Chapter 78
His face was wrapped tightly in white bandages.
Normally, Geru didn’t cover himself like this, but today he had done it for his daughter’s sake.
Even so, just from the look in his exposed eyes, Cecile could read his expression.
He didn’t understand a single word she was saying.
That realization only made her angrier.
How could he not know? How could he forget?
“Did you really think you could hide it from me? That dying would mean I’d never find out?”
Geru’s stiff voice rattled out.
“Don’t… understand… Explain… more!”
“I found your letters. In your belongings!”
“Let… ters?”
“The ones Mother wrote to you before she died!”
“…!”
Geru’s cloudy, white-filmed eyes widened in shock. He finally understood what she was talking about.
“Those… letters!”
“Now do you understand why I’m like this?”
Cecile clenched her teeth.
She had lived alone with her father for most of her life.
Her mother had passed away when she was still young—too young to fully grasp what had happened back then.
All she had were fragmented memories.
“Mother searched for you desperately, even in her final days. But more than that, she was worried about me, being left alone in the house.”
Her voice trembled with grief.
“But you weren’t home. You were away on business. Chasing a few extra coins!”
This had been before Geru had joined the Fedwick Trading Company headquarters—when he was still traveling constantly, buying and selling goods.
“Back then, I didn’t hate you yet.”
It wasn’t until after Cecile had held the funeral—with the neighbors’ help—that Geru finally returned home.
Too late. Far too late.
She had cried herself hoarse in his arms.
For a time, they were simply a family bound together by loss.
But after Geru’s own death, Cecile had discovered the truth.
“Mother… she didn’t die suddenly.”
“…!”
“She’d been ill for months. She just hid it. You knew, and yet you left. Even when she begged you not to go!”
Cecile pointed at him, shaking.
“She wrote letter after letter, telling you she was getting worse. Begging you to come home. How do you think I felt reading those letters?”
“…”
“You never even wrote back!”
Her mind flashed to the image of her mother, standing at the door each morning, checking the mailbox.
“Do you know how much her heart broke every time she saw it empty?!”
“Cecile!”
Geru tried to speak, but she cut him off.
“The reason’s obvious. You’ve always been like this. Work, business, money… Family never mattered to you!”
Her voice turned cold.
“And now? You came back as a zombie for work? Not even for me or Mother—just for your job?”
Cecile held no hatred for Ariella, the one who had resurrected him.
But the thought that her father, who had abandoned her dying mother for work, was now walking around as an undead for that same reason filled her with disgust.
“…Cecile! Listen… to me!”
“I don’t want to hear it! You could’ve at least sent one letter!”
“No… That’s… not it!”
But Cecile’s heart was closed off now.
Geru desperately reached out, trying to explain himself.
That’s when—
RUMBLE!
The ground beneath them shook violently.
‘Again?’
Having experienced this before, Cecile wasn’t alarmed.
Still fuming, she turned toward the door to go back inside the atelier.
She reached for the handle—
But her fingers grasped at empty air.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
“Huh?”
“Cecile!”
This time, the tremor was far stronger.
CRACK!
‘The ground!?’
A long fissure split open across the yard.
The shaking worsened, making it impossible for either of them to stand.
Cecile fell to her knees with a thud.
Geru reached out desperately, trying to crawl toward her, but he lost his balance and rolled away—farther from the atelier.
Then came a piercing screech.
“SKREEEEEE!”
A deafening roar split the air.
From the massive crack in the ground, a giant creature erupted upward.
It was as if some colossal summoning spell had gone off beneath the earth.
A worm. No—a monstrosity the size of a fortress wall.
As it burst from the soil, rocks and dirt flew in every direction like shrapnel.
Cecile froze, her eyes wide. Even through her panic, she tried to name the creature.
‘An… Earth Worm?’
That was her first thought.
“SKREEEEEEE!”
“No… that’s not…”
It wasn’t an Earth Worm. Not quite.
Its head was split into five writhing tendrils.
Like massive tongues or tentacles, the fleshy appendages waved in the air.
SPLAT!
The monster’s “mouth” was a black hole at the center, ringed by those fleshy tendrils, which also acted as lips, teeth, tongue—and even fingers.
It aimed that gaping maw…
Right at—
“No!”
Cecile screamed.
“Dad!”
The zombie Geru was still rolling helplessly across the quaking earth.
The monster loomed over him.
“No!” Cecile staggered to her feet.
She tried to run to him, fighting to stay upright as the ground rippled like water.
But the beast was faster.
“DADDDDD!”
Geru finally looked up.
He saw the monster bearing down on him—and his daughter screaming from afar.
He reached out a bandaged arm toward her.
“Ce… cile!”
But his cry was drowned out.
CRASH!
The monster swallowed him whole—along with a chunk of the ground—then disappeared back into the earth before Cecile could react.
* * *
“Dead Eater.”
Richmond spoke the name with certainty.
“Dead… Eater?”
An emergency meeting had been called in the Demon King’s castle.
Most of those present had never heard of such a monster.
Richmond turned to Cecile, who sat pale-faced, her eyes swollen from crying.
“You said it looked like a giant worm, but with five tentacles sprouting from its head, yes?”
Cecile nodded.
“Y-Yes. That’s right.”
“Then there’s no doubt. It’s a creature that eats the dead. It rarely surfaces above ground.”
“Then why…?”
“Normally it stays deep underground, swallowing buried corpses whole.”
The words made everyone shudder.
A monster that ate the dead? The thought was revolting.
“It doesn’t usually attack the living,” Richmond continued. “But this time… there was a corpse walking around above ground.”
Not a skeleton, but a zombie—one with flesh, muscles, and organs intact.
“What do we do now?” Cecile’s voice trembled.
Ludwig cut in sharply.
“Is there a chance Geru’s still alive? Oh, wait… he’s already dead. I mean—”
“The Dead Eater has no teeth,” Richmond explained. “It scoops up soil and corpses with its tentacles, then digests them inside its stomach.”
“And Geru doesn’t need air, so suffocation isn’t a concern…” Ludwig muttered.
“Correct. The real threat is its stomach acid.”
Richmond’s voice was grim.
“Geru isn’t an ordinary zombie. His body has been magically reinforced to its limits.”
A normal zombie would have dissolved within minutes. And once his body was destroyed, the undead magic tethering his soul would collapse, sending him beyond anyone’s reach.
‘We can’t let that happen!’ Ariella’s heart pounded as she waited for Richmond’s verdict.
Finally, the lich spoke.
“Three hours.”
“…!”
“His body can last three hours, at most. If we don’t rescue him before then, he’ll be gone forever. Even my magic won’t bring him back.”
Ludwig shot to his feet.
“Then there’s no time to waste. Let’s go. We’re cutting that corpse-eater open.”
