The Doll Castle (3)

Seemingly noticing Bo Yi's gaze, the woman slowly raised her head.

She wore a long dress covered in brown grime, its original color impossible to make out; her long black hair completely concealed her face, leaving only her mouth exposed.

A mouth with its corners curled into a smile.

Bo Yi spun around.

The gust stirred up by his abrupt movement made the candle flame beside the bed bend slightly, plunging the whole room into shadow; a second later, the flame began dancing again, and when light returned to the room-

There was nothing behind him.

Bo Yi turned back again.

This time, the window reflected only his own figure sitting quietly on the edge of the bed.

Bo Yi frowned. He rose from the bedside and began checking the room: the door was firmly shut, with no sign of having been opened; nowhere within sight offered a place to hide.

...Had she left? Or had he imagined her from the start?

To test his theory, Bo Yi took out his detector. After he had moved away from the master of the castle, the detector had gradually settled down, and now it lay quietly in his palm.

Holding the detector, he walked over to where he had seen the woman. The silent device suddenly vibrated with a buzz. Bo Yi looked down to see the reading on its display slowly climbing by a few points.

The reading was low, but it proved that he had not imagined it-

Something really had entered his room.

However, judging by the current reading, it had clearly already left, leaving only traces of residual energy for the detector to pick up.

Bo Yi carefully swept the room with the detector once more. Only after confirming that everywhere else was clean, without any residual readings, did he lie back down on the bed.

After walking all night, the researcher was a little tired, too. He placed the detector beside the head of the bed, on the side away from the window, then pulled over the quilt beside him, icy to the touch, and draped it lightly over himself. Closing his eyes, he let his mind go blank.

"Bzz..."

"Bzz..."

Half asleep, Bo Yi was woken by the sound of vibration.

He slowly cracked his eyes open. At some point, the candle beside the bed had gone out, leaving the entire room pitch-black.

He kept his eyes half-open for a while to adjust, his bleary gaze passing over the old ceiling and the window covered by thick curtains. The unfamiliar surroundings slowly cleared his foggy mind-right, he was not in his laboratory now, but in a game called "Mist"; and this room had been assigned to them by the castle's owner...

Wait! Bo Yi turned his head toward the window.

When had the curtains in his room been drawn shut!?

"Bzz..."

"Bzz..."

The detector kept vibrating beside the other side of the bed, insistently warning him. Bo Yi finally reacted. He rolled over and reached for it.

But the instant he turned, his heart lurched-

A face filled his vision.

That face was mere centimeters from his own, almost brushing the tip of his nose. Bo Yi could even feel the icy chill emanating from her.

Lying on her side had caused some of her black hair to slip away from her face, exposing the bluish-white skin beneath; that skin was densely covered in dark red, wormlike scars. Her eyes were tightly shut, her eye sockets sunken, yet Bo Yi felt as though she was studying him closely.

Just as she had when she stood behind him earlier.

This time, however, he was not so lucky. His movement as he rolled over seemed to have disturbed her. Fabric rustled, and an icy hand rose, reaching toward his face. Bo Yi's eyes had already adjusted to the light in the room, so he saw with perfect clarity the long, sharp black nails on that pale hand stabbing straight toward his eyes.

Bo Yi remained motionless in the same position, looking as though he had been scared senseless.

The corners of the woman's mouth slowly stretched into a grin, revealing teeth smeared with red flesh and blood. At such close range, Bo Yi could even smell the bloody odor coming from her mouth, mixed with the stench of rot.

He had no choice but to hold his breath, while his hand hidden beneath the quilt slipped discreetly toward the pocket of his lab coat.

Just as those black nails were about to touch his eyeballs, he flung up the quilt covering him and threw it over her head.

Then, before the woman could react, he quickly pulled the rope from his pocket-the rope he had intended to use to bind anomalies-and tied her up, quilt and all.

The woman on the bed seemed stunned by the quilt that had fallen over her out of nowhere. She froze for a second before beginning to tear at it in fury. But while the quilt was easy to rip, the rope was made from a special material developed specifically by their Research Institute.

While she was busy tearing at the quilt, Bo Yi had already landed lightly on the floor. He even had the leisure to light the candle before moving to the other side of the bed and picking up his detector.

He switched off the vibration alert, pointed the detector at the still-struggling woman, and checked the reading. According to the display, the energy contained within this woman who had inexplicably appeared in his room was roughly equivalent to that of the class B anomalies he had encountered in the past.

Bo Yi immediately lost some of his interest.

Not as good as the master of the castle he had met earlier.

Still, since she had delivered herself to his door, simply letting her leave seemed rather impolite. Bo Yi put away the detector, reached into his pocket, and took out the "old friend" he always carried with him.

It was a slender scalpel, its silver body light and nimble. Though the sharp blade was as thin as a cicada's wing, it could easily slice through the tough skin of anomalies.

Bo Yi deftly twirled the scalpel between his fingers to loosen them up, his eyes lowered as he quietly examined the anomaly on the bed, seemingly considering where to make the first incision.

The woman, who had finally freed herself from the quilt, opened her mouth wide in a silent threat toward Bo Yi, perhaps sensing the danger.

She seemed unable to make a sound.

Seeing this, Bo Yi walked thoughtfully to the bedside. He bent down and reached toward her. Just then, a hand lashed out, its sharp nails piercing the air with a rush of wind as they stabbed straight toward Bo Yi's eyes.

She had already snapped the rope on one side!

Clink- Her nails struck the blade with a metallic sound.

Bo Yi's gaze slowly settled on her fingers.

In that case... she wasn't entirely without research value...

When her strike missed, the woman immediately moved to withdraw her arm, ready to pull back and attack again. But just then, a slender hand seized her wrist. Its fingers were long and well-proportioned, their joints clearly defined, beautiful as a work of art, yet they held her hand firmly in place, preventing her from moving at all.

Ignoring her silent threats, Bo Yi pulled her hand up before his eyes.

He studied the black nails for a while, then, by the faint candlelight, carefully began separating one along its edge.

An unknown amount of time passed before a whole black nail fell onto the bedsheet with a soft tap.

Bo Yi straightened and carefully picked up the nail. Just as he was about to place it in the containment box he had brought, he suddenly felt a gust of wind sweep past his side.

Where had wind come from in this sealed room?

Puzzled, Bo Yi turned his head and saw the woman-who had somehow broken the rope again-fleeing toward the curtains with her back to him, then swiftly slipping behind the heavy fabric.

The curtains swayed slightly, then slowly grew still again.

Bo Yi put away the nail and walked back to the window.

With a swish, he pulled the curtains open once more.

There was no one behind them.

With a soft thud, something dark fell from behind the curtains.

Hm? Bo Yi looked down.

A doll lay quietly at his feet.