man. The architect who had built this strange mansion to imprison his young and beautiful wife.

He enjoyed hearing the sound of his wife crying out in despair as she attempted to escape. Every time she reached a dead end and screamed, breaking picture frames and smashing vases, his vile laughter erupted from the opposite corridor.

The architect’s wife gradually went mad inside the house. Some days, she would burn with determination and try to escape by breaking windows, but she was always quickly caught by the servants.

On other days, she would lie down on the carpet instead of the bed or sofa, counting individual threads one by one, then suddenly burst into laughter, followed by crying as if having a seizure.

Laila recalled the image of the woman she had seen in the picture frame. The unhappy-looking woman holding a withered flower.

When the ‘overlay’ was complete, the writhing mass stopped moving. Laila took a long breath and clenched her molars.

She took out a small mirror and chanted quietly.

“See with your eyes, you have no shadow. Hear with your ears, you have no voice.”

There was a gurgling sound. It was the sound of all sorts of filthy dregs and mud forcibly flowing away. The sticky mass that had congealed in the center began to melt slowly.

“You have no shadow.”

The corner of the mirror glinted. Foul-smelling black smoke rose from the mass of thoughts that had turned into rotten compost, and everything slowly dissolved until finally, only something like a black, angular stone fragment remained.

The mirror returned to normal. As Laila sighed, Eustar patted her back encouragingly.

“You did well.”

“It was nothing.”

Laila, about to put away the mirror, turned towards Eustar.

“Let me see if you’re alright.”

Eustar obediently lifted his head to show his neck. It was clean. Despite having been strangled to the brink of death, there wasn’t even a faint bruise mark.

Laila sighed in relief and said,

“I’m glad. That nothing happened.”

Eustar smiled gently.

“Drawing the sword was a wise choice.”

Laila’s expression darkened slightly. Had she imagined hearing Badin’s voice then? Or…

“It wasn’t your imagination.”

Please. Laila unconsciously muttered an irritated word inwardly.

Eustar also turned his head with a similar expression. Somehow, Badin was standing there, looking almost mischievous.

“Hand it over.”

He said, extending his hand. The two looked at each other for a moment, not knowing what he meant, then shifted their gaze to the soul Eustar was holding.

Eustar frowned and said,

“You want this?”

“Yes, hand it over.”

“And if I refuse?”

Badin’s eyes moved meaningfully.

Laila said,

“If we give you this, will you let us out of here?”

Eustar and Badin both looked at her. At that moment, Eustar suddenly thought that Badin and Laila’s eyes seemed very similar yet completely different.

They both had red eyes like pomegranates, or like freshly bloomed hibiscus, but Badin’s eyes lacked warmth. They didn’t even convey emotion.

“Is that such a difficult thing to do?”

Badin finally answered. Laila turned to Eustar. It was a gesture meaning to give it up.

Eustar hesitated for a moment but soon nodded. He had been wondering why the Decepter hadn’t appeared, but what could he do? If he had been a step late, it would have been his responsibility to go hungry…

Badin looked indifferently at Eustar’s wary expression as if it was amusing, then casually popped the small stone-like object into his mouth.

A grinding sound and a small scream, as if being squeezed, were heard from between his teeth. As Badin lifted his chin, his pale Adam’s apple could be seen moving up and down.

Badin frowned deeply and ran his tongue over his lips once.

“Tastes disgustingly bad. I can’t understand why anyone would eat this kind of thing.”

Eustar and Laila looked at him simultaneously with puzzled expressions.

“I mean creatures like Decepters. Those who fill their stomachs with human souls. I never understood it, but after eating it myself, I understand even less. I wonder if they really like it, or if their tongues have become twisted from eating only this kind of thing.”

Eustar and Laila blinked in confusion at his sudden criticism of Decepters.

But they couldn’t stay that way for long. A distant rumbling sound was heard from somewhere, and the entire house began to shake.

“Badin!”

Laila, struggling to maintain balance on the trembling floor, shouted in an angry voice. Meanwhile, Badin stood with his hands behind his back, maintaining perfect posture without a hint of disturbance.

Badin said,

“What’s the matter? Now that the core is gone, it’s natural for the shell to collapse. There are no more locked doors now. The maze-like corridors have disappeared too. Try to escape well.”

At the same time, his figure vanished as if it had never been there.

“Laila!”

The moment the floor split open, Eustar wrapped his arm around Laila’s waist and pulled her. The two began to run without even a chance to look back.