Chapter 61
Tap. Tick-tick-tap. Whooooo—
A few small raindrops tapped the window, then the sky opened and a curtain of rain hammered down hard enough to splash inside.
“It’s been gloomy since I came to the library — and now it’s finally raining.”
Luna admired the sky, thick with black clouds, then quickly closed the window. Time had slipped by somehow; it was already evening.
“Milady, milady! Could you close that window over there, please? Oh! You already closed it? Of course — you really are our lady.”
Mei came over shaking a stack of rain-damp books and checked on her mistress. She’d been the helpful librarian who’d kindly guided Luna since the day she first visited the library.
“Mei, that one’s fine. You can focus on the others.”
“Thank you. Who’d have thought it would storm while I’m on duty? Ugh. Oh — by the way, I waited at the entrance like you told me, but Lady Elfreze didn’t show her face at all. Looks like she won’t come to the library. Maybe she’ll show up at the banquet?”
“Is that so? Okay. The treatment can be anytime. I’m not hungry now. I’ll read a bit more and then go.”
Luna said it without much feeling and turned back to the book she’d been reading. She didn’t have time to worry about the young lady. Finding even the smallest clue about how to heal herself was more important than having someone treat her.
She absently smoothed the scarred skin on the back of her hand. When she’d regained consciousness yesterday she’d seen one more strand of the flame-stigma had dimmed. The temple search had turned up nothing, and she only had ten months left.
Boom! Crash!
“My goodness! Why’s there thunder and lightning now? It sounds serious. I’ll check the other windows. Milady, get back to your room with the guards before it gets late!”
Even though the library was warded with maintenance magic, a storm strong enough to force rain inside required a librarian’s attention.
Mei hurried around to check the many windows.
Luna closed the book she’d been reading. She hated bad weather, especially a violent storm like this. A hot bath and hiding under the covers sounded far better.
She put a couple of books she intended to borrow on the desk to help Mei, then started closing the nearby windows one by one.
Rumble! Bang!
The evening sky, now pitch dark, continued to issue loud noises and bright flashes of lightning.
Luna hurriedly shut the remaining windows. She thought she’d feel relieved as the thunder grew more muffled, but it didn’t help — it was already too late. The memory she dreaded most clawed its way to the surface.
“I have to go back quickly.”
She rubbed at her trembling arms with both hands and, forgetting the books she’d meant to take, headed for the library exit. The guards and attendants weren’t at the door; they were probably delayed changing shifts because of the sudden storm.
Whoosh— Crash! Boom!
Luna stared ahead, dazed, drowned in the sound of driving rain. Everything in her sight blurred into slanting sheets of water.
Just like that day.
“Mom, no, I don’t want this. Dad! No! Don’t send me! I’ll come with you! Please!! No. No—!!”
…
Luna bit her lip hard. Moisture stung at the corners of her eyes and she rubbed them roughly. She forced out a hiccuping, tearful breath and turned back into the library — she couldn’t keep going like this.
Then — it happened.
“Kyaaah!”
Mei screamed. Luna opened her reddened eyes and looked toward the sound.
For a moment, a shadow at the corner of the second floor wavered and vanished.
Luna dashed toward where the shadow had been. The librarians knew their routines well, but she worried maybe someone had fallen off a ladder closing a window.
“Mei? Are you— ah?”
“M-Milady. Run.”
Mei’s warning dissolved in the air before it was complete. Her face began to be sucked into a column of darkness like a black bog.
“Mei!!”
Luna reached out to grab the arm of the not-yet-taken Mei, but froze in place.
“Kishit.”
What Luna had taken for a column was the writhing body of some grotesque beast. When it turned toward Luna, its blood-red, demonic eyes flashed in a horrifying, hypnotic way.
At the instant Luna’s breath stopped, Mei’s arm was swallowed into the beast’s pulsing body.
Mei…
was dead.
“Hah— Huh. Huh— huh—”
Her breath came in short, panicked gasps. Was she hallucinating? The oppressive stench of rotting oil hit her so hard she gagged.
A nameless terror rose like a wave that threatened to sweep her away. The beast’s claws scraped out a sound that clawed at her ears.
“Kishissit. Come here. Let us become one with you.”
Though the voice came from the beast, Luna heard it as if a person were speaking.
Could a beast have such a power? The impossible death filled her with nausea; her bright pink pupils trembled violently.
A daemon — the hateful creature that had killed her parents. The closer it came, the stronger the oily, rancid smell of its shadow-blossom filled her nostrils.
Her heart ballooned and then contracted as if ready to burst. Her body wouldn’t move. Before she could act, the hallucination the beast produced had her trapped.
The beast opened its jaws before the frozen Luna.
“Ugh! No!”
Luna felt a soft, wet sensation winding around her waist and creeping toward below her navel. She knew exactly what the slick black mass was: the beast’s tongue.
That hideous thing had devoured her parents on a stormy day much like today.
If the carriage hadn’t tumbled off the cliff, they’d all be alive. To make matters worse, swarms of beasts had attacked; with his remaining magic, her father had pushed her into the nearby river. She alone had been swept away by the current and somehow survived.
“Snif. Snif—”
Sobbing broke out suddenly. Her mind became a jumbled mess. The beast that had killed her parents and this one overlapped in her vision.
The memory returned so vividly her heart felt like it would shatter. She was so frightened and hurt that tears streamed down without end.
Slap—
“Kyaaah! Don’t! Ugh!”
The indifferent beast licked upward from her lower abdomen to around her chest and heart, as if testing the freshness of its prey.
Luna’s whole body prickled; even the hair on her head stood on end. The beast’s saliva soaked her clothes; rough nodules clung to her throat and she snapped instantly to attention.
“Don’t—!”
She screamed until her voice tore. At the same moment, she flung herself wide open to release all the purification mana she had stored. Even if it didn’t work, it was do-or-die. Perhaps because she’d resolved to try, the largest amount of mana she’d ever liberated poured out.
The beast’s origin was dark magic, and purification mana had an effect. The tongue that had wrapped around Luna dissolved like molten rock and dripped away.
“Kieek!”
An uncanny scream rent the building.
Luna covered her ears, bracing against a sound that felt like it would burst her eardrums. She wanted to put distance between herself and the beast, but her frozen limbs felt as heavy as iron shackles. Still, if she could hold on, she might survive.
I should have eaten more earlier. I should have gone to the young lady for treatment first. I should have told Mei to come to the banquet. If only — then Mei wouldn’t be—
Luna contorted her face and clenched her teeth. Her mind, previously blank, flooded with regret and a cascade of useless thoughts.
She didn’t want to die. Especially not to a filthy beast like this. She’d rather kill the monster first and then die herself.
Clinging to the one fact — the purifying mana had burned the beast — a surge of fierce adrenaline woke every blood vessel in her body.
Thump!
What possessed her? Her legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor, but she clamped her hand around the ankle of the cowering beast with pure force.
“Kieek!”
The part of the beast she’d grabbed melted and fell away as if the ankle had been severed.
The beast lost its balance and tumbled backward, landing hard on its rear. It thrashed, swinging its sharpened claws as it tried to strike Luna.
You can do this. If the whole beast melts like this, I can kill it.
Luna steadied her breath and flashed a determined look.
