The Married Alpha Who Refuses to Be a Heartthrob (A/B/O · Alpha POV) - Chapter 27

Entering the room where Wei had painted the dead dog, the canvas still sat on its easel, covered with a cloth because the image was too grotesque to behold. Paints and a palette lay nearby—everything arranged exactly as it had been on the day it happened.

 

Vansen: “Is there a way to turn back time?”

 

“Not that I know of,” said Kaes, lifting the cloth. “I think we can reopen that space. Just now, talking with Wei, I realized something. Strictly speaking, a painting isn’t truly finished until it’s completed. So this space can be reactivated.”

 

The nuns and deacons listened, half-understanding, watching him with puzzled yet hopeful expressions. Keith also waited for him to put this plan into action.

 

Wei didn’t quite grasp it either: “How do we do that? Can I help?”

 

Kaes glanced at the palette and tools. “Mix me a color. I’ll try.”

 

“Any random part? I’ll mix the color of the ground.” Wei picked up a brush, squeezed some paints together, and blended them into an earthy hue. At this stage, the painting wasn’t highly detailed, but it was essentially complete.

 

Adding a stroke to an insignificant background wouldn’t ruin the overall completion.

 

Kaes took Wei’s brush and added a stroke to the background of the painting.

 

Just as he finished, everyone immediately looked out the window at the backyard. Nothing happened, and the group felt a bit disappointed.

 

“It’s done,” Kaes murmured softly, setting down his brush.

 

At that moment, a rippling “door” appeared where the dog was buried in the backyard.

 

“Oh! A door appeared!” exclaimed a nun in surprise, pointing outside the window.

 

“It really is… I have no idea how you figured it out,” Vansen mused, looking at Kaes. Truly being a Governor wasn’t something anyone could do.

 

In his view, a brute-force approach would never grasp witchcraft.

 

“It’s like saying ‘Open Sesame’—after all that, this portal can just open anytime!” Keith was equally astonished. Kaes had no psychic power whatsoever. He examined Wei’s painting. “This looks ordinary, but a witch imbued it with psychic energy. It can sense the artist’s thoughts.”

 

“Huh?! So if I curse him while painting, he’ll know every single one?!” Wei’s face fell. He cursed like a sailor every minute—he couldn’t bear to imagine that wizard’s expression.

 

“…,” Long Shi smiled without comment.

 

Kaes nodded. “Yes, that strange fellow knows you’re cursing him. Let’s go inside first.”

 

The group reached the backyard. Where the dead dog had been buried, a transparent water-ripple door stood. Unable to see inside, they debated how to enter.

 

A steward stepped before them: “My lords, allow me to investigate first.”

 

The steward stepped into the water-ripple door. His figure vanished into thin air. Kaes suspected he likely wouldn’t emerge.

 

They waited about five minutes. The door remained, but the man did not emerge.

 

A nun grew impatient: “Why hasn’t he come out yet? Governor, I want to go in and check.”

 

Kaes also suspected that the steward alone wasn’t able to handle whatever was on the other side: “Why don’t we all go in?”

 

Dawn was still hours away. Holding a candlestick, Kaes scrutinized the translucent door, unable to see anything within.

 

His gut told him this would be tougher than their previous encounter with the ghost nun.

 

“Let’s go in,” Kaes said.

 

The nun nodded. “My lord, we don’t know what dangers lie ahead. Let the others and I enter first.”

 

Their duty was to protect their lords so this time, the nun and two stewards entered first.

 

After the first group entered, Kaes and Keith followed. Long Shi and Vansen were behind them. Wei hesitated outside the door. He felt uneasy being alone in the dead of the night. He was the last one to enter.

 

…

 

The space inside was pitch-black. Kaes realized the candles they’d brought were gone.

 

“It’s too dark. I can’t see a thing. Are you guys in?” Keith groped around, grabbing hold of an arm. “Kaes, where are you?”

 

Kaes’s voice sounded nearby: “I’m here.”

 

Thinking the arm he grasped belonged to Kaes, he held it tightly. “Where are the candles we brought? Maybe I can light the way with a flame.”

 

“Master Keith, I have something in my hand.” The nun who had entered first felt something in her grasp. Just as she tried to examine it, the object suddenly ignited.

 

It was a match.

 

The match illuminated the space. They were in a small, windowless, doorless dark room. The arm Keith was holding belonged to the steward who entered first and did not emerge.

 

“Wake up.” Keith nudged the steward, assuming he was asleep.

 

Kaes crouched down and felt the steward’s neck. There was no pulse. He peeled back the eyelids to check the eyes—no external injuries, yet no vital signs. “He’s dead.”

 

“Dead!?” The arm Keith touched was still warm. “He’s just been here for only five minutes.”

 

The room radiated eeriness. The match’s light illuminated only a tiny area. The nun shielded the flame slightly with her hand, afraid it might go out: “I’ll see if there are any candles in the room.”

 

The nun took a few steps and indeed found a candlestick. It was quite tall, holding nice candles in total. The first candle was very short, the candles that followed after it were slightly longer than the last.

 

The first candle burned too quickly, so she started lighting the second one which was only a little bit longer than the first candle.

 

As she reached the last candle, Vansen sensed something was off with the candles. He spoke up & stopped her: “Enough! Don’t light it. I don’t know what these candles are for.”

 

Seeing candles in a dark room, any normal person would light them. But a wizard’s candles were different from ordinary ones.

 

“Yes, Your Grace.” The nun stared at the match that was still burning in her hand. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her chest, her insides throbbing. Clutching her chest, she gasped for air.

 

Kaes saw the nun’s face turn ashen, showing signs of suffocation. “What’s wrong, Sister?”

 

“My Lord, I can’t breathe.” The nun collapsed, clutching her chest. The match fell beside her, its flame flickering but still burning.

 

Kaes rushed over to check on her. Vansen and the deacon chanted prayers and a halo of holy light enveloped the nun. Yet beneath the sacred glow, a layer of dark, swirling mist obstructed it.

 

Their resuscitation efforts failed. Her mouth gaped open like a fish floundering on dry land, her death was imminent.

 

“…This witchcraft is too evil.” Vansen was deeply disheartened. He knelt down, placed the cross on the nun’s body, and attempted to save her with other healing spells.

 

The nun’s head tilted to the side as her last breath left her.

 

Vansen had never encountered such wicked witchcraft before: “This room is too strange. None of the healing spells are working.”

 

“She just… died?” Kaes still couldn’t grasp how the nun had perished. He looked up and saw the candlestick. The first candle remained unlit, after it stood the second candle which already burned down.

 

“What do these candles mean?” “ Keith asked anxiously, hesitant to touch the candles. ”The nun lit the candles and then died.“

 

Kaes had a theory: The first “unlit” candle represented the first steward that entered. The nun wasn’t able to light the first one maybe because he’s already dead. The second candle that recently burned down may have represented the nun.

 

No one dared touch the already lit candles. Keith picked up the match that was still burning from the floor and tried to light the first candle.

 

No matter how he tried, he couldn’t get it to ignite. The match was nearly spent.

 

Long Shi: “Can’t we revive the dead? Does a burned down or unlit candle mean someone’s going to die?”

 

In any case, the nun was completely gone. Wei looked at the last & longest candle on the candlestick, his face somehow slowly turning pale: “There’s still one candle left unlit.”

 

“Uh…” Wei suddenly felt his breath short and started suffocating. Slumping against the wall, he gasped, “I’m the next one to die aren’t I? Tough luck, but why me?”

 

Just before the match went out, Keith lit the last candle.

 

As the last candle flared to life, Wei suddenly found his breath returning. He gasped for air, filling his lungs: “I almost died there! The wizard may have took pity on me.”

 

Kaes counted the candles. Excluding the ones already burned. “There’s seven candles left and there are also seven people remaining…”

 

Vansen: “Then each candle must represent one person. The nun entered second after the steward, so the second candle represents her.”

 

Long Shi glanced at Wei: “Should we light them in order then? Based on Wei’s reaction, it should be the order we entered.”

 

Wei was still shaken: “Terrifying! What if the nun had lit them backwards?” That would have meant he’d be dead.

 

Vansen shot him a look: “The sorcerer wouldn’t be so foolish. He may have already set the sequence. He definitely made sure the nun started lighting the first candle she saw.”

 

The nun might have died the moment the second candle’s flame went out.

 

Kaes stared intently at the burning candles, his expression grave. “These candles will soon burn down. Once they’re extinguished, that means…”

 

Once they burn out, they die. That wizard had meticulously arranged their order of death. What kind of madman could conceive of such a method of killing?

 

After a while, the once empty dark room suddenly filled with objects.

 

A table appeared, covered with a white tablecloth. In the center lay a rotting dog emitting a foul stench. Six plates were set around it, each plate had dog meat.

 

The putrid flesh, crawling with worms, was utterly revolting.

 

Along the wall stood an easel bearing a grotesque painting: the remaining six of them huddled together, devouring the dog meat. Each face was distorted into hideous, grotesque features.

 

Near the easel, art supplies, brushes, paints & a palette lay scattered on the floor.

 

“Good Lord! Who painted this monstrosity?” Keith couldn’t believe anyone would depict him so hideously. Each figure was ugly and bald, their faces dotted with disgusting black spots as they shoved dog meat into their mouths with forks.

 

The people in the painting were feasting heartily, while the mere smell made the survivors want to vomit.

 

“Woof woof!” A translucent spirit puppy appeared in the room.

 

Everyone looked over. It was a thin, white puppy. This was the form it had taken after its death. Its lean head made its eyes and ears appear disproportionately large.

 

The puppy’s ghost lay on the floor watching them, its mouth making “woof woof” sounds. Yet everyone understood what it was saying: “Have you come to eat my flesh?”

 

“Is the dog talking to us?” Long Shi felt a strange sensation.

 

“Yes, woof woof,” the puppy’s ghost replied. Its living form wasn’t frightening; its large eyes looked somewhat pitiful. “My master has prepared my flesh for you. Eat quickly. Once you’ve finished, you may leave.”

 

The spirit puppy circled beneath the chairs, waiting for them to sit down and partake in the dog meat feast.

 

Kaes: “We’ll be poisoned before we even finish eating. How are we supposed to leave then?”

 

The puppy’s ghost sat on the floor, wagging its tail at him: “You’ll go & meet God.”

 

“Vicious little dog!” Wei couldn’t help but exclaim.

 

Kaes pointed at the corpse of the dog in the center: “That must be the dog’s real body.”

 

They gathered around the table, scrutinizing the corpse. It was incomplete, parts cut away and placed on serving dishes.

 

A chunk was missing from its belly, exposing some internal organs.

 

Keith covered his nose with his hand; the stench made him dizzy.

 

“Could the puppy’s magic stone be inside the corpse?” Keith asked.

 

The group exchanged glances. This meant rummaging around inside the corpse.

 

One of the stewards resigned himself to his misfortune. He was the lowest-ranked among them, and his candle was the third one on the candlestick: ”My lord, let me handle it!”

 

The steward glanced at his candle; it was nearly burned out.

 

The steward was grateful he wore gloves. He grabbed a knife from the table, cutting and probing as he went. He searched the dog’s entire insides but found no magic stone.

 

“Why isn’t it here?” The butler was sweating profusely with anxiety. He sliced open the organs, turning the dining table into a gruesome slaughterhouse.

 

The puppy’s ghost, witnessing their brutality, curled up on the edge of the table, whimpering softly: “That’s so mean of you to do… Could you maybe put my body back later?”

 

“Poor little dog,” said Keith. “Do you know where the magic stone is?”

 

The puppy’s ghost tilted its head, refusing to answer: “Whimper whimper.”

 

“I can’t find the magic stone!” The steward frantically tossed aside the shattered pieces, even searching through the fur, but there was no magic stone.

 

“Aaah!” The steward screamed, convulsing on the floor. He glanced at his candle one last time, it had burned out.

 

Vansen tried to save him, but a layer of black mist appeared again blocking his attempt at healing. “I can’t save him in time…”

 

The steward died in despair with his eyes wide open.

 

The next candle was Kaes’s. If his estimate was right, he had roughly five minutes left.

 

“The nun’s candle burned for about five minutes. The steward’s lasted ten. Working backwards, each person gets five more minutes than the last… So we each get a few extra minutes to figure this all out.“

 

”I don’t want to die! What good is five more minutes than the last person? Oh my god! Governor, what are we supposed to do if you die?” Wei was dejected. He was likely to be the last to die, yet he couldn’t muster any joy.

 

He felt Kaes was done for. Five minutes to escape this nightmare was a pipe dream.