✦ Chapter 48 — Nightmare (1) ✦
「Translator — Creator」
᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃
The little girl darted toward Johanna and threw her arms around her with a sudden warmth.
While holding her skewer in one hand, Johanna gently stroked the little girl’s head with the other.
“It’s been a while, Mister Clown!”
Seemingly content from the gentle pat, the little girl smiled as she addressed me.
“Am I still ‘mister’ this time too?!”
I dramatically slumped down with an exaggerated sigh.
“Hehe.”
The girl giggled at my exaggerated reaction, her laugh as innocent as the clear sky above.
A thought crossed my mind — perhaps she called me ‘mister’ deliberately, knowing it would draw this reaction.
“Surely after seeing this, you won’t call me ‘mister’ anymore?”
I rose with a confident snap of my fingers.
For the little girl, I wove an illusion into being.
“Wow!”
In an instant, the plain cobblestone street transformed into a sprawling meadow; butterflies of countless hues danced around us in graceful arcs.
Since entering the academy, my skill with illusions had improved significantly, and it showed in the awe on the little girl’s face.
“Mister Clown, that’s amazing!”
The little girl exclaimed, spreading her arms wide in wonder.
“Even after this, you still call me mis-“
I halted mid-sentence, my gaze falling to the little girl’s arm.
“…What’s wrong?”
The little girl flinched when I stared at her silently.
Understandable – my mask combined with silence must have seemed rather eerie.
“When did you get that wound on your arm?”
My voice unconsciously shifted to a serious tone.
There was a fresh injury on the little girl’s arm.
From its appearance, it seemed recent.
“Hmm? Ah~ this? I just fell while playing earlier.”
The little girl spoke casually while examining her wound.
And I found myself deeply unsettled by her nonchalance.
“Please wait a moment.”
I retrieved a medicinal salve from my [Subspace].
Though I wished to use a potion, the only one I currently possessed was the black potion.
“There’s no need to bother with that,” the girl protested weakly. “It’s just a little scratch…”
“Hold still.”
I cut off her protest.
“Eek…”
The little girl winced as the medicine touched her wound.
“It might sting now, but this will help the wound heal without leaving a scar,” I reassured her, carefully applying the ointment.
I checked her body for any additional injuries.
Fortunately, I found no other wounds.
“Apply this to the wound once every day, without fail.”
I pressed the medicine container firmly into her small hands.
“B-but…”
She tried to refuse as I handed her the entire bottle.
“I have plenty more. So please, take it without hesitation.”
I pulled out dozens of ointment bottles from my [Subspace] and held them out for the girl to see. Of course, every single one was an illusion, but she didn’t know that. Her wide eyes blinked in silent awe before she finally accepted the jar without protest.
“………….”
“…………”
Both Johanna and the little girl fell into wordless contemplation.
*Sigh—*
Perhaps I’d been too intense.
The atmosphere had grown unexpectedly heavy.
Just as I was wracking my brain for a way to lighten the mood, the girl’s gaze drifted to the skewer in Johanna’s hand, and she spoke.
“Big sister, you’re eating that skewer again today too.”
That ‘again today’ – did it mean Johanna regularly indulged in these skewers?
“…….Huh?”
At the little girl’s words, senior Johanna averted her gaze from mine.
Could it be that earlier, when she’d stared at the skewer stand, it wasn’t mere desire but rather hesitation because my presence might prevent her usual indulgence?
“Senior, didn’t you just tell me we shouldn’t eat while patrolling?”
“…………”
“Don’t tell me you’ve been secretly eating all this time despite the rules?”
Johanna shifted her feet, her face tinged with a subtle crimson bloom of embarrassment.
“Where are you going, Senior~?”
“We need to continue patrolling.”
Her pace had noticeably quickened compared to moments before.
“Senior, wait for me!”
I gave the little girl’s head one final gentle pat – grateful for her role in lifting the mood – before hurrying after Johanna.
As we patrolled, the little girl walked alongside us.
It wasn’t exactly against the rules to have her with us, especially since we weren’t running or dealing with anything particularly urgent.
Fortunately, the rest of our patrol passed without any major incident.
The only report was of adventurers fighting in some shop. When we entered upon receiving the complaint, they ceased their quarrel at the sight of our Academy uniforms.
Most Academy students were nobles, and the adventurers feared crossing such elevated status.
Even recalling the game’s story, I was fairly certain nothing major would happen for at least another month.
“Mister Clown, will you come tomorrow too?”
Upon hearing we must part ways, the little girl gazed at me with sorrowful eyes.
“….. Well…”
Her question caught me off guard. I hesitated, unable to offer a simple ‘yes.’ Back at the orphanage, I had seen too many people promise to return and never follow through.
I knew too well the pain such broken promises carved into a little girl’s heart.
“Of course he’ll come back tomorrow.”
Johanna spoke up as I struggled to find the right words.
“Okay!”
The little girl’s face brightened with a radiant smile before she departed.
“Senior, but can we really come out to patrol tomorrow too?”
I asked Johanna as we walked back toward the Academy. Even as head of the Disciplinary Committee, could she really arrange things as she pleased?
“Apparently, the two of us will be patrolling for the entire club trial period,” Johanna said matter-of-factly.
“Who decided that?”
“The other Disciplinary Committee members.”
That couldn’t be right…
I knew how much the committee members admired Johanna; they always jumped at the chance to spend time with her, whether on patrol or during meetings. There was no way they’d voluntarily give up this opportunity.
Try as I might until we reached the Academy, I couldn’t fathom their reasoning.
.
.
.
Later, after all the academy classes had ended, I returned to the dormitory. Out of habit, I reached for the communication orb to call Yerika.
“Ah……”
Only then did I remember that I wouldn’t be able to talk to her tonight. Or maybe I had deliberately pushed the thought out of my mind until now.
‘What should I do now?’
The hours until nightfall slipped away as I methodically organized my [Subspace].
But no matter how much I busied myself, the silence of the room grew heavier as the night stretched on.
“Hah….”
As the hours crept by, my sighs grew louder, more frequent.
Already, the hour for rest had arrived.
Even lying in bed, the sighs wouldn’t cease.
Could I truly find sleep without my medicine, without Erika?
*Rustle—*
After tossing and turning endlessly beneath the sheets, sleep finally claimed me.
.
.
.
*Shrkkk—*
“Hah…. hah….”
Gasping for breath, I lurched awake.
My chest heaved as I fumbled for the clock on my bedside table.
Ten minutes.
Only ten minutes had passed since I’d fallen asleep.
The dampness of my bed was suffocating; sweat had soaked through the sheets.
*Tap—*
I swung my legs off the bed and trudged toward the bathroom, my steps heavy. My face was a mask of weariness, streaked with sweat.
“Hah….”
I splashed cold water onto my face again and again, but it did little to clear my head.
The dream — no, nightmare — that had seized me in those brief moments of sleep kept resurfacing with merciless clarity.
The cold back alleys.
little girlren drained of warmth.
The scalding blood flowing across the ground.
Every detail burned vivid and unrelenting in my mind.
“HUURRGGHH!!!”
Ten minutes — that was all the sleep this night had granted me.
.
.
.
“Are you alright?”
Johanna’s voice cut suddenly through our patrol walk.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You look tired.”
At her words, my fingers traced across my face.
Relief washed over me as I felt the mask still securely in place.
“How could you tell? I’m wearing a mask.”
“I’m not sure myself. Just a feeling I have.”
“Even your intuition can be wrong sometimes, Senior. I’m perfectly fine today. Come on! Shall we head to where our little lady is waiting?”
The appointed time had passed, yet the little girl hadn’t appeared at our meeting place.
The rational explanation was that she had overslept and hadn’t made it yet. But after last night’s nightmare, unease gnawed at me, a dark, relentless shadow in the back of my mind.
“Senior, do you happen to know where she lives?”
Johanna shook her head.
Of course she wouldn’t know.
“Senior, could you wait a moment? I’ll go look for her.”
“I’m coming with you. It’ll be faster if we search together.”
She was right.
With Johanna’s presence, it didn’t take long for us to gather information. The townsfolk seemed eager to help her, answering her questions without hesitation.
The girl’s home was on the outskirts of the city.
Years of neglect had left it worn and filthy.
I recalled an old man’s earlier words —
About the little girl’s mother buying expensive liquor and meat the previous night.
One glance at this house made it clear — such luxuries were far beyond their means.
‘No. No, it couldn’t be…’
My body began to tremble, my breath coming in shallow gasps. Worst-case scenarios clawed at my mind, refusing to relent.
“Senior, wait.”
I caught Johanna’s arm as she moved to enter.
The words came out clipped, unbidden.
Images kept surfacing — the wounds on the little girl’s body, her unnaturally sharp awareness that spoke of learned wariness.
“Let me go in first.”
I wrapped myself in an illusion, altering my appearance.
“That appearance…?”
Johanna started in surprise.
My transformation had rendered me an exact mirror of the little girl.
In this borrowed form, I reached for the door.
*Creak—*
The weathered wood yielded easily beneath my touch.
The scene inside was chaos.
Garbage littered the floor, broken furniture leaned haphazardly against the walls, and the air reeked of mildew and decay. Black mold crawled across the walls, a festering reminder of the neglect that had consumed the place.
It was a space no little girl should have ever called home.
A woman in the center of the house gazed at me through eyes clouded with intoxication.
Her attire and jewelry were starkly out of place against the squalid surroundings—luxurious embellishments on a backdrop of neglect.
Her gaze fixed upon me.
As she beheld my form — an illusion of the little girl — the drunken haze in her eyes gave way to rage. These were not the eyes of a mother looking upon her child; they held something far more sinister — the kind of anger no mother should ever direct at her child.
“Why are you here?! Didn’t Mama tell you to stay with those people and not run away?! As if you haven’t already ruined my life enough, you can’t even do one simple thing right!!!!”
I didn’t respond. My eyes dropped to the floor, where a small bottle lay discarded—a bottle I recognized immediately.
It was the ointment I’d given to the girl.
Picking it up, I opened the lid. More than half of its contents were gone. The girl would have needed weeks, if not a full month, to use that much
Yet I could smell the distinct scent of the salve clinging to the woman in front of me.
“Why won’t you speak?! Are you looking down on me too?!”
She grabbed the shoulder of my illusory little girl’s form. At her touch, the illusion shattered, revealing my true appearance.
“Huh?”
Confusion painted her face.
“What are you?”
I didn’t answer. But my fury boiled over.
I swung my fist at this creature before me – something less than human, less than beast.
*CRASH—!*
“Hah…..”
My breathing was ragged, every inhale clawing at my chest.
The vivid images from my nightmare resurfaced, unbidden.
‘Big brother… please, just kill us…’
END of CHAPTER
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