To My Beloved, I Present My Exquisite Nightmare - Chapter 23

No. Laila muttered inwardly. And slowly backing away, she tightly gripped the ring on her right hand.

How did she connect with Eustar earlier?

—I might be able to have your body.

She approached gradually. Even without touching, once again an icy coldness enveloped Laila’s entire body. There’s no going back. But she wouldn’t be able to shake her off either……

—I want it, I want it so badly! A child like you has never come to a place like this! Give me your body! Hand over your body!

The voice echoing in her head grew louder and louder. Laila screamed and unknowingly swung her tightly clenched right hand. A pain like being pricked by needles spread. When she opened her eyes, the woman was biting Laila’s right hand with her jaw wide open.

Crunch……

Yellowing, decaying teeth scraped against the ring Laila was wearing. If she pulled her hand out, it would be bitten off like this. Laila breathed heavily with her eyes bulging red. What should she do……

“Laila!”

Laila’s head whipped around.

“Eustar! I’m here!”

Even meeting an angel in the middle of hell couldn’t be more welcome than this. Laila could no longer endure the intensifying pain in her right hand and screamed. It felt like her fingers were going to fall off……

That’s when it happened.

—Crash!

With a thunderous sound as if all the walls were collapsing, Laila’s body was jerked backward. She saw the woman, with eyes wide open, flying and crashing into the opposite wall.

“How……”

“Did you see the core?”

Eustar asked. When Laila nodded, he placed his hand on Laila’s shoulder and stuck out his head as if indicating a direction.

“Look again. You need to open the core. But it will be painful. It will be very difficult.”

“That woman showed me. Her memories.”

“Not anymore.”

The woman was struggling, unable to move, stuck to the wall. Her limbs were spread wide in an X-shape, and her decayed fingers with exposed bones twitched hideously. Her milky white, pupil-less eyes rolled about.

—Aagh! You! How dare you, created from my blood! How dare you! Let go! Let me go!

Laila appeared dazed, facing a situation she had never encountered before. Eustar said,

“Hurry, Laila. There’s no time. Start the overlay. You need to open the core.”

She wanted to answer that she understood, but her voice wouldn’t come out. The wailing of the ghost, restrained without substance, was terrible.

Laila quickly closed her eyes and focused on her. She tried to revive the memories she had seen earlier. But they were blurry…… It was as difficult as forcibly opening a tightly locked box.

The difference might be that when opening a box, you need to exert force with your fingertips and forearms, but now you need to exert all your strength on what’s inside your head, on what’s called the mind.

“It’s not working well, Eustar!”

“You still have to do it. Alright, take a deep breath…… You’re doing well. Slowly.”

His voice resonated as if wrapping around her ears. Laila matched her breathing to Eustar’s. She inhaled slowly and exhaled even more slowly.

Like a fish that can descend to the deep sea with just one breath, she tried to hold her breath in her lungs for a long time. And she forcibly pried open the gap of the rattling box lid.

—Aaagh…… No! Don’t come in! Don’t come in—!

Laila’s knees buckled from the tremendous headache. It was a pain like digging into her temples with a knife. If Eustar hadn’t supported her from behind, she would have collapsed.

Enduring the pain, Laila made one last effort to open her box. The scenes that she had shown one by one, as if torturing, poured out like a swarm of bees.

She felt something warm flowing over her lips, and Laila could tell she was having a nosebleed. Just then, Eustar’s voice was heard.

“Cutting old shadows with rusty scissors, you can no longer return to this place.”

—Aaagh…… No, no! That wench, that thing is still here! I—!

There was a cracking sound. It was the sound of the wall splitting. At the same time, a thin chain sprang out from Eustar’s sleeve, stood up straight, and shot like an arrow towards the struggling ghost.

—Kuugh……!

The moment the chain pierced her chest, the ghost let out a groan almost like a human. Her face, which had been blackened and rotten, momentarily regained its appearance from when she was alive. A stream of black, sticky blood flowed from the corner of her mouth.

The woman said,

“This…… cursed thing….. Because of you, it’s all your fault…… You ruined this place, because you were born……”

Laila’s breathing became rough. The terrible words the woman was spitting out were clearly directed at Eustar. And she was speaking knowing clearly who he was.

The chain that had pierced the woman’s chest wrapped around her as if to tear her to shreds.

Most of it turned into black dust and disappeared, but a cube as small as a pinky nail remained. When Eustar retrieved it, Laila could see that somewhere on that cube, features similar to the woman’s remained.

“Huff……”

Eustar’s body staggered away from Laila as he exhaled a murky breath.

“Eustar!”

Laila was startled and tried to approach, but he raised his hand to stop her from coming closer.

Black smoke flickered over his shoulders, which were hunched like those of an extremely tired porter. Laila narrowed her eyes and tried to focus on the form of that smoke. She tried to see what it was, but……

There was a crunching sound. It was after the smoke had enveloped Eustar’s hand. And a faint scream of pain could be heard as well.

He’s ‘feeding’ it again. Laila thought. But what on earth is that? Is it something attached to Eustar? Or is it something that came from him?

What kind of being could devour a human soul, and that too in its refined, core form?

When the meal was over —if it could be called a meal— Eustar finally stood up with a pale expression. His long hair was disheveled, and sweat had soaked his forehead.

“Are you alright?”

He asked. When Laila nodded, Eustar took another deep breath and brushed back the hair that had fallen over his forehead. It was a nervous gesture.

“I told you it’s dangerous here, Laila.”

“I didn’t come here! I was in the garden.”

Eustar frowned and tilted his head.

“Is that true?”

Laila spoke as if frustrated.

“Why would I lie? I don’t have a hobby of taking risks. I don’t want to… force myself into things beyond my capabilities either. I was in the garden… and I heard a voice. She might have cast some spell on me.”

Sometimes, there are people who can’t see ghosts but are sensitive to their presence. Such people often find themselves in strange places without realizing it, or commit strange —sometimes even cruel— acts.

Those with keen senses were easily drawn to ghosts, but those who didn’t know how to defend themselves were more likely to fall victim.

Laila’s case must be like that. Eustar sighed and stared at her with an expression that seemed unsure whether to laugh or cry, then said,

“We need to get you proper protective gear as soon as possible, Laila. And something to attack with too. To this extent… I honestly didn’t know you were this sensitive. It’s not just your keen eyes. You are… constitutionally a born medium.”

Laila furrowed her brow. She suddenly turned to look at the wall where the woman’s ghost had been pinned. It had been severely cracked to the point of near collapse, but now it was perfectly fine.

Eustar said,

“Still, I should be grateful to you. Grandmother’s ghost was honestly a nuisance. I couldn’t see the core, so I couldn’t deal with her. If I couldn’t disarm her first, my life would have been in danger.”

Laila stared at him blankly.

“Is she gone now?”

Eustar blinked in agreement.

“Yes. I had hoped she would realize her mistakes someday, but it ended up like this. But now, there won’t be any more disappearances.”

After pondering, Laila carefully said,

“That woman… your grandmother. She did terrible things. Did you know?”

Eustar wore a thoughtful expression for a moment, then nodded ambiguously.

“Vaguely. But I heard it secondhand, so I didn’t know how much was true. When you opened grandmother’s core earlier, I could see a few things for a very brief moment. It seems the rumors about her committing atrocities weren’t lies after all.”

“She killed children.”

Laila staggered momentarily from the lingering headache, but stood straight on her own before Eustar could support her. Her face was pale.

Eustar said,

“It’s something that happens often in places like this.”

“Do you have half-siblings?”

After a brief silence, Eustar answered.

“No, my only sibling is my elder brother. His Majesty King Ord Hyanmorik, whom you will have an audience with tomorrow.”

Only then did Laila remember the fact she had forgotten and narrowed her eyes slightly.

After all this chaos, to think she had to meet the king tomorrow… It was unbelievable. How did her life, which was not peaceful but quiet and plain, end up like this?

As if reading her thoughts, Eustar wrapped his cloak around Laila’s body and said,

“Let’s return to your room and rest early today. Duke Himierd should have had the servants prepare the bedroom. If you find it hard to fall asleep, ask a servant for a glass of warm wine.”

“What about you?”

Eustar smiled faintly. He looked no less tired than Laila, but seemed less shocked than expected.

His expression was too calm for someone who had just torn his grandmother’s soul to shreds with his own hands.

“I’ll go back to my room and sleep early too. Tomorrow will be busy from the morning. If you want to contact me, use that ring. Just tap it. Like this.”

He demonstrated by lightly tapping the back of his hand. Laila nodded as if she understood.

Eustar wrapped his arm around Laila’s shoulders.

“Let’s go. I’ll escort you to your bedroom.”

Laila complied with his words, but the uneasy feeling didn’t subside at all. No, it had only gotten worse. The words left by his grandmother, that malicious ghost, as she disappeared…

‘You ruined this place. Because you were born…’

What on earth are you?

Laila tried to hide her trembling lips as she acutely felt Eustar’s hand on her shoulder.