I will not die a Villainess's death

Elysia's surroundings spun around her, giving her whiplash. The world was broken down into darkness and Elysia reached out before she could fall.

As soon as her hand caught a thin pipe-like structure, the hallway lit up. The wall had some kind of luminous spell embedded in it that made the hallway shine brighter.

Elysia held her breath in fear, quickly looking back to see if she had been discovered or not. But thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case. No one entered the corridor even after Elysia had lit the whole place up.

'I…I got lucky. But where did this place come from? I am sure I tried to lean on the wall, only to fall through it.'

Elysia straightened her spine before she could fall down the flight of stairs that had exposed themselves due to the sudden lighting of the corridor.

Her face pales considerably as soon as she realized what kind of danger she had just avoided unconsciously.

"I g-got lucky. Now, to pull me back up."

Her arms shook as she pulled herself back up but Elysia kept going at it. She wanted to not fall flat on her face.

Once she successfully managed to pull herself back up. Elysia breathes a sigh of relief and took in the corridor she was in.

It was a dark and gloomy place. Even the light that illuminated the space seemed to give off a lonely feeling. If possible, Elysia did not want to venture deeper into the corridor but she had no choice.

Now that she had discovered this corridor, it was her duty to see what lay at the end of it. That sinking feeling she got near Baron Pheros was rather prominent in this corridor which made Elysia believe that it had something to do with him.

She walked down the corridor before stopping in front of the only gate available to her. A coppery scene assaulted Elysia's senses as soon as the door opened and a dark room appeared in front of her poor eyes.

It was a scent Elysia was both familiar with and had a close encounter with before. It was the smell of blood that had gone stale.

Somewhere in the room, someone was storing a considerable amount of blood. But where and how was the real question?

This got answered rather quickly as Elysia's foot hit the dark floor and almost sank into the cavity.

Elysia's poor eyesight made it impossible for her to be able to figure out where the cavity had been.

'I-I got saved by my reflexes.'

Elysia was thankful for the fast bodily reaction that managed to save her in time but her foot still had a little stain of blood present on it.

Thankfully, it did not seem to be infected blood or even poisonous. Elysia quickly picked up a vial she kept on her person at all times and scooped up a sample.

Although the blood seemed ordinary to her, there had to be a reason it had been gathered like this here. Elysia would need to test out its properties.

And she might also need to visit this place again in the future. Which meant that she had to remember where this place was.

The sound of footsteps could be heard heading her way so Elysia quickly looked around for a place to hide. But there seemed to not be many places available to her. The only place Elysia could think of hiding was behind the huge bookshelf so that's where she hid.

Her body was smaller than an average female which had been a point of concern for Elysia most of her life but she was rather thankful for it right now.

She did not dare use magic to hide just in case the blood on her body reacted to it and caused a problem.

Her eyes could not pick out anyone in the dark but her ears did not have the same problem as that. Elysia had to strain herself a little but it made it possible for her to be able to hear the conversation that was taking place in front of her.

"How are the preparations doing? Are the dolls taking care of our guests alright?"

Who else could be the speaker but Baron Pheros? Elysia wanted to say that she was shocked at this turn of events but it would be a lie to say so.

"Of course. Everything had been prepared as you wanted it to be, my lord. The only unfortunate thing is that we lost a great helper today."

The second voice sounded female for sure but it was not one Elysia recognized right away. But she was sure she would be able to recognize it if she heard it again.

"Did we lose someone today? I did not even pay attention that much. So, do we need to get a replacement?"

Baron Pheros did not even seem to remember who had died which made Elysia mad. She had no sympathy for the maid but even she could understand how devastating it would have been to forget like that.

'Does this man have no sense of responsibility? How dare he play with people's lives like that?'

Elysia fumed as she tried to calm herself down. It was difficult but not impossible for her to do.

Still, it helped her convention to bring Lord Pheros down sooner.

"My lord, you do not need to care about a measly maid when you are trying so hard to bring someone precious to you back. All you need to do is to follow the instructions and everything else will work out."

Now, this was a new piece of information Elysia did not have before. According to Lady Pheros's testimony, Baron Pheros seemed to be doing this for himself and to extend his lifespan.

But if what Elysia heard right now was the truth, then that meant that Baron Pheros had another target he wanted to bring back to life. And this target might be the main reason he was doing all this.

'Still, that does not give him the reason to kill people off as he pleases. I need to get him arrested as soon as possible.'

But it was going to be next to impossible without evidence and it was not like Elysia could just march out of this room and bring an officer back here.

She would need to get this man to self-destruct somehow. But it was going to be tougher than Elysia expected.

And to pull all this off, Elysia needed to first get out of this space and into a condition where she could contact people outside of the Pheros castle.

Knowing Baron Pheros, he might have cut off all external connections to the outside world already. It was not impossible to do and Elysia would rather be safe than be sorry for underestimating the man.

"I understand. I cannot tell you how grateful for all the sacrifices you made for my sake. I will surely compensate you greatly once I achieve my goal."

Elysia felt shocked as soon as she realized that Baron Pheros's voice did sound grateful. It was a foreign tone and it did not suit him.

But he still spoke like that to the person standing with him.

"Oh, by the way, what should we do with Lady Dirac and her company? Lady Dirac's magic is potent and perfect for our usage. I checked it out already but I did not get to check the other two. Even then, the new 'God's Envoy' was a little different. I could not check his magic level at all."

'Of course, you could not. Enma had no magic to speak of.'

But of course, this was not something Baron Pheros knew. If he did then he would have crossed out Enma from his lists of potential candidates a long time ago.

"Is that so? Then, I will check him out. But what should we do about the mole in our ranks? We have been trying to catch the worm for ages now but he somehow managed to escape us every time."

"Let him be. If that mole had not done anything this far despite us giving him opportunities to do so, then that just means that we don't need to fear him. Instead, we should focus our energy on more urgent tasks."

Baron Pheros's voice was clear and strong. He believed in his words but Elysia could feel the doubt in his partner's voice.

She wanted to see more but Elysia did not feel safe leaving her hiding spot.

And it was for good reasons as well. She had a feeling that someone was looking right in her direction and it made Elysia tense up.

"Let the hounds out in these corridors for protection tonight and every other night until we manage to make use of our guests. We cannot allow the secrets of this place to be exposed. Anyone who finds out about this place needed to die, be the friend or enemy."

Elysia wanted to be surprised but she was just shocked at the plain voice she heard coming out of Baron Pheros's mouth. He spoke about murder like he was speaking about the weather.

He left the room and Elysia knew that it was her window of opportunity to leave as well. Facing the hounds did not seem like a fun thing to do.

Especially when she had a restriction on her magic.

Elysia could not afford to destroy this castle even in self-defense because it would expose her location. It was a double-edged sword that Elysia was going to have trouble with.

'I can do it. I can make it back without being discovered.'

Elysia repeated those words inside her mind as she exited the room…

…and came face to face with the very hound she had been trying to avoid running into.

And what was worse? The hound didn't even take a second to start chasing after her. Its huge jaw could break Elysia clean into two and it dented the floor.

'Well, fuck it. I need to get away somehow.'

Elysia could not use attack and offensive magic but that did not mean she was suddenly useless. She had a plan and Elysia knew what to do.