“Well… let’s meet again in about 8 hours.”

Magnus said, taking out his pocket watch.

In a world where the boundary between morning and night had disappeared, words like ‘next day’ or ‘tomorrow’ were no longer used.

Setting a time with a pocket watch was all they could do.

He stood up from his seat and extended his hand to Serena.

“Let’s go, Serena.”

“Okay.”

Serena took Magnus’s hand and stood up.

“See you tomorrow, Nyx, Drukan.”

“Yes! You too, big sis! Good night!”

Behind the child waving with a bright face, Drukan lightly bowed his head.

Serena also gave a light bow to the Crown Prince couple before turning around.

Magnus’s gaze remained on the child until the very end, only leaving when Serena lightly pulled him away.

* * *

Rustle–

At the very faint noise, Magnus opened his eyes alertly. His sharpened senses shone even brighter in the darkness.

Something with its mouth wide open was above Serena’s head.

Magnus took a deep breath at the sight of the huge, snow-white teeth that looked like they were about to drip saliva.

“…What is this now…”

Gripping the sword he had placed not far away, he quickly slashed horizontally. One arm naturally embraced Serena.

Kwang–!

Too rushed to properly control his strength, the sword strike flew, cutting the monster and deeply gouging the ceiling.

The building shook noisily. The snow-white toothed monster hidden in the darkness crumbled and disappeared.

At the loud noise, Serena woke up startled in Magnus’s arms.

“Ma, Magnus?”

“Ah… Serena. It’s okay to sleep a bit more.”

Pieces of the broken ceiling fell from above. Serena, suddenly covered in wood chips and dust, blinked her eyes.

“Umm…? Here?”

Magnus, also covered in dust, shook his head.

“No… that would be unreasonable.”

“But what happened suddenly?”

“There was something.”

Magnus answered briefly.

He didn’t want to explain in detail that something had its mouth open as if trying to eat her, as it seemed like it would unnecessarily scare her.

“…Something? Wasn’t there nothing?”

“I thought so too…… But something appeared.”

All he could see was the endless darkness inside the wide-open mouth and the snow-white teeth.

Magnus frowned and got up from his seat.

“Let’s go out for now.”

There were still 2 hours left until the promised time, but it seemed difficult to sleep in the ruined room.

“Ah, okay.”

Serena got up hurriedly and roughly put on her clothes.

“From now on, it might be better to move as fast as possible.”

Magnus said quietly.

He had a bad feeling. And Magnus knew that his premonitions were usually right.

When they came out and went down to the first floor, there were already people who had come down, probably woken up by the loud commotion.

“Magnus, are you alright?”

The Crown Prince quickly spoke as he saw Magnus coming down.

It seemed they had become quite accustomed to living in darkness, as the Crown Prince recognized them easily despite the distance.

“Yes, was there no problem on your side?”

“Don’t even mention it! When I opened my eyes, there was some… thing with blood-red eyes holding an axe about to strike down on us! If I had opened my eyes even a moment later due to the noise you made, our necks might have been cut off!”

The Crown Prince, holding a sword in one hand and embracing Rosia with the other arm, vented his anger.

“How dare they, do they know who we are…!”

“Did it look like it cared about human ranks?”

Rosia’s shoulders were trembling slightly. She must have been frightened.

Magnus, also holding the trembling Serena in his arms more tightly, opened his mouth.

“Is Her Highness the Crown Princess alright?”

“Ah, strangely it was targeting her first… I managed to block it, but it seems she’s still shocked.”

Though he spoke lightly, if he had been even a moment late, her neck might have been cut off.

He almost lost her.

The Crown Prince took a deep breath while patting Rosia’s back, feeling a chilling sensation.

“…Whether it’s a person or a monster, we need to resolve this quickly or it’ll be troublesome.”

His voice, which had become heavy, was sharp.

“By the way… your knight hasn’t come down.”

“…That’s right. There’s no way he wouldn’t have noticed the commotion.”

Kwang–!

A loud noise was heard from above. Magnus, with his eyes wide open, reflexively drew his sword and turned around.

“Serena, can you stay here for a moment?”

“I’ll go too. Stay with her, Duchess.”

At their words, Serena hesitated before nodding, then carefully reached out to grab Magnus’s clothes.

“…I can stay, but I don’t think that would be good.”

“……Serena? Is something wrong?”

“No, I just have a bad feeling. I don’t think we should be alone.”

Serena trembled slightly.

Come to think of it, Serena had been trembling like an aspen leaf since coming down here.

This wasn’t like her, to be so afraid of something.

“Serena, you’ve been trembling too much since earlier, is there some problem?”

“…Don’t… don’t you feel it? Magnus.”

Magnus slightly bent his upper body and brought his face close to Serena’s.

Up close, he could see that she was pale and trembling in terror.

She was even sweating profusely, which seemed somewhat problematic.

“Serena, it’s okay. Calm down. What’s wrong?”

“It’s, it’s…… something, it’s watching us. Can’t, can’t you feel it?”

“Something is watching us?”

Magnus frowned and lightly looked around. It was pitch black all around, so nothing was properly detectable.

If asked whether he felt any killing intent, that wasn’t it, and if asked whether he felt any presence, that wasn’t it either.

“Where? From which direction do you feel it?”

“…Where, you ask, it’s coming from all directions. Really, can’t you feel this?”

Serena said, shrinking her body tightly.

She felt suffocated by the gazes she felt from all directions. She was trembling violently, and eventually, even her teeth started chattering.

“……”

Magnus narrowed his eyes and completely lifted Serena into his arms.

“Your Highness the Crown Princess, do you feel it too?”

“Ah….. No, I don’t particularly feel any gazes, but somehow it feels unpleasant… and eerie.”

She, who was in the Crown Prince’s arms, carefully opened her mouth.

She gathered holy power in her hand and carefully brought it close to Serena. As the white light touched her, Serena shook her head.

“No, no! Magnus!!”

Magnus quickly stepped back as Serena screamed in terror.

“…Serena?”

“I, I hate that.”

“…You hate the holy power?”

“Yes, I hate it. I hate it, don’t let it come near me. Okay? Please.”

Serena said, clinging to Magnus with a voice mixed with tears. Rosia’s eyes sank heavily.

“What did you do?”

“I just tried to share a blessing to help recover her mental strength. But… this is strange. Ordinary people don’t hate this sensation.”

Rosia, who had been muttering quietly, slightly lowered the corners of her mouth.

“This is the power of purification, so it shouldn’t harm anyone unless they have an opposing power.”

“Opposing power?”

“That is… darkness.”

“Come to think of it……”

Serena had made a contract with darkness.

There was no mention of the contract being broken, and Serena didn’t seem to feel anything like that, so the contract was probably still maintained.

“Serena was tricked by Darkness and made a contract with it without knowing what it was.”

“…She made a contract with Darkness?”

The Crown Prince asked, frowning deeply.

“You don’t mean that Darkness from the myth, do you?”

“Yes.”

At this, Rosia, who had been listening quietly, widened her eyes. She stepped back in surprise.

“Magnus, are you saying you’ve been traveling with a contractor of Darkness all this time?!”

At those words, Magnus’s brow furrowed.

“Is there some problem? Darkness has disappeared anyway……”

“A contractor of Darkness and Darkness itself are one and the same. They can’t be separated.”

Rosia said in an astonished voice. Magnus frowned at this and glanced at Serena in his arms.

She was still clinging to him in fear.

“…Come to think of it, there was a child in our group that she gave the name ‘Darkness’ to.”

The image of the young child who had received the name Nyx simultaneously came to their minds.

“That’s……”

“Isn’t that the Darkness? Serena instinctively knew.”

“…Wait, is your guard alright?”

The Crown Prince, who had been listening quietly, asked. At the same time, he clicked his tongue lowly and ran up the stairs while holding Serena.