Time of the Blind Beast - Chapter 119

Chapter 15: Wherever You Are

“I’m so sick of this, so tired of it. Back home, around this time the spring flowers bloom and there’s a festival, but here the snow still hasn’t melted. Just how long is winter going to last?”

“Because it’s the mountains. Summer is short and winter is so long. Ah, Unnie, do you want some hot chocolate too?”

Lisanne gave a faint smile and shook her head. The chocolate her roommate had proudly brought from home was so bitter it needed to be drowned in milk and sugar. And once you drank it, you couldn’t sleep.

Sleep…

These days, she couldn’t sleep at all.

The insomnia he once suffered, she was now suffering herself.

In the mountains the days were short and the nights long. Naturally, bedtime came earlier. When she lay on the bed to match the agreed routine of communal life, the sound of birds crying, the rattling of the window in the wind, and the damp, chilly smell of grass filled her senses.

And then, always… it felt as if she had gone back to a night in Derosa.

Perhaps it was because the place, or the season, was close to those times.

As she tossed and turned in a nameless emptiness, before she knew it the bluish light of dawn seeped in. Only then did Lisanne doze off for a while, waking again not long after.

Life at school was decent enough. Teachers and students asked what had happened to her to lose her voice after so long away, and they worried over her, but in the end, they welcomed her warmly. Some of the students who had gone home during vacation seemed to have vaguely heard rumors from the capital, but none connected them to Lisanne.

“Her tongue wasn’t cut out, I saw it with my own eyes. They say it’s just some illness that makes her unable to speak. There could be illnesses like that. We’re not doctors, how could we know every illness in the world?”

“Exactly. Do you think she’s the type to behave badly somewhere or make some careless remark? Where would you find someone as kind as Lisanne Unnie? Remember back when we first left home and cried nonstop because we missed our mothers, and she took care of us like a mom?”

“True. It’s not like we’ve only known Lisanne for a year or two.”

“So it must be that she got sick, left school, couldn’t be cured, and just came back.”

In particular, the younger girls Lisanne had practically raised took her side. They whispered among themselves, filling in excuses with their imagination, which helped Lisanne slip back in as naturally as if she had never been gone. Since no one at the school was illiterate, communication was also easier.

“Unnie, what’s wrong? Are you sick?”

She had only paused for a moment with her head lowered, but the younger girls immediately saw her as a patient. If her actions were the least bit unnatural, they suspected it as a symptom. Lisanne pressed her collarbone with her palm and shook her head to show she was fine.

The truth was, it was because of the necklace. Wondering where to keep the diamond ring he had given her, Lisanne had threaded it onto a chain and hung it around her neck. She could have left it tucked away on her desk and never touched it, but it was such a valuable jewel that it kept nagging at her mind.

So she chose the necklace. Threaded onto a slightly long chain and hidden beneath her collar, it was the perfect way to keep it from sight. But the unfamiliar weight around her neck made her flinch now and then without realizing.

“Right, talking about festivals reminded me. Want to hear something creepy? I went home recently.”

It was a classmate from the north, whose home wasn’t far from the school, so she often went back and forth.

“In our village, around this time, everyone gathers for a tradition of lighting a field fire and making wishes. The village is small, so no house is left out. That’s why I went home. Anyway, one of our neighbors hadn’t been seen for some time, but every evening their curtains glowed with light, so everyone thought they just stayed inside because of the cold.”

“And then?”

“But you know, for the festival everyone has to come. One of the village elders went to knock on their door to tell them the festival schedule. Someone inside answered, but the voice sounded strange. When asked what was wrong, they said they had a bad cold. Everyone believed it.”

“What? Is this a scary story?”

“Seems like it.”

“I can’t listen to scary stories…”

“Don’t listen, cover your ears.”

“But I’m curious.”

Students who had been listening from a distance soon gathered around.

“Then the festival day came, and that house still didn’t show up at the square. People thought maybe they really were terribly ill, so everyone went together to check. I was home then, so I went too. It was a pitch-dark night. The house was dark, no light. No matter how much they knocked, there was no answer.”

“Why?”

“Maybe they were asleep?”

“That’s what we thought, and we were about to leave, but you know that creepy feeling you get, like something’s wrong but you can’t explain why? The elders said it was suspicious and forced the door open. I was at the back, but when they went inside, they suddenly screamed. I rushed up, but they told me not to come in. The smell from the house…”

The girl shuddered.

“Later I heard they were all stabbed to death. The whole family, five people. And the strange thing was, if it had been a thief, wouldn’t they have screamed? Someone would have heard something. But no one heard a sound.”

“What, were they all killed before they had time to scream?”

“Maybe, but that’s what’s even stranger. How could ordinary people kill like that, like slaughtering animals? It couldn’t have been just one thief either. How could one person kill a family of five without a sound? And why would people like that be wandering around the countryside? Rich folk all live in the capital or big cities.”

One student, who had been listening quietly, joined in, “The most dangerous crimes happen in the countryside. In a big city like Claris, there are too many eyes, so you get caught easily.”

“Even so. The scariest part was what my parents said—the bodies hadn’t just died a day or two before. So who was it turning the lights on every evening inside that house? Who were those people? It’s chilling that they lived there and left, and no one knew.”

***

“Unnie, let’s go pick mulberries.”

Weekends in the dormitory were leisurely. Waking late with the younger girls, Lisanne took a small basket and set out to pick mulberries.

“Wow, there are so many mulberries here! Everyone, come over here.”

“But what are we going to do with the mulberries?”

“Don’t open your mouth after eating those. Your tongue turns black.”

Even with just a few gathered together, the students chattered noisily. Some clutched baskets and picked mulberries with delight, some read books they had brought along, while others gossiped. Taking care of the youngest girls who had followed along was the duty of Lisanne, the oldest among them.

When their stomachs began to feel empty, Lisanne handed out sandwiches she had prepared as snacks to the younger girls.

“Unnie, going out to pick mulberries or raspberries with you will be over soon. I think I’ll go back home before long and get married. The person I’m marrying is set to inherit a pharmacy, and he wants me to help with the work. What about you, Unnie? Won’t your family call you back?”

Lisanne was still undecided about what she would do after graduation. Not long ago, the headmistress had secretly called her in and suggested that if she had no proper place to go, she could remain at the school as an assistant teacher. Even if she couldn’t directly teach classes, she could make test questions or help take care of young girls who had trouble adjusting to school life. Then the headmistress had looked at her with a peculiar expression and added an enigmatic remark.

“Lisanne, Lisanne… That name is certainly not too ordinary to be used somewhere else, is it?”

She had been about to write that she might stay at school for the time being.

Suddenly, a strange sensation raced down her spine. As if the back of her head was being pulled, as if someone were watching her.

Is there someone behind me?

Lisanne turned her body and looked around.

There was no one. Of course. For students, there weren’t many places to take a walk outside school, so this was their only option, but this mountain area was far removed from any houses. Except for hunters, ordinary people didn’t come here.

“Unnie, what’s wrong?”

Must have been a mistake. That was possible. She wasn’t Ezekiel, her senses couldn’t be that sharp.

Ezekiel. The name that surfaced without warning made her heart plummet.

Lisanne pressed down on the ring hidden beneath her collar and quickly shook her head.

***

When it was time to sleep and the whole dormitory was forcibly darkened, one of the younger girls timidly approached Lisanne.

“Unnie, I need to go to the bathroom…”

It was the girl who had been unusually frightened after hearing the recent story of an entire family being murdered. At night she had begun to suffer from night terrors, and even going to the bathroom alone had become impossible, so the older girls had to take turns accompanying her.

Lisanne took the girl and led her down the dark hallway to the bathroom. She waited at the door, then took her back afterward. But the closer they came to the dormitory rooms, the more eerie the silence of the corridor felt.

Was it always this quiet already?

Even after lights out, the girls usually whispered and giggled under their blankets for quite some time before falling asleep one by one.

Maybe she was just being overly sensitive. Even so, a vague uneasiness kept tugging at her.

Just in case. If anyone had left their beds in the night to prepare a prank, it was better that she alone be caught than the timid girl who couldn’t even go to the bathroom alone.

Lisanne pressed her finger to her lips in a hush and pushed the girl behind a shelf in the corridor.

Then she opened the door to the dormitory room.

At that moment, she met the eyes of a group of intruders wiping their bloodied knives.

At first she thought she had seen wrong. But the heavy stench of blood snapped her into clarity.

Lisanne clapped both hands over her mouth. Even though she couldn’t scream, her body moved instinctively.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven… twelve.

Frozen, Lisanne counted the number of intruders with her eyes. All were strange, unfamiliar men, but among them there was one face she knew. Even with one eye covered by a patch, he was unmistakable.

Akenaus smiled faintly. His face, like a softer, more delicate version of Ezekiel’s, was an impression she could never forget, no matter how much time passed.

“Hello, it’s been a while.”