This pigeon was trained to fly from the post office to the Duke’s room, but he kidnapped it and turned it into something like this.
‘…It’s been a long time since I experienced this, so it’s extremely unpleasant.’
With an unusually impatient gesture, he unwrapped the small note wrapped around the pigeon’s leg and unfolded it.
[Requirement: Not to attend the palace banquet.]
Others didn’t know what that meant, but Luke knew.
‘A palace banquet. There is no place that can instill fear in so many people at once.’
Even though the criminal knew that serial murders were taking place, he wanted to make his presence known to those who were just casually enjoying the banquet. And he wanted to make sure that he didn’t get in the way of what he’s doing.
‘I guess they plan to make a show of kidnapping the princess in front of everyone and making her a sacrifice in the ritual that the culprit has been carrying out.’
Luke clicked his tongue. After that incident, the entire park, including the Metropolitan Police Department, was covered in uncontrollable fear. Then everything got messed up. Luke looked at the letter and then at the pigeon in their hands. A pure white pigeon whose wings have turned red, as if it was shedding blood.
‘It makes no sense to listen to the threats of a madman. Once you start negotiating, there will be no end to it. Even if they accept it, I’m not sure if they will return the green sheep safely.’
He moved the pigeon to a small cage in the room. In a cage with clean water and food provided in advance, the pigeon comfortably washed its body with water as if it had finished its work. Luke, who had been looking at this for a while, stood up with his fists clenched.
‘We have to find some other way.’
He knew there was no way the culprit would give Arbice back so easily, and he also knew he would never be sloppy, but it occurred to him. He wondered if she, being that smart woman, would try to send him some kind of signal even in this situation.
* * *
When I came to my senses and opened my eyes, I found myself on a white and cozy rug. As I stood up, fumbling to sweep the rug with my hand, the moment I looked at the wooden ceiling that I had never seen before, I remembered everything that had happened in the alley like a thunderbolt.
‘…I have now been kidnapped.’
Probably to the criminal targeting Shine.
I first checked the system window. The two hearts were still there. I quickly sat up and checked the condition of my body. Surprisingly, I was able to move freely.
Limbs were usually tied with rope or locked in a cage or something… I thought it would be one of the two. But it was neither. It felt like I had inhaled anesthetic, but my head didn’t hurt.
I looked around the room, and surprisingly, it wasn’t a dreary space. It had the atmosphere of a neat guest room without any sense of life. However, a pentagram was drawn messily on one wall. The blood-red painting easily ruined the coziness of this space.
“…What should I do now?”
It’s sad that I was forcibly summoned to a game where a murderer roams around, but I don’t know what’s going on to be kidnapped again in that game.
‘The culprit is… It’s Luke.’
But there was no way Luke would kidnap Shine. As expected, Luke was not the only one causing some kind of incident at the park. I thought there might be another culprit in the disappearance… … .
‘Then was I kidnapped by the culprit of the disappearance…?’
As I was trying to piece together my disorganized thoughts, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching down the hallway.
‘Should I show that I’m awake? Or should she just pretend she’s still asleep?’
I resisted the momentary desire to reach for the revolver in the item window, got up from my seat, and sat down as calmly as possible on a chair in the corner of the room. Use the revolver as a last resort.
‘After losing my revolver to the Lakers, I learned that I had to be careful when deciding when to pull out a gun. Especially for people in good physical condition.’
Although we only met for a brief moment, it was clear that the kidnapper’s physical condition was far superior to mine. It was the same when I saw how he walked with me on his shoulder as if nothing was wrong, and when I remembered how he held me so tightly that I couldn’t even fight the slightest resistance.
I left the item window open and silently endured the sound of footsteps getting closer. Yes, it’s not about waiting, it’s about enduring. I no longer thought of it as a game at all. Just because I was scared, because I was scared… I was so scared that my teeth chattered and I thought I was going crazy.
‘I’m glad Shine doesn’t have to endure this situation.’
It was a good thing that I didn’t have to give these memories to children who were horrified by even the slightest ghost story.
Plash, plash.
The owner of the footsteps that had gotten closer without realizing it passed through the wooden door and entered the room. I had to try not to scream in horror. I looked down to avoid eye contact as much as possible, but I could tell that the man dressed all in black was wearing a black mask. Although the characteristic parts of the body were not visible differently…
‘…There’s no doubt about it.’
I glanced up at him again and rolled my eyes down again. The masked man who threatened me the day I met the inspector and Lambiel on a rainy day in the alley in front of the Metropolitan Police Department. This kidnapper was definitely him.
‘It wasn’t a dream.’
It couldn’t have been someone else wearing the same mask by chance. I had completely forgotten about it, but this gloomy atmosphere that I could feel just by being around him and the hood that was carefully wrapped so that even his hair was not visible were undoubtedly the same person. Luke said that day, an officer contacted him to pick me up, and he thought what he saw right before he collapsed was a dream. If that situation wasn’t a dream, my heart would have shrunk or I would have been seriously injured somewhere.
‘…But that was reality.’
The more I thought about it, the more I got goosebumps. Luke didn’t know, but the incident actually happened.
‘Why did he try to kill me back then…? Only then might he not have tried to kill me. Even now, he didn’t kidnap me by mistake while trying to kidnap Shine, and I might have been his target too.’
But with him standing right in front of me, I could no longer think about the past. I was just so fucking scared. While I was barely able to control my trembling body and was thankful that his hands were empty, the man spoke from behind his mask.
“It is an honor to serve you like this.”
The extremely gloomy voice had so much suppressed pitch and intonation that it was impossible to recognize whether it was a voice I had ever heard before. He may or may not have known what I was thinking, but he approached me in a very relaxed manner. Then I sat down on another chair in front of me with the backrest facing forward.
Even though I was looking elsewhere to avoid making eye contact, I could tell that the person was quite tall and his shoulders were broad just by looking at the silhouette in one corner of my vision.
‘It’s the same guy I saw back then.’
The chilling fear I felt in the alley in front of the police station was repeated again, so I hugged myself and unconsciously leaned back.
“It may be uncomfortable, but please bear with it.”
Listening to his voice, I desperately tried to recall my memories. Was the voice heard in Catherine Hunt’s autopsy video from the Tower of Magic the same as this voice now? However, even in that video, the voice sounded very loud, and this voice now sounded like a fake voice, perhaps because of the mask. The two voices seemed similar, but also completely different. The kidnapper put his head in front of my nose and observed me, as if it was very amusing to see me rolling my eyes as much as I could. He must have been smiling, but I kept hearing the sound of wind leaking from under his mask.
I felt dirty. It didn’t feel comfortable to have Luke smiling every time they saw me, but now it’s even more… I felt like I was being ridiculed.
The kidnapper lifted my chin with his leather gloved hand and looked intently into my eyes. He quickly lowered his eyes, but for a split second, I could see his eyes. It was a very cloudy, dark black color.
“At first I thought I would just kill you.”
The kidnapper whispered right in front of me.
‘…You’re killing me. Who? Me…? …God of heaven and earth. Please look after me, poor me. I don’t know how you ended up in this game, but couldn’t you have given me a better role?’
I prayed that this moment would pass quickly, but he grabbed my chin and turned me around as if looking at me, and continued saying those horrible things.
“It was very unfortunate when my attempt to kill you ended in vain. Because there was no such thing as a thorn in my eye.”
I couldn’t believe you said these words so calmly right in front of me. It’s absolutely amazing.
“But now I think I did a good job of keeping you alive.”
‘…why?’
Those words were scarier. I was so horrified that I unconsciously looked at the shadowy eyes visible through the black mask and observed them in my direction. The eyes seemed to be smiling. But after all, knowing the kidnapper’s face… Because it would drastically reduce her chances of survival.
My heart was pounding like crazy and I didn’t know what to do, so I lowered my eyes to the floor.
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Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on February, 3.
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