Valen felt the weight of his responsibility as the next lord of the castle. His mistake had thrown the daily lives of everyone within its walls into chaos. He felt a bone-deep sense of self-loathing at his inability to find either the strength or the opportunity to fix it.
How could the head of the household cast out his servants like they were nothing? His teeth gritted in frustration at his own powerlessness. All he could do was secretly slip money into their pockets, hoping no one noticed. It was nothing more than self-deception, telling himself he was doing his best to take responsibility for them until the end. He knew it was futile, but if he didn’t do even this little thing, he couldn’t bear how pathetic he felt.
The servants packed their belongings at dawn and left the castle.
The sky began to brighten blue. His jet-black hair was drenched in the cold, spreading dawn light. Valen watched the scattering procession from his room window.
Knock knock.
“Young Master.”
“Come in.”
The door opened cautiously. Ben stood there, looking awkward. “The lady says she will take her breakfast separately today.”
Why was he telling him this so early in the morning? Valen waited silently for the rest of the message. Then, suddenly, the procession he had seen moments ago flashed into his mind.
“Ah—”
“Since all the cooks have left…”
“……”
“If it’s just for me, I could probably manage to cook something, but I can’t possibly serve that to the lady…”
Valen rose from his seat. “Is that really something we can afford to be picky about right now?”
“You’re going to cook yourself?”
“I’ve got two hands, and my tongue and nose are perfectly fine. Starting today, you and I will take charge of the kitchen.”
Valen submitted his withdrawal papers to the academy.
The news became such a major topic that the entire campus was turned upside down. His peers, including professors, tried desperately to talk him out of it. Those who vaguely knew his family’s financial situation persuaded him, offering to help him secure a scholarship, but Valen flatly refused.
What Valen needed wasn’t just money. He also needed time to earn it. With the workforce at the castle drastically reduced, someone had to fill the gaps. Naturally, all their duties fell to Valen. He had to guard the roads, collecting tolls day and night, and took on any job that paid.
He thought things couldn’t get worse, but the darkness beneath his feet seemed endless.
He cleaned the chicken he’d traded for textbooks. The fence tried to lowball young Valen, but Valen had already researched the secondhand market price. The fence got tangled up in Valen’s meticulous questioning and, before he knew it, paid more than the going rate. Thanks to that, Valen could buy plenty of meat.He divided it into portions just right for five days of careful eating. One chunk he set aside, salting it and wrapping it in paper for dinner later that evening.He simmered the leftover scraps and innards on the cutting board until tender, then scattered the broth around the castle walls. He’d spotted one of the stray dogs prowling nearby with a distended belly. If it was lucky, it would find and eat it; if it lacked the fortune to eat, another dog would take it.
Haa. As he exhaled deeply, a wisp of mist spread. The air was growing harsher by the day.
Returning inside, he washed his hands with water as cold as ice and put on his fur ear muffs. Peeking into Leto’s room, he saw the boy still curled up under the covers, even though the sun had risen long ago.
“He insisted on coming along.”
Leto resented that the mansion’s people were collecting tolls, leaving him behind. Valen understood the desire to help the household, but the weather was too bitterly cold. What others might shrug off as a brief cold could be deadly for Leto, so caution, and more caution, was essential.
Yesterday, he had been so pitiful, tears streaming down his face as he pleaded, that he had agreed to take him along briefly.
“You couldn’t get up.”
“Valen.” His mother was approaching. “My baby. Did you sleep well?”
Helena stroked Valen’s cheek. Until last year, her hands had been soft and warm, like sunlight. Now, the touch of her hands and the timbre of her voice were brittle and cracked.
Valen lifted his head to meet her gaze and answered briefly. “Yes.”
Helena wasn’t a strict parent. In fact, she was the kind of doting mother who nodded like a fool at anything her children said, regardless of whether it was right or wrong. Ever since Leto woke up, the regret of having struck Valen had been lodged deep in her heart.
Valen knew Helena was troubled by that incident, but he didn’t bring it up. He didn’t feel resentful either. He deserved the blow.
“Rest a bit this morning. Mom and Dad will go out instead.”
“It’s still cold out.”
“We went to the market early this morning, didn’t we? Mom can have a nice date with your dad too, after so long. You play with your little brother. Just having breakfast together will make him happy.”
Valentine fell silent at the mention of Leto’s pinning. He had been secretly feeling sorry for her, sitting alone every day staring out the window.
“Then I’ll ask you just for today.”
“I wish you’d ask anytime.”
“Ah, Mother. Wait a moment.” Valen grabbed Helena as she passed by him. Then, standing on tiptoe, he untangled her knotted scarf. The white scarf was too thin for this cold.
But since she’d practically sold everything she owned, it must be her last remaining scarf. Valen silently wrapped it back around her neck.
Helena smiled and kissed Valen’s cheek. A small warmth lingered long on the cheek, frozen stiff by the chilly morning air.
Leto didn’t rise until the sun was high in the sky. After eating a late lunch with his brother, Valen rolled up his sleeves and tidied Leto’s bedroom. He scolded the whining child, who kept saying he’d do it later, and made him organise his own things. All the physical work—dusting, sweeping the floor—fell to Valen.Leto grew tired quickly, merely from tidying his own things. He crawled into the crisp, sun-scented duvet and fell asleep almost instantly.
Having finished his tasks, Valen checked the time and headed outside the castle. It was too early for the shift change at the toll bridge, but he had nothing else to do anyway.
Yet something felt off.
Though he passed this way several times a day, a strange sense of alienation brushed against the back of his neck. He couldn’t pinpoint the reason, but a vague unease gathered beneath his feet. His steps quickened, and eventually, he broke into a run. He ran frantically for a while before realising the source of the unfamiliarity.
It was quiet.
This place, which should have been bustling with the procession of merchants traveling the road, was as silent as a grave. With each step forward, the thick scent of blood wafted on the wind. It felt ominous.
The moment he rounded the slope and entered the path’s entrance, Valen froze solid. Dozens of corpses lay scattered on the ground like rags. Wagons were overturned, and the entrails of humans and horses spilled out, so tangled it was impossible to tell which belonged to which.
Blood from the horribly mutilated corpses soaked the soles of his shoes. An eerie silence hung over the scene, as if a colossal death had swept through, leaving not even a moan behind. Everything he saw felt unreal, like a nightmare.
For the first time, Valen, who never lost his composure in any situation, felt his hands tremble. He squeezed his eyes shut, but when he opened them, the horrific scene remained unchanged.
“Oh, Mother…”
Though he desperately wanted to flee this horrific place immediately, Valen forced himself forward, stepping over flesh and entrails.
Then he saw it. Something moving behind a carriage as large as a house. As he rounded the carriage and stepped forward, a white muffler fluttered like a wing in the wind, flying toward him. It blanketed his vision in white, and what appeared was—.
A monster with two black horns towering above its head.
Four pairs of bat-like wings flapped, and its snout was long like a dog’s. Inside its gaping mouth, teeth as sharp as blades were revealed. The monster chewed the human flesh in its hand, dripping blood.
A bitter wind lashed Valen’s cheeks. He knew he had to get away from that monster immediately, but his legs wouldn’t move.
Because Valen’s parents were caught in the monster’s vicious claws.
Bodies sprawled, drenched in blood. Ragged remains, brutally slaughtered. Valen’s knuckles trembled as if they would shatter. In a place where only the monster and himself remained alive, transparent tears moistened his lashes and fell.