Chapter 28 – Tonight, Soone Will Die
Beneath the shade of a tree stood a small boy.
Thin and frail, he leaned against the trunk, strangely out of place—as if the world itself rejected him.
Not far away lay a tiny park: play equipnt for children, even a sandpit for jumping and tumbling.
None of it had anything to do with the boy in the shadows.
His bony fingers pressed against the bark. The rough surface scraped his skin, but he clung to it. Maybe the sting helped him feel… less miserable.
“Look, that kid’s out again.”
Whispers drifted from a distant corner.
The boy didn’t dare turn. He knew that even if he looked, the voices wouldn’t stop. They would only speak more, sharpen their words because of his attention.
And even if he turned, all he would see were shadows shaped like people—faces blurred, as if mory had holes in it, as if his eyes refused to catch their details.
“Tsk tsk, and his parents won't stop him? After he did that—ah, what a sha…”
“Ha, pitiful, isn’t it? Such a good life—ruined, just like that…”
Strangely, pieces of their sentences were missing. Certain words dropped away, censored by sothing unseen.
That made it worse. Not knowing what was hidden only deepened his fear.
“He’s just ——’s brat, so high and mighty, but in the end ——, ha ha ha…”
What were they saying?
Confusion knotted inside him. Their whispers twisted into sothing incomprehensible.
He hadn’t done anything. He hadn’t…
He hadn’t what?
“That’s a little devil!”
A shout rang in his head.
“Don’t be fooled by his face! It’s only a disguise!”
“He’s a demon, watching us, waiting to devour us!”
What nonsense was this?
The boy’s mind reeled. He couldn’t understand their words anymore. But their whispers wrapped around him, venomous and hateful.
Were they parents? Other children’s parents?
What had he done wrong?
He was—“…Eh?”
Suddenly, the thought slipped. He realized with a start—He didn’t know who he was.
“Who am I, again…?”
Trying to recall was like pushing through fog. Images surfaced—fragnted, wrong, as if they belonged to different people.
A breeze brushed his face. He looked up—
The other children, who’d been playing, now encircled him.
Staring. As though he were a new… toy.
“You…”
He shrank back, bumping into another child.
The child toppled soundlessly.
“Look! He devoured soone again!”
A shrill scream echoed inside his skull. So familiar—but whose?
The others scattered. Silent. Faceless.
The fallen child lay still, his throat missing a chunk, replaced by a dense fog of grey. Empty eyes stared skyward, hollow of light.
What… was this?
The boy shook with terror. He didn’t understand any of it.
Whispers grew louder. Harsher. Closer.
Had he sinned?
Was he evil?
Who was he?
Panic clawed at him. He wanted to flee—but where? How?
Then, a girl appeared.
Dressed in dieval garb, her limbs scarred, she walked straight through the hateful voices. She seized his hand—pulled him out, as if rescuing him from drowning.
Relief swept him. Gratitude filled him—until horror replaced it.
He scread.
The girl had no face. Only two black eyes, vast as the night sky, bleeding as they stared into him.
But that wasn’t why he scread.
It was because he rembered.
She had saved him.
And he had killed her.
***
Leticia didn’t know if she woke from the dream or drifted out of it naturally.
It had ended, fully revealed before her. But there was no peace.
Instead… she was crying.
Tears traced her cheeks. She tried to wipe them away—only to realize she couldn’t move.
Her body wasn’t listening.
Her hand brushed her tears, reached down, and from beneath brittle branches, drew out a rusty shard of iron.
She had never seen it before. Yet her body handled it with practiced ease, hiding it, retrieving it.
Then she realized.
It was night.
The link to Stano had not broken.
“Stop! Stop now!”
Her shout fell into a bottomless pit, without echo.
The rasp of tal against the chain vanished beneath the sigh of the night wind. The woman in black, even asleep, still cloaked in her robes, did not stir.
Damn it!
Leticia fought, but she could only watch, powerless.
“Ugh… useless!!!”
Her frustration boiled over.
Why did other transmigrators get cheats, power, invincibility—while she couldn’t even control her own body?!
Poisoned luck—that’s what this was!
Clink.
The soft snap silenced her complaints.
The chain broke.
The shackle still bit her ankle, but she was free.
She rose, movents stiff, chanical, like an old machine grinding to life.
At that mont, Leticia understood sothing deep in her gut.
Tonight, soone will die.
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