novelraw Chapter 290: The Second Dance
Chapter 290: The Second Dance
Chapter 290: The Second Dance Soren bowed before the crimson woman, prompting her to pause. He couldn’t help but notice the obvious frown beneath her golden mask.
“Pardon?” She asked, almost doubting her own hearing. He simply smiled and chuckled, repeating his proposition once more:
“I would like the honor of a dance.”
The air between them grew heavier. She slammed the paper fan into her palm repeatedly, as if to mimic the surrounding rhythm. “You do realize what this means, right? You wish to uncover my true identity?”
“I don’t need to uncover it,” Soren grinned. “I already know it.”
“How insolent…” She clicked her tongue, “Fine. I will grant you the opportunity. Though, you should know that I have faced many like you in the past. All of them have already been—”
“Assimilated.” Soren cut her off with a grin. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
“.....”
He glanced around, watching the joyful expressions of the surrounding nobles while reaching out his hand. “It dawned on me after my brief dance with the Shepherd. This place—it is far more malevolent than it presents itself as. The rules you speak of… No, this game itself is nothing more than a sham.”
Hearing his words, Cassilda could only smile. She reached for his hand and gripped it tightly, stepping closer in the process. “Then shouldn’t you be offering your hand to that poor girl Victoria instead? Surely you won’t leave her to face the challenges of this supposed ‘false game’ alone, right?”
Soren shook his head, wrapping his other hand around the Duchess’ hip. “You don’t have to worry about her. As I said, my plans have slightly changed. She too now has a role to play in breaking this damned curse.”
Cassilda said nothing as they held each other close. She could only smile back at him in silence. All around them, the Azratheilli nobles were beginning to notice their presence—each of them gossiping in hushed whispers as they awaited the next ballroom dance. Though, it seemed that most of the attention was focused on the odd stranger in tattered robes, holding their magnificent Duchess’ hands.
Soon, the melody erupted across the hall, signalling the beginning of the games. Like puppets on a string, the nobles all shifted back toward the dance. Soren and Cassilda decided to follow along.
“I’m curious to know your logic. What is it that made you suspicious of this game?” She asked with a rather innocent smile. Though, Soren knew it was no different from the mask she wears—an elaborately crafted facade.
He stepped in unison with her as they spun around the banquet hall gracefully. “As I said before—assimilation. That word made you react, didn’t it?” He chuckled, “Despite Carcosa’s horrid conditions, not even the dark smudges that hide its history could conceal this fact from my mystic eyes.
“Assimilation is at the core of this place.”
Sensing her silence, Soren simply shook his head as they twirled beneath the luminescent chandelier. “At first, I too wondered what this word could mean symbolically. After all, a single word alone couldn’t exactly unravel everything hidden beneath this wonderfully decorated facade. It was only after I spoke with Victoria that everything started to make sense.”
His smile deepened. “These masks all of you wear… They do not just swap our identities. They also assimilate them into their own identity as well.”
Cassilda held onto her plastic smile—not reacting to anything. He decided to continue, “Based on my observations, I noticed that the masks seem to hold their own unique anima signature. Which means, they likely possess a will independent of the person who’s wearing them. That will—regardless of its attempts to mimic the wearer—will always hold a degree of independence.
“And that independent will—that original identity they all share with each other is veeeeery important, you see…” He chuckled softly. “It can be defined rather simply through our understanding of another concept: the Azratheilli nobility.”
“Unbeleivable!” Victoria panted heavily, running ahead with all the strength her legs could offer her. “This is unbelievable! Inconceivable! Incomprehensible!
“That… That damned bastard! How dare he trick me?!”
Her screams were dwarfed by the howls echoing behind her. Darkness stretched her horizon of sight—it seemed as if the entire castle itself was nothing more than an infinite void.
A void that wanted nothing more than to make her give up.
“I…” She grit her teeth as she sprinted forward with all her might. “I can’t believe I actually trusted someone like him!”
In truth, she had no other option but to trust him. She glanced down at her hands—gripped tightly between her palms was a golden card, radiating light that no shadow could ever drown. Strange symbols were etched into the plaque, giving it a mysterious aura she couldn’t hope to understand.
Victoria grit her teeth.
Just a few minutes prior, she had possessed two of these strange cards. While huddling under the table, she found them moments after the mysterious man left. Their luminescence made them practically impossible to miss.
No different from a moth to a flame, Victoria foolishly decided to reach out for them. One of the cards instantly vanished upon contact with her skin, while the other remained. But it was what occurred afterwards that left her in a daze.
Information.
A flood of information she couldn’t hope to fully grasp coursed through her brain. Even stranger, the mysterious Traveler’s voice reverberated in her mind like a church bell, louder than even the whispers of her mask. What she could comprehend through the ringing pain was nothing more than a simple message:
“Leave the banquet hall. Do it now, before the next dance begins.
“That is… if you want to live, of course. You have no other choice.”
Indeed, that had always been one of the options. The mysterious man did say that she was currently facing an ultimatum: either leave the banquet hall to face the countless living shadows, or remain a participant of the ballroom that will inevitably lose their true identity forever.
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Of course, after meeting the man, she had assumed he would find a different solution—one that would free her from both of these twisted options.
Who would have thought he would simply pick a path for her?!
I curse you! I curse you in the name of the Machine God! May ingenuity forsake you!
Though, none of it truly mattered. No one could hear her curses in this harrowing castle that would soon consume her. She ran frantically through the lightless corridors—the only thing marking her path were the infrequent candles that would flicker the moment she reached them.
Her sporadic breathing couldn’t silence the unimaginable monstrosities howling behind her. Every step forward would send shivers down her spine, as if her instincts could sense the impending doom, and yet, she knew a worse fate awaited her if she paused for even a second to catch her breath.
This… this was the first time she had ever had to run this fast in her life! And soon, it might even be her last.
Foolishly, Victoria peered glanced back slightly, anxious to know how close the predators of the castle had gotten. Their screams had only grown louder the further she ran. No matter how many corridors she passed, they seemed to always be inching closer and closer.
Almost as if they were playing with their food…
“Ah! To hell with it all!” Erasing all hesitation, Victoria turned her head back. She needed to see what these supposed shadows even looked like. Who and what exactly was hunting her? That mysterious man called them ‘living shadows,’ does that imply they are made of darkness itself? How does it work—perhaps she could find a way to counter them… She needed to know more!
Horrible decision.
The moment their visage reflected in her eyes, all color drained from her face. For the briefest of seconds, she wanted to pause—frozen not in just fear, but hopelessness as well.
And yet, her body continued to move on pure instinct, unmistakably following the path illustrated to her through the mysterious card.
Turning the corner, Victoria sprinted toward a wider corridor, illuminated by even more scented candles than the usual. Indeed, this was the exact path she needed to go through, according to the golden card’s knowledge. By now, the information had already become engrained in her mind, as if she was always a frequent visitor of the castle.
She had no clue how the Traveler obtained this information, but there was no denying its usefulness. Without it, she might have already been captured by those strange shadows.
Shadows… The word entered her mind again as she sprinted forward, reminding her of what she had just seen. Another jolt of confusion and fear ran down her spine.
They were beyond strange… Coated in strands of liquid darkness, they possessed six human-like limbs that they used to crawl forward. Their heads seemed akin to that of an arachnid, mixed with a human expression frozen in time. But it was their hollow white eyes that truly made her skin crawl. She felt as if they were staring not at her, but her soul.
What the hell are those things… What the hell is this castle?!
A part of her wanted to continue believing this was all a nightmare. One that she might escape from inevitably.
But the pain in her chest, the aching of her muscles, the sweat running down her cheek—none of it was false.
She knew she couldn’t deceive herself. Death… was clinging closely to her. And its taste was beyond sour.
I refuse! I refuse to accept it!
There was still so much she hoped to accomplish. So many things left unfinished in the lab. Not to mention the self alienation of her identity that she has yet to fully grasp…
Keep moving, legs! Please…
Victoria pushed one foot forward after the next as she heard their strange, guttural screams fill the hallway and then eventually, her mind. She could almost sense them breathing down her neck, readying to take a bite…
Push! Keep pushing!
It felt as if she was carrying weights while walking beneath the ocean’s surface. Every movement was a struggle within a struggle… And then, the world itself shifted.
“Ah?!”
Before she could comprehend what had occurred, her head slammed into the cobblestone below her.
She had accidentally tripped out of sheer exhaustion!
“Shit!”
Her heart sank as she looked behind her, watching as the tide of darkness crawled in her direction. Every pair of hollow eyes seemed to picture the meal they were hoping to consume.
In that moment, her mind could only freeze. As if to shield her from what’s to come. She began imagining her life at the lab, her family that relied on her paycheck, her younger brother who still struggled with basic mathematics… Even her own inner reflection was shown, its indifferent gaze full of disappointment and self contempt.
Victoria smiled. So this is it, huh… Dying within a nightmare that no one could comprehend. Perhaps that would be for the best…
But just as she was about to close her eyes, a radiant flash of light erupted from behind, submerging all in its luminescence, followed by a deafening explosion that shook her eardrums. For a brief second, she felt as if she had been knocked unconscious.
“What the hell?!” Victoria massaged her temples, trying her best to let the dizziness fade away. The world had suddenly turned blurry and unrecognizable, but in the distance, she could still see what remained of the corridor that seemed drowned in darkness.
All of it was gone… The cobblestone walls stitched in darkness had all crumbled to pieces. And the living shadows that once crawled on every square inch of their surface had vanished too.
“W-What…” Victoria truly couldn’t believe her eyes. She clutched the golden card in her hands tightly.
But then, she realized she was still not fully alone.
Another presence… She could feel there was still something in this corridor aside from her. Gulping down her hesitation, Victoria slowly turned around.
What she saw left her even more petrified than when she had to face the spider-like shadows.
A colossal dark knight, coated in thick shadows stood solemnly behind her. His armor was onyx black—coated in charcoal that refused to reflect any passing light. The reddish-white eyes beneath the terrifying visor were staring down at the helpless girl, deciding her fate in silence. An even more shaded sword serrated in bloody thorns rested over their shoulder, while their other arm extended forward—its gauntlet was opened like a latch, revealing a colossal smoking cannon inside.
So that’s how… Her fear miraculously shifted toward curiosity. This was her first time seeing such a strange contraption!
Victoria smiled. “I-It’s nice to meet you. S-Sir knight?”
Soren spun Cassilda beneath his arm, under the watchful gazes of the surrounding nobles. All of them seemed distracted by their performance, despite continuing their own dancing like normal. Their hollow, almost expressionless eyes truly gave him the creeps.
But the show must continue.
He smiled as he drew her closer again, making sure to follow the dance routine he had previously mapped out with his [Eyes of the Fairy].
“The Azratheilli nobles, huh…” Her voice seemed beyond tired.
He shook his head slightly. “No, perhaps it is better to phrase it as ‘nobility of that era’ instead. The masks seem to serve the role of preserving the history of the nobles. After all, the rules are ultimately skewed in their favor.
“Tell me, Duchess, when exactly was the last time a foreigner in this castle managed to escape?”
She remained silent as they twirled around once more.
“None, right?” He smiled with a sigh. “It is to be expected. After all, how could a guest from another world like Victoria, manage to guess the identities of any nobleman or woman here? It is practically impossible!
“For one to guess an identity, they must first have a shared history with that person or world. Something that could allow them to connect their personality traits to a certain individual they had previously known. In other words, those who arrive from different realms like Victoria, would never be able to guess correctly.”