NOMAMWTM Chapter 38

"If this were possible from the start, why didn't you try it earlier?"

[Ah, here we go again. Master, just smack him once.]

At Michael's frigid voice today, Nero reacted even before Charlotte did.

Lately, Nero had been growing irritated by Michael's cold attitude.

Charlotte had recovered from her fatigue and saved lives, which brought back some of her energy, and she'd begun to understand and ignore Michael's relentless suspicion once more. But Nero clearly felt differently.

"I only received it recently myself. It's not my own power."

[Why does Master tell him everything?]

Charlotte smiled faintly at Nero's tantrum as she spoke.

"Who did you receive it from?"

"You won't believe me, but there was this rabbit that kept giving me nightmares lately. Not Nero. That rabbit gave it to me."

"If that's true, why didn't that rabbit come to me before you arrived?"

"I don't know that either."

"Because it doesn't exist."

"I'm telling you, it's real."

Mikhael turned his head away, and at that moment, Nero began to screech.

[Ahh, what if you got hit? It's only because you're the Master that you can block it—mages can't stop that stuff. Those crazy things hate him most anyway, so what could he possibly block! Ow! That hurts, Master!]

Charlotte punched Nero once as the voice ringing in her head grew too loud, and she only laughed at Michael's sharp words.

Still, thanks to Nero, whenever she felt like she might grow sad or angry, her emotions would flatten and retreat.

Besides, once she prevented all the deaths and stopped them from happening completely, he would have no choice but to believe her. So it was fine.

Charlotte hummed softly.

She'd reduced the deaths and recovered her strength.

There was no reason not to, so she decided to gather herself again.

And after recovering her fatigue and preventing deaths, the first thing she did was think about the nightmares—the ones that had subsided after that day when she'd begged the rabbit not to drive her insane, hoping her plea had worked.

The nightmares the white rabbit had shown her.

She'd interrogated Nero, who seemed to know what they were about.

What the dreams were for, and what it meant when the rabbit said it was testing her.

The answer that came back was quite shocking.

[You're not the only human who's had those dreams. All the humans who had them before went insane, so it was testing them. Toward the end, you seemed okay, so it kept showing you more. Even that thing probably knows the limits by now.]

She wasn't the only person who'd had those dreams—and everyone else had gone mad. She was the only one who'd been fine.

She'd also asked why she was having these dreams at all.

Nero had spoken quite evasively.

[Master, it told you. It's showing you 'memories.' It doesn't act without reason. There have been many people it's made dream before. They all went insane, that's all.]

It showed 'memories.'

Many humans had been shown the dreams, and every single one had gone mad.

It didn't act without reason.

The dreams always showed reality. Specifically, past reality.

She'd thought about it for several days before reaching a conclusion.

The recent dreams had all been about people dying, but what she'd dreamed before was different. Even the last dream, about Michael's father's death.

The white rabbit was trying to tell her something.

If people had these dreams and all went mad, the white rabbit was probably trying to show something about this estate.

And today, something had flashed through her mind.

Save me. Dozens of times. Save me?

Where in the darkness?

Hate. Deep.

Resentment? Toward whom? Why?

Toward us?

Resentment. Spirit.

The last dream. What Mikhael's father had organized.

When the papers he'd recorded with magic had all blown away, two words had strangely caught her eye: resentment and spirit.

...Nero's words that the lumps had a reason for hating humans enough to kill them.

Charlotte stood up abruptly.

[Master?]

The lumps were vengeful spirits. And in the dream, Mikhael's father had seemed insane.

Realizing both facts simultaneously, she looked at Nero.

"Did Michael's father see it too?"

[Ah, you saw that human back then?]

It was a question, but Charlotte was already half-certain.

The plea to save them. She'd heard it in her dreams too.

The darkness. She'd seen it too.

The records in the dream had been obviously enormous, and if Michael's father had also dreamed, he would have seen something related to this estate, then gone mad and taken his own life afterward.

"What did you say?"

As goosebumps rose on her arms, a cold voice reached her.

Charlotte had momentarily forgotten Mikhael was here. She turned her head with a creak.

She wished he hadn't heard, but he was already staring at her coldly.

"...Mm."

She'd seen how his father died, and she hadn't even looked toward the bedroom window for days, so she hesitated briefly before swallowing and opening her mouth.

She had to ask what needed asking, at least.

If someone asked her about her mother because of what they were experiencing in a place like this, she would gladly answer too.

"...You know I've been having nightmares, right?"

Michael stared down at her coldly.

Before he could say what nonsense she was spouting now, Charlotte explained rapidly without breathing.

As she'd mentioned earlier, the rabbit that gave her the power to know when people would die also made her dream, and those dreams were real.

She didn't know if he'd seen it, but when the chandelier fell last time and she'd run to Daisy, it was all because she'd seen Daisy's memory in a dream.

And in the last dream, she'd seen his father.

"But your father... Your father seems to have had the same dreams as me. These dreams seem to be telling me about this estate. In the dream, I saw records piled up. Did your father leave anything behind?"

Charlotte asked that much and then gasped for breath.

Her question was from earlier, but Nero answered belatedly.

[...Mm, if I have to answer, probably?]

"He says yes. Nero says your father had the same dreams. You might not believe it, but can you think of anything?"

Charlotte looked at Michael.

He looked slightly dazed for just a moment, making her wonder if he'd actually heard about the dreams, if he might believe her words even a little—she felt a fleeting hope.

"...Now you're even desecrating my father."

Of course not.

"Fine, then."

Charlotte decided she needed to search immediately. Instead of Mikhael, who would never answer, she decided to ask Adeline.

Then she paused. ...Couldn't she just go find that room herself?

"Where are you going? Don't tell me you're going to Mother—"

Right. Exactly.

"Your father's room."

"...What do you—"

Charlotte didn't even listen to Michael's words as she hurried out of the room.

The room Jeina and Tom had discovered while wandering the corridor in fear.

The room where Michael's father's diary had appeared.

That was her destination.

She hurried toward the west library.

She'd expected him to stop her, but for some reason, Michael didn't restrain her and followed instead.

"You said you're going to my father's room."

"That's right."

At his low voice, Charlotte answered absently.

Her heart was already pounding at the possibility of finding some clue about this estate or the lumps.

Back then, Michael's father had definitely used magic to turn all the records completely black, and when she'd opened the diary, most of the pages were blackened too, so nothing might come of this, but one never knew.

She entered the west library and began opening every door.

Even then, she'd entered a random room, so she only remembered it was somewhere in the west library—she couldn't recall exactly where.

Click, thump.

Not here either.

Click, thump.

Not here.

Click, thump.

Not here either.

Click.

"What are you—!"

Found it.

Charlotte stepped into the room with the enormous magic circle.

"...How did you find this place?"

Her joy at finding it lasted only a moment before a trembling voice came from behind.

When she turned her head, Michael—who had clearly been about to scold her just moments ago—stood behind her, staring blankly into the room.

Nero, who'd followed him in, muttered.

[I thought it was strange you could enter, but was the seal completely broken?]

"...Seal?"

[Yeah. Back then, I thought you could break through everything because you weren't human. That's a sealing magic circle.]

Charlotte blinked.

I see.

She didn't know how she'd broken the seal, but she decided not to worry about things she couldn't understand anymore.

"...What do you plan to do here?"

More importantly, finding the records came first, so Charlotte started to enter the room when Michael asked from behind her.