IWIAHC Chapter 11

The light patter of a child's running feet echoed through the hallway. Lily pressed her face into Julia's skirt, a book tucked under one arm—a most enthusiastic greeting.

Julia thanked Mrs. Brown once more, then took Lily's soft hand and climbed the stairs.

"What did you read today?"

"A dragon! There was a dragon!"

"There was a dragon."

"There was a dragon!"

One word per step. Lily bounded up the stairs with vigor, her ponytail bouncing like a puppy's tail.

"The good dragon granted wishes, but the wizard—the bad wizard—changed his mind and didn't keep his promise..."

"So the wizard betrayed the good dragon."

"Yes! He betrayed him!"

"And then what happened?"

"The dragon woke up, but the wizard was already dead, but the dragon thought the wizard was still alive, and the dragon breathes ice from his mouth! Woaaaah!"

Lily opened her mouth wide and let out a roar. Julia quickly bent down, looked into Lily's eyes, and said:

"Shh. We must be quiet in the hallway."

Lily covered her mouth with both hands.

"Quiet in the hallway."

Julia stroked the head of the child who was now whispering, then unlocked the door with her key.

"A dragon that breathes ice—how extraordinary."

"Yes! Extraordinary!" The response never came. Lily hadn't entered. She stood rooted to the spot, staring up at the stairs that continued to the upper floor.

"Lily?"

Even when Julia gently tugged her hand, Lily didn't move.

"Lily, what's wrong?"

"It's Mr. Bain."

Bain was a man who lived upstairs—a kind neighbor who never minded Lily's chatter and listened to her quite attentively.

'Goodness, I almost ignored a neighbor. I must be more tired than I thought.'

Julia turned from where she'd been halfway into the room and looked up the stairs. No one was there.

While Julia stood confused, Lily waved at empty air.

"Hello, Mr. Bain. Can I see you? Yes! I can see you! But Mr. Bain, why did your skin turn gray? And your hair used to be brown, but why is it black now? Did you dye it? Can you dye skin too? Your face? Your arms?"

Julia looked back and forth between Lily and the empty air. Lily's eyes were focused—truly fixed on something, as though she were actually looking up at someone.

"But it must be really good dye. It doesn't smell at all. When Mrs. Brown dyed her hair, I had to hold my nose! Your hair looks nice now. But I liked it better before when it was..."

A creeping sensation slithered down Julia's spine. She scooped Lily up and carried her into the room.

As Julia locked the door, Lily whined:

"Grandma, I didn't get to say goodbye..."

"Who on earth were you talking to just now, child?"

"Mr. Bain! But he's really strange. That's what they mean by getting scammed, right? Ask him who he bought that hair dye from. And let's not buy from there."

Julia set Lily down on the floor, crouched, and grasped both of the child's upper arms.

"Lily, sweetheart, there was no one there!"

"But there was?"

Lily blinked. The child's eyes shone clear and bright. It wasn't a lie.

They were looking at each other when Lily suddenly glanced over Julia's shoulder, her face lighting up with excitement.

"Grandma! Mr. Bain walked through the wall! Wow! Mr. Bain, do it again! Huh? Come to your room? On the third floor? You collapsed? But you're right here—how did you collapse? You're not collapsed? You say you're in your room? Huh? But Mr. Bain, you're right here? You're here but also in your room?"

The furniture in the room began to tremble. The legs of the crude wooden chair and desk rattled against the floorboards in rapid succession, and the old window frame made an ominous sound.

"Sniff... I'm sorry. Grandma, Mr. Bain says to tell you something. He wants you to call Mrs. Brown. He says he locked the door from inside. Is that good? Did I say it right?"

As if by magic, the trembling stopped. While Julia stood bewildered in the eerie silence, Lily's gaze continued to wander through empty air.

Julia collected herself. She was the child's guardian. She couldn't afford to lose her composure.

"Lily, stay in the room and don't go anywhere. Understood?"

"Yes, Grandma."

Julia lit a candle for her, then left the room. Lily called after her retreating back: "Goodbye, Mr. Bain!"

"Hehe, I said goodbye this time."

Julia felt an unsettling presence behind her as she locked the door from outside. Then she went downstairs to find Mrs. Brown.

She fabricated a story for the landlady—that Lily had been so eager to see Mr. Bain that they'd gone to visit, only to hear the sound of someone collapsing beyond the locked door.

When Julia asked the woman to come with her out of concern, Mrs. Brown readily agreed and gathered her ring of keys. Together they headed to Bain's room.

Lily swallowed hard.

"So what happened?"

"When we got there, Mr. Bain was lying collapsed. Blood was flowing from his head. He passed away shortly after."

Lily couldn't accept that she was the protagonist of this absurd ghost story.

"It happened one more time after that. I was walking down the street when you started saying strange things and pulling me along, so I went with you—and found a pedestrian collapsed."

"What happened to that person?"

Julia shook her head silently. Lily slumped against her chair, the strength draining from her.

"I don't understand why this is happening to me. I'm not crazy. Absolutely not. His Grace's ghost is real!"

"Actually... my maternal grandmother experienced the same thing you do. Or at least, I think she did."

"What?!"

This was the first Lily had ever heard of it.

"My grandparents came from Solmon. When I visited my aunt's house, I happened to find her late mother's diary and read accounts about spirits."

Lily's eyes couldn't have grown wider.

"At the time, I wasn't yet fluent in Solmon, so I thought I'd misinterpreted the figurative language. But after watching you behave that way twice, that diary suddenly came to mind."

Julia had known for a very long time that her granddaughter was a strange creature.

And yet she'd never shown any sign of it. She'd raised Lily with nothing but love.

The truth burst out before Lily could stop it.

"Thank you for not abandoning me..."

She meant it. A small child who sees spirits—how horrifying. How disturbing, how questionable her sanity.

Other people would think the same. It was obvious. Wolfram was keeping her around only because she'd recognized Aiden Casimir, a heavyweight of a ghost.

If she'd announced that the ghost of someone trampled by horses haunted the stables, she would have been thrown out of the castle immediately.

Julia's eyes went round, as though she'd heard something utterly nonsensical.

"What kind of ridiculous thing are you saying? Whether you see spirits or not, you're my good, dear granddaughter Lily Dienta. That's no problem at all!"

Lily's eyes grew moist. She was truly glad she hadn't mentioned her grandmother in the office.

If Julia had been recruited on her recommendation and fallen into Wolfram's clutches because of it, Lily would never have been able to forgive herself.

Julia spoke with a grave expression, recounting her anguish at the time.

"The real problem was your safety. Left as you were, you would have been destined for a mental institution or locked away in a convent. So I gave you mental training every single day without fail."

"Mental training?"

"Yes. To make you fear spirits, to keep you away from places where spirits might be, and if you should encounter one, to flee immediately."

"Wait. That was training? Reading me ghost stories in bed every night? That wasn't your hobby?"

Julia had truly been excessive back then.

No matter how much Lily cried and begged, Julia would tell her one cruel and terrifying ghost story after another.

Crimson teeth. Bones bursting from the earth to grab ankles. Bloodshot eyes watching from beyond the keyhole...

Young Lily, blessed with a vivid imagination, had pictured them all far too clearly in her mind.

As a result, those ghost stories remained intact in her subconscious, appearing in nightmares even now.

Julia didn't respond to Lily's shock and changed the subject.

"But in the end, you saw one again. And Duke Casimir, no less... Such a tragedy at such a young age."

And so the old story came to an end.

Lily checked the window. Morning had long since passed. She gathered the empty dishes onto the tray.

"Indeed. May Lumion look down upon him with mercy! But Grandma, we'd better hurry now."

Julia remained skeptical.

"I understand the situation, but this fleeing business—isn't it a bit excessive? You know it's nearly impossible to relocate to a different territory."

Realistically speaking, Julia was right. But Lily couldn't back down.

"If you'd seen Baron Burnett's face when he was going on about carriage accidents, you would have made the same judgment I did. That was definitely not an idle threat. The moment I become useless, he'll definitely dispose of me."

Julia frowned and stared intently at her granddaughter's face. Finally, she let out a sigh and said:

"All right. If you're speaking that seriously about it, I suppose I should follow your lead."

Lily nodded vigorously.