NOMAMWTM Chapter 11

"Hng...!"

It felt like something was being sucked out of her body.

Soon, an enormous surge of silver magic shot upward.

Charlotte's face, which had been wavering for a moment, went pale.

There was nothing wrong with the necklace. So why, and why now of all times.

The acrid smell seemed to brush past the tip of her nose.

—Mom, Mom, Mommy!

Terrible memories came flooding in, making a creak, crack sound as they pressed forward.

Charlotte tried to do something, but the magic only grew larger and larger.

Finally, when she reflexively closed her eyes against the light that seemed blinding enough to take her sight and opened them again—

"...Huh?"

The magic had vanished without a trace.

It wasn't a rampage or anything like that. Nothing happened at all.

It had simply disappeared.

"What the...?"

Charlotte looked around in a daze, then widened her eyes when she saw Michael's mother.

The spots that had covered her just moments ago had vanished as if washed clean.

All of the spots—even though they'd been faint, there had been enough of them to cause a seizure—were gone, as if they'd been nothing but a dream.

Her breathing had stabilized too, and her expression was as peaceful as someone simply sleeping.

Only the bloodstains covering the bedding on all sides proved that she'd been having a seizure just moments before.

...Had the magic healed the disease?

At any rate, it was fortunate that no one had died, but Charlotte blinked. It was strange.

Magic had been utterly useless against this disease. Animal blood had been the only treatment that provided even slight relief.

If it could be cured with magic, her mother wouldn't have died. Her mother had been a powerful mage.

Had it been a different disease?

Charlotte stared blankly at the now-peaceful lady, unable to make sense of the situation, then came to her senses with a start when she saw the rabbit's front paw bleeding.

"Oh, sorry."

She found bandages among the various medicines piled on the table and carefully wrapped them around the rabbit's paw.

The rabbit's paw was so small that even tying a knot wasn't easy. Charlotte struggled with the bandages that kept slipping down.

"There."

The moment she finally managed to tie the knot, the rabbit leaped down from the bed as if it had been waiting for this.

The bed was very high for a small baby rabbit.

"Wait—!"

Charlotte was horrified, but the rabbit landed lightly on the floor and hopped away through the gap in the door.

"Who, who...?"

"Hng."

She'd been staring stupidly at where the rabbit had run off when she flinched at the faint voice—someone had apparently been awakened by the commotion.

Not knowing what to do, she rushed out of the room as if fleeing.

Whether the disease was cured or not, wouldn't anyone be startled to suddenly wake up and find a stranger in their bedroom?

Clatter.

She seemed to have knocked something over in the process, but there was no time to look back.

Adeline Cardium, wife of Antonio Cardium and mother of Michael Cardium, had endured with strength unlike the countless others who had crumbled overnight when confined to the estate in her younger days.

Together with her husband—now deceased—she had identified the strange creatures' behavior patterns, created rule books, and saved countless people who'd stood at death's door after falling prey to the creatures' temptations.

Perhaps that was why. Ten years ago, when Antonio died, the creatures gave her this terrible disease.

A disease whose cause was unknown, which appeared in no medical text no matter how thoroughly she searched, which caused terrible suffering as gray spots covered her body.

None of the medicines stored in the estate had any effect, and all the various remedies Michael had compounded and brought to her failed to ease her illness.

The disease that had worsened and worsened again over ten years finally made her sense death today.

It was an eerie and sad intuition that only those with one step left before crossing death's threshold could feel.

Would she never see in this lifetime the day when this estate's barrier—brilliant and therefore all the more despairing—would crumble away and the creatures would all vanish, returning freedom to them? Adeline thought with difficulty.

Simply.

—Mother. You will not die. I... I will not allow it. Never.

May her poor son, who spoke stiffly outside the door without even seeing his mother's face lest even this final moment of sending off his parent hasten her end, be freed from this estate as soon as possible.

And may that poor child forgive her—his foolish and utterly powerless mother—she could only pray again and again to the benevolent goddess Sornia.

Ah, Michael.

Her sons, Michael was such a pitiable and wretched child.

She was already so sorry for letting him be born with ears that could hear the creatures' voices, and that child had been raised alone since just fifteen, after Antonio died.

It was because of the creatures.

The creatures who despised magic wanted to kill not only Antonio, who had been a mage, but especially Michael, who could even hear their voices.

However, unable to touch Michael because of magic, after Antonio's death they used the gap that had opened in the estate's magic to kill everyone Michael showed affection for.

Michael's familiar.

Sarah, who had been his nurse.

Kyle, who had been Sarah's son and with whom Michael had often played.

Even a maid with whom he'd exchanged only a single word.

Already burdened with responsibility for all their lives at such a young age, the child even went into a rampage and locked his heart away from everyone.

Though it wasn't like that anymore, the household members at the time had been blinded by death and avoided the child, feared him. The child had coldly pushed them away too.

And so the child who protected everyone became alone.

She couldn't fathom how great that loneliness and hurt must be.

So please, Sornia.

In exchange for taking her life, please grant that poor child freedom. Grant him happiness.

May the day come soon when everyone in this estate no longer needs to think of death.

Adeline Cardium prayed this way as she fell into what might be her last sleep.

Soon the inevitable agony came.

Pain as if her heart were being torn apart.

The pain the dead servants must have experienced.

Her mouth—which didn't feel like her own—screamed.

As the pain grew, her consciousness sank deeper and deeper in inverse proportion.

Was this death?

Though she wanted to go to Antonio's side in hell, she didn't want to leave her sons behind.

She didn't want to leave Michael alone.

But her consciousness kept sinking into the deep, dark, pitch-black abyss...

Until white light wrapped around her body.

When had it started?

Since when had it been there?

She couldn't tell.

But Adeline, who had been sinking into a dark and pitch-black place, at some point saw a white and noble light.

The light seemed to pass by in an instant, yet also seemed to have been wrapping around her for eons.

Pure white flowed into the black abyss of unconsciousness where she couldn't see an inch ahead.

What had been only a tiny single stream gradually grew larger, swallowing the pitch-blackness and illuminating the entire world.

The pain disappeared.

Her heavy body suddenly became light.

Her body, which she hadn't been able to move at will, twitched at the slightest conscious thought.

"Ugh..."

At some point, her mind came sharply back to her like a fish suddenly pulled from water.

Through her blurred vision, she saw a white, beautiful face that seemed impossible to belong to anyone in this world.

The beautiful figure looked down at her with blood-red eyes, then turned away...

And Adeline, who had met those red eyes.

Suddenly realized that she was alive, that she hadn't died.

"...Hng!"

She sat bolt upright.

She looked down at her trembling hands. Her arms that had been covered with spots were clean.

She staggered to her feet.

Barely reaching the mirror, she stared blankly at herself.

Her body was clean.

The spots that had covered her entire body had vanished as if washed away.

The disease that had tormented her for ten years was cleanly cured.

"Sornia..."

She murmured in disbelief, then suddenly noticed that the bedroom door, which was always tightly shut at night, was open just slightly.

It was a door that could never be open at night because the creatures ran rampant then.

Unless it had been opened by someone the creatures couldn't do anything about.

A vision passed through her mind—the one she'd thought was a hallucination in her unconsciousness just before regaining consciousness: a woman with black hair and snow-white skin, so beautiful she couldn't possibly be human.

Adeline's wavering eyes fixed on the floor.

On the floor lay Sornia's small statue that she used to hold while praying at night.

Moonlight illuminated the pure white.

A disease caused by weak humans' continued exposure to ■■■■'s power.

[What are you doing?]

The rabbit that had been watching Cardium's now-healed child with sparkling golden eyes turned its head sharply.

There was a black rabbit that looked exactly like it.

The black rabbit had scratches here and there on its body, apparently having had some trouble getting through the creatures.

The white rabbit ignored the black rabbit.

It confirmed that the creatures, told by Charlotte to go away, were only swarming in front of the door and couldn't approach Adeline even though the door was open, then vanished smoothly.

Only faint golden magic indicated that the white rabbit had been there.

[Hey! That rude little...]

Only the black rabbit left alone stamped its hind legs tap-tap-tap-tap in irritation.