Just as Sid was drowning in the flood of information, his mind racing, his chest tight from everything he had witnessed— a soft, distinct click of a door latch instantly snapped his attention away from his internal crisis. He flinched, expecting the mother to return. But as he turned his head, his breath hitched in his throat.
Standing in the doorway— the other doorway, Evelise’s legitimate bedroom door... was little Evelise. Her ruby eyes were not tearful, not fearful, but burning with a cold, intense fury directed squarely at him. Sid felt the final, crushing piece of the puzzle slot into place, horrifying him.
"She knows. She always knew."
Evelise’s coldness, her deep-seated mistrust of n, her imdiate hostility toward the servant she called "old man"— it wasn’t arbitrary.
"Oh no... Little Evelise must have witnessed this nightly ritual between her mother and the servant every ti she feigned sleep. She had been observing the ultimate betrayal and hypocrisy of the two people ant to protect her!!!"
Sid instinctively tried to rise, still naked, intending to rush to her, to explain that it wasn’t him, that he was trying to help,
"Evelise— wait, no, listen to ," he whispered desperately. "That wasn’t . I swear to you, I’m not the one who hurt you. I’m trying to help, I’m trying to fix this— just give a second—"
But before he could move a muscle, a violent, spectral tug yanked at his consciousness. The mory shattered in a blinding white flash, and the world beneath him dissolved into a dizzying freefall.
He was back.
Sid opened his eyes, staring straight up at the familiar, unpainted ceiling of his cabin’s living room. He was safe, warm, and thankfully, fully clothed in his own shirt and stolen cargo pants, lying on the soft, stolen mattress. He let out a ragged breath, the transition jarring and tragic as always.
"Damn it," he muttered, his voice raw. "Every ti. This Chapter always ends on sothing... not right."
Just as the silence settled, his HUD Pinged sharply, demanding his attention.
[SYSTEM ANNOUNCENT]
[Congratulations, Sid! You have successfully completed Evelise’s second Dead Chapter]
[To unlock and view the next Dead Chapter, you must once again achieve "Night Ti" status with your companion.]
Sid stared at the notification, the mory of the mother’s cold body and the sight of little Evelise’s furious eyes battling with the technical language on the screen. The system text felt absurdly calm compared to the emotional chaos he had just crawled out of. But even with the ache in his head and the heaviness in his heart, one thought ford with absolute clarity. He needed the next Dead Chapter. He needed to see everything, no matter how painful because only then would he finally understand Evelise, and maybe... finally help her.
"Night Ti," he muttered, rubbing his face. "Fine. I’ll do it system, challenge accepted! Now I’m determined. I need to see the next Chapter. I need to know how she escaped that destiny."
Before he could plan further, his nose twitched. Sothing was burning. Not a little... more like two sothings were burning.
Sniff!
He sat up fast, sniffing the air as thin trails of smoke drifted past the rafters. The first ca from outside, near the water pump. The second was thicker and darker— seeped up from the basent.
"Oh for crying out loud!"
Sid groaned, pulling himself off the mattress.
"It’s early morning! How is this place already catching fire?"
He groaned, getting to his feet. He rushed out the front door first, deciding the outside smoke was probably less catastrophic. As he rounded the corner, he froze at the sight.
Oshan was crouched by the water pump, "cooking" in a rusted tal pot balanced over a fiercely burning fire. The flas were so high they were licking the sides of the pot, and the contents inside were bubbling violently— so aggressively that dark, slimy liquid splashed over the rim and hissed on the stones.
"Oshan— WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Sid yelled, rushing over. She didn’t even flinch. "Cooking," she said with a serene smile. She looked up, her face earnest and completely calm, the flas reflecting in her ruby eyes.
"Ah, Sir Sid. I am preparing a restorative al for Lady Evelise. It is crucial she maintains her strength."
"Restorative?! Oshan, it’s burnt! It’s on fire!" Sid panicked. "Look! Can’t you sll that?"
"Nonsense, Sir Sid," Oshan insisted, completely unfazed. "This is the process. The charring enhances the flavor profile."
"It’s burning!" Sid yelled, pointing frantically at the pot. "It’s literally on fire! How do you not see—"
"It’s not burning..."
Oshan insisted, lifting a wooden spoon without hesitation.
"See?"
Before Sid could even raise a hand to stop her, his eyes widened in horror. She dipped the large wooden spoon straight into the bubbling, boiling black sludge and slurped it off the spoon without pause. But she didn’t hesitate. She lifted the spoon again and tasted the scalding sludge as if it were nothing. Her massive form didn’t flinch; her tongue and throat seed completely immune to the heat. Sid’s jaw dropped—
"O—Oshan?! That’s boiling! That should’ve lted your tongue!"
She blinked. "It tastes fine. A little bitter. But fine."
She extended the spoon toward him.
"Try it."
Sid took one look into the pot. The contents looked like swamp water mixed with tar, bubbling like a witch’s cauldron, hissing like it was alive, and half the pot was already being swallowed by flas.
"No! No, no, no, I’m NOT tasting that!"
He said, stepping back fast. Oshan didn’t hear him or pretended not to. She only blew harder into the fire, fanning the flas until the blaze roared tall enough to nearly engulf the pot. The liquid boiled harder, the violent bubbling throwing droplets in every direction. Sid grabbed his head with both hands.
"STOP! STOP! PLEASE STOP! You’re making it worse! You’re going to lt the pot!"
He shouted. But by the ti she stopped blowing, the pot was empty. Completely empty. Every drop had evaporated into black smoke.
Oshan stared into the pot with genuine confusion.
"What. Where did it go? It was going so well."
Sid threw his hands into the air.
"OSHAN— IT BOILED TO DEATH! FIRE DOES THAT! YOU’RE NOT A COOK, YOU’RE A GUARD! YOU JUST EVAPORATED YOUR ENTIRE AL WITH A VOLCANIC HEAT SOURCE! WHAT WERE YOU EVEN MAKING?!"
Oshan shrugged. "Food. For Lady Evelise."
Sid felt his soul leave his body.
And then... A thin, darker ribbon of smoke curled into the sky from the cabin’s side.
The basent.
"Oh no," Sid whispered. "Oh no no no— there were two smoke sources."
He spun around and sprinted back toward the cabin, heart pounding with a growing sense of dread. If Oshan was responsible for this, then whatever was happening in the basent could only be worse.
He ignored Oshan’s casual humming behind him and grabbed the basent door, pulling it open as another plu of smoke rolled past his face. He had no idea what he was about to find but he already knew it wasn’t going to be good.
He rushed down the basent steps, bracing himself for another Oshan level disaster, but he froze halfway down when he saw Evelise. Thick gray smoke drifted through the cramped space, swirling around shelves filled with jars, herbs, tools, and makeshift alchemy equipnt she must have collected over the months. At first, it looked like sothing was actively catching fire— small sparks popped on the table, and a bubbling mixture spilled over the rim of a tal bowl but then Sid saw what she was actually doing.
Evelise was working on dicine.
Serious dicine.
Dozens of herbs were spread across the counter, crushed, sliced, and sorted in careful lines. Mushrooms of different shapes lay beside them, so colorful, so dangerously pale. Glass jars were filled with powders, oils, and extracts. What terrified Sid most... were the wilted, eerie plants she had taken from the dead zombie bodies in the path toward the Nexus Plaza. He recognized the rotten black stems imdiately. They were contaminated— infected with whatever turning agent the zombies carried.
And Evelise was grinding them.
Testing them.
Mixing them with her healing herbs like she wasn’t handling sothing that literally grew out of corpses.
"Evelise— Evelise, wait— what the hell are you doing down here?! It slls like poison!""
Sid coughed, waving the smoke away. She didn’t answer. She didn’t even turn toward him. She was completely imrsed in her work, eyes narrowed, hands moving with swift, steady confidence as she adjusted sothing on the small burner. For a mont, she looked less like a girl and more like a focused chemist or, in Sid’s panicked brain, a witch making sothing explosive.
Sid stepped closer. "Evelise! Wait! Are you using those disgusting plants you pulled off the zombies?!" Sid yelled, his voice rising in panic. "That’s why the smoke slls so bad! Are you insane? That’s necro toxic! You’re gonna turn the whole basent into— into I don’t even know what!"
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