Chapter 21
21
Anna's grinning lips widened further. Her once gentle eyes had become wrinkled and fierce, like a goblin's.
"Just a little more waiting would have been enough!!!!!!"
"Huh?"
It happened in an instant – it grabbed Simone's hand and yanked it.
"Agh!"
The fake Anna savagely pulled Simone's hand to its mouth.
"You crazy bitch! Hey!"
Simone frantically tried to pull her hand away, but it was no use. Its strength was immense, while Simone was exceptionally weak, even compared to ordinary people.
"Ah! Let go of this!"
Her hand was helplessly dragged into its mouth, where it was rolled around and crunched – crack, crunch.
More precisely, it was her nails, not her hand. It crunched down as if trying to rip them off.
"Ugh!"
It hurt so much that tears welled up in her eyes.
"W-What's that noise...!"
Just then, servants who had heard the commotion in the room rushed in, startled by the sight of Anna and Simone.
"W-What is this! Lady Simone! Anna!"
"Mffhhhehehick!"
Anna laughed even as the servants pulled her away. She laughed, her lips smeared with blood flowing from Simone's hand.
You saw it too, you all heard it, you all saw it, you all heard it, you all saw it, you all heard it
"Ugh, goddamn it! That fucking hurts!"
Finally, a curse word burst from Simone's lips. They say your brain works faster when you're in trouble, right?
Her thoughts, which had been limited to 'I have to get my bitten hand out,' finally began to consider other options.
Black Mana began to flow from Simone's bitten hand.
The Mana inside this body is overflowing. If I don't use it now, when will I?
The Black Mana quickly filled the fake Anna's mouth and poured out.
"Heok!"
Startled, the servants involuntarily stepped back. The fake Anna trembled, a look of extreme pain on its face, and released Simone's hand.
"Kkeueueueuk! Kkeueuk! Kkeuaaak!"
"You crazy bastard! Hey, where's Anna! Goddamn it, that really hurts!"
Simone clutched her bleeding hand and cursed. She couldn't contain her anger.
How dare you. How dare you touch Anna?
You should be careful who you mess with.
Anna was the only person Simone could truly care about here.
Screech!!!
The fake Anna, in agony from the Black Mana in its mouth, pushed away the servants who had gathered around and began to flee through the open door.
"Catch it!"
"Y-Yes?"
The flustered guard looked at Simone, unsure of what to do. Ugh, how can they stand guard properly when they're so clueless? Simone clicked her tongue and hurriedly began to chase after the fake Anna.
"Heok... Heok..."
Simone frowned as she watched the fake Anna flee. The closer they got to the basement, the more grotesque and hideous its appearance became.
Now, it was crawling on all fours like an animal, no longer resembling a human.
It was the same when it first bit Simone's hand, but seeing it act like that in Anna's form was unbearable.
That must be why the servants were unable to cope with the situation properly and were just standing there dumbfounded.
"Haa, heok..."
More than that, why are the monsters from this Mansion's Curse all so fast?
"Aish."
Simone stopped, having run endlessly from one end of this huge mansion to the other, up and down, from the room to the basement.
"Ha!"
Running made her pissed. She took off one of her shoes and threw it at the fake Anna.
It might look a little like Anna, but it wasn't the real Anna, so she didn't feel any guilt about throwing the hard shoe at it.
Screech!!!!
The shoe she threw hit the fake Anna squarely.
"Kyaaaak! W-What is that!"
"L-Lady Simone?"
"G-Ghost! No, it's a monster!"
"It's dangerous!"
All the servants in the basement were watching the chase between Simone and the fake Anna in the hallway.
But Simone didn't care about any of that.
There was no fear in this chase. There was only a terrified fake and an enraged Simone.
Simone raised her Mana. A huge Mana shadow appeared behind Simone.
How could anyone not be afraid in the face of such enormity? The servants who were watching them screamed and fled.
Screech! Screech!
The size of the fake Anna that Simone was chasing began to shrink little by little.
As the chase continued, Simone thought.
'It seems difficult to raise Mana every time I'm in a panic, huh?'
She had just realized firsthand that controlling Mana so that people wouldn't get hurt while running and escaping like this was extremely difficult.
Ah, so that's why the mages in games can't move while casting.
Should I just make a charm containing Black Mana instead? Like those charms in movies and dramas that disappear when you stick them to ghosts.
Simone was having such useless thoughts during this urgent chase because running was too hard.
She hadn't exercised at all in this skinny body and had only eaten, so she hadn't gained any muscle, but her weight had increased.
She felt like she was in worse shape than when she first arrived.
'I should have exercised sooner.'
Simone got angry again and threw the remaining shoe at the thing that could no longer be called Anna.
"I said stop, didn't I?"
The shoe landed squarely on the crawling monster's head.
Jjikkeeeik!
The monster seemed to be in quite a bit of pain, and it finally began to reveal its true form.
The monster's size gradually decreased, its skin shriveled, long fur began to grow, and its mouth protruded into a long snout.
'Huh?'
Simone flinched and stopped.
"What is this..."
She was really flustered.
Jjikjjik!
'Do you know what a Shapeshifting Rat is?'
She remembered what she had said to Louisby earlier.
A folktale about a rat that transforms and acts as the master while the master is away from home.
And now, there was a rat in front of her.
It was the thing that Simone had been chasing with burning anger until just now.
"Really... a rat?"
It felt like her well-functioning brain was shutting down.
Could that be possible?
Could such a bizarre thing, like the contents of a Korean folktale, happen here by chance?
'Does that make sense?'
But Simone soon had to hide her confusion.
"What's all this commotion?"
Archduke Illestone, who had heard that Simone was chasing a monster disguised as a person, came to the basement.
Simone stared blankly at Archduke Illestone with wide eyes, then subtly stepped on the tail of the rat that was trying to escape.
Jjijik! Jjik! Jjikjjik!
The rat cried loudly and struggled to get away. Archduke Illestone's gaze turned to the rat.
"What is that?"
"A rat."
"..."
Archduke Illestone glared at Simone. That wasn't what he was asking, was it? Simone corrected herself at the message conveyed by his eyes.
"It's the identity of one of the curses written in the manual."
"...This is?"
"Didn't you come here after hearing the news?"
Archduke Illestone frowned as he looked at the rat under Simone's foot and the blood dripping from her fingers.
He had been so surprised when a sudden commotion arose in this quiet mansion, and he came out to find the hallway and Simone's room covered in blood, and that blood leading down the hallway.
He had heard the whole story from Kaylee, the maid in charge of Simone.
He had thought she would be playing around until she found the Saintess's Desire, but she was solving another curse without his knowledge.
The floor and table were soaked in Simone's blood, and Archduke Illestone had heard the story that she had chased after the monster alone while the servants were too shocked to come to their senses.
Archduke Illestone's gaze lingered on Simone's injured hand for a long time. The amount of blood that had flowed and the wound looked very deep.
'She chased after the curse like that?'
He didn't feel good about it.
"So, is it all over now?"
Simone shook her head. The cause of the curse had been caught, but it wasn't over yet.
Because Anna hadn't returned.
"I caught it, but..."
She didn't know where this bastard had hidden Anna, or whether Anna was even alive and well in the first place.
She never thought its true form would be a rat. How could she communicate with it like this?
Archduke Illestone tilted his head at Simone's troubled expression.
"What's wrong?"
"Usually, everything is resolved when the root of the problem is eliminated..."
But what if she killed it rashly and something happened to Anna? No, even putting Anna aside, how could she kill this rat?
Simone, or rather Seo Hyun-jeong, had never killed even an ant in her life.
Moreover, killing an animal that was chirping so earnestly was a bit... she needed to be prepared.
It was then.
"What are you doing? Not moving. You just have to kill it, right?"
"Yes? ...O-Oh!"
"Kyaaaak!"
It happened in an instant. Archduke Illestone drew the sword from his waist and stabbed the rat to death without hesitation.
The servants covered their eyes and screamed, and Simone, also surprised, stared at Archduke Illestone without even making a sound. Archduke Illestone frowned as if it was nothing and said.
"We are not in a situation where we can afford to have petty compassion when solving a curse."
