Chapter 583: Pretending to Be a Ghost, Scaring the Princess to Death

Night fell once again, and the Princess noticed that it felt exceptionally cold and dreary today.

Still, no one had come to rescue her. Ovillette, Ayre—she had no idea where they were.

She wondered, "Were they locked up too? Otherwise, why haven’t they come looking for me?"

The Princess didn’t know why these people had captured her, either. It felt different from last time; those people had wanted her dead, but these captors did not.

Shivering from the cold, the Princess watched as the room’s door opened and a man walked in, carrying a meal box for her.

"Eat up, and go to sleep early when you’re done," the man said.

He spoke in the language of Elandra.

The Princess was surprised. "You can speak Elandran?"

She had assumed none of them could understand her. She immediately yelled, "Let me out! Who are you people? What do you want?"

However, the man replied, "Don’t ask so many questions. Just eat your food and go to bed early, or else..."

"Or else what?"

She wondered, "Is someone going to kill me in my sleep?"

The man said, "Nothing much, just that this place is haunted."

"Haunted?" The Princess was shocked.

"Yeah, haven’t you noticed over the past two days? There’s often a woman in a white dress wandering around here at night. Rumor has it she died a tragic death, so her lingering resentment tied her to this world. She supposedly roams the earth, claiming she’ll find the person who murdered her and drag them down to hell with her.

"You might not know about it, but things like this really exist. It’s terrifying, anyway. She’ll appear right in front of you and take your life."

After saying that, the man seemed to remember something and added, "Oh, I think the woman’s name was Winter Mercer. This used to be where she lived."

"Winter Mercer? How could it be Winter Mercer!"

The Princess refused to believe it. Winter Mercer had been dead for so many years; how could there be a ghost?

She thought, "No, absolutely not. It’s impossible!"

The man left after saying his piece. The Princess looked at the food, having completely lost her appetite. Her mind raced with his words, her imagination already running wild. She had seen this sort of thing on TV shows, and she knew it was all fake.

And yet...

Even though she didn’t believe in ghosts, a guilty conscience bred fear.

But she was still hungry, having not eaten a thing all day. She picked up the meal box and began to wolf down the food.

Right at that moment, the room’s door suddenly swung open. It hit the wall with a loud BANG. The Princess looked up, only to find no one there.

She wondered, "If there was no wind, why would the door blow open?"

"Who’s out there?" the Princess asked, standing up. She didn’t dare approach the doorway.

She paused for a long while, but there was no sound.

She assumed the wind was just too strong—perhaps it had blown the door open. But she hadn’t felt any wind at all. She told herself not to overthink it. Just as she was about to resume eating, she suddenly felt as though a shadow had flashed past the doorway. Although she didn’t see it clearly, the fleeting blur was undeniable.

Panic seized her heart as she wondered what it could be.

"Who is it!"

Just then, a commotion came from the window, sounding like something was causing it to RUSTLE.

As the Princess looked toward the window, the lights in the room suddenly went out. On the glass pane, the reflection of a white, human-like figure appeared.

The Princess saw the face—it was Winter Mercer!

"Ah! Ah!!!" The Princess was frightened out of her wits.

The food in her hands dropped to the floor, but she couldn’t care less. The next second, the figure on the window vanished. Those brief two seconds felt as though they had been nothing but a hallucination.

The room remained pitch black, but the Princess was already terrified out of her mind.

She thought in terror, "Ghosts! There really are ghosts!"

The door was still open. Disregarding everything else, she bolted straight out of the room.

The entire villa was dark. This was just one of Quentin Blackwood’s properties, and few people usually lived here. Outside, the wind was blowing—strong and biting cold. With the whole house submerged in darkness, the Princess had no sense of direction.

She had seen it clearly just a moment ago. That was Winter Mercer’s face—that vixen! She would never forget that face for as long as she lived!

Suddenly, the lights flickered back on. The Princess looked around. The space was completely empty; there was no one else there.

She panicked, "Where on earth am I? Where is this place?!"

Yesterday, when she had wanted to leave, she couldn’t open the door at all. But now, not only was the door open, it seemed as if she could leave at any moment!

She geared up to run out the main door, but before she could even take a step, a voice echoed out. "What, do you not recognize me anymore?"

The Princess stopped in her tracks, paralyzed with fear. She looked around but saw nothing.

She wondered in terror, "Who is it? Who’s talking?"

At that moment, a chill ran down her spine. It felt like something was staring at her. She turned around, only to see a woman in a white dress standing outside the door. The woman’s face was deathly pale. If that wasn’t Winter Mercer, who was it?

"Ah!" The Princess slumped to the ground. "Are you human or a ghost? Who on earth are you?"

"What do you think?" The woman’s voice still sounded like a young girl’s, as if she were frozen in time, completely unchanged.

Suddenly, the figure before her simply vanished. Right in front of the Princess’s eyes, she disappeared into thin air.

"You..." The Princess hadn’t even blinked. How could a person just disappear?

Just then, the woman’s voice echoed from behind her once more. "How did you treat me back then? How did you kill me? Do you really not remember?"

The Princess whipped her head around and, sure enough, saw Ivy Sherwood standing behind her.

"Ah!" Screaming seemed to be the only sound the Princess could make.

"It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me..." The Princess’s pupils dilated in absolute terror. "It has nothing to do with me! I don’t know anything!"

When a person was overcome with fear, reason flew out the window, and they would say just about anything. The Princess had already been terrified by being locked up here, let alone seeing such a face in such an eerie setting.

"Who exactly are you?! You’re not Winter Mercer! Are you Ivy Sherwood? Are you just playing tricks on me?!"

She reasoned that Ivy Sherwood shared the same face as Winter Mercer. It had to be Ivy, or else how could ghosts possibly exist in this world?

"Heh..." the woman’s cold laughter echoed.

"Did you really think that everything you’ve done would stay hidden forever?

"Are you still dreaming of escaping this place? You can’t. I’m going to return the favor for what you did to me, twice over. Let’s see how you like the taste of your own medicine. What do you say?"

The woman’s voice carried a sinister terror, sounding unbelievably ghastly amidst the dark night and the biting wind.

As the woman spoke, the Princess felt what seemed to be a hand clamping down on her throat, making it difficult for her to breathe. It felt as if a ghost had genuinely come to claim her life. She truly experienced the agonizing pain of suffocation.

"No—!" the Princess shrieked. "I didn’t do anything! It wasn’t me! It really wasn’t me! I don’t know, I don’t know anything! Jason Summers! Jason Summers did it all!"