Defy Me If You Can のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 41 - チャプター 50

Her shoes hovered over the boundary of the door, the tip of one barely crossing the line before pulling back again. She wasn't ready to enter. Even if the entire day passed with her standing rooted in this exact spot, she knew she would still hesitate to step inside this place crowded with vampires whose eyes gleamed far too sharply whenever blood was mentioned.The mansion itself felt alive in the worst possible way. Music drifted faintly from somewhere deeper within the halls, elegant and soft, yet underneath it came the sound of quiet laughter that prickled across her skin. The scent in the air was sweet, almost rotten beneath the perfume of roses and wine.Jane swallowed, every instinct in her body screamed at her to turn around and leave."Stick with me," Victor said beside her.He smiled when he said it, but it wasn't reassuring. Nothing about Victor had ever been reassuring. His smiles always carried something dark beneath them, as though amusement and cruelty were stitched tog

Seeing his face suddenly turn void of a smile, Jane felt her entire body stiffen almost immediately at the sight. The reaction came so naturally that even she herself couldn't stop it.To see Victor looking so expressionless startled her deeply as he had never once looked at her without a smile before. Even when he threatened people, even when he mocked them or spoke of horrifying things so casually, there had always been that smile lingering on his lips like he found the world amusing.But now it was gone, completely gone and somehow that was far worse than his usual terrifying grin. He was already frightening with a smile, but when all traces of fun and joy vanished from his face, she felt as though her heart had suddenly dropped into freezing water. His face looked empty in a way that made him seem less human and more like something wearing human skin out of convenience. His eyes especially looked colder without the upward curve of his lips softening them.It was a kind of fear sh

As the game of card started, Jane gritted her teeth and looked on her left and right before turning her gaze toward Victor who was smiling lightly, placing the cards higher for her to see and choose from. The dim light above reflected faintly against the cards on his fingers while his expression remained terribly relaxed as though there was nothing at stake at all.Staring at it for a moment, she sighed and whispered quietly, "You have no jokers."She heard him chuckle."What a shame."What a shame?Jane nearly frowned at those words.Was this man truly wishing for a difficult game when the cost of losing was her own life?That thought only made her distrust him even more and looking once again at the cards on his hands, she wondered if she could somehow find a way to ensure her own victory instead. In the end, to play a card game, one needed a calculative brain capable of predicting possibilities and leading the flow of the game toward one's desired ending.But more importantly, one

The haughty Oliver scoffed openly at Victor’s words while the rest of the room fell into a suffocating silence. Even the servants standing by the walls lowered their heads, too afraid to breathe too loudly after hearing the tone Victor had used.Only Oliver, however, seemed delighted by it.He stepped forward lazily, one hand tucked into his pocket while the other brushed dust from his sleeve as though Victor’s warning had been beneath him. Then, as if he had suddenly remembered the funniest joke in the world, he let out a sharp laugh that cracked through the silence.“Who am I?” Oliver repeated mockingly. “I’m certainly not some defective creature like you."A few faces in the crowd paled immediately.“But perhaps no one told you yet,” Oliver continued with a grin, pacing slowly around the table like a wolf circling prey. “This house does not belong to you. And even if it is, do you think you are someone with such a high position that you could force anyone into your bidding?” He clic

"How twisted," she whispered and saw as Victor smiled as if proud that the world was nothing but a twisted hell."What card do I have on my left finger now?" Victor asked again and seeing the card between his fingers, Jane gritted her jaw tightly.Should she tell him the truth? Should she lie instead?For many reasons, she couldn't make her decision. She knew Victor's horrible habit of wanting to throw people into suffering simply because he found amusement in it, so what difference would this situation make? If he wanted to lose on purpose just to watch her panic and suffer afterward, that would be extremely entertaining for someone like him.But on the other hand, Victor also hated losing.Even in something trivial, he despised defeat to an unreasonable extent. It was possible that despite wanting to torment her, he still wanted to win the game in the end.Both choices seemed equally possible. But Victor... he had always been an unpredictable man. It was easy for him to do one thing