IBTMH 10

Chapter 10

By evening, jars of fruit jam had been neatly stacked one by one. Lily baked cookies thickly spread with jam and brought us steamed fish. Ruth couldn’t take his eyes off the sweet-smelling oven even while eating.

Lily noticed Ruth’s gaze while checking the oven and waved her soft, fluffy arms.

〈If you don’t finish your fish, you don’t get a single cookie!〉

I relayed the message to Ruth exactly.

[She said if you don’t eat everything, you won’t get cookies.]

At that, Ruth quickly started emptying his plate. Did he like Lily’s cookies that much? I couldn’t help but smile a little.

After the meal, Lily handed us the freshly baked cookies and kicked us out of the kitchen. The dishes to wash looked like a mountain. Lily’s muttering voice reached all the way to the sofa.

The blueberry jam barely tasted burnt once it was mixed into the cookies. Hearing the cookie-eating sounds, Lily shouted from afar.

〈Told you they’re good, right?〉

‘Yeah, yeah.’

I imagined myself patting Lily’s head.

Lily complained loudly, asking me to come and pat her properly, but she couldn’t leave the kitchen because she was still washing dishes.

Lulu, who had dried off, was now climbing down from the clothesline, unsteady on her feet. Seeing cookie crumbs on the floor, she quietly grabbed a broom. I pushed my portion of cookies closer to Ruth, who was completely absorbed in them. Ruth, munching in a daze, blinked at the cookies I gave him.

“…You should eat too. Don’t just give them all to me.”

[I’m eating too. And I’ve been eating a lot for a long time.]

Ruth murmured thanks and slowly ate an apple cookie. Maybe because he had helped prepare the ingredients, he had eaten more apple cookies than anything else. After finishing those, he moved on to the apricot cookies.

It was a soft, cozy evening.

Ruth was running through the darkness.

Cold wind and snow tore through his entire body. For a moment he thought it was cold—but soon his body became numb, as if it had adapted. Before long, his body had shrunk into that of a child.

When he stopped, the darkness distorted.

Meow. A cat’s cry echoed.

As the darkness lifted, a narrow alley appeared. A black cat with differently colored eyes stood in the snow, tail swaying, watching him.

Meow… it felt like it was calling Ruth.

He reached out his hand, but the cat scattered like a mirage. All that remained was a block of ice.

The moment he saw it, his heart sank.

Footsteps.

Children with no visible faces surrounded him, laughing.

“Ahh…!”

Ruth gasped and woke up.

Moonlight slipped through the half-closed curtain. His breath came out in white fog.

What was that dream? Cold… frightening…

He looked down at the bed.

“!”

Everything except where Ruth lay was frozen solid.

He stared at his hands in fear.

“Monster.”

It felt like someone was whispering.

In the morning, I found Ruth collapsed on the sofa. His face was pale and drained, dark circles faint under his eyes. He clearly hadn’t slept well.

I waved a hand in front of him.

Ruth muttered weakly.

“…I caused an accident.”

What accident?

I blinked. Ruth got up unsteadily and opened his mother’s room door.

“….”

I was speechless. Not that I could normally speak anyway—but I didn’t know what to do.

The bed had a human-shaped imprint… frozen solid.

Had he tried magic in his sleep?

Someone who had never used magic before had frozen an entire bed overnight.

I patted Ruth’s shoulder a couple of times.

[Are you okay?]

“….”

[The ice will melt soon. Don’t worry.]

“….”

Ruth opened his mouth a few times but couldn’t say anything and closed it again.

I sat him on the sofa and lifted his sleeve. While I changed his bandages, he just sat there blankly, completely dazed.

Lulu rushed into the room, complaining that it would be hard to clean. I silently cheered her on in my mind.

Good luck melting it.

Ruth was forced to go out with Pinocchio, and I worked with Lulu to figure out how to melt the bed.

How is the ice this thick?

Through the window, I saw Ruth being dragged along by Pinocchio.

Lily came in after finishing the dishes and clicked her tongue at the ice.

I thought, she surprisingly isn’t suggesting we burn it down. That does sound like something Lily would say.

Lily stomped angrily at my thoughts.

〈This is Lunar’s mom’s room! I’m not doing anything that crazy!〉

Good to know she understands “crazy.”

While she protested by hitting my leg, I ran my hand over the ice. Cold. Very cold. Like all ice is.

I told Lulu to bring matches.

The fire barely melted anything before dying out. Burnt matchsticks piled up, but the ice stayed firm.

〈What about waiting for it to melt on its own?〉 Lulu asked.

That would leave Ruth with nowhere to sleep.

〈Then let him sleep on the floor.〉 Lily said.

[He’s a patient.]

Lily grumbled.

〈Hmph.〉

Should I break it?

Axe might be cheaper than matches at this point.

Where was Pinocchio’s axe again?

Lulu answered my thoughts.

〈It should be in the storage. Things not used anymore are kept there.〉

I went to the storage room and found the axe among the junk.

It was heavier than I expected.

I lifted it and swung it at the ice.

CRACK!

A large dent appeared.

I swung again and again.

Crack, crack—splits formed through the ice.

Lily and Lulu helped by tapping the ice with their tiny fists. I stopped for a moment, worried I might accidentally hit them.

“I’m back…”

The door opened.

Ruth stopped mid-greeting.

I stood up, rubbing my sore back from swinging the axe.

Ruth hid behind Pinocchio.

“…I don’t know what happened, but I’m sorry.”

?

THUD!

Pinocchio swung the axe cleanly, cutting the ice in half.

I briefly worried he might split the whole bed apart.

But he only knocked off the remaining pieces and stopped.

Lily and Lulu clapped.

Pinocchio scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“There won’t be anything like this again.”

Ruth stared at the ruined, icy room. His hands trembled slightly.

I took his hand without thinking.

It was freezing cold.

He flinched and tried to pull away, but I held on tighter.

His trembling passed into my hand.

I held his hand until it grew cold too.

Ruth said in a shaking voice.

“Let go.”

“….”

“It’s dangerous. Let go.”

I slowly released his hand.

I took out my notebook.

[Did your memory return?]

“…If it had, this wouldn’t be happening.”

[How did you use ice magic?]

“I don’t know.”

“I really don’t know…”

The dolls quietly left the room one by one.

Even Pinocchio’s exit made a faint creaking sound, but neither of us commented.

Ruth touched the icy remains of the bed.

The ice neither melted nor spread further.

I lit a match again and brought the flame to the ice.

He stared at the faint heat.

[Is it something you can’t tell me?]

Ruth looked at the notebook.

[Then can’t we at least share cookies?]

“….”

Ruth rubbed his eyes.

After a long silence, he asked quietly.

“Are there any cookies left?”

There was a faint trace of tears in his voice.

I looked at his shrinking shoulders.

Guilt crept up inside me.

[We can make more.]

Ruth slowly smiled through his fingers, though he still looked confused.

I called Lily.

‘Bake cookies.’