Chapter 4

I can’t do it right now…

Aya had used up all her strength driving the evil spirit out of the servant.

And yet, she still reached out and touched the wet nurse’s shoulder with her fingertip.

When Yesili, a priestess, was around, the spirits sometimes came off more easily.

Where did she pick up another one?

Aya swallowed hard inwardly.

Every time she saw something like this, Aya found herself wondering.

Where do the wet nurse’s desires come from?

On the surface, there was nothing the wet nurse could possibly lack.

She was the princess’s wet nurse, and her daughter was the chief priestess.

A few years ago, she had even successfully remarried, becoming a member of Ater, one of the Twelve Great Families.

Her status had risen enough that she no longer needed to reside permanently in the palace.

That was another reason they had been able to borrow the help of Yesili, who had become a priestess.

And yet, the wet nurse always wanted more.

Rather than being satisfied with what she already held in her hands, she was the sort of person who hungered for everything she did not yet possess.

“…You said you weren’t going to eat, but you finished it all anyway. What a good girl.”

The wet nurse gently stroked Aya’s head.

Drunk on the tenderness in those fingertips, Aya looked up at her.

Having lost her mother at birth, Aya regarded the wet nurse as a mother of sorts.

The warmth in the wet nurse’s gaze as she looked down at her made Aya’s heart ache with sudden affection.

“I’ll go see Yesili for a bit. Get plenty of rest.”

As she rose from her seat, the wet nurse carefully tucked the blankets around Aya.

Then, with practiced ease, she lit a candle and burned medicinal incense.

Yesili would be in another room.

She was probably reading the documents Aya was supposed to go through on her behalf and calculating the budget allocated to her.

The wet nurse left the room just like that.

Drained of all her strength from taking the medicine, Aya could not even move a finger. She could only watch the wet nurse’s retreating figure grow farther away.

When I’m sick, can’t you stay with me for a little while?

The wet nurse was always like this.

It saddened Aya that the person closest to her was not someone she could simply love without reservation.

She could feel a deep, dark sleep coming over her, as though she were sinking into a bottomless swamp.

Even the breath leaving her lips felt heavy.

Would it really hurt you to stay beside me until I fall asleep?

Muttering the complaint to herself, Aya’s consciousness slipped smoothly into sleep.

In her dream, Aya was looking at herself.

She was wearing a long dress and walking alone through an old detached palace.

She limped even more badly than she did now, and her face was younger and more childlike.

She had no memories from before she was fifteen.

So that must have been herself from, at most, five years ago.

She had spent all of fifteen sick and barely aware of anything, so perhaps this was when she was sixteen?

Aya was walking through the courtyard alone.

No one followed behind her to protect her.

The attendants of the detached palace did not even pretend to serve her. They simply ignored her.

So she had grown accustomed to being left alone.

It was a bitter thing to admit that she had adapted to something no high-born woman in a palace where danger could lurk anywhere should ever have been accustomed to.

Through the rows of trees, she could see the corridors and courtyards of the main palace.

As Aya watched her younger self walk toward a pond at one side of the detached palace, she finally realized which memory this was.

It was the day she first met Nahal.

Aya craned her neck and peered down into the fairly large, deep pond.

I wonder what lives in there.

Fish, perhaps. Or something else.

But there was nothing moving in the deep, murky water.

Aya mulled over what she had heard the palace servants whispering about.

Didn’t they say it would be mesmerizing? That the water shimmered gold?

There was nothing of the sort.

She had heard that the pond was so beautiful that no one could forget it after seeing it even once, and she had worked up the courage to come all the way here.

Everyone was always talking about this place, so she had thought that perhaps, if she saw it herself, she might be able to join in the conversation too.

But the pond was nothing like she had imagined.

Lotuses bloomed in it, as one would expect from a pond, and long grasses had grown wild around it. Aside from that, there was nothing particularly special.

Wasn’t this the pond in the Pond Palace?

They had said the place was always crowded with people, yet there was not a soul in sight.

Aya idly poked at the water plants with her cane before giving up.

Perhaps she had misunderstood the palace servants because she had not heard them properly.

She had been expecting water that shimmered gold, so she could not help feeling disappointed.

The evening sky, with the sun sinking toward the horizon, was dyed a deep violet.

The sweltering air cooled quickly, and the breeze made the head covering she wore flutter.

Once she realized there was no one around, the head covering felt nothing more than a nuisance.

As she tugged it free from where it had tangled in her long hair, a chill ran down her spine.

Huh?

Feeling as though she had received some strange warning without a sound, Aya turned her head.

What is that?

Something was wavering at one side of the corridor.

Whenever she saw a chill in the air or some ominous sign that made the back of her neck prickle, it usually meant there was an evil spirit—or something similar—nearby.

The spot was close to the entrance of the building, a perfect place for something to cling to a person as they hurried past. After judging its size, Aya sighed and walked toward it.

What she found was unlike the ordinary evil spirits she knew.

Its form was indistinct.

A faint shape, almost as though a mass of fog had gathered there.

I’ve never seen this before.

Aya often saw evil spirits clinging to people, but this was something entirely new.

Maybe it works the same way?

Thinking carelessly that it might be similar, Aya waved her cane through the air as though she were chasing away smoke.

That was when—

[Aaaaaaaaaaaah!]

The fog scattered, and a scream exploded like a burst of fireworks.

It was so loud that Aya wondered if she should have covered her ears first.

Then, in an instant, the smoke rushed straight into Aya’s face.

She could not breathe. She could not open her eyes.

Staggering, Aya dropped her cane.

The wooden cane rolled across the corridor floor with a dull thud.

But Aya did not even hear it fall.

That was how horrifying the scream had been.

Aya coughed again and again.

Her breath came in short, choking gasps.

The stinging sensation brought tears to her eyes.

The clinging smoke would not come off.

She bent over and tried to breathe, but every time she opened her mouth, smoke poured down her throat.

With tears streaming down her face, Aya narrowed one eye and searched her surroundings for someone who could help.

But there was no one nearby.

Aya desperately hoped that someone would notice her and come to her aid.

She could not shout for help in a clear voice, nor could she run around looking for someone. All she could do was wait to be found.

She crouched down, trying to escape the smoke, but it was useless.

Over her helplessly curled-up body came the raucous laughter of the evil spirits she had once driven away.

[Hehehehehe! Hahahahaha! Hehehehehehe!]

She could not tell whether it was an auditory hallucination or real.

“Ugh…”

A foul stench clung to the tip of her nose.

It smelled like rotting fruit.

[Hehehehehe! Hahahahaha! Hehehehehehe!]

The sound spun around her.

She could not tell whether the voices belonged to men or women, the elderly or children. They simply echoed over and over.

The voices only Aya could hear continued to follow her wherever she turned her head.

When it became unbearable, Aya fled, trying to escape from all of it.

She tried to run, but her limping legs would not move the way she wanted them to.

Help me. Help me.

She raised her voice as high as she could, but her cry faded away before it could become a proper word.

She desperately needed help, yet it felt impossibly far away.

[Hahahaha! Run! Run away!]

At some point, Aya thought she heard someone shouting from far away, but the voice was completely swallowed by the evil spirits’ cries.

She stumbled backward, and then, in an instant, her vision dropped away.

Splash!

By the time Aya realized she had slipped into the pond, she was already soaked to the top of her head.

“Ghaaah!”

Aya screamed.

It was the first scream she had uttered since her tongue had been cut out.

It sounded much like the cry of someone who could not breathe.

She screamed, then immediately began choking and coughing.

The force of the sound had torn the tender flesh inside her mouth, and she tasted the metallic tang of blood.

[Die! Die!]