Chapter 21: Girl, Sows Seeds

 

 

 

Chapter 21: Girl, Sows Seeds

 

LUMINESCENT spores scattered from the blue flowers and danced into the air above the rooftop garden. Her thoughts half-frozen, Nichika unconsciously asked, “What about…Sumire?”

Makina’s expression stiffened. He squeezed her hand a little harder. “Where did you hear that name?”

“I heard about her from the village children. About how she looks exactly like Violette.”

Makina’s expression grew even tenser as if all the muscles in his face had frozen that way. Nichika prepared herself for the worst and pressed him for the truth. “Violette called herself a homunculus, but is that the truth? What in the world is—”

“She’s just a doll that my family sent to me. Dad gave her that appearance to torment me…” He released her hand and turned his back to her. Then, more to himself than to Nichika, he muttered, “Sumire died. She’s dead.”

Recognizing the conflicting emotions hidden away in his words, Nichika could say nothing more. When he looked back at her, he was wearing his usual kind smile.

“Tell me your answer on the night of the flower festival. Good night.”

Makina left Nichika alone on the rooftop, where she stood rooted to the ground amid the glowing light of the blue flowers. She pulled the flower from her hair and vacantly stared at its blue luminosity.

Makina is a nice guy, but the truth is that he still has feelings for Sumire… He’s probably only attracted to me because of Fake Lover’s temptation… The thought terrified her. Am I going to have to doubt everyone’s affections as long as this seed remains inside of me?

Nichika knew it was rude to doubt others’ feelings, but how could she think otherwise in her situation?

Grabbing the front of her dress, she hung her head, a single tear streaking her cheeks. In the middle of the enchanting garden lit by the glowing blue flowers and the dazzling moonlight, Nichika stood completely motionless with only her misery for company.

***

OSWALD hadn’t stayed in his room, but was instead taking the road into the village. As one would expect, no one was preparing for the festival at that late hour. The area was still as death, cloaked in the night’s silence.

Oswald knelt on the ground and swiftly drew a simple magic circle with black charcoal. Finishing his stroke without hesitation, he deftly connected the pattern’s final line.

“I order thee per our contract, O ye whom I grant my blood…” Oswald austerely chanted the spell over the magic circle and ended it in his own brusque words, “…hurry and get your butt here to help me with this job, slowpoke!”

His short command complete, the ends of the charcoal black lines shined. Just as the light flashed at its highest intensity, something leapt out from the middle of the magic circle.

“Ta-da! Here to jump at your beck and call is your favorite Wolfie!” The wolf skid across the gravel as he landed with an extralarge yawn, baring all his sparkling white fangs. “Masterrrr,” he bayed through his yawn, “You’re such a meanie summoning me while I was sleeping. I was out cold with Eli and Dug toooooo.”

“Since when do familiars get time off? Help me out.”

“What’re you trying to do at this hour?”

“Grave robbing.”

Wolfie tripped over his paws beside Oswald. Though a wolf, he was a big scaredy-cat when it came to anything scary. Wolfie jumped up on all fours, the fur on his back bristling.

“I don’t wanna do that! Especially at this hour! We’re gonna get cursed for sure! For! Sure! Let’s do it tomorrow morning…no, let’s go grave robbing in the bright sunlight of tomorrow afternoon! But not if it’s rainy! We can decide based on how cloudy the weather is!”

“I’m doing it this late because I don’t want people to see. Just try digging up a grave in broad daylight. They’ll drive us right out of this village in the blink of an eye.” Oswald grabbed hold of Wolfie’s tail and proceeded to drag him by it.

“Eep! I don’t wannaaaaaaaa!” Wolfie howled pathetically.

Wolfie didn’t know where Oswald had got the thing from—probably borrowed it from a shed in the area—but he was carrying a shovel on his shoulder.

They finally arrived at the flower field where Wolfie had spotted Miss Flower—also known as Violette. Under the light of the two moons, the grand stretch of withering flowers looked undeniably unhealthy. Rumors of the field decaying from the west appeared to have been true.

“Okay, servant, it’s time for you to use that nose you’re so proud of. That family of dead servants should be buried somewhere in this flower field. Find their corpses.”

“Snuffle, snuffle. Tuuday…me nose’z…outta…com-mis-shin…achoo!” Wolfie sniffed repetitively as if he had a stuffed nose and rolled over on the ground like he was sick.

“……” Oswald silently lifted the shovel overhead.

Wolfie promptly sprung to his feet, tears in his eyes. “I’m just kidding! Just kidding! Ugggh…I don’t wanna do this.” He reluctantly stuck his snout up in the air and sniffed. Some time passed, and he cocked his head. “All I smell is flowers.”

“They were buried years ago. I guess it’d be reasonable for their bodies to have long since decayed into skeletons… Try picking up on any other strange smells then.”

“Okay, hold on.” Wolfie concentrated on sifting through the smells until he noticed something out of the ordinary among the aromatic flowers. “I think it’s coming from somewhere over here—the smell of metal.” He used his muzzle to point.

“It’s digging time.”

Oswald dug with the shovel, and Wolfie with his claws, until they hit something with a resounding clunk.

“What is—” Wolfie’s claws hit something white, long, and narrow. “GAH, bonessssssssss!” Wolfie was beside himself with panic. He dashed around in circles, hopping up and down frantically to get the sensation of cold bones off his feet.

Oswald continued digging the bones up, indifferent. He had anticipated coming across as much. “So there are bones after all. Hm?” A light purple object peeked out from the black dirt. Oswald latched on and started to haul it out of the soil, scowling. “This is…”

“Master, pull! Pull!” Wolfie cheered. Then he saw what it was. “GYAWAWAWOOOO! A corpse!” he screeched incoherently.

Oswald had unearthed the remains of a young woman. She had violet hair and elegantly curved cheeks—moreover, the body was far too clean. It fell limply on the ground when he let it go, but it looked as if it could spring to life at any moment.

“I-Is that person really, really dead?” Wolfie asked, timorously peeking his head around Oswald’s legs.

Oswald didn’t bother to answer and pulled a knife from his pocket instead. And then he stabbed the beautiful face with it.

“EEEK! You shouldn’t defile the dead, Master! Huh? What’s that?”

Ripping like fabric torn asunder, the corpse’s skin peeled off under the knife. Underneath what had appeared to be skin was cotton and an iron frame. Prudent care had gone into adjusting the weight to be just right.

“I-It’s not a person?”

“It’s a well-made doll. So that’s how it was all along, huh?” Convinced by his findings, Oswald clapped the dirt off his hands.

He had thought it was strange. If someone really had successfully created such a perfect homunculus as Violette, she’d have been paraded around the public marketplace and announced to the world by now.

“That maid is living flesh and blood. I’d bet she’s the real Sumire. I don’t know what her motives are, but—” Suddenly feeling a chilling presence, Oswald swerved around.

He didn’t know when she had appeared, but Violette stood among the flowers a meter away, her hands neatly folded in front of her. Emotionless violet eyes firmly held his gaze.

When she finally opened her perfectly shaped lips, an equally monotone voice came out. “This is not a time for walks.”

“You think so? Regrettably, I have an aversion to sunlight.”

Violet hair swayed in the wind carrying colorful flower petals.

In that very moment, a bizarre phenomenon took place—the undulating flowers rapidly withered away. Their deaths emitted a pittance of visible magic that absorbed into Violette.

“So, you’re the culprit who’s killing the flowers too?”

“Can I ask you to please hand that doll over to me?” she quietly requested, ignoring his accusation.

Oswald followed up with two more questions, “Weren’t you and that four-eyes lovers? Why fake your own death?”

For the first time, confusion flickered in her violet eyes. Her face twisting in pain, she grabbed her head and started to moan. “Ah…no…stop it…”

“What?”

She stooped over for several minutes, moaning horribly. But, by the time she lifted her head, her trademark lifeless eyes had returned. “Because this is all for Master Makina.”

“……”

“A lowborn woman such as myself could never be married to a man of such rank. This is for the best.”

“Then, is an optimistic little girl with no brain or capacity for forethought like my apprentice any better?” Oswald questioned. Nichika would be enraged if she overhead him.

The maid slowly shook her head. “Lady Nichika is a wonderful person. She is honest and compassionate… I am sure Master Makina was drawn to those attributes.”

“……” Oswald fell silent. Then, unexpectedly, he walked away from the fake corpse. “Do what you want with the doll. I’ll find another way.”

“M-Master?” Wolfie stammered.

“You have my utmost gratitude,” Violette replied.

Oswald and Wolfie departed from the field of flowers, leaving the woman alone with her lookalike doll. She stroked the doll’s cheek and spoke in a hollow voice,“This is the end… I want to be…disposed of already.”

***

THE following morning, suffocation forcibly dragged Nichika from the depths of a sound slumber.

“Mn. Mmph…!” Her eyes snapped open just as fresh air whisked into her lungs. The blue eyes right in front of her blinked once.

“Oh, you woke up?”

“Oh my GOSH!” Nichika tried to scoot away as fast as she could, but she was on top of a bed, locked in a cage created by Oswald’s body—he was hanging over her. Heat surged to her face as she came to comprehend her situation. “Wh-Wh-What are you doing to me first thing in the morning?!”

“It’s your fault for not waking up.”

Held hostage by his steady gaze at point-blank range, her heart hammered wildly. She was fascinated by him, and realizing that sunk her into a state of misery.

Agh, it’s so frustrating! His face really is the only cool and handsome thing about him!

“I-It’s cheating to show me that face right when I wake up,” she mumbled.

“Huh?” He gave her an exasperated look but surprisingly moved away. “You can’t understand how thoughtful I’m being by doing it while you sleep, considering that you hate it so much?”

“That’s not a good enough reason! Anyways, didn’t I lock the door?! How’d you even get in here?!”

“Trade secret.”

“That’s a crime!” Nichika grabbed her pillow and chucked it at him, but he easily caught it with one hand. He smirked wickedly at her when she hopped out of bed, ready to pursue him.

“Enough fooling around. Get ready and help me out. We have a busy day ahead.”

“We do? What are we doing?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

***

NICHIKA changed into her usual outfit. When she arrived at the western, withered flower field, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Yay, it’s Miss Nichika! Morning!”

“We’ve got everything all ready here!”

The children she had played with the day before, along with their parents, had gathered in the field. They were noisily chattering away with each other, reminding her of how the neighborhood association’s cleaning committee would gather back home.

She greeted them, “Good morning. What are you all doing here?”

“Wolfie asked us to bring everyone here,” explained the child whose house Wolfie had stayed at overnight. Excitement glittering in his eyes, the boy innocently went on to add, “He said he’ll treat us all to a miracle!”

“I wonder what it’ll be,” another child chimed in.

“Me too!” a third agreed.

They were having a friendly chat, but Nichika couldn’t ignore the twinge of unease roiling within her. What in the world was that devilish man going to show them?

“Morning, Nichika. Looks like something incredible is about to begin, huh?” a voice called out.

“Makina.”

His expression pulled into a tense smile as he politely greeted the villagers he passed by on his way over to her. Violette trailed behind him.

“Umm, I haven’t been informed about what he’s about to do either,” Nichika admitted awkwardly.

“You haven’t?”

Right then, a lively, excited voice shouted out to them from the direction of the village.

“Everybody, thanks for waiting!” Wolfie, tugging a wagon twice the height of his withers, came to a sharp halt. Grabbing the jute bags piled up on the wagon with his teeth, he began to hand them out to people. “Okay, line up everybody. Pass it around!”

“What is this?” Upon opening the bag Makina had passed to her, Nichika found seeds of various shapes and sizes: triangular, square, circular, along with tons of other variations.

“Those are flower seeds. Master said he’ll deliver the official explanation on it.”

At last, Oswald made his appearance wearing his businessman smile. Shrill screams erupted from the village girls over the Ice Demon who had caused the uproar in the village the day prior. Nichika restrained her desire to crack a joke over the whole farce.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” Oswald said courteously, “You have my deepest gratitude for cooperating with us on such short notice. Now, what I would like you to do is very simple. Please remove the withered plants and plant as many seeds as possible in order to make it in time for the flower festival.”

Everyone gaped at his instructions. After a brief silence, the adults timidly spoke up.

“Pardon me, but the flower festival takes place tomorrow…”

“Actually, we have the prefestival celebrations, so it starts tonight. You see, considering what we’re dealing with this year, we’ve decided to go with fake flowers.”

Oswald pointedly directed his fake smile at Nichika, dropping what felt like ice cubes down her back with his wordless pressure.

I got it! I got it, already!

She slipped out of the circle of people to face them from the front, where she took a deep breath. Then, in one fluid motion, she vigorously bowed her head before them. “Please cooperate with us, everyone! You might not believe him, but please take part even if you think you’re being deceived!”

Silence fell over the field. But it only lasted a second before the children flocked over to her.

“Okay! Since it’s Miss Nichika who’s asking! I’ll believe ya!”

“I wanna see a miracle!”

“I’ll sow more seeds than anyone else!”

The children immediately started yanking out the dead plants. After watching their diligent participation for a while, the adults exchanged looks and laughed aloud.

“You’ve got us this time. How can the adults leave all the work to children?”

“Welp, guess we should get to it. At the end of the day, we have to plant new seeds eventually, anyway.”

“That said, we need to get the tools. I’ll go grab what I can from the shed.”

“Then the other ladies and I will bring out some emergency rice. A lot of you haven’t had breakfast yet, right?”

Nichika tightly clasped her hands in awe of how quickly and easily the villagers set to work as one unit. “The people of Lolo Village really are nice!”

Oswald’s lips curved into a smirk. “That’s not it. The adults never would’ve gotten involved if you hadn’t said anything. The plan’s success is all yours, since you befriended the children.” He placed his hand on her head for a moment before walking away. “You did well. Good job.”

“Eh? Ah…” He left while she was still flustered. His words echoing through her head, Nichika brought her hand up to her messed up hair and quietly murmured, “Did he just praise me?”