Chapter 97: CH 108

Chapter 108

Translator: Yonnee

RP: Haebaragi_syk

—

Fortunately enough, a drowsy, half-asleep voice spoke up from behind her.

“Milady?”

Following the sound of that voice, Reina hurriedly turned around.

“M-Mary…!”

“What’s wrong, Milady? Why have you raised your voice? And why is the bathroom door’s surface so rough… Heavens!”

Shocked to see the indents on the bathroom door, which looked like it had been scratched up by a huge rake, Mary came running straight to the lady’s side. She immediately saw her tear-stricken face.

“W-What happened, Milady!”

“I-It’s weird… hiic… My hands… My hands… look like a monster’s… hiicc…”

As the noble lady blurted out words that made her sound like someone who had lost her mind, Mary quickly picked up a blanket that had been draped over a nearby chair and placed it over the lady’s messy hair. Then, she wrapped the blanket over Reina’s shivering shoulders and wrapped her arms around her.

“Why are you so cold…!”

“Mary… My hands… My hands, hiic…”

In her shock, the youngest child of the Chantra family couldn’t even say anything coherent. Mary hugged the shivering body of the lady more tightly. It was as if Reina had been hit by the harsh winter wind.

“Milady. Still, you can’t stay like this. Please, let’s first get you back to bed so you can lie down, okay?”

“No, Mary… hiic… That’s not important— My hands… my hands…”

“Yes, Milady! Your hands are so cold right now. Look at this— I know you’re already pale, but the color is almost completely gone on your hands right now!”

…Pale hands?

Reina finally looked down to see the hands that Mary was holding tightly. The hideous hands that she saw a while ago were nowhere to be seen.

“Huh…? Why are my hands… fine?”

“Good gracious. Was it another nightmare, Milady? Why did you scratch up the bathroom door like this? You did that during your childhood but it’s been a while since it last happened… Goodness. That fiend Lehman must have really affected you…”

Judging that the cause of all these incidents was Lehman, Mary clenched hands in anger.

“Milady. You don’t have to pity that guy.”

However, on the contrary, Reina was just staring at her hands, feeling as if a goblin had played a prank on her.

“What… What is this…”

What in the world just happened? Her hands were completely fine right now, as if everything she saw a while ago was a mere hologram.

“Really, this can’t go on. Milady, what do you think about returning to the Chantra estate for a while? It’s okay to put off your internship or studies at the academy for a while.”

“N-No. That’s not it… It’s weird… Surely, until just now…”

As Mary was stomping her feet in anger, she leaned down and stared into Reina’s eyes, clutching her bloodless hands.

“Milady, would you like me to bring you a cup of warm milk with honey? Or would you like me to stay with you here until you fall back asleep?”

“No… Mary, that’s not it. That’s not it.”

Still staring blankly at her hands, Reina spoke as though she was possessed.

“My hands… My hands turned into the claws of a monster…”

“Pardon?”

“I’m telling the truth. Suddenly, it was hard to breathe… Then my hands changed in an instant. So… So I was in shock. But suddenly, it hurt so much that it felt like my skin’s being torn. It was so painful, like my insides were burning… It was like that, it really was…”

Mary listened quietly to everything her lady said.

With eyebrows knitted together, Reina gauged her own condition and tried to see if she was feeling the same pain once again. It still somewhat felt as if it was difficult to breathe.

Nevertheless, she finally conveyed what she had experienced.

“Milady.”

When the words that sounded like gibberish ended, Mary wordlessly led Reina back to bed.

“…Please go back to bed first. You’ve lost a lot of sleep… You need to rest first. And then we’ll talk, alright…?”

Mary’s voice wavered, tinted by the sound of tears as she comforted her lady. However, Reina did not notice this and just nodded as she lay back down.

“Yes… Okay.”

As Reina’s exhausted voice spilled quietly through her lips, Mary pressed down on the rising urge to shed tears. Then, seeing that Reina had gone back to sleep, Mary hurriedly turned around.

The maid ran straight towards the room where the master of the mansion was, pounding her fists on the door, forgetting proper etiquette entirely.

“Count… hiic, Count… There’s huge trouble…!”

The sun had yet to rise, but one loud, desperate voice woke up the masters of the house.

“Lady… Lady Reina has turned strange! That man Lehman must be the cause… hiic… It seems like Milady’s mind has crumbled…”

* * *

Led by three purebred steeds, the light purple carriage ran at a leisurely pace over the long stretch of the plains.

The speed at which it moved couldn’t be considered as fast, but the woman inside the carriage could not speak at all, as if she was riding a horse in a race.

“Child. This can’t go on. Return to the Chantra estate and rest there for a while.”

No one believed Reina when she said that her hands and feet had changed. No—they couldn’t believe her. There were no records of anyone else suffering through these symptoms in this world, so how could they believe her?

So, in an attempt to show them evidence of her metamorphosis, she held them down and made them stay with her until dawn, but… Somehow, no changes happened as she was in front of others.

Amid the growing misunderstanding, the healers of Bohr that had come to examine her condition unanimously concluded.

“Perhaps… The lady is suffering from delirium—hallucinations brought upon by trauma.”

“Haa…”

Leaning against the carriage’s side, Reina’s shoulders drooped as she stared at her hands.

“Are you alright, Milady?”

“…Yeah.”

In truth, no. She wasn’t alright. But she had to say that she was.

‘In this situation, it’s pointless to say anything at all.’

Ever since that day, she had checked time and time again. Her hands definitely changed at dawn. Sometimes, even her feet changed as well.

‘The metamorphosis shows itself only to me…’

Sometimes it’s the form of a beast, sometimes it’s the form of an unidentified monster…

The process of this metamorphosis, every single time, was indescribably painful.

Aside from the sharp sensation of being stabbed, the images she saw each time was too much for the human mind to handle.

The appearance of her hands, the broken screen, the flashing pixels, then, the rearranging graphics that began to regain their shape once more.

In the end, the incomprehensible visual stimulus drove her into a corner.

‘If I… If I really am…’

Before Reina knew it, she had already raised one clammy hand and was biting on her nails.

Mumbling nervously, she spoke to herself.

“If I really am… afflicted with a virus, then…”