The Young Supporter of Darkness

“Wow.”

God, what is going on here.

Daphne checked again with the lantern held near the wall.

Even if she looked at it again, she was right.

‘It’s really been a long time here.’

She knew that the Castle of Shadows was built when the gods remained in the human world.

Still, it was so strange to see the traces firsthand.

‘If you find prehistoric murals in the basement of your house, it would feel like this.’

Maybe she could read at least one or two neologism words.

Daphne thought so for a moment, and then shook her head.

At first glance, it seemed difficult to interpret it with knowledge she had learned a little in her previous life.

‘At this level, you need a high-ranking priest to interpret it.’

Just because all the gods left the human world did not mean that even the priests had disappeared completely.

When there is a god, the saint and the power of the god take precedence.

After the disappearance of God, they maintained their power by walking a narrow line between the imperial faction and the aristocrats.

Then, with the victory of the imperial faction, it collapsed along with the aristocratic faction.

‘But it’s still being maintained.’

It was like it was just breathing.

They lost all their power and money, and only their honor remained.

At least, it was holding out with the role of people’s resting place and the medicine that replaced the lost divine power.

‘If I make a large donation, will they interpret it?’

To be honest, she became curious about the content.

What could be the reason why they engraved the neologism on stones in a secret place inside the castle?

‘I wonder if it was used for something like a prayer room.’

Daphne, forgetting the fact that she was trapped, gazed at the neologism engraved on the wall as if possessed.

‘Oh, these are letters I know.’

Daphne.

It was her own name and the name of the last god.

It’s almost like the story that God Daphne did something.

Daphne squatted in one place and stared intently at the line with God Daphne’s name written on it.

She thought she could interpret it.

‘That’s not true.’

Just in case, she tried it anyway.

She couldn’t read anything but her own name. Daphne stood up with a smile.

‘Eh?’

She must have been squatting longer than she thought, so her body was tottering a lot.

Daphne quickly reached for the wall with her free hand, which did not hold the lantern.

Thanks to that, she was able to avoid falling on her bottom.

Instead.

Faaah—!

The wall began to shine.

“Uh, huh?”

Daphne’s eyes widened.

Starting from where her hand touched, the letters began to shine one by one, and soon light radiated from all the walls.

It was a bizarre and overwhelming sight. At the same time, someone’s voice was heard.

With the unfamiliar voice, her head began to hurt with a crack.

Because I also believed.

It was a terrible pain.

Clink-clang!! The lantern fell to the floor and broke with a loud noise, and the candle went out.

Instead, the room became brighter.

Because I too have been betrayed.

“Ah, ugh…”

Recognizing that the pain was caused by the unfamiliar voice, Daphne involuntarily covered her ears.

It was a useless act.

The voice wasn’t audible, but it was ringing in her head.

There was no way to stop it.

Holding on and holding on again.

She felt suffocated for a moment. It didn’t feel like someone was strangling her.

It felt like something heavy was pressing down on her body.

Yeah, this feeling is…

I won’t give up.

At the same time as the voice was cut off, Daphne passed out.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

“…yet… consciousness…”

“Unlike… bring in…”

‘It’s noisy…’

Daphne unwittingly furrowed her brows at the buzzing voices in her ears.

When she opened her eyes with difficulty, she could see a familiar ceiling.

It was Daphne’s room.

“Milady!”

“Milady, are you awake?”

The first one she saw was Mariel. Selma then suddenly showed her face.

“Are you all right? My God. How worried I was!”

Both Mariel and Selma were on the verge of crying.

How long had she been down for such a face?

“I, how…”

Her voice cracked. She was desperate for a glass of water.

Someone held out a cup of cool water. It was Zegman.

Zegman waited for Daphne to finish drinking the water and asked carefully.

“Baby, how are you feeling?”

“All, ahem, all right. But how long have I been down?”

She still had a dry throat, but it got a lot better thanks to quenching it.

“It’s been about three days.”

“Three days?”

Daphne’s voice rose. Three days? She had been down for three days?

What a waste of time!

‘There are so many things you can do in three days!’

All plans have gone awry.

She wanted to get up right away, but she couldn’t.

Because everyone was looking at Daphne with worried faces near her bed.

In particular, Zegman and Selma’s faces were the darkest.

“Yes, you haven’t been able to open your eyes for a while.”

“I was very worried because your body didn’t have any abnormalities, Milady.”

In the end, Selma burst into tears.

“It’s okay, I guess it’s because I’ve been pushing myself a little too hard.”

Daphne waved her hands and said.

In fact, it wasn’t because Selma lacked the ability.

It was all because of that strange room.

“You should probably eat better. And baby. You are excluded from everything for the time being.”

Zegman spoke sternly. Daphne’s eyes widened.

Eat more here?

“I’m eating well, I’m telling you! And what do you mean, excluded from everything?”

It’s true! That was unfair.

Bree and the servants fed her so well, and she gained quite a bit of weight.

Even her stomach, which was always sunk in, began to get quite squishy.

But Zegman was adamant.

“If you had really been eating and resting well, you wouldn’t have collapsed in the hallway leading to the kitchen.”

‘…You said I collapsed in the hallway, me?’

Come to think of it, how did she get out of that room?

There was no exit in the room, which was full of neologism.

“You pushed yourself too hard, starting with my older brother’s work. My stamina has recovered a lot now. I’m the one who’s going to work.”

“But.”

Zegman got up and grunted.

“Rest. All you have to do from now on is rest.”

As soon as she tried to refute, his large hand attentively patted her head so that she couldn’t say anything.

“Lie in bed and get a good rest. I know how impatient you feel, but physical strength is also important.”

‘Woo.’

It’s a foul play. She couldn’t say anything.

Zegman went out, and Selma left the room only after repeating the words to stay still and rest for the time being.

“Mi-Milady.”

Bree approached Daphne cautiously.

Bree, whose eyes were swollen from how much he cried, spoke as if he were truly begging.

“From now on, if you feel hungry, please ring the bell at any time. Whether it’s early in the morning or during the day, really anytime! We will work. Please don’t move by yourself, please…”

“Uh, yes. Thank you. Bree.”

Eventually, Daphne’s job was settled.

It was lying in bed all day, resting, sleeping, and eating.

“Ha.”

Daphne blinked as she laid flat on the bed.

Everyone doesn’t have to worry so much.

‘Wait a minute.’

Soon she sprang up to her feet.

‘I was going down to eat a late night snack because I was hungry and fainted in the hallway?’

That’s right.

Daphne swept her face down.

She told the patrolling knights, ‘I’m hungry, I’m going to the kitchen!’ and a few hours later she collapsed on the way to the kitchen.

It was a moment when this overprotectiveness became understandable.

“Aah.”

Daphne plopped down on the bed again, making a sick noise.

If this situation continued, it would be impossible to move forward.

‘And if it’s the third day since I collapsed, it’s the sixth day since Kael left.’

In that case, the count was leaving by tomorrow.

She still needed to improve her relationship with Count Philbert to some extent though.

‘Ew.’

It was a waste of three days, thinking about it again. Daphne flailed her limbs.

‘It’s done.’

It’s a waste of time to regret something that’s already past.

‘By the way, what was the room really?’

The age of the gods.

The era when the gods still stayed in the human world and interacted directly was called that.

However, as the human world was completed, the gods left one by one, and with Daphne as the last god, all the gods disappeared from the human world.

As such, the era of the gods ended and the era of humans arrived.

But a room full of neologism.

‘Come to think of it, it was in pretty good condition.’

It must have been a thousand years since the last god left, or at least hundreds of years.

No matter how much the inscriptions were engraved on the stone, they were bound to fade.

From Daphne’s point of view, it was clear enough to believe that it had just been engraved.

“Hmm.”

Roll.

Daphne rolled around, hugging the pillow tightly.

Daphne laid down and slowly sorted out her questions.

What is that room, whose voice was it, and how did she get in and out of it.

‘It certainly responded to my powers.’

Daphne stared at the palm of her hand.

‘It’s similar to what happened to Flora in the original story.’

The period of the red moon. A mysterious building encountered by chance. A power response.

‘The problem is, this is the Castle of Shadows.’

There were a few things that took a moment to treat as the same situation as the original story.

There was no such thing as neologism in the original.

Nor was it said that Flora heard a strange voice.

And most of all, if that anecdote was true.

‘Spring must come to Bertrand.’

However, if you look outside now, the snow was falling harder, and it was not spring.

‘Let’s go.’

Daphne rose from the bed. She was thinking of going back to that room.

‘I should write down a few lines and ask a high-ranking priest to decipher them.’

There was a clue that she missed in the original story and in her previous life.

And above all, she precisely loathed feeling suffocated.

The moment she quietly left the room so that no one could notice her.

“Where are you going, Grand Duchess?”

Count Philbert was at the door.