WTBFCY Chapter 10

"…Well, if you really want it, there is another way."

Noah had looked ready to kill the bothersome Regina just moments ago. He suppressed the urge one more time.

Too many suspicious things about this woman to just kill her outright. She was different from the black fairies he'd seen before. Not just one or two differences either. Noah wanted to observe this interesting subject a bit longer.

"What way?"

Regina asked urgently at Noah's words. That man had definitely done something strange to steal Emma's memories. At Noah's offer to explain the method, Regina looked up at him with desperate eyes.

"Illusion is a power black fairies use instinctively when they're first born. To use that power freely, you need to recognize yourself as a black faerie. And to do that, you'd have to eat a person—"

"I'm human!"

"Right. That method won't work then."

Regina shrieked in horror at the mention of eating people. Noah shrugged and gave up immediately. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. As Noah muttered quietly to himself, Regina asked again anxiously.

"There's another way, right? To restore Emma's memory!"

"Listen, Miss Regina. Your maid didn't lose her memory. The illusion you cast on her broke. You're not listening at all. This won't do—why don't you go see for yourself?"

"See… what?"

Tired of repeating himself, Noah lightly snapped his fingers in front of Emma's eyes. The maid had been standing beside them in a daze. Regina tried to stop him in confusion, but Emma reacted first.

"Oh my! What am I doing here? I should get back quickly!"

"Emma?!"

As soon as Emma came to her senses, she didn't even look at Regina standing beside her. She hurried onto the carriage. Shocked by the strange behavior, Regina looked back and forth between Noah and Emma helplessly. Noah gestured for her to follow.

"That maid is going to your estate. Why don't you follow? I'll head there after I clean up here, so don't even think about running."

Noah smiled as he spoke. His fangs showed briefly between his red lips before disappearing.

Regina swallowed dryly as she glared at him, then immediately turned and chased after Emma. More than anything, she wanted to get away from him. Regina climbed onto the carriage as if fleeing.

Once Emma and Regina took their seats, the coachman and guards who had been sitting nearby in a daze stirred awkwardly to their feet. They also had blank expressions, as if under some spell.

Before long, the carriage began rolling slowly forward. Only then could Regina let out a deep sigh of relief.

She could see Noah standing outside the window, watching them. She quickly drew the curtain. An eerie silence settled in the suddenly darkened carriage.

"…Emma?"

"……."

Regina called out to Emma cautiously, hoping for something. There was no particular response. Emma just sat there properly like a doll, staring straight ahead.

"What on earth is happening, Emma? Once we get home, everything will go back to normal, right? Right?"

"……."

Regina curled up and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

She leaned her head against the rattling carriage wall and stared quietly at the expressionless Emma. Please let all of this be a dream. Regina closed her eyes slowly with desperate hope.

A cold wind blew and her body shivered. Regina had dozed off briefly. She opened her eyes, unable to bear the chilling cold creeping over her.

"…Huh?"

Emma, who had been sitting across from her, was gone. The coachman and guards were missing too. Regina had been left alone sleeping in the carriage with the door open. Startled, she got up and stepped down to find herself at the estate's carriage house.

"Ah, I'm finally home!"

Deliberately ignoring the fact that everyone had disappeared without her, Regina hurried into the estate. She just wanted to see everyone's faces as soon as possible.

"Father, Mother! Nanny!"

The estate was dark. If silence had weight, it would feel like this. Regina felt uneasy at the unfamiliar appearance of the estate and quickened her steps even more.

"Butler! Emma? Is anyone there?!"

She called out as she passed through the unlit corridor, but no one answered. Regina felt her breathing quicken. She barely dragged her trembling legs up to the second floor and opened her room door.

Anyone, please. Please come out. I'm scared.

Creak!

When she opened the door, someone was sitting on the floor with their back hunched, sobbing. The room was dark and she couldn't see the face well, but Regina immediately realized who it was.

"Nanny!"

At Regina's voice, the hunched shadow flinched and raised her head. The nanny's tear-stained face was revealed. She looked back at Regina with a startled expression.

"Nanny, why are you crying?! What are you doing here? Where is everyone else?"

"……."

Regina strode toward the crying nanny.

"Nanny? Why won't you answer? Why are you holding my clothes?"

At Regina's question, the nanny looked down at her hands. Only then remembering that she'd been hugging Regina's dress while crying, tears streamed down the nanny's distorted face.

"Oh, Miss!"

"Nanny?"

Without answering Regina's question, the nanny clutched the dress tightly and sobbed as if choking. Flustered, Regina took another step closer. Still crying, the nanny shook her head. In the nanny's eyes, Regina's pupils glowed vivid purple in the darkness.

Ah, this girl before me is not human.

"…A faerie. A black faerie. Go back. Return to the forest. Don't make us any sadder."

"Nanny, it's me?!"

"Come here, black faerie. I'll show you your appearance."

When Regina called to her, the nanny rose from her seat and approached Regina with tears streaming down her face.

She grasped Regina's shoulders and carefully led her to the vanity. The mirror reflected the dim scenery of the unlit room along with Regina's blurry form.

"Our Miss Regina has lovely brown hair. Her eyes are a clear green like new sprouts, and she has cute freckles on the bridge of her nose. Miss was always embarrassed about those freckles and wanted to hide them, but I found even those so endearing."

Regina's purple eyes reflected in the mirror opened wide. The Regina the nanny described and the Regina reflected in the mirror were completely different.

Wavy black hair, amethyst-purple eyes shining like jewels, and pale transparent skin with no trace of freckles.

"L-lies!"

Regina hastily shook off the nanny's hands on her shoulders. Thwack. With the sound, Regina's clothes the nanny had been holding dropped to the floor with a thud. The nanny bent down to pick up the fallen clothes and hugged them preciously to her chest.

"Our Miss Regina passed away in a carriage accident a week ago. You must have come from the faerie forest. When I was young, my grandfather told me about that place. He said black fairies live there. That they mimic the appearance and voice of the dead to bewitch people. That voice really is exactly like Miss Regina's."

Tears flowed endlessly down the nanny's deep wrinkles.

"Why, why are you doing this, Nanny! Don't say strange things! It's me—I'm Regina!"

Regina felt cornered. What is this? Am I still dreaming? It didn't feel real.

"That's right, I went to Maggie's estate today and saw some kind of monster. And I saw that strange man manipulate Emma's memory! It's because of that man. Nanny, snap out of it—it's me! Please recognize me!"

Regina grabbed both of the nanny's arms and explained urgently, but the nanny wasn't listening. She hunched her body and buried her face in Regina's dress, beginning to cry again.

"Don't do this, Nanny. It's scary, please don't do this to me!"

Unable to bear it any longer, Regina clung to the nanny's arms and burst into tears. She pulled at the nanny's collar like a tantrum, crying out that she was scared. The nanny stopped her sobbing and raised her head.

"…Young faerie, go to the basement. The master and mistress still haven't let Miss go and are keeping her there, so go see the truth there. Don't cry so sadly here—return to the forest."

She looked at Regina with grief-filled eyes and spoke gently. The nanny's warm, rough hand stroked Regina's cheek and wiped away her tears.

"Nanny!"

When Regina called to her while gasping through her tears, the nanny quietly shook her head.

"You are not my little miss. Now, the weather is cold, so wear this."

The nanny pulled out a coat from among Regina's clothes she'd been holding and draped it over the young girl's shoulders. The girl whose voice at least was exactly like her young miss.

The nanny wasn't terribly frightened by this strange phenomenon. The sight of the black-haired girl crying somehow overlapped with Miss Regina. The nanny's heart ached as if tearing, but she shook her head to collect herself.

When a black faerie calls to you.

It's when a loved one has left your side.

The nanny steeled her heart to avoid being bewitched, but even so, whenever the black-haired girl called to her, her heart felt torn and tears poured out.

"My beloved little miss."

As the nanny fastened the coat, she reached out and hugged the black-haired girl tightly. She was warm. When the black-haired girl's face, full of confusion and fear, became somewhat peaceful, the nanny felt that was enough. She gently pushed Regina's back.

"Thank you for letting me say goodbye, young faerie. Now don't wander and return safely."

"N-Nanny!"

Having been held in the familiar nanny's arms only to have her back pushed again, Regina reached out with an expression trembling with anxiety. But the nanny's touch was firm and didn't accept her trying to embrace her again.

"Go down to the basement and see the truth."

The nanny only repeated those words as she led Regina outside the room door. Regina tried to refuse that touch, saying she didn't want to, but the nanny still didn't give Regina the answer she wanted. Finally, the door shut firmly before Regina, who'd been pushed out into the corridor.

"Nanny, Nanny! Open the door, Nanny!"

Bang bang. No matter how much she pounded on the door, there was no answer from inside. No matter how much Regina, who'd started crying again, called for the nanny, she didn't respond to Regina's voice.

"Sob, I said I'm scared. Don't do this!"

When shaking the doorknob violently with both hands proved useless, Regina cried out loudly. After being there for a while without the door opening, she had no choice but to move toward the basement the nanny had mentioned.

Regina wiped away the tears falling with the back of her hand as she walked down the corridor. No matter how much she tried to stop crying, sobs escaped from her mouth. The dark, cold corridor didn't seem like the estate Regina knew.

If only everyone would rush out and hug her tight. Regina's shadow stretched long down the corridor as she walked with trembling shoulders, crying.

If this isn't a dream, then what is it? What has happened to me?