Chapter 5

[March 4, 10:40]

“……Haa!”

As soon as she entered the drawing room, she let out the breath she had been holding in all this time.

—Rumble!

How many seconds had passed?

“…….”

“…….”

At last, the shaking that had seemed as though it would never end came to a stop.

“Haa.”

It felt as though movement and even time had stopped as well. Except for her churning stomach.

“Urgh!”

She retched toward the floor, letting out the nausea she had been suppressing the whole time.

After panting for a long while, she lifted her head.

‘This was insane.’

The drawing room was in utter ruin. She had admired its splendor for a few seconds when she first saw it. Now all of that felt so meaningless.

‘What now?’

Still, she had survived.

Even though the effort she had poured in for a whole year to follow the original story had collapsed in an instant, just like the earthquake.

“Is Kal dead?”

Beside her, Daemon’s dazed voice could be heard.

‘He probably was.’

She had no energy to answer and did not particularly want to remind him, so she said nothing.

“Ugh—!”

That seemed instead to provoke him. Daemon seized her wrist and pushed her down, then looked down at her and said,

“Why did you push me around as you pleased?”

Why?

“If I had not, you would have died too…….”

“Even so, you should have just left me!”

Then he gripped her wrist even harder.

“You know something about this absurd phenomenon, do you not?”

His face, wet with sweat, looked harsher than before. Perhaps because of that, the fury blazing in his eyes was frightening enough that it was hard to believe he was the male protagonist.

“What in the hell is this damned phenomenon?”

Not only the wrist he held, but also her back and arm against the floor throbbed with pain.

She had known the male lead’s personality was terrible, but was this not too much? What had happened was a natural disaster, not something that was her fault.

‘Wait a moment…….’

But had a natural disaster ever happened in the original?

Thinking about it, the world of the original had been peaceful, without even the threat of war, let alone natural disasters.

The Emperor and Empress had been benevolent wise rulers who always cared for the people, and there had been something like villains among the rigid privileged class, but they had been weak, no more than extras who were loud and self-important.

A revolution? There had been none.

A crop failure because no rain fell? She had never heard of that either.

“Do you perhaps not know what an earthquake is?”

“Ear, what?”

This was bad.

Judging by that reaction, he definitely did not know.

As a classic humanities student who had completely given up on science from middle school onward, it was a little difficult for her to explain the principles of an earthquake…….

“Is anyone there?”

“……!”

Just as she was trying to choose her words, someone’s voice came from outside.

“Is anyone there?”

Daemon and she hurried toward the window.

“Rike!”

Among them, the gardener Raybold waved his arm widely at her.

“Mr. Raybold?”

“Yes, it is me!”

The surviving employees standing behind Raybold spotted her and let out sighs of relief.

“So all of you are safe.”

Her own heavy heart lightened a little as well.

“You too, Rike! Is there anyone else there?”

“There is, but…… what about the Earl and Young Master?”

“I have not seen them! We will look for survivors first, so Miss Rike, please get out of the mansion as quickly as possible!”

“Yes!”

Just as Raybold had said, it would be best to get out of this mansion, which could collapse at any moment, as soon as possible. She was about to discuss a way out, but the place beside her was empty.

“Kal!”

At some point, Daemon had gone back out into the corridor and was desperately calling the name of the knight he had failed to save.

“Kal! D*mn it!”

When no answer came, the Daemon began pulling away the debris one by one.

—Rumble.

Hey, you lunatic! If you did that, the heap of rubble would lose its balance and collapse!

“Stop!”

Going over to Daemon, she pointed at the knight’s head visible between the debris.

“Young Lord, can you not see that?”

It was, obviously, the face of a dead man. There was no way Daemon had failed to see what was visible even without digging through the wreckage.

“He is dead.”

At her firm words, his lips trembled.

“There were many employees working on the second floor of the mansion, Young Lord. There could still be survivors.”

“…….”

“What will you do if the mansion collapses completely because you disturb this rubble the wrong way?”

Daemon faltered.

“For now, wait for rescue. Or it would also be good to look for a way to get out of here.”

“……D*mn it!”

Fortunately, perhaps he understood what she meant, he stopped pulling out the debris.

“If we use the curtains well, we should be able to get out through the window.”

“……Why are you so calm even in a situation like this? Even though such an absurd phenomenon has occurred, why are you…….”

Daemon trailed off.

She almost retorted by asking whether he had not seen the vomit there under the table, but stopped herself. Escaping came first now.

She tore down the curtains hanging from the window one by one. One, two, three……. As she pulled at the final curtain at the end, a shadow settled over her head.

“…….”

Even the flow of the air changed. Though it was still morning, a bleak and eerie darkness covered her body.

It was not an ordinary ‘night’ that had come. It was different from night.

Like a black-and-white film drained only of color, she could still see the surrounding view clearly.

“I can feel something.”

Daemon, who had been looking around, muttered.

—Woooooo.

Outside the window, through the clouds ahead, a faint shape could be seen.

What filled the sky was a living creature.

A giant? No, far bigger than that.

A planet? Yes, it was about that size.

Soon the clouds parted, and the form in the sky became clear.

‘An alien? Or a god……?’

At a glance it looked human, yet was subtly different. A gigantic body, long arms, the back of an enormous hand pressing toward the land…….

Its head was too high to be seen, but both arms stretched out over the land were distinct. At the ends of its hands, instead of fingers, things like tentacles swayed as if each were a separate living being.

And what of the legs pressed against the ground? The many attached eyeballs moved separately, as if scanning the land.

—Wooooooong.

A deafening roar, like all kinds of agonizing noises compressed together, stabbed at her eardrums and burrowed into her mind. The sound tormented her as though it were severing the wires inside her head one by one.

It was an existence she had never once heard of or seen in the original, nor in her entire life. Instinctively, the thought seized her mind that she must never confront that thing.

[Kalija.]

It was as if a gloomy voice whispered right beside her.

[Rikepsidoda. Kalija.]

“……!”

The monster, with its fingers stretched out, released something from the tips of its tentacles.

[Kweeeeeek!]

Things smaller than the shape floating in the sky, hundreds, no, millions of them, poured down like a waterfall.

[Kek!]

[Kwek!]

In an instant, the monsters that descended onto the land spread out in all directions.

“Kyaaaah!”

“It is a monster!”

“It is coming! The monster is coming!”

As though it had completed its duty with that, the huge figure slowly vanished like mist.

One of the smaller monsters rapidly approached the mansion where she and Daemon were.

It was something with an excessively gaunt body and long legs.

Its n*ked body had no sign of genitals; instead, its body was smooth all over like a statue, and completely black.

Also, the thing had a face as neat and even as an ostrich egg, with no eyes or nose to be found, while its skin wrapped around its face in layers like flower petals before blooming.

“Run! Hurry!”

Someone shouted.

The monster, having reached the mansion in a single bound, extended the six tentacles it possessed.

At the ends of them, eyeballs moved about, the very ones that could not be found on its face.

“Wh, what is that.”

“I, it would be better if we hide too!”

She and Daemon bent low and lifted only their heads slightly.

The monster had just crossed the front gate of the mansion. She had not realized it from a distance, but it was tall and flexible enough to be over two meters in height.

“Aaaagh! S, save me! Please, save me!”

Raybold was the very first to be caught by the tentacles.

“Ack!”

The monster seized his waist and slowly lifted him toward its face.

‘I have to save him…….’

She had to save him. She did not want to watch anyone else die anymore.

She had to save him, but…… she could not move at all.

“Please, hngh. Someone, please…….”

Raybold’s voice grew faint, tangled with sobs.

But the monster paid no attention and slowly peeled back the layers on its face one by one.

At last, the monster’s face was revealed. Inside, there was no tongue, no tentacles, no normal face hidden there.

Something completely beyond expectation.

A black hole.

There was a vortex.