Chapter 123
William knew it was foolish jealousy, yet the more he tried to suppress it, the more wildly his imagination ran in the worst possible direction.
Leo pressed his fingers to his forehead and let out a deep, frustrated sigh. After hesitating for a moment, he finally spoke as if he had no choice.
“Haa… it’s not that. This is something Ella told me to open only after we found the mirror fragment… Damn it. I don’t know. Let’s just look at it now!”
Leo roughly unfolded the note in front of William, snapping it open with exaggerated movements.
“I don’t want to be unfairly glared at by you, Liam. Besides, there shouldn’t be any dolls left in this castle that can still move, so finding the mirror fragment should be quick—”
Leo’s muttering abruptly stopped.
His eyes had landed on the rough, short sentence written on the unfolded note—Raphaella’s handwriting.
“!”
When Leo suddenly froze like the surrounding dolls, a chill of unease washed over William, who hurriedly checked the contents of the note.
**“The moment you read this! Evacuate outside the forest immediately. If you entertain the foolish idea of trying to save me, be prepared to get beaten senseless. One day… I will come find you, so don’t worry. Until then, guard the mirror fragments well and live happily. This is homework. I’ll be checking.
P.S. William will definitely go berserk, so Leo, knock him out and drag him out.”**
“Damn it…!”
Cursing, William quickly spread out the map and checked the location of the mirror fragment. He shoved the map back into Leo’s hands and spoke urgently.
“Judging by this, it should be on the eastern side of the castle. There aren’t any dolls you’re afraid of, so you should be able to find it, right?”
“…Huh?”
“I mean you’ll find it alone.”
“Alone?”
William placed a firm hand on Leo’s startled shoulder. His blue, unyielding eyes locked onto Leo.
“Send me to Lady Raphaella. Right now.”
“But—”
Leo was troubled. The contents of the note weighed on him, and this was something Raphaella herself had explicitly asked.
To follow her orders, he was supposed to knock William out immediately, retrieve the mirror fragment, and evacuate outside the forest.
But just as William had said earlier, that plan meant Raphaella would shoulder everything alone—most likely being injured, or even killed. He had pretended not to know William’s opinion when they arrived at the castle, but after reading the note, this was no longer a guess. It was certainty.
Raphaella intended to face the danger alone and send William and Leo away safely.
The last image flickered before Leo’s eyes: Raphaella being crushed by Blehel’s black mist, her golden power steadily fading. He also remembered how cowardly he had felt—pretending not to notice, pretending to follow the plan, dragging William and flying away to Blehel’s castle.
Even to Leo, Raphaella was strong. But Blehel was stronger. More terrifying. The cruel madness that rolled off her, more grotesque than any demon, was horrifying enough to haunt nightmares.
That was why it was easier to simply believe, “Ella will somehow manage.” Only then could he bring himself to leave as she commanded.
William, who had been quietly watching Leo as he wavered, spoke in an even lower voice.
“Please. Leo.”
The sincerity in his plea made Leo ask without realizing it.
“Liam… aren’t you scared? You saw how brutal that black woman was. How can you say so easily that you’ll go back?”
“Were you that afraid of Blehel?”
“No matter how much of a genius I am, I’m still human. Wanting to avoid something stronger and more evil than yourself—that’s instinct, isn’t it?”
“That woman doesn’t frighten me.”
“Ha… you really seem like you’re made of stone.”
“But it’s not that I fear nothing.”
“Then… what do you fear?”
Leo asked again, exasperated, as if nothing was getting through.
“Losing Lady Raphaella.”
A crack appeared in William’s stone-like composure. The ends of his eyebrows drooped, and his face twisted into an expression that looked as though merely imagining it meant losing the entire world.
“There is nothing more terrifying to me than that. So please—send me.”
“……”
“I’m begging you. Truly.”
Whether William’s concern for Raphaella was that of a subordinate or that of a man didn’t matter. Faced with his solemn words, Leo couldn’t muster his usual flippant reply.
“…All right.”
The answer slipped out before he knew it.
Rationally, following the plan was the correct choice. If Raphaella couldn’t defeat her opponent, William going wouldn’t magically turn the tables. Trusting her plan would be the most efficient course of action.
And yet—
Leo couldn’t overcome the look in William’s eyes, the man who was usually more rigidly logical than anyone, now setting aside every principle and rule to follow his heart alone.
“I’ll teleport you to where we were earlier.”
“Thank you.”
“…No. I’m sorry. I was only thinking about running away.”
“Avoiding an enemy you can’t defeat is also a wise choice.”
“Well, that’s a surprise. I expected a lecture about weakness or lacking mental discipline.”
As Leo chanted the teleportation spell to send William to Raphaella, he spoke lightly again. William simply answered with a warm smile.
“Who knows. Why might that be?”
“Heh. You know you’re starting to resemble Raphaella more and more, right?”
Bluish mana gathered in Leo’s hand and spread across the ground, forming a teleportation circle.
William stepped onto it and replied,
“That’s a very pleasing thing to hear.”
The magic circle hummed and shone, and in an instant, William vanished.
Left alone, Leo found that the afterimage of William’s final smile lingered strangely in his mind.
Hardening his expression once more, Leo looked around, avoided the misshapen beings frozen into ice, and began running toward the mirror fragment locations marked on the map.
William closed his eyes at the brief wave of dizziness and opened them to find himself standing once more in the black swamp where Raphaella and Blehel had fought.
“Hmm?”
But neither Blehel nor Raphaella was there. Only the traces of battle remained—torn earth, shattered trees, and broken rocks.
And atop the ruins lay a solitary sphere of black mist.
It looked at least three times as tall as William himself. The dense, murky sphere revealed nothing of its interior, a pitch-black darkness that seemed ready to swallow even the faint light left in the cloudy sky.
A dreadful thought crossed his mind.
Checking for any sign of Blehel or her dolls, William trudged toward the sphere, mud squelching unpleasantly under his bare feet. He paid it no mind.
Up close, the air around it felt even more sticky and sinister.
“…Lady Raphaella?”
He called out unconsciously, but there was no answer. No presence could be felt from within the sphere.
It was a mass of dark, evil energy that felt like it would turn all life black and dead upon contact. He couldn’t explain why he thought Raphaella would be inside it.
A feeling beyond logic.
That feeling told William she was trapped within.
Carefully, he reached out toward the sphere. His hand slid straight into the black mist. He had wondered how he might break it if it were solid, but fortunately, it wasn’t.
Resting his hand on his sword hilt, he stepped inside. The black mist sphere swallowed William as if absorbing him whole.
High above the swamp of the Lost Forest, where William had disappeared—
A man watched the scene from the sky. The clothes of Giliphus, his red hair whipping in the wind, were no longer those of a high-ranking priest.
They bore the sacred insignia of the chief god, embroidered in gold—vestments worn only by the pontiff, the pinnacle of the temple.
Despite the fierce wind whipping his hair and garments, Giliphus’s gaze never left the black mist sphere.
“At last, you will remember everything, Raphaella.”
His face twisted strangely. His eyes curved in a smile, yet his brows drooped, his teeth clenched as though he were holding back tears that threatened to burst.
“Remember. Recall me. Come—let us together bring about the end of this world…”
As he muttered to himself, a single drop finally fell from his eye.
This time, he lifted his head and gazed beyond the high heavens.
“The end is approaching, O chief god. My… enemy.”
His bitter voice failed to reach the sky, scattered meaninglessly into the sound of the wind.
