Chapter 13
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 13
Before Daisy could say a word, the monk seized her arm in a crushing grip and began to drag her away.
Daisy tried to shake him off, but the monk’s strength was unexpectedly immense. Rumors about Priest Berga were rampant, but she had never heard anything about him being this forceful.
No matter how vast Priest Berga’s influence was within the monastery, he still had to worry about public perception. Did he think he could get away with this just because she had no one to back her up?
They were already in front of the priest’s room. Another monk, standing guard like a lookout, smirked when he saw Daisy.
“You actually brought her.”
“Where’s the Priest?”
“Still out of his mind, just mumbling to himself. I'm telling you, the man's gone mad.”
“Don’t say such blasphemous things.”
“You’re the blasphemous one, you lecherous bastard. You really think seeing her will snap the Priest out of it?”
“It might.”
From their conversation, Daisy realized that Priest Berga hadn't summoned her at all.
The monk opened the door and shoved Daisy inside. She scrambled to turn the knob, but it wouldn't budge—someone was holding it shut from the other side.
“We’ll let you out once the Priest is feeling better.”
The monk’s voice drifted in from behind the door. Daisy let go of the handle. A sense of helplessness washed over her. Tears threatened to spill, but she bit her lip hard.
If Priest Berga hadn't been the one to call for her, perhaps she could get lucky and simply leave.
But what was Priest Berga doing? Why would a man who prided himself on his authority allow his monks to behave so recklessly?
Daisy stepped further into the room. Priest Berga’s quarters were twice as large as those of the other monks. From deeper within, she heard a low groan. Or was it... panting?
The moment Daisy saw Priest Berga, she instinctively recoiled.
This was a situation she hadn't anticipated at all.
Priest Berga was hunched over on the floor, drawing. Several sheets of paper were crumpled around him, and overturned inkwells had stained the floor black.
He wasn't dipping his pen properly, so the drawings were little more than dry indentations scratched into the paper.
The shape wasn't clear, but Daisy recognized it at a single glance. How could she not? It was the same sigil the thing wearing her lady's skin had been drawing.
“I have to finish the hidden part. Is it this? I think this is it…”
Despite the commotion, Priest Berga didn't seem to realize Daisy was even in the room.
His hands moved feverishly. Daisy stood behind him, staring down blankly. Her breath grew shallow. It felt as if she had been transported back to the fourth-floor storage room of the Rohanson mansion, peeking in secret. It felt as if that indescribable thing from the summoning circle would manifest right here at any moment.
If I leave him be, he’ll summon that eye again.
She couldn't let that happen. That sigil must not be completed. She had worked so hard to escape. She couldn't face that eye again. She had to stop him. She had to.
Searching for a way, Daisy grabbed a nearby statue of Rachel. The stone carving of the goddess was incredibly heavy. Daisy hoisted it high with both hands and brought it crashing down.
A dull thud vibrated through her fingertips.
The priest collapsed forward. When Daisy let go, the statue of the Sun Goddess Rachel fell to the floor and snapped in half. The white robes of the shattered goddess were now stained red.
Blood flowing from the priest’s head began to soak the drawing. Before Daisy could process what was happening, the blood began to fill the lines of the sigil, flowing like water through a canal as it traced the dry pen marks.
“What… what have I done…?”
Daisy gasped, realizing the carnage she had wrought. She had only meant to stop him.
What would happen if she were caught? Killing a priest was a far deeper sin than killing an ordinary person. It was the murder of one beloved by God. If caught, she would be executed.
“I have to run…”
But this was the fourth floor; she couldn't jump. Two monks were guarding the door. There was no way out. Not unless someone helped her.
“Want some help?”
A voice whispered right beside her ear.
Daisy trembled and glanced sideways. Standing right beside her was a man who shouldn't have been there, watching her with glowing eyes. A red tongue flickered between sharp teeth as his abyss-black hair filled her vision.
“Shh. You have to be quiet.”
The man covered Daisy’s mouth with his hand. Daisy stopped breathing.
“Hey. I heard a noise. What’s going on?”
“Why are you asking? Just ignore it and leave them be.”
“Ah…”
The monks outside seemed to have drawn their own conclusions about the loud crash, as the door remained shut. When the man’s hand pulled away, Daisy exhaled the breath she had been holding. Oxygen filled her lungs, and her fading consciousness returned. The man looked down at her and tilted his head.
“I came because I smelled that other guy. Why are you here alone?”
“That… guy?”
“You don't know? The one with all the eyes. He calls himself Flauros.”
Daisy shuddered at the mention of eyes. Was the "eyes" he spoke of the same thing she had seen at the Rohanson mansion?
“I guess you do know. I have business with him. You’ll have to take me there.”
Daisy shook her head. Go back there? Absolutely not.
“You don't have a choice. You already made a wish, didn't you? I came out for a bargain price, so you have to do at least this much to balance the scales.”
A wish? As Daisy looked on in confusion, the man flicked his finger. In that instant, the dead priest began to push himself up from the floor.
The scene reminded her of the moment Evangeline had come back to life. The nightmare of that day was repeating itself, only now it was even more grotesque.
“Ugh. Seriously, you offered that as a sacrifice? No one would even glance at it unless they were as starved as I am.”
The man gagged at the sight of the priest’s corpse. His flippant attitude made the sight of the reanimated corpse seem almost farcical.
“There. Now that I’ve made that thing move, it’s your turn to run.”
Before Daisy could resist, the man snapped his fingers.
When she came to, she was standing in the forest outside the monastery. In the room she had left behind—the one messy with blood and ink—the priest sat blankly. If one were to look inside him, he would surely be empty.
“Oops. I forgot the after-sales service.”
Returning like a man who'd forgotten his keys, he strolled past the priest and opened the door. Before the two monks guarding the outside could even process the stranger’s presence, lines appeared on their necks, and their heads dropped off.
The bizarre thing was, the headless men didn't collapse. Instead, they simply bent down, picked up their severed heads, and placed them back on their necks.
“Perfect. Yes, very good.”
The man vanished, satisfied. The fact that both heads were now slightly crooked didn't seem to bother him in the slightest.
* * *
“…What you’re looking for will be in there.”
Daisy pointed toward the Rohanson mansion. The man glanced at the estate through the carriage window, then looked back at Daisy, sizing her up before nodding. Since he had told her to guide him to his destination, he seemed to accept that she didn't need to enter the mansion with him.
“I see. The stench is everywhere. Did he make a home here or something?”
“…Probably.”
If the "eyes" the man spoke of hadn't left the Rohanson mansion, then he was right.
Daisy wanted to get away immediately. She wanted to distance herself from the Rohanson mansion as quickly as possible, fearing the eye might fixate on her again. She also wanted to flee from this man, who looked refreshingly kind on the outside but was anything but.
He was a monster she had summoned. The mere fact that her mistake was now walking around, alive and breathing, made her feel like she was suffocating.
His deal with her ended here. He said he had business with that eye, so he would likely leave on his own once he was done.
He won't stay here forever, will he?
She didn't know how many people he had killed on the way here. Claiming it was his first real meal in a while, he had decapitated people only to reattach their heads as part of some sick hobby.
The people who should have been dead, like Priest Berga, stood back up and walked around as if nothing were wrong. If not for the red lines on their necks, they would be indistinguishable from normal people.
Regarding his search for the eye… she wondered if this man was also the one who had brought Lady Evangeline back to life. No, the man hadn't known about the Rohanson mansion.
“Call me again if you need help. I’ll charge full price next time, though.”
The man waved his hand casually and stepped out of the carriage. Through the small window, Daisy watched his retreating figure. Where he was headed, the cherry trees were in full bloom. Those trees hadn't lost their blossoms since the day the Lady had hanged herself.
“Where shall I take you?”
The coachman asked.
“Where shall I take you?”
The coachman twisted his neck around to look at Daisy. The sight was so eerie that Daisy swallowed hard.
“Where shall I take you?”
When Daisy didn't answer, the question repeated over and over, unchanging in tone or speed. Was he planning to ask until he got an answer? Daisy caught a glimpse of the red line etched into the coachman’s neck.
Reflecting on that nightmarish day and everything that had happened today, Daisy decided on her destination.
“To the Temple.”
* * *
“Save me!”
I just ran into a talking black wolf. Should I throw a ball to catch it? Wait, no.
Is it hurt? If it hadn't spoken, I would have thought it was just a wild animal being hunted.
But it talked, didn't it?
Every RoFan novel I'd ever read flashed through my mind. I already suspected it from the spirits and the grim atmosphere, but this world really seemed to be following some old-school tropes.
Because that's a werewolf. A talking black wolf? It's a no-brainer. The trope is practically a mathematical formula.
Since Gabriel is probably the male lead, does that make this guy the second male lead? A suspicion began to bubble up inside me.
I could already guess how this plot was going to go…