To My Beloved, I Present My Exquisite Nightmare - Chapter 61

Donovan whistled as he scrubbed off the old grime from the large iron pot.

Usually, living mostly with just his daughter Alice, there was rarely a need to bring out the big pot. But today, with two more people, even if he were to make a stew, a small saucepan wouldn’t be nearly enough.

Donovan’s face was flushed red as if he had been drinking as he scrubbed the pot, holding a bundle of dry straw. His old friend Tus, passing by the well, teased him as he watched Donovan washing the pot.

“Are you getting remarried? You look unusually excited today?”

Donovan glanced up at Tus and retorted gruffly.

“Remarry my foot. Who in their right mind would remarry an old geezer just counting the days till he’s in a coffin?”

Though he said that, in truth, he was in quite a good mood. It was simply refreshing to have new faces in their monotonous and modest life.

Being someone who originally liked people and was quite lively in his younger days, he felt elated as if long-lost relatives had returned, even though the guests would leave in a few days.

Donovan groaned as he straightened his back after washing off the dust scraped from the pot with cold water. When he was younger, he was known for his sturdy build, but time had not been kind enough to withstand. Tus, watching Donovan beating his back with clenched fists, clicked his tongue.

“At this rate…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to nurse me.”

Even at the teasing remark accompanied by a smile, Tus couldn’t erase the worried expression from his face.

Moreover, as if he had something to say, he hesitated and lingered around Donovan, reluctant to leave. Donovan looked up at him with a puzzled expression while finishing scraping off the remaining residue in the pot.

“What’s the matter? Do you have something to say?”

“No, well. It’s not exactly that…”

There was clearly something different about Tus’s hesitant attitude than usual. Donovan put down the pot and straightened up to face him.

“Not exactly? It’s written all over your forehead that you have something to say. What is it? Speak up quickly. I’m dying of suspense.”

Tus fiddled with his scruffy beard and glanced at Donovan.

“Well, um. It’s nothing major… I just heard something, um. How’s your daughter doing these days?”

At that moment, Donovan’s face instantly turned pale. Before Tus could finish speaking, the scene he had witnessed a few nights ago vividly flashed through Donovan’s mind.

It was the image of Alice, not properly dressed, pacing up and down the top step of the stairs all through the dawn.

“What about Alice?”

Tus was the one startled when Donovan suddenly turned hostile.

“No, why are you getting angry all of a sudden? I just asked. I just thought of it when I briefly met her at the store a few days ago…”

“What do you mean by asking how she is?”

“Ah, well. You see.”

Tus, flustered, sighed uncomfortably and rubbed his face.

“Look, I’m just passing on what I heard. Okay? You know, that old man Slick from the neighboring village?”

Donovan’s brow instantly furrowed.

“Why is that fellow’s name coming up?”

Slick was a wealthy old man living in the neighboring village. He owned quite a large wheat field and several shops in the market area, making him someone who could strut around in their small town.

However, while people bowed to him in his presence, they often spat behind his back. This was because not only Slick himself but also his three sons—each from a different mother—were all notorious troublemakers.

Tus hesitated before speaking.

“Well, um. That old man’s eldest son has been married for quite some time, but for some reason… he and his wife haven’t been able to conceive a child. But the old man says it’s because his daughter-in-law has a difficult personality, and… well… since Alice is… at least good-natured despite her appearance, he wondered if maybe…”

Bang! There was a sound. It was the sound of the iron pot Donovan had kicked hitting the well. Tus jumped in surprise, and even passersby turned their heads, wondering what had happened.

“Do you want to die by my hands today?”

Tus hurriedly waved his hands.

“No! Think about it. That old man is still wealthy. What’s wrong with being a second wife? Since the relationship between the eldest daughter-in-law and the old man isn’t good, he might even divorce his eldest son and make Alice the main wife…”

“Save your crazy talk for your own home! I’d rather hang myself than send my daughter to such a good-for-nothing! If you ever mention this again in front of me, I’ll dunk you headfirst in the well!”

Faced with Donovan’s fierce aggression, Tus scurried away. Even after he disappeared, Donovan, still unable to calm his anger, picked up the fallen pot with one hand and returned home, grumbling.

When Donovan returned, his daughter Alice was back. She had just arrived and hadn’t even taken off her veiled hat yet.

“Dad! Where have you been?”

Alice, who was about to remove her veiled hat, looked alternately at Donovan’s reddened face and the pot, her eyes wide with surprise.

“Why did you bring out that pot? And why do you look like that? Did something happen?”

At his daughter’s innocent voice, Donovan felt a moment of heartache, as if his chest was caving in. Tears welled up, but he held them back by tensing the bridge of his nose.

As Alice removed her hat, the first thing revealed was half of her face, disfigured as if from a severe burn. It was a grotesque and hideous sight, as if the flesh had melted from the top.

The other half of her face was flawless, without a single blemish, which pained Donovan even more. He thought, again and again, that if she had been born entirely disfigured, it might not have been so pitiful.

“Dad.”

Alice approached her father worriedly as he stood dazed, holding the pot. As his daughter’s hand enveloped the back of his hand, Donovan snapped back to his senses and sniffled.

“It’s nothing. Was work not too hard?”

“It was just gleaning some ears of grain. It wasn’t difficult. But why did you wash this big pot?”

“Ah, we have guests. They seemed to be looking for a place to stay, so I forcibly brought them here. You know we have some spare rooms in our house.”

Alice made a slight sound and furrowed her brow slightly. The disfigured side of her face twitched in a strange way.

“Oh, Dad. If that’s the case, we should dust first. I think the guests might have run away in shock after seeing the room.”

“Nonsense! Once they’ve caught my eye, they can’t escape. Right?”

“So that’s why you washed the pot? But where are the guests?”

Donovan made an “Ah” sound and turned his head towards the doorway.

“Well, they should be back by now.”

“There’s nothing to see here, are they tourists?”

“No, they’re knights from Tentinella. It was fascinating to see them in person after only hearing about them. Oh! That’s right. Sweetheart, they said they might be able to help you.”

For a moment, one of Alice’s eyes blinked. The other eyelid seemed to twitch as well, but it was hard to see, buried in the layers of flesh that looked like solidified lava.

“Help me? Why?”

Alice asked. Donovan, busy putting the pot down on the wooden table in the kitchen, didn’t notice how strange her expression was.

“Your.” Donovan, about to speak, closed his mouth for a moment. He belatedly realized that he had never openly talked to Alice about what he had seen in the middle of the night.

Donovan looked at his daughter uneasily, wearing an expression of embarrassment similar to Tus’s at the well earlier.

“Your face… I mean.”

“My face?”

“Yes. Well… the knights of Tentinella can do amazing things with magic, you know. So I asked, just grasping at straws, and they said they’d like to take a look… Think about it, Alice. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it works? If you…”

“Dad.”

Donovan’s rambling voice suddenly stopped.

It was then that Donovan realized he couldn’t even look directly at Alice’s face. He had never done that since his daughter was born…

Donovan fell silent, stunned by Alice’s gaze as he met her eyes. It was as if he was facing a complete stranger. Although it was clearly the face of his daughter he had seen every day for over twenty years, he felt an overwhelmingly strong conviction.

This is not my daughter… he thought.

Alice said,

“Why are you lying to me?”

Donovan swallowed hard. His chest felt constricted, as if his lungs were being squeezed. After a moment, he realized he was feeling fear. It was an acute and enormous fear that made him want to turn and run to the horizon right away.

“Sweetheart, sweetie.”

“Why are you lying? Dad, are you ashamed of me? Am I.”

There was a crack sound. Donovan instinctively knew what that sound was. When he was young, he had fallen from a tree and broken his arm.

The sound that resonated heavily through his body was so loud and vivid that he screamed before he could even feel the pain. That exact sound came from Alice. And it didn’t stop at just once.

“Alice, Alice!”

A scream burst from Donovan’s mouth. There was a series of sounds like dry firewood breaking all at once, and Alice’s body bent backwards and twisted.

With her stomach facing upwards, Alice supported herself on the ground with her arms and legs, her head tilted back. Her mouth opened wide like a torn sack. Inside, white teeth filled it densely up to the roof of her mouth.

“You are ashamed of me! You wish I were dead! A father wishing every day that his daughter would die! Fine! Fine! Fine! I knew it! I knew it!”

Foam spewed from Alice’s open mouth. Donovan couldn’t even scream.

At that moment, Alice’s arms and legs touching the floor moved as swiftly as a spider’s, making a scraping sound. Alice moved like a water strider gliding on water and slipped out through the back door.

Donovan fainted while standing. Cold sweat poured down like rain, but he didn’t even realize it.

“Wait a moment, Laila.”

At Eustar’s voice, Laila stopped and turned her head with a serious expression. Both of their faces were flushed red. As if they had been vigorously moving their bodies, their cheeks and noses were red, and beads of sweat had formed.

Eustar, catching his breath, looked around.

“It’s about time we admit it. Don’t you think?”

Laila swallowed dryly and turned her gaze to the opposite direction. At some point, through the fog that had settled thickly enough to obscure their vision, a faint, elongated shadow could be seen. It was a signpost at a crossroads.

Nodding her head, Laila wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

“We’re lost, Eustar.”