Chapter 7
Tepeo was shocked.
“You’ll die if you fall!”
“It’s okay. It’s a little scary for the first time, but it will be less scary once you get used to it.”
Tepeo’s face was now pale as a sheet. He began to move skillfully along the railing after I gave him a big smile.
I heard a sound on my back when I moved. Tepeo was on the window frame and following me.
“Carefully follow me!”
Tepeo seemed to be out of his mind to answer.
Well, You’ll be fine since you’re going to be the leader of the future department of swordsmanship.
We moved for a while precariously along the railing without talking.
I could see that Tepeo was following me well when I arrived at the ladder that went up to the roof.
I climbed up the ladder first because I thought he would block my way if I stayed there.
The roof of the nursery was in the middle of night and full of autumn. The fairly chilly wind swirled around my hair and went away.
I felt that Tepeo was coming to my side when I closed my eyes for a moment.
“What do you think? It’s pretty, right?”
I asked him with my closed eyes.
Stars that will never go out sparkled above the sky. The lights of downtown Sol Arena reflected like a mirror and flowed like a silver on the ground.
I pointed out the position of Duke Hilderox with my fingers.
“That’s where the map points.”
Tepeo’s eyes moved along with my fingertips. A large mansion loomed large in the distance.
Tepeo’s eyes have narrowed.
“That’s…..the Duke Hilderox estate.”
“Do you know who he is?”
I immediately asked him but I think it’s a silly question.
You should know Duke Hillderox if you were born in Lieberden.
And his extravagant and huge mansion.
“Melin, why did you draw a map over there?”
Tepeo asked me in a quiet voice.
“The map is necessary to get to the destination.”
I don’t know what he’s thinking. But Tepeo must know at this point.
“We’re going to the mansion. so….”
I’ll survive.
I made up my mind again while swallowing the words I wanted to say.
I will never die like Melinia in the novel.
* * *
Karen’s case came to mind the next morning.
I could have asked yesterday if Edina hadn’t gone through the room all of a sudden.
I got up while swallowing my inner thoughts.
“Melin….?”
Tepeo woke up while rubbing his eyes at the sight of my moving self.
He’s a very bright sleeper.
“Go to sleep, go to sleep.”
I put Tepeo back in bed and put a blanket on him because he’s trying to get up. It was funny to see him lie back on bed gently.
I closed the door quietly and came out so that Tepeo wouldn’t wake up again.
The hallway was still quiet because there were no children who had come out yet. The sound of my feet broke the silence.
Karen’s room was in the opposite hallway.
I heard a voice coming from below as I passed the stairs with the intention of going straight.
“Why are you coming all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know. You know what I mean?”
It sounds like the voices of nursery school teachers.
I tried to listen to it more but the sound of my hurried steps moved away and nothing else was heard.
Is someone coming to the nursery? Who?
Remember, outsiders who visited this place were mainly prospective adoptees who came to pick up their children or were from the Wigna Church.
He said he’d come, so the latter would be more reliable.
I went down the stairs with as little sound as I could.
I felt a sign of presence at the front door. The low man slowly caught my eye.
I hid myself inward and watched him so he could not notice me.
All I could see was his back, I thought he was quite old when I saw that his hair was white.
They’ll probably show him to the living room on the first floor. I’ll be able to overhear the conversation if I do well.
I waited for them to enter the living room. Soon, Hope was running with a gasp.
“Oh, I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I’ll show you to the living room.”
Hope said more, but I couldn’t hear it.
I thought his voice stopped, but soon the sound of footsteps moved away toward the living room.
Fortunately, there were no people in the hallway. So I moved quietly in the direction of the living room.
Then I succeeded in pushing my hands slightly into the gap before the door to the living room was completely closed.
I heard the sound inside as I drew my ears close to the door.
“I didn’t expect you here early in the morning.”
Hope’s first words were a scold.
At the same time, the voice was mixed as if trying to loosen the atmosphere a little but his effort was like a sword pointing on the other side.
“It’s an issue. I’ll ask you straight.”
“……”
“What the hell happened to this nursery?!”
I was surprised by the sudden explosion of a loud voice and lowered myself close. The angry man continued.
“Two this month alone, two!”
“Calm down, Bishop Marquio.”
Bishop. Bishop is the head of the temple.
I already knew from reading the novel that Hope had an illicit connection with a high-ranking member of the church.
But what is it that you have to come to the nursery in person this morning?
The question was answered without waiting.
“You said you were ill last time but this time what, misshapen? Ha, Such an excuse, Hope Clementine!”
The end of most of the children Hope touched was death, and each time Hope ‘treated’ the children with various signs.
The Bishop seemed very uneasy about the way Hope handled the children.
“This time, it was a real failure. It was an accident that happened when the kids were playing.”
Hope remained calm all the time unlike Bishop Marquio with an elevated tone.
“How can I believe that!”
“There is a child who fell together. She woke up after losing consciousness for a few days, and sadly she couldn’t remember anything.”
It wasn’t until then that I realized that the story that Hope and Bishop Marquio were sharing had something to do with me.
The child who fell with me must be talking about me.
But it was weird. I’m sure I was the only one who had an accident.
“I don’t know how much you are watching this thing from afar, so you’re just saying that!”
“Bishops, lower your voice.”
“Gosh, if you’re known to the Church not just your life that ends…!”
Aha. Hope compiled my fall to cover up his crime.
“I’m going to finish it up so there’s no noise. Don’t worry too much.”
“But these days Hillderox is running around like a crazy dog, if….”
I couldn’t hear the next conversation.
I heard footsteps upstairs so I hurried to go to the table as fast as I could and closed the door.
Bishop Marquio’s lost is due to Hope. The children’s death at the nursery must have drawn outside attention.
He came here to warn him directly about it.
All right, this is the far I could understand. However, the last word that the bishop said was on my mind.
Hillderox is walking around like a crazy dog?
It wasn’t too hard to understand Duke Hillderox in the novel.
The confrontation between the denomination and the aristocratic faction was largely based on the novel.
“The Duke and the temple were especially on bad terms.”
In the novel, Duke Hillderox and the temple were fiercely antagonized to the point where the word ‘criticism’ was not enough.
The worst reason for their relationship was not known because it was not in the novel, but Duke Hilderox was a character constantly at odds with the Wigna Church.
In many ways, it was a very unfortunate family.
Even the adopted son would die after Azley.
I can’t solve it because it was a side story from the novel, but it was a problem.
Hillderox’s pressure was a stimulating factor for Hope.
What if he changes and loses control?
It can be dangerous anytime.
I could tell by experiencing the novel’s development disorganized several times.
I shouldn’t believe in the time I have left.
What I had to do now was not to find Melinia’s accident, but to find a way into the waterway faster than the other day.
And it’s small.
It’s a relief because I was still young, but I couldn’t even think about going in if I had grown up.
I’m taking care not to get wet while I was stepping on the small canal. A stuffy smell stabbed my nose.
It was so small that I couldn’t fully stretch my waist that I had to walk in the waterway almost as if I had to wait.
【Moist and black darkness seems to entangle his ankles. But the boy couldn’t stop or turn back, he crawled desperately through the narrow, long waterway. Run, run….. he repeat the girl’s last words again and again.】
That’s why Tepeo gets Microphobia here.
(t/n: Microphobia is the fear of small things. Includes microscopic organisms, such as germs, cells, or things that are unnaturally tiny.)
The guilt of running away from a dead friend, a narrow, dark way that never ends that no matter how much he walks.
It was a sufficient requirement to remain a trauma for a 10-year-old child.
The reason why Tepeo becomes obsessed with Azley is because of his microphobia.
When he was with Azley that looked like Melinia, the panic attack died down like it never happened in the first place.
The small waterway that was barely finished after a long walk. I got out of the waterway carefully so I won’t fall.
Now there was a three part waterways in front of me.