Bela stared at the ornate ceiling of her opulent bedroom.
Everything had happened too fast.
One moment, she was trying to execute the insolent man who had broken into her castle.
The next, he had used a glowing, golden flask to cure her of the Megamycete parasite that had controlled her mind and turned her into a creature of insects.
The curse, the terrible brainwashing from Mother Miranda, was gone.
Now, she was a normal human again, and the man—Theodore—sat beside her on the bed.
He had spent the time talking, explaining, and using his strange, compelling charisma to win her over.
She felt a sense of clarity and freedom she hadn't known since she was a kidnapped child.
'How?'
She didn't know how, but his sweet talking really got into her.
She turned to him.
"Can you do this for my other siblings and Mother?"
She loved her adopted family—Cassandra and Daniela, and Lady Dimitrescu herself.
They had all been victims of Miranda's monstrous experiments, unable to resist her control.
But Theodore was here now, and that changed everything.
"Hmm, then you have to pay the price,"
Theodore said, his eyes serious.
"Price? What could you possibly want?"
Bela asked, her tone completely straight.
"You have to become my guide and help me navigate this castle and the rest of the village without any tricks. I need efficiency, and you know the layout better than any map."
Bela easily accepted the terms.
She just cared about saving her family.
Ethan had been waiting in the hall for what felt like an hour.
He had been killing more Lycans and reluctantly solving a few easy puzzles.
For some reason, he couldn't replicate Theodore's actions.
"Why can't I just break the wooden box and get what's inside? Why do I have this ridiculous feeling that I have to find the key or solve the lock properly?"
Ethan muttered, shaking his head at his own strange obedience to unseen rules.
He then heard footsteps approaching.
He gripped his pistol, ready for another group of monsters.
But it was Theodore.
He came walking with a stunningly beautiful woman with dark, elegant clothes—the same woman who had just tried to attack them.
"Holy moly… Don't tell me you just…"
Ethan trailed off, utterly speechless.
Theodore grinned, pulling the woman closer.
"Yeah, yeah. I know it's hard to believe, but she's on our side now. This is Bela. Let's move deeper into the castle; she will be our guide."
"Can we trust her?"
Ethan asked, still highly suspicious.
She was a monster minutes ago.
"Yes, we absolutely can,"
Theodore affirmed.
Bela didn't care what Ethan thought.
Theodore had promised to free her sisters and her mother from the curse, and he possessed the unique power to do it.
It was a win-win situation for her family.