A Night of Phantoms

Like a magic lantern slide flashed before death, images of Bain flickered past.

There was an infant Bain. A very young Bain. As he grew, Bain had never strayed far from the Emperor’s side.

Electro had told Bain everything about himself without any concealment. He told him that he, the Emperor, was the one who had executed the leader of the rebellion, massacring Bain’s entire clan including his parents, and that he had only brought Bain along on a whim—even though, by right, Bain should have been dismembered and killed alongside them. Contrary to Electro’s expectation that the boy would be confused and hurt, the young Bain had accepted the truth with cold detachment.

No… was that truly acceptance?

It was more like an expression of absolute indifference. Bain’s beautiful blue eyes had remained fixed solely on the old Emperor.

At this rate, I’ll get eaten up.

Electro smiled bitterly. The continuous slideshow of memories finally reached the moments just before his own death. Electro had sincerely hoped Bain would escape his shadow and live a happy life.

“Be happy, Bain.”

He had muttered that Bain should marry someone he loved and could even covet power, but then, Bain’s image suddenly vanished.

“Bain?”

“Where are you?”

The faithful Berlowen would always answer and act without a moment’s hesitation whenever Electro called. But now, no one was by Electro’s side. Even though Bain had been right there just a moment ago, there was no response.

Just as Electro opened his mouth to call for him again, something grabbed his ankle and bit down. Something seized his old, scrawny leg, and Electro tumbled disgracefully.

“Ugh…! Aaaaagh!”

The thing didn’t stop. It chewed and swallowed Electro’s body. Moving up from his knee to his thigh, it greedily gnawed and tore at his shabby, aging flesh, eventually devouring him all the way up to his neck.

What had swallowed Electro was a giant monster.

A pitch-black, enormous beast clicked its sharp fangs together and consumed Electro’s body, leaving behind not even a fragment of bone.

Electro screamed for Bain, begging to be saved. Then, suddenly, he realized that the eyes of the monster devouring him down to the marrow were a transparently clear and beautiful blue.

That was the exact color of the eyes Electro cherished most among Bain’s features. The moment Electro realized this, he screamed.

“Hah!”

And at the same instant, he opened his eyes.

Merwell quickly sat up and checked his ankle. Instead of an old, bony leg, his hand touched the firm, smooth skin of a youth. He swept his hand from ankle to knee to thigh. Realizing his surroundings were pitch black, he gasped heavily for breath.

Why was he lying here?

Then, suddenly, the events of the previous day rushed back to his mind.

Jex had run toward Merwell, who had stood frozen in the courtyard.

“Hey! You okay? You look completely spaced out.”

Though Merwell had seemed frozen, as if his soul had temporarily departed his body, Jex thought it was highly impressive that the kid hadn’t collapsed and wet himself. After all, given Grand Duke Berlowen’s volatile personality, saying he wanted to gouge out someone’s eyes was never an empty threat.

It was impressive that Merwell had instinctively avoided the blow, and his dignified posture while standing his ground had pleased Jex. Jex couldn’t understand why the kid had been so timid and trembling in the past.

But seeing his face drained completely white and blood streaming from the corner of his eye, Jex had sighed and said,

“Skip tonight’s training and rest in your room. I’ll tell the instructor.”

It was a genuine gesture of goodwill.

Merwell hadn’t refused. He nodded and headed up to his room. Whether it was the shock of seeing Berlowen after so long or because he had been thinking too much about the implications of black magic, Merwell’s head throbbed.

He remembered closing his eyes, but after that, it had all gone black. He must have fallen straight asleep.

It was a nightmare…

A dream where he was gradually eaten from the ankle up—it was utterly disgusting and eerie. He roughly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and guessed the time.

The window was dark, the sky black; it was probably around midnight. Still, his eyes absorbed the moonlight, so the courtyard outside wasn’t terribly dark.

He had woken up at an awkward hour. His head hurt and felt hazy. He wanted to go back to sleep, but his consciousness had fully awakened, so even if he tried to rest, he couldn’t easily drift off.

“His Majesty… cannot leave my side even in death.”

Bain’s voice from just before Electro’s death rang in his ears like chronic tinnitus. Giving up on sleep, Merwell got up and lit a small lamp.

I’ll go to the kitchen and sneak some alcohol. I shouldn’t enter the storage without permission, but in this state, I can’t fall asleep.

It had been slightly warm during the day, but at night, the fierce cold returned. If it was this cold inside the castle, how freezing must it be outside? He was at least grateful that this youthful body was no longer at an age where the cold made his joints ache.

The wind howled murderously outside. It slammed against the window frames as if trying to break them, making a loud rattling sound. Passing the fourth floor, Merwell went down to the first floor, heading toward the central hall to reach the kitchen.

The oppressive darkness made the castle seem completely uninhabited, like an ancient, abandoned fortress. It was the dead of night, and all the servants were asleep. There would be sentries stationed in the distance, but perhaps it wasn’t their turn to patrol this wing yet, as not a single human sound could be heard.

Walking through the darkness relying on his single lamp, Merwell unconsciously approached a massive window. It was the largest and most magnificent window in the castle, located just before the entrance to the central hall. Actually, it was more of a viewing gallery for the grounds. Clicking his tongue at its unnecessarily grand scale, Electro stared blankly outside.

Through the glass, a man stood with his eyes closed. He was eerily beautiful. Long black hair reaching his waist fluttered wildly in the freezing wind, making him look deceptively fragile.

“No…”

Surprisingly, it was Grand Duke Berlowen Blanchard. Wearing only a thin white shirt and black pants, he was kneeling barefoot in the deep snow, staring blankly up at the sky. His closed eyes, defined by beautiful, elegant lines, were visible even from here.

Feeling as though he had seen something he shouldn’t have, Merwell quickly hid the lamp inside his coat. As the interior corridor sank into complete darkness, the moonlit snow outside became even clearer. The pure white snow absorbed the moonlight, casting an ethereal glow around the kneeling man.

How long had he stood there like that? Grand Duke Berlowen’s figure looked entirely blue under the moonlight. Snapping out of his daze, Electro took a step back and parted his lips to mutter.

“…I told you to live happily. You really are foolish.”

He had prayed that Bain would live a happy life, yet why was he behaving so pathetically?

Bain didn’t move for a long time. He was like a broken marionette—a doll whose strings had been completely severed, leaving him with no strength left to stand.

Worrying that the man might get frostbite, Electro hesitated, before wondering if the man revered as the empire’s greatest swordsman could even get frostbite from a simple snowstorm. In the end, it was Merwell who couldn’t bear the cold any longer and walked away.

The drafty corridors of the castle, where the heat of the central stoves never reached, were freezing. Despite wearing a thick coat, standing still in the hallway for an hour had made his entire body shiver.

Electro recalled the pale, bloodless face he had seen during the day. At least when Electro was alive, Bain had been well-fed and cared for, possessing a fresh, healthy complexion and flushed cheeks. Now, he looked as if he were actively dying.

Because Bain had always cowered meekly before him, it was only now that Electro truly realized how tall and well-built the man actually was. He had always praised Bain as pretty, but in Electro’s past memories, Bain had seemed more like a delicate, slender pet dog.

Debating whether to return to his room, Merwell changed direction and descended into the mansion’s basement. The dining room came into view, followed by the liquor storage.

Chelen had mentioned that this was a place where she sometimes hid to smoke, avoiding the Grand Duke’s sharp eyes and sensitive nose. Thinking he would just take two puffs of a cigarette and head back, Merwell sat down on a wooden barrel and sighed.

Today, he had met Bain, learned that he had attempted black magic to summon his soul—and that it had actually succeeded. It had been an incredibly eventful day.

Why had he ended up in Merwell’s body? What had happened to the soul of Merwell Humanjack, the original owner? He felt himself sinking deeper into a bottomless pit of questions.

He had been the Emperor, and Merwell was his loyal subject. A dead Emperor had no desire to steal his subject’s body.

Should I just go to Bain outside right now and demand an explanation from the very beginning?

Putting a cigarette into his mouth and lighting it, Merwell felt his entire body grow languid. Sleep finally began to creep over his senses.

He had tossed and turned, unable to sleep, and had wasted nearly an hour in the cold corridor watching Bain. His head throbbed painfully, making him feel hazy. In any case, he wasn’t in his right mind.

This is the last time. He kept the cigarette in his mouth out of sheer habit and closed his eyes.

“You really are foolish…” he whispered.

Muttering with the cigarette between his lips, Electro decided it was finally time to stub it out and try to sleep. He put some strength into his legs. There was still enough tobacco left for about two more puffs.

Holding the shortened cigarette, about to flick off the ash, Merwell suddenly saw a vision of a young Bain crouching at his feet. The first time Bain had knelt at the Emperor’s feet was when he was twelve years old.

Unconsciously, Electro had patted his head, and ever since then, that spot beside his knees had become Bain’s permanent place. With his headache and the nicotine, his stomach churned, and now he was experiencing vivid hallucinations. The storage room seemed to be full of young Bains.

So.

That must be a hallucination too.

The adult Berlowen, who was currently stepping into the liquor storage with gleaming, intense eyes, was certainly a hallucination as well.