Night fell.
“Your Highness, are you sure you want to go out with me?” Leona turned to look at Anna and asked.
According to Anna, once night arrived, everyone in the royal palace would cease to exist, except for her and Them. Leona was not from the royal palace, so she was not affected either.
“Don't underestimate me, Leona. I'm much more familiar with this place than you are.” Anna placed her hand on the doorknob, turning her head back. “Besides, please just call me Anna.”
“All right, Princess Anna.”
The door was slowly pushed open. Leona poked her head out and looked left and right; the two guards stationed at the entrance were indeed gone.
She followed Anna down the empty hallway. They didn't run into a single person along the way, and the only sounds were the noise of the wind outside and the footsteps of the two of them inside.
“Leona,” Anna suddenly called out.
“What is it, my Princess?” Leona hadn't felt any danger in the night yet, so her tone was lighthearted.
Anna stopped and pointed at Leona's leather shoes. “They're too noisy. I can't hear Their sounds.”
Leona gave an embarrassed smile and said helplessly, “But Your Highness, you can't expect me to take them off. I really don't want to walk barefoot on this cold floor.”
As she spoke, Anna suddenly reached out and pulled her against a wall.
Just as Leona was wondering what was happening, she saw It.
A maid—no, to be precise, the outline of a maid. Its color was solid black, and her face couldn't be made out, like a person's shadow—a three-dimensional shadow.
That dark shadow happened to be traveling in the same direction as them, its steps light, like a small animal crawling.
But in this quiet night, listening closely made it easy to hear her footsteps.
Under the watchful eyes of the two girls, It passed by them quite leisurely.
It couldn't see!
Leona picked up a key piece of information. Anna hadn't mentioned this to her, perhaps wanting her to experience it for herself.
She slowly crouched down, slipped off her leather shoes, and stepped barefoot onto the cold floor.
Anna was right; she might actually lose her life over them for nothing.
She carefully tucked the shoes into her shirt; luckily, her feet were small, so this was easy to do.
“They can't see, nor can They hear,” Anna spoke up when she noticed Leona had gone quiet.
“Do They harm you?” Leona immediately asked.
Anna didn't respond, silently lifting the hem of her skirt. A shocking scar on her calf extended several inches along the bone.
By the looks of it, the wound was quite old. Although it had already scabbed over into a scar, Leona could still imagine how thrilling that escape must have been.
But if They couldn't see or hear, what did They rely on to lock onto enemies?
Did They rely solely on touch? Or was it as the diary had said—They would automatically watch anyone who intended to harm the Princess?
They didn't want others to harm the Princess, yet They would harm the Princess themselves. Talk about a contradiction.
Leona complained silently in her heart.
She raised her head to look at the dark shadow, only to see It walking back while wiping the floor with a rag.
Immediately after, another dark shadow walked over, and Leona's pupils contracted sharply.
She recognized the outline of that dark shadow; she could even call out its name.
Margot.
“They're the people of this royal palace, aren't They?” Leona swallowed hard as she took in the scene before her.
Currently, “Margot” was conversing with the maid who had just passed by them. But They had no mouths and only kept gesturing continuously, like performing a pantomime.
Though pantomimes were never this scary.
Seeing the sight before them, Anna seemed long accustomed to it.
She answered Leona's earlier question.
“I don't think so. Compared to you all, They seem much more like invaders. Remember how I have the ability to see into people's hearts? Until one day I couldn't see into Ariel's heart anymore, I knew They had replaced her.”
“Ariel was my former personal maid,” Anna added.
Anna then explained everything she knew about Them to Leona, giving Leona a clear general idea of what she meant.
For now, call Them “Shadows.”
At night, the personnel inside the royal palace would vanish into thin air, and Shadows would replace them to enact all their daytime activities.
But not everyone had a Shadow—only a portion did. According to Anna, the number of Shadows was increasing, and though the growth rate was very slow, if it continued for another three years, everyone in the royal palace would be replaced.
Given a certain opportunity, Shadows could even interfere with the daytime, achieving a true replacement of a person, although Ariel was currently the only one to whom this had happened.
Leona conjectured that these Shadows might be the work of the Main God, created to form an instance. In the Little Red Riding Hood instance, Grandma and Mother turning into werewolves corresponded directly to the people of the royal palace being replaced by Shadows here.
“What happened after Ariel was replaced? Did she keep doing the exact same things as before?” Leona asked.
If so, that was terrifying; without Anna's ability, someone could go their whole life without realizing the person beside them had been replaced.
“She died,” Anna said coldly.
“Huh?”
“I killed her.”
Leona looked at Anna's grim face and couldn't help but draw in a sharp breath.
Anna raised her head, meeting Leona's gaze. “Is that very cold-blooded?”
“No, just surprising.” Leona felt more and more that she was the one who needed to be protected.
“You need to break your bad habit of judging books by their covers,” Anna said with a pout, understanding the implication behind Leona's words.
Because the variables at night were too dangerous, the two of them only observed the Shadows from at most two corridors away before heading back.
Besides, they needed sufficient sleep to face the coming of the next day.
Neither of them slept in the bedroom. Instead, they entered the secret passage and leaned over their respective chairs to fall asleep.
After all, Milan had entered Anna's room during the day. If Milan suddenly gained a Shadow while they were sound asleep, entered the room, and touched the two of them...
...Leona might have to enter her second playthrough on the very first day.
Anna was used to such an environment and quickly fell asleep. Leona, however, slept lightly, ready to open her eyes at the slightest sign of movement.
Even in her sleep, she kept pondering in her mind how to resolve their current dilemma.
This instance was far too bizarre. Knowing only this much information, she likely wouldn't survive the first ten days, let alone successfully make the Princess and the Prince marry.
Most importantly, among the story's key figures, she had only met the Princess so far.
It seemed necessary to sneak into the Queen's bedchamber tomorrow to check out that so-called all-knowing Magic Mirror.
Rate on N.U.
