CH 107

At those words, the evil spirit, who had been silent all along, brought its claw to Natalia’s face.

I thought that the evil spirit was trying to do harm to her, so I unintentionally stretched out my hand.

My expectations were completely wrong.

The evil spirit touched Natalia’s cheek. It seemed to care about her.

Natalia closed her eyes and rested her face on its terrifying palm. Her expression was extremely calm.

“My husband…”

Natalia opened her eyes and pointed out the window with her shriveled hands.

“Alan… will put my dead body in a coffin and float it down that river.”

A drawbridge was visible over the city. A river ran down to the sea under a huge bridge.

The scenery I had seen with Alan the other day was the same as if it was painted. The only difference was that there was no spear that hung the heads of Lily’s kidnappers.

“I asked him to do that. Not to build my grave, don’t even think about offering flowers every year, just send me away.”

Come to think of it, Alan had never visited the grave of his dead wife. At least in front of me.

Now that I think about it, he hadn’t skipped a mourning. There was just no grave to mourn.

“Alan refused, but in the end he will do what I say. That person will do whatever I ask for.”

Natalia’s long eyelashes trembled. She raised her head and met the evil spirit’s face.

“Go ahead. Wait down the river.”

Even though the evil spirit didn’t have eyes, somehow the gazes of the two seemed to intersect.

“When the boat carrying me floats down, open the coffin and take my body.”

As soon as Natalia had finished speaking, she coughed, nauseated. The saliva splashed on the blanket was reddish as if mixed with blood.

“My body, after the funeral, will be much more damaged than it is now… In any case, if you come in, you can fix everything, right?”

Natalia stared blankly at the drops of blood she had vomited.

No one in the bedroom spoke until the reddish-red sky turned to wine.

Natalia broke the silence that seemed to last forever.

“Alan opposed giving birth to this child.”

She touched her full belly. Her bloated belly looked particularly large because her limbs were skinny.

“He would rather give up the baby in my womb than lose me.”

The woman smiled brightly at the evil spirit. Unlike her lips, her eyes trembled pathically.

“I insisted on giving birth, but he knelt down and begged, ‘Please don’t do that…’”

“Ugh!”

I groaned involuntarily and grabbed my head.

Suddenly, my head hurt like it was about to break. A single sentence popped into my head.

「Natalia was a talkative person.」

It was the content of the novel I was reincarnated in, <No Dreams or Hopes>.

Straightforward sentences explained the fragments of the past unfolding before my eyes.

“But giving up on the child doesn’t change anything. It was a miracle that I lived this long.”

With Natalia’s voice, the content of the original stormed.

「Natalia, who was weak, liked to talk about the outside world. Despite the boring and cruel stories of subjugating evil spirits, she was willing to listen. The duke liked her like that.」

“I wanted to leave my traces in the world even a little before I died.”

Natalia looked down at the belly that rose like a hill. As if imagining the child in her womb, her eyes were wet with regret.

“That’s why, even if I overdo it, I will have a third one.”

A cool breeze blew in from the side window.

She took a deep breath, concentrating on the soft touch on her cheeks. It was a spring breeze.

“I’m worried that this kid looks like me. According to the larks… Maybe she will be born prematurely.”

Natalia lowered the tip of her eyebrows while stroking her stomach on the blanket.

“I hope she will endure well. I was born that way, but I have lived until now.”

Natalia smiled. There was no remorse or regret in the gentle smile.

“Everything will be fine. If it’s Alan, even if I left, he will still love a child who resembled me. Both Pedro and Hugo will do the same.”

At that time, the evil spirit, who was still in place, slowly tilted its head and looked at Natalia’s stomach.

Instead of being afraid of the evil spirit that approached her, she laughed out loud.

“Would you like to feel the movement?”

At those words, the evil spirit slowly retreated back. Even though it wasn’t a big deal, it seemed intimidated.

Natalia put a smile on her face and pulled the evil spirit’s arm. Even at first glance, she was weak, but the evil spirit knelt on the floor as if sliding.

“Hurry.”

Natalia urged.

The evil spirit eventually laid its long head on Natalia’s stomach.

「Thump, thump, thump.」

The heartbeat of the soon-to-be-born baby was heard. No, it was read.

In my head, the original’s sentences were repeated like a broken clockwork. It felt like someone was writing, pressing a pen nib on my skull.

I stumbled across, clutching my forehead.

Everything was confusing.

Then Natalia picked up the scissors on the side table.

A cold, sharp sound tickled my ears.

She gathered her red hair together and cut it off.

A thick red light fluttered in her parched hands, then gradually fluctuated like a fierce flame. As if a fire had been ignited in a brazier, hot energy emanated from her hand.

The heat subsided after a while.

In her hand, which had turned red as if it had been burned, suddenly there was a rose, not hair.

The blooming buds were much more shabby than the roses she had made when she was young, but the red color was still vivid.

“It’s a gift. My last magic.”

Natalia held out the rose to the evil spirit.

The evil spirit looked at her blankly, not receiving the rose.

She waved the flower as if rushing it to take it, then forcibly placed the rose in the hand of the evil spirit.

“Once you enter my body, you will be able to perform white magic with this. After all, I have the blood of the imperial family.”

The evil spirit was stunned, holding the flower with both hands as if she was the first person to give it a gift.

Natalia shook her head lightly as if to calm it down.

“There will be moments when you’ll need it.”

She smiled lightly and stroked the cheek of the evil spirit.

“Thank you for all this time.”

The slow voice was as tender as saying goodbye to an old friend.

“Congratulations on being free.”

***

Dding, dding, dding. 

The church bell rang.

It was too long for a bell to announce a holiday. This was definitely the bell to announce a funeral.

The scene changed in the blink of an eye. I was under the drawbridge as the sun was setting. As soon as I looked through the long and majestic bridge and lowered my gaze, I stopped breathing for a moment.

Alan was standing in front of me. The eyes of the man in a black mourning robe were dry as if he was about to die.

Behind him were several familiar faces. Verney, the larks, the servants who had worked in the ducal castle for a long time… Among them, there were two that stood out in particular.

A young man with dark skin and a boy with glasses.

Their faces were full of baby fat, but I knew it at once. They were the young Pedro and Hugo.

“Light the coffin on fire, Duke.”

I was distracted by the familiar face and belatedly found a priest holding a sacred book.

The priest was so close to the river that if he stumbled, he would fall in. He stepped aside, revealing a small boat tied to the river bank.

It was a boat without a boatman. On the elongated structure were piles of lilies along with dry branches.

‘That’s…’

I slowly approached the river.

Among the pure white lilies, a smooth wooden coffin and the name clearly written on it were visible.

「Natalia von Bauner.」

Ah. This was the memory of the funeral. The owner of the wooden coffin was Alan’s wife.

“Duke. fire…”

The priest gently urged Alan.

However, Alan stood in place without saying a word. His gaze was nailed to the coffin covered with flowers, never wavering.

Pedro, unable to see it further, approached Alan and asked.

“Father. Shall I do it?”

Alan didn’t answer this time either.

Without waiting any longer, Pedro took the torch from the servant. He pointed the flame at the branches under the lilies.

Just before the mourning flowers were lit, Alan grabbed Pedro’s wrist.

“Don’t touch it.”

Alan’s pupils elongated vertically. There was a terrifying cry that came out at the end of his words.

“Father. However…”

“No one can touch it!”

Alan took the torch from Pedro and threw it into the river.

As the bewildered mourners approached, he growled like a black leopard guarding its territory.

“If anyone gives her even a scratch, I won’t let you go.”

He exposed his fangs and gave direct orders to the servants of the river.

“Float the boat.”

The servants did not readily follow the orders, puzzled.

Alan once again strongly ordered.

“Hurry.”

His breathing was harsh, as if he was going to pull out his claws and kill them at any moment.

“Before I get her out again.” 

The pale servants untied the ropes that held the boat.

The coffin covered with lilies floated down the middle of the river. The slow flow gradually grew stronger. The small boat soon became a small dot that was difficult to follow with the naked eyes.

Huwaaa. Little Hugo clung to Verney’s skirt and weeped.

Rather than grieving over the death of his mother, he seemed afraid of his father, who radiated murder.

Alan looked in the direction of the boat’s disappearance, as if he couldn’t even hear his son’s cries.

I licked my lips and reached out to him. My hand went straight through his body, but I waved my arm several times.

I wanted to hold Alan’s hand. I wanted to give him even an indescribable consolation.

Because he was so, so… He looked so sad.

“Dad.”

Without realizing it, I put that title in my mouth.

The moment I closed my mouth and stepped back, the scene of the funeral quickly faded away.