As the startled people scattered like baby spiders, only Donovan’s sobbing echoed eerily in the quiet house. Eustar gripped his shoulder tighter and shook him lightly.

“Pull yourself together, Mr. Donovan. I have something to ask you. Did you see Alice?”

“I, I saw… No, no. That wasn’t my daughter…”

Tears poured endlessly from Donovan’s eyes.

Eustar forcibly lifted his face and lightly slapped his suddenly sunken cheek. At the sound of the slap, Donovan finally glared at Eustar with eyes that had regained some semblance of reason.

Eustar said,

“My colleague, Lady Laila, was taken by Alice. No, by something that looked like Alice. I saw them going to Vintosis. What’s in Vintosis? Tell me everything you know.”

“Vintosis…”

Donovan’s eyes filled with fear as he mumbled.

“That place is cursed.”

“I know that too. But I’m asking by whom and for what reason the curse was cast. If you don’t know, tell me who might know. Time is of the essence.”

“That curse… It’s a story I heard as a child. But no one believes it… Surely it can’t be, it’s just a tale from long ago…”

As Donovan started sobbing again, Eustar finally shouted at him in anger.

“My colleague is in danger because of that old tale! Whether it’s a damned legend or a gargoyle story, tell me everything you know right now. Hurry!”

Intimidated by Eustar’s fierce demeanor, Donovan hiccupped in fear. Looking at Eustar with a completely overwhelmed and cowed expression, Donovan hung his head low and said in a tear-filled voice,

“We, my wife and I… conceived Alice in that empty house in Vintosis…”

A despairing sigh escaped from Eustar’s momentarily hesitant lips.

Alice took out a blackened decorative plate and spun around once in the middle of the room holding it. Her worn skirt fluttered lifelessly like a withered flower petal before settling.

“This was a place no one could enter. Uncle forbade it. He said neither the filth from Hoierhis nor the half-breeds living outside could enter Vintosis. He rarely allowed them even into the village. But this place, Uncle’s secret room… Countless women from Hoierhis passed through here.”

For a moment, Laila frowned, not understanding her words. Seeing Laila, Alice turned to her with a chillingly high and light laugh.

“You naive and foolish witch. You still don’t know what human greed is. Uncle was an extraordinary man. He took the beauties of Hoierhis without anyone noticing. But perhaps the master of Hoierhis did the same. Secretly bringing in the young ladies of Vintosis… Maybe Aunt even got to see the secret mansion of Hoierhis once or twice.”

And Alice began to laugh nervously as if she had heard the funniest joke in the world. Laila noticed that the tips of her fingers had turned slightly bluish-black. Like a corpse, like old wax.

Alice continued,

“When Uncle occasionally left the mansion, I took over this room. He didn’t know why I liked this room, but it wasn’t difficult for him to give up the room for secret meetings to his only niece. I came to borrow this place… It was a beautiful room. It was so wonderful, you can’t even imagine now. Even that bed…”

The bed with its head against the window was as black as charcoal. As if it had burned but maintained its shape without collapsing. And over it, huge spider webs hung in two, three layers.

“It was a perfect place for making love.”

Listening to her words, Laila grumbled,

“So your lover snuck in here, right?”

“Yes, that man said he loved me. He said he wouldn’t trade me for anything in the world… That he would never abandon me. I drew his picture here over and over again. Of course, when Uncle or Aunt came in, I covered it with a demurely embroidered cloth, but behind it was always his figure that aroused my desire. They probably never dreamed… That inside my room… inside this beautiful room, the naked body of a man from dirty Hoierhis was hanging everywhere.”

“You two ran away, didn’t you? Then why did you kill all the villagers?”

Alice looked at Laila as if amused.

“Little witch, where did you hear such a thing?”

Laila shot back,

“Just answer the question.”

“What a temperamental girl you are. I once heard such words too. When I was very young.”

Alice, stroking a candle holder on the verge of crumbling, whispered,

“Have you ever been in love, witch? Or have you ever desired someone? Probably not. I heard that real witches are free from such enchantments. That must be true. Your life would be smoother that way. Love is just a castle in the air. I realized that fact less than a week after running away with him.”

Alice, who had been lovingly stroking the candle holder, suddenly gripped it with her bony fingers. The candlestick, which had been standing firmly despite losing its color, crumbled instantly like a rotten branch.

Laila became even more tense, not taking her eyes off Alice’s every movement. If she were an ordinary person, Laila was prepared to engage in a physical fight. But if that wasn’t the case…

—Laila, listen carefully. Humans can never overcome the power of ghosts. So don’t make eye contact with anything. Don’t let them look at you.

But mother, Laila thought. Even your advice is of no use now.

Laila’s expression twisted as if she had swallowed something bitter.

Alice, looking down at her own blackened hand, spoke as if in a daze,

“He knew too little… Really too little. Even a chicken in a coop must have seen and heard more things than him, surely. It was his first time leaving Hoierhis, and he was excited and thrilled to meet so many people outside. Then he was captivated by some woman. He left me. No matter how much I cried and begged, it was of no use. His whispers that he’d rather die than see the sun rise were just intoxicated by the warmth of the bed. When he realized there were many others who could embrace him warmly besides me, he turned colder than winter frost.”

The man left his luggage in the dead of night, abandoning her as she clung to him. The small inn where they had been staying, hiding from people’s eyes, which had felt like they had finally found a proper nest, turned into a narrow and dark nightmare.

Alice continued,

“I cried… I cried until I was on the verge of death. Then the innkeeper told me. That all men are like that. That there’s nothing to be sad or afraid of. But I was sad and afraid. I was only twenty. I knew nothing. I thought I had no choice but to go back to my uncle and beg for forgiveness. I might get slapped, but there was no other way…”

She took out some of the jewelry she had secretly brought along, paid the innkeeper for her stay, and then walked the mountain path to return to Vintosis.

Even then, memories of running hand in hand in the deep night brought uncontrollable sobs. The touch of the wind, the sweet scent from her tongue dried with fear and overwhelming joy…

Tired and exhausted, she walked for two full days and arrived at the foothills where Vintosis was visible. It was night, and the moon was out.

But something felt strange about the village atmosphere. Not just Vintosis, but Hoierhis too. Torches were burning here and there, and men wielding farm tools like weapons were gathered in the square, shouting something.

They’re going to war. She realized this fact even in her exhaustion. It was clearly because of her and that man.

Because the two of them had run away, they were blaming each other and trying to kill… It wouldn’t end until one side was completely annihilated.

“I thought it would be better if they all just disappeared.”

The moment she thought that, suddenly black smoke enveloped her. She screamed in fear, but no one heard her voice. Only a scops owl perched on a branch flapped its wings and quickly fled.

The smoke rushed into her eyes, her nose, her throat. It ravaged the inside of her wounded body like a violation. As her life was fading away, she wailed. That she couldn’t suffer this pain alone.

To kill them all.

Alice turned towards Laila. The distorted half of her face had become normal.

“When that useless fight disappeared, this place finally became quiet. Sometimes stupid humans would come and make noise… But I could handle that much with my power. But this child’s parents, well. Did I let my guard down? They came all the way here, right to where you’re standing now… And they did something vulgar here. Something unforgivable.”

Laila stared at Alice’s face, genuinely shocked. The undistorted face, the cute face that the real Alice could have had if she hadn’t been cursed, felt unfamiliar and eerie.

And she could finally fully understand the meaning of what she had been saying.

Laila said,

“So your curse was passed on to Alice. To that unborn child. Because they made love here.”

“To be precise, it was passed on to that woman. This child’s mother. As soon as she became pregnant, she knew that what was in her womb was a daughter. And she knew something terrible would happen and cried every day. She cried and cried and cried until she finally went mad and ran away from home.”

Left alone, Donovan looked at his newborn daughter crying in the cradle and was plunged into anguish.

He couldn’t even think about finding his missing wife. Whenever he saw the child’s distorted face, terrible imaginings clouded his mind like dark clouds.

Sometimes, whenever he saw a soft pillow stuffed with straw, his hands would tremble. The urge to send that pitiful thing away with it wouldn’t stop.

Alice said,

“He contemplated killing his daughter every day but ultimately couldn’t do it. That’s because he lacked courage. In the end, Alice lived a life of ridicule. But if I hadn’t been here, this child would have hanged herself long ago.”