A wave of horror washed over me as I realized what had happened. The girl I had met in the store had been corrupted, turned into a shadow of her former self. How had it come to this?
Though her desperation was palpable in the store, she wasn't corrupted at that moment. However, she kept repeating that she couldn't bear it anymore. Suddenly, I recalled the "Collar" she often spoke of. Looking closely, I couldn't find any collar anywhere. The original Anthony kept pulling his hair, unable to connect the dots. In the original story, Anthony never left the house until he arrived at the imperial academy. How could the girl find him then? Unless... Anthony somehow stole the collar from the house, and on his way to the imperial academy, the girl could sense the collar binding Anthony.
