NOMAMWTM Chapter 31

.... handed her a rag.

"Today's staircase duty. Be careful not to go to the fourth floor."

They began polishing the banister until it gleamed, careful not to get too far apart from each other.

None of the maids and servants in this place neglected their work.

Concentrating on work meant they didn't have to look at the despair lurking around them, and above all, as much as the master protected them, they had to do their share.

"Girls, take breaks while you work."

After Charlotte and .... had been scrubbing away for quite some time, rest time finally arrived.

They plopped down on the stairs.

"At least nobody died last week, right?"

At ....'s question, Charlotte nodded.

Everyone was following the regulations well, and additional regulations were distributed quickly whenever something happened, so lately deaths had decreased to about five a month.

It was truly fortunate.

Creeak.

Charlotte, who'd been chatting happily with ...., paused.

"...Mm."

"What's wrong, Daisy?"

Charlotte looked back.

"No, I thought I heard something creaking."

"I didn't hear anything... Did you? Maybe because we're in front of the fourth floor. Let's go downstairs. Oh, should we go to the dining room?"

"Sure."

In this place, you had to react sensitively even to a sound you might have misheard.

.... and Charlotte got up.

"Let's ask Chris to make us sandwiches."

"Okay."

Chris, the head chef's assistant, was practically in charge of the servants' snacks.

They pushed aside the creepiness they'd felt for a moment and went down the first-floor stairs, giggling.

That's when it happened as they were crossing the hall.

"...Shit, Daisy."

"Hm?"

.... called Charlotte.

Before she could even turn her head, .... pushed her with tremendous force.

"!"

Charlotte, small in build, was shoved forward and fell.

Bang! Crash—clang!

Simultaneously, with a tremendous roar, something fell from above with a crash.

A crystal shard embedded itself deep in her right leg and blood seeped out.

"...Earlier, when I heard... I should have... thought..."

She stared blankly behind her.

A chandelier had fallen. And beneath it, ...., Lena was crushed.

A pool of blood spread bright red.

The creaking sound.

Only now did Charlotte realize.

It had been the chandelier's sound.

One of the additional regulations distributed recently. If a chandelier looks like it's tilting, don't approach it.

But nothing had been written anywhere about sounds.

"Lena...?"

Charlotte stared blankly at Lena's eyes losing their light.

Lena, whose full red hair had been so beautiful, reached out her trembling arm in the pool of red blood and grasped Charlotte's hand. Barely touched it.

"Thank... good..."

And, she murmured, then soon, thunk.

Her hand dropped.

Charlotte's eyes flew open.

Morning sunlight brightly illuminated the room.

A dream. It had been a dream.

"Haa, haa..."

She gasped for breath and lifted the hand Lena had touched.

It had been an overly realistic dream.

Like she'd really become a maid named Daisy.

Was it because of the estate?

No matter how long Charlotte waited, her pounding heart wouldn't stop, so she sat up and bent her upper body forward. She struggled to calm her ragged breathing.

[What did you see?]

What did she see? Did he mean what dream did she have?

Before she could answer Nero's strange question,

Bang! Crash—clang!

She heard a sound.

It was a much smaller sound, as if coming from far away, but it was chillingly identical to the sound she'd heard in the dream.

She bolted upright.

[Master?]

"...Charlotte?"

Charlotte had no time to answer the voice from behind and kicked open the door in her nightgown and ran out.

Early morning, a time when there weren't many servants yet.

She ran down the corridor.

Psssss. The masses scattered.

She ran and ran again.

When she reached the central staircase.

"Ah..."

"...Can't be, ...."

"Is it Gerda...?"

She stopped short.

Several servants stood pale-faced, looking down the stairs.

Charlotte stared blankly at the terrible scene along with the servants, then staggered down.

From the third floor to the second.

From the second floor to the first.

There, a maid sat with her bottom on the floor, staring blankly somewhere.

In that somewhere, a huge chandelier had fallen.

Along with a thick, red pool of blood.

"No, no..."

The maid muttered blankly.

Beneath the chandelier, a maid's head and arm stuck out.

As if she'd died trying to grasp someone's hand. Or as if running, she'd been crushed to death just like that.

Charlotte stared blankly at the corpse, at that terrible scene.

"...Ah."

A hoarse, cracked voice flowed out.

The maid's hair was red.

Like Lena's hair from the dream.

The scene from the dream overlapped with reality.

"...No, no, no..."

The maid who'd been sitting stood up unsteadily and crawled forward.

Crunch. The shattered crystal broke beneath the crawling maid's legs as she moved.

As the maid moved, her uniform rode up.

"No, no..."

She stopped in the bright red pool of blood. On her right leg was a long, dark scar.

"Again..."

Eventually tears flowed from the maid's eyes.

Hic, hic. Sobbing sounds echoed.

Charlotte stared blankly, blankly at the scene, then

—Daaaaaisy...

At some point, she heard a bizarre voice.

The voice didn't sound like a person's voice. Yet at the same time, it was a woman's voice.

...One she'd heard somewhere before.

When Charlotte turned her head, a translucent arm stretched out between her legs.

Red eyes wavered and widened.

Immediately after, a maid passed straight through Charlotte and crawled into the pool of blood.

Charlotte stared at the maid, unable to breathe.

As if no one could see the maid, the servants around focused only on the one crushed to death by the chandelier.

Occasionally, those who realized Charlotte was standing right in front gasped hiiik, then with expressions like they'd seen something terrible, bowed their heads or ran away.

No one paid attention to the maid.

The maid dragging one shoulder and a head turned sideways, slowly pressing the floor with blackened arms like a spider, moving forward, toward the corpse, toward the fallen chandelier.

A ghost, was it?

Charlotte stared at her without breathing, then soon, realized.

Came to realize.

"Lena...?"

In a wretched, blood-soaked state, the maid who'd crawled toward the corpse, who had a scar on her right leg, whispered.

That maid seemed to see the ghost.

The full red hair of the ghost crawling toward that maid was beautifully braided.

The ghost was Lena, and the maid looking at Lena's ghost, no longer a corpse, was Daisy—the subject of Charlotte's dream.

"Le-na? Lena...?"

Daisy's eyes filled with tears.

For a moment, tears welled in Charlotte's eyes too, having been absorbed in Daisy's emotions even in the dream and knowing how much she'd loved Lena.

—Dai, Daaaaiiisy...

Daisy crawled toward Lena.

Toward Lena, who couldn't take proper form or proper posture.

Lena reached out her arm as if trying to grasp Daisy's hand, just as she had before dying.

Daisy also tried to grasp her hand, as if she knew what Lena was trying to do.

But Daisy and Lena's hands couldn't meet.

Daisy's hand couldn't reach Lena and swept through empty air, and

—Daaaaisy...

Lena crawled slowly elsewhere, as if she couldn't see Daisy.

"Lenaaa, Lena!"

Daisy tried to embrace Lena while crying.

Her arms only flailed through empty air again and again.

Each time, Daisy lost her balance and staggered, collapsing to the floor several times while still chasing Lena.

"...Daisy."

"Let go!"

A servant who couldn't watch anymore tried to stop her, but Daisy cried, sobbed with a face twisted in despair.

Lena's form had become nearly transparent by now.

"Lenaaaaa!"

The ghost of dead Lena disappeared almost simultaneously with Daisy's wail.

Charlotte watched it all without breathing, then pushed through the servants beside her and moved forward.

She approached the sobbing, crouched Daisy and tried to embrace her. Tried to hold her.

Because that terrible feeling Daisy was experiencing was transmitted to Charlotte without reduction.

But at that moment.

Daisy and Charlotte's eyes met.

Daisy's large eyes widened, then soon twisted.

Thud!

Daisy rushed sharply at Charlotte, grabbed her shoulders, and shoved her down.

It happened in an instant.

Daisy's face, which had been like a timid, bright small animal in the dream, was twisted terribly.

Full of despair, covered in tears, twisted as she faced Charlotte.

"...Stop."

Daisy whispered.

Words she hadn't recognized at first gradually took shape.

"Stop killing, please."

Charlotte's eyes wavered.

Eventually, full of hatred, full of rage, the maid forgot even fear and screamed.

"Please just stop!"

Charlotte shook helplessly under Daisy's rough grip.

The servants around just stared at them, pale-faced, then hurriedly scattered.

"Why, why do this to me, why!"

"Why! The same thing here, me, why!"

Daisy cried, cried terribly while clutching Charlotte and glaring at her like she'd kill her.

Charlotte couldn't even push her away.

Because she felt that rage and despair so clearly.

"You monster!!"

Even so, those words hurt too much.

Charlotte just sat there blankly until Daisy, strength drained, collapsed unconscious with a thunk, and until Michael, who'd arrived at some point, handed Daisy to another servant and looked at her coldly.

The smell of blood was thick.