In the night sky, a crow swept across the fields and flew into the air above the village.
It circled twice above the village, then lowered its head and dived into the narrow alleys between the farmhouses, as if searching for something.
Finally, it folded its wings on the branch of an old tree and landed silently.
The tree stood right opposite a window.
Its eyes glowed red as it stared inside.
Inside the window, a brown-haired girl was sleeping soundly.
Moonlight streamed through the window, casting light on her defenseless sleeping face.
Found it.
Deep within the crow’s eyes, faint glimmers of dark purple light flickered.
That was the Familiar’s Visual Sharing, transmitting everything it saw to a cave somewhere.
The man in the cave opened his eyes.
He unclasped his hands and revealed a sinister smile.
‘Such a perfect sacrifice. Finally found it.’
“You bastard! Let me down!”
Behind the man, a burly man tied to a wooden stake was cursing at him.
“F* you!”
He remained indifferent to the cursing behind him, his gaze falling on a stone platform beside him.
There, something covered with black cloth vaguely outlined a human figure.
After cursing for a while, the burly man saw that the man ignored him.
He followed the man’s gaze to the stone platform.
After guessing what was under the black cloth, he suddenly burst into a mocking laugh.
“Hahaha! Kang Na, who told you to steal the woman I had my eye on? If I can’t have her, neither can you!”
The man seemed angered, glaring sideways at the burly man, but the burly man didn’t notice his gaze at all.
His laughter grew even more brazen.
“Do you know how thrilled I was when I saw her tied to the stake? The sound of her screams, I’ll never forget it! Burned to death! Hahaha—ugh…”
The burly man’s laughter stopped abruptly.
He felt an invisible force gripping his throat tightly.
He shut his eyes in pain, his pale face twisting into a ghastly expression.
“Cough… ugh…”
The burly man opened his eyes with difficulty and saw dark red mana extending from the man’s palm.
That mana was choking him from a distance, tightening bit by bit.
“Kill… me…”
“Heh, I won’t let you die as easily as those two.”
The man glanced at the wooden stakes on either side.
The two corpses on them had long lost their warmth, covered in blood, having seemed to endure great pain before death.
“I’m going to make you my blood slave and enslave you for life!”
“You… bastard!”
After spitting out those last words, the burly man suffocated and fell unconscious.
The man released his hand, and the dark red mana retracted into his palm.
His gaze returned to the black cloth, and the anger in his eyes instantly dissipated.
“Wei Luo, we’ll meet again soon…”
***
Inside the room, Dailina was startled awake.
She turned over and sat up, rubbing her eyes.
Caw~
Caw~
Dailina looked up at the window.
On the old tree outside, a crow was staring at her without moving.
For some reason, that crow’s stare made her feel uneasy.
“Hmm… it’s just a dream.”
She comforted herself in a low voice, got out of bed, poured a glass of water, took a small sip, and sat back on the edge of the bed.
Moonlight spilled through the window onto the floor.
The stains on the glass cast many speckled shadows on the ground.
Holding the water glass, Dailina stared blankly at those spots.
She had just had a nightmare.
In the dream, the villagers disappeared one by one, even Xi Ya was gone, leaving her alone in the desolate village, at a loss.
Then she saw Xi Ya turn into a blood-sucking monster, opening its mouth to bite her…
Although it was just a dream, she still felt very uneasy.
‘What if the nightmare comes true?’
As soon as this thought emerged, Dailina shook her head fiercely.
‘How could that be? Xi Ya will be fine.’
But once this thought got into her head, she couldn’t shake it off.
‘What if, what if it does come true?’
She raised her head and looked toward Xi Ya’s room.
‘No, I need to check if Xi Ya is still there. Just confirm he’s still sleeping in his room.’
Dailina put down the water glass and gently pushed open the door.
The yard was very quiet.
She walked to Xi Ya’s door, raised her hand to knock, but hesitated.
‘It’s so late. Wouldn’t it be rude to disturb Xi Ya?’
Her fingers hovered in front of the door panel, not daring to knock, but she was really afraid something had happened to Xi Ya.
‘Just one knock. Only one knock.’
‘If Xi Ya doesn’t wake up, I won’t disturb him.’
After thinking it over, Dailina lightly knocked on the door.
Knock knock knock.
There was no response.
She couldn’t help but knock again.
Knock knock.
The room was strangely quiet.
Still no response, not even the sound of breathing.
Dailina’s heart sank a little.
She hesitated for a few seconds, then tried to push the door.
Creak~
Hearing that sound, she was so startled she closed her eyes and instinctively shrank her shoulders.
‘Oh no, that was too loud. Will Xi Ya wake up?’
Dailina held her breath and waited a few seconds.
There was no sound from inside.
She cautiously opened her eyes and saw that the door had creaked open a crack.
She quietly approached the crack and peeked inside.
The moonlight outside lit up the bed.
The bed was empty, with only a scattered blanket.
‘Where is Xi Ya?’
Dailina blinked, thinking she had seen wrong, and pushed the door a little wider.
A gust of night wind hit her face.
She looked up following the wind and saw the window wide open, the old curtain fluttering in the night breeze.
“Xi Ya?”
Dailina’s heartbeat quickened.
The scenes from her nightmare flashed through her mind again.
‘No way?’
She bit her lip, forcing herself not to think about it.
‘No, no, Xi Ya must be just, just…’
But she couldn’t come up with any excuse.
Dailina took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.
Her gaze unconsciously swept across the room, trying to find Xi Ya in a corner, but when she glanced at the window latch, she noticed a faint trace of dark red mana emanating from it.
Her pupils instantly contracted.
The color of this mana was exactly the same as the one they had dispelled during the day.
‘Oh no, Xi Ya really has been taken!’
Dailina didn’t care about anything else.
She went back to her room, grabbed her magic wand, and rushed out of the residence, running toward the village outskirts.
The crow on the tree saw her leave the residence, spread its wings, and followed her.
The man in the cave smiled.
‘Hooked.’
The man had been troubled about how to lure the girl out of the village, but that black-haired brat had suddenly barged into the forest at night, giving him a perfect opportunity.
Through his observations over the past two days, the man had figured out the girl’s personality.
She cared extremely about that companion.
As long as he made her think something had happened to him, she would chase out without thinking.
So he opened the window and deliberately left a mana trace.
As expected, she ran out on her own.
As for that black-haired brat, he wouldn’t survive the Blood Beast’s attack anyway, so no need to worry about him.
The man reached out his hand, dark red mana winding around his palm.
“Come, my sacrifice.”