Chapter 28
Bella, who had run over in a panic, abruptly pulled Elena’s sleeve. She was just as frightened as Sir Zenobio had been a moment ago.
“Yes. Guide me, Bella.”
“I will accompany you.”
The place the three people arrived at was in front of the moat, a little distance away from the main gate with the drawbridge. Bella pushed aside a juniper tree laden with shriveled leaves and pointed to the surface of the moat.
“Something was sparkling there, so I was watching it, but then the water suddenly rippled, and a corpse floated up.”
The moment Elena stepped closer to the moat Bella had indicated, the corpse, which had barely been partially visible, floated completely out of the water. It was a corpse that had clearly been dead for a long time. Nevertheless, features that could confirm its identity remained. White hair, and hands without fingernails…
That is why they could recognize him.
“It’s definitely Sir Lios. The knight who called the Duke a pitiful man. He was certainly with us when we departed. But…….”
“…….”
“Saintess. The Devil sent that dead man to us, didn’t he?”
When Elena nodded slightly, Bella and Sir Zenobio sighed simultaneously. The knight made the Sign of the Cross over his heart, and the priestess clutched Elena’s holy vestment, which she had personally starched and ironed, until it wrinkled.
“Oh, couldn’t we just not go?”
“Bella.”
“I’m sorry. But, Saintess. This place is stranger than Esslingen, stranger than Swabia. It’s too…….”
Elena said nothing. After helping Bella, who was slumped on the ground and shedding tears, to stand with Sir Zenobio’s assistance, she looked back at the nail-less corpse. Until the corpse fully sank back into the algae-covered water. Until the sound of the wind could be heard.
“Such useless sentimentality over just one corpse. Discard it.”
Ah. It wasn’t the sound of the wind. It was someone’s voice.
“That is not like you.”
Elena lifted her head toward the direction of the sound, but there was nothing in the air. Then, who was the owner of this surreal voice, which sounded both like a child and an old man?
“Bella. Sir Zenobio. It seems we should immediately……. Bella?”
She turned her head to tell them to retreat, but Bella, who had been next to her just moments ago, was not visible. The same was true of Sir Zenobio, who had been supporting her. Elena returned to the front of the drawbridge to search for the vanished pair. The two people were there.
“Bella!”
Elena ran to the collapsed Bella. Sir Zenobio was embracing her as if to protect her, having fallen down with her. They were not the only ones. Everyone who had been walking around normally until just before the ‘voice’ was heard was sprawled on the ground like a corpse.
Fortunately, they were not dead. After confirming that they were all breathing, Elena returned to Bella and Sir Zenobio. Watching Bella still embraced in Sir Zenobio’s arms, Elena felt a sense of relief. And, on the other hand, a sense of loneliness.
‘I didn’t expect to have to go in without even saying goodbye.’
She gazed at Conrad Castle, unable to fully dismiss the loneliness that had faintly sprouted within her. Then, a gust of wind swept through, ruffling her hair. A chilly stream of wind forced its way into the gaps in her clothes.
“Ugh…….”
A sharp chill tickled her bare skin.
“Hurry.”
The intangible current scraped sensitive places like a rough finger. Elena, flustered by the chill that subtly groped her ample b*****s, waist, and between her legs, clutched her clothes.
The Devil’s Authority stirred up dust on the ground and urged her again.
“Hurry. Elena.”
The intensified wind drove the clouds. The sky, which had been sparkling with the light of the sunset, quickly faded to darkness. Beneath the night sky, swallowed by shadows, Elena stood up.
The wind still lingered inside her clothes, stirring up her bare skin.
“…….”
She confessed: there was never a moment when she was not afraid before the Devil’s Authority. But had she ever hesitated?
Elena took out her belongings from the carriage. And approached the black fog.
“O Devil who has descended upon Conrad.”
She opened her mouth while looking at the drawbridge on the opposite side.
“I, Elena Serotina Lefebvre, daughter of Claudine Lefebvre, as a mere human, dare to wish to be your entertainment. Therefore, O Great One. O Cruel One. If you should become bored…”
An unknown tremor formed in her voice, fluttering like the hair atop a spire.
“Open the gate. Mercifully accept this fool who has come in search of the Devil.”
CRASH.
Simultaneously with the sound of thunder splitting the sky, the drawbridge dropped at her feet. Like the mouth of a Devil, desperate to devour a woman.
Elena willingly pushed herself into that place.
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