To My Beloved, I Present My Exquisite Nightmare (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 3

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Despite Laila’s questions pouring down like a torrential rain, the man calmly spread both hands in a relaxed gesture—meaning they should take things one at a time.

When he gave a faint smile, Laila suddenly felt an inexplicable, chilling flutter deep in her chest.

“I suppose we’ll have to go one by one. First, my name is Eustar. As for where I’m from… well, I’ve been wandering around looking for you, so it’s a bit hard to pinpoint exactly where I came from.”

“I’ve never seen you before. And you probably haven’t seen me either.”

Laila retorted in a voice brimming with caution. The man, Eustar, nodded slowly as if it were obvious, then rested his chin in his hand.

“Of course, we’re strangers. But to be precise, I’ve been watching over you for a long time.”

A sudden chill ran down her spine. Watching over her?

“What do you mean by that?”

“Just as I said. Oh, don’t worry—I don’t mean I’ve been tracking your every single move. I’ve simply been observing your… let’s say, vitality. Your vitality as a witch, and your power.”

He seemed genuinely trying to explain carefully, yet Laila’s thoughts only grew more tangled.

So what exactly had he been watching, and how? Nothing was clarified. Yet Eustar looked puzzled, as if surprised that Laila still wore a bewildered expression.

“You don’t understand what I’m saying?”

“Do you really expect me to?”

Eustar blinked a few times. In his clear, pale green eyes—reminiscent of a young barley field—Laila’s reflection appeared strangely vivid.

Her ominous, jet-black hair; her crimson eyes like drops of fresh blood—features that unmistakably marked her as non-human—made Laila subtly avert her gaze.

“It’s an arcane artifact. You know what an arcane artifact is, right?”

“I know that much. But the only arcane artifact I’ve ever known merely tells me tomorrow’s weather.”

“Well, that’s…”

Eustar let his sentence trail off and gave a brief, amused chuckle.

“You’re quite different from the witch I imagined. Then what was that about drying my tongue out earlier?”

“That’s not something an arcane artifact does—it’s done with a tincture. Just a single drop in the tea I’d offer you.”

“That sounds more terrifying than an arcane artifact.”

Eustar said it half-jokingly, but Laila ignored him.

“In any case, I don’t know what kind of witch you imagined, but my mother never left me any arcane artifacts. Aren’t those things meant for mages, not witches like us?”

“It depends on how you look at it. Anyway, it was thanks to this that I was able to find you.”

With that, Eustar pulled something round from his bag.

It was a red bead, about the size of two grapes pressed together. Thin, pale lines—whether cracks or stains, it was hard to tell—branched out across its surface like blood vessels.

The moment Laila reached toward it, the bead resting in Eustar’s palm slowly rotated. Simultaneously, its surface split open like a bursting grape skin, revealing a black-pupiled eye that stared directly at Laila.

“Th—!”

Laila shot up without even managing a proper scream, kicking her chair aside as she stumbled backward. Seeing her face pale as chalk, Eustar casually closed his hand around the bead and returned it to his bag.

Laila’s lips, drained of color, trembled as she spoke.

“What… what was that just now? Was that an arcane artifact?”

“Yes. Mages call it a ‘Laininglore,’ but we just call it an ‘eyeball.’”

“We?”

Eustar shrugged and casually changed the subject.

“The chain you saw earlier is also a type of arcane artifact. But it’s different from what mages use. It’s been consecrated… used to banish spirits or monsters.”

“So you’re a monster hunter?”

“No, not exactly. I don’t just hunt monsters.”

Eustar’s voice trailed off as he tapped the tabletop thoughtfully. He looked either deeply contemplative or as if he’d made a mistake and was scrambling for an excuse.

“Laila, do you know what a ‘Sink’ is?”

Laila answered.

“You mean the black hole?”

“So that’s what you call it here?”

“That’s what most people say. So you’re talking about that? The one spirits pour out of?”

Eustar tilted his head slightly and smiled again. Feeble sunlight from the window spilled over his bright, long hair like glittering sand. Laila stared at him, momentarily entranced, before shaking her head.

“I don’t believe in such things.”

“Not even with those eyes of yours? That’s interesting.”

“It’s not about that. I simply don’t believe the black hole itself exists. The ground suddenly caving in and spewing out ghosts? No, that doesn’t sound right. Since you keep mentioning my eyes—I’ll say this: ghosts don’t crawl up from the earth like moles. They don’t sprout like mushrooms either. They’re just… there. Where they belong, or where they’re fixated. If you turn your head, they’re just… there. Like when I wake up in the middle of the night and see a woman with her neck bent sideways standing at the foot of my bed, staring down at me. My mother said she was one of my ancestors—executed by hanging just for being a witch.”

As Laila’s voice grew more agitated, Eustar gently interjected.

“You’re right. Ordinary ghosts do exist that way. It’s just that very, very few people can see them. But a ‘Sink’ isn’t like that. Laila, you seem to think a Sink forms like a crack in the earth during an earthquake—but that’s not how it’s created. Nor is that its form.”

Trending

At this point, Laila realized she needed to ask the crucial question.

“Even if everything you say is true—why should I care? Why were you watching me with that… eyeball or whatever it is?”

A smile touched Eustar’s lips. His gently curving eyes and mouth, paired with his unwavering pale green gaze, were terrifyingly alluring—so much so that for a moment, she thought she was looking at something not human.

‘What’s been going on since earlier? This feeling is strange…’

Laila pressed a hand to her forehead and sat back down. The old rocking chair creaked under her slight weight as if even that burden pained its frail wooden frame.

Then Eustar spoke.

“I think it’d be better to show you directly rather than explain with words.”

“…Show me what?”

“Everything. What’s happening in this village isn’t a plague. There’s no disease that cleanly melts away only the eyes. You’ve suspected that too, haven’t you?”

Laila’s lips pressed into a tight line. Eustar smiled leisurely once more and added,

“I’m sorry, but would it be alright if I stayed here until tonight? It’s much easier to find it after dark.”

Laila leaned back against the worn chairback and clenched her fists. At some point, she’d begun rocking back and forth, and the rhythmic creaking filled the silence—just as it had when her mother was still alive.

She fixed Eustar with a steady gaze and said,

“If we wait until nightfall… can you cure this strange illness?”

“It’s not an illness to begin with, so ‘cure’ isn’t quite right—but yes, I suppose you could say that. We’re going to eliminate the source of the problem.”

The source of the problem.

The villagers believed it was Laila’s fault that the children’s eyes crumbled away like soft mud. When the first two children died, their parents nearly broke down her front door.

And that wasn’t all—each time another child died, the villagers bared their teeth like beasts, brandishing sickles and pitchforks as they tried to storm her home.

By the time more than ten children had died, they seemed too numb even to blame her anymore…

Laila took a deep, ragged breath as if she’d just finished a frantic sprint.

“Alright.”

Her fingers, which had been biting into her own lips, now gripped tightly around the rounded ornament on the chair’s worn armrest.

“Alright. I’ve been curious myself about what this so-called cause really is.”

[This is the timeline separator]

Somewhere, music seemed to be playing. It sounded like an old, worn-out music box, its melody punctuated by the grating noise of rusted metal.

What song was this again? Laila wondered. She was certain she’d heard it somewhere, yet she couldn’t recall where.

Her mother had never once sung a lullaby to her. She was more prone to weeping than singing.

—His face was… and he…

Someone was singing along with the tune. The old music box grew louder, and just as Laila felt her body floating weightlessly—

“Wake up, Laila!”

Pop! The sound exploded like a balloon bursting inside her head, and Laila’s eyes flew open.

She gasped and looked around. It was pitch black—not a single candle lit. She must have dozed off while watching Eustar, who sat unnervingly still like a statue that breathed.

“…Is it night already? How long did I sleep?”

“For quite a while. Get up. It’ll be troublesome if we’re any later.”

Eustar’s tone sounded more commanding than it had earlier that day. Though she didn’t particularly like the change, Laila stood up without comment.

Just before stepping outside, Eustar glanced back at her chair and said,

“You’d better avoid falling asleep in that chair from now on.”

Laila frowned.

“Why?”

But Eustar only smiled faintly and offered no answer.

The two headed out and walked along a dark mountain path. After walking thoughtlessly for a while, Laila suddenly grabbed Eustar’s shoulder, sensing something was off.

“Wait a moment—this leads down to the village.”

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