Holy Night: My Husband is Definitely a Paladin - Chapter 177
When Irene called out, the figure bent down toward the maid but froze mid-motion.
The eerie sight of it halting in such an unnatural posture sent a chill down Irene’s spine.
No human would ever stop in such an uncomfortable position.
The unease and terror of seeing something that mimicked but wasn’t human overwhelmed her.
‘It’s real.’
To be honest, when she heard the maid’s account of seeing Wilhelmina, Irene had thought it might just be an exaggeration.
If it were true and the figure was truly a monster, she had hoped it would have already dissipated, unable to maintain its existence.
But seeing it so vividly now, she realized hoping for its disappearance had been far too optimistic.
Time seemed frozen as the monster remained locked in its unnatural stance. Then, slowly, it began to move, twisting its body before suddenly spinning around.
“……!”
Irene felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
The turned figure looked just as the maid had described.
From the back, it was identical to Wilhelmina, but the front resembled a doll sculpted from red clay.
‘It looks… different?’
The maid had claimed that Wilhelmina’s face was smooth and featureless, like a polished eggshell.
But now, facing Irene, the monster’s facial area faintly showed the beginnings of eyes, a nose, and a mouth—blunt and unfinished as if they had only just started forming.
It was attempting to mimic Wilhelmina’s actual face.
Horrified, Irene opened her mouth, ready to scream for help.
At that moment.
————!
Before Irene could scream, the monster formed something resembling a mouth and let out a shriek.
The sound hit her like a wave, and she collapsed to the ground.
The books she had been holding scattered across the floor.
‘I can’t move!’
Was this the monster’s method of attack?
The bizarre noise had rendered Irene’s body completely paralyzed.
Her mind was alert, but her body was rigid, unable even to blink.
The monster seemed to realize its attack had worked. Its mouth twisted into a grotesque smile, eerily mimicking Wilhelmina’s expression.
The resemblance sent shivers through Irene.
The monster, still wearing Wilhelmina’s guise, began approaching her slowly.
It moved at a leisurely pace, like a predator confident its prey couldn’t escape.
Desperately, Irene tried to muster the strength to cry out.
But even as the creature closed the distance, her body remained frozen.
The closer it came, the more its hostility became apparent.
Its nails grew sharper, resembling claws, and its crude mouth revealed jagged, sharp fangs as it fully formed.
‘Is this how I die?’
She had already died once before. A miracle had brought her back, allowing her to rewrite her past.
Since then, she had worked tirelessly to change her future.
She was so close to achieving the future she had dreamed of.
Yet now, here she was, about to die to a monster she had never encountered in her past life.
It was absurd.
It made her angry.
‘Really? Just like this? After everything I’ve done, it’s all going to end like this?’
Irene fought with all her might, forcing power into her body.
A faint light of purification began flickering at her fingertips.
Had the paralysis eased slightly? She felt her fingers begin to move, though the rest of her body remained unresponsive.
Seeing her slight movements, the monster hastened its approach.
It raised its sharp claws, poised to strike.
And then—
Thwack!
With a satisfying thud, the monster’s body was sent flying and slammed into the wall.
Stunned, Irene’s eyes darted around, trying to make sense of what had just happened.
‘What just happened? Who helped me?’
Unable to move her head, she could only shift her eyes frantically.
A swift, cutting sound of air whooshed past her.
The monster, which had been crumpled on the floor after hitting the wall, suddenly lifted into the air.
‘That’s…!’
As it hovered, Irene saw a peach-colored tentacle coiling around the red monster’s waist.
‘The tentacle from the dungeon!’
