Chapter 36: The Six Eyes
The door before my eyes rumbled violently, the shavings of wood flying off carelessly replicated the scene of a moulting reptile.
...What the hell is that?
KNOCK!!!
A crack in the door handle immediately drew my attention; it spread like lightning on a canvas, multiplying with each smash on the door.
The scene was odd.
It was nighttime, meaning practically no visibility.
Yet.
I could see.
The door was clear to my eyes.
But why?
Why was the bathroom door-
BOOOM-!!!
Splinters gushed past me like a water spout, splitting my skin from all angles and digging into my flesh. A cloud of ashen dust bellowed from the broken bathroom door, sticking tight to my face and digging deep into my coughing throat.
Placing an elbow over my face, I glared at the abruptly shattered bathroom door.
Nothing was making sense.
I had just gone to sleep after a day out. It was just like any other day.
So why?
Why was something knocking from within the bathroom?
And why did the door break?
However.
Before anything else.
Before any wonder about why this was occurring.
Or what could be the cause behind it-
I took a deep breath through my clothing, letting out a couple of coughing fits amid the withering dust cloud.
-why do I feel no fear or caution at the moment?
...Something is off, very off, about this.
Taking steps towards the broken door, I heaved myself through the dwindling plumes of dust, and-
Squelch.
I stepped on it.
Squelch.
I paid no attention to the thing I had stepped on.
Squelch.
Because I did not need to.
The bathroom's interior revealed itself.
Three crosses.
...upside-down crosses.
Bathed with littered bits of flesh, dangling strips of muscles between each other in the form of bridges, leaking with blood and drenching the bathroom tiles in crimson.
And the eyes.
The six eyes.
Two planted on each cross.
Pure, white eyes.
Staring at me.
Squelch.
The bathroom of flesh breathed with squelching flesh and blood.
I sniffed.
...No smell.
Gradually lowering my arm, I stood face-to-face with the three upside-down crosses.
My eyes crossed paths with the six staring eyes.
Squish-!
They parted.
The white pupils; The white sclera;
It opened.
All six eyes opened.
Then, they-
Then, they-
Then, they-
TheytoldmehowmuchtimeIhadremaining.
"...Hooo!!!"
Sucking in a deep breath, I blinked and-
Drip.
-only the noise of the dripping sink remained.
The blood, flesh, muscles and crosses disappeared.
...The door, however, was still broken.
And I—I was still awake.
It wasn't a dream.
I was bewildered.
What was that?
My bathroom door was broken, and then I found three upside-down crosses with eyes embedded within them.
But then they blinked and were gone.
Just like that.
...I feel like-
Nonetheless, something...
-I'm missing something.
...was missing.
Like a chunk of my brain had been removed, eviscerated with their appearance.
This time around, it wasn't the appearance of the usual missing body parts or their requests, but something entirely different.
Sighing, I stepped over the debris and returned to my bed.
I had had enough for one night.
-----
"Hmm~ Hmm, Hmm~!"
Humming and twirling about with flair, Hilda swept the debris into the few black bags she had prepared.
This was her usual routine.
1. Wake up.
2. Freshen up and have breakfast with her family.
3. Get changed into her maid outfit.
4. Pick up a couple of black bags along the way to the little dummy's room.
5. Clean the mess before waking her up.
After a couple of days, she got used to entering the room to find it all broken up and messy again, the most annoying thing to deal with was the little dummy's bedsheets.
The rest didn't have to be replaced except for the wardrobe, which had already been replaced twice. On the other hand, the bedsheets did need to be actively fixed every morning.
Little dummy had a habit of tearing them apart every night.
'She's weird.'
Pouting and wiping the lingering sweat on her forehead, Hilda leaned on her broom and glanced at the sleeping little dummy.
Her mask and gloves were properly donned, and even her feet were covered with socks.
'Does she sleep with that stuff on every day?'
Shrugging, 'Well, not my problem.'
Hilda continued her daily routine.
---
"Little dummy~! Wake up~!" Poking the little dummy's waist, Hilda cheerfully shouted at the top of her lungs for the tiny, baby little dummy to get up from her beauty sleep.
The little dummy groaned and turned, but...
"Wake up!"
Hilda didn't relent; she attacked at full force, barging her way past all of the little dummy's defences.
Then-
With that shout-
Rising up-
"...Yes, mother."
Alora spoke monotonously as she stared at Hilda.
Her pure white eyes lay still, oozing their emptiness into Hilda's soul.
Alora's empty scent lingered in the room, amplifying this sense of nothingness threatening to overwhelm Hilda.
Gulping, Hilda nervously raised a smile.
"Good morning! Little dummy!"
...The empty eyes cracked with life, drifting like smoke as life came crashing into her body.
Little dummy was truly awake this time around.
Quietly sighing a sigh of relief, Hilda blossomed with a bright smile-
"It's time to get up!"
-and started the little dummy's morning routine.
-----
The Canaries.
The three upside-down crosses.
Yulei, Vanessa's oddity; Possibly the underground market.
Something, somewhere, must link everything together.
What exactly are the Canaries?
What did the three upside-down crosses attempt to show me?
And what connection does Yulei have to all of it?
Breathing in the vast volumes of white haze, I fiddled with Hilda's hair as she lay on my lap. My thighs had become her on-the-go pillow at some point, be it due to a sudden whim on her end or perhaps an infatuation with my comfortable thighs...
It's likely the first one.
"Little dummy, what are you doing in this quiet garden?" Hilda questioned the reason behind my coming to the garden behind the mansion, the one I'd been accustomed to for five years.
But, I don't know either.
When we passed through my bedroom door, we ended up here through the dimensional gate.
And...
"Where did you find that sneaky route? We're not allowed here, you know? Little dummy shouldn't do bad things, my mommy always says-"
I let the second half of her tangent run through one ear and out the other; it was the first half that mattered.
'Sneaky route' and 'We're not allowed here'.
In her mind, she believes we walked here through some pathway and that we do not have permission to roam these back gardens.
Her perception of the order of events has been twisted.
And just like that, we ended up here.
Mother brought us here, me here, for a reason.
But.
This garden.
It's empty.
Empty of all but the high concentration of the foggy, white haze.
It's the same white haze that encapsulates all the greenery available in the palace grounds. It's extremely subtle and difficult to spot outside this back garden, but if you pay close enough attention, you can find it on every tree, leaf, grass, and flower in the main palace grounds.
But here, in this garden, it's highly concentrated.
It's thick enough to rush through everything in the form of a thick fog at times.
Softly rubbing Hilda's scalp with the tips of my fingers, her warm head gently reassured my concerns, easing the tumultuous thoughts pouncing at me. Her ruby-red eyes shimmered with dewy tears as she yawned, tucking into my lap with a dreamy smile.
"Hnng~ Little dummy... I'm bored..."
So she says, but the relaxed muscles melting her face said otherwise.
I wonder why she can't see the white fog, though.
Mother and I can see it, but not Hilda-
...What about the others?
Can Esme?
Yulei?
Vanessa?
Jill?
Hilde, uh. Hilde... Hildekasomething whatever his name-
Can they, too, not see it?
Casually observing the white fog, I thought back to the upside-down crosses; to the white eyes...
White.
...There's something there.
My white eyes, the white fog, the white-eyed upside-down crosses.
Biting my lips; I need more information.
More.
...
Even more.
...
Stop feeding me lies.
...
Taking a deep breath-
"Okay, let's go."
-I finished absorbing the white haze and stood from my spot, accidentally tossing Hilda aside with that motion.
Rolling and tossing in the grass, Hilda grumbled, "What are you doing, little dummy?!" And jumped up onto her two feet. Patting the grass and dirt off her maid outfit, she pouted at me with her hands planted on her hips.
"We're going."
Clapping her hands together to remove the remnants from her fingers, she hopped over to my side. "Going where?"
"Yulei, send her a request for a meal at her estate."
Hilda's eyes lit up, "Desserts?!!!"
I paused, rearranged my words, and said:
"...Sure, for desserts."
It's not a lie, just the partial truth.
-----
Starting with Yulei, I'll peel all the information I possibly can from her flesh; Then, I'll move on to Vanessa and her secret behind attending that underground market. There's a small chance it has answers if mother was the one who led me to that discovery.
Yulei is older than me, she's 9 years old, so her memory and general cognition, plus intelligence, should be high enough to glean something from.
From the moment I asked Hilda to send a request to Yulei, to the moment we arrived at the Parsimen Duchy's estate, only two hours had passed. No idea how she sent it over so quickly while barely having left my side for more than 20 minutes, but it's most likely related to the magic-esque items this world has.
Anyways, taking Hilda's hand, I hopped off the carriage and was greeted by the Parsimen estate's main doors once again.
This time around, Yulei sat there in her wheelchair.
Curtains of pale-beige hair drifted in the wind, embracing her body.
"Greetings, Lady Alora." Bowing her body, Yulei greeted me.
"Good day, Lady Yulei of House Parsimen."
This was an official visit, thereby requiring proper etiquette.
We 'stood' at similar heights, me on my own two feet and her in the wheelchair.
How ridiculous, my size is utterly pathetic.
"Your presence shines a light upon House Parsimen, what matters brings the Lady Alora of Light to this humble estate?" Yulei, even in her wheelchair, shone with the brilliance of a young lady.
Her words: sharp.
Her eyes: confident.
"Those are kind words, Lady Yulei. I have come to partake in conversation with the precious Lady of Parsimen."
"I see, please, do follow."
Her maid silently wheeled her along a familiar path to the gazebo hidden behind a labyrinth of roads.
Following, I slowly lost the polite smile I had subconsciously put on.
This time...
-Askherforwhatreasonshelostherlegs-
So they spoke.
I will get answers.