“The guidance ends here.”

Zagu stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down at the bottom.

Mist rising from an underground dark river spread across the cliff face halfway down. It was so dark and so thick that even he couldn’t see the bottom at a glance.

“So high,” the maid said.

She kicked a huge rock down. After several loud thud-thud-thud impacts, it was a long time before the sound of it finally reaching the ground drifted back up.

“If you fell, you’d be smashed to nothing but bones, right?”

“That’s just you,” Zagu said flatly. “I happen to know a human woman who fell from a thousand-meter tower and was still jumping around afterward.”

“Seriously? Is she made of steel plate?”

“Even steel plate would get caved in from this height. That human is just strong, that’s all.”

Zagu pulled his gaze back from the depths.

“The problem now isn’t whether someone’s steel plate or not. Without guidance, how are we supposed to find Muen Campbell?”

No matter what, he had never expected Muen Campbell to be able to undo the lock on his soul information. Shenyi had done it personally—Zagu didn’t even know where the tampering was placed.

No... the earlier him had never even imagined he could be played like this. In just these few hours, one thing after another he hadn’t expected had happened. It wasn’t strange.

It was his shame.

The First Demon General of the demon race—Zagu’s shame.

“Without a location lock, we can only mobilize more people and use a net-casting tactic to search for Muen Campbell’s trail.”

After all, no matter how Muen Campbell ran, he was still inside the demon race’s main base. As long as they pressed in step by step, sooner or later they could force that rat out of its hole. It would just take more time.

The current problem was...

“Left or right— which path will Muen Campbell choose?”

“Why can’t it be below?” the maid asked curiously.

“If he chooses below, that saves me the trouble,” Zagu said with a mocking smile. “You should know what’s down there is—”

“Zagu.”

All of a sudden.

A familiar voice—gentle, yet carrying a thread of bone-deep cold—rang out in this dark space.

The voice came from between the maid’s lips, yet it carried an aged, hoarse quality completely mismatched with her appearance.

“Lord Shenyi?”

Zagu instantly understood who the voice belonged to. He dropped to one knee at once. “My deepest apologies. I failed to kill Muen Campbell in time, and I let him get away again.”

“We’ll talk about your incompetence later. The situation has changed.”

The maid’s face was blank, like a doll’s; only her lips moved.

“Please speak.”

“Go down. Continue the pursuit and kill Muen Campbell.”

“Down... you mean?” Zagu jerked his head up.

“Yes. Muen Campbell went to that place.”

“That place...”

Beneath Shenyi’s heavy mask, fear actually surfaced in his gaze. “Forgive me for speaking bluntly, Lord Shenyi, but if Muen Campbell truly went to that place... shouldn’t we not even need to lift a hand? After all, that place is—”

“Of course I know. A mere human cannot possibly come out of that place alive. But Muen Campbell...”

Shenyi paused. “He always gives me a strange feeling—as if, in the dark, someone is pushing his actions along, making him do things that are... not to be taken lightly.”

“Pushing... his actions?” 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“I’m not entirely sure yet, but we can’t keep looking at him as an ordinary human. To be safe, you will take men deep into that place and continue the pursuit. You must ensure he dies there.”

“Yes.”

“Remember: you must.”

Shenyi’s tone grew heavier, word by word. “I will not allow you to make a second mistake. Do you understand.”

“...Yes. I understand.”

After Shenyi finished speaking, the authority in the maid’s lifeless eyes vanished. She froze, as if she still hadn’t processed what had happened—then her entire body began to rapidly wither with age.

Before she could even scream, she had already aged to the point she couldn’t speak. Only her lips moved, blankly, in confusion.

Pff.

Zagu thrust a spear straight through her heart, giving her release.

“‘Must’... how long has it been since Lord Shenyi personally gave me an order with such gravity?”

Zagu lowered his head, staring into the dense fog rolling under the faint glow of bloodlight.

“Can Lord Shenyi feel fear too? What is he afraid of—what... is down there?”

...

...

“Muen Campbell—whether in good times or bad, whether in poverty or wealth, whether in health or poverty, whether in joy or sorrow—are you willing to love your wife forever?”

“I am willing.”

“Then Ariel Bugaard—whether in good times or bad, whether in poverty or wealth... are you willing to love your husband forever?”

“I’m willing... my ass!!”

Ariel jolted awake.

That nightmare was so terrifying it nearly made her heart stop. She stared wide-eyed, blankly, at the darkness above where she couldn’t see anything. Only after a long moment did she come back to herself.

Thankfully, the real world wasn’t that terrifying. An orange campfire flickered, warm as early spring. Ariel turned her head with difficulty. Through that bright firelight, she saw a pretty face so beautiful it was enough to smooth away all her fear.

Miss Muse was still here. Thank goodness...

“Damn it, why would I have a nightmare like that?”

Marrying Muen Campbell and all that... what kind of brain-dead, vulgar author would write such a dog-blood, low-class story?

No—more importantly, that was something that could never happen. Even if she married a pig someday, there was absolutely no way she’d ever marry Muen Campbell!

But the panini cake in the dream really had been delicious. That wonderful texture—it had barely felt any different from the real thing.

“Awake?” Miss Muse asked.

“Mm... where are we right now?”

Ariel braced one hand on the ground and struggled to sit up. The feel against her palm was unbelievably soft. The blanket spread beneath her ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) was obviously expensive.

“Where... let me think. It should count as very, very deep underground,” Miss Muse said with a sigh.

Even the way she sighed was so pretty that Ariel couldn’t help getting caught up in it.

“Underground?”

Ariel looked around, then suddenly remembered their situation and tensed.

“Wait... I remember we were being hunted. Where’s the enemy?”

“Relax. They won’t chase after us for the time being.”

“Could it be that you, Miss Muse—”

“Don’t overthink it. I only shook them off for now.”

“I see...”

To be able to shake off those enemies... Miss Muse really was even more impressive than she’d imagined.

“But speaking of which...”

Ariel lowered her head, her gaze falling on her own body.

Only then did she realize that right now, she looked like a living corpse out of a ghost story—wrapped in bandages from head to toe.

No wonder her injuries had recovered so quickly. So her wounds had already been treated?

Strange. She didn’t remember ever learning any magic that would let her treat her own injuries. The bandaging was a little clumsy, but it was obviously careful— even some private places were...

Huh. Wait.

She didn’t know that kind of strange magic, and there were only two of them here—herself and Miss Muse...

Which meant...

“M-Miss Muse.”

Ariel shifted a little, cheeks reddening as she asked shyly,

“Were you the one who treated me?”