Chapter 4
A cold drizzle hung over Qingyao Town.
Doors and windows were shut tight.
The streets were empty.
Not a single villager in sight.
I held my umbrella and frowned. Everything felt wrong the moment we crossed into town.
“Let’s find an inn first,” I said.
Rainwater pooled along the road, reflecting the sky in pale gray mirrors.
The only business still open was a narrow old inn near the center of town. The server rushed out at the sound of our steps, smiling too broadly.
“Passing through? Eating or staying?”
“Staying,” I said. “Four rooms.”
Julian leaned his umbrella against the wall and looked around.
“It’s still early. Why is the whole town dead?”
The server’s smile widened in a way I didn’t like.
“You must be new here,” he said. “Qingyao has its own rules.”
“What rules?” Kira asked.
“After noon,” he said, “everyone closes their doors. No visitors. No going out.”
She tilted her head. “And what do people do locked inside all day?”
The server turned slowly toward her. The smile stayed fixed.
“Why, enjoy the greatest pleasure in the world.”
The way he said it made the back of my neck prickle.
“This,” he went on dreamily, “is a paradise on earth. Stay here one night, and all your pain and sorrow disappear. Every traveler who comes to Qingyao finds what they want. All of them stay in the end.”
His eyes moved from face to face.
“What about you? Is there something you want badly enough to stay for?”
I smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder before he could keep talking.
“Wonderful,” I said smoothly. “I can’t wait to experience it. Please show us to our rooms.”
He blinked, and the unnatural intensity vanished from his face. Then he bowed and led us upstairs.
At the landing, Shane hooked a finger into my sleeve.
“If anything happens, call me. I’m in the next room.”
Julian smacked his hand away.
“When would she ever need your protection? Look in a mirror.”
Kira shoved between them at once.
“Senior Sister, I want to sleep with you.”
Both men moved faster than thought.
A second later, Kira had been bodily stuffed into her own room.
I pressed my fingers to my temple.
“Go inspect your rooms. See if anything’s strange. Be careful tonight.”
Then I raised a hand before any of them could volunteer to follow me.
“I’m going out alone to look around.”
The looks on their faces were immediate.
I added, “Too many people will make it harder. I’ll be back before dark. And for the love of heaven—do not fight.”
Then I climbed out the window.
Once I landed outside, I went from house to house.
In every home, the scene was the same.
People sleeping quietly in bed.
No demon aura.
No signs of struggle.
No curse traces.
Nothing.
Just ordinary sleep.
As dusk deepened, I finally decided to head back.
That was when the street changed.
One step, then another.
The road beneath my feet twisted, blurred, and when I lifted my eyes again, I was no longer in Qingyao at all.
I was back at the sect.
More precisely—
standing outside Kira’s room.
The door opened.
Kira appeared there, smiling softly.
“Senior Sister,” she said, “you finally came back.”
At once, my body started moving toward her.
I went cold.
No.
Not again.
I was being controlled.
I entered the room against my will. Kira’s hand slid behind my neck, warm breath brushing my collarbone as she kissed slowly upward in feather-light touches.
“Senior Sister,” she whispered, “I like you so much.”
I froze.
This was absurd.
Completely absurd.
She had to be under someone else’s control. There was no other explanation.
Right?
Right.
Because otherwise—
No.
Absolutely not.
Then her hands started fumbling at my clothes.
Panic jolted through me so hard I nearly choked. I recited an incantation at top speed in my mind, forcing spiritual power through the dreamlike pressure until, just before my dignity was fully destroyed, I broke free and caught her wrists.
“Kira.”
She blinked at me, dazed.
I shook her shoulders.
“Wake up.”
The haze gradually cleared from her eyes.
After a moment, she let out a breath that sounded almost like a sigh.
“So this is why they call it paradise,” she murmured. “Wish fulfillment. A beautiful dream.”
I stared at her.
Then the room dissolved.
Kira vanished with it.
And I was back in the empty streets of Qingyao, rain murmuring softly around me.
I swore under my breath.
If Kira had been trapped in a dream, then so had the others.
I formed a seal, ready to rush back to the inn—
but the world twisted again.
When I opened my eyes, I stood in a blood-soaked alley.
Bodies lay everywhere.
Humans.
Demon beasts.
The earth had turned dark brown from blood.
A desperate cry came from deeper inside.
I hurried toward it and found a young man cornered by a snarling beast.
Without thinking, I drew my sword and cut the creature down. Hot blood sprayed across the boy’s face.
I reached out to heal him—
and then stopped.
That face.
I knew that face.
Younger, terrified, but unmistakable.
Shane.
He lifted his head slowly, staring at me.
“Do you know me, Immortal?”
I closed my eyes in exhaustion.
What a disaster.
One after another.
Every single one of them had fallen into this thing’s trap.
I grabbed his shoulders.
“Shane, listen to me. This isn’t real. It’s a dream.”
He gazed at me calmly.
“It hasn’t ended yet.”
His fingers closed around my wrist.
The boy’s figure lengthened, broadened, changed.
The alley blurred.
I looked down.
I was wearing my wedding dress again.
When I looked up, I was in the bridal chamber.
Again.
And Shane had me pressed against the bed.
He stared down at me with an expression I did not want to analyze.
“Evelyn,” he said softly, “you’re beautiful.”
Then he bent and kissed the corner of my mouth.
I turned my face away.
“Shane,” I said sharply, “you know this is fake. When exactly are you planning to wake up?”
His fingers slid under my jaw and forced me to look at him.
Then he bit me.
I jerked. “Are you a dog?”
He laughed under his breath and brushed a thumb over the mark.
“Does Master want the dog to lick it better?”
I looked at him in disbelief.
“What happened to being a person? Can you try that?”
He actually flushed a little.
Then, more quietly, “Maybe if you humored me a little, I’d wake up.”
I stared at him.
“I already spent three years saying all kinds of things to you in that fake body. You’re still dreaming about it?”
“That wasn’t you,” he said at once.
Then his face turned redder, apparently because he had realized how bluntly he had said that.
At the same moment, blood began dripping from his nose.
We both looked at it.
He covered it with one hand and closed his eyes.
“…Fine,” he muttered. “I’m awake.”
The bridal chamber dissolved.
I barely had time to breathe before the world shifted again.
This time I found myself in a dark red palace I had never seen before, full of black stone and low-burning lamps.
It felt familiar anyway.
Of course.
Julian.
A Demon Lord’s palace.
I had just started thinking that he, too, had somehow managed to fall into the trap when someone embraced me from behind.
“Evelyn,” Julian said warmly into my shoulder, “you finally came. I’ve been waiting forever.”
I twisted around. “You’re awake?”
“Yep.” He smiled lazily. “That mirror demon said it could grant my heart’s desire, then gave me dream after dream of killing Eye Demons. It got boring fast. I was about to leave, but then it said you were coming to give me a beautiful dream, so I stayed.”
That… was concerning.
Very concerning.
Before I could retreat, he scooped me up, carried me to the bed, and set me down like something precious.
Then he cupped my face.
“I’m going to start enjoying my dream now.”
I had a terrible feeling.
“What dream?”
He kissed my cheek with an audible little sound.
I went blank.
No.
Absolutely not.
I had known him as a friend for years.
Apparently, he had been pursuing an entirely different classification.
I closed my eyes in numb despair.
So this was my life now.
Julian’s fingers brushed the bite mark on my lip left by Shane’s dream self.
His voice turned dangerous.
“A dirty dog bit you outside?”
I opened my eyes and said flatly, “Yes. And you’re the side piece.”
He blinked.
“There’s a first and second before me too,” I added helpfully. “Honestly, maybe the three of you should just get together. You’re all deranged enough to match.”
Julian’s face darkened. Then he kissed me properly to shut me up.
By the time his hand slid to my waist, I had recovered enough to punch him square in the chest.
He reeled back with a pained sound and licked blood from the corner of his mouth.
“Can I trade one punch for one kiss?” he asked.
I punched him again.
“Wake up.”
He raised both hands immediately. “All right, all right. I’m awake.”
The palace dissolved too.
I stood once more in Qingyao’s rain-soaked street, staring down at the puddles.
Mirrors.
Everywhere.
That was it.
The moment we entered Qingyao and saw our reflections in the water, we had already stepped into the mirror world.
The dreams it created were tailored to the heart.
That was why mine hadn’t been a beautiful fantasy at all, but a false version of the mission already solved—a trap meant to make me leave satisfied while the real demon remained alive.
If I returned to the inn now, I would probably find a fake mirror demon waiting to die by my hand. Once I killed it, the dream would present a neat, completed mission, and I’d walk away believing everything was over.
But the real creature would still be here.
Watching.
Listening.
Waiting.
So I didn’t go back.
Instead, I raised my head and looked into the empty air.
“Still not coming out?” I asked softly. “I see you now.”
For one split second, the space ahead of me rippled.
I moved instantly.
My sword slashed forward. At the same time, I formed a seal and spoke coldly:
“Yin and yang reverse. False and true split apart.”
The world cracked.
Like glass.
One fracture. Then another.
The empty streets peeled away in shards.
Behind them came real sound at last—
vendors shouting
doors opening
life.
The true Qingyao Town emerged.
And the mirror demon, pinned by my sword to a wall, shrieked.
I grabbed the mission token from my belt and forced the demon into it. The token itself was a temporary sealing vessel. The words Mission Complete flashed across its surface.
I exhaled.
Finally.
That was done.
So I turned to leave the town—
only to find Kira waiting for me at the exit with a bright smile.
She slipped her fingers through mine.
“Senior Sister,” she asked sweetly, “why didn’t you wait for me?”
I laughed weakly.
“Junior Sister, I thought the three of you might want to look around a little longer.”
I turned.
And directly met Julian’s gaze.
Then Shane’s.
All three of them stood there looking at me.
I stared back.
Dear heaven.
What exactly had I done to end up with three emotional debts chasing me at once?
It felt less like romance and more like being haunted.
By three different ghosts.