Chapter 17
“Judging by the bite marks, it looks like a child did this, probably Jerry.”
At that moment, confusion settled in.
The mysterious epidemic that suddenly broke out in the capital city of Autier spread rapidly through wounds caused by infected individuals. Its contagious nature was extreme, so the royal court took great caution. But eventually, one of the captured monsters escaped, and Chaser, the person in charge, had to go after it personally.
To limit the number of victims, he moved with only a small team. Still, a civilian got caught in the chaos.
By the time Chaser arrived at the monastery, it was already too late. The members had been bitten and were slowly turning into monsters.
He soon found Remo, the only survivor. But a monster, claiming to be his sister Lize, approached him. Believing her, Remo tried to protect her. Before Chaser could intervene, the child was bitten and infected.
Everyone in the monastery had been attacked, yet Evelyn, though bitten, was the only one unharmed.
“How is she still okay?”
Chaser stared at Evelyn, who was begging him to kill her, and quickly tried to make sense of the situation.
“If she’s been bitten, then she’s not the suspect…”
Since he never truly believed that theory anyway, he dismissed it right away.
That left only one possibility.
“She might be immune.”
She had been bitten by an infected monster, yet remained the only one who still had her mind intact after all this time.
Even if she wasn’t fully immune, the slow progression of the disease in her body could be helpful in developing a cure.
He had been annoyed at how she kept popping into his mind, but now, that might actually be a good thing.
“This might save someone’s life.”
Chaser held back the curses rising in his throat and calmly tried to stop Evelyn.
“Oh no.”
At that moment, Evelyn collapsed. As she fell backward, Chaser caught her by the waist.
Her hood had slipped off at some point, and her rain-soaked blonde hair spilled over her shoulders, brushing softly against Chaser’s forearm.
Even wet from the rain, her unique scent still lingered. Without realizing it, Chaser pulled her a little closer.
He hadn’t used much of his strength, but the burning energy inside him began to settle the nearer she came.
“Even if she’s not completely immune, she could still be useful in many ways.”
The heavy rain that had been pouring like the sky had burst open was finally starting to let up.
With Evelyn soaked and unconscious in his arms, Chaser smiled faintly.
It was time to return to the Luisa estate.
It felt like she was trapped in a place with no light, as if her eyes were covered in darkness.
“Where am I?”
She had no idea where she was. She wandered aimlessly, driven by the need to escape the pitch-black space, but the darkness stretched on endlessly.
No one was in sight. It felt like she was the only living being in a world where nothing else existed.
“This isn’t the time for this. The Sister is out of medicine. I have to bring more. The children must be worried. I need to go back.”
Just as she tried to take another step forward, the air around her changed. It became thick, almost like fire, and breathing became painful. Evelyn grabbed at her throat with both hands.
“Ugh, cough…”
As she choked on the thick air, a mocking voice echoed in her ears.
“Go back? To where?”
“Hehe, haha.”
“Who’s doing this? Stop it!”
Evelyn struggled, but the disturbing laughter stayed with her.
As she kept begging for it to stop, something suddenly clicked.
“Wait, this voice… it’s mine?”
The laughter stopped immediately.
“Lift your head and look.”
The voice was deeper now, more serious. Evelyn shook her head.
“I said look at me!”
It was a voice full of pain.
Without thinking, Evelyn raised her head, and then she saw it.
A massive wall of flames.
Everything was burning.
The monastery, the place that had been her safe haven, the place filled with memories from her childhood, was collapsing in flames.
“No!”
Even though she knew there was nothing she could do, Evelyn ran straight toward the fire with nothing to protect her.
As she got closer, she saw the faces of the children crying in pain through the flames.
“Sister, sister, it hurts so much.”
“Evelyn, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
Lize and Remo were holding each other tightly.
“Help us, sister! J-Jerry is dead! Huuu…”
Susan cried, holding Jerry’s lifeless body in her arms.
“Sister, we don’t want to die.”
Behind Allen, who was crying softly while saying he wanted to live, Lasagna stood with a sorrowful smile.
“This is the price we pay for taking you in.”
One by one, they expressed their pain. Then, without a chance to stop them, they were swallowed by the flames and disappeared.
Watching the fire that had consumed everyone, Evelyn couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed to the ground.
It felt like there was a hole in her chest, and even breathing became painful.
“No, this can’t be right. This isn’t supposed to happen!”
She screamed as if she had gone mad, but the flames didn’t go away.
This wasn’t what Evelyn wanted.
All she ever wished for was to live happily with them. She shouted that she never wanted this to happen, but no voices answered her anymore.
They were dead.
“No!”
Evelyn cried out in pain as she opened her eyes.
Gasping for air, she looked around, relieved that she wasn’t surrounded by darkness or trapped in the fire anymore.
It had only been a dream.
But the dream had shaken her so badly that, even though she had been awake for a while, her sweaty hands were still trembling.
Trying to calm herself down, Evelyn covered her face with her hands and closed her eyes.
“Thank goodness it was just a dream.”
Then her eyes suddenly snapped open.
It wasn’t a dream.
Yes, she had wandered through the forest looking for Jerry. She had found him, just barely. And the people at the monastery…
“Are you alright?”
A familiar voice came from beside her. Evelyn quickly looked up.
Her eyes widened, and her body started to shake again.
Someone was sitting beside the bed she had been lying in.
“Chain…”
Her dry lips barely formed the name, but the man immediately cut her off.
“Chaser.”
“…”
“You don’t have to hide my name anymore. Just call me that.”
Chaser’s cold voice echoed in her head like a warning.
“Keep your head straight from now on.”
“Monsters are hard to kill. You have to make sure they’re truly dead.”
“Think carefully. In this situation, who seems the most suspicious?”
The terrifying images from before she passed out replayed in her mind.
The heavy rain falling like a storm, the fire devouring the monastery, and the bodies of the people she had loved—now turned into monsters—burning like fuel in the flames.
She remembered begging for the fire to be put out, but Chaser had ignored her cries and kept the flames going.
“Ugh!”
Evelyn felt like she was going to vomit and quickly covered her mouth.
Tears filled her eyes again, spilling down her cheeks without end.
“Hic… sob…”
Evelyn tried to muffle her crying with her hand, as if even letting herself cry loudly would be too much.
She cried like that for a long time.
Then, Chaser spoke again.
“If you cry like that, you’ll pass out again.”
His voice, filled with uncharacteristic concern, made Evelyn raise her head sharply.
Her face was red, and her skin around her eyes was sore from all the crying.
Chaser looked at her gently and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe her tears.
But Evelyn, unable to hold back her emotions any longer, slapped his hand away and grabbed him by the collar.
“Why did it have to be our monastery? If only you had stayed somewhere else… If only…”
She shouted in pain, pouring out all her sorrow. Chaser didn’t say a word.
He knew that saying “I’m sorry” wouldn’t bring anyone back.
What hurt Evelyn most was the feeling that her family’s deaths meant nothing to him, like it was just another incident.
She had lost the people she loved more than anything, and that pain was unbearable. More tears flowed from her eyes.
“The monster that Jerry fought…”
Still gripping Chaser’s collar, Evelyn sobbed quietly until finally, his voice came again.
“It was someone you brought to the monastery.”
“…What?”
Evelyn’s face slowly froze.
She wanted to scream that it was a lie, to accuse him of making excuses, but her lips were trembling with fear, and no words came out.
“I looked into it. The magical tools set up around the monastery were untouched. That means no one broke in from outside.”
“So, it happened inside? That can’t be true. Please… don’t lie.”
Evelyn wanted so badly for it to not be true. But no miracle came.
“The guest staying at the monastery disappeared without a trace. Someone unconscious couldn’t have run away alone. We searched everywhere, but we didn’t find anything.”
It felt like something was squeezing her throat. She could barely breathe.
“I did what I could to prevent something like this from happening…”
“…”
“I’ve never seen a monster turn back into a human before. I didn’t think he was one. That was my mistake.”
Surprisingly, Evelyn’s tears stopped.
She stared at Chaser with empty eyes, as if her soul had left her body.
His eyes were serious, and his lips were tightly shut, showing he wasn’t joking.
“I’m sorry.”
Chaser finally apologized with a heavy, sorrowful expression.
Evelyn knew he meant it.
Maybe it was even the apology she had longed to hear, but it didn’t make her feel any better.
It didn’t bring any comfort.
Her grip on his collar slowly loosened, and her hands dropped onto her lap.
She felt sick.
She couldn’t stand herself anymore. Just being alive felt unbearable.
