The Prince Has All Kinds of Strange Hobbies

The Gray Cat, Viscount and the Basement

No one thought that there would be an entrance to the underground secret room by the marble fireplace of the closed room on the second floor of the castle.

　　It is so obscure that the secret chamber would never been discovered unless the hidden mechanism was touched on the third to last step on the carpet.  

　　The witch’s consciousness lingered in the dark sea of fog. Her sense of time was distorted, she stayed quiet in the silent darkness, and there was a sparse noise in her ears.

　　Her body was lifted, her tedious dress was gone, changed into another dress. Her hands and feet were locked in cold chains. The air around her seemed to be freezing cold, so the blood stopped flowing.

　　The slight sound was slowly amplified.

　　The witch’s consciousness gradually returned with severe pain.

　　She felt that she had been moved to a shelf, surrounded by a disgusting scent, like dead fish rotting on the beach.

　　The slender soft limbs were buckled in a cold lock and were crucified onto the strange shelf.

　　Her consciousness became clearer, but she couldn’t open her eyes. It seemed as if she was trapped in an invisible glass cover. When a cold, creepy, sharp object cut her limbs, the witch had an illusion, she was a pig that had been set up for bloodshed and slaughtered.

　　Wake up!

　　Don’t sleep anymore!

　　Her heart screamed anxiously, but her eyelids were as heavy as a mountain. She tried everything but couldn’t wake herself up.

　　However, her five senses felt terrible, it perceives that her life is passing away little by little. The witch’s body is slightly twitching because of excessive blood loss. The teeth couldn’t help but make clattering sounds.

　　When a sharp knife pierce her chest and heart, the great pain almost swallowed her, and she almost died of pain—

　　Who?!

　　Who is treating her like this?!

　　Her closed eyelids trembled violently, and as the dagger penetrated deeply, the slight sound of the cut flesh made her uneasy heart accelerate in her chest.

　　What does this person want to do?

　　No!

　　The transparent spell was broken by her. When she opened her eyes, she could vaguely see a dim figure shaking in front of her. The man seemed to be surprised.

　　”I woke up.”

　　The witch shook her head weakly. She blinked powerlessly in an attempt to make her vision clearer. The guy’s movement just stopped for half a second, and then began to gradually insert the whole knife into her chest, but viciously bypassed her heart.

　　”It doesn’t matter if you wake up, you are going to die anyway.” The man said lightly.

　　When her eyes became clearer, the pain in her heart became more painful and suffocating, the witch was sure that she was in a terrible mess. She was in a coma and her original dress was replaced into a white dress, as the mice said.

　　”Just like the girls the Viscount secretly hides.”

　　”Wearing a white dress with red flowers on it.”

　　Her blood stained the white dress, and it was estimated that it wouldn’t be long before she closed her eyes peacefully and never open them again.

　　The basement was no ordinary secret room at all. The witch just swept her eyes, and she knew why the little mice would sing that song.

　　The dirty chamber is filled with evil black objects, girls’ hair, eyeballs, dried lizard skin, viper venom, and babies’ corpses.

　　It’s ironic.

　　The man called a Viscount views the witch as a heresy. It was beyond everyone’s imagination that the virtuous Viscount actually wore a black robe in his castle’s secret room and carry a dagger carved with black magical marks within his hand. He quietly carried out horrible cruelty and abuse.

　　Unlike the lower worshippers in the town of Tuvalana, the Viscount was a contractor to the devil.

　　Her chest was dissected, revealing her beating heart, just like the poor witch that died previously. Maybe soon she would have her heart extracted. Even if she was not burned after death, she would probably end up secretly buried in some corner.

　　[You are so weak that you can hardly incant a curse. Your heart is about to be dug out. Your blood will be used as a sacrifice to the dark magic array on the ground.]

　　The vicious voice sounded with a strange excitement.

　　The witch endured the pain of fainting, her pale and dirty little face forcibly pulled into a sneer, the wounds on her hands and feet were sharply cut by the dagger, and the warm blood slowly dripped from her trembling body into the empty slot of the dark magic array on the ground. The sound of dripping blood is heard throughout the secluded closed basement –

　　Drip, drip, drip.

　　The Viscount opened her chest but was not anxious to dig out her heart just yet.

　　”Use a witch as a sacrifice to the devil for an equivalent exchange? Ah…” No wonder the witch’s heart will be ripped out.

　　Those who learns black magic must have a contract with the devil.

　　The more vicious the curse, the higher the price.

　　In order to gain the ability, you seek,

　　you must exchange something equivalent with the devil.

　　- Dark Magic and the Devil’s Contract

　　”You, witch, know a lot.” The Viscount elegantly wiped the blood stains from his hands with a handkerchief, and a gray cat slowly walked by. The gray cat rubbed its head into his black boots in a coquettish manner.

　　”Jacob, my good boy, you did a good job. If you didn’t notice her identity, I might not have known her real identity until after they left.”

　　The Viscount leaned down slightly and touched the gray cat’s head. The strange gray cat half-squinted its shining eyes and stared at the dying witch for a moment without blinking, as if laughing at her innocence and naivety.

　　”The dark magic of this lady is much more than those before her. Her eyes, nails, hair, and teeth can transform you into a human body.”

　　”Thank you, Master. I’ve had enough of this body.”

　　This cat…

　　The witch closed her eyes. Her magic wand was kept in the room because she changed into a dress. She was so badly injured and was confined by chains. The feelings of despair destroyed her.

　　”And the most delicious heart… Hehe. I have eaten so many witches’ hearts, but I have never gained the ability to communicate with animals. I’m really looking forward to it.”

　　”You kill me… the prince will kill you.” She didn’t say it confidently with all her heart.

　　”Dear little witch, do you think I’m afraid?” The Viscount strokes his beard on his mouth and stares greedily at her powerful beating heart within her chest.

　　”When your heart contributes to my master, my strength will become stronger and stronger. Don’t even mention the prince, even the strongest magician of light on this continent will not be my opponent, witch. You should be honored that your heart will be dedicated to the supreme devil, Plathus, and the depths of your soul will soon be imprinted with his demonic mark. Is this not what you witches have always hoped for when you are branded by the darkness?

　　It was strange to say.

　　An average person would have long gone mad from such a cruel punishment, but she was not an ordinary victim. Looking at the heart beating vigorously in her chest, it was really tempting…he doesn’t know how it will taste like.

　　”Your prince will never know that you are within the deepest part of this castle at this moment. I have ordered your clothes to be secretly thrown away. He looked for you everywhere and thought that you have slipped away while no one was paying attention. You’re just a toy that he uses to relieve his lust on the road. I’ll give him some beautiful girls and I’m sure it will rid him of his anger and sadness soon.”

　　The witch’s head drooped down, and the wound on her body slowly dripped with blood. Slowly, a tiny blood line was formed on the dark magic array engraved with lines, filling the empty trough bit by bit.

　　”The great devil Plathus, please accept my tribute and listen to my wishes. I am your faithful servant, John Holder.” The Viscount cruelly stretched out his hand and pulled out the witch’s heart.

　　Despair swallowed up hope.

　　Fear occupies the darkness.

　　The witch couldn’t understand why she has not died yet. She watched as her heart was pinched by the Viscount and turned into a dark stone within a blink of an eye.

　　The Viscount’s sinister and fierce face turned into an incredible expression.

　　”This, what’s going on?”

　　Yes, what’s going on?

　　Why hasn’t she died yet?

　　Why is she still alive?

　　This question was accompanied by severe pain, but it was too late to think. We can only hear the fierce vibrations coming from the secret chamber’s door. The entire secret chamber was shaking like an earthquake has occurred. The top of the walls and iron frame shook down countless dust. The sacrificial props on the iron shelf and the wall were shaken onto the ground.

　　Bang!

　　-

　　There was a deafening roar from the door, and a thick smoke of dust filled the chamber.

　　The Viscount turned his head in astonishment, only to see a black silhouette whose outline gradually becoming clearer in the thick smoke.