CHGD 43

Chapter 43

At that moment, I turned my body around to run away.

“Pant, pant-!”

Because the moment she saw me, she extended her tentacles. The tentacles that shot out from her fingertips were sharp, as if intent on severing my neck.

*’Where, where should I go!’*

It was dark all around, and I couldn’t tell which direction I was facing. The floor was so slippery that even when I tried to run quickly, my feet kept sliding out from under me.

*Squelch— Squelch—*

As I ran, moving my feet frantically, I suddenly noticed no sign of pursuit from behind and turned my head.

At the spot where I had just been lying, she stood, silently watching me.

And then she moved her lips without a sound.

[*It wasn’t you.*]

…What wasn’t?

Before I could find an answer, her figure vanished in the blink of an eye.

The tentacles that had extended from her body were also gone.

“What in the world…”

I couldn’t understand it. Just a few days ago, she had shown me goodwill, and now she had suddenly turned hostile.

Collapsing weakly onto the slimy floor, I retraced my memories of how I had ended up falling here in the first place.

*’It definitely started when I received that strange gem as a gift. And… Huh?’*

The more I recalled, the stranger my memories felt.

Because I had the illusion that the memory of receiving the beautiful gem and the memory of venting my resentment toward monsters in the office had happened at the same time.

As if I had been dreaming two dreams simultaneously…

*’Calm down, calm down. I already knew there are monsters in this castle that manipulate memories. Let me think. Definitely, after that, I…’*

Taking a deep breath, I calmed my anxiety.

And slowly.

—

“That’s what happened.”

“Hmm.”

I was sitting on the bed, reading a book by eye, and glanced at Loaz, who nodded his head as if uninterested even after hearing this long story.

He had apparently gotten quite used to living in the wardrobe, sitting with the door open and reading a book. In his boyish form, he looked exactly like a mischievous child hiding in a closet.

*’For some reason, it feels like I haven’t seen this scene in a long time.’*

Loaz was always in this room, so it wasn’t as if we hadn’t talked in a while, but it felt strange.

“You’re not listening to me, are you?”

“I heard everything. I was just more curious about the book than your story.”

Perhaps he had grown tired of reading, he closed the book and set it in the corner of the wardrobe.

“But are you going to keep living in the wardrobe? Didn’t you recover already?”

At my words, Loaz shrugged and stepped out of the wardrobe.

“It’s surprisingly comfortable. This room is too bright with those big windows. Anyway, as for that Louis fellow’s request, I don’t find it strange at all.”

“So you’re agreeing with Louis’s methods?”

As if asking what nonsense I was talking about, Loaz snorted.

“If it were me, I wouldn’t be bound by such a half-hearted role. Rather than putting on an ambiguous play, I’d just rework the whole board.”

He then shrugged.

“Just brainwash the human from the start so they never make such a request in the first place. Why leave free will intact to begin with?”

“……”

I let out a quiet sigh. It was meant to show that it wasn’t even worth responding to, but Loaz must have taken it differently, as he sneered and said,

“What, are you scared? Starting to get a sense of what kind of beings we are?”

“I already knew you all were scary a long time ago. I’m not that shocked.”

Of course, if I had heard this before, I might have been terrified. But having gone through the incident with Louis, I could accept it fairly quickly.

There was a clear difference between them and me, and that wasn’t something I could do anything about.

Thinking that way, I was able to calm down.

*’Besides, it’s not like I can do anything about it anyway.’*

Escape from the castle was impossible. A pitiful human who couldn’t even fight a monster—what good would harboring complaints do?

Should I call this enlightenment, or resignation? As I sighed once more, Loaz, who had been staring at me, said casually,

“By the way, are you sure you’ll be okay? You said you made a deal with Haster, right?”

“……Loaz, you *were* listening after all.”

I thought he had only half-heard me while reading his book, but it seemed he had actually been paying attention in his own way.

“Do you even know what it means to make a deal with a being like Haster? Your soul is now collateral, you know.”

“Hmm, is that so.”

“Are you not grasping the situation, or are you just fearless?”

“I’m actually quite scared.”

“Then why are you so calm…”

“Since you’re a monster who can erase my memories or slit my throat with a flick of your finger, what could I possibly do even if I did understand the situation?”

“……That’s true.”

“Right?”

When dealing with Loaz or Ikabel, I had used my status as the Count’s wife, but when the opponent was the Count himself, the situation was different.

Moreover, now that I had discovered the secret that ‘the Count is a monster,’ he had no reason to hold back.

*’I wonder if he’ll start showing his true form in front of me now.’*

There was also the possibility that he would use his monstrous powers without hesitation if something displeased him.

In many ways, it meant that worrying about it wouldn’t solve anything.

“Ah, by the way, Loaz. I have one question.”

“What is it?”

“Are there many monsters like Louis who become intoxicated by emotions?”

“That’s…”

Loaz’s lips twitched for a moment.

“…I don’t know. I haven’t seen many beings in human form myself. Haster would probably know more about that field.”

“And what about you, Loaz? You’re in human form right now.”

“I’m the same whether in my true form or now.”

“……Is that so?”

Loaz seemed subtly annoyed, so I averted my gaze, brushing it off with a vague response.

*’If he says he’s the same, that means his true form also gets intoxicated by emotions.’*

Though his sense of common sense and concepts were monster-like, Loaz’s emotional spectrum was quite varied.

So it was rather unexpected that his true form was also like this.

It occurred to me that perhaps the one who could best understand Louis’s transformation wasn’t the Count or me, but Loaz.

*’But he’d get angry if I said that, so I should keep quiet.’*

Just as I was thinking of changing the subject appropriately.

*Knock knock—*

Someone knocked on the bedroom door.

When I told them to come in, a white-haired maid who managed the room opened the door and bowed respectfully.

“My Lady, the Master summons you.”

“Right now?”

It was just after dinner. It was the first time I had been called at such an odd hour, so I tilted my head and asked what it was about.

The maid apologized, saying she didn’t know, then took an outer coat from the wardrobe and approached me. Naturally, she didn’t notice Loaz standing near the wardrobe.

“I was only told to deliver the message. Since Sir Ikabel is out, I will accompany you. Please put on this coat…”

“Alright.”

I had no particular reason to refuse, so I slipped my arms into the coat and accepted the invitation.

Just as I was about to leave the room with the maid, Loaz sneered and said to me,

“Be careful you don’t get eaten. It’s the full moon today.”

*’I wonder if he knows that this intimidating act also makes him look like a troublemaker.’*

I pretended to take his advice to heart and gave him a brief wink.

Perhaps because autumn was now in full swing, evening came quickly. As I walked down the dark corridor, the sun having completely disappeared, I suddenly became conscious of the maid’s feet walking just ahead of me.

*’Loaz said she had no legs.’*

Come to think of it, her skirt was so long that it didn’t even show her feet. So her walking didn’t look like she was moving her legs, but rather like she was floating along…

“My Lady.”

“Ah, yes.”

Distracted by my thoughts about her legs, I hadn’t realized we had arrived at the main residence. I thanked her for guiding me, and the maid bowed politely and withdrew.

I knocked on the door to the reception room and called out to the Count.

“Count.”

“Come in, Deliana.”

As soon as I opened the door and stepped inside, a strange aura touched my skin, making my hair stand on end.

*’Why, what’s going on?’*

The Count stood in the center of the reception room. He had his arms crossed and his eyes closed, and the tension-inducing aura emanated from him.

It felt like being inside a beast’s mouth. A wave of anxiety washed over me, giving me goosebumps and sending cold sweat down my spine.

*’Surely, is he showing his true colors already?’*

The warning I’d heard from Loaz before coming here came to mind.

*’That he might eat me as payment for the deal…’*

No matter how I thought about it, eating his wife seemed absurd, but the menacing aura was convincing enough to make such a preposterous idea plausible.

Just as I began to think it might be better to run away right now—

The Count opened his eyes.

“……W-what business do you have, Count?”

“Deliana, do you remember?”

“Remember what…”

“The deal.”

*’It was real!’*

For the first time in a while, the alarm bells in my head started ringing loudly.

I had resigned myself to not being able to resist if the Count decided to harm me, but now that the moment was actually here, my heart pounded violently.

*’Is he going to ask for my soul like a demon? Or take my lifespan…’*

I was so nervous that cold sweat began to drip down in beads.

Ignoring my expression entirely, the Count maintained his aura and slowly approached me.

“Now, I intend to receive the reward for our deal. Though it might be a somewhat… burdensome reward for you, Deliana.”

In the dark reception room with no candles lit, the Count walking toward me with the moonlight at his back was both fatally beautiful and terrifying.

“U-um, is there a particular reason it has to be right now…?”

“Because the time has come.”

Was it really because of the full moon, as Loaz said? Do monsters go berserk like werewolves when they see a full moon?

The full moon glowing brightly behind him looked especially dangerous tonight.

I trembled as I backed away, but the Count grasped my shoulders.

“W-well, the soul thing is a bit much, and if it’s lifespan—”

“Deliana.”

“About 10 years would be acceptable though…”

“Now, won’t you call me ‘darling’?”

“At least make it painless—… Pardon?”

What kind of bizarre request was this?

Question marks appeared in my eyes.

Regardless, the Count continued, still with a tense expression.

“Last time, when I tried to give you the wedding ring, you called me ‘darling,’ remember? N-now, I’d like you to do that in everyday life too…”

“……That’s the reward?”

“Is it not okay after all?”

…Today, the monster looked rather cute.