Satin wasn’t the only one amazed. From across the way, Rita shouted with a teasing laugh, “How’s the view from up there?”
The golem didn’t seem particularly sensitive to touch, as it made no immediate reaction after Cain drew his sword. Occasionally, it shifted its upper body left and right, but that was it. It was completely unaware that Cain was clinging to the back of its neck.
Hanging on with one hand, Cain drew his own sword with the other—this time, it was his own blade.
Then, suddenly—Uwooooo! The golem let out a wild roar and began thrashing both arms. Gravel scattered everywhere, and Cain’s body swung precariously with the motion.
Did it notice Cain?
Satin instinctively lunged forward but halted mid-step. A faint glow began to gather around Cain. It was magic—but different from the kind he used against the serpent. There were no roaring flames this time.
What kind of magic is that?
The light enveloped the golem, seeping into it. Then the rampaging creature froze in place. It lasted only a moment, but for Cain, that was enough. He raised his sword once again, the one he hadn’t managed to strike with earlier.
Will the blade even go through?
Satin anxiously stomped in place.
Cutting through stone with a sword was something out of a comic book. Besides, the weapon Cain held wasn’t some legendary blade—it was just a bargain-bin longsword.
There was no point in worrying now. Cain brought the sword down.
Clang! Shockingly, the sound that rang out was more like shattering glass than breaking stone. More surprising than the noise was the sight before them. The golem’s head was fracturing—splintering into shards.
And then—
Something’s wrong.
From the now motionless golem’s head, black smoke began to billow out. The vast hall was swiftly swallowed by a dark cloud.
Satin saw it—magic hidden within the black smoke. The energy flickered into view, only to vanish moments later.
Had it seeped into something? But where?
“Satin!”
Cain called out as he hastily leapt down from the golem’s shoulder. It was a reckless move, but Satin couldn’t bring himself to criticize it.
The next thing he knew, Satin was in an entirely different place.
***
A sharp, stinging smell hit Cain’s nose, and he reflexively tried to cover it—but his arms wouldn’t move.
What the hell?
He had no time to grasp the situation before his body began to move on its own. And then came a strange, alien dissonance—as if his limbs weren’t his own.
A dream?
Was he dreaming? When had he even fallen asleep?
He let his uncooperative body descend the stairs while he racked his brain for what had happened before this. He wasn’t someone who usually had dreams like this. No, something was definitely off about all of this.
Then it came to him. Cain hadn’t fallen asleep at all.
When I smashed the golem’s head… that smoke came out.
Now that he thought about it, that black smoke reminded him of the mist that surrounded Cloverland. He couldn’t say for sure, but if this was a dream, then perhaps the smoke and the mist served a similar purpose.
Could Satin be asleep too?
The idea of Satin lying unconscious and vulnerable in the hall made Cain anxious.
I need to find a way out of here.
But right now, Cain couldn’t move a single muscle. The body he was trapped in was descending a dimly lit staircase, now entering a space with no windows whatsoever.
What is this place?
It felt eerily similar to the Confession Room once hidden beneath that deranged old man’s school. The sharp, acrid scent in the air didn’t entirely mask the moldy, musty smell.
One noticeable difference was the ceiling lights—bulbous, droplet-shaped fixtures glowing orange. They lit up the immediate area but didn’t reach far. Outside the circular glow, the shadows deepened. Something could be hiding just outside the light’s reach, and he wouldn’t even know.
Cain wanted to look around more carefully, but even moving his eyes was impossible. Eventually, he gave up and just watched what the body’s owner was doing.
“Father.”
The mouth moved on its own and spoke. The language was unfamiliar, yet somehow Cain understood it. Maybe it was because he was inside this body.
From the wall deep within the darkness, where the light didn’t reach, Cain sensed a presence.
There’s someone there.
A creaking sound followed. It was the sound of someone rising from an old, worn-out chair. The person began approaching slowly. Cain couldn’t see their face—his head was bowed low.
He’s big.
He wore open-toed shoes, and his feet were massive. Even the ankles peeking out from under the black pants looked solid and muscular. It didn’t take much to guess that the man was huge, even without looking up.
He said “Father,” but they don’t look much alike, huh?
Compared to the man now standing before him, the body Cain inhabited was utterly unimpressive. Without a mirror, he couldn’t judge it objectively, but in contrast to the man he’d just called “Father,” it was clear. The fingers twitching in front of him were thin, and the wrists were bony and frail.
As Cain silently sized up the appearance, the lips of the body moved and murmured,
“……Please eat.”
“Alright.”
The man gave a curt reply and walked past. Step, step. Even as he heard the man ascending the stairs, Cain had to keep his gaze fixed to the floor.
Is he really his father?
A family where you can’t even make eye contact. Even for someone like Cain, who’d never felt familial warmth in his life, this relationship felt off.
Only after the footsteps faded did Cain finally lift his head. He thought they might be going to follow the man, but instead, the body walked further into the room. He spotted the chair where the father had been sitting, and next to it, a square, metallic container. It looked like plumbing equipment at a glance, though Cain had never seen this particular design before.
What’s he about to do?
The body moved methodically. He put on a pair of thick work gloves and pulled out an unfamiliar bottle from the shelf. Then he began splashing water across the floor. Cain realized what this was.
Cleaning?
When the bottle was opened, that same pungent smell from earlier filled the air. A sharp, stinging scent. It seemed to be some kind of cleaning chemical, which he poured across the floor without hesitation. The horrible odor didn’t faze him at all.
Next, he grabbed a scrub brush leaning beside the shelf and began scrubbing the floor. Sssk, sssk, sssk. In the silence of the underground room, the repetitive scraping sound echoed for a long time.
Just when the monotony was beginning to set in, Cain noticed something.
In a shadowed corner, where no light reached, something was hanging.
What was that just now?
If his eyes lingered a little longer, he might have been able to identify it, but the body was focused entirely on cleaning the floor and refused to look up. Only when it came time to clean that section did Cain finally get a closer look.
A hook. A rope with a hook attached was dangling from the ceiling. He still couldn’t tell what it was for, but just from the appearance, it looked like something you’d see in a slaughterhouse.
And in the next moment, that theory became a little more plausible.
Is this actually a slaughterhouse?
The floor was blackened—stained with blood. Thick streaks of it trailed down toward a drain, dark enough to convince anyone that an entire animal had been butchered here.
“Phew…”
The body let out a sigh, then fetched water from the tap and splashed it over the floor again. The dried blood didn’t come off easily. After soaking the area thoroughly, he doused it with the cleaning agent multiple times. Then back to scrubbing again. Sssk, sssk, sssk.
But… why do this underground?
As the cleaning continued, Cain found himself burdened with a question he had no one to ask.
Only after the scrubbing was finally finished did the body straighten up. He washed the brush thoroughly, placed it back upside-down where it had been, rinsed the gloves, and hung them up with tongs. The bottle of cleaning solution went back on the shelf.
Then he washed his hands—and his face.
Guess it’s finally over.
The thought had barely formed when the body suddenly gagged.
“Urgh…!”
What the—why now?
After rinsing his mouth several times, he stood up. His steps were heavy. He’d seemed fine while cleaning, but maybe the fatigue was setting in now.
Just before heading up the stairs, something caught Cain’s eye—a blue container. He hadn’t noticed it when they first came down here. It was big enough to fit a person inside, but just from the outside, he couldn’t tell what it was for.
Maybe it’s for trash?
His curiosity was soon answered. The body approached it, and its contents gradually came into view.
…What is this?
The material and shape were unfamiliar—but Cain recognized it immediately.
It was clothing. And shoes. Human.
***
Satin jolted awake, flinching like someone who’d just dreamed of falling off a cliff.
The smoke he’d seen last was now completely gone. There was no sign of it at all. Not only that—the shattered remains of the golem were gone, too. So were the violet brazier and the walls and floor shifting with shadows.
“Where am I?”
Above him, countless stars filled the sky. Around him, dense forest stretched in every direction.
He had no idea what was going on, but for now, Satin set off to find the others. Thankfully, he didn’t have to go far—Cain was lying nearby.
Satin quickly rushed over and slapped his cheek.
“Cain, wake up.”
Apparently, Cain had only lost consciousness—he opened his eyes almost immediately. Blinking with a dazed look on his face, he suddenly bolted upright. He scanned the area in a panic and demanded sharply,
“What the hell happened?!”
“I don’t know either. When I woke up, I was already here,” Satin replied with a shrug.
Cain instantly fired off another question.
“You’re not hurt? Nothing happened to you?”
“I just woke up too. I have no idea what went down.”
Cain stood up with a wary look in his eyes. He reached for his empty belt and clicked his tongue in frustration. It seemed he remembered using his sword when they fought the golem.
Satin figured they wouldn’t get any answers just standing around here, so he decided on their next course of action.
“Let’s go find Rita and Edward first.”
“You think you know where they are?”
“They can’t be far. We were all near each other, remember?”
Maybe what they were experiencing now was the result of a failed trial. Maybe they’d been kicked out of the Demon King’s Castle the moment they were disqualified. If that was the case, and it wasn’t deliberate that they’d been scattered, then there was a good chance Rita and Edward were somewhere nearby—just like Cain had been.
