WTBFCY Chapter 26

There existed in this world a depth of malice that ordinary people could not comprehend.

And when faced with that malice, some fought back while others surrendered to fear. The butler was clearly the latter. Even knowing he had become a demon's servant, he could never refuse his master's orders.

"In the end, when the third mistress drew her last breath in that room, the young master commanded me to take her body into the forest during the storm. ...Along with the living baby."

A shallow conscience existed within him, whispering that this was wrong. But compared to his desperate will to survive, that voice was far too weak. Regina stared at the butler in horror. The content was beyond imagination—enough to make her shudder.

"How could you...! Even if it was an order, how could you follow such a thing?!"

The butler shrank his small shoulders at her contemptuous accusation.

"Then you haven't seen her since?"

Noah, uninterested in condemning the butler, sent Regina a look to be quiet before continuing in a calm voice. He wanted to know if the butler had witnessed the third wife after she became a black faerie.

Regina bit back her anger with visible effort and fell silent at Noah's restraint. The butler paused before answering.

"...Yes, if you mean her body, the rumors are true. I didn't help her, but I thought it wasn't right to leave the departed that way. The young baby weighed on my mind too. So the next day I went to the forest with a servant, without the young master knowing. But when I arrived, the body had vanished without a trace. At the time, I thought a beast had carried it off. But thinking back now, it was strange."

"Strange?"

"Yes, the place where she'd been was pressed down, as if a large beast had been sitting there. And in the very center was the baby. Despite the violent storm the night before, she was sleeping peacefully without injury. I was just glad to find the baby then and didn't think much of it. But looking back, it was odd."

"I see. Understood."

Noah nodded, thinking he needed to examine the baron's daughter. The butler, who had been answering with his head bowed as if in confession, gave a deep bow and left the room after Noah stopped questioning.

"Wait, Butler!"

Regina, who had been barely containing her anger, followed him into the corridor and called out. The butler turned around, his face haggard as if he'd aged ten years in those few moments.

"...Why didn't you help the mistresses? You knew everything, so why didn't you help them escape this hellish place? You could have helped them!"

At her resentful reproach, the butler seemed almost relieved. As if he'd been waiting for someone to condemn him like this.

The butler thought of the young master who had died so easily. The man who had laughed while taking lives had terrified him, yet in the end he was just an ordinary human. Unable to believe that disconnect, the butler turned with a dazed expression to look through the corridor window.

He remembered the faces of those abandoned in that dense, dark forest. At first it had been young servants from the estate. People with no connections, young enough that no one would question if they left the estate.

He'd thought a demon simply wore the young master's face. But no matter how much he prayed to God, the only one who could protect his life was himself. It hadn't taken long for him to submit like a slave before that overwhelming terror.

"...I was just afraid. I didn't want to die so meaninglessly. So I watched while others died."

The butler covered his eyes with trembling hands, his answer almost a murmur. He must have been possessed by something. Why had he obediently followed that demon's commands?

"Why did I do it? What was so precious about this old man's life that I couldn't let go of it?"

His white gloves darkened with tears as his shoulders shook with deep regret. Watching him, Regina bit her lip hard.

What meaning was there in regret now? Even if it was the baron's order, this man had abandoned even a newborn baby in the forest to preserve his own life.

Perhaps even this small condemnation was a luxury he didn't deserve. Reaching that thought, Regina erased her expression and turned away coldly.

The sunset was beginning to seep through the estate windows as the day ended. The sunset that painted the corridor a deep red also fell upon the butler's body. It looked like indelible bloodstains.

After dinner, Regina sat on the sofa in her room, clutching a cushion. After hearing the butler's story, Noah had gone to the baby's room, saying he had things to examine. He'd left Regina behind with orders to recall anyone she'd come in contact with.

"No matter how much I think about it, I don't remember bumping into anyone..."

It had only been yesterday. Her memory wasn't exceptional, but she shouldn't forget something from just yesterday. Which meant no one had made contact with Regina.

"I just don't know."

She sighed deeply and pulled at the corner of the innocent cushion before finally rising from the sofa.

"When my head gives no answers, it's time to act! I should retrace my steps from when we arrived until now."

Except for the room with the baron's body. That place was too frightening to enter alone. Besides, she'd only been in there with Noah, so it could be excluded.

Muttering to herself, Regina left the room and immediately went down to the first floor.

Passing servants looked at her curiously as she wandered the estate alone, but didn't pay much attention. They probably thought of Regina as Noah's assistant.

"Mm, starting from the main entrance in order... I went through the first floor corridor to the drawing room. A maid brought tea, and I looked at the bird before returning to the sofa..."

She reenacted her arrival yesterday, starting from the main entrance and entering the drawing room. The maid who'd brought tea had gone to the table while Regina stood by the birdcage, so the maid was definitely ruled out.

"No matter how I think about it, there's nothing. Who could have brushed against me, and when?"

As Regina walked around the drawing room tilting her head in confusion, her eyes suddenly fell on the birdcage. A gorgeous, rare bird. Without thinking, Regina approached the cage and peered inside. The bird had striking red wings, a long purple tail, and black eyes.

"......"

The bird, which had been sitting silently without singing, suddenly raised its head as Regina approached. The moment their eyes met—the bird's black eyes—Regina couldn't look away, seized by a strange sense of déjà vu. Those pitch-black eyes. They were like dark caves without a single point of light.

"...Huh?"

She had seen eyes like this before.

With sudden realization flashing through her mind, Regina hurriedly looked down at the bird's food dish. The abundant food was untouched, just like yesterday. Come to think of it, yesterday she'd been curious about this bird's feather color and had lightly stroked the wing tip.

"...!"

A bird that didn't eat. And the only thing that had made contact with Regina.

It wasn't human—it was the bird.

She didn't know why it wasn't in human form, but instinct told her this bird was the black faerie.

'But the black faerie absorbed the baron's wife, right?'

Thud.

Regina pulled back from the cage with a confused expression. Her elbow bumped the cage, making the ornate silver cage sway wildly, yet the bird didn't fly up from its perch—it just stared at Regina.

"...I need to get Noah right now!"

Peeee.

The moment the flustered Regina turned to fetch Noah, the bird that had never once cried let out a very thin sound. A weak cry that seemed about to break at any moment. At that sound, Regina stopped with her back turned.

A small, desperate cry. Reason warned that approaching was foolish, but her feet were already moving toward the bird.

'...I can't turn away too.'

That thought came from somewhere.

Whether it was instinct or the influence of assimilating with the black faerie's emotions, she couldn't tell. Before she knew it, Regina was reaching out her hand. The red bird watched her small hand extended into the cage for a long moment, then stretched out its head and rubbed its face against that white palm.

Rustle.

Did she feel the cold texture of feathers tickling her palm? A fleeting moment passed, and the bird lost its form. Like a sandcastle collapsing, it crumbled with a soft sound, turning to black ash that poured down onto Regina's hand. Black powder piled high on her palm as she tried to catch the crumbling form.

But even that was brief.

Whoosh!

The black powder scattered like spores, then approached Regina as if it had a will of its own. As if this was what it had wanted. Like soft petals scattering on the wind, it seeped into Regina's entire body in the blink of an eye. The power absorbed into her body was faint and warm.

"...!"

Regina's shoulders trembled finely at the unfamiliar sensation racing through her body. Before she could collect herself, fragments of absorbed memories suddenly swirled up and covered Regina's vision.