Arnoldus placed the chandelier he was carrying on top of a stack of wine barrels in the cellar. As he descended the stairs, he could hear the sound of teeth clacking together—like someone chewing, but in an extremely rude manner. The noise came from the direction of a room with a black wooden door.
"Who's there?" Arnoldus called.
No one usually came down here except the servants who restocked the wine for their beloved young master, Faye Morsatio, who loved wine more than he loved his own parents.
It was rather ironic that the Marquis and Marchioness Morsatio had abandoned their titles and gone to the mountains to worship the God Liri, while their son had turned into a drunkard.
Thinking about Faye made Arnoldus feel a bit sorry for him. Sure, the young master lacked nothing in life—money and power were both his. But what good were those things if he only had a few years left to live?
The diagnosis came from Halaf, the chief mage of the Eleven Towers. He had declared that Faye was suffering from a disease called a "tumor," where an unknown mass of cells had grown inside Faye's brain.
The mass had already grown to the size of an adult man's big toe. There was no way to remove it unless Faye's brain was replaced with another one—say, a pig's brain—which was, of course, impossible.
That was the main reason the Marquis and his wife had gone to the mountains. They wanted to focus on praying for a miracle for their son. All matters of governance were handed over to an expert, and Faye was allowed to do whatever he wanted for the rest of his life.
"Sir Arnoldus!"
Before Arnoldus could reach the door, someone grabbed his shoulder. It was Hedwin, one of the guards at the Marquis' residence who was doing his usual patrol.
"What are you doing down here? It's so dark," Hedwin asked. "If you need something, you could've just told me."
"No, actually…" Arnoldus cleared his throat. "I was planning to retrieve some documents from last month under Sir Briton's orders. I thought they'd be in the storage cabinet, but somehow I ended up down here instead. What about you?"
"I'm just doing my usual patrol. The cellar door was open, so I came to check."
"I see…"
"Are you planning to enter that room?"
Hedwin asked, glancing at the black wooden door. "I can go get the key."
"It's locked from the outside?" Arnoldus asked, surprised. If the room was locked, then who—or what—was inside?
"Yeah. Always."
"Would it be a problem if I went in?"
"Not really. That room is where the Marquis used to store old office stuff. It's not used anymore. The only problem is getting in."
"Why?"
"Well… Gowald keeps the key. And you know how incredibly forgetful that guy is. I'm sure he put it somewhere and won't remember where."
"Ah, then I guess I shouldn't trouble you." Arnoldus shook his head, and the idea of checking the room quickly slipped from his mind.
Just as the two of them were about to leave the cellar, a massive boom echoed through the room. The floor beneath their feet trembled violently.
"An earthquake! Sir Arnoldus!" Hedwin reacted instantly, trying to shield Arnoldus' head. The guard practically forced him to crouch under his arms.
"No… that's enough!" Arnoldus shouted as he struggled to break free. "This isn't an earthquake! You idiot!"
Hedwin froze, then quickly realized the vibration and sound were more like a massive cannon going off.
The sound came from… that wooden door.
The two of them exchanged glances.
"Do you feel the urge to check it out too, Hedwin?" Arnoldus asked. "If that room holds the Marquis' belongings, could the explosion have come from some magical device or weapon?"
"That makes sense. The Marquis likes collecting unusual things. It could be a bomb."
"Alright." Arnoldus began connecting the possibilities in his mind, and somehow they all seemed to make sense. "Go get the key."
"Understood, sir. Hopefully Gowald—"
Hedwin's sentence was cut short by the sound of wood creaking.
Creeeeeeak…
Both of them stared at the door.
The wood creaked again, and then the door simply fell forward, ripping itself off the hinges.
"…I guess we don't need the key anymore."
"Seems so."
The two slowly approached the room. Hedwin, as a knight of the Morsatio household, stepped forward first.
Just as they were about to enter the dark room, Arnoldus slowed his steps.
"Hedwin, I think—"
"Arghhh!"
Hedwin was suddenly pulled into the darkness by something.
It looked almost like a jet-black hand with unnaturally long fingers. It moved at an inhuman speed, leaving Arnoldus frozen in shock.
"H–Hedwin!" Arnoldus stumbled backward. But he tripped over his own feet and fell hard to the ground. His eyes widened in horror as Hedwin's voice disappeared.
Then the hand appeared again.
This time more slowly.
Its shape resembled dark tendrils. One of them stretched toward Arnoldus, making the man crawl backward in terror. Too frightened to react, he simply shut his eyes.
Cold.
An icy sensation touched his cheek—like ice, but far colder.
Arnoldus trembled violently.
"H-hmph… hel—arghhh…!"
Before he could even finish the word "help," the tendrils forced their way into his mouth, nose, and ears.
His eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out of their sockets, yet not a single sound escaped his throat.
Die.
Die.
Die.
He was definitely going to die.
Just when Arnoldus thought his end had come, the tendrils suddenly released him.
What… what just happened?
Arnoldus curled up on the floor, gasping for air.
But it wasn't over.
He could feel something approaching.
Something incredibly terrifying.
Something unbelievably evil.
It stepped out from the darkness and slowly into the light.
Arnoldus' mind went blank.
Someone emerged from that room.
First, a pair of legs appeared.
Then the rest of the body.
And then…
Nothing.
"God…"
There were no words in the world that could describe how shocked Arnoldus was at that moment.
Because what stood before him looked like a human. It had a human body. It was even wearing clothes Arnoldus recognized very well.
Those were the clothes of his sickly young master.
Faye Morsatio.
But no matter how hard Arnoldus looked, he couldn't find his young master's face.
Because something that supposed to be a face was horrifying. There were no eyes, no nose, no mouth—nothing human at all.
Just face full of different sizes of holes.
"Arnoldus. Arnoldus. Arnoldus. Arnoldus. Arnoldus."
The voice made Arnoldus shiver.
It was Faye's voice.
And yet… not quite.
Faye's soft voice mixed with a deep tone that didn't belong to any boy. Worse still, the creature knew his name.
"I feel very, very…" the creature tilted its head."…funny?"
***
"Looks like the young master got drunk again last night?"
Aida pulled open the wide curtains that covered the enormous window in Faye's room.
The young maid didn't comment on the strong smell of wine, the broken teacup, or the candle lying under the bed. Luckily nothing had caught fire.
She walked over to the bed and pulled back the blanket.
Her young master was still lying there with his eyes closed.
"Why do you always rest your arm on your head when you sleep…" Aida murmured softly, before quickly covering her mouth when she realized how rude that sounded.
Though she knew that even if Faye heard her comment, he wouldn't say anything.
Not because the young master was particularly kind.
But because he was far too indifferent to pay attention to his servant's behavior.
But honestly—was it normal for a master to barely say anything to his personal maid for nearly ten years?
Just as Aida was about to adjust her master's sleeping position, she noticed a strange crack in the wall.
Since when had that appeared?
Aida touched it, thinking for a moment.
Then she left the room and returned with a wooden board, a hammer, and some nails.
First, she pressed the board against the crack in the wall.
The difference between the neat bedroom wall and the randomly placed wooden board created a very obvious aesthetic disaster.
Aida realized something didn't look quite right. But she ignored it and started hammering the nails in.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Oh dear. It seemed Aida had figured out what looked wrong.
The board wasn't perfectly square.
So Aida left the room again and returned with a saw.
Behind her, a man in simple work clothes followed along with a curious expression. He was a carpenter in this household. The man stared at the crack in the wall with a shocked expression on his face.
"This is expensive marble," he said in amazement. "How could it possibly crack? Tsk, tsk… And what's with that ugly wooden board?"
"It's fine. We can just move this table to cover it."
Hearing that, the carpenter nodded and began helping Aida hammer the nails in place. When they noticed that some corners of the board weren't symmetrical, they trimmed it with a saw.
Twack. Twack. Twack.
Faye heard the sound of sawing and hammering. He opened his eyes, only to find people doing that kind of work while he was still sleeping!
"Hey, can you hold it properly? Why are you staring at me?"
"No, there's soot on your face."
"What? Where?"
"Ah! Please be careful! You hit my hand!"
"Good grief, that's because you can't see!"
They even pushed the table across the floor, making an annoyingly loud creaking sound.
Faye wanted to scold the two of them, but he swallowed his words.
With a sigh, he got up and headed to the bathroom. Ever since his illness got worse, he often felt nauseous and dizzy in the mornings.
Faye walked past the two of them, who were still busy arguing.
"Young Master is awake," Aida whispered. "Let's finish this quickly and get out."
"I haven't seen him in a while," the carpenter said instead, staring at the bathroom door. "Young Master has gotten even thinner."
Faye heard that comment as he closed the bathroom door. When he turned around, he found himself facing the mirror, looking at his own reflection.
Faye froze as he stared at the strange face in the mirror.
Slowly, he raised his hand and touched his cheek. The moment he felt the horrifying, hole-filled texture beneath his fingers, he jerked back in shock and stumbled until his back hit the wall.
"Hallucination…?" Faye muttered under his breath.
Suddenly, he felt an itching sensation in his chest that made him start coughing violently.
He covered his mouth with his hand. When he looked down, he realized his palm was smeared with dark red blood.
"…!"
He coughed again, this time vomiting a large amount of blood.
When he accidentally glanced at the mirror, he saw something even worse.
Every hole on his face was bleeding too.
Faye's vision suddenly went black.