“Celeste.”
“Look at this, you know my name, don’t you?”
The look on Cecilia’s face. I heard it with my own ears, but I couldn’t believe it.
“I think you called me Cecilia, but……. I’m the one who takes care of you every day, so I’m sure you remembered. How could you possibly keep track of all the people in your life?”
“Of course not, Leev, come here.”
Cecilia stopped Leev, who happened to be walking by. When Valerie saw Leev running toward her, asking what was going on, she said, “Li, li, li, boo,” and Cecilia’s expression became more and more confident.
I thought, “What the hell? I called a few more maids nearby and showed them to Valerie, and to my surprise, she called each of them a little differently. What at first glance I thought was just babbling was becoming subtly personable.
“Uh…… really?”
“Yes, it is!”
It reminded me of an anecdote. Valerie went “pooh, pooh” at the sight of Mrs. Pulcheria, who came to warn her not to tangle with my precious nephew.
When Mrs. Pulcheria saw her, she was overwhelmed by how much she looked like Karl and how bright he was. When she recognized her aunt, she burst into tears and thought it was just the birth of a new hedgehog, but it might not have been.
Even then, I thought it was just a coincidence that he pronounced the word “grass” in his babbling, but then I remembered the saying that three coincidences don’t make a coincidence. I began to have my doubts.
Valerie, who had embarrassed Karl the first time she saw him by calling him dad, had thought he was just babbling something that sounded like boo or pooh, but now other possibilities were emerging.
It wasn’t a matter of genius or anything like that. Valerie didn’t just hear people’s names once and then remember them.
She called Karl “Daddy” and Mrs. Pulcheria “Pooh” before anyone had to tell her, as if she knew their names from the start.
“Valerie.”
“Baba. Baba. Maam, Maam.”
Grown-ups talking seriously or not, Valerie smiled brightly in my arms.
***
The sun was shining down intensely.
The mansion, built like a fortress, seemed to defy not just the sunlight and rain, but everything outside with its sturdy walls.
Guarded by armed knights, the structure seemed to reject even nature, let alone allowing people in. Even if one managed to set foot inside, the interior was designed like a maze, easy to get lost in.
Anyone who laid eyes on this mansion would wonder why someone would build a house in such a suspicious way, hiding something so deeply. This was Marina’s abode.
Marina, muttering incomprehensible words, bowed repeatedly with a curved back, still concealed in darkness.
In the absence of light, she continued her ritual without acknowledging Garcia, who approached her cautiously and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Startled when touched, Marina lacked the agility to avoid his touch and reluctantly leaned into his touch, despite her surprise.
“How long have you been at this?”
“I’m not done yet, don’t disturb me.”
Struggling to speak, Marina’s breathless state caused Garcia to furrow his brow.
“Stop it.”
“I told you not to disturb me. Just go.”
What could possibly be the meaning behind all this?
It had been a long time since Marina started relying on dark magic and sorcery. Feeling sorry for her now dependent on dark magic for every aspect of her life, Garcia sighed.
Concluding his words, Garcia realized he couldn’t stop Marina from her incantations and hence had to withdraw his hand.
As Marina stumbled and slumped to the ground once her solo ritual seemed to end, Garcia quickly supported her, surprised.
“Uh…….”
From some time, Marina had been in agony whenever something touched her body. Even now, she made sounds of suffering as Garcia, who had grabbed her arms in surprise to prevent her from falling, made an expression and acted accordingly.
It was not an exaggerated reaction. Marina had reached a level where she felt a cutting pain as if a knife were drawn across her whenever just the wind grazed by. It meant her body was breaking down.
“What’s the point of this every day? If only your body is suffering, stop it.”
“If you’re going to talk like that, get lost right now. Don’t come near. I don’t want to hear it.”
She claimed that all her self-sacrifice and sorcery were for the sake of her only son, Franz.
Marina had gone to great lengths to make her son Franz an emperor. She had long crossed lines that should not have been crossed.
They say the first time is difficult but it gets easier with repetition. Her ambition to make her son the greatest ultimately led to the current dreadful state, yet Marina only repeated that she didn’t care about her own destruction.
She exhibited a frightening determination. Yes, Marina’s desire was no longer pure wishes or prayers; it had turned into a dark obsession that remained.
Garcia sighed deeply once again. Then, as if making a decision, he strode over to the window and pulled back the thick curtain separating outside from inside.
“What are you doing…?!”
As the curtain opened, light poured in. Marina, struggling and shielding her eyes with both hands, was suddenly illuminated by the sunlight.
A horrific sight that had always been hidden in darkness. Marina’s appearance under the sunlight was so dreadful and agonizing that anyone who saw it would scream in horror.
Her posture seemed lower than if she were sitting, with her waist more bent than kneeling, as humps protruded like a camel’s on her twisted back. Her joints in shoulders, arms, spine, and legs were all out of place, sticking out here and there, resembling a human face on a spider’s body.
Even her face was not normal. Her only possession, beauty, which had brought her fame up to the position she held, was overshadowed. Marina’s face was grotesque.
It was almost like a mythical monster from a legend, with protruding eyebrow bones, contorted and thickened eyebrows, a twisted nose, making it hard to find any traces of her previous self.
The gums were deteriorated, revealing spaces where teeth had fallen out, showing only a dry, black tongue in between. Black blood kept gushing and rising from the throat, filling the inside of the mouth with black clots.
Eyes were cloudy and hazy, unable to distinguish their original color.
Where had the beautiful Marina gone, leaving only this grotesque monster behind? In despair, Garcia let out a deep sigh.
“Close the door, draw the curtain, Garcia.”
Marina seemed quite angered by Garcia drawing the curtain to reveal her under the sunlight. Heaving her shoulders roughly and breathing heavily, her appearance was neither feminine nor human.
“Look at yourself, Marina. What are you becoming?”
“If you say one more word, I will ensure you never set foot here again. Keep quiet…”
Her voice scraping like metal, her face contorted once more.
“If you continue with your sorcery, you will become even more grotesque than you are now.”
People said the Emperor, who used her beautiful appearance to wield excessive power, fled hurriedly when she left the capital. They believed it was to escape the scrutiny of those who turned back to look when she left.
Although she could do whatever she pleased without consequence before, the Emperor Alexander’s departure from this world meant Marina lost her reliable shield.
However, that did not explain why she fled the capital in such haste.
While pretending it was for recuperation, her real reason was to avoid anyone seeing her in this state.
“It doesn’t matter. My child, my beloved baby. Franz, if only that child could ascend to the throne.”
Marina, blinded by power, had truly become a monster.
