MWLC 06

chapter 06

Even though she knew they were up to something, entering the basement storage room left Elisia feeling deeply uneasy.

‘Still, it’s probably nothing more than childish hazing.’

Even if bullying was nothing to Elisia, it would become quite troublesome if they continued interfering with her like this. She needed to put an end to it somehow.

‘Should I show them hallucinations, like I did with Jilonne?’

Before she had been sentenced to be erased from the records, the ability to show people hallucinations of what they desperately desired or feared had been nothing special to Elisia.

In fact, the Lotner family had forced her to hide that ability. Because the trait was inherited exclusively by women, her ability to create hallucinations had to be kept secret.

“If you show it off to people for no reason, they’ll treat you like a witch. So don’t go around bragging about having such a useless ability.”

When she was young and knew no better, Elisia would proudly show her hallucination ability to her friends as if she were showing off a toy.

Every time she did, they would become terrified and run away from her.

That was because the hallucinations produced monsters, ghosts, and insects that frightened children.

It was strange.

If she could show someone what they desperately wanted, why did she only ever see the things they feared?

Elisia had always been curious about that, but her mother never answered her questions. She only sternly told Elisia never to use her ability.

“Ugh…”

The moment Elisia entered the basement storage room, a damp chill swept over her.

Old wooden shelves were haphazardly stacked with laundry chemicals and bundles of worn-out cloth, while droplets of water fell from the ceiling at regular intervals.

“I was told to bring the perfume oil.”

Covering her nose and mouth with her sleeve, Elisia quickly scanned the storage room.

But no matter how carefully she looked, she couldn’t find a bottle of perfume oil, so she ventured deeper inside.

Something was strange.

The perfume oils used in the palace were undoubtedly expensive, high-quality products. There was no way they would be stored in such a dirty, damp basement.

Besides, if there really were an expensive bottle in here, it should have stood out immediately.

Yet no matter how much she searched, she couldn’t find one.

Then she heard the rough sound of someone pulling on a rope.

—Swoosh!

Dirty liquid suddenly poured down from a gap in the ceiling like a waterfall, straight toward Elisia.

She instinctively twisted her body to dodge it, but there was no way she could avoid it completely in the narrow passage.

The caustic lye splashed all over her.

“Ugh…”

A short groan escaped between her clenched teeth.

As she staggered, a loud cheer erupted from above as though they had been waiting for exactly this moment.

“We got her! It landed perfectly!”

“Oh my, I’m so sorry. My hand slipped and I spilled the laundry lye!”

“Serves you right! Who told you to glare at us like that yesterday?”

The sound of the maids stomping their feet on the platform above and cackling echoed through the narrow basement.

“…What?”

Elisia raised her head.

Greta and the senior maids were leaning over the railing, resting their chins on their hands as they looked down at her.

“What? You were so full of yourself yesterday. Don’t tell me you’re going to cry over something this small?”

“Think of it as a harsh initiation ritual from your seniors. If you think it’s unfair, go outside and complain. Do you really think anyone would listen to the word of a mere maid?”

The other maids chimed in, laughing even louder.

“…Yeah. Who would listen to the word of a mere maid?”

Elisia’s voice was cold as it slipped from her lips.

“Even if I told the truth, no one would believe me, would they?”

She stood there, drenched and motionless.

At the same time, the atmosphere in the basement seemed to change density, turning icy cold in an instant.

Overcome by that oppressive feeling, the maids’ mocking laughter gradually died down.

“Huh…?”

Then Martha, the maid who had been laughing the loudest, suddenly felt her chin tremble.

Her face, which had been full of amusement, instantly turned ashen.

“Martha, what’s wrong? What are you looking at?”

“There… There behind you… No, at my feet…”

Her teeth chattered as she struggled to speak.

At the far end of the storage room, where there should have been nothing but darkness, an unidentified black shadow was silently rising.

“What are you saying is there? Hm?”

“AAAAAAAH!!!”

In Martha’s eyes, she saw the twisted figure of a person whose neck had been broken and bent at an unnatural angle.

A pale, bloodless face emerged from beneath rotting, wet hair.

Then, when that figure began grinning horribly at Greta and the others—

“No!!”

A piercing scream shook the basement.

Martha collapsed onto the floor, clutching her head.

“Are you crazy? Martha! Get a hold of yourself! What’s wrong with you?!”

Greta grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

But this time, another maid on the opposite side suddenly screamed with a face as pale as a sheet and fell backward.

Each of them was seeing a different hell.

Corpses hung upside down from the shelves and ceiling railings, weeping tears of blood.

The rotting faces of their fellow maids.

And dozens of black hands slowly crawling out from between the cracks in the damp floor, scraping their nails against the ground.

—Squelch. Squelch.

The hallucinated sound of something crawling across the slimy floor scratched at the maids’ ears.

“No…! Stay away! I didn’t do it!”

“Open the door! Hurry! Open the door!!”

The maids lost all reason.

Overcome with terror, they stumbled backward, trampling one another in their desperate attempts to escape.

Some crawled across the floor, sobbing and crying.

Others covered their ears and repeatedly slammed their heads against the wall.

But the hallucinations did not stop.

Ghosts. Corpses. Disease. Death.

The fears they had buried deep within their hearts were rising in their most horrifying forms.

Greta was trembling like a leaf as well, her face deathly pale.

Was this why she had been so frightened when the head maid had ordered her to take Elisia in?

Greta began to regret bringing Elisia into the palace.

No.

Even if she had brought her in, she should never have bullied her.

“E-Everyone, calm down…! This is just an illusion!”

She desperately shouted toward empty space, but the end of her chin was trembling uncontrollably.

“Are you scared?”

Elisia walked toward the maids.

She bent down in front of Greta, who was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, bringing herself to Greta’s eye level.

“You’re afraid of nothing more than a ghost? How pathetic.”

“Eek…!”

“There’s something else that’s truly frightening.”

Greta’s pupils shook violently.

At that very moment, one of the black hands that had been rotting away within the hallucination suddenly grabbed Greta’s ankle.

“AAAAAAH!! Let go! Let me go!!”

Screaming, she desperately flailed her limbs as she tried to scramble up the stairs, only to fall backward completely.

—Thud!

As Greta tumbled down, the maids, having reached the limits of their fear, began shoving one another aside and running for their lives.

“It’s a ghost! That bitch Lisea summoned a ghost!”

“She’s crazy! It’s real! Those are real corpses!”

“Help me! Head Maid! Somebody, please!!”

One maid slipped while crawling up the stairs.

Another frantically pounded on the locked iron door as though she would tear her fingernails off.

Those who tried to undo the latch and escape first turned the entrance to the basement into complete chaos.

“……”

Elisia quietly watched their pathetic retreating figures.

The grotesque hallucinations that had filled the entire basement vanished like a mirage, as though they had never existed.

When she was young, Elisia had once asked her mother:

“Mother, use your ability on me. I want to know what kind of hallucination I’ll see! Will a ghost appear? Or maybe insects?”

But her mother had never granted that not-quite-a-request.

Instead, she gently brushed back Elisia’s red hair as the girl continued pestering her and said:

“Elisia, what you should be afraid of isn’t a hallucination. A hallucination is just that—a hallucination.”

Young Elisia hadn’t understood.

She had tilted her head in confusion, while her mother simply smiled.

“What’s truly frightening is reality.”

Now, Elisia thought she finally understood what her mother had meant.

The truly frightening thing was not a hallucination, but a cruel reality.

Something like… the freezing underground room beneath the maids’ quarters, cold enough to chill her bones.

Near dawn, after returning to her room, Elisia lay quietly in bed, enduring the bone-deep cold.

Suddenly, a commotion that shook the entire maids’ quarters jolted her awake.

“Doctor! Go to the medical quarters and bring someone here immediately!”