The corners of the princess’s lips curled up as she looked around at her now-quiet surroundings.
“...Would you look at that? It’s my win. Again.”
To whom was she declaring her victory?
For a moment, she frowned while looking down at her shoulder, stinging in pain, but soon enough a smile returned to decorate her face.
“You poor things. This time...? Yes. This time, I had a lot of fun. It felt more real and enjoyable—and frankly, a little scary. I always wondered how it would feel to face real danger, and now I know.”
Having regained some of her composure, the princess even laughed.
Whoosh.
A rapier suddenly zipped through the air, but Deathberry's pale hand caught it by the hilt.
The princess stared at the tip of the blade, stopped just short of piercing her eyeball, and said, “Fool me once, shame on you.” The princess’s carefree smile remained, but her crimson eyes focused on Sellen. “But fool me twice, shame on me.”
“...”Sellen was panting. She thought she could manage to use her cold ki one more time... but even if she did, she didn’t think it would accomplish much.
“Sellen, my first friend... I really liked you.”
“...So what? You like me enough to kill me too? I hope you’re not planning to stuff me like a doll because I’d rather not,” Sellen said, openly provoking the princess...
But Ferith showed no sign of being offended. “Of course not. I was just thinking I might visit Goodspring later. Though I doubt the real Sellen is anything like you.”
“...What?”
What shit was she spouting now?
Sellen was left confused for a moment, but before she could get clarification, the building suddenly began to lightly tremble as a loud rumble echoed.
It seemed to be coming from a lower floor.
“This sound...”
The expression on the princess’s face became strange. Her eyes glazed over as she once again stared off into space.
Sellen watched the weird scene. It didn’t take long for the princess to snap back to reality. In a slightly panicked voice, she said, “He came back to life? That can't be—”
With a sudden flash of light, a figure sprinted toward the princess at high speed.
Charon Woodjack.
Only Sellen could see his movement.
Was he using a blessing? It didn’t seem like an ordinary blessing, given his incredible speed.
It had to be his last resort.
The princess saw Charon charging at her, but she was a step too late.
“Keuk...” A large hand wrapped around her throat.
The princess reflexively scratched and pulled at Charon’s wrist, trying to escape his death grip as she stared at him with eyes wide in disbelief.
“H-how...”
“...”
Blood was dripping from all over Charon’s body. There was so much blood that it was impossible to tell its source.
Though the princess didn’t notice, Charon’s tense muscles were trembling violently, like someone who had pushed their body to its brink.
Charon sneered, his teeth painted red from the blood dripping from his nose. “...Not being fooled by a foe feigning death is a basic hunting skill. I guess a royal like you has never been out hunting.” ꭆåꞐȎ𝐁Êᶊ
“Ha, haha...”
“Stop the puppets’ movements, Princess Ferith. You’ve lost.”
But the princess kept laughing.
She's finally lost it, once and for all, Charon thought as he continued to bleed out while keeping his grip on her throat.
If he killed her right now, would the puppets stop? Or would they go berserk?
The risk of them going berserk was too great. That was the sole reason he was hesitant to kill her.
Charon caught a change in her eyes. Her mirth simmered as she seemed to contemplate something.
Charon could almost see the cogs turning inside her head. It was evident that her strategist eyes were searching for some way to turn the situation around.
Without a word, Charon tightened his grip.
Squeeze.
“Gah...”
A minute passed like this, perhaps two, before the princess’s face flushed red and she began to frantically slap his arm. After a torturous second or two more, Charon finally loosened his hold.
She sucked in a deep breath and began to cough. After an otherwise silent moment to calm down, she closed her eyes slowly and relaxed.
Thud.
Deathberry, who had been standing a little ways back glaring at Charon, collapsed on the spot.
The princess had withdrawn her control.
This was what Charon had hoped for... but her next words were far beyond his expectations.
“...All right, Deathberry, I lost this one.”
“What...?”
“Let’s end this round here. Yes. For some reason, my mind feels foggy, and my shoulder hurts a lot. It feels different than usual...”
“...”
“Are you listening? Deathberry?”
Charon had thought this woman was a crazy bitch many times now, but at this moment, he truly wondered if she had lost her mind.
Yet despite those thoughts, he felt a deep, bone-chilling sensation constrict his chest.
Before he could identify that feeling, Charon decided to question her. “You... What the hell are you saying...?”
“Huh...?” Princess Ferith Scarlet was even more shocked and bewildered than Charon, who was looking at her weirdly. “Why aren’t you guys disappearing?”
“This crazy bitch...!”
“Keuk...!”
A sudden, uncontrollable anger surged through him, but it was really just a cover for the true emotion he was feeling: fear.
Charon glared at the princess with his one remaining eye as he strangled her, steadily increasing the strength of his grip with every second.
“Wait. There's something off about her,” said a cold voice. If not for that, he would have snapped her neck.
“...”
Charon never took orders from anyone he didn’t acknowledge, let alone nicely spoken requests.
But Sellen had proven her worth time and again during their fight together, so in compliance with her wishes, Charon loosened his grip.
“Kuk, cough...! H-hic...!”
Then Ferith did the unexpected...
She looked at Charon with an entirely different expression, one full of fear. She looked terrified.
This wasn’t just a mask. It was as if she had become a different person entirely.
“Cough...! Cough... W-wait... Ca... Can’t... Breathe... Eugh...”
“...I've been feeling uneasy for a while,” Sellen said, her voice chilling and unsettling. “Based on your attitude and what you just said, I have so many questions, but let’s start with this...”
“Cough...”
“...What do you mean, you ‘lost’?”
Perhaps Ferith sensed the killing intent in Sellen’s voice because the princess flinched and subtly shuddered.
Her eyes rolled to the side to look at Charon, still gripping her roughly. Fear and dread cast a darker shadow on her face.
Her expression screamed that she had just realized something had gone terribly wrong.
“I... Th-that’s...” Ferith’s body trembled again, and her quivering voice struggled to form words.
Charon, losing his patience, threatened her again: “Ferith Scarlet, answer quickly... Or should we take a short break to cut off your limbs? Let’s see how fast you talk then.”
“H-h-hic...!” Ferith sucked in a squeak and rushed to say, “B-but...! Th-this is all... a dream?!”
“...What?
Like a madman, Ferith continued, “Y-yeah...! A very realistic dream, barely different from reality...! You're all just people in my dreams, and, and playing the role of intruders...! Wait, no... it can’t be...”
“...”
For the first time, Sellen and Charon had discovered that if bullshit went too far, it could leave them speechless.
* * * * *
* * * * *
The more their faces scrunched up at the sight of her, the more desperate Ferith grew.
Now, she was trembling as if she had just begun feeling the pain.
“Ugh... ah... it hurts... th-there’s a sword in my shoulder... my ankle’s swollen. My... my nails too...”
“Shut up,” Charon growled, “and answer our question.”
Hearing his murderous voice, Ferith trembled. “I... I just... hate the imperial family... I hate being a royal... but in dreams... I don’t have to be me... Here, I can do whatever I want. There are no consequences...”
Her speech was a mess, but it wasn’t hard to understand.
Ferith said, “So... anything that happens has nothing to do with reality... doesn’t affect it... That’s what I was told.”
“ ‘Told’?” Sellen stepped forward, her face hard and voice cold. “By who?”
“B-by...”
“Spit it out. Who the hell told you that.”
“De... De... De...” Ferith stuttered. “Deathberry...”
Creak. Creak.
Deathberry, who had been lying on the ground, began to move.
“Y-you, still—”
“N-no! It-it’s not me!” Ferith shouted desperately, waving her still functioning left arm.
Everyone focused on the puppet’s hand, but to their relief, no strings were visible. They could hear the genuine terror in the princess’s voice, though.
Charon and Sellen watched in silence as Deathberry moved under its own power.
Of course, in this Veiled Side, a doll moving on its own was not a strange sight...
But right now, Deathberry’s movements were grotesque.
Crreeaak. Creeaaak...
Deathberry jerked into a standing position with abnormal, broken motions, snapping and twisting its own joints.
Creak, screeeach...
Then, with a creaking motion, it began to walk.
We have to do something, both Sellen and Charon thought.
“...”
“...”
But strangely, they were rooted to the ground.
With each step the doll took, a wave of demonic energy seemed to seep through their skin, and it soon became a tangible fog that wrapped around their entire bodies.
Meanwhile...
Deathberry walked to the window and sat on the sill.
Thud.
Finally, it stopped moving.
“...Deathberry?” Ferith carefully muttered, momentarily forgetting her pain.
Deathberry did not respond.
It was as if a wind-up doll had performed its final motion and stopped functioning altogether.
Its head drooped slightly and then stilled completely.
Wooooosh...
A light, eerie breeze licked their skin.
It was unusually warm and repulsive. It felt like an invisible creature was licking their cheeks.
Though Deathberry stopped moving, no one else dared to move. In addition to the silence, the tension in the air was so thick that the heavy atmosphere pressed down on them.
Sellen swallowed dryly, remembering what Luan had said.
—Is it possible that they're both members of the cult?
What a fool, she’d been.
If she had considered that possibility, she should have also thought of the opposite.
Why.
Why hadn't she considered the possibility that neither royal was a cultist?
Damn it.
It had been so obvious, too.
It was her fault. She had been confident that one of the two was a cultist, so Luan Bednicker had believed her.
Fuck you, Tome of Laplace...
Sellen had her excuses.
The Tome of Laplace used vague prophetic language.
While the calamity had been described clearly, the mastermind behind it had been described very ambiguously.
If the princess was merely a puppet, then killing her was pointless.
This Veiled Side would not disappear, and the puppets wouldn’t stop moving either.
The puppet master they’d thought was the mastermind turned out to be just another puppet? This was such a frustrating plot twist that if a novel pulled it on her, she’d quit reading without a second th—
Thunk...!
Just as Sellen began to drown in self-reproach, the glass window shook and began to shriek.
Ahahahaha!
All of the dolls lying on the ground, slashed, pierced, or torn, burst into laughter simultaneously.
If the dolls had only known how to kill before, now they seemed to only know how to laugh.
They did nothing but laugh.
The dolls’ shrieks and screeches felt like fingernails scratching at their brains.
It felt like something that had happened in a forgotten time. A lost experience, no longer remembered in their minds.
The omen of a demon lord’s descent.
It was just as Glenn Scarlet had said. Each member of the imperial family had someone they depended on.
Princess Ferith had always been talking to Deathberry, beyond how anyone normally treated a mere doll.
If the princess was actually able to hear Deathberry’s voice...
If Ferith hadn’t just been talking to herself, hadn’t actually been crazy, but had instead been talking to the doll...
It hit her, then.
It wasn’t just the dolls that were laughing.
“...!”
Beyond the windowsill, the blood-lit moon trembled violently as the moon’s surface changed.
At first, it seemed like a trick of the eye, an illusion cast by shadows. After all, the marks on the moon—lunar craters, people called them—often appeared differently depending on one’s perspective.
But this was different.
The surface of the moon began to distort. Slowly, the image of a face appeared.
A grin stretched wide across the moon’s surface, and then, with a booming echo, it too burst into laughter.
For the first time in her life, Sellen’s face turned deathly pale as she came face to face with mind-shattering madness.
Crack. Snap.
There were changes to Deathberry’s body as well.
Demon horns sprouted from its temples, and its once lifeless doll body now radiated a pale, eerie vitality, as if it had been given its own spirit. But its presence wasn’t so much “lifelike” as “deathlike.”
[...]
Deathberry’s eyes opened. What was revealed behind its eyelids was strange, with white and black reversed.
The moment their eyes met Deathberry’s, they forgot how to breathe as they realized...
A God of Disaster had descended and embodied itself.