It was too quiet.
The windows were dark, but not empty — like eyes that had stopped blinking. Ivy had strangled the stone walls, gripping them the way fingers cling to a ledge. The place wasn’t abandoned. It felt…stopped, as if the time in this mansion had stopped moving forward.
A faint wind moved through the trees behind us, yet the tall grass in the courtyard stood perfectly still.
I noticed the front door was slightly open.
Not wide enough to invite.
Just enough to suggest it hadn’t closed properly or hadn’t been allowed to.
“H-hey… guys…” Ray’s voice slipped into the silence. His eyes flicked across the shadows ahead, fingers tightening around his sleeve.
He swallowed.
“O-on second thought… maybe risking our lives isn’t the smartest plan right now, don’t you think?”
A thin laugh followed, brittle enough to betray exactly how terrified he was.
“Wimp.”
“Weak.”
Shin and I clicked our tongues and kept moving. If we waited for Ray to feel brave, the Redfall would probably retire from old age first.
“H-hey! Don’t leave me alone!” he whispered harshly, scrambling after us.
For a crybaby, he was surprisingly good at keeping up.
The porch boards creaked as we stepped forward, though I hadn’t put my weight down yet. I froze, listening. The sound echoed inside the house as if something had answered.
The air smelled old — damp wood, dust, and something metallic, like rain that never fell.
And I couldn’t shake the certainty that if I looked up at the second-floor window again…someone would be standing there.
Redfall? Possibility.
Inside the mansion, I could see two large stairs, both leading upstairs. The red carpeting was torn across the floor as far as my eyes could see. The hallway was unexpectedly big—to the point, I couldn't see the end of it.
Was it an illusion or something else—I couldn't tell, but the dense air said it all. The whole mansion was saturated with corrupted mystic energy.
Shifting my eyes to the front, I noticed a polished wooden door and without thinking further, I moved towards it while signalling Ray and Shin to follow me.
“Boss, you think the Redfall will be inside?”
Shin asked while tightly gripping his fists, summoning his gauntlet.
“Hard to tell. Let's find out, yeah?”
I responded and summoned my scythe without causing any disruption in the surroundings. After all, my scythe might not be strong yet without absorbing the mystic energy of the surroundings but at least it can attack.
Creak!
The door creaked open and the three of us moved in.
Hmm? I hadn’t heard anything from Ray.
I glanced back and noticed him standing near the threshold, clutching his black blade so tightly his knuckles had gone pale, eyes darting through the shadows as if expecting something to lunge from them.
“For God’s sake…” I sighed softly. Then I turned forward again.
Many gleaming artifacts lined the walls.
Some were mounted dragon heads, their fangs bared in permanent rage. Others were twisted horns, talons, and plated claws — relics of creatures I recognized only from academy archives.
The craftsmanship wasn’t decorative.
It was preservation.
I hadn’t thought about it before — but was the owner of this mansion a beast collector?
Only licensed Beast Collectors possessed trophies of this caliber.
If he wasn’t one…
Then none of this made sense.
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Unless it involved something illegal.
My fingers tightened around the scythe.
Because illegal mystic trade rarely ended with tax fraud. And I had a feeling that it ended with corruption.
“The owner must’ve been loaded, huh, boss?” Shin chuckled, eyeing the artifacts like they were trophies in a champion’s hall.
I just nodded since my gaze was still fixed on them—not admiring—just trying to understand why they were here at all.
“Meow~”
Hmm?
My attention snapped left.
A cat stood in the hallway.
No—not just any cat.
Scarlet fur swallowed the light around her, darker than crimson yet glinting like wet silk. Her eyes burned a deep red, unblinking, and her tail curled into a perfect crescent at the tip.
A Scarlet Cat.
They're female by nature and truly rare. They never stray.
“Whoa… is that the night cat? What do they call it…” Shin whispered.
“Scarlet Cat,” I said, lowering into a squat because I knew that since this mythic cat was here, her owner would be nearby.
“Can't believe they tag me along with you troublemakers.”
A familiar voice rang in my ears and my gaze lifted—only to find a certain person, silver hair falling over one shoulder, standing with her arms folded and a tired look across her face.
“Oho! It's Miss-Do-Not-Disturbed.”
Without thinking, those words slipped past my lips.
“Don't call me that, jerk!” And as expected, she snapped, her voice irritated and slightly strained. I believe she may have been affected by the corrupted mystic energy but the way she retorted…man, she looked more like a cat than her pet!
“Do-not…what?” Shin blinked and appeared perplexed. After all, he didn't see our friendly banter back in the university.
And the same goes for Ray— ‘Hmm?’
I noticed my eyebrows arching after noticing Ray making a rather..appalled expression?
Wait, why’s that?
“Y-you…” His eyes shifted towards me in a rather robotic fashion and—
“Please forgive this ignorant cur, your highness!!”
Huh?
Huh?
HUH?!
Before I realised, my head was already bowed before Aria with Ray’s hand firmly grasping my skull—to the point that it hurt!
“Ray! What are you—”
“Silence!”
My words got interjected by his sheer command and before I could question anything, his attention shifted back to Aria, he added while taking a knee:
“You should know what you're doing, Eden. You've already sinned by making this rather presumptuous name for Princess Aria.”
Although his hand which grabbed my skull was shaking hard, what actually shocked me was this shocking reveal.
Aria? A princess?
“Is she?” Shin tilted his head in complete bafflement while I just heaved a sigh, wondering why Ray was making this much of a fuss over a nickname.
I mean sure, she's a princess and so but I didn't use any crude words. It was just a nickname I gave to her because I thought of her as my friend, duh.
“Please don't bow.” Finally, the princess spoke and for some reason, in a hesitant voice.
“And it's fine. We're classmates. Giving each other nicknames isn't bad at all.” A soft chuckle escaped her lips but the way she looked at me felt to me as though she was rather enjoying seeing my face against the dirt of this goddamn mattress.
“Yes, ma'am.” Ray nodded and stood up, releasing his hand from my head.
Upon standing, I shot a glare at Ray but he just averted his eyes in panic. I knew he was scared but this reckless action…for god’s sake, had he not been my brother I might break his hand. Well, whatever.
Ahem! “Let me introduce myself, properly.”
My eyes fell on Aria as she held the hem of her skirt and like a royalty she was, she nodded:
“My name is Aria Velshine, the 7th generational descendant of King One. It's a pleasure meeting you three. Although, I've already met one of you.”
Her eyes shifted towards mine while I just couldn't help but grin, recalling the expression she made when I called her by that nickname.
“King One…? Oh! You mean the King who was the King at the time of the Great War?” Shin blurted out and Ray's face turned pale, probably terrified that it counted as another insult to royalty.
“Ehe.” Suddenly, a small noise echoed from the front and following that a series of laughter.
“Right, right. Hahaha, that king, sure. Wow, you guys are so hilarious.”
Unexpectedly, the person who laughed this hard was none other than Aria herself. Even I felt it was unrealistic for a moment.
Regardless… She's the successor of the king who fought alongside Zero.
I was certain there was more to that history than anyone admitted.
Most of it felt hidden or maybe that was just my imagination.
“This is weird,” I called out as a thought finally clicked into place. Pointing toward the corridor on the right, I added, “We’ve been here over thirty minutes and haven’t encountered anything suspicious. Just this… dense air.”
“Hmm, you have a point,” Ray replied, adjusting his glasses while Shin continued scanning the surroundings in silence.
“True. I’ve been here for more than an hour,” Aria said, looking around slowly. “But I haven’t encountered anything either. And the hallway… the interior… they feel endless despite the mansion’s size.”
She was right.
Something was definitely wrong.
We hadn’t confronted the Redfall. Yet everything about this place felt wrong.
What if the Redfall could conceal its presence… and had been around us the entire time?
“…Hmph.”
I narrowed my eyes, channeling mystic energy into my vision, searching for distortions, hidden movement, anything out of place.
Nothing.
Only the suffocating stillness.
It felt less like a mansion…
and more like an endless maze waiting for us to realize we were already trapped.
Rumbling! Rumbling!
“Huh?!”
Within a heartbeat, the floor began to tremble beneath our feet, as if a horde of mystic beasts were stampeding straight toward us.
However—
“What the—?!”
“Are those…?”
What appeared before us was something none of us expected.
From the far end of the corridor, a cavalry of skeletal figures burst into view.
Human skeletons.
Mounted atop warped, horse-like skeletons whose bones burned with cold blue fire.
Their empty eye sockets glowed like dying stars. Blue flames trailed behind them, licking across the ceiling and walls without leaving a mark. Rusted weapons rattled in their grips as they charged forward in absolute silence—
until the thunder of bone against stone filled the hall.
And I knew.
This wasn’t the time to freeze.
It was time to move.
“Alright, guys! Gear up!” I commanded, tightening my grip on the scythe.
Because I knew…this fight wouldn’t be effortless.
[Location: ACADEMY OF MYSTIC WALKERS]
[Subject ID: ???]
[Anomaly Detected: ZER?-ECHO]
[Secondary Interaction: MULTIPLE SUBJECT CONTACT]
→ Eden Crestfall (Primary Resonance)
→ Aria Velshine (Zero-Line Compatibility)
[Localized Reality Distortion: CONFIRMED]
[Timeline Sync: DESYNC DETECTED]
[Threat Level: UNQUANTIFIABLE]