Chapter 93
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
She was dressed in a bunny-girl outfit that revealed her body's contours, the sort of thing one might see only in Hallim.
Although she exposed no skin thanks to the swallow-feather-like coat she wore, her figure was plainly visible, making her appearance difficult to tolerate in the conservative Empire.
Wearing a white mask like one meant for a ball, she opened her mouth.
“Silence, everyone!”
The woman shouted energetically, like a circus showman.
“As injustice descends and throws the world into chaos!”
The awkwardness was palpable, but she desperately concealed it by raising her voice.
“I descend here from the shadows to uphold justice!”
Those whose attention had been seized by her appearance each threw out a remark.
“Who the hell are you!? Do you know where you are, barging in here!”
When a servant asked, the mysterious pink-haired masked woman laughed and shouted.
“I am Pepe of the Bunny Swallows! I have come here to stop the atrocities being committed in this mansion, for the sake of the justice everyone else has turned their backs on!”
“What?! How dare you spout such nonsense here?!”
“Where else would it be? The whole world knows this is where all wealth and evil converge to hatch wicked schemes!”
The mysterious masked woman made exaggerated gestures, striking the floor with her cane.
The servants, outraged, each tossed in a word.
“Do you know how many people Master Dandolo has fed and supported? How dare you say such things!”
“Rico Dandolo! I never knew there were so many people loyal to his children! Then why do you proclaim your loyalty with your mouths alone?”
“What kind of bullshit is that!? Do we look like petty people who would refuse to be loyal to Master Dandolo!?”
“How lamentable! You are blind men with open eyes and deaf-mutes with open ears! You let a witch into your household, so how can you pretend not to see her?”
“A witch? Who on earth are you calling a witch?”
At the word witch, everyone looked around in confusion.
Tilda Pascal also glanced around anxiously.
She hoped that damned thief had simply guessed wrong.
“Tilda Pascal!”
The woman called her by name with perfect accuracy.
At that, another spotlight shone on the spot where Tilda stood.
Everyone's attention focused on her.
“You filthy witch's dog. Why are you pretending to be a frightened dog?”
Tilda, the focus of every eye, was flustered.
“You evil snake who devoured your father-in-law, devoured your husband, and even tried to devour your own blood relatives. Your wicked deeds end today. I shall show everyone here exactly what reins you use to hold this mansion in your grip!”
Just then, the masked woman reached inside her jacket to take something out.
The moment Tilda saw the object, her pupils shrank.
“There she is! It's the intruder!”
At that moment, countless soldiers stormed through the door.
They held crossbows in their hands.
“Fire!”
Fwoosh!
The crossbow bolts broke free and flew toward the pink-haired thief.
Boom boom boom!
Just before the crossbow bolts struck her body,
pure-white smoke burst from the mysterious pink-haired thief.
It completely obscured the view of the entire area.
“Aaaah!”
“Cough, cough!”
“The intruder! Do not let her escape!”
The servants fled while the soldiers rushed about in a frenzy.
Amid the chaos, Tilda was staring up at the place where the pink-haired thief had stood.
‘Where is she?’
She was trying to track the woman's movements through the pure-white smoke.
‘Where could she be?’
She had to find her.
She had to find that woman before anyone else did.
“My lady!”
Just then, someone pulled Tilda along.
“Please evacuate this way!”
Perhaps thinking Tilda had been stunned by the shock, the servant led her away.
She acted like a flustered woman and let herself be guided by the hand.
“I will take you to the shelter now. This way—”
“No!”
Tilda stopped him.
“There is no need to go all the way to the shelter. I will hide in my room.”
“Understood. Then this way……!”
The servant escorted Tilda to her room.
“You must not come out! Please wait until the situation has calmed down.”
“All right.”
The door closed.
Tilda paced around with an anxious expression.
She tapped the door with her index finger.
At that moment, a bright-red membrane spread from her fingertip and completely covered the door.
No one could pass through this door now.
“What the hell was that crazy bitch?”
Tilda's face twisted viciously.
That woman had drawn attention with her shameful outfit and called herself Pepe.
“Bunny Swallows? What's that supposed to be? Who the hell is behind this, trying to screw me over?”
A thief from an organization she had never heard of or seen before.
She wondered who was behind it.
Stephan? Murchit? Herman?
Or was it some dirty trick Rico Dandolo had prepared long ago, before she began poisoning him?
But that was not the issue.
‘How does she know I contracted with a witch?’
The advantage of a Garden Contract was that it would not be discovered unless magic was used directly in front of someone.
Tilda had always used magic cautiously.
She had made this mansion her own only after exercising the utmost caution.
There was no way anyone could know.
‘Even if they did discover it…….’
There was one thing she could not understand.
How had they noticed the medium?
The thief who had introduced herself as Pepe had tried to expose it.
She had been interrupted just as she was about to take it out, but Tilda had caught a brief glimpse of its outline.
It was a thin, small, convenient object, easy to conceal against one's body.
And the medium Tilda had set up was shaped the same way.
Perhaps……
‘That can't be.’
Tilda was not convinced.
Even if she wanted to dismiss it as an attempt merely to intimidate her, she could not be certain that was truly the case.
She had to check.
Tilda moved.
In her spacious room, she went to the desk drawer.
The one where she kept a painted portrait of herself.
She opened the drawer.
Inside was a single framed painting lying face down.
She tried to turn the frame over and check it.
“I thought it would be somewhere in this room, but was it there after all?”
A voice pierced the silence.
Tilda spun around in surprise.
A man stood in the place where no one should have been.
A brown-haired man with a ponytail.
He was watching her from behind a mask like that shameless thief's.
“You—you, what are you? How did you get in here……?”
“How do you think? When that pink thief was drawing everyone's attention? Or from the moment she grabbed your wrist and led you away?”
Only then could Tilda grasp the outline of this absurd situation.
The woman who had spoken like a showman had been nothing more than bait.
The real purpose had been to make Tilda approach the medium and check it herself.
The brown-haired man jerked his chin toward the frame and asked.
“I take it that thing in your hand is the real medium for the Garden Contract?”
Tilda instinctively hugged the frame to her chest and shouted.
“Die!!”
At that moment, a magic circle appeared, and a snake's head shot out from within it.
The snake, with white scales and golden eyes, had the classic form recorded in the texts.
“Wow, looks like you really did contract with Yorr Philiaz. I suppose this is Black Bandana's intelligence network at work.”
Yorr Philiaz's snake.
It possessed deadly venom that could melt its victim away without leaving even a trace the instant it bit them.
The snake flicked its tongue and coiled around Tilda, threatening the intruder.
“Cute.”
Zed was a member of the Red-Eyed Tribe.
The Red-Eyed Tribe possessed the ability to disrupt the mana of magic circles and nullify them.
Even so, Zed did not reveal his eyes.
The reason was simple.
There was no need to use a butcher knife to kill a chicken.
He leaned forward, then charged as though spring-loaded.
“Kill him! Snakes! Hurry up and kill that bastard!”
Dozens of snakes moved noisily, chasing after the man's form.
But they could not keep up with him.
The man was an acrobat who had easily evaded the attacks of two wolf monsters.
Ssssh—
Thin blades of aura swept through the air, leaving pale afterimages.
Each time a line of aura was drawn, Yorr's snakes had their heads severed from their bodies and rolled across the floor.
It did not take long for dozens of snakes to become dozens of chunks of meat.
“Ugh!!”
Tilda's face changed.
She transformed her face into a snake's, intending to spray venom.
But by the time she had made her decision, the brown-haired man was already right in front of her.
“Hey!”
“Aaaah!”
He brought the hilt of his dagger down hard on the back of her hand.
Tilda's hand, which had been clutching the medium, went limp.
The brown-haired man nimbly snatched it and retreated.
“Let's see. The medium our heartless witch hopeful chose is…….”
The brown-haired man turned the frame over and let out a low exclamation. “Huh.”
“Wow, I never would have expected this…….”
“G-Give it back!! Now!”
Tilda cried out.
But the brown-haired man was unmoved.
He removed the painting from the frame and held it in both hands.
“Nothing personal. It's just business.”
Riiip—!
He tore the object apart with all his strength.
The paper tore as easily as a cheap flyer on a market floor.
“Ah……!”
Then a vivid red aura began to rise from the paper split in two.
The force grew stronger and condensed, eventually causing a rupture.
Boom!
“Whoa!?”
Zed's body was pushed backward.
Tilda, who had been far away, rushed over like a beast and picked up the scraps of paper.
“No……!”
Tilda tried to force the scraps back together after grabbing them.
“Aaah……! No……!! This can't be happening!”
Spilled water could not be gathered up, and a broken medium could not be restored.
At that moment, an eerie energy began to envelop the surroundings.
An ominous premonition seized her.
“Time to make my exit. Well, then!”
The brown-haired man hurriedly left the area to avoid being caught up in it.
Tilda could not match his astonishing agility.
She remained there on her knees, trembling violently.
It's coming.
She's coming.
Sssrrrrr—
What rang in her ears was the sound of a snake's tongue.
Something long and damp licked her earlobe with a sweet, unsettling motion.
-Ohoho…….
Then came an eerie laugh.
She could not turn to look behind her and froze in place.
Tilda's complexion turned deathly pale.
-Poor Tilda. Poor, pitiful Tilda. The contract has been broken.
“N-No, it hasn't.”
Tilda answered while trembling.
“I can fix it, Lady Yorr! Please……!”
-No, you have failed. Did I not tell you to protect the medium of our contract by any means necessary? But you failed to protect it.
The voice laughed as though it were enjoying itself.
Tilda begged her again.
“I will kill that man! I will prove my ability!”
-There is no need, child. From the moment you reached for more than your station, your downfall was already inevitable.
A long strip of flesh brushed past her cheek.
Then came a mocking laugh.
Tilda pleaded, tears dripping from her eyes.
“Please, do not abandon me. I will become your loyal dog. Please, just give me one more chance…….”
She begged and begged.
The answer that came back was this.
-Snakes do not shed tears, you useless thing.
As that energy vanished, she sensed something strange.
Something that had surrounded the mansion vanished with a whoosh.
The spell that had held Tilda Pascal together unraveled.