Ciel opened the door and descended the creaky, decaying wooden staircase.
The heavy pounding on the downstairs wooden door echoed through the house, followed by the crash of an old toy doll falling to the floor from where it hung on the door.
The pounding was accompanied by vulgar curses, as if someone intended to break the door down.
Ciel walked unhurriedly to the door, and her shadow bent down, retrieving the fallen doll and handing it back to her.
Beneath the mask, Ciel’s brows furrowed slightly.
The high-pitched voice outside the door was unmistakably Eddie’s.
But she couldn’t kill him at the door.
A slight degree of misdirection was still necessary.
Her shadow flattened, slipping through the gap beneath the door like a thin sheet, and suddenly clamped tightly around Eddie’s throat.
In the dim glow of the kerosene lamp, Eddie’s stretched shadow was joined by the silhouette of a burning black figure—a shadowy version of Ciel.
The shadow lifted its hand, and a dark, flame-like whip coiled around Eddie’s shadow. The burning Ciel silhouette gripped Eddie’s shadow, dragging it slowly outward.
Eddie outside the door felt his throat tighten, rendering him unable to make a sound as his breathing became labored.
He flailed his arms wildly, but his hands found nothing to grasp. He moved forward in jerky steps, like a dog being dragged by its leash, unable to resist.
To an outsider, he might have looked drunk, stumbling into the opposite alley.
Inside her home, Ciel silently counted her steps. Soon, she noticed her control over her shadow growing faint.
About 24 meters… Beyond this distance, controlling the shadow becomes difficult.
Ciel committed the distance to memory.
Though she couldn’t share the vision of her shadow, the fully enclosed mask she wore allowed her to see outside for some inexplicable reason.
Maybe it was imbued with some transcendent power.
About a minute later, Ciel opened the door and leisurely walked toward the alley, her movements hidden by the rain-soaked night.
“Damn it, Eddie, what are you doing back here?”
The thin man wearing a newsboy cap froze when he saw Eddie staggering toward him. He shouted, “Don’t you like that girl? She’s home alone today. The boss said he’d cover for you, so wha—”
Before he could finish, Eddie collapsed to his knees, his body limp as if all strength had left him.
“Eddie… Eddie! Shit, shit!” The man panicked upon seeing Eddie’s near-death state.
He knew how long the boss had been planning for this moment. If things failed at this critical juncture, he’d be the one paying the price.
If Eddie couldn’t go through with it, he’d have to drag Eddie into that house and force the girl to kill him instead.
“Damn coward. If you won’t go, I’ll send you in myself.”
The man reached out and shoved Eddie’s chest, trying to push him out of the alley.
But the sensation in his hands wasn’t like pushing a grown man.
It felt more like a sack of goods.
Eddie’s legs wobbled from the push, his whole body swaying forward and back like a pendulum. Only his head remained unnervingly fixed, staring straight at him.
The man’s hand froze in place. His body stiffened as he glanced down at Eddie’s feet.
Eddie was standing on tiptoe—his feet weren’t even touching the ground.
His trembling gaze traveled upward. In the dim glow of the streetlight, he saw Eddie’s head hanging low, his eyes bulging, tongue lolling out, and tears and saliva dripping down his face.
There was nothing there.
Eddie hung suspended in midair, his body swaying gently, his lifeless eyes staring at the man.
A shiver ran up the man’s spine, and cold sweat rolled down his forehead like beads.
He had never, in his entire life, wished so desperately to disappear from this spot.
The sound of boots stepping through muddy rainwater grew louder—a person approaching from the alleyway entrance.
“Who… Who’s there?! Get lost if you don’t want to die!”
Perhaps trying to bolster his courage, the man yelled toward the alley’s entrance. The shout did ease his fear a little.
Yes, he must be imagining things. Someone had used a wire—a very fine wire—to hang Eddie’s body here to scare him!
He leaned to the side, straining to see the figure walking toward him.
The approaching figure was short, her petite frame hidden beneath a black robe. She was about 1.58 meters tall. Rainwater streamed down the pale mask that concealed her face, and the insignia pinned to her ornate robe gleamed even in the rainy night.
He had been tailing Ciel for nearly three months, watching her every move. He knew her figure so well that he could identify her shadow in an instant.
But why? Why was she wearing church robes?
He watched in horror as the girl slowly raised her hand, revealing her bandaged arm. With a snap of her fingers, Eddie’s body collapsed like a ragdoll, splashing into the muddy ground.
Before he could say anything, he felt a tightness around his throat. He reached up to grab whatever was strangling him, but his fingers grasped at nothing.
And his feet… were leaving the ground.
“I’ll ask once: where are Solari and Thomas, and when will they be here?” From behind the mask, Ciel’s muffled voice carried a cold edge. “You have one chance to answer.”
The pressure around his neck vanished, and he fell to the ground, coughing and retching.
After a moment, he glanced at Eddie’s lifeless body and scrambled to his knees, his voice hoarse and desperate. “Don’t—don’t kill me! The boss and Thomas will be here soon! They’re clearing the area, the cops have all been sent away. Three… no, two minutes at most!”
The masked girl tilted her bandaged right hand to her chin, as if silently contemplating his words.
Perhaps realizing something, the man frantically prostrated himself in the mud, banging his head against the ground. With a dirt-stained face, he begged, “Please, please don’t kill me. The Church of the Savior Goddess is kind—they wouldn’t kill an innocent man!”
“I swear I’ll leave Berren City, go far away, never do gang work again. I’ll live on a farm and grow potatoes for the rest of my life. I won’t tell a soul about this, I promise.”
“Please spare me, Miss Ciel!”
The girl tilted her head slightly at the mention of her name, lowering her hand.
Then, he saw his own hands moving of their own accord, wrapping around Eddie’s lifeless neck. His grip tightened, his fingers digging into Eddie’s flesh as if they were trying to crush his throat.
The black-handled dagger at Eddie’s waist floated out, hovering briefly before being placed in Eddie’s cold, limp hand.
The man’s eyes filled with terror as Eddie’s corpse suddenly lifted the dagger and plunged it into his chest.
Warm blood spilled from his lips, mingling with the rain as it washed away his body’s warmth. He slumped forward, collapsing atop Eddie’s corpse.
“Out of the way! Everyone clear out—Blackwater Gang business!”
The noisy commotion from outside reached the girl’s ears. She turned her head toward the alley entrance.