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Episode 3
“Alright, alright. Let’s all head in and get some rest for today. We’ll talk again tomorrow~.”
Before we knew it, it was already very late. Isaac pushed Yulia and me lightly on the back, and we were helplessly forced out.
“Wait—!”
Click.
Before Yulia could say anything else, the door locked.
It was obvious that Isaac and Edmond had things they needed to talk about alone.
Left standing in the hallway, the two of us looked at each other and let out a sigh without realizing it.
“How long are they going to treat us like kids…?”
“Seriously. We’re already twenty-three.”
“Tch.”
Even though we were annoyed, neither of us seriously tried to barge back in. Big family matters had always been handled by those two, so maybe it made sense that this time would be the same.
We slowly started walking toward our bedrooms. The quiet hallway felt unusually long tonight.
“…Hey.”
Yulia spoke up softly.
“When did you know? …About that ability.”
She carefully avoided saying dark magic, like she was afraid it might hurt me.
She’d always been like that—thoughtful in small, quiet ways.
I looked at Yulia’s face for a moment before answering.
“When I was seven. Do you remember the rabbit we raised in the backyard? The one we named ‘Ellie’, using both our names.”
“Of course I remember! We played with her all the time.”
She was the first living being we ever got attached to outside our family. Under our parents’ guidance, we took careful care of Ellie.
“That winter, Ellie got sick and died. I didn’t want to let her go. I just wanted her to come back to life and hop around me like before.”
“That was the first time. The first time I reversed death.”
That was the first dark magic I ever remembered using.
Of course, what came back afterward could barely be called Ellie anymore.
I chose not to talk about that horrific result.
“Luckily, Mom and Dad saw it right away. They warned me over and over never to use that power again.”
That was the only good thing about it.
If a servant or maid had seen it first, things would’ve been irreversible.
Yulia looked like she’d just swallowed something incredibly bitter.
She probably feels guilty.
I could easily guess what was going through her head.
Around age seven was when Yulia’s ability awakened. That was also when she was riding high on confidence and teasing me nonstop.
At first, everyone thought I was just late. But by the time I turned fifteen and still showed no sign of an ability, people started doubting whether I was really a Walker.
They mocked me, calling me “the stain of the Walker family.”
Yulia’s face went pale as she imagined how much humiliation I must have endured.
I could feel her pity-filled gaze on my cheek. I put on the smile I always used when things got uncomfortable.
“I used to resent why I was given a blessing like this. But now I think I understand. Maybe it was all preparation… for today.”
“In a way, I think we were lucky. If I didn’t have this power, I might’ve really lost everyone today.”
Yulia’s eyes went wide.
“You really are”
“Huh?”
“You’re really an idiot!”
Bang!
She opened her door and stormed inside.
“Wow….”
My twin still had a lot of growing to do, so she acted like this sometimes. I just found it cute, so I didn’t mind much.
That was when.
Jingle.
I heard a small bell.
Blessing? Preparation? Puhahaha!
“Rev.”
A black cat appeared through the gap in the door. To others, it would sound like normal meowing, but every word was crystal clear to me.
What idiot thinks dark magic is some kind of divine blessing?
In the darkness, the cat’s sharp golden eyes gleamed as they stared straight at me.
Its very origin is different. You know that perfectly well, yet you still spout that nonsense without shame.
So? How does it feel? Now that you’ve tasted even a fragment of that almighty power you possess, has your thinking changed at all?
Rev.
This guy, disguised as my pet cat, was a demon I’d contracted with.
Apparently, if he appeared in his true form in the mortal world, he’d violate causality or something, so he stayed inside a cat’s corpse instead.
And yet here you are, my great contractor, being so spineless. Instead of offering the humans of the capital as sacrifices and conquering the continent, you’re hiding like a rat just to survive! How utterly pathetic!
“Then why did you contract with me?”
You’re the one who summoned me!!
Rev hissed loudly. His fur stood on end, his tail puffed up.
He wasn’t wrong, so I shrugged. That had happened when I was about eleven.
How I ended up summoning a demon is a long story. But ever since then, Rev has stayed by my side in cat form.
When you summoned me after all that time, I wondered what kind of bloodshed you’d bring to this continent. But once I got here…
He looked me up and down. I smiled awkwardly.
Don’t smile! I’ll get it attached!
“Well, if a weak beginner dark mage like me could summon you… then maybe you’re not really in a position to complain either.”
W-w-what did you just say?!
He stared at me like he’d just been gravely insulted, then jumped straight onto my face.
I’ve never suffered such humiliation! Hisssss!
“W-wait, Rev—ow! Rev—ugh—hey!”
He went completely wild on my face. Black fur filled my mouth, and he even clawed my arm!
“Ow! That hurts! That really hurts there!”
I hurriedly pulled Rev off and rolled up my sleeve. The bandage I’d carefully wrapped earlier was a mess, shredded by his claws.
Red blood stains seeped through the cloth.
“You know it hurts… that’s just cruel.”
Cruel?! I’ll tear up this contract tonight! Contractor, did you think I’d let this humiliation slide?!
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry!”
Don’t think an apology will save you!
I had to desperately dodge the cat as he lunged at me, screeching.
I said I was sorry!
…Though honestly, I wasn’t wrong.
But if I said that out loud, Rev would definitely go berserk again, so I held it in.
Only after Isaac felt his sisters’ presence fade beyond the closed door did he turn back.
Edmond stood there, not even trying to hide his grim expression.
It was a side of him he’d never shown in front of Yulia or Emily. Isaac casually sat down on the sofa, clearly used to it.
“Easy there, big brother. Try relaxing your face a bit. If the girls saw that, they might cry.”
“Isaac. You’ve already guessed it too, haven’t you?”
Isaac nodded without hesitation.
“They’ll come back.”
They’d planted explosives in the carriage and even checked to make sure everyone was dead.
“Yeah. Now that they know we’re alive, there’s no way they’ll leave us alone.”
Which means this assassination attempt might not be the last.
“Which side do you think it is? The Duke of Arcmone? The Bellonde imperial family?”
All of them were plausible. The tangled web of politics only kept expanding the list of suspects.
“It could be the Papal State.”
“Ah~. Yeah, they didn’t like us either. Something about how divine blessings should belong to the church.”
Since he wasn’t particularly devout, Isaac found it ridiculous.
“So basically, anyone could be the culprit.”
The Duke of Arcmone, the Bellonde imperial family, the Papal State—at this point, it’d be easier to list who wouldn’t attack the Walker family.
“Man~ it’s been a while. Ever since you took over, we haven’t had any late-night visitors.”
“Our physical condition is an issue, but more importantly, we don’t know when the next attempt will come. We should avoid going out as much as possible.”
“I’ll have the butler submit leave requests tomorrow.”
Isaac was good at reading what Edmond left unsaid.
“We’ll need to increase Andrea’s guard, too.”
“Double the knights?”
Edmond nodded.
“A lot happened today. I’m not tired… but then again, fatigue is probably a luxury for the dead.”
Only then did Edmond realize that despite such a long day, his body felt perfectly fine.
It wasn’t like pushing through exhaustion with willpower.
It felt more like his body had completely forgotten what fatigue even was—only a vague memory of the sensation remained.
“…In a way, that’s convenient. I’ll stay up and work a bit more.”
There was far too much to deal with.
Even if tonight was the very night he became a zombie.
“I’m convinced you died once before too. Otherwise, how could anyone be this perfectly optimized for being a zombie?”
“Enough nonsense. Go get some rest. It’s late.”
“Late….”
Isaac curled his lips into a crooked smile—the one he made when he was irritated.
“Hey, brother. Have you ever seen a zombie sleep?”
