the event you find yourself facing off against a demon on your own. You may select one item from the Treasuryâ€”whatever you deem useful. No matter what it may be, I shall grant it to you." "Er... I guess I should say that I'm happy and grateful?" "As an aside, the place I call the Treasury is, in truth, a magical space. I took everything that once resided in the castle in my hometown, moved it all here, and tossed it in. The objects down there have been steeped in hatred and bitter memories, so mind what you touch. Some of them will kill you." "Wait, this is just another form of harassment!" "Silence! Cease your whining and be off already!" The kick that followed was both precise and accurate, and Kaito went flying like a toy ball. He was, once again, the very image of a cartoon character as he rolled through the door. With exquisite timing, the door slammed shut behind him. He tried pulling and pushing on it, but as he suspected, it didn't budge. His path of retreat had been cut off. Surely even cruelty had to have its limits. At the moment, the spiral staircase in front of him seemed to be commanding him to advance. The rectangular steps hung floating at fixed intervals, gently curving their way below through the dim light. He looked down, but all he could see were steps going on seemingly forever. A tepid wind blew up from the depths. He couldn't even tell whether or not there was a floor beyond all those stairs. "...You've gotta be kidding me." Kaito reflexively grumbled as he peered down the series of stairs that had no railing to speak of. Despair began creeping into his heart. But he shook his head and reevaluated his situation. Well, it's true that Elisabeth usually has a point to the things she says. He would need a weapon if he was going to fight more demons. If he'd had one before, he might have been able to manage a better fight against the crows and the spider. And there was no guarantee he wouldn't end up in a similar situation again. He didn't want to make the same mistake a second time around. Never again. And if that meant hunting through this magical space, then so be it. "I guess I don't have a choice." Kaito faced the stairs, which could very well lead to the depths of Hell, and steeled himself. He spread his arms wide for balance. The clack, clack of his footsteps echoed against the darkness below as he began his descent. He'd expected the darkness surrounding him to continue on forever and was surprised to find that not to be the case. As he walked, rubbish gradually began appearing beside the stairs. A massive birdcage and iron maiden appeared in the gloom, followed by a hanging rack and a wooden horse with no sense of rhyme or reason to their order. As the torture devices glowed faintly in the dark, it became apparent that each bore grisly traces of use. The iron maiden's chest was caked with dried blood, and the spikes sticking out of the birdcage were discolored with chunks of meat and fat. Kaito realized something as he looked at the rusty tools. Unlike their magical counterparts that Elisabeth summoned, these were real. The ones Elisabeth conjured up were always unused. No doubt she had the ability to summon them without limit, each free of rust or fat. So why is this place full of their mundane counterparts? "Beats me." Tilting his head in confusion, Kaito continued on. He suddenly found that the stairs had disappeared and his path was flat again. As this space was throwing off his sense of balance, he had no idea when the change had occurred. The stone floor just looked like a larger step, and he continued down its seemingly endless span. The items around him became even more disorganized. There was a gem the size of his fist, a round pot covered in three-dimensional bee ornaments, and a barrel of vintage rum. There was a tiger's pelt. There was ivory. A broken chandelier. Some kind of small mummy. There was a bronze ax, an iron sword, and a silver spear. He pulled out the splendid-looking sword from the vase it rested in, then found himself stumbling backward. "This one's no good; it's too heavy... And it looks like the ax and the spear are, too." It seemed that the weapons the Earl had prepared were chosen such that children could easily wield them. However, the weapons in the Treasury were designed for hardened soldiers and knights. They didn't seem to offer any sort of magical assistance, either. As Kaito had never undergone any manner of training, he doubted he'd be able to use them to any degree of effectiveness. He heaved the sword aside. It landed with a clang, then sunk into a pile of gold coins that resembled an ant-lion pit. Turning his eyes from the riches, he continued walking forward. But the farther he walked, the less weapon-like the objects around him became. A comfortable-looking rocking chair. A sewed piece of embroidery. A painting of a deep forest. "...Huh?" Suddenly, Kaito's shoe hit something soft. He looked down and saw a teddy bear with cotton protruding from its chest. As he examined the space, he realized he was surrounded by children's toys. Apparently, he'd reached the stratum containing items Elisabeth had owned in her early childhood. As evidence that they'd been hers, the stuffed animals' chests were ripped open, and the dolls were all beheaded. The cross sections of wood, porcelain, and cotton were pitiful to look at. "I guess she's been into that kinda thing for a while, huh." Kaito muttered dejectedly. They say that people never change, but this wasn't adorable in the slightest. He almost flung the teddy bear away in his annoyance but, feeling sorry for it, gently set it back on its table. As he was about to resume walking, a hollow voice rang out from far away. "Elisa......beth... Eli...sa...beth...... Sa......beth..." "Who's there?" Kaito froze in his tracks. The next moment, a man's deep voice coiled around him like a serpent. "Elisabeth... Elisabeth... My darling daughter... Elisabeth... Myâ€”" The voice was incredibly creepy. It had the hollow quality of wind blowing through trees yet at the same time seemed almost hot as it coiled around his skin. Kaito felt that if he listened for too long, his eardrumsâ€”and eventually his brainâ€”would dissolve. "What...is that?" Driven by an intense, visceral disgust, Kaito took a step back. The voice grew louder, as though it were pursuing him. Kaito broke into a run, instinctively trying to shake off the voice. But as if refusing to let him escape, the voice pursued him with strange tenacity. "Elisabeth... Elisabeth... My darling daughter... Elisabeth... Myâ€”" "Hey, what the hell is going on?" No matter how far he got, the voice kept coming. He looked around for a way to escape, then spotted something. Behind the pile of broken toys, reminiscent of a mountain of corpses, was a door. It looked almost as though the toys were soldiers, protecting it. Willing to try anything, Kaito grabbed the knob and turned. The door swung open, but behind it was not light but an even deeper darkness. After he passed through the door, Kaito felt his eyes widen. He was standing in the middle of an unfamiliar room. "...Huh?" Dumbfounded, Kaito surveyed his surroundings. This was clearly a child's room. The rectangular walls were covered with wallpaper adorned with a dull yellow floral design, and beside the window were cute confectionary-like plaster sculptures. The furniture was all white, and atop a beautiful chest of drawers with metal handles sat a group of dolls and stuffed animals. There was a four-poster bed, too, with pearl-gray sheets and a heavy mattress no doubt stuffed with down. Sitting on the bed was a young girl wearing a negligee atop a pile of blankets. Her chest was stained in the sticky red shade of blood. She struck a gaunt figure, her wispy veins visible beneath her pale skin. Her long hair was no doubt once beautiful, but at the moment it was devoid of luster and the tips were all tangled together. While her round eyes and shapely nose seemed almost sculpted, those hollow eyes lacked anything resembling vitality. And her thin lips were stained with the ghastly remains of what appeared to be bloody vomit. Upon seeing that familiar face darkened by the specter of death, Kaito gulped. There was no mistaking it. This girl was Elisabeth's younger self. Oh man... I definitely wasn't supposed to see this. Realizing that, Kaito began backing away slowly. He continued doing so until he crossed the threshold of the door he had entered. Once he'd passed through completely, the scene in front of him shimmered like a bowl of still water that had been disturbed, and then it vanished. All that remained were the mountain of broken toys and the door in their midst. It seemed that he had managed to escape the Nursery. Kaito looked around and breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the Treasury. But the haunting voice returned to assault his ears again. No time to process what he'd just seen, Kaito spun around and made a run for it. He ran with no rhyme or reason, desperately trying to flee from the phantom Elisabeth and the male voice incessantly calling for her. Cut it out; cut it out... I didn't want to know about any of this! Kaito had no desire to learn about that playful yet proud woman's past. And these were memories she'd likely rather not share, giving him all the more reason not to go peeking. He held little affection for her, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that he was committing an act of betrayal. Elisabeth Le Fanu was both a proud wolf and a lowly sow. The unflinching woman who'd introduced herself as such seemed completely different from that frail little girl. Seeing her like that was not something for Kaito, as her servant, to do unbidden. After running with that sole thought in mind, Kaito found himself in a new location, one with an entirely different ambiance. "Huff...huff, huff... Where am I?" Blocking Kaito's path was a tall stone wall. As he inspected it, he discovered that it was constructed rather oddlyâ€”out of tightly packed stone cubes. The wall stretched out in both directions. It seemed endless, as though he'd reached the edge of the world. Then Kaito noticed something. "Wh-what's that?" For some reason, a circular section of the wall was illuminated. Kaito approached it warily. Iron shackles stuck out of the wall at the lit-up section. Bound by them, like merchandise in a shop display, was a naked woman. "What the hell?" Kaito stood, stupefied. He had to look a few times to be certain of it. But sure enough, there was a beautiful silver-haired girl bound to the wall by her wrists. Her chest was ample, and her proportions were well balanced. Yet, she had been heartlessly cast aside. For some reason, when Kaito looked at her, he felt like something was out of place. But in any case, he couldn't exactly keep staring at a naked woman. He would just as soon avoid being taken for a lecher. Ignoring his conflicting feelings, Kaito looked away. He resorted to timid sidelong glances to confirm her condition. The silver-haired girl just sat there, unmoving, her head cast down. "Hey, are you okay? Hello? Hey, you." He tried talking to her, but she didn't reply. He had no way of knowing why she was imprisoned, and as such was at an impasse as to what to do. But given Elisabeth's personality, it seemed unlikely for her to take a demon prisoner. Kaito found it unlikely that this girl was