Chapter 50
Opening the tightly shut door wasn’t difficult.
She only had to repeat exactly what Sion had done in the original story.
Standing three steps away from the door, Chloe stomped her feet lightly three times—thud, thud, thud—then took another step back and gave one smaller stomp.
At that, the heavy-looking door slid open as smoothly as if it had been freshly oiled.
Chloe passed through several more doors with similar coded mechanisms, descending down—deeper and deeper underground.
By the time she grew tired of the seemingly endless stairway, a door of an entirely different design finally appeared before her.
“This is it.”
Chloe instinctively realized that the door before her was the final barrier.
It was, in truth, an obvious conclusion—unlike the other doors she had passed, this one had a small food slot at the bottom of the iron plating.
“Diana said she thought this was just a prison when she saw it.”
But that had been the final trick—meant to make anyone who saw it turn back, believing it was nothing more than a dungeon.
“But in the story, the last door was supposed to have a lock…”
Unlike what she remembered, the door before her wasn’t locked.
No—that wasn’t quite right. There was a large padlock, but it was already unfastened.
“Is someone here?”
Fingering the attack-type magic stone bracelet on her wrist, Chloe hesitated—but ultimately chose not to retreat.
Instead, she drew in a sharp breath and pushed the iron door with all her small strength.
“Hyah!”
Only after her feet began to slide backward did the door finally creak open, little by little.
“Hah… why is it so heavy…”
She panted as she stepped through. Behind her came a loud thud as the door closed again—but Chloe couldn’t even flinch at the sound. Her mouth fell open at the sight before her.
“What… is this?”
The space beyond the door was far larger than she could have imagined.
Diana’s descriptions had made her expect something grand. She had even thought it might be as big as an entire mansion inside.
But this—this was colossal.
Chloe tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling, which seemed impossibly high, far beyond the reach of all the stairs she’d descended. Then her gaze fell once more to the floor.
“And what on earth are all those?”
In the novel, the underground of Demos Castle was described as wide but cluttered—a ruin full of broken machinery.
But what Chloe saw was entirely different.
The floor and walls were spotless, meticulously maintained without a speck of dust. The furniture scattered about was covered neatly with white cloths.
Cautiously, still alert, Chloe crept forward and lifted the cloth off the nearest low piece of furniture.
“…Huh?”
It wasn’t a table or a dresser as she’d expected.
It was a complex control panel, crammed with buttons and gauges.
Blinking in confusion, Chloe dashed forward and yanked off another white sheet—then another, and another.
At last, when all the coverings had been stripped away, the underground chamber revealed its true identity.
A laboratory.
Shackles hanging from cylindrical chambers. Restraint devices attached to tubes. Rows of control instruments and neatly arranged tools.
There was no mistaking it.
This was a laboratory—and one that had clearly been in use not long ago.
Chloe stared blankly at the rusted shackles inside one of the tubes.
The thing she had desperately hoped not to find—the horror she had prayed was not real—had once again been recreated here.
The massacre where members of a bloodline had their life force extracted and injected into a single “chosen heir.”
The cruel reality behind the torment the male lead had suffered in the original story.
Her lips trembled as she bit down hard, rage and grief twisting together.
Click.
A small but distinct metallic sound cut through the silence.
Startled, Chloe’s shoulders jerked as she placed a hand on her magic stone bracelet.
“Who’s there?”
Her sharp eyes scanned the area—but there was no sign of anyone.
Then she noticed something—a narrow passage hidden behind the left corner of the wall.
Swallowing hard, Chloe crept toward it, ready to unleash the bracelet’s magic at any moment.
But when she rounded the corner, she didn’t find a person—only a long, winding hallway.
“So that big laboratory wasn’t everything down here…”
Feeling a chill of apprehension, Chloe quieted her steps and advanced.
The corridor was lined with iron-barred cells on both sides, over a crimson carpet that muffled her steps.
Was Joanna kept here? Did Sion ever get locked up here too?
She glanced at the filthy shackles inside the empty cells, her chest tightening, but she kept walking.
And then—she saw someone.
A living person.
“Just a little more. Hang on.”
A boy—definitely not an adult—was kneeling in front of the last cell, fiddling frantically with something.
Instinctively, Chloe pressed herself against the wall and hid her presence, peeking around the corner.
Even at a glance, his fine clothes gave him away.
Sion Demos.
But what was he doing here?
Chloe’s eyes widened as she saw Sion working desperately at the cell’s lock.
“Just a little more,” he whispered, pale face tight with tension. “Once this comes off, you can get out. Just wait—I’ll get you out of here.”
Who’s inside the cell…?
Chloe crept closer, trying to see past Sion’s back into the dim interior.
She leaned forward for a better view, inch by inch—
And then, the prisoner inside lifted his head.
Chloe gasped.
The man’s black hair and features were almost identical to Sion’s.
But that wasn’t what made her blood run cold.
It was his eyes.
A slightly darker shade of blue than Sion’s—eyes that looked utterly dead.
Like the cloudy eyes of a long-rotten fish. Like the glassy stare of a taxidermy display long forgotten in a museum.
The man’s lifeless eyes were the eyes of someone who had already died inside.
Overwhelmed by shock, Chloe’s body swayed.
No—don’t fall!
Panicked, she flailed her arms to regain her balance—but—
“Who’s there?”
Sion spun around like lightning, closing the distance between them in an instant.
Chloe froze.
She didn’t even have time to activate the attack stone.
A cold blade was already pressed against her throat.
Sweat trickled down her back, every nerve focused on the edge at her neck.
Then—
“…Chloe Arus?”
His voice, confused, cut through the silence.
“Why are you…?”
But his puzzlement quickly hardened into coldness.
“Why are you here? You should be in the drawing room, surrounded by guards.”
Chloe swallowed, forcing her shaking lips into an innocent expression.
“I—I was… playing hide and seek… with the maids…”
“…”
“A-and I got lost, and I don’t know how to get back… B-but, Sion, who’s that man…?”
Sion’s eyes narrowed with suspicion at her stammered excuse—but only for a moment.
He sighed softly and lowered his sword.
“Get out.”
He tilted his head slightly, checking that she wasn’t hurt.
“Forget everything you saw here. If you don’t want to get dragged into something dangerous.”
“What is this place?”
She asked, pretending to be naïve.
Sion didn’t answer.
Turning his back, he returned to the cell and shoved his sword into the lock’s keyhole, working it again.
“…Hmm.”
Chloe’s fear had faded, replaced by a calculating curiosity.
Glancing between Sion and the man in the cell, she began to piece things together—and quietly stepped closer.
“What are you doing?”
