By Zephyria 
My vision was so poor that I began to tread carefully from quite a distance away.
Around the gates on all four sides of the Royal Palace, the area was always wide open. It was so they could easily observe anyone coming and going. But with fog this dense, what could possibly be seen?
As I drew closer to the Royal Palace’s north gate, I could hear the guards chatting.
“Lulu had puppies again yesterday. There’s nowhere left to give them away.”
“Ugh, don’t even think about foisting one on me. The one you passed off last time isn’t even a year old yet.”
“Still, they’re cute, aren’t they?”
“…They are cute. Of course, they are, since you picked out the cutest one.”
The main gate of the Royal Palace was grand, with three or four Knights usually standing guard on either side. However, this north gate was different. A gate barely wide enough for a single carriage was open, with two Knights standing in the center.
I, skilled in Pressure Point Striking, approached them slowly, hiding my presence. The Knights, chatting while looking outward, spoke with a tone full of trust and familiarity.
“They need to go for walks after they turn four months old, you know that?”
“I’ve heard it a million times, I know, I know. At first, Eve used to drag them, but now Eve gets dragged.”
“How old is Eve now?”
“Eight. She’s reading fairy tales these days and even argues about why the sky is blue.”
“What? That’s cute. It’s blue when you just look at it.”
“Exactly. But I looked it up, and apparently, many children these days are like that. If their bodies are weak, they can’t see things in their true colors… So I got more medicine. She’ll be fine, right?”
“Don’t worry. She’s not seriously ill or anything, so she’ll get better soon.”
“Yeah. These days, I have nothing to worry about except food costs. Farming isn’t going well, so the price of groceries is just…”
The sky is blue.
I had no idea how that hallucinogen worked. King Vivian must have taken it already too. I was intensely curious about what kind of scenery he was seeing. The sky the Knights were looking up at was a surprisingly deep, grayish-white.
Waiting for the Knights’ conversation to lull, I stealthily approached and touched their Blood Points. Grasping their belts, I held them without causing injury as my companions quietly slipped past me on either side. Giving them ample time, I touched their Blood Points again to wake them.
They didn’t even know what had happened to them.
“So, do you really not need one more puppy?”
“No, thank you. Ah, I’m so sleepy today… How much time until the shift change?”
“Thirty minutes? It’ll be quick. Want to grab a drink after work?”
“Not today. My husband said he’d make something delicious tonight.”
“Won’t it just be lamb ribs again?”
“I don’t know. He just told me to trust him.”
Their cheerful laughter slowly spread beyond the fog. Leaving the sound behind, I carefully picked up my pace to rejoin the group.
From here on, Hugh Benson led the way. I followed behind him, holding Ruben in my arms.
Crows were perched on the tips of roofs everywhere.
We approached a tower that exuded an even more somber aura amidst the gloom. A door, open by the width of two fingers, caught my eye.
According to the Royal Palace blueprints, this was the correct tower, but it was narrower than I had expected. I couldn’t tell if it was because the walls were thick or if the tower was simply built small.
Samantha Andrei, who entered last, silently closed the door.
Everyone must have felt it. There was only one presence nearby. We all carefully held our breath as we ascended the stairs.
On the second floor stood a woman, with a thin layer of mist pooling at her feet.
She was wrapped from neck to toe in black fabric. Her black veil, which usually hid her face, was swept back like hair, revealing a surprisingly pale white face.
Gloria Liberti.
No, she now bore the name Gloria Liver Vivian.
“Welcome. You’ve come in greater numbers than I expected.”
“….”
“The God has promised to send His apostles to save me… but all my apostles wear the faces of death. Your black robes are quite striking.”
“….”
“Can I trust you…? Well, if this is how it ends, it’s better to end it… Whether I heard a Divine Revelation or am seeing a hallucination…”
“….”
“Follow me.”
Gloria’s voice was consistently melancholic. As her lament, like a funeral dirge, continued, Ruben remained silent. The rest of the group also stayed quiet. The woman spoke no further and turned. She was the only one whose footsteps made a sound.
Splash. Splash.
The sound of walking on water echoed on the stairs, though there was no water pooled there.
At about the fourth floor, Gloria’s breathing grew labored. But she didn’t slow down at all. She walked at the same pace as before, as if fulfilling a duty she absolutely had to perform.
Around the seventh floor, Ruben, his voice rougher than usual, asked,
“Why did you place the children so high up?”
“At first, they were in the basement. Only after much crying and pleading that we couldn’t bury living children did we finally manage to bring them to the top of the tower. Back then, I thought they could at least see the sky one more time and breathe fresh air… Now, I don’t know. Perhaps I should have let them go out and live on their own.”
“….”
“Please don’t be too shocked when you see my children. Even in this state, their hearts are still tender.”
And so, on the ninth floor.
Finally, the first door appeared. Gloria took a key from her waist and unlocked the door with a click. Following her as she pushed the door open, we slowly entered the room.
Even to me, who was accustomed to all sorts of grotesque and cruel appearances, this was a horrifying sight.
On each bed sat a man and a woman. The only reason we knew they were a man and a woman was their attire.
The man had a large hump on his back, and the woman’s elbows bent backward. Both had skin that had swollen to a dark color, with veins protruding grotesquely. Wherever there was a flat surface, scales like a snake’s had sprouted. On their cheeks, necks, and the rims of their ears…
I thought the Mermaid I saw in Yulan’s story was more attractive by comparison. Their appearance was that inhuman.
Their pitch-black eyes, with no whites visible, glinted with wariness. With every breath they took, Contaminated Mana puffed and seethed repulsively.
Gloria calmly addressed them,
“Children, you must greet them. These are the apostles.”
“…Hello.”
“Hello.”
“This child here is Brat, and this child is Linsey.”
Ah.
Their voices sounded like fingernails scraping across a chalkboard.
“Are you taking us as we are?”
Linsey asked. But Ruben didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he stepped forward half a pace and looked at Gloria. Ruben’s voice, still artificially modulated, was evident.
“Before that, there is something I wish to ask.”
“What is it? I thought the God had told you everything.”
“The God of Records instructed me to hear it directly from you.”
“….”
“Gloria Liberti, what magic was cast upon you?”
“…Haha.”
The woman laughed.
“Ahaha! What are you asking? It must have been some kind of mind-control magic. That lunatic wanted me to forget everything in the world and love only him. He wanted me to be a virgin. How fortunate for me! If my mother hadn’t saved me, I would never have known what my children were going through, or where they were.”
“….”
Gloria collapsed onto the edge of the bed. Linsey gently stroked her shoulder once, then hugged her tightly as Gloria slumped into her embrace. As Linsey, with her dark skin, embraced Gloria, dressed in black, they looked like one body.
Gloria trembled and laughed. Not a single tear could be found in her eerie eyes.
“My mother.”
“Yes, that lunatic’s mother. If the former Queen hadn’t freed me from this damned curse… I would have lived my entire life in ignorance. It’s truly a blessing. I hope she’s hiding somewhere safe…”
“Did she… pity you?”
“At first, she must have hated me. But in the end, in the end, I think she liked me. Or perhaps pitied me? Otherwise, she wouldn’t have done what she did.”
“What she did?”
“Breaking that damned Magic Circle and stealing something to escape. Haha, I couldn’t have done it myself. Yet, Mother… left the palace she had lived in her whole life for me. Perhaps, I don’t know for sure… Mother hoped I would… remember my children.”
Gloria said this horrific event first happened when she was sixteen.
At sixteen, Gloria visited the Lake of Memories every day. She wanted to see the God of Records just one more time. Prince Queion, who was only five years old, participated in a tour of the Lake of Memories. The Lake of Memories was an important holy site for Vivian.
Gloria met Queion there for the first time, and she smiled indulgently at the young prince’s childish pleas to marry her.
It was the beginning of tragedy.
Gloria Liberti, who gave up on the God of Records and faced reality, married at eighteen. However, the very next day after her wedding, her husband was murdered during a robbery. The culprit was never found, and the following year, she gave birth to her first son, Brat.
When she felt overwhelmed raising a child alone, someone proposed to her. He was kind and affectionate, and promised to raise Brat as his own. At twenty-three, Gloria fell in love with him and married him. He too was murdered the next day during a robbery. This time, the culprit was also never found. The following year, she gave birth to her second child, Linsey.
Gloria couldn’t understand. Who could it be? Who was tormenting her like this?
So she resented God. If the God of Records had marked her as His consort and was killing her husbands, then her children were God’s children. She believed so and raised them that way. Brat and Linsey grew up as faithful children, believing that God and their mother loved each other deeply.
And when Gloria turned twenty-six. A proposal came from the kingdom.