Chapter 191
“Wait… this pocket farm–can it respond to my thoughts?” Eliza frowned, glancing around the expanded space.
All she’d wanted was a few bookshelves. Yet the entire space had transformed dramatically, almost as if it had evolved due to some hidden trigger. She mentally retraced everything she had done leading up to the change, but came up empty.
If the farm could evolve once, it could surely do so again. Next time, she’d pay closer attention.
She made her way back to the cabin–no, not a cabin anymore. It had become a towering loft.
Inside, the structure was now split into seven levels, each with distinct purposes,
The first and second floors were dedicated to medicinal herbs and poisonous compounds. The first floor held all manner of medical ingredients, with workbenches for grinding, brewing, and writing prescriptions–all fully equipped, from inkstone to paper, ready for use. The second floor mirrored the layout, except its shelves were filled with toxic substances,
It was obvious these two levels were crafted for her–to aid her in mastering both medicine and poison.
The third and fourth floors were a library. The third contained books she had personally brought in, but the fourth… those books seemed to belong to the pocket farm itself. A strange force barred her from reading many of them, like a restriction placed on her current abilities.
She climbed to the fifth floor–and stopped dead.
Suspended from the rafters were rows of iron
cages.
Most were empty, except one, Sophie.
She had woken at some point and was now writhing helplessly inside the tightly bound, but she was conscious–barely.
cage. Her
eyes
were still blindfolded, and her limbs
Sophie’s breath caught as she heard the footsteps. Is it her? Is it Eliza? She was on the verge of losing her mind.
She couldn’t remember the last time she ate, or had a clean drink of water. Every time she started to regain some awareness, Eliza would force her to ingest more of that drug–never lethal, but strong enough to knock her out. Over and over.
Even now, she could feel herself unraveling.
Kneeling in the cage, Sophie wept uncontrollably. As the footsteps drew closer, she bowed her head toward the sound and pleaded, her voice shaking with desperation. “Please… please let me go. I don’t want to die.”
A sharp pain snapped through her scalp as someone grabbed her hair, yanked her head back, and pulled the gag from her mouth.
“My mother died because of your mother, didn’t she?” Eliza’s tone was chillingly calm.
Sophie’s body went rigid.
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Her voice cracked. She coughed several times, her throat raw from disuse, barely able to speak.
“You don’t have to keep lying,” Eliza said coolly. “I’ll find the proof soon enough. And when I do, you’re coming with me–to the grave.”
Sophie clenched her teeth. “I told you–I don’t know anything. You can kill me, it won’t change that. And anyway… you can’t
kill me.”
Eliza let out a cold, low laugh. “Oh? Why not? You’re locked in my cage. Killing you would be the easy part.
A shiver shot down Sophie’s spine. “If you kill me, my people will come for you. They’ll hunt you down–no matter where you run, no matter how far.
If Eliza hadn’t already heard the truth from Gilbert, she might’ve hesitated. But now?
“Is that so? Well then, let them come.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “As for you, don’t worry–I won’t let you die too quickly. Before that, you’re going to help me with something… a little experiment.”
Sophie blinked in confusion–until something brushed against her shoulder. Then her neck. Something was crawling on
her.
She thrashed violently, trying to shake off whatever was skittering across her body.
Outside the cage, Eliza watched with calm detachment as a large black spider, nearly the size of a fist, crawled lazily across Sophie’s back. It was massive and quick.
Actually… Eliza thought it might be worth seeing that reaction.
She reached out and tore off Sophie’s blindfold.
The fifth floor of the pocket farm was sealed off from the outside world. Sophie could see whatever she wanted now–it didn’t matter.
As her vision cleared, Sophie blinked rapidly… and then saw it. The spider dropped from the top of her head right in front of her eyes.
A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the loft. “Get it off me! What is that thing?! Eliza! What the hell is this? Get it off me right now!”
Sophie flailed in pure panic, trying to swat the spider away but only managing to slap herself repeatedly in the face. She was so frantic, she didn’t even notice that she’d scratched her own scalp bloody.
Gilbert, knowing how much Sophie hated bugs, had always avoided bringing his venomous pets near her. Which is why she failed to recognize what this creature really was.
Outside the cage, Eliza smiled. “What’s the rush? I haven’t even started the experiment.”
“You’re insane!” Sophie shrieked. “What the hell do you want from me?!”
Gone was the tearful, begging woman from earlier. Fear had twisted into fury.
She glared at Eliza with wide, bloodshot eyes. “You want to find out how your mother died, don’t you? Well guess what–you never will. And if you dare lay a finger on me, you’ll never see her body again.”
Those last words wiped the smile clean off Eliza’s face.
A wave of icy fury radiated from her as she stepped closer to the cage. Her voice dropped, each word etched with venom. “You… moved my mother’s body?”
Sophie sneered. “That’s right.”
Inside the cage, she kept swiping at the spider, but it was too fast. She missed again and again, even hitting herself in the head several times in the process.
Enraged and humiliated, she screamed, “If you want to kneel and beg at your filthy mother’s grave, spider off me and let me out of here—now!”
But before she could say another word, the spider scurried to her neck and bit down, hard.
