139.

Goosebumps.

A peculiar chill ran down Johannes’ spine. The moment he heard his sister’s first call, his face, which had brightened as if lit on fire, froze stiff. He couldn’t believe it. This was…

“Johan…!”

Could this truly be my sister’s voice?

He found it difficult to understand his own reaction. It was just a simple call. A trivial summons, yet his sister’s tone sounded as unfamiliar as that of a complete stranger. It was clearly hers. He could discern that much. But he couldn’t explain why he felt as if he had found the wrong person.

“Inette…?”

Johannes’ lips uttered a dry sound.

“Johan. Johan. Johan…”

His sister seemed to have her lips pressed tightly against the entrance. Her voice, repeating her brother’s name while gasping heavily like an exhausted beast, was unexpectedly close. It felt not like a voice flowing from his sister’s throat beyond the door, but like sap seeping through the grain of the entrance.

“Remove… the bolt, Johan. Mother seems about to wake up…”

His sister pleaded.

Johannes, who had been standing dazed with a pale face until then, finally stooped awkwardly and pressed one ear to the door.

“About to wake up… Is she sleeping?”

“I don’t know. I. Don’t know. That, that crazy woman…”

“Inette…”

“I don’t know if she’s dozing or sleeping. She might have just died for a moment. Oh, if only she had really died… That woman, she’s not in her right mind. Do you know what she’s doing to me? Even if I complained to you for ten days straight, it wouldn’t be enough. So please. Please, set me free before we’re discovered, Johan. If I’m trapped with that woman for even a moment longer, I’ll either go mad with her or wither and die.”

“Inette, sleep…”

“Ah…! I’ll definitely, definitely die…”

A chill ran through his heart. With each short, sharp word, a savage fear and faint anger rippled. It seemed as if impure emotions were seeping out from inside her throat, spreading like a damp fog. Johannes was struck speechless at this unsettling sight he had never seen before. This was no ordinary reaction.

“Inette.”

Setting aside his own perplexed feelings, he felt he should first calm his sister. Johannes pressed his palms against the door and leaned in close.

“Inette. Bring Mother here now.”

“Johan. So. Hurry…”

“I’ll, I’ll try to talk…”

“Open.”

“Inette…”

“…Open this door, Johan!”

Thump. The entrance shook briefly.

“Open it. Open it. Open it. Open it, Johan…! Open…!”

Without waiting for her brother’s response, his sister’s voice flowed incessantly, even lacking direction. It was like a death rattle nailed into the wood grain, eternally repeating itself even without a listener, as if uttered just before being murdered. It was an almost ghostly desperation. Oh, what on earth had happened in that chamber where only two young ladies were confined?

“Open it… Open… Op…”

His sister’s frantic words trailed off into a muffled sob. The faintly convulsing doorway gradually grew quiet. Likely, his sister, clinging to the door, was barely restraining the nails she wanted to scratch with immediately. Though it was hard for him to even imagine his sister’s rounded shoulders enduring emotions welled up to her chin with desperate self-control, at last.

Johannes realized the cause of the disconnect he felt. He… hadn’t known. Blinded by the excitement of the impending reunion, he had only imagined the joy he himself would feel, and thus failed to properly receive his sister’s true voice, confined right here. It sounded as unfamiliar as that of a complete stranger, though it was clearly his sister’s.

Johannes felt as if he were crumbling into pieces. He was the greatest fool among fools. He couldn’t immediately believe the kind of pain deeply etched in his sister’s voice. I, none other than I. Felt you, none other than you, oh, as a complete stranger. I erected a pale wall of my own accord. Like the stone wall of the chamber crossing between siblings. Though there was much he had wanted to convey, he couldn’t possibly relay even general circumstances stripped of emotion to his sister in such an unstable state.

That he was sorry.

That it wouldn’t end with just a brief confinement. That Father had already given up on you. That for that reason, if I can’t persuade Mother, it might be the end… His molars ached with a terrible sense of powerlessness. Just as Johannes couldn’t even part his lips, at that moment.

“Let’s run away, Johan.”

His sister’s voice came close as if to embrace him.

“What?”

Johannes’ eyelids opened wide.

“Remove the bolt. And let’s run away together, Johan.”

Still not waiting for his reply, his sister was whispering even more urgently than before. Johannes briefly glanced towards the profile of the guard standing at attention, staring straight ahead at the top of his head. His expression was as emotionless as a nameless statue. Johannes pressed his ear even closer, keeping the guard in his peripheral vision. His sister was still whispering incessantly. To run away.

“…Let’s run far away, to a place beyond Mother’s reach. You know, there’s supposedly a place at the eastern end of the main tower where a woman called the head cook tends iron cauldrons. They say it’s so deep and damp and hot that we can’t even go there. But what place couldn’t we go if we set our minds to it, right? Right? Let’s go there. Then they won’t be able to find us. Hm? So let’s go, let’s go there and, ah, ask that woman to hide us…”

Suddenly, his sister’s whispering cut off. As if her mouth had been covered by someone’s hand, she let out a small cry of “Mmph!” and swallowed the rest of her unspoken words at once. The entrance rattled loudly. Soon the commotion subsided as if suddenly released. At the same time, there was a noise of his sister’s presence, which he hadn’t even realized was there, being sucked into the depths of the inner chamber. As if being dragged away by her back. It happened in an instant.

“Inette.”

Johannes stood up abruptly. Almost reflexively, he tried to knock on the door. But then, slap!

A loud ripping sound rang out, as if leather was tearing leather. Johannes froze in the very posture of throwing his fist. For a while, he couldn’t even blink. Surely not.

Surely not.

“…I, nette?”

There was no answer.

Again, silence as if someone had just died. Johannes’ cheeks turned as pale as blank paper. Though the situation inside could be sufficiently guessed from the sounds that had come through the entrance, he simply couldn’t believe it. Such a thing couldn’t be possible. Who was my sister the daughter of? Who was my mother the wife of? After hesitating several times, he was only able to move properly after swallowing once. Deliberately ignoring his intuition and being as quiet as possible so as not to wake the sleeping lady, he knocked on the door.

“Inette. What’s… going on? Are you alright?”

Silence.

“Please… answer me.”

Pitch black silence.

“Inette.”

Still, no answer. Ah, damn it… Unable to bear it any longer, Johannes lifted the bolt as if to remove it. But the two guards who had seemed uninterested in him until then immediately came over and grabbed the heir’s arms to stop him.

“Whose arms are you…! Let go!”

Johannes shook his body roughly as if spreading his wings. It was meaningless. The guards easily pressed down on his shoulders, as if it were nothing. Though they normally wouldn’t have been able to touch even a hem of his clothes, they were merciless now that they had received the lady’s orders. Only their expressions were very troubled. As anger he had never felt before welled up to Johannes’ throat and he was about to glare at the guards.

“What are you doing?”

Startled. The shoulders of the three entangled men jumped simultaneously. It was a sudden, completely unexpected call. The guards’ armored hands hesitated for a moment before returning to their original positions. Only Johannes’ frozen gaze was directed at the top of the entrance where the voice had come from.

“Johannes.”

The entrance remained closed, no different from before. But when had it come so close? A whispering voice with lips pressed against the door, just as his sister had done. But a woman’s voice with a markedly different tone from his sister’s.

“…Unexpected. That you would come all this way to this deep place.”

It was an ostensibly calm tone. As if asking if anything had happened. But that voice, without even the slightest rise or fall, devoid of any vitality of a living person, clearly belonged to the woman who had nearly strangled her own son with a frenzy bordering on madness.

Mother.

Johannes unconsciously swallowed.

“I appreciate your effort to visit, but I did not call for you. Go back and rest.”

The sound of skirts turning away was desolate from beyond the entrance. The lady’s presence seemed about to fade away immediately. Realizing this, Johannes’ reason, which had frozen for a moment, reignited. He had momentarily forgotten his original purpose, startled by the unbelievable situation, but this was no time to be in a daze. He had to come to his senses. He pressed against the door and called out.

“Just, a moment… Mother!”

“……”

“Please. Confine me instead.”

“……”

“I immediately took to heart what you enjoined that day, Mother. But I find the current situation utterly incomprehensible.”

“……”

“Mother.”

“……”

“Mother.”

There was no response at all. Yet it didn’t seem the lady had left either. It was just a long silence devoid of any sense of humanity. His tender heart, hoping only for mercy, ached. Johannes, unable to continue speaking for a moment, closed his eyes painfully. Then opened them again.

“I… I… simply cannot… understand this course of action. Such a long confinement. The one who should be punished is here, yet that innocent child…”

……

“Mother.”

……

“Are you listening?”

Though unseen, being ignored always feels dark. Johannes lowered the fist he had raised as if to press against the door. He bowed his head, setting his expression in a pain unbefitting a child, and took a deep breath. Soon he raised his face with resolve.

“Don’t you also think this is an unjust punishment for Giovinetta, Mother?”

……

“Am I not the greater sinner than her? You said so yourself, Mother.”

……

“Even now, set things right and punish me instead. I will accept it without complaint.”

……

“Mother.”

Click. There was a brief friction sound as if the doorknob on the inner chamber side had been grasped. At last. Johannes felt blood finally flowing again and took a step back.

“Guard.”

“Yes.”

“Remove the outer bolt.”

The lady commanded softly. The guard standing on the right obeyed the order and removed the bolt. Despite being an object for confining people, the wide bolt with its rough edges finished in brass to match the chamber leaned long against the wall.

Soon the door opened. No. It was closer to a long, narrow gap that was almost embarrassingly misaligned, so it could hardly be called open. A sharply black straight line. And blocking that gap with her entire body, revealing just one eye, the lady looked down at Johannes.

Beneath the hair cover embroidered with gold thread, so splendid as to be heartless, a few strands of blonde hair had fallen loose. It cast cobweb-like shadows around the lady’s eyes, making the area under her eyes look utterly desolate. The blue pupils hidden in the shadows were like a frozen barren land. Perhaps this was how Mother had looked back then, when they said she had long lost her mind. His knees weakened slightly at the sight of his mother, in a mood quite different from when she had been in fiery rage.

“…Come here, Johannes.”