When suspicion becomes certainty, the truth emerges.
Adrian was still thinking about the incantation as he searched through the house.
"When the sun sets and the moon appears, I shall delight in drinking pure blood and offer what I hold most dear to the Great Lord of Magic," he repeated the words in his mind, his expression furrowed in concentration.
"Every phrase has a meaning. 'When the sun sets and the moon appears'… Without a doubt, it refers to midnight, when the full moon hangs in the middle of the sky. As for 'I shall delight in drinking pure blood'… perhaps it doesn't refer to blood literally, but—"
He looked at the faint bloodstains in the middle of the room.
"If it really is blood… then what does 'pure' mean? There are many creatures in this world, and all of them have blood. Humans are known to have the best blood, but even theirs isn't entirely pure."
He gritted his teeth in frustration. "Damn it… I can't imagine blood that is completely pure. Could it mean something other than blood?"
He reached out and touched the traces of blood, then muttered in surprise, "These stains… they look as though—"
Suddenly, an idea struck him, and his eyes widened.
"No… wait—could it be that the old witch…?!"
He rose quickly and headed toward the last room, throwing the door open with force. It was a simple room containing a bed, a table in the center, and a small wardrobe.
"Wait… what's wrong, Your Highness?" Lucia asked anxiously as she hurried after him.
Adrian entered the room, muttering, "An ordinary room? Ridiculous… Something must be hidden here."
He checked the wardrobe first, but found nothing inside. He ran his hand along the wood on the inside, examining its corners, then moved to the bed and lifted the mattress. When he found nothing, he put it back in place and bent down to inspect underneath, but there was nothing suspicious.
He stood silently for a few seconds before turning toward the table and staring at it suspiciously.
"Could it be…?"
He lifted the table and set it aside, then pulled away the rug beneath it, revealing a small square in the floor… resembling a hidden door leading beneath the room.
"Just as I expected…" he whispered with quiet confidence.
Lucia approached and asked in astonishment, "Your Highness… is this a secret door?"
He replied with a faint, mysterious smile. "Yes. The real drama took place somewhere the villagers could never discover."
He knelt to open the door, but stopped in frustration.
"Damn it… it's locked."
Lucia stepped closer and said confidently, "Your Highness… step aside for a moment."
He took two steps back, and Lucia moved forward, standing straight before the wooden door. She raised her hand and cast a small spell, focused as a nail.
The lock exploded without damaging the floor or the surrounding wood.
Such a skill was exceedingly rare, resembling a magical signature that only a select few could master… It was said that everyone who had used it throughout history had been a great Celestial.
Adrian stared at Lucia with concealed astonishment and muttered to himself, "This girl… I knew she was strong, but not this precise."
Lucia smiled faintly and said, "So… shall we go in and explore now?"
He replied with his usual coldness, "Yes."
He opened the door, revealing a staircase swallowed by darkness. Adrian descended without hesitation, followed by Lucia, who conjured a magical orb of light that floated above her palm. And there… lay the true catastrophe.
Adrian stopped abruptly, causing Lucia to bump into him from behind.
"Your Highness, why did you suddenly stop—" Her words were cut short when she saw what lay before them. Her eyes widened, and she took a step back, gasping in terror and revulsion.
"Get out of here." His voice was as cold as the edge of a sword.
When she remained standing there, he glanced at her from the corner of his eye, his gaze burning with suppressed anger.
"I told you… get out of here." He repeated the words with cutting sharpness.
Lucia trembled and turned to leave, leaving the orb of light suspended in the air to illuminate the place for Adrian.
Adrian turned his gaze back to what lay before him, where magic circles covered the floor and faint bloodstains crept up the walls, while rotting corpses and tiny skeletons—every single one of them belonged to newborn babies.
Yes… pure blood existed, but only in a fetus.
Adrian advanced with calm steps, as though all life had been stripped from his gaze. He stopped before one of the vessels stained with dried remnants and stared at it with deadly coldness… then let out a short, icy laugh.
"Ha… hahaha… So that's how it was. Did you enjoy drinking pure blood, you old hag?"
The phrase "I shall delight in drinking pure blood" had never been a riddle… It had been a direct declaration.
Adrian muttered inwardly with grim composure, "Only a fetus possesses pure blood… but it seems she realized that too late, or discovered it by accident. Her repeated failures over ten years were caused by her experiments on newborn babies. But the moment a baby enters the world… its blood becomes contaminated."
His gaze wandered among the corpses, and his eyes narrowed with deep unease.
"The fact that the bodies haven't completely decomposed means that only two years have passed… but that witch performed her rituals for ten years. That means these… were merely the final batch, and she never had the chance to dispose of them before she died."
He approached the walls covered with symbols and notes.
"All these circles… all these writings… She repeated the same incantation over and over again. How many victims did you use to carry out your plan, for God's sake?"
He furrowed his brows. "But there's one thing bothering me… Leo said people saw a beam of light coming from this house. If that's true… then it means she successfully fulfilled all the conditions. But… why did she die?"
He knelt and placed his hand on the floor in the center of the circle, where the incantation had been written.
"Was there a condition that required her death—"
His eyes widened as a sudden realization struck him.
"Now I understand… the final condition. 'I offer what I hold most dear to the Great Lord of Magic.' She thought blood would be enough… but the thing humans hold most dear isn't the body… it's the soul."
A few minutes later, Adrian emerged from the secret room, his face pale. He glanced to the side, where Lucia sat on the floor, her head bowed as tears streamed silently down her face, breaking the heart to witness them.
He sighed softly and approached until he stood before her, then spoke in a low voice. "This is why I didn't want to bring you along. No matter how strong you are… you're a kind girl who was raised in a home that understands the meaning of love."
Lucia struggled to lift her face, her voice trembling. "How could you remain standing after seeing that? How did you not feel… what I felt?"
He answered with calm coldness, "Enough. Let's go."
She rose quickly and faced him. "Please, answer me. Why didn't you feel anything? When Bill and Lily died… we all cried except you. Are… are you devoid of emotions?"
Adrian's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "I told you… that's enough."
But she suddenly raised her voice, choked with anger and shock. "Are you even human?! No matter how much suffering a person endures… they don't lose their emotions!"
At that moment, his patience ran out.
He struck the wall beside her head with restrained force, making the air around them tremble, and looked into her eyes with a gaze as sharp as a sword's edge.
"Don't you understand what I'm saying?"
Lucia trembled and lowered her gaze, clenching her shaking hands. "I'm sorry… I was wrong."
He continued staring at her face for several long seconds before whispering in a low but harsh voice, "I've seen dozens of scenes far more horrific than this. But as you know, living in darkness… gets you used to seeing everything without needing light." Then he turned and left, leaving Lucia alone.
~~~
Night fell, and Adrian sat in the room filled with books, examining every kind of text in search of a way to end the curse.
He flipped through the pages as he thought to himself, "I need to put all the events in a logical order first. To begin with, the old woman used forbidden magic from the book *Curse of Death* and died, and as a result, a strange epidemic appeared in the region. The connection between the epidemic and the magic is…"
A brief memory surfaced before him.
"Leo!! I came to tell you that the epidemic has already reached this region! Be careful with your food and wash it thoroughly… I heard the epidemic spreads through food!"
Adrian's eyes lit up with understanding. "That's right… Max said the epidemic spreads through food. That means the epidemic itself isn't a curse placed on people, but rather on the food."
He set the book aside and pondered deeply. "But not all food is contaminated, only some of it… That means the contaminated food is connected to the magic?"
He raised an eyebrow in exasperation and sarcasm. "It's not as though the curse could have fallen upon land containing potatoes, for example!"
He closed his eyes and thought deeply before rubbing his head with both hands in frustration. "Ah, damn it… I can't figure out the cause…"
Adrian wondered inwardly, "Maybe I've overlooked something… perhaps I should search again."