NOMAMWTM Chapter 2

Pure white flames engulfed the black thing.

Though it was a raging fire, it was quiet. Beautiful.

The black thing struggled, but eventually yielded and sank beneath the white.

The pure white of noble life sprouted new flesh on the wounded land.

Flowers burst open their buds and bloomed, and plump fruit ripened...

Rattle!

The carriage shook roughly. Charlotte, who had dozed off, opened her eyes.

What kind of dream was that?

She tilted her head.

It had been a dream filled entirely with white light.

The way flowers bloomed wherever white flames passed almost looked like a scene of God creating life.

Charlotte blinked at the nonsensical dream, then lowered her gaze.

"Ah."

Her dream was instantly transformed into something extremely plausible.

On her lap lay the thick Holy Scripture she had opened before falling asleep.

Goddess Sornia, having burned away evil,

Bestows the power of blessing upon foolish humans,

May you prosper eternally under Sornia's blessing and the protection of magic.

On the first page of the Holy Scripture was a verse anyone living on the continent would have heard at least once.

Setting aside the dream, she had fallen asleep after reading just one page. Charlotte giggled.

Her father had tossed it to her saying her soon-to-be husband was a devout believer, so she'd tried to read it, but that had failed. Holy scriptures my ass.

"Ah, this is tough."

Charlotte carelessly tossed the thick book aside and stretched her legs out comfortably.

She twisted her stiff body this way and that, stretching, then looked out the carriage window.

It had grown dark, so she seemed to have slept for over an hour.

When she lifted her head slightly from the cold window, her own reflection wearing a pure white wedding dress came into view.

Charlotte Ethel, the illegitimate daughter of Baron Ethel, was now on her way to marry a man whose face she didn't even know.

Her father had told her the man's name, but she'd forgotten it.

She hummed, full of anticipation.

Other women might have screamed that this was the most terrible thing in the world, but not Charlotte.

Because she was escaping that insufferable room at the Baron Ethel estate!

Six years after her mother's death, Charlotte, who had come to live with Baron Ethel, her father, had been locked in her room at the estate the entire time.

Try living your whole life locked in a room! Marrying an unknown man was practically freedom.

Of course, it might have been troublesome if the man she was marrying was an old man wanting a concubine or something, but she'd been told he was a noble youth with all his limbs intact.

The moment she heard she could escape that room that had been her only world while locked away, she immediately put on the dress her prospective husband had sent, packed her things, and climbed into the carriage.

'I hope to never see you again.'

She didn't even hear her father's cold voice that followed.

Even though both had locked her up, at least her mother had loved her, but her father who hadn't even glanced at her face once—she was the one who'd pass on seeing him again.

When she was leaving, he hadn't even waved goodbye, instead praying as if sending off a demon. Ptooey, ptooey.

Charlotte firmly pushed her father out of her mind and hummed, imagining what it would be like when she arrived.

He'd told her to come wearing the dress, so they'd hold the wedding ceremony right away, wouldn't they?

Then starting tomorrow, she'd have to explore every corner of her new home.

Running outside right after getting married seemed a bit much even for her, so she planned to at least look around inside the estate.

Just imagining it made her feel good.

Then, rattle!

Bang!

"......!"

As if ignoring her excitement, the carriage suddenly lurched upward.

It didn't shake—it literally lurched up.

Kyaaaaaaah! Charlotte screamed internally as she tumbled over.

When she was startled, her face stiffened first and no voice would come out.

Crack— thud!

The carriage fell with a loud noise and a thud, then stopped with one side sunken and tilted.

Whinny! She heard the horse neighing roughly and stamping its hooves.

"...What, what was that?"

Charlotte, who had tumbled onto the carriage floor, remained frozen for a long while unable to do anything, but when nothing else happened, she finally came to her senses.

Her vision blurred. When she felt her face, the veil her father had irritably insisted she wear, which she'd pushed back because it was stuffy, had come back down.

What on earth is going on. Charlotte barely managed to find her balance in the tilted carriage and raised herself up.

When she tried to look outside, the coachman yanked the door open.

"My Lady! I think you need to come see......this."

The hand that had been about to lift the veil paused.

The coachman who had loudly called for her trailed off.

Charlotte felt a bit embarrassed.

She must look quite disheveled from rolling around on the floor. Otherwise, there was no reason for him to stare like that.

"What's wrong?"

She asked quietly, awkwardly avoiding the coachman's piercing gaze.

"...Ah, well."

The coachman snapped back to attention. He said, sweating profusely.

"We collided with a carriage coming from the opposite direction. The carriage wheel came off...... I'm sorry. It will take some time before we can depart again."

Fortunately, it wasn't something serious like something being broken. Charlotte inwardly breathed a sigh of relief and stepped outside.

Right next to her carriage stood another flashy carriage.

It seemed to be the carriage they'd collided with, but unlike hers, its wheels hadn't come off and it looked perfectly fine.

Then that person will leave soon. The problem was her.

Charlotte looked around and found herself in a predicament.

There was a reason the coachman was flustered.

They couldn't leave right away, moreover the place where the carriage had stopped was, of all places, right in the middle of a remote forest path, not a village.

"I'm sorry!"

Just when she was thinking this was quite troublesome, something whitish suddenly sprang out from beside her.

"!"

Charlotte jumped, clutching her heart that had leaped into her throat.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

What appeared was a woman. Momentarily stunned, she thought it was a ghost—their surroundings were dark.

She seemed to be from the other carriage.

Whether by coincidence or fate, the woman was also wearing a pure white wedding dress like Charlotte.

'They told you to come wearing the dress?'

She recalled Maria, the blind maid who was her only servant left at the Ethel estate, who had been horrified when told to come wearing a dress.

Maria had cursed so much that Charlotte had thought this wasn't the norm, but it seemed there were more men than expected who told brides to come wearing wedding dresses.

"It's fine."

She shook her head, thinking that the woman must have felt quite uncomfortable coming here, too.

It was a bit troublesome, but it was the coachman's fault anyway.

"If, if you don't mind, would you take my carriage?"

But then, the woman made a proposal.

Charlotte's eyes widened.

"Pardon?"

The woman grabbed her hands with a somehow pale face.

Her hands were clammy and cold. She must be nervous about getting married.

"You, you seem to be in better shape, and I, I'm fine waiting outside. Please, take it."

"But the one having it better is—"

"I! It's not a good day for me, so please."

...Oh. Charlotte thought she knew why this woman was acting like this.

She was fortunate to marry a noble youth with all his limbs intact, and was happy just to finally gain her freedom, so she may look forward to married life, but Maria had mentioned this to her.

Other nobles aren't like this, My lady is lucky.

She didn't know the specifics, but the woman in front of her seemed desperate to avoid getting married.

However, the location made it difficult to accept the offer right away.

"But this place is......"

A forest, Charlotte tried to say, but before she could, the woman shook her head vigorously.

"No, I, I'm really fine, so please take it. I'll talk to the coachman!"

The woman's hand gripped hers roughly and tightly.

She looked like someone being chased by something.

How much must she hate getting married to act like this. In the end, Charlotte found herself nodding.

"Thank you, thank you!"

The woman looked like she'd met her savior. Then she immediately leaped toward the two coachmen arguing with serious faces and said something.

After hesitating for a moment, they quickly moved the luggage and Charlotte found herself unexpectedly boarding a carriage twice as comfortable and luxurious as hers.

"Thank you. Could you at least tell me your name..."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you so much! And I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!"

The woman, who must have really not wanted to go, didn't even listen to Charlotte's words.

In the end, the carriage began to move slowly without Charlotte even properly exchanging names with the woman. She watched the other bride recede into the distance before burying herself in a much more cushioned seat.

She was a bit worried, but she wasn't alone, and there must be a village nearby. Nothing bad will happen.

Charlotte gazed at the dim night road passing by, then at some point dozed off again.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry......"

Charlotte Zelova, from a family of exorcists who drove away demons and various evil spirits, shed tears as she watched the carriage grow distant.

The imperial family must have thought Charlotte Zelova knew nothing, but that wasn't true.

She had clearly heard the conversation between her father and the crown prince who had visited the estate.

She had nearly died by imperial order.

And that fate had now passed to that bride who somehow gave her an eerie feeling, hidden beneath that veil.

The coachman knew nothing. He was someone the Imperial Family had prepared who could die at any time. Only the carriage had tracking magic, so there was no risk of being caught, even if the bride was switched.

She felt sorry for the innocent woman, but more than that, she felt a maddening elation at the fact that she herself escaped death.

Scratching the back of her hand repeatedly as terrible guilt washed over her, Charlotte Zelova turned toward her new coachman, whom she had promised a hefty payment.

"Please go to the place that woman was supposed to go."

She couldn't return to the Zelova family. She had to deceive the imperial family's eyes.

However, when the carriage was repaired and Charlotte Zelova arrived around dawn at the place where the woman named Charlotte Ethel, whose name even added to her guilt by being the same, should have arrived—

Stab.

She looked down with trembling eyes at the silver sword embedded in her chest.

"Kuh, huk—"

"Death to the ominous existence."

Blood dripped down, drip, drip.

The place Charlotte Zelova had arrived at was not a noble estate, but a remote temple.

Those who had thrust the sword into her chest were wearing black robes.

"Wai, stop—......"

She died before she could say that she wasn't Charlotte Ethel.

"......Wait, this doesn't seem to be Charlotte Ethel?"

"She looks different from the portrait!"

The heretical group that Baron Ethel had sold his daughter to belatedly realized the person had been switched and fled.

Not long after, when dawn broke, an old woman who had come to the temple to pray discovered Charlotte Zelova and nearly died from shock.

"Kyaaaaaaah!"

The old woman's daughter, who had come with her, screamed.

Charlotte Zelova, dead on the altar wearing a wedding dress with a knife embedded in the center of her heart, looked as if she were a bride who had been martyred for the goddess.