Chapter 20: Girl, Jumps at Shadows

 

 

 

Chapter 20: Girl, Jumps at Shadows

 

STARS began twinkling in the sky, but Nichika descended into the village once again after she had finished dinner.

She walked the road leading to the village’s main street feeling like she was going for a stroll. Looking up, she saw the red and blue moons rising above the horizon in the sky, which was colored with a subtle mix of purple and pink. The beautiful view washed away the irritation that had been coursing through her earlier that day.

This world really is pretty. I barely ever had the time to look at the sky in my world. Her thoughts reeled to a stop, followed by her feet, as a feeling of profound confusion came over her. Wait—I didn’t have the time to look up? Why? Why didn’t I have the time?

Thinking back to her life, Nichika recalled that she had always walked with her head down, her eyes firmly on the ground—so that no one would see her face; so that no one would speak to her.

“……”

A black shadow stretched over her as if permeating her heart.

What is this? Nichika grasped at her chest, feeling like she was about to remember something she shouldn’t. She slammed her eyes shut. In her mind’s ear, she could hear somebody snickering then yelling. Chaotic noises were crowding her head; a memory of that voice rose among them.

“Hurry and…it—”

“…!” Nichika gasped and jerked her head up. The ground abruptly started to warp beneath her feet like she might fall through if she didn’t brace herself.

Wh-What was that just now?

She stumbled forward, nearly falling flat on her face, when something circled around her and held her up from below.

“Whoops!” a voice said, “That was close! Are you okay?”

“Wolfie…” Seeing the golden eyed, brown fluffy wolf reminded Nichika of where she was and what she was doing.

That’s right, I was sent to another world, and I’m traveling with my master now…

“……”

“Nichika?”

She tightly clung to Wolfie’s warm, furry body.

 

Nichika hugged him close for a long time, but when she finally let go and looked up, she had her usual smile back.

“Sorry about that! I was just feeling a little dizzy is all.”

“But—”

“I’m fine, really. Anyways, why are you here, Wolfie?”

Wolfie was infamous for being incapable of reading the mood or the situation, but even he hesitated over whether to press her about what was wrong this time. Instead, he let out a weird-sounding wolfish sigh and sat down on the street.

“Can I cry now?” he asked.

“Why?” Finding his question strange, Nichika glanced behind him. Something was hiding behind a wooden box a little ways off. Surprisingly, it was the village children hiding in the shadow of the boxes while peering curiously at them. Darkness had long since settled in, but they seemed to have special permission to be outside despite the hour because of the festival.

“They’ve been doing that for forever now. But they run away screaming when I try to talk to them.”

Needless to say, Wolfie was fully in wolf form at the moment. Earlier in the day, Makina had put out an official notice that granted Wolfie permission to walk around the village as a wolf, but the villagers still kept their distance from him. Nichika had grown used to having a wolf for a friend, but he was big enough to make anyone seeing him for the first time jump out of their skin.

“I’m used to it… I am used to it, but it makes me sad when they’re that openly scared of me.”

“But can’t you become a boy, Wolfie?”

“I can. But I’m not good at it. I’ll revert right back if I lose focus even a little.”

His admission brought bitter memories surging back to him. In the past, he had wanted to play with the nearby village children so badly that he’d shapeshifted into his boy form so he could try speaking with them. With his amazing athleticism, Wolfie had become an instant hit with the other children, and they had even let him join their ranks as a friend.

But the disaster occurred one day during a game of hide-and-seek. One of the kids had jumped out behind Wolfie and scared him back into his wolf form, sending screaming children running back to their parents, who then came after Wolfie with weapons and chased him out of the village for good… His fur bristled on his back till this very day whenever he remembered how he had barely escaped with his life.

Nichika watched Wolfie’s bushy tail curl between his legs in despair. After pondering over what to do, she suddenly clapped her hands. “I’ve got it!”

“Nichika?”

Nichika energetically hopped to her feet, put her hands around her mouth to act like a megaphone, and called out to the village children, “Hello! Are you kids from Lolo Village?”

The children looked questioningly at each other, but after a pause, several nodded.

“Will you guys hear me out? This cutie here is named Wolfie. Would you like to come over and meet him?”

“Is he…safe?” one of the older boys asked, standing protectively in front of the group.

“Yup! C’mon, Wolfie, say hello.”

“H-Hi.” He tried for an awkward wolfish grin, but it turned out to be a bad idea— the children’s faces froze upon seeing his sharp fangs glinting in the moonlight.

Nichika rushed to stop the children from running away. “Aww, don’t go! You don’t have to worry! He’s not scary!” To ease their fears, she added a little white lie, “This is a big secret, but Wolfie is actually a human boy like the rest of you.”

“That wolf is a boy? Really?”

“Really. It’s just that he’s been cursed by an evil witch—err, I mean, a devil, and that’s why he looks like a wolf. He hasn’t been able to make any friends because the curse made him look like this.”

“That’s sad…”

Wolfie stayed quiet as a girl with braided hair stared at him hard. The fear she had showed earlier was gone.

Nichika continued, “That’s why I wanted to ask a big, big favor of you all. Won’t you please become Wolfie’s friends?”

“We will!” the kids cheerfully agreed in unison.

It was as if Wolfie was dreaming. Even though he was in his true form, friendly hands fearlessly reached for him and petted him all over. Surrounded by their laughter, he witnessed the happiest of smiles.

Wolfie couldn’t believe he was at the center of the fun and joy for once. The friends he had longed for his entire life were now readily in reach.

“Nichika! Nichika! Thank you! Thank you!” he said, crying with joy, “I’m so happy!”

Nichika smiled and waved to the overjoyed, teary wolf as he frolicked in the field with his newfound friends.

***

“MISS Nichika, are you gonna marry Makina?” the girls asked.

Nichika dropped the flower crown she had been making with the group at the abrupt question. In the distance, she could hear the excited shouts and cheers of children riding on Wolfie’s big back.

“Wh-Wh-Why would you ask that?” she stuttered, red in the face.

The girls exchanged knowing glances and giggled. “I knew it!”

“The village adults were talking about it.”

“He saved you from danger, right? So cool! Now that’s romance!”

“How lucky!”

The boys gave the fangirling girls incredulous looks. However, one of them joined the conversation, noting in a serious tone, “But you know, if those rumors are true, then…”

“What rumors?” Curious, Nichika turned toward the boy.

The children loudly gulped and gathered around Nichika. Then they lowered their voices to whispers, as if to reveal secrets.

“Miss Nichika, you’d better watch your back when you’re alone,” one of the boys advised. “Isn’t there a strange maid serving at that mansion?”

“You mean Violette?”

“What? What are you guys talking about?” Wolfie piped up, trotting over to the conversation circle with tiny children still clinging to his back.

The older boy who had brought up the topic firmly nodded to Nichika. “Thing is, everybody has been saying that that maid is actually a ghost.”

“A g-g-ghost?! AROOOO!” Wolfie bayed, putting his paws over his eyes.

“Calm down, Wolfie!” Nichika quickly ordered, trying to keep him in check before he went into full panic mode. By the time he had settled down, the mood had totally transformed to set the stage for ghost stories.

“Long ago—well, not that long since it was two years ago, but anyway—this is a story from when Makina first came to this village. There was a family who had been caring for the mansion he now lives in. They consisted of a dad, mom, and their only daughter. He hired the family as his live-in servants.”

“The daughter was known as the prettiest girl in the village,” the boy next to him continued in a hushed voice. “She got along great with Makina, and everybody thought they’d get married to each other. But…” He paused, and a mournful air spread through the children. Not knowing what had happened, Nichika quietly waited for them to continue.

“It happened on a freezing day during the summer. The whole family went out on a shopping trip to the neighboring town. But on their way there, they were attacked by a pack of wild dogs… Word came that the dad and mom had died on the spot, and the daughter, barely escaping alive, arrived halfdead at the town.”

Nichika gasped. The girl sitting beside her sniffled.

“We all felt so bad for Lord Makina at the time. When he received the message, he bolted from the village, his face paler than a ghost.”

“What happened next…?” Nichika had a general idea of where this was going since no one else lived at the mansion.

The children solemnly shook their heads. “Even the medical technology of the big cities was no good. The best they could do was let Lord Makina return home with the corpse. Though dead, it was as pretty as a doll.”

“That’s horrible…”

“The entire village held a funeral for their family. They buried them in the western flower field, and that should’ve been the end of it.”

The course of the conversation changed rapidly from there. The boy who had started the story leaned forward in their circle and conspiratorially whispered, “Six months after the funeral, Makina’s family sent him a new servant.”

“And that was Violette?”

The children nodded, their expressions mixed with fear and excitement.

“She looks just like her,” the boy revealed.

“Like who?”

“That maid looks exactly like Miss Sumire, who should’ve died in that dog attack!”

***

“…THAT’S what they said at least,” Nichika concluded, recounting the story for Oswald after returning to his room at the mansion. Wolfie had completely taken to the children and was sleeping over at one of their houses for the night, so Nichika had come back alone.

“That maid, huh?”

“Does that work as a clue for who’s behind the dying flowers?”

“In its own way, yeah.” Facing the window outside, Oswald became lost in thought.

Nichika wanted to confirm her suspicions. “Violette called herself a homunculus, but what goes into that? Does that mean she was created by somebody?”

If she remembered correctly, when she had first met Oswald, he’d told her that he made homunculus artificial life kits on order for clients.

Oswald answered her distractedly, “Artificial lifeforms are still deeply saturated in the realm of the unknown. I’ve tried creating them before, but the things I’ve made are no better than a failure slime.”

“And you sold that?” She arched a judgmental eyebrow at him.

“I was selling artificial life kits, after all. I think of it as letting people buy their dreams.”

“Your shameful business practices have always been the same, I see…”

Oswald ignored her exasperation and muttered, more to himself than to her, “That’s exactly why I have my doubts about that woman being a legitimate homunculus. How could a landowner out in the hicks like this, come to own a homunculus with a flawless human form—which even I can’t create? Something doesn’t feel right…”

“So, how do you make them then?” Impatient, Nichika set both hands on the window frame where he was resting his arm, chin in hand. Her proximity finally pulled him back to the moment, making his eyes widen.

“How do you make them? Well, there are various theories out there, but I went the orthodox way by using various herbs, horse dung, and sem—”

“H-Horse dung?!” she exclaimed. She pulled a face as she tried to imagine the gorgeous Violette rising from a recipe that included horse dung. “So gross! Isn’t there any other way to do it? Like, um, using a human corpse before you bury them? Argh, even saying that gives me the heebie-jeebies!”

That was one step too close to a world she’d never want anything to do with. Meanwhile, Oswald’s expression turned grim.

“Oz?”

“…Is that how it was done?”

“Did you figure something out?”

“I don’t have positive proof,” he said, avoiding a clear answer.

Annoyed by being kept in suspense, she stared him down, when she noticed that something was amiss. “Oh, what happened to your glasses?”

Oswald wasn’t wearing the glasses he usually wore whenever they went into towns and other populated areas. His expression turned ugly at the question.

“They make me clash with that four-eyed punk,” he snapped.

“…What? Are you talking about Makina?”

Sure, Makina wears round glasses, but…what’s that got to do with Oswald? Nichika wondered.

“I can’t believe it,” she snorted. “You’re not a child, you know.”

“It’s a matter of pride. Shove off.”

“Oh come on. Why are you always so snippy?” she quipped, earning herself a fierce glare. “Wh-What?” She flinched, which for some unknowable reason or another, made him sigh louder and longer than ever before.

“…Nothing.”

“Really? In that case, I’ll be heading back to my room.” She walked over to the door and had just put her hand on the knob, when he suddenly called out to her from behind.

“You’re welcome to sleep here. Want me to cuddle with you?”

“K-Keep your bad jokes to yourself! I have my own room and I’ll be using it, thanks!” She quickly retreated as flashbacks of the “punishment” he had threatened her with earlier replayed in her head.

Reading her thoughts right off her red face, Oswald snorted and scoffed, “What’re you so on guard for? Relax. Your seductive charms aren’t something to write home about. At least I won’t be falling for them.”

“GRRR! Shut up! You sexual harassing devil!” Nichika slammed the door behind her and loudly stomped off toward her room.

He ticks me off! He ticks me off! He ticks me off so damn much! Sure, I don’t think I’ve got much in terms of sex appeal, but how can he have the nerve to say that, after all he’s done to me?! He’s the enemy! The enemy of all women!

“Nichika? Why do you look so upset?” A voice suddenly came from the staircase, interrupting her angry act of stomping through the hallway with the most bloodcurdling expression she could muster.

It gave Nichika such a fright that she leapt right into the air. “Oh my gosh!” she yelped.

Shocked, she glanced up the staircase to find Makina staring down at her. Fresh out of the bath, he had a towel around his shoulders and had let his usually tied-back hair down, changing his usual impression.

“G-Good evening. Um, did I look upset to you?” Nichika asked timidly.

“You looked like you were ready to kill someone.”

“……”

She wished Makina wouldn’t say something like that with such a radiant smile. As a girl in the first flush of youth, her mood only dropped even further now that she had let someone see her acting so unsightly.

“I want to talk to you for a bit. Let’s go upstairs,” Makina invited.

“Upstairs?”

***

SHE ascended the stairs behind Makina. The staircase ended at a door that was only wide enough for one person to barely squeeze their way through. At his insistence, Nichika swung it open.

“Wow!”

A refreshingly sweet aroma hit her nose as a stunning view unfolded before her eyes.

Blue flowers bloomed in abundance on the mansion’s rooftop, underneath the lustrous glow of the night sky. Flowers about the size of her palm with dainty, almost transparent flower petals unleashed a sparkling glow from their stigma. Every flower was in full bloom, creating an utterly breathtaking, magical sight underneath the light of the two moons.

“They’re called Moonlight Flowers, because they only bloom at night.”

“......” Nichika was so in awe that she forgot how to speak.

Makina chuckled at her expression. Plucking the closest flower, he slipped it in her hair. “You look beautiful,” he complimented.

“Oh…”

Makina put a hand on her reddening cheeks. “I want to hear how you really feel.”

“How…I…”

“Is it a nuisance if I ask you to stay?”

She shook her head. “No, I’d never call you a nuisance. Your feelings make me happy, but…”

The miraculous scenery enthralled her. A secret date in a blooming flower garden at night used to be something she fantasized about.

His eyes fixed on her hesitant face, and he leaned in closer as if drawn to it. Nichika instinctively closed her eyes.

 

“Four-eyes is just under the spell of the parasitic seed’s temptation.”

 

Oswald’s warning suddenly came to mind. “Don’t!”

She pushed Makina away just before their lips touched. Realizing what she had done, Nichika glanced up in a panic. Makina looked heartbroken from her rejection.

“Um, I’m sorry! It’s not that I dislike you, Makina, it’s just that…”

“So it’s true then. You love him, don’t you?”

“‘Him’? Him who? …Wait, Oswald?! Why would I love him?!” she demurred.

Makina uncomfortably averted his eyes. “Sorry. I saw you two earlier. I watched you kiss him, Nichika.”

Shame rose inside her knowing she’d been seen. She flapped her lips, but the words wouldn’t come out.

Makina smiled sadly at her. “See, I knew that was the case.”

“Y-You’ve got it wrong! I have a complicated reason for this.”

“What reason?”

Nichika racked her brain for how to talk her way out of this situation, but couldn’t find the right explanation. After her attempts ended in futility, she gave up and dropped her shoulders.

“Makina, do you know about Fake Lover?” she asked reluctantly.

 

After she had explained everything, Makina stared at her with a mixed expression. “I’m surprised such a cursed plant exists out there,” he remarked. Then, looking relieved, he continued, “That means there’s still hope for me then.”

“…!”

Makina took her hand in his and gazed ardently into her eyes. No traces of teasing or condescension were present, only sincerity. Looking straight into her eyes, Makina confessed from the bottom of his heart. “Nichika, I love you. I want to take the place of your master until your peculiar disease is healed—no, I want to be with you even after it’s cured.”