Time passed for Leticia as if she were fast-forwarding through her own life.
Consumed by overwhelming despair, she slowly lost her sanity, and her health deteriorated day by day.
“I have to end this… I must…”
The saint recorded her memories in the Monster Reformation Journal, determined never to forget the injustice and anger of her lost family.
‘It seems I have been summoned after all.’
She searched endlessly through ancient texts, desperately seeking a way to destroy him.
I must return to where I came from. I must return—she muttered repeatedly.
Divine power did not work on monsters with high resistance to holiness, so they could only be sealed through ‘purification.’
At last, she dismissed the priests who insisted on her sacred duty and set out to face the monster herself.
In that moment, she was struck with the weight of her mistakes once more.
“You…”
Lunox was feasting on human corpses. He had already become impulsive and aggressive.
“Foolish creature. You’ve spent so long among humans that you can no longer suppress your urges.”
She lunged forward, and a fierce battle erupted, shaking the very earth.
With every ounce of her strength, she managed to seal Lunox. But in the end, she collapsed, exhausted, clutching the purification stone.
Realizing that there would be no next saint to completely eradicate him, Leticia was overcome with despair, striking her chest as if to rip out her own heart.
“Someone, please… finish this…”
At that moment, her final breath escaped her lips.
Blood spilled from her mouth, and as her body floated in the air, her eyes locked onto mine.
That should have been impossible.
Leticia could not have seen me. So why…?
“Ugh…”
Her bloodstained hand reached toward me.
Drawn in by her gesture, I approached her in a daze.
Tap.
With the last of her strength, Leticia grasped my hand.
A bright, warm energy spread through my body, and she let out a sigh of relief before her hand fell limp.
Leticia passed away with her eyes open.
As I gazed at her still form, my attention was drawn to a pair of small feet standing on the ground before me.
I turned my head.
Amidst the remnants of battle and shattered walls, there was a broken mirror.
In its reflection, a terrified child stared back at me.
The child had familiar red hair.
Slowly, I lifted my hand.
The girl in the mirror did the same.
I grasped my hair.
She did, too.
The sensation was real.
The child’s eyes widened in shock.
This must be…
“Etricia!”
Gasp!
A voice like an explosion snapped me awake.
“Hah!”
I gasped for air, my body jerking upright like a spring.
I raised my trembling hands and stared at them.
At that moment, someone pulled me into their arms.
“Etricia.”
A familiar warmth, a scent I knew well.
“Edmund…?”
Reality slowly returned to me. Dormant senses awakened one by one at his presence.
A flood of suppressed emotions surged up, and tears welled in my eyes.
“Edmund…!”
I shut my tear-filled eyes and wrapped my arms around him.
The flood of memories overwhelmed me, and I understood.
The saint. Lunox. The red-haired girl.
That girl was my past life.
Before I lived in this era, I had another life.
The realization terrified me. My emotions overflowed.
“Edmund, I had a terrifying dream…”
His large hand gently stroked my hair, comforting me. He whispered that it was just a passing dream, that everything would be fine.
He must have known from the moment he first faced a monster that I was destined to seek revenge.
Had he felt the same?
The same helplessness, fear, and suffocating weight of fate?
I had him now, but he had endured this alone. The thought shattered me.
“Edmund…”
As my tears finally stopped, I looked up at him—and froze.
He looked pale, and his eyes were red.
“Wait, what happened to your face?”
“Do you realize how many hours you were unconscious?”
“I was?”
“Yes, you were.”
Edmund gently wiped away the tears at the corner of my eyes. His gaze was filled with concern.
I looked around and saw that we were in Lova’s bedroom. The large window was covered with a black curtain, leaving the room in darkness. The High Priest and Lova stood nearby, watching me with worried expressions.
“I see… You must have been worried.”
“Of course we were.”
Edmund furrowed his brows and pressed his warm lips against my forehead.
“Never let this happen again.”
His voice was almost pleading. I held his wrist in reassurance.
On the way back to the mansion, we bid farewell to the High Priest and Lova after requesting their support in future battles.
They were clearly curious about what I had seen, but they didn’t ask.
Thankfully.
I didn’t have the energy to explain.
Even now, the terrifying remnants of that place haunted my mind.
Despite being wrapped in a blanket and held in Edmund’s arms, I still trembled.
I finally understood how foolish and arrogant my vow to avenge them had been.
‘How easily I spoke those words.’
I clenched my eyes shut, then slowly opened them to look at Edmund.
He sat quietly beside me, gazing out the window.
He was waiting for me to speak, giving me the time to do so on my own.
‘I have to tell him.’
No one had more right to know. And I couldn’t afford to be afraid—we would soon face the monster.
No fear could be worse than losing him.
With that thought, the cold dread inside me faded.
I pulled away from his embrace and unwrapped the blanket.
Edmund turned to me with a questioning gaze.
“Edmund, listen to me. I’ll tell you everything I saw.”
In an instant, the air around him became sharp, like it could cut through a veil.
After taking a deep breath, I confessed everything, including the conversation from the ball.
Then I spoke with a trembling voice.
“I think the incident at the Duke’s estate happened because the monster, separated from its kind, couldn’t resist its instincts.”
That’s what Leticia said.
‘It must have stayed away from its kind for too long and lived among humans, and eventually lost control over its desires.’
Even after being released from the purification stone, it was probably the same.
Humans, too, become foolish if they live for decades without outside influence.
It may have had the mental strength to make a contract with a maid, but suppressing its impulses wouldn’t have been easy.
“So, the monster longed for ‘family’ and wanted to become human?”
“Yes.”
I could still clearly remember the way the monster looked at fairy tale books with admiration. It was obvious.
“And even now, it wants to reproduce with humans?”
“Yes, and…”
For that purpose…
“It believes it needs a host with the power of ‘purification.’”
Just because of that fairy tale book. People often give meaning to small things because they want to believe in tiny miracles.
Ridiculously, Lunox, a monster, was doing the same. As if he could really become human.
‘Family? What a laughable contradiction.’
He completely ignores the laws of nature, yet he wants a proper family.
He doesn’t even realize that, in itself, he has stepped outside the bounds of morality.
‘I need to find the maid and ask what she knows.’
About that “unconscious contract” he made when he became human.
I narrowed my eyes and stared into the air, then looked up at Edmund without meaning to—and flinched.
He had no expression and was staring blankly into the distance with dull eyes.
Honestly, if he had yelled or gotten angry, asking if his family had to die over something so small, I would’ve felt less afraid.
But those raw, fierce eyes now looked dim… like those of a dead person. I wanted to check if he was even still alive.
“So in the end, that thing is still targeting you.”
“Yes… that’s right.”
At that moment, Edmund’s communicator rang.
He pulled it from his coat, but I was too afraid of what he might say, so I picked it up instead.
It was Tale.
[ We’ve found the maid. ]
The short report surprised me the moment I heard it.
‘They already found her?’
That was when Edmund’s voice came through.
“Good timing.”
Almost like it had been staged, the carriage stopped just then. He stood up and opened the door.
He stepped out without hesitation, leaving me behind. I could sense something was about to happen.
“Edmund…!”
I quickly followed after him.
In front of the mansion, Rail, Tale, and several maids and knights had come to greet us.
Tale seemed happy to have found the maid and smiled brightly as he approached.
“Master, you’ve arrived. We’ve brought the maid to the office—”
Shing—
Without a word, Edmund walked past him, drew the sword at Tale’s waist, and headed into the mansion.
His movements were so quick and smooth that neither Tale nor I could stop him. We just stood there, stunned, watching him walk away.
“No…”
I had a bad feeling. I grabbed Tale’s arm—he stood frozen beside me like a statue—and shook him.
“Tale, go stop him, now.”
“What?”
At first, Tale looked at me, confused. But his expression slowly hardened.
He pushed past the knights and ran toward the mansion.
“Are you alright, Count?”
Rail ran to support me as I staggered.
My nerves were already on edge from the sudden movements, and a wave of dizziness hit me.
My vision kept flickering, and I blinked rapidly before shaking my head to clear it.
‘Etricia, get it together. You’re the only one who can stop him.’
With Rail supporting me, I quickly climbed the white stairs leading to the mansion.
As I rushed up, Edmund’s office, which felt strangely far today, finally came into view.
There, Tale stood in front of the door, blocking Edmund, who held a sword.
Tale was pale, sweating nervously, but his eyes lit up with relief when he saw me—like I was his savior.
Edmund, sensing my presence, let out a deep sigh.
When I stepped in front of the door, Tale stepped aside quietly.
Edmund’s lowered eyes shone with a cold, bluish light.
