UHWKT 30

Chapter 30.

My shoulders had gone rigid.

I slowly turned around.

Standing where my gaze landed was someone familiar.

“…Aunt?”

Why was my aunt here?

My heart dropped. At the same time, I realized that the place where I was standing was also familiar. It was the living room of my aunt’s house, where I had stayed from the time my parents died until I became a university student.

“Hah, are you daydreaming again when an adult is talking to you?”

Thwack!

A rough hand flew in and struck my head painfully. In an instant, my ears rang hot and loud with a buzzing sound.

“You really want to beat your older sister that badly? You just had to embarrass her in front of the elders of the family like that?”

I remembered.

I was being scolded.

At the first family meal after my parents died, answering my grandmother’s greeting had been the cause of it.

“N-no, Aunt… I…”

“You think you’re so smart? So impressive? What’s so great about being first in the entire school that you sit there smiling sweetly and showing off in front of the adults?”

My aunt shouted as if her voice might tear.

Without realizing it, my shoulders shrank.

“My daughter is in her senior year of high school now. She’s already depressed because her grades have dropped—are you doing this on purpose, right in front of her? Do you have any idea how she must have felt?!”

Saying that she couldn’t take a girl like this to family gatherings, my aunt yanked off the bag I was carrying and shook me by the jacket.

“Why did my brother ever leave a kid like this in my care…!”

Muttering irritably, she shoved my shoulder with one hand.

“Hey. If you’re going to live off someone else’s house, you should at least learn to read the room. If you want to live off how great you think you are, then get out of our house.”

My face burned. I couldn’t meet her eyes and lowered my head deeply. It felt like my heart was dropping out of my chest.

I want to run away.

But unlike my mind, my feet were frozen in place, as if nailed to the floor. Only the pulse in my fingertips raced.

“Now that I mention it, do you know how much our household expenses went up after you came to live here? You’re nothing but a money drain—do you have no shame?”

That’s a lie.

You took all of the inheritance my parents left for me.

I wanted to say it, but the words only circled in my throat and never came out.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Honestly, does this kid even think at all?”

Saying she couldn’t stand the sight of me, my aunt shoved my shoulder hard once more. I was pushed along into a dark room.

Bang!

“It hurts…”

My disheveled hair hurt, and my cheek, scraped by my aunt’s hand, hurt too. I rubbed my eyes hard with my sleeve.

But something was strange.

No matter how much I wiped away the tears, I still couldn’t see clearly. It was like my vision was fogged over, or perhaps the space itself was made that way.

“Why is this happening…?”

Where were my glasses?

As I fumbled around to find them, I suddenly froze.

…Wait.

Did I even wear glasses at this time? Didn’t I only start wearing them after entering university?

That was when—

—…Lotte.

A high-pitched ringing filled my ears, and a headache surged in. Without thinking, I clutched my head with both hands.

—Charlotte.

Flash.

“…Caius?”

It was like being struck by lightning—I snapped to my senses and jumped to my feet.

Right.

I was in a dungeon.

At last, the foggy feeling of a dream lifted from my mind.

I hurriedly looked around. Only then did I realize that the space around me was grotesquely distorted.

“It’s an illusion.”

An ancient spell that traps its target within their most horrific memories.

This spell was intricately designed so that if you failed to realize it was an illusion, you could never escape. And the stronger one’s mental fortitude, the more painful the memories it showed.

“Caius! I’m here! Can you hear me?”

I shouted at the top of my lungs, but this time there was no reply. It seemed our briefly connected consciousness had been severed.

How do I get out of here? Can I even use magic in this state?

I tried to extend my hand and draw a magic circle, but it was useless. Perhaps because this was inside my subconscious, not even a trace of mana flowed from my fingertips, let alone a magic circle.

“Damn it, why won’t it work?!”

That was when—

—Charlotte Schmidt, get a hold of yourself!

The voice came again from somewhere.

I saw faint light seeping in from beyond the tightly closed door.

I rushed over and opened it. The house from my memories was gone, replaced by a bizarre, wildly twisted space. And from the far end of that space, a faint light shone through. Instinctively, I knew I had to go toward that light.

Boom, crack.

Suddenly the space trembled, and one corner of my room began to writhe and crumble into dust.

“Aah, it’s collapsing!”

I ran for my life without looking back.

Once the space began to collapse, it chased after me at a terrifying speed, as though trying to swallow me whole. Just as I reached the place where the light was, an unknown force seized me and yanked me hard.

“…Gasp!”

“Charlotte Schmidt, are you conscious?”

[Kyuu, kyuu!]

A sudden chill washed over me.

Shivering, I blinked rapidly. One by one, I saw Caius holding me, and Golsuni hopping around.

“…What happened? Ugh, my head hurts.”

Caius slowly helped me sit up.

“When you escaped the illusion, you were lying beside me unconscious. And it looked like the fog was closing in again, so I led us out into the corridor and evacuated to the nearest place.”

Before I lost consciousness, we had been standing in the middle of a long corridor. Now, I was sitting alone with him in a vast space where even the ceiling couldn’t be seen.

Wow, just how long was I out?

So much for looking like a proper mage.

“It’s my fault. I should’ve checked more than just the floor.”

“Forget it. More importantly.”

Staring intently at me, Caius reached out and poked my cheek.

“You should wipe this off.”

“Huh? Oh.”

Only then did I realize my cheeks were wet. Tears were still streaming down.

“What kind of illusion did you see that made you cry so miserably?”

Startled, I hastily scrubbed at my tears.

“It was nothing. Must’ve just gotten some dust in my eyes.”

“Oh, sure.”

Could you just let it go?

“…It seemed to be an ancient spell that traps the target in painful memories. Normally I’d notice right away, but this one was more precise and powerful than I expected.”

I desperately made excuses and turned my head away to avoid his gaze.

“And you, Your Highness—how did you wake up so quickly?”

“Who knows.”

He drew out the end of his words.

“People who shouldn’t possibly be alive were standing before my eyes, alive and moving.”

“Ah.”

Damn it.

Why would I ask that, when Caius’s memories were obvious?

“I’m sorry.”

Caius’s face twisted subtly—not quite a smile, not quite a frown, an ambiguous expression.

“You have a strange habit of apologizing in the oddest places.”

You don’t know this, but I’ve got a share of responsibility in those ‘odd places.’

“Anyway, where are we? Are we still on the third floor? We probably need to head downward…”

“I’d like to, but that won’t be easy right now.”

As he said that, Caius jerked his chin toward something.

“Uh…?”

What is that?