—A storeroom in the mansion's basement.
Brought here by Kernel's subordinates, Beto was shoved into a pitch-black, tiny storage room on the first basement floor.
Even though she was already dead, being bound by iron chains inside a dim, freezing stone cell filled Beto with an instinctual, overwhelming dread.
"Beto is a brave girl..."
Time and again she tried to brace herself, yet she fell under the illusion that her knees—translucent and long stripped of physical form—were clattering and shaking.
"Beto is..."
She gritted her teeth and endured the terror of the dark. She had to endure it. Beto had a twin sister she had to protect! Her beloved mother and father had entrusted her with looking after her little sister, Din! She could never, ever let anyone see her cry. That was what she had sworn in her heart, and yet, an intense anxiety—like teetering on tiptoe at the edge of a precipice—made tears well in her eyes.
—Thump!
Suddenly, the entire room warped violently. As though the walls were writhing in a silent scream, they flushed blood-red as countless pulsing tubes bulged across the surfaces.
"Eek?!"
In an instant, the chamber morphed into something resembling the entrails of a living beast, and she choked down the shriek clawing its way up her throat. Experience told her that crying out in fear here would summon that thing lurking in this mansion. Yes. Just like the day she lost her mother and father.
Back when Beto was still alive, her parents had purchased this mansion for a bargain, knowing it was a stigmatized property. Only a few days after the family moved in, the King of Curses bared her fangs. The King of Curses fed on the terror of others. Trapping them inside the estate, she slowly dripped fear into their minds, wearing away at their sanity as if toying with them.
(I'm never crying again!)
Back then, her mother had told her not to make a sound, yet Beto had wailed in terror anyway. Even while being cradled tightly in her mother's arms. As a result, the monster discovered their hiding place, and her mother was cursed to death. Right then and there, Beto had sworn to herself. Never again, no matter what happened, would she shed another tear.
(Beto is—)
Just as she tried to muster the last dregs of her courage, the crimson wall swelled, and something humanoid crawled forth. It was a beast on all fours, its face unnaturally warped and twisted out of shape.
"Kukekekekekeeeh! I smell a sweeeet scent of fear!!"
The warped-faced creature let out a bizarre, sickening shriek. Beto clamped her jaw shut, desperately holding back the scream threatening to burst from her lips.
The monster crawled along the perimeter on all fours, scouting the surroundings. Its twisted eyes were stitched shut with coarse thread, and its grotesquely oversized nose sniffled and twitched.
It was definitely blind. It had to be tracking Beto's location through scent alone. And it had mentioned the smell of fear. Just like back then. The King of Curses drew sustenance from dread. It was picking up on Beto's fear through its nose.
(Beto is a brave girl! Beto is a brave girl! Beto is a brave girl!)
Over and over, she repeated her mother's parting words in her heart. Because Beto had been weak, her mother, her father, and Din had all lost their lives. She had to become strong.
"Where is that rich, delicious feaaaar?!"
Letting out an elongated, droning hiss, it circled the stone floor around the small chair where Beto was bound.
(Beto is—a brave girl!)
She was desperate. Squeezing her eyes shut, she fervently repeated her mother's final words like a warding spell.
"Beto..."
A faint voice drifted to her ears. It was a painfully familiar voice—belonging to the one person Beto longed to see most in the world.
Was she imagining things? No, there was no way she could ever mistake that voice! It belonged to her beloved mother!
"Mo...ther?"
She opened her eyes. Staring back at her was her mother's face, eyes rolled back white and features contorted in sheer terror. Her mother's severed head was sprouting directly from the mouth of the twisted monster.
"Betooo, run away, quuuiiiicklyyy—"
As her mother wailed, shedding tears of blood, the monster chimed in.
"Your mother says run, but what will you do? What will you dooo?"
Trilling rhythmically through the tip of its snout, the creature with the warped face prodded Beto.
"Mother!!"
As Beto desperately cried out her mother's name, the twisted-faced monster stretched its mouth into a grotesque grin.
"Allll right. Gooood-byyyyye!"
It cheered in a jaunty, mocking singsong. Instantly, from deep within the monster's gullet, a warped, reptile-like maw lunged forward and swallowed her mother's head whole. Accompanied by the sickening crunch of chewing, her mother's dying shriek echoed through the room.
"Mother! Mother! Mother!"
Over and over, Beto screamed in a desperate bid to check if her mother was still there, but—
"Too baaad—she's dead now, you knooow♬"
Fixing Beto with a vile smirk, the warped-faced beast licked its chops, let out a wet belch, and cackled maliciously.
—Snap.
At that moment, the sound of something snapping resonated inside Beto.
"I won't forgive you..."
The paralyzing terror that had drained all her strength washed away, replaced by a sudden, uncontrollable fury.
"Beto will never forgive you."
How ridiculous! Why should she cower before a piece of filth like this? A genuine scumbag who stole her mother and father away from her and her sister! A monster like this didn't deserve an ounce of her fear!
"Beto—will never forgive you!"
Livid, she spat right into its face and glared with pure hatred. It was the only resistance the current Beto could muster. But that was enough. Even if she were destroyed, giving this thing the pathetic reaction it craved was the last thing she would ever do.
For a second, the monster froze, staring at her in dumbfounded shock.
"Y-Yooou... A mere breeding bed, yet you dare spit on the great Lord Nejireee?! I'll subject you and your parents to eternal agony for thisss!"
Spouting lines that sounded like a cheap, third-rate villain from the stories Lady Lucile used to read to her, the monster raised its clawed right hand toward Beto.
"What a truly worthless bastard..."
To think she had been terrified of someone so pathetic he flew into a rage over a taunt from a child like Beto. She was already long dead. Fearing pain at this stage was completely pointless. More than that—
"Scum like you will definitely get put down by someone one day. And when that happens, you'll be the one crying!"
She threw the spiteful prophecy in its face. Whether it would be a Hero or some great champion, she didn't know. But these monsters were bound to be crushed. That was the only end they deserved!
"You little braaat—!"
Nejire's right hand slashed downward. Beto watched its strangely sluggish descent without even blinking, until the claws screeched to a dead halt right in front of her face.
Standing there was a slender young man with horns sprouting from his head, his face contorted in demonic wrath as his hand clamped like a vise around Nejire's right wrist.