At least those buried here had a relatively better fate than others. 

‘My grandmother, my father, my mother, the bird, and the squirrel… all of them, I killed.’

The ones buried in this graveyard, at least, are in a better situation.

The servants and maids he disliked—he killed them all and piled their bodies in the basement of the old mansion. When the house burned down, their remains were consumed by the flames.

In truth, it was he who set the mansion on fire, using it as a means to dispose of the bodies.

After Leah left, he continued killing—not out of necessity, but to pass the time, driven by sheer boredom.

At first, it was the servants of the estate. But eventually, he began hunting people in the nearby village.

Initially, it wasn’t unusual for one or two people to go missing. However, as more and more individuals disappeared, strange rumors began to spread throughout the village.

The turning point came when one of the mansion’s servants stumbled upon the bodies hidden in the basement. 

In the end, Zion killed all the servants who had discovered the bodies, along with everyone else in the mansion, and set the place ablaze. The fire consumed the estate, and as the structure collapsed, the basement—where the bodies had been piled—was buried forever beneath the ruins.

Ten years have passed since that night.

The skeletons likely remain buried under the site of the old basement. However, a garden has already begun to bloom above that very spot. 

Beside it, a new mansion is being built, ensuring there is no reason for those bones to ever surface again. 

Zion is fully aware of the nature within himself. 

Perhaps his father was the first to recognize the demonic nature that resided within him. 

But it wasn’t his father’s abuse that caused his personality. 

His darkness was something Zion was born with—a part of his very being. 

For a time, Zion’s stepmother, Grace, managed to suppress his dark nature. But after her death, the restraints were lifted, and he resumed his acts of killing.

Even after joining the monastery, his murderous tendencies didn’t cease.

Zion took to learning medicine—not to heal, but to kill under the guise of legality. 

Claiming his victims had died from illness or failed surgeries, he found it easy to conceal the deaths under the pretense of caring for patients. 

Yet, even this wasn’t enough to satiate his thirst. 

And the reason for that was Leah.

Grace had promised to entrust Leah to him upon her death, but her maternal uncle—the man Zion despised—managed to take Leah away from him. 

Even during his time in the monastery, Zion never stopped searching for Leah’s whereabouts. 

As soon as he discovered she had become a nun, he began devising a plan to bring her to his monastery. 

Originally, another nun was supposed to be sent to the central monastery, but Zion orchestrated an incident by hiring someone to push the nun from a tower, ensuring that Leah would take her place. 

There was no other way to bring Leah back to his side. 

Zion had never intended to remain in the monastery for long. 

His sole goal was to retrieve Leah, and once she was with him, he planned to leave the monastery as soon as the opportunity arose. 

That opportunity came sooner than expected. 

The problem was Dallin. 

Zion was well aware that Dallin had proposed to Leah. 

How could he possibly forgive the man who dared to propose to his Leah? 

Above all, he needed to ensure that Leah, who had begun to waver because of Dallin’s proposal, became completely his. 

After mixing a sedative into the water that Leah and Adele drank, Zion waited until they were both completely asleep. Then, he entered the room and took advantage of Leah throughout the night. 

However, Leah believed this was the work of the demon. 

‘Demon’s work, huh?’

Half of that is true, the other half is wrong. 

‘I am the demon, but Leah still doesn’t know that I am that demon.’ 

‘The thug who r*ped her to make her rely on me—that was also me.’ 

‘It was also me who paid the four apprentice priests and pushed them to assault her.’ 

‘And in the end, I got Leah in my hands.’ 

‘Now, because of the guilt she feels, Leah will never leave me.’ 

‘No one will ever be able to take her away from me.’

“Leah, let’s go this way.”

Zion said, taking her hand and leading her to a more secluded area. The place Zion brought Leah to was a small prayer room. 

“This is…?”

“It’s a prayer room.” 

“I’ve never been here before. I didn’t even know a place like this existed.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Zion said with a faint smile. “It was built just for you and me. Construction started here, and it was completed last week.” 

“I see…”

Leah murmured, her heart growing heavy as she took in the beautifully crafted space. 

‘As expected, brother still regrets leaving the priesthood…’

“Would you like to go inside?”

“Yes…”

As they opened the door to the prayer room and stepped inside, Leah’s eyes were drawn to the sacred object hanging on the wall. 

She couldn’t bring herself to look at it directly. 

The weight of her own sins felt too heavy, making it unbearable to face. 

“Whenever I feel the need to repent, I plan to come here and pray.” 

“I think I should do the same.” 

She knelt beside Zion as he knelt in front of the sacred object. 

“Leah” 

“Yes?”

When she did, she found Zion’s face so close to hers that his breath brushed her skin. Leah’s heart began to race as her pulse quickened, unable to look away. 

Since that day—their last intimate moment in the alley of the slums—Leah hadn’t been with Zion in that way again. 

She couldn’t bring herself to admit that her body longed for him. 

To Zion, she was a younger sister, someone to protect and cherish. How could she ask him to hold her? 

‘I’m a sinner… How could I have such thoughts in a prayer room…’ 

Leah’s cheeks flushed as an image of Zion’s lips brushing against hers came unbidden to her mind. 

“Your face is red, Leah.” 

“It’s just… it’s warm in here…”

“I see. Then should we leave?”

If he touched her in that moment, she felt she would shatter. 

She might even cling to him, begging him to hold her, perhaps even stripping off her own clothes in desperation.