Chapter 15
“Ch–Chaser…”
Evelyn called his name, her voice trembling with fear.
“Something’s wrong. All of a sudden, J–Jerry…”
She couldn’t hold back the tears rising in her throat. Her voice cracked as she tried to explain.
“Jerry… he… he…”
“Did Jerry turn into a demon?”
Evelyn’s lips quivered at the cruel truth she didn’t want to believe. But Chaser remained calm, unaffected.
His voice held no surprise. Startled, Evelyn turned her head.
There he stood—a man soaked in rain, yet still strikingly handsome despite it.
Evelyn slowly looked down.
Blood was dripping from the tip of the sword in his right hand—drop by heavy drop.
It was too dark to be fresh. It looked old, thick… dead.
“One of them’s going to die soon.”
Ignoring Evelyn’s gaze, Chaser spoke plainly. She followed his eyes toward the spot where the demons faced off.
Even though Jerry had become one of them, he was smaller—no match in size or strength.
Watching Jerry get beaten down, Evelyn scrambled to her feet.
“No, Jerry! Stop!”
She tried to run to him, but Chaser was faster. He pulled her tightly into his arms, holding her back.
“Let me go! Jerry—he’s going to die! Please, let me go!”
Evelyn struggled, desperate to break free.
“What exactly do you think you can do?”
Chaser’s cold voice cut through her panic, and her weak resistance came to an abrupt stop.
Looking down at her pale, stricken face, Chaser gave a chilling warning.
“I don’t want to clean up another corpse. Sit still.”
He placed her firmly down, far away from danger, then turned and walked away without looking back.
All Evelyn could do was lift her head weakly and watch him walk away.
Even though her savior had arrived… something felt wrong. She felt anxious.
Of course, Chaser would kill the demon. That’s what he’d been doing all this time at the monastery.
But… what about Jerry?
Why did he become a demon?
Was he now just another target for Chaser?
With nothing she could do, Evelyn could only watch. Powerless, she bit her lower lip hard.
Why now?
Why did Chaser have to show up at this exact moment?
Her fists, pressed against the ground, trembled like they might collapse.
If only this had happened a few hours earlier. If only Jerry hadn’t turned into a demon…
Even with Chaser here, the larger demon didn’t stop. Blood splattered across its body, but it kept attacking Jerry without hesitation.
If anything, it seemed even more excited by the mix of rain and blood.
As deeper wounds were carved into Jerry’s body, Evelyn flinched with every blow, her shoulders trembling.
She wanted to rush out—but she held herself back, watching, frozen.
At last, the demon noticed Chaser. It tried to flee—but it was already too late.
Chaser struck first.
He swung his sword with ease.
A clean, perfect slash cut from head to groin—straight and unshaken.
As if one strike was enough, Chaser lowered his blade.
Then, an incredible sight unfolded.
Flames erupted from the line carved into the demon’s body.
Even under the pouring rain, the fire didn’t die. Instead, it used the demon’s body like firewood, growing stronger by the second.
“GRAAAHH!”
In agony, the demon dropped Jerry, who it had been clutching by the collar, and stumbled back, screaming.
It thrashed wildly, shaking the ground beneath them. Its scream echoed through the forest.
But it didn’t last long.
In less than ten minutes, the demon was completely consumed by the flames.
“Should’ve done that from the beginning.”
Chaser brushed his wet hair back with a sigh, clearly annoyed, and turned.
Lying ahead of him was Jerry, collapsed and transformed.
His condition was horrific.
His body was covered in gaping wounds, blood spilling out thick and dark.
If not for the sound of his shallow breathing, Evelyn might have thought he was already dead.
“This wasn’t part of the plan.”
Chaser flicked his sword, shaking off the rain and blood.
The drops hit the ground with a dull splatter.
Despite muttering about how troublesome it all was, Chaser raised his sword again without hesitation.
As the future head of House Luisa—no, as someone born with this power—he wouldn’t need long to finish it.
After all, it hadn’t taken him long to completely burn the larger demon to ashes.
“A–Ah… It hurts… S–Sis… It hurts… Please… help me…”
Just as Chaser raised his sword to strike, a voice broke through.
A voice beneath the monster’s twisted form—Jerry’s voice, crying in pain.
“N–No, please don’t!”
Jerry’s voice snapped Evelyn out of her daze. She quickly called out to Chaser in desperation.
Without a second thought, Evelyn threw aside her pride, crawling over to Chaser and grabbing hold of his leg.
“Y–You can’t kill him! It’s Jerry! I know he looks like that now, but it’s still Jerry!”
“I know.”
“He protected me from a demon that appeared out of nowhere! He may look like this now, but he said he’s in pain—he’s talking! He’s not going to attack! He’s not dangerous!”
Chaser looked down at her in silence, as if he hadn’t expected things to go this way.
Her desperate grip made his sword tremble slightly in his hand.
With an annoyed sigh, he clicked his tongue.
No matter how many reasons she threw at him, pleading with all her heart not to kill Jerry, the only response she received was a dry, almost mocking scoff.
“There has to be a way. I don’t know what caused this, but there has to be some way to fix it, I’m sure of it…”
“How?”
Chaser stared down at her, eyes filled with cold disbelief.
Evelyn clung to even the faintest shred of hope, but her desperation had no effect on him.
“You think you can find a way to fix something that even the top scholars of the capital haven’t figured out?”
“…What?”
Evelyn blinked at him, stunned.
“There are cases where they seem to retain their sanity for a moment. But it never lasts. In the end, their instincts as demons take over—they’ll attack people to infect them, or just to devour them.”
“What are you talking about…”
Chaser’s words felt eerily detached—like someone who had witnessed this same situation far too many times.
A heavy, suffocating pressure sank into Evelyn’s chest, as if something cold and dark was pressing down on her.
Unable to speak, she watched as Chaser slowly bent down and began to pry her fingers off his leg—one by one.
“If you want to live, stay quiet.”
With those cold words, Chaser turned and stepped toward the demon.
As if it had been waiting for that very moment, the hunched demon suddenly lunged at him. But without a moment’s hesitation, Chaser swung his sword.
What followed was a nightmare—something straight out of a terrible dream.
In just one motion, Jerry’s body hit the ground with a lifeless thud. A dark wound split across his stomach, and thick, black blood spilled outward in a wide pool.
Evelyn didn’t even wipe the blood that had splashed onto her face. She simply stared blankly at the demon’s corpse that had once been Jerry.
The monstrous form was gone—but in her eyes, all she could see was Jerry.
His voice still echoed in her ears, crying out in pain, begging to be saved.
“N–No…”
Choking back a scream, Evelyn stumbled toward the body.
Chaser didn’t stop her.
She reached the corpse quickly.
“J–Jerry…”
He was the sweet boy who always picked her a flower every time they went out, just because she liked them.
“Don’t tell the sister, okay? This is only for you, big sis.”
“You’re my favorite in the whole world, big sis!”
Just this morning, he had been outside, laughing, running around, so full of life. So why?
How could a healthy, happy child like him end up like this so suddenly?
Unable to accept her brother’s death, Evelyn threw her arms around what remained of him and broke into uncontrollable sobs.
“Tch.”
Watching her cry so hard she seemed like she might faint, Chaser sighed and clicked his tongue again before slowly walking over to her.
Then, without warning, Chaser grabbed Evelyn by the waist and hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack of flour.
“No! Jerry! Jerry!”
As Jerry’s body grew more distant behind them, Evelyn kicked and flailed with all her might—but escaping from Chaser’s strong grip was impossible.
“Let me go! You can’t—Jerry!”
Had Evelyn been in her right mind, she never would’ve dared act out like this—especially in a way that might provoke Chaser.
But the sudden death of the brother she cherished had torn away all reason.
Even though she was clearly a burden in this state, Chaser didn’t throw her aside. He just kept walking forward in silence.
The cold rain pelted down relentlessly, like it was forcing her to face the brutal reality she wished she could escape.
And eventually, as she realized she couldn’t break free no matter how hard she struggled, her mind—previously scattered by grief—slowly began to return.
As Evelyn went limp with exhaustion, Chaser spoke, his voice as dry and cold as ever.
“You’re lucky.”
That was all he said. He didn’t stop. He just kept walking.
She didn’t know how much time had passed.
What am I supposed to say to the others at the monastery?
That Jerry suddenly turned into a demon?
That Chaser had to kill him?
The faces of her fellow monks and sisters flashed in her mind—people who would grieve Jerry’s death with her—and her heart felt like it was being torn apart.
I should’ve been more careful… paid more attention…
Jerry’s tearful voice, begging her to save him, played over and over in her mind, and the tears she’d just barely held back came rising again.
“Hic… I’m sorry, Jerry. I’m so sorry. I should’ve saved you…”
Even though she knew Chaser had saved her life, she couldn’t stop replaying the fact that he’d killed Jerry.
This isn’t right…
She knew she shouldn’t feel this way toward someone who had protected her. But she couldn’t stop the anger rising in her chest—anger aimed at him.
As she drowned in guilt and grief, Chaser’s sharp voice cut through the rain, snapping her back to the present.
“From now on, keep your head straight.”
He gently lowered her to the ground.
Then, his eyes fixed on something in the distance.
Evelyn stood still, lifeless, her eyes following his.
The monastery—once old and weathered, but always a warm, safe home—was in ruins.
It felt surreal that she hadn’t noticed it until now. Flames licked hungrily at the building’s insides, and the stench of blood kept creeping into her nose, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it.
As if to confirm the nightmare, lightning cracked through the sky, illuminating the devastation in vivid detail.
Scattered across the burning ruins were bodies—demon corpses, just like Jerry’s.
Behind one particularly large demon, Evelyn could see four smaller ones lying lifeless in a line.
Their tattered clothing was melted and fused into their burned skin, crumpling in the fire’s heat.
And then she recognized them instantly—the handmade sweaters she had personally knitted and gifted to her family at the monastery this winter.
She covered her mouth in horror.
There was no denying it now.
These were once her family—once human.
The people of the monastery.
