“Kyaaak—!”

Cella Hopewell screamed and ran away from the child. Meanwhile, the child’s lips parted, and their small lower jaw jutted forward.

Charlotte, seeing the insect’s legs emerging over the tongue, cursed and placed the fallen herbs back on the child’s stomach.

As she grasped the broken silver thread with her hand, the embers began to reignite, but her fingertips felt like they were burning.

The thin legs that had slightly protruded from the child’s lips convulsed and shrank back.

Charlotte saw those legs moving the child’s tongue back and forth inside their mouth, which was not fully closed.

“Ack—! Ack! Mom, Dad! Help me! This woman is trying to kill me! She’s trying to kill me! It’s hot, it’s hot—!”

“You crazy woman!”

Raine Hopewell, firmly held back by Taemi, tried to kick Charlotte.

At that moment, Taemi struck his knee in the opposite direction, causing a cracking sound and a thick scream to burst out.

Charlotte stared directly into Raine Hopewell’s eyes. Then she whispered softly.

“You leave here right now. Don’t come back until I say ‘it’s over’, and sit quietly in front of the stove.”

Raine Hopewell’s eyes then lost their light, becoming hazy.

He quietly left the room, dragging his broken leg and staggering.

Cella Hopewell, seemingly not understanding what was happening, tried to follow her husband but then clutched her head and wailed.

“What are you doing? What on earth are you doing! My, my child, and even my husband! Hic, huuk……! Get out, get out of my house! I’ll call the security force right now!”

Charlotte looked up at the ceiling and let out a hollow laugh.

“I’m going crazy because you’re so stupid.”

Cella glared at Charlotte again with wide eyes.

Meanwhile, viscous mucus continued to flow from the child’s mouth.

“Ugh……!”

With a sound too thick and coarse to be believed as a child’s voice, a translucent sphere fell to the floor.

It struggled and rolled as soon as it came out, then suddenly spread its body, with countless legs protruding from a plump body like a moth.

Damp, crumpled wings were attached to its back.

It rolled its five round, pinkish eyes around, then began to slither towards Cella Hopewell, who was slumped in one corner of the room.

“Aack! Kyaaak—! Help me! I said help me!”

“Taemi, step on it! Step on it and kill it!”

Charlotte shouted. But Taemi was already stretching his long leg towards it before she even cried out.

Crushed under the hard shoe heel, it let out a squeaking scream and then burst with a splat.

Charlotte removed the burning pile of herbs from the limp child’s stomach while simultaneously overturning a glass bottle onto what Taemi had crushed and burst.

The yellowish mucus, nauseating just to look at, was instantly sucked into the bottle.

Charlotte firmly pressed the stopper closed and then let out her held breath.

“Hic, uh, huuk…… uu…….”

The child started crying, but Charlotte couldn’t hear the sound for a moment.

She was just trembling like a patient with tension while clutching the bottle.

“Charlotte.”

Taemi carefully grasped her hand.

Charlotte looked at him with blank eyes as if struck by lightning.

Her pupils, which had appeared almost black, slowly regained their original color.

“Taemi.”

“It’s over. Give this to me.”

Only then did Charlotte hear the child’s, Ben’s, crying.

She hurried to the bed to untie his arms, and patted the back of the child who clung to her crying loudly, not knowing who she was.

“It’s okay, it’s okay now. It’s all over. The scary things are all over.”

Charlotte wiped the child’s forehead, which smelled sour from sweat, with her palm, and lightly kissed his reddened cheek.

The child sniffled and then fell unconscious.

“He’s just sleeping.”

Charlotte murmured as if talking to herself as she got up from the bed. It was as she said.

The child was sleeping peacefully, though making slightly wheezing breathing sounds. There were no traces left on his stomach.

Taemi said,

“Let’s go back now.”

“Wait a moment. I need to explain what happened. And I have to release the man I sent outside.”

“Ah, right. That’s true. That man’s leg must be broken.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not our concern.”

Charlotte, who answered coldly, approached Cella Hopewell, who was still curled up and whimpering.

Cella looked at Charlotte with fearful eyes, then suddenly raised her hand and slapped Charlotte’s cheek.

“Charlotte!”

Taemi shouted angrily, but Charlotte raised her hand as if to say do nothing.

She tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear and stared intently at Cella.

“I’ll take that as a lesson learned. You’re lucky your child survived, otherwise you would have been the one to get slapped, keep that fact well in your mind.”

“You tried to kill our child! You!”

“Yes. Think that if you want.”

Charlotte retorted coldly, twisting her lips as she stood up.

Cella Hopewell curled up, sniffling, but Charlotte no longer paid any attention to her.

She went out to the living room and released Raine Hopewell from his trance.

He didn’t slap Charlotte’s cheek, but he rolled on the floor, clutching his broken leg and foaming at the mouth.

“My leg! Aack……! My leg! I’ll report all of you! I’ll have you thrown in jail!”

Taemi said with a look of disdain,

“Hey, mister. It’s probably just a slight crack, no need to make such a fuss. I hit you gently, you know.”

“That’s enough, Taemi.”

Charlotte said the same thing to the screaming Raine Hopewell as she had to Cella. And she added one more thing.

“Report us if you want. But don’t expect to see me end up in jail.”

It was already dark outside.

Charlotte, who had received the bottle from Taemi and put it deep in her bag, leaned her forehead against his back while wearing her goggles.

She felt as if she had been swallowed by endless fatigue.

Taemi drove as slowly as possible, unlike when they had come.

Charlotte dozed off in the back seat, which shook gently from time to time.

She had a very disturbing and strange dream, but when she woke up, she had forgotten what it was about.

* * *

Charlotte, who woke up to the sound of the clock’s second hand clicking into place, was about to get out of bed when she let out a small scream.

Something hard and warm had been stepped on at the tip of her foot.

“What are you doing here!”

As Taemi’s figure was revealed in the dim light of dawn, Charlotte shouted without hesitation.

Taemi, who had been sleeping stretched out on the floor without a blanket, frowned and turned over when Charlotte bumped his shoulder.

“I…… brought you here yesterday……. Let’s sleep…….”

“Why are you sleeping here! I can’t believe this. Go to your house.”

“I don’t have a house, miss…….”

Unbelievable. Charlotte looked down at Taemi with an angry face for a moment, then brushed back her hair and went into the bathroom.

As she kicked a fallen cushion with her heel, Taemi received it with his eyes closed, hugged it, and curled up.

Charlotte turned the levers in the bathroom in order and stood directly under the pouring water.

After sleeping, that distant fatigue from yesterday seemed to have disappeared, but her slapped cheek was throbbing.

Charlotte cursed softly as she rubbed the foggy mirror to check the spot where she had been hit.

“Damn it.”

There were three shallow scratches on her cheek, which was still swollen.

It looked like it had been scratched by fingernails.

Charlotte irritably touched the wound, then shook her head and washed her body.

Leaving Taemi passed out on the second floor, Charlotte went outside, where the fairies that had not yet disappeared flew around her again, giggling.

They chattered as they played with Charlotte’s not yet fully dried hair.

“Ugly Charlotte has become even uglier.”

“Why are you hurt?”

“Should we punish them? Do you want us to help, Charlotte?”

Charlotte sighed deeply and shook her head once, causing the fairies to fall off and laugh.

“You helping me means disappearing right now. The morning sun will rise soon, right? Then your wings will be scorched. Don’t be lazy and go away.”

“Bad Charlotte. We’ll put honey on that mouth that only says bad things. So you can never speak again.”

“Thanks. I’ll just need bread then.”

The fairies pulled Charlotte’s hair sulkily before disappearing somewhere.

They were originally capricious creatures, so it was best not to mingle words with them, but Charlotte could communicate more closely with fairies unlike ordinary humans.

She thought it might be due to the influence of her mother’s bloodline, but she wasn’t sure.

Charlotte reached the clock tower in the square and entered as usual.

As soon as the door closed, she noticed a sound different from usual.

It was very subtle, but… it sounded like water flowing.

The ‘Lord’ and his attendant were sitting in the same place, in the same posture as always.

They always looked the same, so much so that one might wonder if they lived here. Honestly, it was hard to tell if they were human or not.

Maybe they’re sophisticated mechanical devices. Charlotte thought.

The ‘Lord’ said,

“Your face looks awful, Charlotte.”