Chapter 4
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Esdel sat in the armchair in front of the fireplace, glancing at the clock. The hour hand was passing the number ‘2’.
Two hours.
Two hours had already passed since Marie asked the knights to conduct a search. Yet, there had been no report of any kind.
It was strange. If they were delayed because a more thorough investigation was needed, at least one of the knights should have returned to deliver the news. That was why they moved in groups of three.
Esdel, who had been fidgeting with the handle of her long-empty teacup, slowly rose from her seat. When she pulled the bell cord, Marie promptly entered the room.
“Milady, you called for me?”
“Help me get ready. I think I’ll have to go out and see for myself.”
“To the Count…”
“He won’t let me leave if I tell him now. Just report that I’m in the middle of a search in an hour. If you tell Mother first, she’ll calm Father down, so don’t forget to tell them when they’re together.”
Esdel walked toward the dressing room with unhesitating steps.
“Ah, and pass the map on that table to Lars. Tell him to memorize it before I leave.”
“…This?”
Marie looked bewildered after checking the map.
“Yes. Have the knights who will be joining the search memorize it as well.”
“…Milady, I don’t think any of the knights will be able to memorize this….”
“Why?”
“Well… I understand. I’ll deliver the map and come back.”
Marie hesitated, then finally nodded her head.
It was only after she rode out on her horse and met Lars and the other knights that Esdel understood why Marie had hesitated. The moment the knights saw Esdel, they bowed deeply and began to beg for forgiveness.
“Milady, we are truly sorry! But we really, absolutely cannot memorize this!”
Behind the sweating knights, Lars was shaking his head.
“Hahaha! Milady, I told you, didn’t I? Only you can memorize that. Who in the world goes around knowing the names of every single alley in the territory?”
Esdel frowned slightly. She truly hadn’t thought for a moment that this would be impossible.
To be generous, perhaps an ordinary territory resident or a servant might not be able to memorize it. But these were knights. Shouldn’t knights, of all people, be required to have the map of their own territory memorized?
Her mother and father both had it memorized, and she herself had been memorizing the revised map every year since she was ten.
“…Alright.”
Esdel acknowledged that there was no possibility of the knights memorizing all of this right now. It was just deplorable that she hadn’t realized, having been soaked in peace until now, that the standard of her knighthood had hit such a low.
‘That’s not a problem I can solve right now, so I’ll worry about it later….’
It seemed she had found another task to add to her list for when she became the Countess. Rewriting the to-do list in her head, Esdel forced herself to swallow a sigh. For now, it seemed the best course of action was to accompany the knights herself and check the locations marked on the map. Since it would be difficult to split the personnel as originally planned, the search time would likely be doubled.
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“Ah, stop here for a moment.”
“Yes, milady!”
She stopped on the main road where horses could pass and mentioned the places the knights should check. Fortunately, they had no trouble memorizing the three or four places she mentioned right in front of the alley.
“There are no traces here!”
“Nothing here either!”
Esdel took out her pocket watch and checked the time. A little over 30 minutes had already passed since she left the mansion.
Her brow furrowed. First a maid disappears, and now the knights’ whereabouts are also a mystery. The moment the search party failed to return, the possibility of them being unharmed had already become slim.
‘I just hope they’re still alive.’
The atmosphere in the territory was already grim, with the serial murders continuing unabated. In a situation like this, if the Count’s own servant and knights also became victims, the situation would become uncontrollable.
Just then, a shout came from inside the alley.
“Found her here, milady!”
The last of the knights who had entered the alley returned. Unlike the others who had run out with swift movements, he was carrying someone on his back. The person he was carrying was a woman with long hair.
‘Roan.’
Esdel clenched her fists tightly.
The knights took off their cloaks and spread them on the ground, then laid Roan upon them. Soon, under the lantern Lars held up, Roan’s form became visible. The maid, who had been perfectly fine until noon, was now covered in blood.
Esdel asked in a trembling voice.
“Is she breathing?”
“We’re too late.”
The Knight Captain shook his head and stepped back from Roan’s body. Esdel, who had been holding her breath for a while, slowly dismounted from her horse.
As she took a short breath, the metallic smell of blood brushed past her nose. Esdel stepped closer and examined the sword embedded in Roan’s chest. A familiar crest was engraved on the hilt.
“It’s our family’s sword.”
As Esdel murmured this, a stir went through the knights.
She approached the maid’s body. As she knelt beside it with a hardened face, Lars whispered.
“You do not need to see this yourself, milady.”
“She is a servant of this house. If I don’t see to her, who will?”
Hearing this, Lars bowed his head slightly and stepped back. From a step behind, he explained the maid’s condition to Esdel.
“It has been some time since she stopped breathing. Judging by her condition, she was likely left here for about ten hours. It seems the knights almost missed her as she was hidden amongst the bushes in the alley.”
Esdel nodded. The places she had ordered the knights to check were all places where something could be hidden. Secluded spots that would not be discovered even during the day.
Esdel, who had closed her eyes for a moment in mourning, paused just as she was about to get up. There was a strange shadow near the maid’s ear.
‘What is this?’
When she moved the blood-caked hair away with her finger, a black pattern hidden underneath was revealed. It was the same unidentifiable black script they had all seen ad nauseam for the past month.
The Knight Captain muttered a curse in a dejected voice.
“Damn it. I was hoping it wasn’t, but it’s him again.”
“……”
“Milady, let’s withdraw to the estate for now. Seeing as the missing knights’ swords were found here, it’s certain they’ve already encountered him. This time, I’ll catch him even if I have to tear the whole territory apart and break his limbs….”
“Wait a moment.”
Esdel stopped him and reached for Roan’s pocket.
Roan had been on her way to deliver a letter to Lin. If the letter remained in her pocket, it would mean Roan met her fate before she could meet Lin.
‘But if the letter is gone….’
Then Roan was murdered after making contact with Lin.
Esdel, after rummaging through the maid’s clothes, soon withdrew her blood-stained hand. She had checked all the places where a letter might have been kept, but she could not find it.
Esdel rose from her spot and mounted her horse.
“I have to go to Lin.”
Esdel bit her lip, roughly gripping the reins.
The distance from where Roan was found to Lin’s residence was a little over a 10-minute ride on horseback. Moreover, one had to pass through a forest path, so it couldn’t be checked with the naked eye.
Therefore, it was highly likely that Lin had nothing to do with Roan’s death.
But an anxiety, unrelated to probability, was blooming in her chest. She kept seeing Lin’s face superimposed over Roan’s. There was no way she could sleep peacefully if she returned to the mansion like this, so it seemed better to confirm her friend’s well-being with her own two eyes before leaving.
Lars opened his mouth with a face that wanted to stop her, but after seeing Esdel’s anxious eyes, he quickly nodded.
“Let’s go. It’s not far, just ahead, so it should be fine. But after you check, you must return first, milady. We will find the missing knights.”
“Alright.”
Esdel gripped the reins and kicked the ground. She crossed the forest path without rest, and after entering a side path, she dismounted and began to walk. At first, it was a brisk walk, but once the small house came into view in the distance, she started to run.
The door of the small house was wide open.
Her heart was pounding terrifyingly. Her mind, which had remained calm even when she saw the dead maid, went completely blank.
Esdel ran into the brightly lit house. The cool autumn air lingered inside, as if the front door had been open for a long time.
A vase that had fallen from the table and shattered into pieces, a weapons cabinet with signs of a hasty search, and a curtain torn from being pulled down hard, all entered her sight in succession.
Esdel crossed the messy house and approached the fireplace. When she stirred the inside with a poker, the faintly surviving embers glowed red.
‘She’s been gone for about two hours.’
A battle did not take place in here. Lin was by no means an easy opponent, so if a full-blown physical fight had occurred, the house would have been in a much worse state than this.
‘She left the house with a weapon, without even having the presence of mind to close the door properly.’
So, Lin was at least alive until the moment she left this house.
Only after her thoughts reached that point did Esdel release the breath she had been holding. Her breath had been caught at the top of her throat from running frantically after seeing the open door. She steadied herself, leaning on the dining table to catch her breath.
It was after her vision, which had been a blurry mess from being out of breath, came back into focus that she felt a sense of dissonance from the silence in the room. Esdel straightened her back and looked around.
‘But why is it so quiet?’
In the early morning, every sound is bound to be heard louder. After the sound of furniture breaking, the sound of horse hooves had even shaken the ground, so the nearby residents should have come out by now.
Esdel was just about to step outside with a frown when she felt a hand grip her shoulder.
She reflexively spun around and kicked. As a heavy sensation met the tip of her foot, which had gained rotational force, a familiar scream, “Ack!” was heard.
“Hup… Ouch, milady. It’s me, Lars.”
“Ah, it’s you, Sir.”
Esdel felt her tense body relax and gave a slight nod in apology.
Lars, trying not to show he was in pain, twitched his eyebrows and said.
“There is a group approaching this way quickly. The number seems to be well over fifty. They don’t appear to be trained people, but I don’t know their exact identity.”
Lars had Esdel lower her posture and pointed past the broken window.
She was sure there was nothing there, but looking closely, she could see something faintly shimmering in the darkness. The moment she realized the things sprouting up like buds were human heads, goosebumps erupted all over Esdel’s body.
Lars placed his index finger to his lips to calm her, then led her toward the door.
“Milady, once you’re outside, go back the same way you came.”
“And you, Sir?”
“Me? Well, it’s finally time for me to earn my keep.”
Lars grinned and revealed the sword at his waist. The moment he placed his hand on the hilt, he pushed Esdel’s back toward the outside.
“This way!”
Esdel, running out of the house, was led by the knights’ hands and placed onto a horse.
She inadvertently looked back and was horrified. In that short time, the shadows of people surging from beyond were gradually getting closer.
‘What in the world is this….’
Even the knight who had followed to protect her let out a small shriek of terror.
In truth, there was no reason to be afraid of a large gathering of people itself. Even if it was the middle of the night and they weren’t holding any lanterns, one might find it suspicious, but not to the point of fainting.
But what if those people… were crawling?
Esdel felt like she was going to lose her mind because of the series of events crashing down on her. The maid she had seen face-to-face during the day was found dead, Lin’s house had signs of an intruder, and now, people were doing things she had never heard or seen before.
‘A religious activity? Or an uprising? The harvest was good this year, so what’s the problem!’
Her head was spinning. She couldn’t even tell if they were residents of the Reinhardt territory or not.
Amidst all this, the knight Lars had assigned as an escort was a real chatterbox.
“Aargh, ack, milady, look over there! They’re crawling! Oh, oh, they’ve met! They’ve met! The Captain has drawn his sword….”
“Be quiet!”
“Aargh! They stood up! They stood up! They must have legs! They’re fighting the Captain!”
“I said be quiet!”
Esdel, alongside the screaming knight, began to retrace their path. She fought with all her might not to look back as she ran.
It was at the point when the voices of the knights behind them had almost faded away that a whining sound buzzed in her ear. At first, it sounded like a sigh, but if you listened more closely, it sounded like a moan.
“Aah.”
“Stop it. It’ll be alright.”
“Ah, aah.”
“Please, just be quiet….”
Sighing, Esdel turned to her side and her eyes met the knight’s. He blinked, a look of complete incomprehension on his face.
“Me? I-I didn’t make a sound, milady.”
“What are you talking about? You’ve been sighing this whole time.”
“I-I really wasn’t….”
“Then who was it?”
Esdel and the knight stared at each other. Then, they slowly lowered their gazes. And they discovered the hand clutching the hind leg of Esdel’s horse.
“Ack, ack, uwaaaah!”
“Shake it off! Hurry and shake it off!”
“B-but milady must…!”
“You’re the knight!”
With neither of them able to react properly, they blindly increased their speed. Whatever its identity, it at least had the form of a person, so it couldn’t possibly hold onto the horse’s hind leg forever, right?
Thud, thud. The sound of something heavy being thrown onto the ground in succession was heard. Esdel swerved in a zigzag pattern, trying not to look down even by accident.
‘Fall off, fall off, please.’
“Uwaaah!”
‘Its head must have hit the ground hundreds of times by now, how is it still alive?’
“Ack, milady, th-that thing, it’s only a torso now….”
“I’m not curious, so don’t report it!”
Deciding he couldn’t take it anymore, the knight fumbled at his waist and drew the hilt of his sword. Then, in one fell swoop, he cut off the arm gripping the horse’s leg above the elbow.
Clatter. The severed body part fell away behind them on the road, and the hand that had been dangling for a moment soon followed.
“I-it’s done! It’s done, milady!”
“Right…. You should have done that sooner….”
Completely exhausted, Esdel pulled on the reins to slow down. With some leeway, she looked around. They had strayed far from the path they were supposed to take. The knight looked around and said.
“This is the road that leads out of the Count’s domain. We must hurry back, milady.”
“Right.”
Esdel was just about to nod and turn the horse’s head when she saw hazy smoke rising from the end of the road.
Was there a fire?
Frowning for a moment, Esdel soon recalled what was in that direction. There was an old fortress. And within it, was her and Lin’s hideout.
‘Lin wasn’t at home.’
After encountering someone inside her house, she had left of her own accord. If Lin had left her house in such a state, there were two possible reasons.
Escape, or luring.
Neither was a good reason.
Esdel’s thoughts became a tangled mess as she watched the smoke billow up more and more thickly.
‘But if Lin had to run away, she would have come to me for help first. If not that, she would have gone to the center of town where the knighthood is.’
Given her rational personality, she would have come running for help immediately instead of worrying about propriety or whatnot.
However, before leaving upon hearing the news about the maid Roan, Esdel had not heard anything about Lin requesting help from the knighthood. Therefore, Lin had not simply run away.
She was luring someone, or something. Probably alone.
If one had the purpose of luring something threatening, where would one go?
At that moment, a possibility flashed through Esdel’s mind.
‘…It can’t be, right?’
No. It can’t be, it won’t be, please. It’s not this.
‘Is she really over there?’
Esdel’s gaze lingered on the smoke-filled sky. She tried to find evidence to the contrary, but the more she thought, the more certain she became that Lin would be over there.
A place with few people, a place where she wouldn’t cause any trouble to her surroundings, and at the same time, a place where a distress signal could be noticed from the center of the estate, and a place whose location Esdel could pinpoint exactly upon noticing her danger.
‘There’s nowhere else but the hideout.’
“…-lady, milady? You must hurry.”
As Esdel couldn’t take her eyes off the direction the smoke was rising from, the knight urged her on, fidgeting restlessly.
The deliberation was not long. Esdel gripped the reins tightly.
“I need to check that way. You go back first and request backup.”
“I cannot leave you alone, milady!”
“No…. I’ll be fine.”
Esdel patted the arm of the determined knight with a reluctant expression. To be honest, she felt it would be more helpful if he wasn’t there. If there was no one screaming next to her, at least her thoughts would be quicker.
“But….”
“Every moment is critical. If it looks dangerous from a distance, I’ll turn back immediately, so you don’t need to worry.”
“It’s not that, if the Captain finds out I left you, he’ll kill me, ack!”
Before Esdel could even ask what was wrong now, the horse began to buck. The knight struggled with all his might not to fall off the horse that was leaping as if a thorn had been stuck in its hoof. As the knight’s horse became agitated, Esdel’s horse also reared up.
Looking around to find the cause, Esdel spotted something approaching from the direction they had fled. They were similar to what she had seen near Lin’s house.
The sight was just as terrifying as before, but this time, there was one helpful aspect.
‘This is my chance!’
Esdel, letting out a small “uh, uh,” placed the reins properly in the hand of the knight who was more flustered than the horse.
“Go! Ride! The path will be blocked if they get any closer!”
The moment the flustered knight finally started to ride his horse, Esdel also sped off in the opposite direction.
She ran to the place where the smoke was rising in one breath. Esdel passed the bonfire, which was clearly deliberately set by someone, and entered the fortress.
“Lin!”
Since she hadn’t gotten a lantern from the knight, she couldn’t see an inch in front of her. Esdel regretted not having taken a brand from the bonfire to use as a torch and grabbed onto the railing.
The cold dawn air transferred from the railing she touched. She felt her palm grow cold as she climbed the stairs.
“Lin! Where are you!”
She had just reached the top of the stairs. Esdel’s mouth fell open as she spotted something beyond the fortress wall, on the opposite side from where she had entered.
“What is this.”
Really, what is this.
Esdel flinched and stepped back.
Things of a similar form to what she had seen at Lin’s house were positioned outside the fortress wall. The things that surrounded the fortress as if besieging it looked to be at least twice as many as those Lars and the knights were holding off.
Things in the shape of humans, but no matter how you looked at them, they were not human.
Unlike before, they weren’t all crawling either. Some crawled on the ground, some ran on two feet. There were those dragging their clothes, and those who were naked. The only commonality was that they all seemed to be out of their minds.
Esdel, who had been standing, gripping the railing, looked down in horror and then began to stumble back the way she came.
‘What in the world is happening?’
The situation had long surpassed what she could handle. Far from handling it, she was at a point where she had to figure out how to get out of here alive.
‘Just, just grab Lin quickly and run away.’
The sound of her heart beating was as loud as her footsteps descending the stairs. In her haste, Esdel stumbled, her upper body lurching forward, several times as she headed toward the hideout.
‘Just a little, faster….’
“Ack!”
The floor came rushing up to her nose. Her elbow, which she had wrapped around her head, hit the corner of a step. A burning pain came as her skin tore, but she had no time to scream.
It was because something was stuck to her ankle.
“What on earth is stuck….”
Turning around, Esdel discovered the hand gripping her ankle. Fingers, long and knotted like tree roots, were clutching her ankle.
A short scream burst from Esdel’s lips. The moment the sound escaped her lips, she felt numerous presences around her. She clamped her hands tightly over her mouth. She had no idea how many monsters were in this vicinity.
Her chest heaved like crazy. Even as she suppressed her scream, the fingers on her ankle were slowly crawling up.
‘Get off, please just get off!’
She struggled silently, kicking frantically. She desperately pushed against the back of its hand with her other foot.
Esdel, who regained her freedom after a desperate struggle, shot up from her spot. Her captured ankle throbbed, but she couldn’t stop here.
The number of monsters increased as she got closer to the hideout. That meant someone had led them inside. In other words, Lin was definitely inside the hideout.
‘Quickly, quickly….’
Her heart grew impatient.
To minimize the noise, she threw off her shoes. The gravel dug into her bare feet, but the pain was faint. If her speed slowed even a little, the monsters crawling on the floor would reach out their hands, so she couldn’t even catch her breath.
‘This is the last set of stairs.’
It was the moment she stepped on the last flight of stairs. Something came into her sight. A blood-soaked tapestry, the monsters filling the inside of the hideout, and, peeking out from between them, a brown….
“Ah.”
Brown hair scattered in the air. Very slowly, strand by strand, it dispersed and fell to the floor. Following that, the neck, no longer able to support the head, bent forward limply, and the arms and legs bent like taffy.
Soon, thud, the sound of a head hitting the stone floor was heard.
“…Lin?”
There was no answer.
“Lin….”
She could hear something moving from all directions, but among them, there was no sound of Lin’s breathing.
She slowly took a breath. She could feel her chest swell roundly. She clenched her fists. The nails digging into her palm brought a sharp pain. All her senses were normal. But why?
This is a dream.
Why? Why does it hurt? Why am I breathing? Why won’t this foul smell disappear, and why won’t I wake up?
Esdel felt something touch her heel as she backed away. Turning around, she saw a familiar-shaped sword. It was the longsword Lin always carried.
Esdel picked up the sword with a dazed look. The cloth wrapped around the hilt was soaked in blood. Seeing that, a scene faintly came to mind.
Ah, right. Lin threw it.
She had thrown this to me, spitting blood, mustering her last strength. And then she died.
She remembered the look in Lin’s eyes as she stared this way. The entire situation was hazy as if shrouded in mist, but that one thing was stuck in her eyes and would not disappear. As if to say that she would now have to carry those eyes on her back forever.
Esdel, holding the sword, slowly lifted her head. Lin’s body was already covered by the monsters, her form not even visible. Only her two feet peeking out from between the monsters, and the pool of blood soaking the floor, proved her death.
