The Devil Who Breaks My Neck

“What’s the point of locking me up here? Do you want rumours to spread that you are abusing your illegitimate son?”

Ezekiel and Miguel were in a dark, windowless room. In the room, a bed and a number of seemingly junk items were scattered on the floor around it.

Miguel bent over and picked up a rather heavy candlestick and said in a derisive voice.

“Father, this is no use to me. The power of the goddess that humans serve…….”

Miguel held the candlestick embossed in the shape of a lily and bend it hard in the middle. With a crack sound, the candlestick broke, then the lower part fell to the floor with a sharp sound.

Miguel threw away the rest and looked at Ezekiel with a smile. However, there was a strange discomfort in the child’s smile.

“More than that, I think your wife broke the rules she had with you again. Don’t you think you should go? What if she runs away with her child again?”

Despite his sarcastic voice referring to Herace, Ezekiel only wriggled his eyebrows. He could guess to some extent that his wife might come out of the annex in violation of the rules. But for now, it was a priority to deal with this in front of him somehow rather than his wife breaking the rules.

“Brother Miguel … heueuk……said that. Heuk.”

Erzen had been calling ‘It’ his brother in person, though he had prevented so much contact with it. Then ‘It’ must have already approached Herace. Ezekiel could no longer watch it invade his fence.

As Ezekiel’s expression turned colder, Miguel took a step closer to him.

“Why did you lock me up here? Are you going to cut my head and throw it into Lake Aunue like that time? Or do you want to burn me? Or why did you pick up something similar to that unlucky sword? You’re going to stab me with that again? It’s no use. It just tingled a little, but if you want to break it like that, go ahead.”

After Herace’s escape, Ezekiel tried to kill Miguel several times. But he couldn’t be killed like humans. So he began to search objects such as holy things that could work on ‘It’. One of them is called the Holy Sword.

But not all of them worked. Ezekiel has learned from several experiences that among the holy things, only certain things that respond to his (Ezekiel’s) blood are valid for this.

Priests who can feel the magic said in unison that the unique feeling was only one of the characteristics, and that it was the same holy thing blessed by the Goddess. However, Ezekiel was convinced that the holy object and the object he was looking for were different. There was definitely another object that could hurt the monster in front of him.

“I understand that my presence as your son is gross, but…… You’re the one who offered to help me get this shell and stay with me. I’ll stick to you as long as I want, so don’t bother.”

Strange shadows hung long in the room. The wind blew in the room without a window, and it reflected on the shadow on the wall with its mouth wide open and showing its teeth. Even the figure of drooling was clear, so even those who did not believe in demons or monster would run to the temple at once. But Ezekiel still looked down at ‘It’ with insensitive eyes.

Rather, it was Miguel who looked nervous over time. Something was tightening around him every minute in this space. Miguel began to look around by rolling his eyes on the property that was rolling on the floor.

“… Are you the thing attached to my mother? Since when?”

When Ezekiel, who was watching ‘It’, asked for the first time in a long time. The child pulled down the corners of his mouth that he had been raising on purpose. Instead of playfulness and relaxation, dim emotions sank in the flashing gold.

“…….”

And it was silent for the first time.

“I don’t think you have any intention of answering. All right. I don’t want to ask any more. It’s just that I brought you here for…….”

Ezekiel took his hand towards his neck. A thin leather strap appeared between the gap of the clothes, and a small object sparkled at the end. It was made of white and thin silver. The shape was a little like snowflake, supposedly.

“……Ezekiel, keep it always with you.”

As he held it tight, he felt a cold chill under the skin of his palm to the bone. What he was looking for was left in the corner after his mother died. He burst into laughter at the thought.

Miguel’s eyes got bigger when he saw the snowflake, and he soon stepped back slowly. But Ezekiel was a step ahead. He untied the necklace from his neck and threw it at the child without hesitation.

“Argh! Argh!”

The necklace stuck to Miguel’s body like a piece of metal stuck to a magnet. As soon as the snowflake touched the body, the small body fell back and began to twitch like a snake.

“No….ahh! Agh! Agh!”

“……So that I can kill you.”

Ezekiel uttered the outspoken word. And ‘It’ twisted its limbs bizzarely.

Smoke rose near the chest where the snowflake was stuck. Long black and gross scales sprang up in places on the soft-looking skin. Ezekiel, who saw the golden eyes stretching from one to two, put strength on his feet.

“It seems that my mother didn’t usually hate me. She made such a thing like this for me. Because I’ve told her so many times. There’s something terrible attached to me.”

“Argh! You! You! Argh!… Argh!”

At Ezekiel’s words, its eyes grew bigger and it’s screams rose. ‘It’ gritted its teeth and raised its nails and scratched the floor. The nails were black and long, like birds’ talons, but unlike what they looked like, they broke and crushed at the force. Black blood splattered from the fingertips with broken nails.

But that’s where the pain ended. It was slowly recovering, even though its fingertips were crushed and struggling with pain. Ezekiel frowned at the sight of the black blood dragging itself towards the body at a slow pace like a leech.

“I wish you had died completely, but can’t it do that?”

“Ah! Medea! Medeaaa!”

Ezekiel turned around with his lips turned up. It now opened its eyes and mumbled the name of someone who sounded like a woman. Emotions mixed with everything were vividly conveyed in the scream.

“Ahhhhhh! Ezekiel! Argh!”

Standing in front of the door, Ezekiel put his hand on the doorknob when ‘It’ tried to crawl over. However, it couldn’t run away from the pain that rose again.

“……I hope you’re wriggling like a bug until I find a way to separate your neck from your body.”

Ezekiel calmly opened the door amidst the terrible scream. When the thick door slammed shut, the scream inside died down as if it had never existed.

“Master…”

The old butler standing outside looked at Ezekiel with a firm face. The old man’s face was filled with tension and fear after hearing the scream clearly through the gap of the door that had been opened for a while.

“Lock it up, and I want you to keep what’s in there to yourself.”

The old butler trembled, but soon regained his calm appearance. He hesitated for a moment before asking Ezekiel.

“Is that the cause of the death of the deceased former Duke?”

It was a question, with a hint of confidence in it. But Ezekiel replied without hesitation.

“No. My father killed himself. It can’t be blamed on anyone.”

***

The room Herace came to after a long time was almost nothing different from before. Except for the addition of a few things that a child needed. The bed and dressing table were still the same, and even the monochromatic brush she used was neatly placed.

However, what surprised her more than the appearance of the unchanging room was the fact that Erzen was the one staying there. She had never imagined that Ezekiel would have given up this place to Erzen.

Even though she sat down on it for the first time in years, the bed was familiar and comfortable. Herace sat on the bed and patted Erzen, who had fallen asleep. Her son was sleeping on the left side of the bed with his eyes closed. Just like when he was just born.

“Mom…”

“Yes, Erzen. Mom is here.”

The child seemed to look for his mother in his dreams. Herace replied to his mumbling, saying that Mom is here whenever Erzen finds her in his sleep.

How long has it been? Before she knew it, the night fell completely and Erzen stopped whining and only breathed. Then, Herace turned her head and looked at the sky outside the window.

The stars were shining faintly in the dark night sky. On the contrary, the moon was so big and bright that even her eyes felt numb. Herace stared blankly at the clouds passing by in front of the brilliant moon and turned her head at the sound of the door opening.

The bright moonlight casts a long shadow on the man. Herace pulled the blanket up for Erzen. Looking at the shadow from the door to the bed, she stood up. And then  she said, looking at Ezekiel with a firm face.

“Get out.”

Ezekiel, who misunderstood her words as a congratulatory order, narrowed his forehead slightly and licked his lips. But Herace walked past him quickly before he could speak.

Click.

She came out of the room and soon heard the sound of the door closing. Herace walked down the hall without looking back. She could feel the man following her in step.

When she thought she was quite far from the room, Herace stopped walking. The servants in the hallway saw her and Ezekiel and ran away with bated breath. When the servants completely disappeared and there was only silence in the hallway, Herace turned around.

Ezekiel was only one step away from her. Herace clenched her fist and let out a heavy breathing. And then, she bit lips and raised his head to stare at the man.

Slap!

Ezekiel’s cheeks turned red with a pretty sharp sound. Harace grabbed her wrist and breathed heavily and said clearly.

“Erzen cried. A lot.”

After hearing from Ben that Erzen was almost poisoned, Herace wandered around the castle looking for her son. She heard the maid and Paul talking behind her, but she couldn’t hear them. She just ran shouting Erzen’s name until she was sweating and gasping.

Erzen who met him like that, began to whin to Herace with a blue face. The crawling voice gave the child a sense of fear. Erzen cried for an hour as soon as he saw Herace.

***