25. Pandora's Box (2)
25. Pandora's Box (2)
[Chapter 25] - Pandora's Box (2)
"What...?"
What did this woman just say?
The King? Edric Snow White?
I grabbed her by the collar and scrutinized her face once more. She was even more bloodless than in the portrait, and her limp limbs were so pale that I couldn't feel a shred of vitality from her.
Her red eyes had turned a murky color, making it impossible to tell where she was looking, and her black hair was as rough and stiff as a broom, as if it hadn't been brushed in ages.
However, no matter how different she looked from the portrait, I knew. I knew that the woman whose collar I was holding was the First Queen I knew, 'Aurora Snow White'.
'Did she lose her mind because she loved her husband too much?'
Suddenly, this hypothesis popped into my head. A hypothesis that she loved her partner so much, loved them to the point of wanting to become them. Is that why Aurora thinks she is 'Edric'?
...Right now, such hypotheses meant nothing.
Because that wasn't what was important right now.
I grabbed Aurora by the collar, lifted her up, and shouted.
"Speak, Aurora. Why are you here when you were supposed to have committed suicide! Why are you alone in the room where the King is supposedly secluded! Explain yourself properly!"
"Aurora...?"
As I shook her by the collar and shouted, Aurora stared at me with wide, vacant eyes. She muttered something, then raked her skeletal fingers down her face and let out a shriek.
"Ah--! Aurora! Aurora!! Where are you! Ah-!! Ah!!!"
"Crazy bitch...!"
"I can't see her...! Ah...! Ah!!! Aurora!! Aaaagh!!!"
Startled by the shriek she let out with her cracked voice, I threw her onto the bed. Seeing Aurora flailing on the bed where I'd tossed her gave me goosebumps.
Perhaps she could no longer stand on her own with her skeletal legs, because she crawled across the bed, desperate to get back to the 'canvas' she had been sitting at.
Sitting on the chair with trembling hands, she wiped the surface of the 'mirror' that was the size of a person's upper body, standing in front of the canvas. Then, something began to emerge from the mirror.
Just like an old TV.
In the noisy, static-filled screen, Aurora was running through a flower field wearing a wide-brimmed hat. And Aurora watched the mirror reflecting that image with a dazed, ecstatic expression.
'Wait, Aurora. What will you do if you trip?'
'Hehe, then Your Majesty will carry me on your back.'
The mirror showed only that scene, over and over again. Through someone's gaze, only the image of Aurora running through the flower field, over and over and over.
Watching that, Aurora picked up a brush. As if engraving the image reflected in the mirror onto the canvas, she slowly, slowly began to paint again, moving her brush.
No matter how I looked at it, the current Aurora was not in her right mind.
"What the hell is this...?"
The madness Aurora displayed made my whole body break out in goosebumps.
No matter how much I tried to understand, it didn't make sense.
Why was only 'the supposedly dead Aurora' in the room where the King should be?
Why did Aurora 'introduce herself as the King'?
"...This is driving me crazy, seriously."
I turned my head and looked at the mirror reflecting Aurora.
I could tell that this 'mirror' reflecting Aurora was Ainsel's 'true body'. I mean, it was smaller than the mirror in my room, but it looked exactly the same.
However, for some reason, Ainsel didn't react at all even though I had entered the room. She definitely said she'd be waiting in the room...? Could something have gone wrong with the 'contract'?
The moment I reached out, thinking I should at least take Ainsel's true body, a sensation of being devoured from behind made my spine chill.
The moment I instinctively turned my head to look behind me.
I was able to vaguely understand what the 'situation' in this room was.
-It would be best if you took your hands off that mirror right now, Vivian. And get away from 'my Majesty' immediately, you damn bitch.
"You..."
The 'woman' who called me wasn't touching the ground with her feet.
The woman in the flowing white dress descended using the air as stairs and stopped right in front of me. Then, she growled, her throat vibrating as if telling me to get lost immediately.
Dark black hair, as if the empty night sky had been transplanted onto her. Through her tilted head, red eyes with vertically slit pupils were glaring at me as if to kill.
A woman who looked just like the portrait.
And she looked exactly like the woman painting in front of me.
I swallowed dryly and asked the floating Aurora, wondering if I had understood correctly, if this situation was really what I thought it was, hoping to God it wasn't.
"You... did you eat your husband?"
*
Vertically slit pupils, a flowing white dress.
The Aurora in front of me now had 'that appearance'.
And 'His Majesty', who was painting a picture so artistic that even others would think it beautiful. I felt like all the puzzle pieces in my head were falling into place.
There are still many questions, but...
Still, I was able to figure out what kind of being the 'Aurora' in front of me was. A fairy that grants artistic talent to others and feeds on their blood and vitality in return.
If 'Aurora' was this fairy, it explained why the King only painted in the corner of the room and why her body was shriveled up like a sucked-dry paper carton.
But......
'Why... how did Aurora, who was human, become a Leanan Sidhe fairy...? And why is the King wearing Aurora's body?'
It seemed I had to accept that the Aurora painting behind me was 'His Majesty'. Is the real Aurora floating around as a fairy, and the King is possessing her shell?
-Eating... that sounds unpleasant...
Aurora replied in a voice laced with coldness.
-Couldn't you say that His Majesty and I are 'assimilating'? Tell me it's a 'process' where His Majesty and I are becoming one body, so we can always be together. Hmm? Look, in the end, His Majesty became 'me', didn't he? Hmm? Isn't it romantic?
I couldn't help but frown at Aurora's expression as she giggled. I knew from the Queen Mother's story that Aurora wasn't in her right mind, but this was crossing the line.
That aside, I couldn't focus on the conversation because of the rotting stench, the likes of which I'd never smelled in my life, that kept paralyzing my nose. I felt like I was going to lose my mind, and I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.
When I didn't focus on her story, Aurora looked at me with an icy expression again and continued in a low voice.
-Hey, Vivian. You've become 'just like His Majesty', yet you still haven't fixed your habit of ignoring people? I guess body memories really do exist, huh? Will His Majesty become like me after some time passes?
"What the hell are you saying, you crazy bitch..."
-That foul mouth is the same, too. Reminds me of the old days, doesn't it? What did you say when we first met? Ah~ right. A bitch, His Majesty's leech, a beastly, horny slut, was it?
That's completely different.
I pinched my nose shut and headed toward the window, thinking I should at least open it. If I stayed like this, I felt like I would really suffocate and die from the rotting stench.
As I pulled back the blackout curtains completely, sunlight entered the room, allowing me to properly see the state of the room. It was filthy, a total mess, and covered in filth. No wonder the rotting stench was so strong.
As I looked around the room, I saw a bulging shape on the bed, as if something was inside the blanket. It looked like something was covered by the blanket on the bed where the King had been flailing earlier.
...I had a bad feeling.
As I approached the blanket with a sinking feeling, Aurora smiled and warned me.
-Oh? You're really going to look? If I were you, I wouldn't.
That warning felt like it was confirming that what I was thinking was right. Still, I slowly approached the bed. I approached with the feeling of, 'No way, it can't be. Please, let it not be.'
I grabbed the edge of the blanket and slowly lifted it.
"Ugh...!"
-Ahahahaha!!
A 'man's' corpse, shriveled up like a mummy, was lying on the bed. As I gagged, Aurora was busy clutching her stomach and giggling, as if it were funny.
Aurora, who had flown into the air, approached the 'man's' corpse and spread her arms to show me, as if boasting. A bright smile was a bonus.
-Ta-da! This is His Majesty's 'shell'! Didn't I tell you? If I were you, I wouldn't look.
"What the hell did you do!"
-What did I do?
Aurora said, abruptly stopping her laughter.
-If His Majesty is alive, 'I can't become him, right?' So His Majesty needed to die once. And for His Majesty to become me, 'he also needed to become me.' Do you think His Majesty is dead? Look closely.
Aurora slowly approached the body of the 'woman' who was painting and stroked her face. However, 'she' was busy just painting, either because she couldn't see Aurora or was ignoring her.
-He's living well inside my body, isn't he? And now, really, it won't be long.
Aurora, who had stroked the face of the 'woman' sitting there with her finger, looked at her own body with an ecstatic expression. She licked her lips with her tongue and looked at me with her vertically slit pupils.
-His Majesty will be with me. His Majesty wants that, too. So, could you not interfere? With my and His Majesty's love. Now, really... it won't be long. Just like 'that person' said...
'That person...?'
The moment Aurora made a truly sorrowful expression, nausea welled up inside me. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't understand the 'love' these two were talking about.
Killing each other to become one?
And becoming one? That's crazy.
I let out a long sigh and decided that I needed to retreat from here for now. Since there was no reasoning with her, I had no idea what to do.
"Fine. But I need to get Ainsel back. I get Ainsel back, and you don't get interrupted in being with His Majesty. How about that? I think it's a good deal."
-I'm sorry, but that's not possible. As you can see, His Majesty likes that mirror so much.
"Oh, is that so?"
I let out a small sigh.
I immediately kicked over the 'King's' canvas, which she was painting on, and grabbed Ainsel off the wall. Then, I immediately started running toward the door I had entered through.
It was because I judged that I could easily run away with Ainsel's true body on my own, given there was only one shriveled mummy-like person and one fairy.
I turned my back and ran, but the moment I did, I fell to the floor. Aurora, who had pounced on me in an instant, began to choke me.
"Gack...!"
-I told you. Don't take it. His Majesty likes it!
I tried to grab Aurora's hands, but for some reason, my hands couldn't touch her. I had definitely been able to touch things like Undines and Banshees until now.
Why couldn't I touch only Aurora?
I flailed my hands desperately, but it was useless. My flailing hands kept passing through Aurora's arms, and the sensation of my throat being choked remained.
-If you don't want to die again, put that mirror down. I don't want to kill anyone who isn't His Majesty, either.
"Gk, gack...!"
As my breathing became more labored, I couldn't keep my wits about me. I wondered if I should put the mirror down to survive, but would this crazy woman really not kill me if I did?
However, my throat was being choked tighter and tighter, and in my blurring vision, I couldn't help but feel the fear of death.
No matter how much I thought about what I could do right now, nothing came to mind.
Ainsel, who had been helping me, was unconscious for some reason. I had learned witch magic from Ainsel, but it required concentration, so I couldn't use it in a situation like this.
Then, what can I do right now?
My throat was getting tighter, making it hard to breathe, and the pain increased, but I exhaled my last remaining breath and called out to 'her' who had made a promise to me.
She had definitely said she was the wind.
"Sil, phy..."
As I called her in a raspy voice, a storm blew through the room.
The paintings on the floor and ceiling began to go wild, and the sound of thin, dry paper crumbling echoed through the room.
As Aurora's arms, which were choking me, began to twist in the wind, she finally let go of my throat. Lying miserably on the floor, I clutched my sore throat and let out a dry cough.
-I thought you had forgotten the promise you made with me because you hadn't called for so long, but I guess not.
Silphy, who had appeared out of nowhere, looked at me and smiled kindly. Silphy turned her back to me, looked at Aurora, and warned her in a low voice, as if growling.
-Get lost, you ragdoll wearing the corpse of a Leanan Sidhe. I don't know who made you like that, but if you don't want to be stripped of that disgusting, stitched-together corpse outfit, you'd better disappear from my sight right now.
At those words, Aurora didn't show any expression and just disappeared with a blank look. The room was a mess because of the wind, but I collapsed and lay there, feeling alive and letting out a sigh of relief.
Silphy fluttered over to me, sat on my chest, rested her chin on her hand, and smiled sweetly.
With a puppy-like expression, as if asking me to praise her quickly because she did a good job.