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The doors were made of well-baked cookies, and the chandelier hanging from the ceiling was made of glistening ice candy.

Delicious-looking breads and pastries were stacked like bricks, forming a massive wall over 10 meters high.

It was truly a candy house.

No, at this scale, it should rightfully be called a mansion or even a castle of sweets.

Suspended in the air of the massive hall made of colorful candies and sweets were dozens of cages, each imprisoning a person.

‘What a bizarre sight.’

Alius sighed as he sat trapped in one of the cages.

‘What on earth is the point of all this?’

Alius knew that necromancers often engaged in all kinds of strange rituals.

But even so, what was the reason for creating such a ridiculous place that seemed straight out of a children’s fairy tale?

‘At least the missing people seem to be unharmed…’

Alius glanced at the other cages.

In each of the dozens of cages, one person was imprisoned.

Most of them were the missing members of the Swindler Border Patrol.

In cages a bit farther away were members of the Evil Slaying Brigade—Leocolt, Lestain, and Stronoff. Felix, the inquisitor of Saisha, who had been missing earlier, was also safe.

Strangely enough, not a single person had died.

Some might call it a stroke of luck, but it wasn’t exactly a situation to be happy about.

They knew why the witch had kept them alive.

After imprisoning each person in a cage, the witch had given them an abundance of food. Candy, cookies, biscuits, and various sweets made of cream and sugar.

And with a laugh, she had proclaimed,

“Keh-heh-heh-heh, I’ll fatten you up and eat you all!”

Of course, Alius didn’t eat anything. Who could, after hearing something like that?

Even if she hadn’t said it, he wouldn’t have dared to touch the food anyway.

Houses made of sweets might seem appetizing in children’s fairy tales, but in real life, they evoke nothing but fear.

This was true, at least, for the second search party, who had only been captured a day ago.

But for those who had been imprisoned for nearly a week, they had no choice.

Once again, it was mealtime.

The chocolate door opened, and cats wearing boots walked in, carrying trays filled with cookies, fruit juice, and other treats.

“Meow!”

“Meow meow!”

Puss in Boots effortlessly leaped into the air, reaching the cages, and skillfully pushed the treats into the cages with their front paws.

The sight might seem cute at first glance, but no one dared to laugh.

When something that should not be cute becomes cute, it only heightens the fear.

“Ugh…”

“Urgh…”

The patrol captain, Felix the priest, and the other border patrol members, who had been held captive the longest, began mindlessly shoving the sweets into their mouths with dazed expressions.

Crunch! Crunch, crunch, crunch!

No matter how much they screamed for them to stop eating, it was useless.

Even if they shouted from inside the cages, their voices couldn’t be heard. No one’s voice could escape beyond the cages.

In the midst of these silent cries, they just ate and drank.

After days of this, everyone had grown noticeably plumper.

It was a terrifying sight.

What on earth were these sweets made of that could fatten them up like this in less than a week?

‘We must never eat them.’

But would they really be able to resist forever?

For now, hunger and thirst weren’t unbearable. After all, it had only been a day since they were captured.

But when more time passes, would they really be able to act differently from the others?

From a distance, Leocolt, trapped in another cage, suddenly began to shout something.

“…!”

Although his voice couldn’t be heard, Alius could clearly see him wrapping red aura around his hands and striking the cage.

Alius clicked his tongue.

‘It’d be better to avoid wasting energy unnecessarily…’

As expected, Leocolt’s battle aura didn’t leave even a scratch on the cage.

It was something they had confirmed several times already.

Not only did battle aura have no effect, but neither Stronoff’s magic nor Alius’ holy spells worked on the cages either.

‘It seems they can only be destroyed from the outside, huh?’

If that was the case, their only hope was for someone to come and rescue them.

Fortunately, Alius had made some preparations. He had discreetly broken a few holy relics to leave a trail.

‘If it’s Lord Karnak, he’ll find a way to help.’

In truth, there wasn’t much of a power difference between Leocolt’s party and Karnak’s. Both groups had high-level mages of the sixth circle and red aura users.

Still, Alius had a strange feeling that Karnak or Baros would find a way out of this situation.

‘The problem is time.’

The marks he left couldn’t be found using magic or aura. Only a cleric could track them.

That meant it could be done discreetly, but…

In other words, the nearby temple would need to send a high-ranking inquisitor for them to be found.

‘It’s likely to take at least three or four days.’

During that time, no matter how thirsty or hungry he got, he would have to endure.

Alius angrily kicked the tray in front of him.

“I’ll never eat it! Never!”

The cookies and juice spilled onto the floor of the hall with a thud.

Below the cage, the Puss in Boots grumbled as they cleaned up the crumbs.

“Meow!”

“Meow!”

***

In the fog-filled forest, Serati paused and furrowed her brow.

“This fog… it’s definitely not a natural phenomenon.”

As an Aura user, she can instinctively distinguish between east, west, south, and north. But ever since they had entered this fog, her sense of direction had been completely muddled.

Karnak shrugged his shoulders.

“That means we’re on the right track.”

They continued following the traces for about 30 more minutes. Through the fog, the vague outline of a small hut began to emerge.

Baros, seemingly relieved, muttered, “Oh, we found it.”

As they quickened their pace, the details of the hut became clearer.

At the same time, Karnak and Baros’s expressions grew peculiar.

Yes, it was indeed a hut, but…

“What… is that?”

“Am I seeing things wrong? Why is that here?”

It was a quaint candy house.

A roof topped with cream, windows framed with candy, walls and pillars crafted from bread and pastries, and even a cake chimney.

Charming and whimsical, yet completely surreal.

“A candy house…”

Serati muttered in disbelief.

“It really looks like something out of a fairy tale.”

Karnak and Baros, puzzled, asked, “You recognize it, Serati?”

“Are there fairy tales with things like that?”

Serati was even more surprised.

“Oh my, you two don’t know?”

The story of a witch living in a candy house was a common fairy tale, known across the entire continent.

“Didn’t your parents tell you stories like that when you were young?”

The two men answered proudly.

“We didn’t grow up with that kind of love from our parents.”

“I grew up alongside the young master, enduring the same hardships as him.”

“In fact, I killed my father with my own hands.”

“I helped him with it.”

Serati was momentarily speechless.

It had been a simple, innocent remark, but to be met with such a grim story?

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that…”

Karnak and Baros chuckled as they passed her by.

“You’re the same as everyone else, huh? Most people get flustered when we bring this up.”

“It was always effective at throwing Martial Kings off their game.”

Shaking her head, Serati sighed.

“…Was that a lie?”

“The part about growing up under harsh treatment is true.”

“So, you really don’t know what this is?”

The group cautiously approached the candy house.

The house wasn’t very large—about the size of a typical hunter’s cabin.

It was definitely not large enough to hold dozens of people.

Baros glanced around and asked, “Where do you think Mr. Alius and the others might be?”

“No idea…”

As they examined the house, Karnak suddenly asked, “Serati, that fairy tale about the witch and the candy house—is that story famous?”

“Huh? Most kids from the Seven Kingdoms would probably know it.”

“And what about the Empire?”

“It originally came from the Empire, so most kids there would know it too, I’d think.”

“So it’s a universally well-known fairy tale across the continent?”

“Well, yes… but why?”

Pointing at the house, Karnak’s expression grew serious.

“Why does it resemble the story so closely?”

Serati, still not understanding, replied with a question of her own.

“Isn’t necromancy usually like this?”

All the necromancy she had seen so far was bizarre and grotesque. A candy house showing up now didn’t seem all that strange in comparison.

If a witch could exist, why wouldn’t there be a candy house?

But for Karnak, it seemed to be more troubling.

“Even necromancy has its own set of rules. It just defies common sense. Remember that necromantic barrier that guy Shutraff summoned?”

Serati let out a bitter laugh.

“How could I forget?”

Because of that barrier, she had lost both of her precious arms, and trying to get them back was why she was now traveling with these people.

It was an event that had changed the course of her life.

“Those tentacles, that wall of flesh… it was all so hideous… Ugh.”

“Exactly. Hideous.”

Karnak nodded.

“Necromancers don’t summon those grotesque tentacles or lumps of flesh because they like them.”

Sure, seeing it often might make one grow accustomed to it, and for some necromancers, even fond of it. But generally, that’s not the case.

“It’s just that those things are part of the hell power they wield.”

The reason necromancy often involves vile and grotesque spells is that such spells are easier to cast and more powerful.

It’s not because necromancers want to use such evil and grotesque magic.

“It’s the same reason most demons summoned by necromancers are ugly.”

They’re stronger and easier to summon that way.

“If a beautiful demon was both powerful and easy to summon, every necromancer would be calling on that instead.”

Karnak spread his arms, gesturing to the candy house.

“But this? What’s the point of recreating a scene from a fairy tale? Why go out of their way to do something like this, even using part of their power to make it happen?”

From a necromancer’s perspective, this candy house was an unnecessary, irrational creation.

“There seems to be something more going on here…”

At that moment, the door to the candy house slowly creaked open.

“…!”

Startled, Serati instinctively reached for her sword.

But her expression quickly softened.

Two black cats emerged from the open door. Serati smiled, delighted.

“Oh my, how cute.”

Karnak and Baros tilted their heads in confusion.

“Cute?”

“I don’t think so.”

“What?”

Suddenly, the two cats began to grow rapidly, as if exploding in size!

“Eeeek!”

“Krrahahaha!”

The cute cats vanished, and in their place were two grotesque, slime-covered monsters, each over two meters tall.

Serati pulled out her sword in horror.

“Ah! What are these things?”

Baros chuckled and extended his hand.

“What do you mean? They’re just common gatekeeper monsters.”

There wasn’t even a need to draw a sword.

He simply coated both hands in red aura and thrust them simultaneously into the slime monsters.

The monsters’ entire bodies began to swell, and beams of light shot out from them in all directions.

And then, an explosion!

BOOM!

As he dusted off his hands and stepped back, Baros grinned.

“Ah, it’s really nice to have awakened my aura.”

Serati blinked in confusion, struggling to understand what had just happened.

“What did you just do?”

“Nothing much.”

Baros casually explained.

“I just infused them with aura through my hands, made them swell up like blowfish, then turned the aura into needle shapes and fired them in every direction. Want me to teach you later?”

“…”

By the time he was talking about manipulating aura like clay, Serati knew this was far beyond her capabilities. And now he was suggesting she transform it into needles and launch them?

What was even more impressive was that none of the exploded monster fragments had touched Karnak or his group.

Baros had precisely controlled the force and direction of the explosion, ensuring nothing sprayed in their direction.

‘Right, this guy’s really a monster among monsters, isn’t he?’

She had momentarily forgotten because she’d only seen him weak and struggling while unable to use his aura.

“…I’ll just keep practicing what I’ve been doing.”

Serati’s tone became noticeably more respectful.