[Location: Dungeon—Vampire King's Castle]
"Before you go," Carmilla said, raising one finger. "There is one more thing you should know."
"Mm?" I murmured, turning my head slightly toward her.
Carmilla's raised finger hovered in the air for a heartbeat longer than necessary, as though she were weighing how much truth could be given without shattering something fragile.
Then she lowered it.
Her expression changed—not into sorrow, not into anger—but into something colder and far more dangerous.
"On the hundredth floor," she said softly, "Only one person can go."
"!!!"
The words did not echo.
They sank.
The ballroom seemed to constrict around us, walls drawing a fraction closer, chandeliers dimming as if listening. Even the illusionary city beyond the windows stilled, frozen mid-laughter, mid-toast, mid-eternity.
Astra blinked. Once. Twice.
"…Only one?" she repeated, unusually quiet.
