C105: Just one look

Florence Night walked steadily toward the shrine room, her maid dress fluttering subtly with each step.

Her two hands were clasped together in a habitual gesture of composure. Her posture was straight, chin slightly lifted . The leather boots clicked rhythmically against the wooden floor.

At one point, she raised her eyebrows slightly.

‘Smell like rat.’

She brought a hand to her nose, her face momentarily wincing in distaste.

“Squik squik squik!”

“...”

It was indeed a rat.

It ran around her frantically, as if purposefully trying to annoy her.

A vein pulsed visibly at her temple. She raised one hand, her eyes flashing violet.

A puddle of dark, viscous blood slipped from a hidden bottle beneath her skirt. It slithered out across the floor like a living thing, then surged forward and wrapped around the mouse mid-sprint.

The creature froze in place, pinned by viscous crimson.

She raised the struggling creature to her sight. Her nose twitched, picking up something distinct.

“You stink.”

*Pop!*

She gripped her hand, and the mouse exploded in a tiny burst of blood and viscera.

Florence flicked her wrist, tossing the ruined blood mass aside so it would not stain her dress.

‘Odd.’

Florence frowned, and continued, pushing open the shrine door.

‘It still stinks.’

The shrine room was far more odorous than she expected, a cloying scent of rotten meat. She raised her hand to cover her nose, while the other pointed at the White Monarch statue.

The blood puddle surged forward, wrapping around the staff in the statue’s hand and rotating it.

The cane rotated. The floor behind the statue vibrated and slowly parted, revealing the dark staircase descending below.

Florence looked down, her frown deepening.

“My children, what has occurred?”

From the darkness below, dozens of violet eyes snapped open.

The bats burst upward from the staircase, circling her in frantic agitation. Some perched upon her shoulders, others clung to the walls, chittering.

“Bsiiik! Bsiiik! Bsiiik! Bsiiik! Bsiiik! Bsiiik!”

“Someone is inside? It is not Father?”

Her head turned to the door at the end of the staircase.

With a single breath, her body dissolved into a streak of motion, leaving a trail of violet dust in her wake.

“Who dares!”

The door burst open, and she stormed in.

“?”

However, there was no one inside, only a fairly tidy room.

—

‘That’s close!’

‘So close!’

Inside the deeper hidden chamber beyond the concealed wall, Arnold sat on the cold stone floor, breathing heavily. His back pressed against the damp wall as he tried to steady himself.

He didn’t expect… there was a hidden room inside the hidden room!

At the same time, from beyond the wall separating this chamber from the study, he could hear the door of the study room burst open.

‘!’

*Thumb thumb.* *Thumb thumb.*

Arnold’s breath hitched. He forced himself to slow it down, to quiet the pounding of his heart so it wouldn’t echo in his ears.

‘Lucky we moved all the books back to their original positions.’

‘Yes! Ehehe.’

Izzy frowned inside Arnold’s mind.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘It’s thrilling!’

‘…This was not a game…’

She suppressed her irritation and decided to ignore her young mind.

Despite the urgency, they had forced themselves to move all the books back to their original positions while the hidden door opened. If the maid saw an obviously ransacked study, suspicion would arise. With the secret chamber discovered, there was no reason to make their intrusion blatant any longer.

*Clop. Clop.*

Izzy could hear the boot clicking on the wooden floor, as the maid on the other side walked around the room.

‘…’

She controlled Arnold to stand up slowly, making sure not to make any obvious noise.

In this enclosed space, her Field Vision couldn’t see outside to the other side of the wall, so she must rely on sound instead to hear the maid.

‘Now the question is, how do we get out?’

A quick scan of the chamber told her this was still a sealed room.

‘Why is there another hidden chamber inside the hidden room under the church?’

Was that really necessary? Was Victor hiding something so dangerous that one layer of concealment wasn’t enough?

Her mind thought for a moment.

‘The Vampire Path.’

Something aligned in her mind.

‘I see. That makes sense.’

The maid from Madam’s estate. That woman definitely had something to do with vampires.

Izzy remembered how she had used that dark red liquid against the thugs before. Although she did not know how that maid controlled them, she could understand that the dark red liquid was, in fact, blood.

‘She can control blood. Got it.’

From Isa’s earlier observation through the mouse puppet, it appeared she could not manipulate blood inside others’ bodies. Since the maid did not control the blood in the mouse’s body, she guessed that was the case.

She only controlled the blood that was drawn out from the containers beneath her dress.

‘She can control blood at a distance, but only blood that belongs to her.’

Izzy wasn’t entirely certain whether it was the woman's own blood or someone else's. This needed more study,

‘Is there anything else?’

‘It’s cold, Izzy!’

‘Hmmm.’

Unlike Benjamin’s heat when he used his ability, That maid’s power was chilling. Isa had felt a wave of coldness brush against their shared consciousness when her eyes flashed.

‘Different Faction than Benjamin.’

A Faction that had a chilling air when using their ability, with a violet color code.

‘What about the ability to control people?’

The ability that the maid had shown to control the thugs to go back.

Izzy remembered the content inside the note.

[“These individuals must not be ghouls, blood servants, fanatics, or blood addicts. These individuals must not be turned and must not be killed before the next moon cycle.”]

If she had to infer—

‘They are either one of those: blood servants, fanatics, or blood addicts.’

That would make sense.

*Clop, clop, clop, clop.*

Outside, she could still hear the footsteps of the maid. That woman hadn’t left yet. Maybe that woman was still searching for the intruder.

“Hah.”

Izzy sighed and returned to Arnold’s perspective.

Arnold calmed his heart down and stood up.

‘I wonder what he hid in here.’

Arnold waved his hand and looked back—

‘DON’T!’

“...Hmm?”

Izzy lifted her head inside the mindscape, startled.

Something flared through her, a raw, primal intuition that screamed with a terror she had not felt in a long, long time.

‘Did you feel it?’ she asked the young mind, sweat trickled down her forehead.

‘?’ Isa tilted her head, her green eyes wide with confusion.

A wave of intense anxiety washed over Izzy.

She controlled Arnold and—

‘Don’t!’

‘Don’t look!’

‘Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back!’

The sound overlapped, layered, echoing like a chorus of whispers.

‘!’

Izzy’s eyes widened. A crushing weight slammed into her chest, making her breath stop.

*Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.*

Arnold's heartbeat accelerated unnaturally, pounding against his ribs as if trying to escape his body.

Arnold clutched his chest and dropped to his knees.

“Ou—eughh—!”

He vomited violently onto the stone floor. Bitter bile splattered across the dust.

‘!’

Inside the mindscape, Isa collapsed as well, clutching her chest. Her face contorted in pain.

*Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.*

‘What?’ Izzy trembled, her very essence shaking.

“Hah… hah… hah… hah…” In the real world, Arnold’s body broke into cold sweat. His breathing became ragged, His vision blurred. His pulse hammered so violently that his veins throbbed visibly beneath the skin of his neck.

‘What is this?’

Why did she suddenly throw up? Izzy had no idea why.

An unknown pressure pressed tightly on her chest. It intensified, heavier with the passing time.

The air became denser, as if something obscured her breath.

Izzy knew this sensation. It was painfully familiar.

Fear.

‘I’m scared…’

Her vision blurred.

There was something there. Something behind Arnold.

Its existence alone was enough to suffocate them. The feeling of absolute terror.

‘I-Izzy!’

A voice came from somewhere far away, distorted.

A wave of thick, disorienting fog engulfed her mind.

‘Who is it?’

‘Who called my name?’

Izzy trembled. Dizziness assaulted her. Her intuition screamed, a primal shriek.

‘DON'T LOOK.’

‘DO NOT LOOK.’

‘DO NOT LOOK BACK.’

‘DO NOT LOOK BACK!’

Arnold’s neck creaked as Izzy forced it to move. Slowly, like rusted machinery grinding against itself.

“...”

In front of her stood a statue.

The Moon Maiden statue.

Her posture was elegant, draped in flowing stone robes. In her hand she held a scale, frozen mid-judgment.

However… There was something different about the statue. This did not look like the one from the village square.

The head was not the Moon Maiden’s head.

The Moon Maiden’s head was gone. It was replaced with—

With—

#######

“Ah.”

It opened its violet eyes.

The eyelids peeled apart vertically. Wet, glistening membranes folded outward like petals of rotten flesh. A cluster of violet orbs rolled in unison, each reflecting Arnold’s distorted face at him.

“AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!”

Arnold’s scream ripped from his throat.

Inside the mindscape—

‘AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!’

‘EKHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!’

The scream echoed.

*Thud.*

Arnold’s body collapsed.

His pupils dilated, then ruptured. His eyeballs swelled and burst.

His nose began to bleed. Then his ears. Then his mouth. Fragments of vitreous fluid and tissue spilled down.

His heartbeat skipped and spasmed. With a wet, internal pop, the heart burst.

Inside the mindscape, the crimson theatre rumbled. Izzy and Isa dropped to the ground simultaneously. Their consciousness turned dark.

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