NOMAMWTM Chapter 19

"What are you saying...?"

Charlotte was flustered.

"You hate Michael?"

Was it okay for a maid to say she hated her master like this?

No, hadn't she just said she was grateful only moments ago?

"Yeeess, I hate him."

While Charlotte was doubting her ears, Jeina spoke again, clearly enunciating each word.

"Wait..."

Charlotte was flustered.

Being honest was fine, of course, but she was Michael's wife, after all, and Jeina was a maid in this estate.

She looked at Tom beside her in confusion.

Tom seemed equally flustered, staring at Jeina, but sensing her gaze, he turned his head toward her with a creak creak.

And then.

"That's right. I hate him."

"...Huh?"

Just like Jeina, he spat out those words of hatred.

Tom's and Jeina's gazes fixed on Charlotte simultaneously.

Though this wasn't a situation to smile at all, they both simultaneously pulled up the corners of their mouths, staring at her.

"I hate him."

"Hate him."

"Really hate him."

"Hate him so much."

"Hate him."

Their metallic voices rang out like a chorus.

Setting aside what was happening, it was a chilling sight.

The clumps rolled round and round and round and round across the table, displeased that these people were speaking ill of their master.

Nero squirmed in her arms.

"...You two?"

When Charlotte, frozen solid, finally managed to get her voice out, Tom and Jeina simultaneously cocked their heads.

"Hate. No, hate."

The corners of Jeina's mouth rose and fell repeatedly.

Her smile disappeared and returned, disappeared and returned.

"Grateful, hate."

"Hate, grateful, no, thankful, hate."

Charlotte felt her breath catch.

Jeina's expression as she looked at Charlotte changed rapidly.

Smiling, then expressionless.

Turning pale, then smiling again.

Like someone with split personalities.

Goosebumps prickled up.

The clumps rolled round and round and round and round.

A pretty smile bloomed on Jeina's face, which had been expressionless for a moment.

Then.

"Hate."

"Hate."

"Ha, ki-, hate."

"Ihateihateihateihateihateihatehate"

Goosebumps.

"Hate, hate, hate."

Tom and Jeina kept repeating only those words, like puppets with severed strings.

hatehatehatehatehate.

hatehatehatehatehate.

hatehatehatehatehate.

...It was frightening.

"...J-eina, Tom."

Charlotte, pale as death, could do nothing for a while before finally calling them in a small voice.

The clumps that had been in the room gradually swarmed toward them.

hatehatehatehatehate

hatehatehatehatehate

hatehatekillhatehatehatehate

But whether they noticed or not, Jeina and Tom smiled more deeply and repeated those words of hatred.

It was grotesque.

Goosebumps prickled.

"...You two."

CRASH!

The chair toppled behind Charlotte as she stood, making a loud noise.

Just before sunset, thick red twilight seeped into the room.

Sitting with their backs to the red sunlight, jet-black shadows cast across their faces, they kept moving their lips.

hatehatehatehatehate.

hatehatehatehatekillhatehate.

hatehatekilhatehatekillhatehate.

"Jeina, Tom!"

When Charlotte, pale as death, couldn't take it anymore and screamed, Nero shot out from her arms in that moment of weakened grip.

The swarming clumps scattered with a psssshhh.

Eyes rolled round and round and round and round and round and round among the black masses.

In that instant, Jeina and Tom, who'd been smiling grotesquely, paused.

Their gazes, which had been fixed on Charlotte, rolled toward Nero with a thunk.

Charlotte's frozen face went rigid.

It seemed like they were about to do something to Nero.

"Nero!"

When they simultaneously raised their hands as if being controlled by someone, Charlotte snatched up the small rabbit and moved away from them.

"Ha, huk, huk."

"Huuk, cough, hate, cough!"

Suddenly, they began coughing violently.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

"Cough, uk, hate, cough!"

They coughed while smiling, pale as if they were about to choke to death.

Their gazes left Nero, but they were looking at Charlotte again.

She backed away one step, two steps.

How they said everything simultaneously, moved simultaneously—it was like watching puppets on strings.

Before questioning how this had happened, it was chilling. Frightening.

"Cough, cough, kek, cough!"

"Hate, sca, cough!"

As Charlotte backed toward the door, while they couldn't pull themselves together and kept coughing, she fumbled behind her with the hand not holding Nero.

She caught the doorknob.

Click, bang!

She burst out of the room.

"...Hik, hiik!"

The servants who saw her gasped in alarm.

Whether they did or not, Charlotte ran for a long time clutching Nero.

She wanted to get away from wherever Jeina and Tom were.

How long had she run? Only when she reached a place with few people did Charlotte stop, clutching her pounding chest and gasping for breath.

"What was that...?"

She'd fled without thinking because she was scared, but now that she'd calmed down a bit, she muttered blankly.

Were Tom and Jeina actually insane people?

But they'd definitely been having normal conversations just moments ago, and yesterday too they'd exchanged words normally.

Michael had even brought them himself.

She wanted to think that couldn't be possible, but their appearance had clearly been that of insane people.

Charlotte recalled how Tom and Jeina had stared at her simultaneously, grinning, and rubbed her arms as goosebumps rose.

She couldn't return to her room and wandered the empty corridor for a long time, clutching Nero.

If she went back to her room and encountered Tom and Jeina acting like that again, she felt like she'd faint.

The first people she'd met who weren't afraid of Michael, whom she'd been so happy about—in the end, they weren't normal people either.

She didn't understand how this estate had no one but strange people except Michael.

Her mood grew gloomy.

"...Maybe I'll just look around."

As she walked the vast corridors aimlessly, she decided to tour the house properly before night fell completely.

Working hours for servants seemed to be set, so she'd kill time until then.

If she returned late, Jeina and Tom would be gone to the servants' quarters.

...Right?

They would be gone.

Charlotte took a deep breath and tried not to think about what she'd seen, deliberately looking around.

Rooms spaced much farther apart than the area where her room was. Corridors where hardly anyone passed except for the occasional servant.

Probably the west wing of the estate, near the gallery she'd visited before.

To avoid thinking further, she flung open the nearest door.

Left alone with Tom, Jeina blinked.

Madam had fled.

Had she noticed the dagger hidden under her skirt?

How had she known?

Jeina bent her body forward.

She lifted her arms, raised her skirt, and ran her hands over her thigh.

The sharp-bladed dagger remained tied in place.

She tilted her head, her body bent grotesquely.

It shouldn't have been visible. How had she seen it?

Ah, as someone with ■■■■'s power, was she truly omniscient after all?

Jeina smiled broadly.

Madam truly was remarkable. Of course she's a being worthy of worsh—

...Huh? Wait?

Jeina released her skirt hem and straightened abruptly.

Above her head,

on her shoulders,

on her arms,

on her feet—the friends rolling round and round and round and round fell away in a shower and flew through the air.

[killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill]

Jeina tilted her head sharply to the other side.

Shouldn't she kill Madam?

She wanted to kill Madam.

She hated Madam.

Why?

...Because ____ had died.

Her friend, her family, her only one after both parents died... had died.

...Who was that?

Who had she been thinking of?

Jeina's head felt hazy, so she tilted it this way and that with crack crack sounds.

When Madam had asked about that damned master earlier and she'd said she hated and despised and loathed him, after that skull-splitting headache that struck when the monster rabbit lunged at her—it had been like this ever since.

She couldn't think of anything.

She couldn't remember anything.

...no need to remember.

[killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill]

Right. As the friends said, she had to kill.

Kill who?

The aberrations that fed on malice as nourishment, growing their power and covering over Jeina's thoughts, whispered.

The only time they—with intelligence no different from three-year-olds—could act even slightly more intelligently was when they fed on human malice and covered over minds.

[Humans]

Right, people.

Didn't really matter who.

Just kill them all.

Because people were hateful.

because Cardium locked them up and hurt them and killed and killed and killed again and killed

[killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill]

Jeina turned her head with a creak.

Beside her was the servant Tom, whom the friends had entranced.

He was staring at Jeina with a blank expression.

Jeina suddenly remembered.

—One of them has to go!

There were humans who'd entered the estate with Tom.

Friends rolled round and round and round and round and round and round beside her.

[diediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediedie]

Ecstasy at finally being able to do what they'd held back and held back filled her entire body.

this wasn't them killing it was humans killing humans

Jeina and Tom looked at each other and pulled up the corners of their mouths in a grin.