Rimera tilted her head. It seemed her unstable ghostly consciousness made it hard for her to recognize her son right away. Nigel had been just a newborn when she died—she never even held him once. It wasn’t surprising she couldn’t place him.
“Mother, it’s me.”
“Mother.”
Rimera clearly mouthed the word. Her blurry form sharpened slightly, her gaze becoming more focused. She stared directly at Nigel.
“My child.”
“Yes, I’m Nigel.”
“Etna… my child…”
Rimera’s voice turned mournful. She kept murmuring “Etna… Etna… Etna…”, over and over, before suddenly dropping her head. Her slender, pale neck twisted at an angle no living human could manage—it was grotesque.
“Where is Etna?”
Perhaps Etna, the one she’d spent more time with in life, still held a greater place in her heart. Nigel understood. He wasn’t hurt. Just saddened to see his mother still searching for her dead son.
“Mother… Brother, he’s…”
Rimera’s head snapped up. The way her already-twisted neck bent further sent a jolt of terror down Nigel’s spine, mother or not. As he hesitated, she moved her lips expressionlessly.
“Etna’s not in the coffin.”
“What?”
“Etna isn’t in the coffin…”
“Mother… what do you mean…”
He’s not in the coffin?
Nigel had seen his brother’s funeral… hadn’t he? His memories were hazy—he’d fallen ill from the shock back then, burned with fever, barely conscious. Maybe that’s why the details slipped through the cracks.
But he clearly remembered visiting Etna’s grave. Every time he returned to the duchy, it was his duty to lay flowers at his father and brother’s graves.
Etna not being in the coffin—that had to be the delusion of a restless spirit. He tried to dismiss it, but something wouldn’t sit right.
The final line from Rimera’s character info window floated up in his mind again:
Special Reward: Hidden Route <The Duke’s Secret> triggered.
What secret?
What kind of secret could even a Duke like Nigel be unaware of?
As he stood lost in his confusion, Rimera suddenly twisted her head again.
“Then who are you?”
“It’s me—Nigel. Your second son.”
“You…”
Rimera widened her eyes, as if trying to see him more clearly. Then she slowly shook her head.
“No… you’re not…”
Her murmuring trailed off as her face began to contort into a grim scowl. Then she lunged at him.
“Duke!”
Kay, who had been passively observing the odd exchange, shouted in alarm—but he was too late to intervene.
Nigel dodged her first swipe by a hair’s breadth. The second strike was sure to land—but before it could hit, Rimera’s form dissolved like mist and vanished.
“What the—?!”
Kay, equally stunned, started to speak—but suddenly collapsed mid-sentence like a puppet with its strings cut. The pattern was familiar. Nigel knew what this meant.
From the darkness, a man emerged like a sovereign descending from the heavens.
“Inas.”
Inas Idenbach. His lover.
“Are you all right?”
Nigel hadn’t expected him to come tonight. Even though Inas had just saved him, his first emotion wasn’t relief—but a rush of rage. His gaze darted anxiously to the empty space where Rimera had vanished.
“What are you doing? Where’s my mother?”
“I merely drove her away. She was about to attack you.”
“Where did you drive her to?”
“Why are you reacting like this? Calm yourself, Nigel.”
Inas stepped close and firmly grasped Nigel’s shoulders. Only then did Nigel realize he was shaking all over. Panic and confusion clawed at him, tightening like a noose.
“Where is my mother?”
“Somewhere in the mansion, I’d guess. But it would be difficult to find her right away.”
“You can’t find her?”
“We haven’t resolved this yet. She’ll return tomorrow night. So please, calm down, Nigel.”
It didn’t sit right. But instead of pressing him, Nigel gave a small nod. Then he glanced down at Kay, collapsed on the floor.
“He’s not dead.”
Inas spoke before Nigel could even ask.
“I only knocked him out. I’ll come up with an appropriate excuse for him when he wakes.”
“Right…”
A throbbing pain bloomed in his head. Nigel kept staring at the space where Rimera had been moments before.
“Inas.”
“Yes?”
“I need to go to the duchy… I have to check my brother’s grave.”
“The north is too unstable right now. And dangerous, too.”
Nigel looked up at Inas, puzzled by the odd wording. His face was composed, as always—but that calmness only made him feel more unsettled.
“What does danger matter? You’re with me.”
“Even so… If the guards see us, it’ll raise suspicion.”
“It’s fine. Let’s go.”
Inas fell silent.
A creeping, cold certainty began to claw up from Nigel’s feet and coil around his chest. He glared at his lover, eyes narrowing.
“Inas.”
He said it like a warning, and Inas didn’t respond. As if he already knew what Nigel was thinking—what he was going to say—and was trying to avoid it.
Nigel clenched his fists. His whole body trembled from fury and dread.
“Why should I care about the guards? We can just kill them all. That’s your way, isn’t it?”
“That’s not true, Nigel.”
“Then talk. What are you so afraid of?”
It was a question in form, but in tone, it was a declaration.
“You know something, don’t you?”
Inas—who had performed all sorts of outrageous acts in the name of completing achievements—had spent quite a bit of time here. Could he really not have known about the ghost of Nigel’s mother haunting the mansion?
He had access to the character info windows. Could he really have overlooked ‘Special Reward: Hidden Route <The Duke’s Secret> triggered’?
Impossible.
Even if he only discovered it once, he could’ve revisited the clue in another timeline. No matter what that secret was, Inas had to be close to the truth.
“Nigel.”
The way he spoke—soft, coaxing, like offering a sweet candy—only made him seem more suspicious.
Judging from his reactions, Inas was definitely hiding something.
“Tell me, Inas.”
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
That condescending, I-know-best tone like everything was for Nigel’s sake—it set his blood boiling. He wasn’t going to let Inas brush it aside this time.
“I’ll decide that. So talk. Now.”
“Nigel.”
“Hurry.”
Inas stared at him like he was a stubborn child refusing to listen. But when Nigel’s glare only sharpened, he finally opened his mouth.
“Your brother Etna… is not in the coffin.”
It was what Rimera had said—but hearing it again sent a chill down Nigel’s spine.
“Why not? I saw them bury him.”
“The body that came back was just a shell. Etna’s soul had gone elsewhere. After the funeral, the shell passed through a rift in space… and returned to the soul.”
Nigel had braced himself, but the next words shattered all expectations. His mind reeled.
“His soul went… somewhere else?”
“Etna didn’t die from the endemic illness. He discovered the very same dungeon Kay is fated to reach—the Temple of Eternity. There, he was cursed.”
As Nigel stood in stunned silence, Inas continued, sounding almost sympathetic.
“He has remained asleep in the Temple of Eternity ever since. He’s still there now. When certain conditions are met, he’ll awaken—as a servant of Odelrat the Tyrant Dragon.”
“No… no way…”
Of everything said, one word burned into Nigel’s ears louder than the rest:
Awakened.
“Then… he’s alive?”
His precious brother—alive. The thought overwhelmed him. Emotion swelled in his chest, nearly drowning him. He wanted to see him—had to see him. It had been so long.
“He is Odelrat’s servant, Nigel.”
Inas’ cold response doused him like ice water.
Odelrat, the monstrous dragon sealed long ago by Glarus—the right hand of the fallen god Ederta. A malevolent force, buried beneath the land bordering the Magnus Duchy. Every few years, it spawned hordes of monsters. Odelrat was Nigel’s lifelong nemesis. The embodiment of all evil.
Logically, Nigel knew Inas was right. But emotions came first.
“But he’s still alive!”
“Nigel.”
Inas’ firm tone tried to ground him.
“As you saw with your mother’s ghost, waking Etna requires very specific conditions. He only appears when every step of the event chain is completed. He’s a hidden boss—one you must defeat.”
“But you’ve woken him before, haven’t you?”
Inas didn’t deny it.
That made Nigel angrier—and relieved at the same time. Inas might be hiding the truth, but he hadn’t lied. Not yet. That meant if Nigel asked the right questions, he could still reach the truth.
“Tell me. You woke him up. You must’ve faced him.”
“Yes. I have.”
“Then what happened?”
“Nothing good came of it. He can’t coexist with us.”
“Nothing happened.”
A voice interrupted them.
Both Nigel and Inas turned their heads.
It was Kay.
