Chapter 120: Chapter 120

“Why are you telling me to keep it a secret when everyone already knows? It’s pointless now.”

“I’ll say everything. I’ll confess it all. From now on... I’ll do as I please.”

I may have been your servant, but I was never a mindless marionette.

Even if that’s how I lived in the temple, I think, I act, I change, I grow.

If you were truly an omnipotent god, you would have known this before sending me out into the world.

“...Damn you, Pebula.”

The divine revelation had already ceased without me noticing.

Wiping the corners of my eyes with the back of my hand, I stared ahead with newfound clarity.

Yes, I will do as I please.

And for that—I need to meet Cruello while he’s still alive.

“If you really want to prevent the world’s destruction, then cooperate with me.”

My words were nearly a threat.

Unlike before, I chanted a divine spell with a completely different resolve.

And to my surprise, it formed effortlessly.

—Ninth Spell. Modification.

Not much time had passed since my soul had been ejected and returned to my body.

My connection to my physical form was still unstable, and even minor spells caused violent backlash.

I had steeled myself for the recoil, but strangely, my body remained unscathed.

As if... Pebula had truly aided me.

What are you thinking?

The familiar question surfaced in my mind, but in this moment, it didn’t matter.

A rectangular door materialized in the air.

Before opening it, I bent down and scooped up as much Beatitudo as I could, stuffing my pockets full.

It was fortunate that I had worn a robe for appearances when saving the Crown Prince.

I briefly wondered who had created this space.

The answer came almost immediately.

With both pockets filled, I pushed open the door I had crafted with my own will.

Beyond it, a new location was revealed.

It was not the underground chambers of the White Desert Duke’s estate.

Instead, my vision was filled with the grand entrance of Bonetti Manor—and a throng of gathered servants.

The mansion was echoing with commotion, and the servants stood trembling, staring toward the building.

Something... had happened.

A chill ran down my spine, and I instinctively tried to push through the crowd.

“A-Ah! No, Lady Siora!”

“I don’t know where you just appeared from, but you can’t go inside!”

“What happened?” I demanded.

“Well... I don’t know the full details, but... the Count suddenly announced that His Grace, the Duke, would be arriving. He was having dinner with Lord Gavotte when His Grace showed up, and then suddenly—there was a fight...”

Betty looked utterly bewildered.

She was trying her best to explain, but her words were incoherent.

“His Grace ordered everyone to leave, so we did as we were told... But we have no idea what’s going on inside. Should we send for the Imperial Knights?”

“...Minuet said Cruello was coming? When?”

The time Betty mentioned coincided with the moment Cruello and I had entered the White Desert Duke’s estate.

Right after Gavotte handed me that suspicious note, just before dinner had begun.

Cruello hadn’t seemed like he had arranged a meeting with Minuet.

A chilling thought flashed through my mind.

Then, as if suddenly recalling something, Betty added hastily:

“Oh, and... the Count has been acting strangely.”

“I can’t explain it in words, but his whole demeanor felt... off. And the instructions he gave me were odd, too. He told me that if you returned to the manor, I should send you straight to the drawing room.”

“He couldn’t °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° have anticipated things would turn out this way, right?”

She was hoping I’d agree with her.

The suspicions forming in my mind had already taken root, growing at an alarming rate.

“...Thanks for telling me, Betty. Don’t come inside the mansion. Stay out here.”

“H-Huh? Lady Siora, you can’t go in—!”

I shook off her grip and sprinted toward the mansion.

My destination was the drawing room, where Minuet had supposedly summoned me.

Gavotte’s cryptic note.

Minuet acting strangely.

Cruello’s reckless actions.

And... Eden, who had died not long ago.

All the bodies Eden had possessed so far had belonged to White Desert’s bloodline.

But what if lineage didn’t matter?

What if he could use any body?

I had assumed there would be penalties for taking over a body—assumed it based on my own bias.

Had I made a critical mistake?

As the chilling hypothesis solidified in my mind, I pushed open the mansion doors and stepped inside.

There were no servants within.

Even if there had been, they wouldn’t have survived.

The interior of the Bonetti estate was covered in frost.

Not just covered—as if winter had suddenly returned in full force.

There was not a single spot untouched.

As if the entire structure had been sculpted from ice from the very beginning.

And within it... a thick, ominous energy twisted unnaturally.

What the hell have you done, Cruello?

I remembered the way he had forced me to drink that tea.

The way he had looked at me afterward—like it was a farewell.

I clutched my chest, trying to calm my violently pounding heart, and followed the overwhelming presence deeper into the mansion.

I ripped open the ice-covered doors of the drawing room.

It was like a spider’s web—delicate yet suffocating. Ice filaments stretched across the entire space, threading the room in an intricate, unnatural pattern.

A deadly chill stole my breath.

At the center of it all were two figures.

Minuet, collapsed on the ground.

And standing before her, sword in hand—

His crimson gaze, widened in undeniable shock.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

A wave of relief surged through me, even if only partially.

But on Cruello’s face, I saw something else—something like the despair that had been transferred from me to him.

“...How did you get here? You shouldn't have been able to open the door.”

“This isn’t the time for—Damn it, just go back. Now—!”

Just as Cruello attempted to open a Gate, Minuet’s frozen shadow moved.

Breaking through the thin layer of ice, something shot forward like a serpent, lunging at Cruello.

But it never reached him.

—Sixth Spell. Protection.

“I’m not careless enough to be caught again.”

Chanting the spell I had memorized, I rushed forward, my magic manifesting in an instant.

Three large shields materialized in the air, intercepting the attack.

I stood in front of Cruello, facing outward. The shields encircled us, forming a protective barrier.

A sound echoed throughout the drawing room—the unmistakable shattering of ice.

Like something gaining life, shadows surged and rippled, and the figure that had been slumped on the floor slowly began to rise.

A whisper—soft, yet unmistakable—fell from her lips.

“How strange... In a situation , shouldn’t you be furious that Cruello tried to kill your sister?”

Her movements were slow—unnervingly so.

Although her gestures seemed natural, there was something fundamentally wrong about her.

She straightened, brushing back her frosted silver hair.

“...Perhaps I should have acted more naturally. Oh well. Too late now.”

I stared at Minuet—the thing wearing her body.

“Hello, Siora. It’s nice to see you again.”

She was smiling just like Minuet always did—yet the dissonance was staggering.

I finally understood what Betty meant.

And I knew—I knew—that my suspicions had been correct.

Minuet—my sister—had been devoured.

What happened to the real her?

My fingers went cold.

Even after learning that the body I had once inhabited had been a sacrificial offering to Pebula, one truth remained unchanged.

Two souls cannot exist in one body.

Minuet was no longer alive.

Something inside my chest burned, a scorching black void expanding within me.

Heat rushed to my eyes.

But I couldn’t afford to be a fool—I couldn’t waste time crying.

I swallowed the rising emotions.

The thing wearing Minuet’s form tilted her head and chuckled.

“You should address me properly. I’m your sister, after all.”

“My, my. Why are younger siblings always so rude? The last girl whose body I used seemed just as uninterested in properly raising her little sister.”

Her mocking tone carried nothing but malice.

“Well, that’s unfortunate. But since I’m the one at a loss here, I suppose I’ll just have to retrain you.”

At that moment, Minuet’s shadow swelled—and from it, a snow-white serpent emerged.

...I’ve seen this before.

“Recognize it? Elenia taught me this spell.”

My shields blocked its fangs, but one of them shattered instantly.

It took down one of my shields with a single bite.

Visually, my shields should have had the advantage.

Cruello, standing behind me, grabbed my shoulder and pulled me backward.

At the exact spot where I had been standing, shards of sky-blue ice erupted from the ground.

The serpent, unable to dodge, was impaled—yet not a single drop of blood was spilled.

Like a creature made of smoke, the massive white serpent’s wounds closed almost instantly.

And the power emanating from it...

I let out a breathless laugh.

As if this wasn’t already a nightmare, now it’s been revived with divine power.

Cruello’s ice continued to rise and strike, chasing the serpent.

At a glance, it seemed like the same magic he had always used—except...

Inside the ice, something black flickered like a fire burning deep within.

Cruello wasn’t consuming it—at least, not visibly.

And I understood why.

A magic circle was carved into his palm.

Morion’s power was flowing from there.

Just like when he used Morion as the core for resurrection spells, Cruello was now using his own body as a conduit.

...The same way I used Beatitudo.

Even though he was merely acting as a channel, his condition was already deteriorating.

His complexion was turning deathly pale. His shirt was soaked with cold sweat.

Cruello looked like he was on the verge of collapse.

Like someone being consumed by the very power he wielded.

...If this keeps up, Morion might devour him completely.

A sharp spike of fear drove through my chest.

His unfocused gaze flickered toward me.

“...Don’t use that, Cruello.”

“What, are you expecting another butterfly to bring you luck?”

“No,” I said. “I have something even better.”

Cruello didn’t have to push himself.

That’s why I had filled my pockets before coming here.