The sobbing continued. Like low, quiet falling rain, it went on seemingly endlessly without breaking. Catherine stared at the priest’s trembling back as he lay prostrate and crying, and at young Saul looking down at him with a vacant gaze.

She watched them frozen like specimens, submerged in pitch-black shadows.

Wind blew. The shadows cast from outside the window swayed. They rippled, tangled with the quietly surging sounds. Beneath them, the two people seemed left utterly alone. Everything appeared isolated.

If not for the rain quietly filling the surroundings and the swaying shadows, she would have thought the entire world had stopped…

Catherine closed her eyes. She simply couldn’t bear to watch any longer. Her throat felt choked. Her breath, her chest seemed to burn hot. Catherine buried her face in her cold hands. She pressed firmly against the hollow where her brow bone began, pushing inward while exhaling deeply.

She couldn’t understand any of it. Why was the evil thing showing her such scenes? Catherine groaned softly. And she doubted.

Was all of this that the evil thing was showing really… necessary to prove that Saul was the evil thing and the evil thing was Saul?

Since she couldn’t understand, Catherine had no choice but to doubt. What the evil thing had constantly thrust before Catherine was the secret Saul had hidden for so long. The misfortune that had resulted from it. And all of it had originated from the evil thing.

The more Catherine faced what the evil thing revealed, the more she found herself unable to believe that the evil thing was Saul.

And… the prophecies. Catherine recalled the small hands of young Saul embracing the priest in that corridor bathed in pale light. She remembered the tender voice that had trembled endlessly, filled with anxiety and worry. Catherine slowly raised her head.

Then she looked at the priest’s back as he lay prostrate and sobbing, thinking about the sins he confessed, about young Saul staring at the priest vacantly like an elaborate wax doll, and… about the facts concerning ‘Catherine.’

Among the scattered facts, she felt like she had failed to find a very important connection. Catherine unconsciously muttered.

“What on earth… what meaning could this have?”

Slowly, her vision blurred. She blinked once. Only after a tear fell and dampened the back of her hand did Catherine realize she was crying…

The surroundings rippled. They blurred and distorted. Catherine closed her eyes tightly, then opened them. She felt tears sliding down like rolling beneath her lowered eyelids. And in her now-clear vision, Catherine suddenly saw young Saul raising his head.

Over his emotionless face where nothing surfaced, his eyelids that had been slowly lowered rose. Then his gaze that had fallen downward crawled up to follow.

Their eyes met. Catherine startled and blinked rapidly. At that moment, lightning flashed from the quiet window outside. Flash, for an instant light poured down, covering everything by the window in white. Catherine reflexively closed her eyes at that sharp light.

And when she opened her eyes again, everything had changed. The white cloths that had covered the surroundings like ghosts, young Saul who had been sitting by the window, and the priest who had been prostrate and sobbing beneath him had all disappeared.

Only a familiar figure remained in their empty place.

In that spot where young Saul had been sitting, a man leaning somewhat toward Catherine’s direction fixed his heavy gaze on Catherine.

Once again, pale blue light surged in. Suddenly, the sound of a downpour followed, drowning out the quietly falling rain.

The shadows cast by the window where light had been completely driven away swayed fiercely, and the sound of tree branches whipping back and forth like whips in the strong wind could be heard from all directions, spreading like tinnitus.

Into this, the evil thing’s voice fell low and quiet like dropping.

“…To prove it to you.”

Submerged in pitch-black shadow, eyes dyed exactly that same color stared at Catherine dryly. 

Catherine didn’t avoid the evil thing’s gaze looking at her. Pushing her wet cheek with the deep root of her thumb like covering it, Catherine blinked once. She closed her eyes firmly, then opened them and asked.

“Is this… that proof?”

For a moment, the evil thing said nothing. Just as he was looking at Catherine, light shone again on his profile as he sat frozen without the slightest movement. For an instant, a dark red light entered his eyes, then was hidden.

Following that, the low sound of the sky collapsing could be heard. Until the end of the distant sound completely disappeared in the pitch-black surroundings, no words followed.

It took some time for the evil thing to open his mouth again. Bleakly tangled sounds pierced the eerie silence. And when the evil thing finally answered like this, Catherine unconsciously bit the flesh inside her lips.

“I have not spoken falsehoods before you.”

The evil thing’s answer seemed to have peered into Catherine’s heart as she doubted him. At the cool sensation penetrating her nape, Catherine unconsciously trembled.

However, Catherine didn’t back down. She straightened her back, raised her head, and stared at the evil thing with an almost glaring gaze as she spoke.

“…How could I possibly trust you?”

Strength filled the space between her teeth. The evil thing’s cold gaze touched Catherine’s cheek, taut and trembling, then fell away.

“I know that you do not trust me.”

But that was all. The evil thing showed no particular disturbance, like he had anticipated Catherine’s wary reaction. However, after several seconds of silence, he asked in a somewhat subdued voice.

“If you cannot trust me, how can you trust the Cavendish brothers?”

At that moment, Catherine, who had been about to answer the evil thing’s question, unconsciously hesitated. How could she trust them? Catherine muttered.

She felt her fingertips trembling. She intuitively realized it. Though it took the form of a question, it wasn’t a question.

“Can you break through Saul’s foolish silence?”

The evil thing was certain. From that calm tone without a hint of wavering, the evil thing seemed to clearly know that Catherine couldn’t do so.

“Can you believe the facts his brother speaks of?”

Unable to agree with the evil thing’s question, her lips that had parted merely to deny it couldn’t produce any sound at the following question and pressed together again.

This time the evil thing was right. Catherine… couldn’t deny it. Strength entered her lips firmly. Rolling her lips inward, Catherine bit her dried lips.

She wasn’t confident. She didn’t think she could break through Saul’s silence. He was someone who had endured alone for such a long time. Catherine didn’t know how tedious that time of walking in silence must have been.

She only knew one thing. If it had been silence that could be broken, it would have been broken long ago before someone other than Catherine.

“When even the Cavendish brothers could not earn your trust…”

Catherine, who had been lost in thought, blinked at the evil thing’s continuing voice. That voice sounded like resignation.

“I have no choice but to show you, do I not?”

One cannot build towers in the air… The last words were close to a soliloquy. Saying this, the evil thing lowered his gaze like closing his eyes.

And like someone lost in deep thought, he dropped his shoulders as he exhaled a long breath. Then, seeming to lower his head, he slowly rose.

One step, the evil thing’s shadow stretched long as he walked out. Catherine raised her head. She saw him approaching with the faint light cast from the side above her head behind him. The evil thing walked with soundless, heavy steps.

As he drew closer, the gradually deepening shadow covered Catherine.

In the midst of this, Catherine suddenly realized. The evil thing’s movements were natural. They were different from what she had faced when he had rushed out of Saul’s study.

There was no creaking movement, no sign of pleading and clinging to Catherine.

Catherine suddenly felt goosebumps. Now, the evil thing before Catherine really… seemed like Saul. While Catherine froze at this sudden realization, the evil thing finally stopped in front of Catherine.

In the deep darkness, he looked at Catherine with glistening eyes. And he lowered his body like sinking. Catherine, you. Do not suffer. A heavy, solemn voice followed.

“For you to understand me, you must know everything about Saul.”

Like bestowing kindness, the evil thing politely extended his gloved hand to Catherine. However, Catherine didn’t take that hand. At that moment, the sound of someone knocking on the door from outside could be heard.

Catherine reflexively turned her gaze toward where the sound came from.

It was short and light, like bouncing up. Knock knock. In that briefly knocking rhythm, barely hidden excitement could be felt. Though not visible, she could sense that the person beyond the door couldn’t hide their impatient heart and was restless.

“Catherine.”

Suddenly, a youthful voice could be heard. It was a call with strange appeal. When Catherine turned around at this, the evil thing had already returned to the appearance of young Saul. And he remained in place with his hand extended to her.

He still seemed to be waiting for Catherine to take his hand.