The Night of the Monsters - Chapter 29

The whispered self-reproach was met with Hugo’s sharp retort. His eyes flickered with something fierce, as if embers were burning within them.

As soon as her gaze met his, he smirked.

“Master, you’ve been mistaken about something for a long time. We were always like this.”

“……”

“You probably saw me and Ian as the kindest, most innocent kids in the world. But no. Trash stays trash, no matter how much you clean it up. If we were normal, we wouldn’t have been fucking you in the first place.”

Every crude word sent another ripple through Giselle’s rose-colored eyes, now brimming with unshed tears. She wanted to shut everything out. She wanted to run away.

She was losing her mind—so much so that she even considered that maybe, if she just died, she wouldn’t have to feel this pain anymore.

Ian, who had clenched his fists at Hugo’s words, spoke with an eerily composed voice.

“That’s right. So, Giselle, you don’t have to worry about anything. You can’t do anything on your own anyway. You can’t live without me and Hugo, can you?”

“No!”

“You will. That’s how it will be. Don’t you see, Giselle? The only ones you can love, the only ones who can love you, are us. Very soon, we’ll be together forever. Just like now—smiling, happy.”

“You… You did all this… just for that? You consumed the spirits just for something so… trivial?”

Ian, who had been smiling, frowned slightly. He truly couldn’t understand her reaction.

“What are you saying, Giselle? ‘Trivial’? How could you say that? Hugo and I can’t imagine a world without you. And it’s the same for you, isn’t it? We did this for you. So we could stay with you, because you can’t do anything alone.”

“Don’t say it was for me. I… I never asked you to do that. Why? Why would you…? Why…?”

To Giselle, staying with them forever was an impossible, selfish desire—one she never dared to hope for.

All she ever wanted was their happiness.

Ian’s smile deepened at her trembling voice. The beauty mark beneath his right eye lifted slightly as his lips curled.

“Giselle, you wanted Hugo and me to live happily, right?”

“……!”

“For us to be happy, we need you. So, everything we did—we did it for you.”

He hadn’t intended to push her this far.

But right now, this was the only way.

Giselle was like a caged bird, just as a boy named Allen had once said. Even if they had to break her wings to keep her from flying away, they had to hold on to her.

What Ian hadn’t considered, however, was that Giselle wasn’t like them. They never cared about what happened to others. But Giselle did.

This wasn’t just guilt—it was something much deeper. The more Hugo and Ian cornered her, the more her heart withered and burned. Giselle had already been drowning in regret and despair. And now, hearing them say that everything was for her sake—

It was like dragging her straight into the abyss.

‘It’s all because of me.’

It was all her fault.

‘I’m the one who ruined everything.’

She had never doubted for a second—this wasn’t simply how they were born.

She was the one who had failed to guide them down the right path.

She was the one who had broken them.

“Gi…”

Clang!

The moment Ian called out to her again, all the windows shattered. Though no one inside had survived, the building was in a bustling area, drawing the attention of passersby.

“Kyahhh!”

“What… What’s going on?”

Ever since Giselle and the brothers had entered this place, the doors had remained firmly shut. No one who came looking for their family had even caught a glimpse of them. Eventually, some tried reporting it to the guards, but the brothers had already exerted their influence, making intervention impossible. Now, with an apparent accident unfolding, a crowd quickly gathered.

Before the commotion grew any worse, they had to hide Giselle. Without any prior discussion, both Hugo and Ian instinctively moved toward her. As she stepped back, she called their names.

“Hugo, Ian.”

“…Come this way, Giselle. You know there’s no use running. If you come now, we won’t do anything.”

Hugo, uncharacteristically desperate, clung to her with an uneasy voice.

“If you’re not with us, my brother and I will have to live in solitude for a very long time. Is that really what you want?”

There was no composure left in his anxious face. It had always been Giselle who was plagued by uncertainty, but now, the situation had changed. Slowly blinking, she exhaled deeply.

“For all that time you’ll live, you’ll justify committing more sins in my name.”

“That’s not true. I promise.”

“You’ve already broken your promises. You’ve been lying to me this whole time! I trusted you. I really, truly trusted you… No, no. It’s my fault. It’s all my fault. I should never have brought you with me that day. If I had just left you there to die, if only I had…”

Then I wouldn’t have led you to commit these sins with your own hands.

As she collapsed, flames erupted from her body.

“Giselle!”

She could no longer bear to face this terrible reality. Her own happiness had brought misery to others. That truth was unbearably cruel for someone who had only ever wished for a simple, ordinary life.

A witch who devours children.

Maybe it was true after all. Perhaps, without even realizing it, she had consumed the once-kind, gentle Hugo and Ian and birthed monsters wearing human skin.

Inside the searing flames, her pale body began to burn.

“G-Giselle! No, please! Get out of there, hurry! It’s too hot!”

“Damn it! Why won’t the fire go out?!”

The flames spread to nothing else, consuming only her. Ian and Hugo’s faces twisted in devastation as they watched her flesh melt away. But physical pain meant nothing to Giselle—her greatest agony had always been guilt.

The intense heat evaporated all her tears. She whispered:

“…I wish I had never met you.”

I wish you had never met me.

Hugo and Ian, who had been desperately reaching into the fire, froze.

No one understood loneliness and isolation better than Giselle. But unlike her, Hugo had Ian, and Ian had Hugo.

Nothing could be undone, but there was still one thing she could do. If it was her existence that drove them to commit sins, then she would gladly accept death. It wouldn’t be enough to atone, but it was the best she could offer. Because she could never bring herself to hate or resent them.

Her dimming vision faded into complete darkness. She willingly sought the end, rendering the spirits’ protection meaningless.

Giselle never expected anything to exist beyond death.

But if, by some miracle, she was given a second chance—

“No.”

As her consciousness faded, something touched her now-numb body.

Hugo and Ian had forced their way through the relentless flames, wrapping their arms tightly around Giselle’s rigid form.

Her magic coursed through their bodies, and soon, the fire began to consume them as well.

Giselle’s lips moved soundlessly.

She had no voice left, but it was clear what she was trying to say: Let go.

Yet, even as their faces twisted in unbearable agony, neither of them released her.

A voice echoed in her mind.

Stop. If you don’t stop, you won’t just die—you’ll take Hugo and Ian with you.

Then, another voice spoke over it.

It’s too late. Even if you live, the same thing will happen again.

But if she stayed like this—if she let this continue—she would be the one to take the lives of those she loved most.

That… that was something she couldn’t allow.

“In the end, Giselle, you will love us. Forever.”

Ian’s voice broke through the flames.

His body, burnt beyond recognition, began to glow faintly with a blue light.

“Don’t forget. Don’t forget who killed me.”

A firm hand pushed Giselle away.

The building collapsed.

Thrown from the fire, she tumbled into the open, no longer the charred and broken figure she had been moments ago.

Instead, a woman with gleaming white hair, radiant pearl-like skin, and vivid red eyes emerged from the wreckage.

People rushed toward her.

“Miss, are you okay?”

“What the hell happened? Come this way, quickly! Hurry!”

No one had time to question why she was completely unharmed, or why she was naked. They only wanted to get her to safety.

But Giselle didn’t see them.

She didn’t hear them.

“A witch! A witch, I tell you! That monster killed people!”

The only voices that reached her were the ones condemning her.

The only eyes she saw were filled with terror.

Illusions—hallucinations—spawned from her crushing guilt.

“Ah… ugh….”

Hugo, Ian… Where are you?

Desperately, she searched her surroundings.

But no matter where she looked, all she met were sharp, hostile glares.

She froze, as if she had turned to stone.

Then, with frantic hands, she began clawing at the rubble.

People hesitated at the sight of her wild desperation. But one by one, they began to help, lifting away the fallen debris.

Among them were the inn’s workers and their families, who had come running upon hearing the news.

Giselle dug feverishly at the spot where she had been lying just moments ago.

Someone placed a coat over her bare shoulders, but she didn’t even notice.

The murmuring around her faded, drowned out by the deafening silence in her mind.

It wasn’t until her fingernails had been torn away, her hands drenched in blood, that she finally stopped moving.

A woman who had been watching her with pity suddenly covered her mouth with her hands.

A charred face had been uncovered.

Elsewhere, more bodies were found.

Most of them had been dead even before the building collapsed, their corpses mangled beyond recognition.

But the only ones burned beyond saving—

Were Hugo and Ian.

Giselle’s trembling hands cleared away the last of the debris.

Her lips parted.

Get up. Open your eyes. Ian? …Hugo?

In a daze, she weakly tapped at the lifeless bodies.

Behind her, the woman who had been watching stepped closer, reaching out to comfort her.

“M-Miss… I know this is a terrible shock, but first, let’s treat your hands, alright?”

A voice suddenly broke through the heavy silence, making Giselle flinch. She turned sharply, her body trembling.

The face before her was lined with age, filled with sympathy—but to her, it looked like nothing but disgust and contempt.

“You killed them. You killed them. It’s all your fault.”

The sharp accusations came from all around her, striking her like daggers.

Pale as a sheet, Giselle clung desperately to the corpses in her arms.

She was incapable of doing anything on her own.

And then, the guards, responding to the emergency, arrived to restore order. Because this had happened so close to the castle, knights accompanied them.