to his feet. The spider could be heard tearing into something ravenously. Not wanting to understand what those sounds meant, Kaito charged at the spider. But as he heard the crunch of a collarbone being snapped, his thoughts were painted over with rage and hatred, returning him to a strange state of lucidity. He stopped, then muttered in a monotone. "Ah......... I guess there's no use trying to save a dead man." The next instant, he turned on his heel and ran. He was calm enough that it surprised even himself. His face was expressionless. But the fire in his eyes gradually roared to life. He voiced a single thought again and again, almost in a groan. "I'm gonna kill that thing. I'm gonna kill that thing. I'm gonna crush it. I'm gonna kill it, kill it, kill it, kill it." His voice dripping with bloodlust, he continued his retreat. If the spider caught him here, Neue's sacrifice would have been for nothing. He wouldn't let Neue die in vain. That was the sole thought that propelled him as he ran. The door at the other end of the passage eventually came into view. He'd expected the hidden door to be locked as well, so he'd given one of the older children an ax. After this much time had passed, they should have been able to break it down. Kaito narrowed his eyes. The door was completely unmarred. Maybe it hadn't been locked after all. As doubts crossed his mind, the door swung open, and from it, a poppy-red dress appeared. Beyond the door stood Melanie. Calling in a sweet voice, she ran to him as fast as her legs could carry her. "Sir Kaito!" "Melanie?! Wait, don't come this way! You have to run!" Ignoring his warnings, Melanie wrapped him in an embrace. She twined her soft arms around his neck. Her pink lips hung alongside his ear, and she let out a sweet breath as she started to whisper. Before she could, though, the door burst open once more. A vivid color ran across Kaito's field of vision. It was a dress far redder than Melanie's, a dress that had once been snow-white. "Oh, if it isn't Kaito!" The voice that rang out was so indifferent to the situation, it seemed out of place. There stood Elisabeth, drenched in blood and energetically waving at him. "Why, I was just thinking of coming to meet you, so this turn of events is rather convenient. Quite sensible of you to come on your own... Oh? You're covered in blood, I see... And on the verge of dying from blood loss, by the looks of it. You seem to have dropped your hand somewhere. Was it the removable type? At any rate, I'd best bind the wound with chains...... Is that a bug? Ahhh! It most certainly is a bug! I despise bugs! Spiders are most unpleasant!" Elisabeth jumped a little as she peered behind Kaito. As she landed, the ground around her feet burst with darkness and crimson flower petals. They spiraled toward the ceiling, then formed a large hole over the spider's head. A massive, thorn-laden weight appeared from the hole. The weight whirred as it fell and then slammed down on the spider, crushing it. "Squish it!" Elisabeth raised a fist. Her attack was so ludicrous, it almost made Kaito want to complain. She'd squished that terrifying spider as easily as one might squish a cockroach with a slipper. His wrist was now bound by a chainâ€”a rather crude way to stop the blood lossâ€”and he opened his mouth wide. Melanie clutched at his jacket as though in terror. A heavy silence fell among them, which Elisabeth broke while tilting her head. "So what happened here?" At that moment, Kaito felt something inside him release. Elisabeth's overwhelming strength, as well as her almost nostalgic carefree demeanor, allowed him to finally relax his nerves, which had been pushed to the limit. He rattled off to Elisabeth everything that had happened. "Oh, Elisabeth. There was a demon in the annex, and he was like, 'Welcome, boys and girls, to your very own Grand Guignol! You all are the audience, you all are the scriptwriters, and you all are the actors. So I implore you: Enjoy yourselves to your heart's content.' And then there were these crows..." "Is that so, I see, ah, mm-hmm, is that so, oh." Kaito was in a tizzy, and the words spilled from his mouth like a flood. He ended up including a number of unnecessary details. He couldn't tell if she was listening, as she simply nodded along with a dodgy expression and began walking before he'd even finished speaking. She held both hands behind her head as she walked through the doorway. Passing through the hall, she headed for the right-hand corridor. She then continued unabated, entering a passage marked for servants. Embracing Melanie's quivering arms, Kaito followed after her. "Elisabeth, are you listening to me? I said, the demon's in the annâ€”" "Behold, Kaito!" Elisabeth stopped in front of an open door. Looking inside, Kaito saw a kitchen. Atop a cutting board was a noble-looking girl, her dainty dress stained in blood and her ribs savagely removed. Beside her lay a man with a bull's head wearing a chef's coat, his groin split in half by a saw. A demon's underling disguised as a chef. His death was no doubt Elisabeth's handiwork. "Just as the Butcher said, the dead girl's body is missing some bits. Apparently, those of noble bearing taste better than common folk. They dine on the nobles and play with the commoners. After playing with you and the rest of the common children, no doubt he intended to enjoy dinner up here in the main building. Ah, how luxurious." Elisabeth nodded approvingly. Kaito clenched his fists. The rage and bloodlust within him had been validated once more. Oblivious to his fury, Elisabeth turned to Kaito and shrugged. "The fools tried to eat me, and though killing them and making them divulge the location of that hidden door was entertaining, there were so many that some of them were able to flee into the courtyard. Chasing them down was quite the affair." "Elisabeth, I understand why it took you so long to get to me. But I don't give a shit about that. We have to get to the annex. I need you to kill that demon for me." "Oh-ho, well, aren't you fired up? Your wrist... Those who don't fear pain are few and far between. But Kaito...why is it that you possess the resolve to sever your own wrist and the experience of walking through that bloodbath, yet you are blind to the truth right before your very eyes?" "What do you mean?" Instead of responding to his question, Elisabeth began walking. She left the kitchen, made her way down the corridor, and stopped in the center of the main hall. All the nonunderling staff must have fled, because the castle was deathly silent. Her dark hair swayed beneath the glimmering chandelier light as she looked back over her shoulder. "It seems the demon here torments people not simply for power but because he enjoys it even more than our friend the Knight did. He takes pleasure in their pain and their screams. But aside from the Grand Guignol, it seems his interests run even deeper. So think. What is the most elaborate form of despair, the form that a twisted man like him would find the most delightful?" Kaito had no idea what Elisabeth was talking about. But he suddenly recalled the time when his father was strangling him. He'd kept Kaito in a state of dehydration, then given him water. And just when Kaito thought he'd been saved, his father killed him. The deepest form of despair was to think you'd found salvation only to have your hopes crushed right in front of you. "...He gives people hope, and just when they think they've been saved, he snatches it away." "Precisely! Once there are two left, and the only one left to kill before becoming the 'last one standing' is a frail little girl, any child would think that survival was well within their graspâ€”and naught could be more invigorating than killing them right then and there! Of course, your actions posed a flaw in that plan, but I imagine the demon had a good deal of fun nonetheless. Nary a single child managed to escape, after all." Understanding her answer, Kaito closed his eyes. The hall was silent. No children could be heard anywhere. Shaking his head, Kaito took a few steps away from Melanie, the sole survivor. When they'd fled from that deadly game, what monster's mouth had the children disappeared into? "And on that note, I doubt you enjoyed assuming such a frail form, even if only temporarily, however..." Elisabeth smiled affectionately as she gazed as Melanie's face. But when she questioned the trembling girl, her voice was rife with contempt. "...Why would an earl's daughter be selected as a plaything and not as an ingredient?" At that, the poppy-red dress swelled up like a sarcoma. The sweet little girl's insides transformed into a mass of meat and cloth, and as her skin tore, it began leaking out like pus. From within appeared a naked man with spider legs and strange white skin, his body covered in crow feathers. The fat, bald man clacked his crow beak. After looking at the grotesque colossus and clucking her tongue at his spider legs, Elisabeth stroked her chin. "The man downstairs is no doubt an underling or an imitator of some sort. So having lost your human form, you can even transform into a young girl, eh...? Although given that young boys were to be killed as well, perhaps you simply enjoy wearing girls' clothes. Ah, how unpleasant. And though you possess the human title of 'marquis,' the demon you fused with is none other than the Earl. And here I'd come expecting a decent fight." "Who cares? Just kill that thing already." "What's this, now? You've been acting rather oddly, haven't you? What, do you have a grudge or some such?" "You're damn rightâ€”I'll do anything you ask. Just make his death as painful as possible." Kaito repeated himself. Bloodlust bubbled up from deep within his heart. His being the sole survivor was too cruel of a joke for him to handle. The Earl had killed the rest of the children. Kaito couldn't allow him to live. Even though he'd just been rescued, he wouldn't mind throwing his life away if it meant a chance to kill the Earl. He couldn't bear letting him live. "...Ha." In place of a response, Elisabeth laughed. The next moment, she kicked him, and when he fell over, she planted a foot firmly on his back. There was so much force in her foot, he was afraid his spine would snap. "Rgh!" "Do not think for a moment that you can give orders to your master, you cur. Your words do not change the fact that this man is my prey. With or without your request, I aim to make his life my plaything." Elisabeth spoke coldly, then sent Kaito flying with a brutal kick to his stomach. As he landed near the wall, he spewed up a mixture of blood and vomit. Elisabeth turned to face the Earl. "My servant's manners are lacking. But now, we can proceed without interruption." She raised her arms majestically. The darkness and crimson petals swirled through the air, enveloping her body. After the darkness dispersed and the petals fluttered to the floor, she was clad in her usual black bondage dress. Her slender fingers grasped the handle of the Executioner's Sword of Frankenthal. Placing a hand over her half-exposed chest, she gave the Earl a noble bow and offered her own announcement. "Welcome to my very own Grand Guignol. For I am the