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“Mother?” Lauren frowned. Liana’s mother, the first wife of the Ye family head, had already passed away five years ago. Everyone in Maplefall Town knew about it, as the Ye family had held an extremely lavish funeral for her at the time.

That was why Lauren was utterly confused by what Liana meant when she referred to her “mother.” Following Liana’s gaze, she looked over and saw the doll. Then, she immediately remembered the infamous rumor about Liana that had spread throughout Maplefall Town.

“She really is mentally ill.” Lauren sighed softly. But she did not move. In a crisis like this, bringing along an inconvenient doll would be extremely unwise.

However, Liana kept staring at her with a pleading look in her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Lauren spoke in a low voice before preparing to ignore Liana’s sorrowful expression and forcefully carry her away. Her wrist was still bleeding, but she had no time to treat it. She had to get Liana out of this place as quickly as possible.

“Please…” Yet somehow, Liana found the strength to grab Lauren’s hand tightly. Struggling to speak, she said, “Mother… she’s sick… She’s very thin.”

“……”

“If… we don’t take her with us… Father will kill Mother…”

“That’s not your mother. It’s just a doll.” Lauren quietly spoke the cruel truth. She knew that this might be too harsh a blow for someone suffering from a mental illness. But right now, she had to prioritize convincing Liana. There was not much time left. They could not afford to delay.

“A doll?” Liana suddenly widened her eyes, looking utterly disbelieving. “What are you… talking about? That’s… Mother, not… a doll.”

“That is a doll!” Lauren shouted. Liana’s excessive stubbornness was beginning to irritate her.

“But…” Liana stared at the figure in confusion. Those gentle brows and eyes. That smiling mouth. That was her mother. How could she possibly be a doll?

“If you don’t believe me…” Lauren fell silent for a moment before suddenly walking toward Liana’s *mother*. “Then I’ll prove it to you.”

She picked up the longsword from the black-robed man’s hand and pointed it at Liana’s *mother.* Then she turned toward Liana and said, “Watch closely. You’ll see whether it bleeds.”

With that, she ignored Liana’s panicked expression and forcefully drove the longsword downward. But the sword failed to pierce its target. It was not because Lauren had suddenly realized that the doll really was Liana’s mother. Nor was it because her conscience had awakened, causing her to feel some unfounded pity for a mere doll.

Instead, a sudden, excruciating pain erupted in her abdomen, followed by her entire body going limp. It was as if something had instantly drained every ounce of strength from her.

She lowered her head. A small dagger glinting with a cold light was embedded in her abdomen. And the one holding the dagger was… that doll? The very doll Liana had called *Mother*? But how could a doll possibly…

“Hehehe. Come to think of it, you’re the third person I’ve successfully ambushed tonight.” A cold, sinister voice sounded beside Lauren’s ear. Lauren felt as though she had fallen into an icy abyss, her entire body turning cold. She knew that voice far too well.

For the past five years, that voice had been the target the entire Inspection Bureau had been hunting during every full moon. It was the dark cloud hanging over the entire Inspection Bureau, the culprit responsible for countless sleepless nights. It was the voice of the Moon Demon.

“You…” Lauren looked up and stared at the doll in horror.

The doll’s face had been painted with a delicate visage that bore a striking resemblance to Liana’s, perhaps the work of some renowned artist. It looked incredibly lifelike. But no matter how lifelike it was, it should still have been nothing more than a painted face. Yet that painted face now wore a comical smile, its lips curling upward slightly like a clown who had just succeeded in pulling off a prank.

“Hehe, didn’t expect that, did you? I… am the Moon Demon you’ve all been talking about.” The doll giggled as it spoke.

Only then did Lauren understand why there had always been something about the Moon Demon that felt unlike a living creature. Why the Inspection Bureau had always struggled to track her movements. Why she could so easily infiltrate the Inspection Bureau or the City Lord’s Manor. Because she had never been a living creature to begin with. She was a doll, a doll that could move on its own.

Living beings were difficult to conceal, but for an inanimate object to hide itself was far too easy. Then, if that was the case, what about Liana, who had always called it *Mother*… Lauren turned her head.

Liana was staring at the scene in shock as well, and the astonishment in her eyes was impossible to fake. So she hadn’t known either?

Lauren turned back and looked at the Moon Demon.

“Chief Inspector Li… You were the one who killed him, weren’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“I see.”

Lauren endured the excruciating pain and struggled to calm herself. Then she raised the magic wand in her other hand and aimed it at the Moon Demon.

“You can die now.” A pink beam erupted instantly. It carried a chilling killing intent and a hatred that cut to the bone. This was the first time she had unleashed the magic wand’s full power. As long as it struck the Moon Demon, it would surely reduce her to ashes in an instant.

But it failed to hit its mark. Because at the very last moment, Liana somehow found the strength to struggle to her feet from the ground and shove Lauren aside.

Lauren’s body was pushed off course, and even though the Moon Demon was right in front of her, the beam merely grazed past her.

“Liana!” Clutching her bleeding abdomen, Lauren shouted furiously, “What the hell are you trying to do?”

“No… You can’t kill her…” Liana said tremblingly.

“Why can’t I? She’s not your mother. She’s the Moon Demon, a lunatic and a psychopath who has been killing people under the full moon. Do you have any idea how many people she’s killed over the past five years? And she definitely had a hand in what happened tonight. Do you really want to let even more people die because of her?”

“No, I don’t want anyone else to die…” As though she had finally broken through some kind of restraint, Liana’s words at last began to flow smoothly. Yet she still looked so frail, tears streaming down her face. “But… but… Even if she really is the Moon Demon, I still have to save her. Because she’s my mother.”

“She isn’t!” Lauren was practically driven to the brink of a breakdown by Liana’s infuriating lack of understanding. “She’s nothing more than a doll. No, strictly speaking, she’s a monster residing inside a doll. How could she possibly be your mother?”

Lauren simply could not understand. Even if you were mentally ill, even if there was something wrong with your head, surely you still had some semblance of normal reasoning.

She had just driven such an obvious knife straight into Lauren’s body, leaving her in unbearable pain, and Liana still thought she was her mother? Were you seriously born from a puppet?

“No, she really is Liana’s mother.” A calm voice suddenly rang out, contradicting Lauren’s words.

Landon had returned at some point and was now standing at the edge of the altar, looking at Lauren with an enigmatic smile as he said, “This existence that appears to be a doll to you, or rather, the vile Moon Demon you’ve been talking about, was indeed Liana’s mother in a certain sense. At least five years ago, she was her mother.”