Kessler’s words didn’t reach his ears. The moment the second hint appeared, his mind went blank.
Why?
Why, though?
[Second Hint: The witch once claimed to be the owner of the baby arctic fox.]
The hint was blatantly pointing toward Haru and her group. And only a single hour had passed—out of the ten allotted.
In just one hour, they were being singled out like this.
It was strange. Strange enough to make him wonder if there was some sort of bug. In all the horror games he’d played, had the system ever helped the majority this openly at the beginning?
‘It had, once.’
If so, then that must be the reason. A critical number of players must have died within just an hour. With enough casualties, there was no longer any need to drag the quest out.
‘Haru must still be alive!’
Shit. Kessler, that bastard. He had knocked over the potion he had worked so hard to get—the one that would lift the curse.
If he was really a Seeker, he should’ve known what the potion was for. Why the hell did he do that?
In a rush, he was about to sprint off somewhere, anywhere. But suddenly, something grabbed the scruff of his neck and yanked him upward. Straight into Kessler’s arms.
Put me down! Let me go!
Thrashing furiously, he twisted his body and bit down hard on Kessler’s wrist.
“Stay still.”
Squeeeeeak!
“You’re a clever baby arctic fox, aren’t you? You should serve the master who suits you.”
So what, you think that’s you?
“That woman was too incompetent. You’re better off with me.”
Was he serious? This guy was a complete lunatic. He wanted to scratch him up badly, but he didn’t even have claws.
Eventually, he gave up and curled himself into a ball in Kessler’s arms. The moment that potion spilled, the option to “cheat using the potion” had vanished anyway.
Still, it was far too strange. The flow of events. It was deviating too drastically from the structure of Last Shadow that he knew.
This time, it truly felt as if… the game was saturated with blatant malice, designed specifically to kill a single person.
For no real reason, he looked up at the night sky. Checking if any cracks had formed above. He’d heard once that if a game-breaking bug occurred, cracks would appear in the sky.
[The person suspected of being the witch has been taken to the execution platform!]
With the notification, Kessler’s steps came to a halt, and he held his breath.
“The winds have shifted course. Looks like the ritual’s about to begin.”
Humming to himself, he muttered incomprehensible words and resumed walking.
They arrived at a long corridor. Along the sleek row of windows, hundreds of people were crammed together, peering outside.
‘It’s not like the majority have died… so what is this?’
After roughly counting the gathered crowd, it didn’t seem like enough players had died to trigger an early release of the major hint. Then why…
The moment he followed their gaze out the window, his mind went blank. In the center of the plaza before the castle gate, Haru was bound to a cross, struggling against her restraints.
At the end of the rope leading to the cross, a fire had been lit. The flame climbed steadily up the rope, drawing closer and closer to Haru’s feet.
“Baby Arctic Foxes shouldn’t see things like this. I’ll protect you.”
Kessler’s hand blocked his view, but through his peripheral vision, he could clearly see the fierce, blazing flames.
“Wow… now it finally feels like a real horror game.”
“No kidding.”
People casually shared their impressions. Some cracked open lukewarm drink cans and sipped leisurely, chuckling under their breath.
“Ha, so that’s how our Haru goes out… There’s no second-chance revival event or anything, right?”
“Such a shame. I really wanted to play more with Haru Noona. Honestly, it’s unfair. Why did she have to get picked as the witch…”
“Eh, we’ll just have to buy her a drink tonight.”
The mundane chatter of the people nearby. It felt so detached from his reality… so distant.
Meow.
The sky-piercing, eardrum-shattering scream effect that had been drilling downward abruptly ceased. And when the final flare of light burned out, another notification appeared.
[Second Survival Quest complete.]
“Oh! It’s over!”
“That woman really was the witch!”
“Ugh, grotesque.”
On the thin iron frame that had supported the cross, the scorched remains of what looked like human skin were melted and stuck in place.
[System]: A Soul Flower has bloomed.
And in the spot where her heart had been consumed by flames, there now bloomed a Soul Flower.
‘I didn’t realize Haru Noona and I had built up that much affinity…’
The Soul Flower was a reward given to those who had earnestly tried to save someone unjustly driven to death.
He looked over at the remaining members of Haru’s party.
For him, possessed by this strange reality, it was life and death—but to them, it was just a simple game.
“Just bad luck, I guess.”
“Yeah…”
Haru Noona’s unjust death was being brushed off just like that.
When he squirmed in Kessler’s arms, this time, Kessler set him down without resistance. He moved down the corridor toward the execution site. With his heightened sense of smell after becoming a fox, the thick, acrid stench was almost unbearable.
A light drizzle fell. The steel frame, reduced to ashes, collapsed to the ground, and the last embers that had burned Haru Noona were finally extinguished.
[You have obtained the Soul Flower.
This item is a necessary material for the quest <Baby Arctic Fox, Do You Want to Become Human?>.]
He picked up the drop items Haru Noona had left behind. They would serve as valuable quest materials.
Haru Noona, forcibly expelled from the game, would probably grumble for a bit before starting a new one. But for him, this was the end, and that thought left a surprisingly large void.
He must have grown attached to her without even realizing it.
The rain weighed down his ears. Kessler approached and started fiddling with them.
“I’m wiping the water out of your ear. Your dead master never even did this for you.”
This guy—acting all self-important as if he was doing a much better job. From the start, neither Haru Noona nor Kessler had ever truly been his master. He belonged to himself.
“Your paw pads are all muddy too. Let me clean them.”
Meow!
Not grateful at all. Remembering how Kessler had thoughtlessly spilled the potion earlier only made him more irritated, especially seeing him now pretending to be a considerate new master. What did he expect to gain from getting on his good side?
He hadn’t even spent three full days with Haru Noona. He knew rationally that it wasn’t Kessler’s fault—this quest was randomized, after all. Yet the emptiness of losing an ally, the lingering frustration—it all made him want to take it out on this guy.
“You’re a clean little fox.”
His body drooped in exhaustion. But even so, he couldn’t just sit there doing nothing.
“There’s still some time until the next quest. Come on, let’s get to work!”
“At night, potion drop rates double!”
“Let’s go!”
“Go cuttlefish!”
Then, seeing a group of men each picking up a shovel snapped him back to reality. Right. At night, the potion drop rate doubled during the flag-digging event.
It was a perfect chance to farm potions.
Meow!
Freshly groomed by Kessler’s hands like a newborn fox, he immediately sprang free, dashing off toward the crowd as if to make all that effort worthless.
Rustle rustle! Meow meow!
Spotting a randomly spawned flag, he eagerly dug at the ground with his paws. The rain-soaked soil clumped together, making it oddly easier to unearth.
Clang clang!
A few grimy coins popped out from under the flag. Excited, he was busy scooping them up when he was suddenly lifted into the air.
Kessler?!
“Your previous master must have made you do trashy work.”
What the hell?
“You’re really doing all this for a few measly coins?”
???
“Pull yourself together. You’re meant to grow into a fox of higher standards.”
Unbelievable. He wasn’t even done collecting the coins yet. He thrashed in irritation, signaling for Kessler to leave him alone, but the guy just grinned, lifting the corners of his mouth.
“Good job. You’re adorable.”
What?! All he did was wave his front paws to tell him to stop, and yet he twisted it into some weird, cutesy display.
“You showed affection, so you deserve a reward.”
Suddenly, Kessler began tossing him into the air like a child playing airplane.
His muscles tensed reflexively at the rapidly changing view. Being hoisted up and dropped down over and over again was nerve-wracking, and he grew exhausted almost immediately.
“Look at you, sticking out your tongue in happiness.”
How was he supposed to fix this complete lack of communication?
Then, without warning, Kessler swapped the plain bell string around his neck for a lavish golden cord.
What even was this?
[Golden Collar]
[The most expensive dog collar sold in the Shadow Castle. Crafted by artisan “Leather Skull.”]
Gasp!
Myang!
He barked instinctively out of sheer shock.
It seemed this guy really did have some affection for him. After that, he stopped flailing and quietly let himself be carried back into the castle.
[System]: Time remaining until the next Survival Quest: 6 days
There was still time left. Until then, his task was simple: toughen up. As a baby fox with no teeth and a frail body, he was at constant risk of ending up nothing more than a bloody lump of meat.
After the end of the Witch Hunt, the atmosphere inside the castle descended into total chaos. The unexpected outbreak of gender conflict during the “witch-finding” process was the cause.
Because the first hint had definitively labeled the witch as a woman, during the quest, innocent women were ruthlessly cornered and hunted like rats.
The women, deeply embittered by the ordeal, began to band tightly together. Occasionally, a few men tried to hover around them, but the women firmly rejected all such approaches.
“Oh my, a fox!”
Of course, there was an exception: handsome men.
From the moment Kessler appeared carrying him, the women who had been casting furtive glances at him began dismantling their previously unbreachable fortress.
Kessler, who had been standing at a distance observing, was soon surrounded by a crowd of women.
That was when it happened.
“AAAAAAAAARGH!!”
A blood-curdling scream—like a pig being slaughtered.
The members of the Ttubi Sect, who had been fawning over Ttubi just moments earlier in hopes of avoiding being picked as the next witch, recoiled in shock, rippling away like a water wave.
Ssssshhk.
The acrid scent of burning flesh drifted sharply into the nose.
Through the gaps in the crowd, he caught sight of Ttubi, already dead within an instant, black blood oozing from his gaping mouth and bulging eyes.
Someone flipped Ttubi’s body over to check his back. There, a deep, jagged wound shaped like a notch was revealed.
“Ttubi! Priest Ttubi!!”
The hall erupted into turmoil. In panic, some people crashed into each other as they tried to flee toward the exits.
“High Priest! Priest Ttubi has been murdered!”
Amid all the pandemonium, only Kessler and he stood calmly in place.
