Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Dia Hates Ganeghan (5)
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“Wait here for a moment.”
In front of Abera de Menesil's room, that one sentence was all it took to leave Alfred and Ganeghan standing there.
It was an unavoidable measure.
Before facing Dia with Ganeghan in tow, there were things she needed to prepare and checks she had to make.
The first order of business was summoning Asbidal.
In her mind, she was already leaning toward the conclusion that Ganeghan must have used some strange drug, but when lives were on the line, it only made sense to take every possible precaution.
Abera’s desk was spotless, not a speck of dust in sight.
She yanked open the drawers beneath it in a frenzy, slamming them shut one after another. The first one, the one below that, the one below that.
Finally, in the very bottom drawer, she pulled out a single sheet of black paper.
“Right... it was in the bottom one.”
The paper exuded an ominous aura.
It wasn't the kind of thing you'd use for writing—far too rough for a pen nib or graphite to glide across.
No. This paper was meant to be burned.
Abera cracked open the room's window as quietly as possible, then held the black sheet over a candle flame.
A thin wisp of smoke rose at first, but soon it ignited like oil-soaked rags, burning fiercely and fast.
The smoke it gave off was just as foreboding as the paper itself, slipping silently out the young lady's window into the night.
“It's always so fascinating, no matter how many times I see it.”
Abera murmured to herself without thinking. It burned so dramatically, yet there was no smell of anything combusting.
That made it all the more eerie—the unnatural dissonance of smoke with no scent whatsoever.
Still, whatever this paper was, it worked perfectly for summoning Asbidal. A crow was already perched on the windowsill.
As Abera approached cautiously, the crow cracked its beak wide open.
“Purchase? Purchase?”
“...This is fascinating too.”
A talking crow. She thought she was getting used to it by now, but nope.
Anyway, Ganeghan and Alfred were waiting outside. The longer she dawdled, the more suspicious they'd get.
She needed to wrap this up fast.
“Purchase? Purchase?”
Even the crow pressed her, repeating the question.
Abera shook her head.
“No. We still have plenty of drugs.”
“Caw! Refund? Refund?”
“Not that either.”
“Caw...”
The perched crow shook its head with a dismissive caw, as if to say it had no idea.
Moments later, another crow landed on the windowsill.
“Miss Abera. What brings you here? Not a purchase or a refund? I'll handle anything else.”
“Huh? Aspi!”
This crow spoke fluently. Abera recognized it instantly.
Aspi, the one always perched on Asbidal's shoulder.
Why was it out here alone? The question bubbled up naturally, but Aspi beat her to it, as if reading her mind.
“Lord Asbidal is on vacation right now. That's why I'm by myself.”
“Ah... vacation...”
You take vacations too? Abera thought without meaning to.
Asbidal on vacation was a disaster on top of a disaster. Her expression darkened immediately.
Aspi didn't miss it.
“What's wrong? Were you looking for Lord Asbidal?”
“Yes. It's really urgent. I need you to fetch him... money's no object!”
The crow shook its head calmly.
“Whether it's urgent or not doesn't matter much when summoning Lord Asbidal.”
“Then what?”
“It has to pique his interest.”
“What the hell even interests that guy...”
Abera groaned.
Asbidal. The name conjured images of his thick hood, worn rain or shine, and the raven mask obscuring his face.
Naturally, she'd never seen anything but his hands.
Strictly speaking, not even those—he always wore gloves. Whether he was truly a doctor was questionable; he just dealt in all sorts of narcotics. Real name unknown. Origins unknown.
Figuring out what might interest him was like chasing stars. Abera shook her head.
“I have no idea. What does pique his interest? Do you know, Aspi?”
“Something like a drug he's never seen before, I imagine. Everything starts and ends with drugs for him.”
“A drug he's never seen... Huh?”
Abera had been tapping the windowsill anxiously with her index finger. Suddenly, she snapped her thumb and forefinger with a click.
“I've got it! There's a pretty skilled doctor in the mansion right now. Seems to make some intriguing drugs.”
“You don't know exactly what kind?”
“Right. Can you bring him with that?”
Aspi let out a single caw. Something felt off to it.
Moments later, its voice dropped lower.
“I can relay the message, of course. However...”
“However?”
“If Lord Asbidal shows up and isn't satisfied... he'll be really, really angry.”
Abera fell deep into thought.
“Even I, a mere crow, know you're an influential young lady, Miss Abera. But Lord Asbidal is utterly unpredictable. You should brace yourself.”
After wrestling with it, Abera finally nodded decisively.
“Got it. I'm braced. Just bring him as fast as you can.”
Aspi dipped its head in a bow, like pecking at something on the floor.
“Understood. See you soon, then.”
With that, the two crows cawed and took to the sky.
Abera watched their ominous flight with an inscrutable gaze.
Caw, caw.
In a rundown slum far from the Menesil Family's earldom.
This once-vibrant village, where the poor scraped by with their own scraps of happiness, was now filled with the cries of crows.
Tanya's home was no different. The ten-year-old girl should have had a kind mother and sturdy father.
But she didn't.
“Mom... Dad...”
The little girl sniffled, on the verge of tears.
Her parents were still there, technically—but they were no longer mother and father. They were something else entirely.
“Hah, ah! Ack! Ahit, hngh!”
All day in the bedroom, those things slammed their flesh together. No parents—just beasts lost to lust.
Mom's eyes and Dad's eyes were completely glazed over.
“Ahit! Ah! Ah! So good!”
“Hng! Hah!”
With eyes murky as rotten fish, drool streaming down their chins, they didn't care what happened to Tanya. They just kept thrusting their hips.
Only the wet smack, smack, smack echoed through the house.
Tanya couldn't comprehend what they were doing, so she just wailed at the top of her lungs: “Waaah!”
And then, something stroked her head.
“Why cry? Your parents look so happy.”
A voice she couldn't place.
Intent unknown. Gender ambiguous.
The girl turned.
In her eyes reflected the black silhouette of a raven mask. And in the mask's black eyes, her own tearful face stared back.
That's right. Ever since this person came...
The whole village has been weird. He said he'd make everyone happy.
Tanya grabbed the hem of the raven-masked figure's clothes, pleading desperately.
“Hngh, waaah! Make Mom and Dad normal again...! Waaah...!”
“They're so happy like that.”
“No! Nooo... Waaah! I hate it! Scary!”
“Aha. So what you're saying is...”
The figure in the raven mask leaned down. Its beak nearly touched her nose.
“...You want your parents to be even happier?”
“Waaah! Uwaaaah!!”
Not understanding, just terrified, Tanya nodded.
The moment she did, he sprang into action. He drew a syringe and approached the furiously rutting parents.
They hadn't stopped.
“Ahh! Inside, cum inside! Ah, nng! Haaang!”
As the woman moaned, the man shook his hips faster—slap, slap, slap—then convulsed violently, spurting something as he collapsed onto her.
His hips stopped, but his mouth didn't.
He suckled madly at her ample breasts, like a man parched for three days finally finding water.
“More... more... moooore...”
The ecstatic woman murmured. Asbidal approached her and jabbed the syringe into her neck.
“Eh, ugh?! Ex... Urghhh...”
The effect was swift.
She convulsed wildly, eyes rolling back. Foam bubbled from her mouth as her breathing stopped.
“M... Mom...?”
Even to a ten-year-old, it was obvious: death.
Terror flooded the girl's face.
And in that moment, the man started thrusting again. The raven mask burst into laughter: Pfbt.
“Hahaha. Shaking his hips even after his wife dies. My drug, but this is ridiculous.”
He injected the man too.
The same end: eyes rolled back, foam at the mouth, breath ceased.
Now, in this cramped space, only two living beings remained.
The raven-masked man slowly stepped toward Tanya.
“Come here. I'll make you happy too.”
“Nooo... No. Scary... Mom... Dad...”
Tears streamed down her terrified face.
That was when it happened.
“Lord Asbidal.”
A crow landed on his shoulder and spoke fluently.
“Miss Abera de Menesil, the eldest daughter of the Menesil Family, has urgently summoned you. She guarantees it'll pique your interest. Says there's a doctor who makes intriguing drugs.”
Hmm-hmm-hmm.
“Eek, aaaah!! No! Noooo!!”
Ignoring her, he hummed as he jabbed the syringe into Tanya's neck.
Thud. She toppled backward. Soon, her tiny body grew cold.
“What will you do, Lord Asbidal? I've relayed everything as heard.”
Art. Pure art.
Asbidal kept muttering to himself, then suddenly whipped his head toward Aspi, as if just noticing.
“Oh, Aspi. When did you get here? What'd you say? Missed it.”