Since I Don't Know Anything About It, Shall We Break Up, Your Majesty? - Chapter 58

[Exius means a demon that beguiles… It is a flower possessed by a demon, which can enchant people to forget reality and make them see the image of paradise they desire… It grows naturally in tropical rainforests with high humidity and temperature… It needs abundant sunlight and grows in black soil…]

The usual story continued.

This wasn’t the story Tamia wanted.

Her eyes reading down the letters became more urgent.

‘Surely, what I want must be written in this book.’

Georges Labuta Moom.

An obscure scholar from Levania who died about 30 years ago.

A man who was interested in everything and recorded everything.

There was no consistent direction in his research.

Once he became fixated on something, he would live with it for years, observing and recording it.

And he left all his records in books. It’s said he had written over 500 books in his lifetime.

Though he had no famous books, famous anecdotes, or famous achievements, Tamia knew this person well.

It was thanks to the single word, ‘Moom’, attached to the end of his name.

You could say he was a distant relative.

‘Aunt Osenta said he was her uncle.’

Tamia traced the surface of the thick book.

<Labuta’s Plant Guide>.

It was just a story about 8 plants, but it was as thick as 600 pages.

The story of Exius was attached as an appendix to this <Labuta’s Plant Guide>.

Even as an appendix, it was over 100 pages long, so no further explanation was needed about how verbose this author was.

‘But it’s exactly what I need right now.’

A fierce light gleamed in Tamia’s eyes.

She concentrated and followed the letters down.

About three hours passed like that.

It was when the night had deepened and even the sounds of insects had faded in the complete darkness.

— How long… today… Hahaha!

A faint voice was heard from beyond the corridor.

Tamia jumped up nervously and pressed her ear to the door.

‘It’s not just one or two people. At least… 6.’

Both the voices and footsteps grew closer.

— What happened to that mid-level priest? How did he get in here…

— It seems he wandered in when we happened to have the door open for inspection. I questioned him, but it doesn’t seem he came in because of ‘that’.

— Hmm, is that so? That’s fortunate then, but why do I feel so uneasy…

It was about Arta. Fortunately, it seemed he had passed without much questioning.

— Did ‘He’ also use the underground passage today…

— After midnight…

— It’s been a while since we heard the voice of god…

The voices faded away completely. Tamia mulled over the words she had just heard.

What was ‘that’, and who was ‘He’?

Underground passage…

It seemed to refer to the secret passage Arta had mentioned.

But there were words that bothered her more than those.

‘The voice of god’.

Tamia hesitated for a moment, then slipped out quietly with the book hidden in her pocket.

Their voices had already disappeared, but Tamia didn’t panic.

She rubbed her eyes and muttered something, and her eyes took on a strange light.

Her eyes, flashing like those of a beast, stared into the dark corridor.

In Tamia’s noisy vision, she could see traces of souls leading in a certain direction.

She had to follow them before that light disappeared.

Tamia followed them on tiptoe, holding her breath.

* * *

Someone was crying.

Curled up tightly in the darkness, they sobbed endlessly.

‘…A dream?’

Lumiere thought it must be a continuation of her previous dream as she looked at the small body.

The boy and girl who had giggled and chattered while hiding in the closet away from adults.

That it was a continuation of that.

…But something was different.

‘Soil…?’

It wasn’t the closet with its nice smell and cozy warmth.

Around the curled-up child was the musty smell characteristic of the underground.

A faint light came in from somewhere.

What she had thought was a blank wall showed a line like a door crack.

Through that crack seeped in the smell of burning and screams.

As the child’s surroundings became visible, Lumiere’s heart beat anxiously.

Thump, thump thump, thump thump!

A strange fear from the darkness pressed down on her.

Faint screams, the acrid smell of smoke mixed with the musty smell of soil.

— Nooo!!!

A familiar voice turned into a scream, and soon after, hurried footsteps approached.

The door crack emitting faint light widened and the door opened completely.

The child who had been curled up sobbing raised their head abruptly.

‘……!’

…Vivid green eyes.

The moment she thought she had made eye contact with the child in midair,

The scene changed completely.

‘What was that just now?’

Lumiere blankly stared at the scene that seemed covered in a hazy mist.

No, thinking she was staring blankly was just her ‘thought’.

Because right now, she was similar to an insubstantial dream entity.

She ‘thought’ she was ‘looking’ at what was in front of her.

In a darkness similar to before, a woman curled up in a posture similar to the child from earlier was visible.

‘Is that… me…?’

She was crying while tearing at the sheet with trembling hands and feet.

Perhaps from applying too much force, the spaces between her fingers were swollen red.

— D-do you think I’ll lose just because of this.

She gritted her teeth while scratching her bleeding neck and pinching her thighs.

— Karl… Karl, Karl!

She mumbled the same name over and over as if chewing it, even while sobbing.

‘Karl…’

With her face buried in the bed, she, ‘I’, screamed.

It looked painful.

Was it because the pain looked so vivid?

She felt like she could recall how her throat was constricting and her whole body was itching.

— Aah-! Aaah! Damn it!

A painful scream as if her soul was being ripped out shook Lumiere.

Her eyes reddened, and her lips became parched.

Lumiere was no longer just ‘seeing’ but vividly ‘feeling’.

‘…I’ll come as soon as I can.’

He said he’d come. He said he’d come quickly.

Why aren’t you coming? I’m in so much pain. Save me.

Was it because she missed him so desperately?

His illusion flickered before her eyes as if it was real.

He raised his large, warm hand to caress her cheek, kissed her parted lips, and gently caressed her body writhing in pain.

Her excessively enlarged heart beat dangerously.

‘…I miss you. Karl.’

Lumiere became even more desperate. So desperate she felt she might go mad.

She wanted to feel him just a little more. She wished this vivid illusion would become real and hold her tightly.

The stronger that wish became, the more she felt her body becoming itchy.

As if insects were crawling all over her.

“Eek!”

For a moment, Lumiere saw bugs clinging to her arms and legs.

She, who had been screaming, thrashed about wildly, her body shaking.

Then her legs gave out and she fell backwards.

With a thud, a dizzying pain shot through her head.

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

These weren’t tears flowing from physical pain.

She was feeling, little by little, her dignity crumbling.

Lumiere staggered to her feet and went to the door.

She knew how to feel better.

She just had to open that door and go to them.

— Hee hee hee, ho ho ho!

— It really… shows.

— …Where is… the Crown Prince…

— No, this girl, how…

She also knew how to get rid of these annoying auditory hallucinations gnawing at her ears.

She just had to grab the hand they were extending.

‘But… But would that be the end of it?’

Lumiere, who had been grabbing the doorknob, started banging her forehead against the door.

‘There’s no way. They wouldn’t end it with just this. Once I submit, I’ll keep getting dragged along.’

She couldn’t do that.

Lumiere absolutely didn’t want to lose.

Not to them, and not to that bewitching flower.

“…Don’t make me laugh.”

Gritting her teeth, she entered the bathroom connected to the room.

Her eyes, with all the capillaries burst, were swollen and red.

Tears flowed incessantly from under her bloodshot eyes.

She cursed Tartien.

She wanted to return what they had done to her several times over somehow.

I won’t lose like this. Never. Not to the likes of you!

Lumiere filled the bathtub full of water and entered without hesitation.

The blood from her wounds dispersed like mist in the clear pool of water.

Her torn skin stung.

But this was better. The pain would hold her blurred mind together.

Her body, feeling the chill, began to tremble.

“I, I… I can endure this.”

She just had to hold out until he came.

He said he’d come soon.

Believe. I believe in him. I believe in Karl.

So, I have to find a way.

A way…

Trapped in the ice-cold water, she bit her nails over and over.

It’s okay.

I can endure this.

Curling up and enduring in the darkness was what she did best, after all.