Chapter 58 - The Aftermath

 Azriel tossed and turned for a long while before she could fall asleep. Then she was haunted by a nightmare all night long.

It was a night full of stars. Huge armors surrounded her and stomped their feet. Whizzing voices filled all sides.

“Cut it off! Cut it off!”

An invisible force pulled her finger. Appalled by it, she shook it off.

“Don’t touch me!”

Then the armor collapsed like sand. She saw Rhema beyond that. He was wearing a robe that turned red. He approached her and looked down at her with cold eyes.

“Rhema? What’s going on?”

Rhema had never seen her with such eyes. He, who was scowling at her without a response, was strange and scary.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m scared…”

When she stepped back hesitantly, the stars in the sky suddenly poured down. The stars cut Rhema into pieces.

“No! Don’t. Don’t do that! Don’t hurt Rhema!”

No matter how many times she screamed, it did not stop. She stomped her feet but could not approach him. While she wailed, Rhema was ripped into pieces like a piece of paper. White paper pieces scattered and disappeared. In the pitch dark night, she was left alone in the stars like scattered dots.

It was a horrible dream. When she woke up, her whole body was covered with cold sweat.

“Rhema, Rhema…”

She was frightened and looked for Rhema. He was not home. The surroundings were quiet. The nightmare kept on glimmering in front of her eyes. It was the image of Rhema being scattered like a piece of paper.

If he disappeared like the dream, would she be left alone again? She remembered the time when she looked up at the night sky after being abandoned in a moat in midwinter. It gave her goosebumps even though the house was always warm like a spring day. She hunched.

[Meow.]

Blanchet, who appeared without her knowing, rubbed herself going between her calves. Azriel felt her soft fur. She sat down in front of the white cat.

“Blanchet, where is Rhema? He’s just out for a moment, right?”

Blanchet nodded her head greatly.

“I had a very scary dream…”

As Azriel was in tears, the cat licked her cheek quietly. She held Blanchet tight. The warm temperature calmed her mind down a little. Blanchet swayed her tail as if she was uncomfortable but gave in soon and let the girl have her way.

After cooling down to some degree, Azriel ate breakfast alone that the spirit served. It was a soup that she liked, but it did not taste good today. She, who was nibbling at it, could not even eat half of it and stood up. The spirit was startled by that and dimmed its light as if it was sullen. Azriel smiled at the spirit.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t have an appetite. I’ll be going to the village.”

“Eek? Why? It hasn’t been long since you went through trouble,” Noir, who was napping as he enjoyed the sunshine near the window, screamed as he jumped up.

“I’m going out only for a short time.”

“Hey, just rest up at home. Aren’t you tired?”

“I’m not that tired.”

Azriel left the living room and prepared to go out. Noir followed her from behind.

“Why are you going to the village?”

“Just because…”

It was hard to explain what she was feeling now. She was just scared and lonely that she wanted to talk to somebody. The spirit could not talk, Blanchet did not like to talk like humans, and Largo was not good at talking. Noir was rather talkative, but since he was a monster, not a human, he was not a good conversation partner by nature.

When she came out after putting on a thick robe, the spirit flew to her holding a scarf. She put on the scarf tightly and came outside. Noir followed her with his tail raised.

“Noir, you can stay home.”

“No. How can I let you go alone when you’ve just been through so much?”

It seemed that he was determined not to let her go alone. Azriel sighed lowly and headed toward the village with the black cat. When the village became closer, she could feel a disorderly atmosphere.

‘What’s going on?’

Tilting her head, she entered the village. People were gathered in groups here and there and speaking noisily or running hastily. Carriages and horses were brought out and all sorts of household goods were also being brought out. They looked busy as they hurriedly packed and carried their belongings. All of them had serious and grim looks on their faces.

Azriel, who was watching that scene bewilderingly, found Hannah crying. Hannah was the closest friend of hers in the village, whom Azriel made a cake as her birthday gift. She was bawling with her face reddened and distorted. Beside her was her father who was trying to comfort her. Azriel asked as she approached them.

“Hannah, why are you crying? Mister, what’s wrong? If there’s anything I can do…”

“Ahhhh! Get, go away!”

As soon as he saw Azriel, he stepped back screaming and hid Hannah behind his back. The villagers also found Azriel at the sound of his scream and were stirred. Adults dragged their kids and ran away. Sounds of doors being shut continued in a row.

Not understanding the situation, Azriel stood vacantly. Only Noir read the situation and moved his ears.

Hannah pushed away her dad’s hand which was trying to drag her into the house. Then she came running to Azriel and yelled in a tearful voice.

“Give my mom back!”

“…What?”

“Give my mom back to where she was! How can you do this?! What did my mom do wrong?!”

Hannah stomped her feet and burst into tears. Azriel still did not know what she meant but stretched her hand out to sooth Hannah.

“What’s up? Did something happen to your mom…?”

“Don’t lay a finger on my daughter!”

Hannah’s father yelled desperately and shook Azriel’s hand off. He used to call her ‘a little wizard’ with a smiley face always. He was a kind person who gave errands on purpose to give her allowance. Such a person was looking at Azriel with a distorted face like a demon now. He picked up his daughter and ran to his house. The door was shut with a loud thud before Azriel’s eyes. Soon, she heard the door locking.