Chapter 3

Just as it had appeared in the original novel, Eliza tapped the foot of the crow statue in a certain rhythm and pressed firmly on the very tip of the feather at the end of its left wing.

A handle appeared.

The moment she opened the door, a sour, metallic smell rushed toward her.

Eliza covered her mouth when she saw the vivid red magic circle painted across the floor.

‘Disgusting.’

Even if she did not understand what it meant, there was no way she could fail to realize that this was an ominous place connected to something vile.

It was exactly as it had been described in the scene where she had been taken away and met her death.

Everything was exactly as she remembered from the information she had read in her previous life.

Eliza hurriedly fled the room and shut the door behind her. Then, with unsteady steps, she walked away.

She did not even notice that someone who had spotted her had gone to inform the young master of her whereabouts.

“Ha…… haha.”

On the sky bridge connecting the eastern and western buildings, Eliza stopped and grabbed hold of a pillar.

Her stomach churned from the emotions boiling inside her. She didn’t even know what to call what she was feeling.

The many complicated emotions all carried dark shadows, dragging her mind into an abyss.

‘I hate this. I don’t want to die.’

She had no choice but to admit it.

The Marquisate of Hagen followed black magic.

The people who had smiled at her would one day drive a knife into her chest with those exact same smiles on their faces.

‘If I beg them to spare me, will they? If they need a sacrifice, does it really have to be me?’

In the original novel, Eliza’s death had merely been a device used to emphasize the cruelty of the Hagen family. The exact conditions required for Leopold’s awakening had never been revealed.

If there was some condition for the sacrifice……

If it required the death of someone close to him, that would be a problem.

Leopold had no friends except her.

If her body already fulfilled the conditions, Hagen would not willingly give up their sacrifice.

‘Why does it have to be me?’

Eliza squeezed her eyes shut, horrified that she was even thinking such things.

Her face, which was usually pale anyway, had now turned completely bloodless.

“What are you doing here?”

“……Leopold.”

Suddenly, the hat covering her head came loose.

The wind blowing freely across the open sky bridge naturally scattered her hair.

Seeing her face beyond the flowing silver hair, Leopold’s brow twitched.

“Are you sick again?”

“……No. It’s the same as usual. Weak. Dizzy.”

Leopold naturally placed Eliza’s hand on his arm so she could lean on him.

Without thinking, Eliza slapped his arm away.

“Wait.”

She turned around and quickened her pace.

Because she never once looked at Leopold, she failed to notice the expression on his face.

“Eliza!”

Leopold grabbed her by the shoulders, his expression unusually fierce.

It was a face she rarely ever saw from him.

“It hurts. Let go.”

“You smell.”

Something about Leopold’s words bothered her.

Should she ask him about it or not?

Eliza hesitated.

But before she could decide, Leopold spoke first.

“Don’t tell me you went in there?”

“……In where?”

Eliza’s heart began pounding faster.

‘How does Leopold know about that room? Don’t tell me…… you too…….’

Eliza bit the inside of her cheek to clear her head.

With a slightly troubled expression, she said,

“My clothes are old, so I guess they smell.”

She was wearing shabby maid’s clothes.

To disguise herself on the way there, she had taken out the commoners’ clothes that she and Leopold had hidden together.

Leopold easily accepted her explanation and nodded.

“Ah. Then why did you take those clothes out? You probably didn’t even wash them.”

“I was bored, so I tried them on again after a long time.”

“You were so bored that you actually stitched together pieces of dust-covered cloth and wore them?”

“Have I ever been anything but reckless?”

“That is true.”

Even as she exchanged casual conversation with Leopold, Eliza’s thoughts continued racing.

Should I report the Marquis of Hagen first?

In this kingdom, anyone who dabbled in black magic was destined to face punishment. At minimum, exile. At worst, the executioner’s blade.

“Leopold Hagen.”

“Why are you calling me so ominously? I’m Leo.”

“I have something to ask you.”

Whenever Leopold looked at those vivid purple eyes standing out against her pale face, he wanted to uncover every single thing hidden within them.

But that was impossible.

So, as always, he obediently played along with his young lady.

“What is it?”

“What would you do if I betrayed you?”

“I’d marry you.”

The answer came without the slightest hesitation.

Eliza blinked several times.

She wondered if she had heard him wrong.

“What?”

“I have nothing but you. If you betray me, then I won’t have anything left. So you’ll have to take responsibility for me.”

Leopold’s eyes curved into their usual shape.

Seeing that familiar face, the tension in Eliza’s body suddenly loosened.

Another crazy thing to say.

The boy could be playful at times, and he rarely showed her a serious side of himself.

And yet, despite the familiar joke, her heart could not relax.

The weight of the thought that had settled inside her chest was simply too heavy.

“What if I die?”

“Are you joking? Why would you die?”

Leopold stepped closer to Eliza and immediately frowned.

Seeing his expression, Eliza smiled.

‘That’s right. Dying quietly doesn’t suit my personality.’

The truth she had discovered.

The confusion and despair that followed.

After all of that, there was only one thought left in her mind.

‘I’m sorry, Leo.’

Eliza hated pain.

Therefore, she hated dying even more.

‘I’m going to choose to live. I’ll live, and I’ll atone to you.’

Eliza wanted to live.

Even if it meant betraying her one and only friend and fiancé.

“Ugh…….”

“Oh, you still have enough strength left to groan?”

“Ah, aaaargh!”

In a dark warehouse where not a single ray of light could be seen, a man’s fingers, crawling desperately across the filthy floor, were crushed beneath a shoe.

The bloodied man twisted his body and screamed, but the man stepping on his hand merely held a candlestick toward him and smiled.

“P-please…… ngh, uhh…… please spare me…….”

“Who said I’m going to kill you?”

Only the corners of his mouth lifted.

His eyes did not smile at all.

A cold, blue flame gleamed mercilessly within them.

The candlelight illuminated the man’s hair in reddish gold.

It was a beautiful color, but there was no one around capable of appreciating it.

“Don’t worry. I’ll turn you into a perfectly clean idiot.”

“Aaagh!”

“Perhaps I should have gagged you too.”

A sinister shadow flickered around his eyes, accentuated by his thin double eyelids.

Leopold grabbed the man’s head with his large palm.

Black energy seeped from his grasp and into the man’s head, causing his screams to grow louder.

“Does it hurt? That’s what you get for kidnapping someone.”

The man was the mastermind behind the attempt to forcibly take Eliza away, bearing a grudge after she rejected him.

Eliza was too soft-hearted. Even if she told someone who the culprit was, she would never be able to deal with him herself.

So, as her kind friend, Leopold had decided to take revenge on her behalf.

“Ghh…….”

“Ah. Right. That’s enough.”

When Leopold released his hand, the foam-mouthed man collapsed backward.

Leopold dusted off his hand, then suddenly looked down at his palm.

A small black feather had sprouted there.

He immediately pulled it out.

“Ah. That hurts.”

A sharp pain pierced through his palm.

Soon, a dull ache began throbbing in his head as well.

Whenever Leopold used this power, there were always minor aftereffects.

It was still incomplete, after all.

He turned his gaze toward the distant sky.

Not the cloudy, hazy sky, but the clear, dazzling snowfield-like hair he knew so well.

‘I want to see her.’

Leopold rummaged through his clothes and pulled out a note.

It was one Eliza had given him not long ago.

「I can’t meet you.」

A short and cold reply.

Our young lady has been acting strangely lately.

Leopold put the note back into his pocket and stroked his chin.

She was secretly quite timid.

As her friend of eight years, he knew very well that the fact she had hidden herself like this meant something had happened that frightened her.

That side of her was adorable.

Unfortunately, Leopold’s patience tended to become rather poor whenever it came to her.

“If you can’t come see me, then I guess I’ll go see you.”

With that, Leopold leaped out the window and headed toward a familiar place.

Leopold Hagen needed Eliza Waluer.

Because she was the only one who could calm the blood boiling inside him.