Chapter 2:A Night Veiled in Mist and Secrets
✦ Chapter 2 ✦
“A Night Veiled in Mist and Secrets”
The man’s eyes, which would’ve normally been nothing but black voids, shimmered strangely under the mingling glow of the lantern’s flame.
In the center of his irises, a faint flicker trembled—then flared into a vigorous blaze.
It was because Dain’s hand, the one holding the lantern, was trembling.
Drawing her quivering right hand to her chest and covering it with her left, she lowered her head.
She spoke in a hushed, hesitant tone.
“Um… but, could you please… put some clothes on?”
His chiseled body, striking enough to make it hard to even glance at him, clouded her vision.
A flush of heat surged to her ears.
‘In the original story, he was supposed to stay calm until meeting the female lead… Did I arrive too late and make things worse?’
She set aside the puzzling question of why he—who ought to be suffering under the torment of the evil god’s voice—was instead swimming stark naked through the water.
There was a bigger issue at hand:
Despite her gaze resting on him, he hadn’t moved an inch, still staring intently.
Why is he, the one who’s undressed, not the embarrassed one?
Why must I be the one blushing?
In the end, Dain turned away first, rubbing the tip of her nose awkwardly.
Rustle, rustle—she could hear the sound of him dressing again.
Then, his voice pierced the mist.
“Were you planning to die?”
His tone was heavy, thick as the lake’s fog, and tinged with a weary emptiness.
“It’s a decent place to die. Though your body will sink, the water’s not too deep—it wouldn’t even be hard to recover the corpse.”
Dain blinked in disbelief and retorted sharply.
“I didn’t come here to turn into a water ghost, thank you very much.”
“Then why are you here?”
When no clever excuse came to mind, she faltered.
He asked again.
“Are you from the nearby village?”
She had no intention of revealing her identity.
Her goal wasn’t to expose herself, but to stop the male lead from spiraling down the wrong path from the very beginning of the novel.
After all, the two of them were destined for a political marriage—or a divorce, at best.
Getting entangled with him now was the last thing she wanted.
“Yes. I’m a village resident.”
“A village resident, hmm… Then, tell me—why would a village resident be wandering around a lakeside on a night like this, shrouded head to toe in a ragged robe?”
Not wanting to be recognized, Dain had borrowed a large-hooded robe from the inn and wrapped a scarf around her face.
Once the sound of dressing ceased, she turned back toward him.
With an irritated hand, he tousled the damp strands of black hair clinging to his face.
“Let me ask you again. Why would an ordinary village resident wander the misty lake on a night like this—when evil spirits are running rampant—draped in such a suspicious robe?”
“…”
“You must be either a devil-worshipper, or someone with a death wish. Perhaps both.”
“…”
“Either way, it ends the same. If you’re a devil-worshipper, I’ll have to kill you. If you’ve lost the will to live—well, I can help with that too.”
‘Why must that be your conclusion?!’
Dain screamed internally.
She’d come to save the male lead, only to watch her second life nearing its premature end.
‘He’s a noble, a well-known figure in this world. And look—he’s wearing garments only aristocrats can afford…’
“My Lord! Forgive my insolence—I didn’t know I was in the presence of someone so noble!”
She flung herself forward in a deep bow.
That’s how an average village girl would react upon encountering a noble.
“I am not a follower of the devil. I am merely a seeker—someone who turns to the divine for answers when faced with questions.”
Above her bowed head, his indifferent voice rang out.
“Seekers of the divine usually smear blood on their doors and stay quietly indoors on nights like this. But you’re not, are you?”
‘You’re literally the same!’
She clamped her mouth shut before she could accuse him of hypocrisy.
In this world, evil spirits and devils are considered beings unworthy of questioning God.
That line she’d given usually earned her the benefit of the doubt.
But not with him.
“So, why are you out here tonight?”
What kind of situation could force someone out of their home on a night when malevolent spirits prowled freely?
When she’d read the novel, she often let her imagination run wild about what lay beyond the written lines.
But now, fear had frozen her thoughts.
Failing to come up with a plausible excuse, she opened her lips with difficulty.
“Well… it’s my husband…”
“You were talking just fine earlier, but the moment I asked if you were a devil-worshipper, your voice shrank to nothing. Seems like I should execute you after all, just in case—”
No more time to think.
Dain raised her voice—and startled the sleeping birds from their nests.
“Because that damn husband was cheating on me!!!”
“…”
“I just… couldn’t bear to look at him anymore.”
“…Hah.”
He let out a shallow breath.
A beat of silence—then he burst into laughter.
Ahahaha! Ahahahaha!
The echo of his clear laughter rattled the birds once more.
Maybe it wasn’t the evil spirits, but her outrageous excuse that lacked credibility.
Still bowing her head, Dain slowly looked up and gazed at the star-strewn sky.
She’d just confessed her ex-husband’s affair to the entire world.
Startled birds flitted beneath their nests, and even the stars above felt like eyes gawking at her.
“I didn’t mean to laugh. My apologies—truly unfortunate.”
“No, I understand—”
“But you see, now that you’ve planted that idea in my head—it’s honestly hilarious.”
Ahahaha! Ahahahaha!
‘You literally just said you were sorry…’
Unable to stop, he laughed until tears pricked his eyes.
Even his sharp jawline quivered with the remnants of mirth.
For a fleeting moment, he looked less like a cold nobleman and more like a mischievous boy.
The problem? The target of that laughter… was her.
He was laughing alongside the evil god in her head, mocking her together.
They say life up close is a tragedy, but from afar—a comedy.
And she was now the punchline.
Still, now that the “cheating husband” card was on the table, her tongue moved more freely.
“I work at the village inn. My shift ended earlier than expected, so I rushed home, painted the door with chicken blood, and locked it. But then I heard strange noises inside. Without thinking, I opened the door and… I saw it.”
“You ran straight out of the house? Into a night full of evil spirits?”
Still doubtful, he pressed on. Dain sighed deeply.
“If you had to spend the night with either a cheating spouse or a ghost, which would you pick?”
“Neither. I’d kick them both out and stay in the house alone.”
He wasn’t the type to play along with these ‘either-or’ games.
“Well, let’s say… you have to choose. No house. Just the cheater or the ghost. Pick one.”
“Why should I waste time on a scenario that will never happen to me?”
“…Right. Of course.”
She dropped the question and continued her fabricated tale.
“So… I knocked on the neighbor’s door. But it was already dark, and no one answered. I sat by the roadside, unsure what to do, and then remembered a saying: Evil spirits are drawn to humans—they gather where people are. So I thought… let me go somewhere far from the village. Somewhere people don’t go. The forest seemed safer.”
“Hmm. Sounds reasonable.”
“It’s not just ‘reasonable’—it’s the truth.”
They say guilty feet have no rhythm—and her defensive tone proved it.
When she glared, his gaze didn’t waver; instead, it grew more piercing.
Cornered, she averted her eyes.
Amused by her submissive posture, he stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“Hold on.”
“??”
“Let’s go back to your story. So, you had the courage to walk into a cursed forest alone—but not the courage to kick out your cheating husband and his mistress? That part seems fishy to me.”
“Well…”
He was clearly desperate to focus on something—anything—to drown out the evil voice in his head.
She understood.
But still—why dig so deep?
‘Then again, stories about other people’s ruined marriages are kind of fun… What should I say next…?’
“Well, the thing is…”
“Yes?”
As silence stretched, his tired eyes sank deeper into their hollows.
Dain looked like someone hounded by debt collectors—desperate and panicked.
“…My mother-in-law!”
“Your mother-in-law?”
“Yes! I have a mother-in-law.”
“Most married women do.”
His brows furrowed as if to say, And that’s supposed to mean something?
Dain used to be the same.
Mother-in-law? In-laws? Family stress?
Isn’t that just part of marriage? Why make such a fuss?
Back then, she wore the blank, clueless expression of someone who’d never known better.
‘What a fool I was.’
She now looked at the male lead with the same pity she once reserved for her past self.
Maybe he sensed something—his head tilted slightly.
“If it had been just my husband and his mistress… maybe I could’ve dragged her out by the hair and screamed at him to leave. But… my mother-in-law was there too. She’s… terrifying. Like if you compressed a hundred evil spirits into one body, that’s her.”
“…Yikes.”
“So yeah… I didn’t even think of throwing them out. You know how it is—after a thousand little fights, you start hating the fight itself more than the person. You just want it all to end. Maybe you wouldn’t understand. You’re not married, after all…”
The moment those words left her mouth, his eyes narrowed sharply.
“You know who I am.”
