Will You Cry for Me If I Die? - Chapter 15
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 15
His eyes wavered and then stopped.
I saw that suspicious look. The researchers had done the same thing. When they were hiding something, what I saw was always right.
I lowered my voice.
“Is the guest bad?”
The aide’s gaze dropped to my mouth, then rose back to my eyes. He paused very briefly.
“They are not someone bad for you, Baby.”
“Then why can’t I go?”
The aide spoke even lower, almost in a whisper.
“A holy relic has arrived.”
My throat tightened. My breath caught.
Those words always came whenever the needles arrived. Always gently. And what followed was never gentle.
I took a breath. The scent of cold wind followed it in. Even after exhaling, it remained.
I looked toward the end of the corridor. Light flickered again and disappeared. Even after blinking, it remained.
I grabbed Theodor’s hand. My hand moved first. Theodor interlaced his fingers deeper and squeezed.
I looked up at the aide. The area under his eyes was dark. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes weren’t.
“I have something to do!”
After thinking a bit, I added.
“It’s something useful!”
It was a strange feeling, as if I wasn’t myself. As if I needed to reach out to something suspicious that was guiding me right now.
“I, I’m a hostage, but I’m useful!”
When I spoke with a bit of pride, the aide’s eyebrow moved very slightly.
I continued speaking. It felt like I shouldn’t stop now.
“I catch things! I catch bad things!”
The aide spoke immediately. Without any time to think.
“Baby, please don’t say such things.”
“Why?”
“Usefulness? No one here expects such things from you.”
“I’m a prisoner! Prisoners disappear if they’re not useful!”
“Hmm.”
The aide let out a groan.
“Being useful is certainly a good thing, but it’s not something you must have to avoid disappearing. So you don’t need to think about having to become useful or anything like that.”
At the Research Institute, I had to speak of my usefulness to survive. I had to say it. Here, they tell me not to speak of usefulness.
That scared me. Being told not to do the same thing scared me more. That’s why I wanted to say it more. I wanted to confirm whether it was wrong or not.
“I am useful!”
The aide held out his palm in front of me. It wasn’t a hand meant to hit, but to stop me. His voice became even lower.
“You are not here because you are useful, Baby.”
I pretended not to understand. If I understood, it felt like things would become strange. Like they would become different from now.
I tried to push past the aide’s hand. Not much strength went into it. But I still pushed.
Theodor wrapped his arms tightly around my waist from behind.
“No. 1, you can’t!”
“I have to go!”
“Why!”
Theodor’s voice shook. The end trembled.
I stopped for a moment. My feet stuck to the floor.
Not because of usefulness. They said that wasn’t allowed earlier. Then there was no reason. But I still felt like I had to go.
Theodor’s hands were trembling. Small, continuous trembles. Even my hands trembled along with them.
I finally brought up something else.
“The smell is bad!”
Theodor closed his mouth. Only his eyes looked at me.
The aide quietly nodded.
“Yes, Baby. I don’t like it either.”
The aide lowered his body further, then slowly stood up. And he walked toward the end of the corridor. There was almost no sound from his footsteps.
I watched his retreating figure. His back grew distant, approaching the side where the light had been. Theodor didn’t let go of my waist.
I twitched my nose again. The cold wind scent followed behind the aide. But strangely, that smell came not only from the end of the corridor but also from the direction of our room’s window. It came from the front and from behind too.
I slowly turned my head. I looked at the closed door. Our room. Inside it, a very small light flickered once more. It blinked and disappeared.
I held my breath.
‘This isn’t a laboratory. But why is there light.’
Without letting go of Theodor’s hand, I grabbed the door handle again. My hand trembled a little. But I still grabbed it.
I had to check.
Not because of usefulness, but because it was strange.
“Baby?”
Leaving the aide’s words behind, I ran.
I grabbed the door handle of the room we had just come out of.
Even with the door closed, I could feel the air inside the room changing.
I couldn’t see it with my eyes, but my nose knew first.
A thin blade-like smell mixed into the warm air.
The inside tickled and then stung.
I didn’t let go of the handle.
I gripped it tighter so my palm wouldn’t slip.
Theodor breathed shallowly with his arms wrapped around my waist.
The breath touching my back wasn’t steady.
“No. This isn’t the place.”
“Why are you being so scary?”
“Hmm.”
Low adult voices mixed together from the end of the corridor.
Quietly, intermittently.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
I hated that.
The Research Institute was always like that too.
Adults spoke in low voices, kept me from knowing, and caught me if I moved.
My feet wanted to move forward first.
My hands tightened a little more.
I thought it wasn’t because of usefulness, but it was hard to believe that thought.
The habit inside me kept whispering.
You have to be useful to live.
Quietly, continuously.
I chewed and swallowed that whisper.
This is the Demon’s Lair. This place is warm.
I turned the door handle very slightly, without making a sound.
Then footsteps came from the opposite side of the corridor.
They weren’t loud.
They were quiet but firm.
It felt like the floor was being pressed down.
My body stiffened first.
My feet stuck to the floor.
Theodor hugged my waist even tighter.
“Who is it?”
The end of his voice trembled.
An adult’s shadow stretched long across the corridor.
The shadow approached first, then the person came.
It was the Snowman Lord.
Millayen Ikaros.
I was scared, but he didn’t hit me.
His hand didn’t rise.
He didn’t kill me either.
He put me in a warm room and closed the door.
That was even scarier.
Unknown methods were always dangerous.
Millayen stopped right in front of us.
He looked at my hand gripping the door handle first.
Then he looked at Theodor’s arm, and then at my face.
Our eyes met.
I didn’t run away.
If you run, you get caught even worse.
That’s the law I learned at the Research Institute.
But I don’t know if that law applies here.
Other things keep being different.
“Are you awake?”
“I’m awake! Demon, you smell!”
Millayen’s eyebrows moved just slightly.
He didn’t get angry.
His expression didn’t change.
It’s scarier when they don’t get angry.
You can’t see what comes next.
“Cold wind smell! And!”
Words burst out.
“Castle… water?”
“What?”
Millayen’s gaze sharpened then immediately turned toward the end of the corridor.
He exhaled briefly, then gestured to a knight standing on one side of the corridor.
The knight’s shadow moved immediately.
The sound of armor rang out.
The sound of metal scraping.
I instinctively gritted my teeth.
Everything that moves is dangerous.
You have to stay still to be safe.
Then Theodor pinched the back of my hand.
Small and quick.
“That hurts!”
Theodor let go in surprise.
“Sorry! But you looked scared just now! I told you not to cry!”
“I, I don’t cry!”
“Huh? You’re crying though.”
“No!”
Millayen looked at Theodor once.
That gaze wasn’t cold.
It didn’t pierce.
It was a gaze that covered like a heavy blanket.
“Theodor, go into your room.”
“I don’t want to!”
Theodor said without hesitation.
It didn’t match.
Even though he spoke louder several times.
Winter Castle was strange.
“I told you to go in.”
Theodor pouted his lips then brightened up when he saw me.
“No. 1, let’s go in together!”
“Hmph. I don’t… want to!”
When I looked around cautiously, the Snowman Demon just stared at me quietly.
I didn’t get scolded.
“I, I have to check!”
“Why! What!”
“Bad things!”
“Bad things?”
Theodor’s eyes widened, then he asked quietly.
“If it’s worse than that, aren’t you in danger?”
I couldn’t answer.
This kind of question was a first.
I had been taught that when deadly danger approached, they should put me forward.
That it was okay if I went first.
But why would he ask something like that?
I bit my lip.
Millayen approached me.
There was almost no sound of footsteps, but he got closer.
He was so tall that my neck hurt.
But unlike the researchers, he didn’t grab my neck.
He just bent his body down.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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