Chapter 84
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 84
It took being toyed with and utterly defeated by Astaroth for Flauros to finally come to his senses.
He didn't want to be merely favored by Lady Evangeline; he wanted to be useful to her. But he could be of no help if he couldn't even stand up to Astaroth. Therefore, he had to kill that eyesore first. And since he was no match for him now, he needed to feast.
Before Evangeline was dragged away, Flauros had asked for her permission.
“May I hunt until you return, Lady Evangeline?”
“Yes. You must be starving. Feel free to eat as much as you like.”
But Evangeline had added a condition.
“Choose your prey carefully. Hunt the weak and the diseased first.”
It was obvious what she meant. Flauros had been lost in the languid, sweet sound of her voice calling him “Pudding,” only for the intruders to shatter his bliss.
Now, dozens of hands reached for him from all directions. Each one was desperate to touch him. Their owners dislocated their own shoulders just to get a little closer, crawling along the floor, dragging themselves forward with their teeth.
The boy, whose angelic beauty was striking, grimaced in disgust and crushed the reaching hands under his booted heel. Yet instead of screams, cheers erupted from the writhing mass. Incapable of proper thought, they had already resigned themselves to being prey.
Andras, who had just returned from visiting Evangeline, clicked his tongue at the dizzying sight. This piece of prey was a domestic abuser; the one next to him was a rapist. Another was a lunatic who enjoyed eating human flesh, despite not even being a demon. They were all so utterly repulsive that he wondered how they had even been gathered. Seeing them clumped together was as sickening as looking at a basket full of maggots. The “weak and diseased” Evangeline had permitted Flauros to eat were precisely these kinds of people.
“Pudding. Did you really drag all this trash here to eat? Have you lost your mind?”
He hadn't expected the picky eater to gorge himself on such low-grade filth the moment Evangeline gave him permission. His pride must have been severely wounded by Astaroth.
“Is this because Astaroth thrashed you? He’s your natural enemy. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Shut up. I went to help Lady Evangeline and came back without doing a single thing.”
“True. If I’d been there, Master wouldn’t have fallen for Astaroth’s cheap tricks.”
As if venting his anger, Flauros kicked a ball toward Andras. Only after catching it did Andras realize it was a human head. Throwing a pedophile’s head at a friend… what a bastard.
Holding it by a few strands of hair as if it were something filthy, Andras gently set the head down. Flauros was devouring things that made Andras sick just from the smell. Then, with a fiendish expression that clashed completely with his gentle face, Flauros declared furiously, “The next time I see Astaroth, I’m going to tear him to shreds.”
“Sure. I’ll be rooting for you.”
Andras would rather pluck and eat the cherry blossom petals of House Rohanson than touch this garbage, but his friend’s pride probably wouldn’t allow that.
“Eat quickly. Once you’re done, we have an errand to run.”
Jelly turned his back, unwilling to watch the maggots any longer, and let a cherry blossom petal melt on his tongue. He felt like he was going to lose his appetite.
* * *
Around the time Kinder Toten was returning to the Marquis’s Estate, Dies—the late Marquis’s younger brother—was pacing in his locked room. He bit his nails, cycling through agony, regret, and rage.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it! Something went wrong. Why is he alive? He was definitely dead.”
No matter how he tried to rationalize it, nothing changed. Thinking his nephew had finally died, he had demanded to see Ryder. When the maid suspiciously refused to open the door, he had grabbed an axe and smashed it down. Peering inside, Dies had seen the terrified maid clutching his nephew.
In truth, he hadn't been entirely sure of Ryder's death until that moment. It was the butler’s reaction that had confirmed it.
Following behind Dies, the butler had peered through the splintered door. Dies had never seen a man look so ecstatic. The light from the room illuminated only the butler’s face, his eyes gleaming and the corners of his mouth curled into a bizarre grin. Ah, finally, the butler had mouthed, an exclamation of sheer joy. Seeing that, Dies knew his nephew was dead.
“Hey! Is anyone out there?! Locking up a noble, are you mad? Once I get out of here, none of you will get away with this!”
Dies pounded violently on the door and screamed.
“I am the rightful heir! Do you really think you’ll get any scraps by clinging to my sister-in-law? If you let me out, I’ll give you three gold coins right now! Just open the door!”
Of course, all Dies had on him were four silver coins. He had no intention of giving them gold, but the uneducated servants were easily fooled. A whispering voice drifted through the crack in the door.
“Quiet… please be quiet.”
The sound of a lock clicking open echoed. Sweating profusely, the servant opened the door and held out his hand with an expectant look. Instead of paying him, Dies grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck.
“Where is Ryder?”
“Ack, cough… Give me the gold, and I’ll tell you.”
“No. You tell me first.”
Dies squeezed, not caring if the servant choked to death. The man clawed at Dies’s arm, and realizing he might actually die, he blurted out Ryder’s location.
“In… in Madame’s room.”
“Is that so? Thank you.”
Dies smiled warmly and tossed a single silver coin to the servant. For someone like him, even that was generous.
He immediately headed to Kinder’s room. The sunniest and best room in the Toten mansion belonged to Ryder, and Kinder’s was directly opposite it, so it wasn’t hard to find.
The servants of House Toten held their breath in panicked confusion as they saw the locked-up young master roaming the halls. Terrified, all they could do was count the hours until the Madame’s return. A few, remembering the special treatment Weather had received, tried to stop Dies, but they were easily overpowered and thrown aside. After that, no one dared to get in his way.
Dies reached Kinder’s room without any trouble. Perhaps they had assumed he was securely locked away, because the door wasn’t even bolted. He opened it and stepped inside. A cheeky maid named Weather slammed her book shut and sprang to her feet.
“How are you here…?”
Dies ignored her and grabbed his nephew’s limp arm as the boy sat slumped in a rocking chair. Weather lunged at him, but the sheer difference in size made her attempt futile.
“Look at this! Look at this! I wasn’t wrong!”
Ryder’s body felt exceptionally light, as if all the life had been drained from it. He really is dead! With the truth confirmed, his reason returned. A sudden chill ran through his hands. Shuddering at the realization that he was holding a corpse, Dies let go of Ryder, practically throwing him. The boy collapsed onto the bed like a doll that had been played with and abandoned.
“Young Master!” Weather shrieked, crying out to Ryder.
Instead of silencing her, Dies encouraged the noise. Yes, scream louder! Everyone in the Marquis’s Estate needed to know his nephew was dead. They needed to prepare to serve him, the next Marquis.
“Huh?”
However, contrary to Dies’s wishes, the first to hear the call was Melek, who had temporarily slipped out of Ryder’s body to play in the stables.
He had only stepped out for a moment because he couldn’t explore the stables in Ryder’s body, but it seemed trouble had brewed in his absence. Melek hurriedly re-entered the boy.
“What do you mean, ‘Young Master’?! Stop playing with a dead body!”
“Uncle, what’s wrong?”
As soon as Melek sat up on the bed, his eyes locked with the shouting Dies. I thought Madame Kinder locked him up. How did he get out? And… he must have seen it, right? Melek greeted him innocently, but there was no way it would work.
“W-what is this… H-he was definitely dead…!”
Dies watched in horror as color flooded back into the corpse’s face. Its eyes blinked open, its chest began to rise and fall, and its expression shifted. Then, it spoke. He was so bewildered he wondered if he was dreaming.
He slapped his own cheek. A stinging pain flared up. It wasn’t a dream. Had a corpse really just come back to life?
“Ah… I shouldn’t have been caught so soon,” Melek muttered, stamping his feet in distress. In Ryder’s body, the action was exceptionally adorable. “I don’t know about the others, but I really don’t want to lay a hand on a human.”
“My, my. What a softie. Want me to do it for you?”
A voice that shouldn’t have been there suddenly rang out.
“Mr. Jelly!”
“Hey there, Meringue.”
Melek’s eyes sparkled as he welcomed Jelly, but then he grew self-conscious. He was glad to see him, but the timing was awkward. Patting Melek’s head, whose thoughts were plain to see, Jelly handed him a jar filled to the brim with cherry blossoms.
“An errand from Master. This should keep you full for about three days.”
“What about Lady Evangeline?”
“Haven’t you heard? Ah, I guess Kinder Toten hasn’t arrived yet. Things got a bit complicated… Master is in prison for a while.”
“Pardon?”
“It would be so much easier if she just killed everyone. Why is Master holding back?”
Melek felt he understood. “Because she doesn’t want to hurt anyone.”
“What?”
He wouldn’t dare presume to know Lady Evangeline’s thoughts, but that was how Melek felt. He himself had willingly bound himself in restraints, terrified he might unconsciously devour the children of the Merai Orphanage. He could have broken those superficial chains and removed the blindfold at any moment. Even after arriving at the Rohanson Mansion, he had kept the blindfold on to avoid eating the people there.
Of course, part of it was because Mr. Pudding’s eyes were terrifying. The house had eyes, and the walls looked like skinned muscle, a sight he could never get used to. The texture was squishy, too, which scared him so much he ended up living in the stables. Quite unintentionally, he grew fond of the horses. Now, Melek couldn’t bring himself to eat animal meat, let alone human flesh. Only now, with an alternative food source, could he manage without the blindfold.
“Wouldn’t Lady Evangeline be the same? She is a gentle person, after all.”
“Indeed. She’s too gentle, and that’s the problem. Because of it, she can’t even eat her fill! That’s probably why that fool Pudding got beaten so easily, too.”
Meow.
A cat suddenly appeared and scratched Jelly’s face.
“Ah, Mr. Pudding.”
“Melek, your new body suits you well.”
“…Thank you.”
Did he mean he looked like a kid? As someone occupying another person’s body, it wasn’t exactly a welcome compliment, but since it was praise, Melek offered a sheepish thanks.
He found Pudding very difficult to deal with. Mr. Jelly was at least straightforward and treated him kindly, but Mr. Pudding was completely different.
Pudding was a hypocrite. He only acted cute and affectionate in front of Lady Evangeline. Behind her back, he didn’t hesitate to mistreat Mr. Jelly and Melek. To Mr. Pudding, the hierarchy of all living creatures consisted of exactly three tiers: Lady Evangeline, things Lady Evangeline liked, and the remaining trash. Melek barely clung to the second tier.
Meanwhile, Jelly restrained Dies. It was a life that could be ended with a flick of a finger, a simple snap of the neck. Perhaps sensing this instinctive terror, Dies had wet himself.
“S-spare me… No. Please, please… spare me.”
Choking and on the verge of passing out, Dies begged his unknown captor for mercy. He wept and pleaded so pitifully it was embarrassing to watch, but Jelly and Pudding remained entirely unmoved. The well-fed cat even yawned, looking thoroughly bored.
Melek was the only one worried that Dies might actually die. Stamping his feet in anxiety, he finally managed to speak.
“Um… could you please spare him?”