Late at night, Ofilia finished washing up.
She wore the collar that Willis had not removed, and her magic was already unusable.
Yet strangely, a sense of calm had settled in her heart.
This Magic Suppression Collar felt like an insult, a kind of restraint.
But also, there was a hint of sovereignty in it.
Ofilia touched it with her hand, but for a moment, she couldn’t summon any hatred.
Because whenever she thought of hatred, her mind would return to the scene in the Little Black Room yesterday.
So humiliating.
“Willis.”
Ofilia couldn’t sleep.
She didn’t know what Willis was up to.
Since she had already admitted defeat, and as a noble’s descendant, she would absolutely keep her promise.
Yet Willis still seemed to distrust her.
She had not assigned her any tasks, nor revealed a word about her whereabouts or plans.
Watching Annie and Hill Yu busying about, she felt like a mascot, trailing behind them everywhere.
People often glanced at her in awe, but no one dared to approach.
A sense of loneliness, of being isolated, welled up inside her.
She had no family now, but it didn’t feel like this place was her home, either.
“Hmph! That detestable woman must be afraid I’ll ruin her plans, so she tells me nothing!”
Ofilia snorted coldly.
At that moment, there was a knock at the door.
“Who?”
“It’s me.”
Annie Donald.
Why had she come so late at night?
Ofilia could feel the occasional hostile gaze the other girl directed at her.
She didn’t understand.
This girl, who shared the same peerless beauty as herself, was a stranger not long ago—why did she treat her with such animosity?
She opened the door.
Annie Donald stood outside in a cool, sheer dress.
Dim lamplight and moonlight shone on her figure.
Compared to their current status in front of Willis, a sense of inferiority rose in Ofilia’s heart.
“Here. I don’t have time. You go feed her.”
The other girl tossed a food box over, and Ofilia caught it instinctively.
Her fingers were scraped by the edge of the box—it hurt a bit.
Annie turned and left without another word.
Her flowing, beautiful ash-brown hair danced in the breeze of the corridor, like a goddess in the moonlight.
Ofilia stared blankly at the food box for a long time before she understood.
She was supposed to feed Winnie Kanasha?
That female elf.
She returned to the side of the Little Black Room she’d once stayed in, shivering with fear.
The night wind was cool, the silence peaceful.
But the memory of the pain inside made Ofilia feel a wave of terror awaken in her.
She tiptoed, afraid of waking the monster in the dark.
Using the faint corridor light, she entered the room where the elf was imprisoned.
The cellar was inside.
She moved the stone on top aside, breathing deeply over and over.
Then she carefully opened the wooden board of the cellar.
She was on alert, ready to run at any moment.
In that abyss-like darkness below, there was a terror and monstrous presence hard to resist.
If she opened it, it would charge straight at her.
The voice in her mind kept replaying.
Seeing the darkness inside the cellar, Ofilia even wanted to turn and flee at once.
“Winnie? Winnie?”
She called softly twice.
Because she wore the Magic Suppression Collar, she couldn’t use magic.
Ofilia could only take an oil lamp from the room, light it, and trembling, bring it to the mouth of the cellar.
The dim yellow light illuminated the darkness, which made her feel better.
By that light, her eyes searched the cellar.
It took a long time before she finally spotted the elf girl curled up in a corner.
Her body was trembling even more violently than before.
Her eyes were bloodshot, and Winnie Kanasha was mumbling something.
Like a deranged patient.
“Winnie? Hey!”
Ofilia tried to raise her voice, but there was still no response.
But Ofilia herself didn’t have the courage to go down into the cellar.
She was afraid Willis would suddenly come and lock her in too.
Or that a monster would block the entrance while she was down there.
Luckily, after several shouts, the other party finally responded.
“You? You! Traitor! Aaah!”
She sounded like a lunatic in a mental breakdown.
At that moment, Winnie lunged forward, her eyes crimson.
“Mom!”
Ofilia screamed, flinging the food box into the cellar.
Then, quick as lightning, she slammed the cellar shut and weighed it down with a stone.
Bang bang bang!
Instantly, the sound and shaking of Winnie pounding on the wooden cellar door filled her eyes and ears.
Ofilia collapsed onto the floor, kicking backward as if she were facing a monster.
“I delivered it, I delivered it, goodbye!”
The other girl’s appearance was like someone possessed by a demon.
How could Ofilia dare linger? She ran off at once.
So much so that when she returned to her room, she was still shaking with fright.
A long time passed.
She finally extinguished the lamp and lay down on the bed.
But she couldn’t sleep no matter what.
The soft, comfortable bed, the room undisturbed by anyone.
For some reason, Willis’s figure sitting on her floated into her mind.
So noble, domineering, alluring, and yet brutal.
“Ugh…”
Ofilia pulled the covers tightly around herself, still unable to sleep.
Her small face peeked out from under the quilt, and she stared blankly at the windowsill.
“Master….”
Some people can’t sleep at night, and there are many more who share the insomnia.
As the incident with Mike Millen fermented, countless others remained awake through the night.
***
One of Nightfall’s strongholds:
“How is it?”
“Haha, relax, Mike’s uproar spreading out is a perfect boost to our plan.”
The dwarf nodded with a smile.
“Who’d have thought those two useless fools would be worth more dead than alive?”
Another black-robed figure picked up the conversation.
“Haha, in the end, Lord’s schemes are always superior!”
“Mike’s death is just a fuse—if he’d succeeded, we wouldn’t be needed.”
“Now his failure has smoothly aided our actions!”
“This time, let’s show our once-brief master what the true Nightfall is!”
“Move!”
A night of darkness, wind, and murder.
The Ushi City, which had just come back to life after being unsealed during the day, fell into silence again in the deep of night.
Shadows slipped from unknown courtyards and alleys.
Then vanished into even deeper darkness.
The long night dragged on—death moved like the wind.
***
Hill Yu sat in the main hall of the Castle Lord’s Mansion, looking at years of stored business records.
The more she read, the angrier she became.
With a slap, Hill Yu sent the documents and dossiers scattering across the floor.
At that moment, Annie walked in carrying a tray of steaming soup.
“Your Highness, have some chicken soup, then go rest.
Otherwise, even an iron body can’t take it…”
“Thank you.”
Hill Yu nodded, not refusing, and took up the bowl and chopsticks.
She started drinking.
Just then, a city guard in charge of patrols rushed in.
“Your Highness, Your Highness! Someone’s dead!”