CH 160

Cecile could only stare blankly at the sight before her. The man’s chest was impaled by a black spear… no, not a spear—the black figure outside the window had transformed itself into a spear to pierce the man’s chest. The man gurgled and groaned before collapsing forward, pulling Cecile along with him.

‘It hurts.’ Cecile let a yelp of pain as tears welled in her eyes. He hadn’t let go of her hair, and it hurt from being yanked. Her cheek still stung from the slap, and her shoulder also ached from smacking against the ground.

When she turned her head, she saw the man collapsed next to her had stopped breathing with his eyes still open. He had died. As the realization struck Cecile, more tears welled up and spilled over. She felt the onset of fear that had been long forgotten. She’d seen people die in the manner the night of her wedding.

“Am I going to die here? After all my efforts to not end up like this?” Cecile mumbled subconsciously, “I’m scared…”

Her captor was dead, and she would be next. She couldn’t prevent the tears spilling from her eyes as the black thing that’d impaled him shifted into a long snake-like form and approached her. Cecile gripped the scepter tightly and debated whether to strike it, but her body was paralyzed with fear. When the black thing raised itself, Cecile closed her eyes thinking this would be her end.

And yet, no matter how long she waited, there was no pain. ‘What’s going on? Am I already dead, but I just can’t feel it? Or is that black thing waiting for the moment I open my eyes to kill me?’ A jumble of thoughts was running through her mind, when she felt something gently wipe her cheek. Her eyes shot open in surprise at the sensation.

The black thing that had ruthlessly murdered the man mere moments before was tenderly caressing the corner of Cecile’s eyes, as if it were worried. Cecile blinked, startled by the touch against her cheek. She remembered this feeling—Cecile had returned to the empress’s palace in tears on the night of Yuliana’s arrival at the imperial palace, and he had comforted her with this same touch.

“Your Majesty?” Cecile called out in a cautious voice. She was convinced that the black thing’s caress was the same as Estian’s touch. The way it wiped away her tears and stroked her cheek, and even how it hesitated as if unsure what to do next. It meant that the black shape was really…

“Your Majesty!” Cecile jumped to her feet. “How… did you end up like this?” Was this truly, truly Estian? Had that man been truthful? How had Estian ended up looking like this? What in the world had happened? She could barely bear to continue, as she reached out and tried to grab the black shape in her shock. Before she could reach it, the black thing quickly pulled back in an instant, leaving her staring stupefied.

The moment Cecile murmured her question, it seemed to tremble like a person whose secret had been exposed. It swiftly retreated back outside the window. Cecile ran after it and saw the entirety of the black mass covering Etia’s capital was shaking.

Groooar!—a tremendous howl echoed everywhere, forcing Cecile to cover her ears. It was the same cry she’d heard when the gate first opened back at the imperial palace. But this time, it sounded even louder and more desperate than before.

* * *

‘She knows.’ This fact colored Estian’s every thought. She’d found out—his true form. It was a reality he’d never considered before.

‘Then we should kill her,’ the children’s voices inside him whispered in his ears. ‘You’ve killed everyone who saw your true form. So, let’s kill this time too. That’s right. You can’t let anyone who’s seen this monstrous appearance live.’

These were the voices belonging to those children that were thrown into the same laboratory as Estian. They were all absorbed into and lived in Estian’s mind when he became the sole survivor.

‘Estian, kill her already. Come on!’ the voices urged.

‘No, I can’t,’ Estian insisted, shaking his head. He looked at Cecile, who was gazing blankly at him from the window of the tall building. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out how she’d ended up here. His wife should’ve been enjoying a pleasant day at the empress’s palace. He’d even placed Richard at her side for her safety. How could she be here in the city of Etia?

At first, Estian thought he was hallucinating, but then he caught sight of the scepter in her hand. The scepter was an item that couldn’t be replicated with illusions. If she was holding the regalia, then she was the real Cecile. Estian felt despair as he looked at the wife he’d wished to see ever since he departed from the imperial palace.

Her appearance was a mess—her cheek was bruised from the ruptured blood vessels after being slapped by that mutt, and her face was streaked with the tears she shed moments ago.

“Your Majesty!” Cecile cried out to him. Estian felt his heart shattering at the sound of her voice.