A flawless young girl.
It was Marina’s murmured words as she watched Valerie approach me. As she repeated the phrase, I wondered if she was casting a spell, but her words felt more like an expression of admiration.
A flawless young girl? The inexplicable murmuring sent chills down my spine.
“Don’t touch my child.”
It was a pointless cry. Not a single person here paid attention to my words.
But I couldn’t just stand by and watch them take Valerie away. As I tried to run toward the departing Valerie, Franz quickly grabbed me.
“Where do you think you’re going? Just stand still here.”
His grip was unmatched compared to Marina. My wrist felt trapped like it was caught in a snare, but Franz didn’t let go easily.
“Let go…”
I twisted my wrist and pushed against Franz’s body, but it was futile. The difference in strength was stark. Pushing away a large, muscular man like him was impossible.
“What do you plan to do with Valerie? Why did you bring Valerie here? Was I not the objective?”
Observing the unfolding situation, I began to vaguely understand their intentions.
Was their reason for attacking us and hurting the knights to reclaim Valerie? Why? Thoughts swirled chaotically in my mind.
“Bring the lamp.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
Ignoring my cries and resistance, Marina and the knights busily went about their tasks.
The knight who brought the lamp shone its light on Valerie, while Marina leaned forward, scrutinizing her.
I couldn’t grasp what they intended, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good for Valerie. A primal fear surged within me.
“Indeed, a flawless young girl.”
The laughter that followed her words sent chills down my spine. I couldn’t comprehend what they were saying. Soon, their high-pitched laughter filled the room.
With a bent waist, Marina began to laugh madly. She seemed to have lost not only her composure but her sanity as well.
“How could this child come rolling into my hands like this? Oh, my God, you haven’t abandoned me after all!”
Breathless, with her voice trembling and gasping for air at intervals, Marina continued to laugh. Her laughter, sharp like scraping metal, echoed as if a great misfortune was drawing near.
***
Marina and the knights who took Valerie immediately turned their attention away from me. Their focus was solely on Valerie.
The one who pulled me from the sidelines was Franz. As if he had finished his business with my mother, he unhesitatingly took me and left the room.
I held my ground with all my strength to avoid being separated from Valerie, but Franz effortlessly lifted me up when I wouldn’t move as he wished.
Even my cries to be set down and the desperate slaps against his back didn’t affect him much. Clinging to the top of Franz’s shoulder, I experienced yet another separation from Valerie.
“Why are you doing this?!”
Once we exited Marina’s room and walked somewhere, Franz finally set me down.
However, he didn’t set me free entirely; he forcibly sat me in a chair and tied my ankles with a rope, though it was better than being carried on his shoulder.
“What’s the purpose? What do you want to do with Valerie?”
“Why should I answer you?”
“Please, just tell me why! If I know the reason, I might be able to help, right? What are you planning to do with that little baby…?”
“Because she’s a little baby, she’s useful, Celly.”
“What do you mean…?”
The moment I heard those words, a chill ran down my spine, even though I didn’t grasp their hidden meaning.
“You know the power of dark magic well since it saved your life.”
“Dark magic?”
This meant that Valerie’s abduction was related to dark magic. At that moment, a fragment of a memory I had forgotten sharply pierced my mind.
“Recently, there has been an increase in infant abduction cases, leading to a major crackdown at the imperial level. The royal family has intervened, meaning this issue is very serious. Any adult accompanying an unidentified child will be subject to scrutiny.”
When I first met Valerie in Urentum, I had requested the detective to find her identity and parents without knowing she was my child.
Infant abduction cases, which initially involved children wandering without a home or those left in nurseries, ultimately began to happen among noble families as well.
It escalated to the point where even royal children started disappearing, prompting the royal family to take direct action.
Why did that incident suddenly come to mind now? Marina’s smiling face as she happily looked at the child overlapped with the detective explaining the infant kidnapping case to me. Could it be? Could it be?
“Could it be related to the infant kidnapping case that happened in Rahat…?”
“At times like this, it’s really questionable whether you actually lost your memory.”
Franz leaned closer to me as I sat in the chair, bent down to match my eye level, and whispered.
“With those round eyes open wide, putting on the expression of knowing nothing… It seems real, but then I wonder if it’s just your clever acting.”
“Answer me. Is the reason for taking Valerie in line with my speculation?”
Franz chuckled softly. What was so funny? He laughed without answering my question, and if I could, I would have wanted to slap him.
“Do you think I would be scared looking up at you with such furrowed brows and glaring?”
“Answer me.”
“If you act like you’re angry, you just look like a puffed-up squirrel.”
“Answer me!”
I had no patience for his silly jokes anymore. I finally lost it, my anger bursting forth.
Just how deep does this person, or rather these people, go?
How can they be so indifferent to others’ sorrow or pain, caring only for their own interests? How can they commit such dreadful and absurd acts…?
My fists clenched. Glancing at my trembling knuckles, Franz still wore a smile as he leaned closer, his lips nearly touching my cheek before they brushed slowly against my ear.
I couldn’t tell if it was Franz’s lips or breath on my skin, but either way, it sent chills down my spine.
“So, what then?”
“What… did you say?”
“If your speculation is correct? What will you do then?”
“Are you saying that my guess is… correct?”
“If that’s the case, what are you going to do about it? Whether it’s true or not, what changes just because you know? Here you are, tied up, right in front of me.”
“What did you do after taking the children? What are you going to do?”
Franz’s sarcasm, mockery, and provocations didn’t register. All that filled her mind was the need to save Valerie immediately.
If these people were the ones who took all those children, it was crucial to know what they had done and what had happened to the children afterward.
As the questions left her lips, an overwhelming anxiety surged within her, but she tried to ignore it. Please, please, she hoped Franz and Marina were not that evil.
“What happened to the children? Where are they now…?”
“They disappear when they’ve served their purpose.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, since I’ve done what I need to do, the useless skins should naturally be disposed of. Celly, your smart head must understand what I’m saying.”
“What do you mean by having done something? What did you do with those children? What use…! Did you bring Valerie here for that purpose too?”
Though she didn’t know exactly what they were planning, she could sense that they intended to perform that ‘dark magic’ that traded children’s lives in exchange for something.
“Yes. Now that I’ve answered your curiosity, will you be quiet, Celly?”
Franz’s hand brushed my shoulder and traveled up my neck to my face. The sensation of his fingertips gliding along my jaw sent shivers down my spine.
“Is it a curse?”
Dark magic that sacrifices children’s lives. She didn’t know what they wanted, but if it involved sacrificing the life of an innocent girl, it must be a curse, one that would take someone’s life.
“A life for a life.”
Those were words Franz spoke when he plotted rebellion with Celeste. In the original story, there was little mention of Franz using dark magic to kill somebody in collusion with his mother.
But anyone who had read the original could infer that they harmed people through dishonest means.
So this was it. Franz, Marina, and the knights who moved with them were far more brutal and horrific than she expected.
“Innocent young girls.”
When faced with a crisis, isn’t it said that one’s abilities are maximized? All those disorganized thoughts and speculations in my mind suddenly fell into place. And I also realized what the weaknesses of their intended target were.
‘What?’
‘Your mother said that earlier, didn’t she?’
A flawless young girl. If that is what they desire, perhaps Valerie won’t fit that criteria.
