Chapter 89: Edge of The World
A plethora of Curses pranced maniacally around my body; this creature's messed-up body was gradually turning into an even bigger mess.
Were I to order these out of control Curses to power my body, I'd suffer from immense pain; pain beyond that of the average punishment.
"...Ugh, we don't have to go any further, right...?" Hilda glanced over her shoulder at my face with a pleading look.
Spreading my mouth open with a smirk, "Uh-huh, yes, we do!"
My joyful answer ruined her face with a set of teary eyes and a downcast expression.
Cute.
Soon enough, the rest of the carriages came to a halting stop.
The whining horses calmed down as they released frosty, nasal breaths.
It would seem like a miracle that they've survived in this cold, but they've received a special application of Blessings to keep them going no matter the weather conditions.
Hopping off their carriages one by one, their eyes all instinctively turned towards the 'nearby' veil of black and white.
I have no idea what they see exactly, but that same vague unease and fear gripped their faces.
...All but Esme.
She glanced around and noticed her companions' faces; similarly, she glared at Lily, who had likely been complaining throughout the ride.
She's confused.
It doesn't seem like she sees the veil, but whatever is creating that fear isn't affecting her.
Passing that same, surveying, scrutinising gaze throughout the group, Esme's wonderful eyes eventually landed on me.
She noticed me.
She noticed my gaze.
She noticed my comforting eyes.
Then, she relaxed.
Her scrutiny; her anxiousness...
It melted into the snow.
Esme's face curled up with a cute smile as she hopped over to our side. Leaning over Hilda's shoulder, she pressed her mouth to my ear, "Is it fine?"
"Mhm. It's fine."
I reassured her, but a part of me wasn't entirely sure whether my words were the truth.
I could be wrong, horribly wrong.
This could be a death trap for the rest of the girls.
Nonetheless-
We have to go on.
If we don't go on, if I cannot figure out what the Canaries are, if we don't escape the Domain of Light...
Death is all that will remain.
"Y, you guys-! Are you sure this is the right way?!" Elden's sharp, low-pitched voice echoed with a breezy shiver. He rubbed his arms vigorously, pushing away the cold that was penetrating his coat.
"...Use your Blessings already." Jill sighed and dully reminded the young man behind him of his powers.
"You know I can't." Elden bit back with annoyance, "Damn Curses."
"Unlucky."
Jill shrugged; he totally didn't prod Elden by reminding him to use his Blessings while knowing precisely why he wasn't using them.
Totally not.
Esme, standing at the forefront beside me, nodded promptly, "It's the right way."
"Are you sure?" Standing with her arms crossed, even the unusually gloomy and glum Vanessa had regained a bit of her spark. Her teeth were clamped down with aggressiveness as she hissed at me, "Or are you taking us on a wild horse chase?"
Is that meant to be the phrase 'wild goose chase'...?
Nevermind.
"Very sure." I backed my sister, Esme, with zero hesitation.
It's obviously a lie; I'm not, in fact, very sure, but who cares.
"It just doesn't feel right. I can't be the only one who feels that way, surely?" Elden scratched his head with an undeniably fair point lingering in the air.
"I feel the same."
"Me too."
"And me."
"Mhm."
"Same."
One by one, the others parroted the same notion; every one of these up-and-coming high-born nobles was sensing the same thing. An intrinsic fear towards whatever they sensed in place of the veil.
With tension lingering in the air, all eyes inevitably turned to me.
Nemora stepped up, "So, Lady Alora, what now?" She demanded an answer; she needed some form of confirmation that I wasn't sending them on a wild 'horse' chase, as they called it.
"You feel it, right? That unease?"
"Yes." Nemora's icy gaze swirled alongside the snow as it pierced me.
"We must go towards it, to the very end of it. There, I will give you your answers."
Lowering my voice, I whispered into Hilda's ear, "Let's go. Just walk until I tell you to stop."
"Okay!"
Nodding, Hilda readjusted me on her back, tightened her grip on my thighs, and pushed onwards into the snow.
Behind us, the six teenagers and Esme marched on with tension lingering in the air. No maids or butlers would be accompanying us; with their lack of Ascension, they'd likely break down from the Authority pressing down upon them should they reach the veil.
...I'm curious.
What are the Canaries?
What was that white crown?
And what awaits us at the South-Western corner?
And.
And-
This snow.
This white, endless snow.
The white.
The white haze-
Shivers cracked down my spine.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
My heart pounded from the depths of my chest, threatening to tear me apart, but it held. I held.
I didn't break.
My Authority held on to the thin thread, cutting the boundary between clarity and confusion.
Is this snow truly snow?
That terrifying theory gripped my searing heart.
And why now? Why have I never seen snow before?
Sweat dripped down my neck.
Why have the seasons never changed?
Why have the-
Why-
What else have I missed?
Throughout the years, from the moment of my birth to this very second, what have I witnessed but turned a blind eye to?
It terrifies me.
Knowing that I must have missed something, knowing that at this very moment, I must still be missing something.
Yet, no matter what, no matter how hard I try to put the pieces of the puzzle together, nothing clicks.
Everything seems natural.
Feels natural.
As though this is how it's meant to be.
"...How real is it all...?"
"Huh? Little dummy?" Tucking my buttocks up into a more comfortable position, Hilda leaned back with a cute face as she listened closely to my muttering.
"Nothing."
How real is everything I've experienced?
Am I still in a room, counting numbers?
Am I in the middle of a long-form punishment?
Is my relationship with Hilda real?
...I don't know.
It all feels too real.
There's no two ways about it, I'm convinced that everything is real, that everything is true, but a part of me, somewhere, deep in the back of my mind, it wonders...
How much of what I've experienced so far has actually happened?
What has taken place, and what hasn't?
"I don't know."
"Hueh? Don't know? What are you talking about, little dummy?" Hilda pouted with her adorable, mature face.
That pouty, yet also teasingly happy face drew me back to reality; it grounded me.
"I don't know if you're a good horse. This ride is uncomfortable, eat more food and get some fat on you. Your butt and hips aren't big enough."
"Huh?! Rude! Very rude!"
Hilda's face tinged with a piping-hot colour as she frustratingly breathed heavily out her nose, steaming up the air with her misty breath.
Chuckling inwardly, I quietly, nonchalantly, fixed my previous statement with the truth this time around; I'm joking, you're growing more than well enough, plenty of even fully-grown ladies would be jealous.
Of course, I would never say that out loud.
Her pouty look is the best, after all.
-----
Crunch.
Her foot peeled off the soft snow, releasing a clutter of powder off her whitened boots.
Keeping a firm hold of the little dummy on her back, Hilda ground her teeth together as she stared onwards into the distance.
Shivers crushed her spine;
Fear crackled through her veins;
Yet, she did not stop.
She followed the little dummy's orders no matter the cost, for it was the reason for her existence.
Nevertheless...
'What is this?'
The fear was crushing her beneath the weight of a ton of bricks. It was dismal; both fear and the palpable tension oozing in the air.
'What is that?'
Her eyes honed in on the looming cliff.
A cut-off from the world; a trench cutting the world off in all directions. Yet, in the distance, far beyond the trench, perhaps tens of kilometres away, was land.
A vast line separated the lands.
A line that, were she to stand at its edge, would seem like the end of the world.
Even from this point, she could see a massive hole leading into the abyss;
According to her mother, this was the-
"Prowling Lands."
"...What?"
Little dummy's voice came from the side of her head, "The Prowling Lands, the cut-off point from the rest of the world."
Her words rang with awe; with a grip of soft breath tinged with horror.
---
I'm sorry, but what?
Prowling Lands?
"What's that?"
That unfamiliar term drew my immediate attention; there was no way I wouldn't know about the location we were heading towards.
We were heading towards the South-Western corner of the Domain of Light. It's a snow-laden land that unrolls to the horizon, with little to nothing going for it other than the view and the freezing temperatures.
"Eh? You don't know?"
Hilda's voice crept into my ears.
"The Domain of Light is covered from all sides with the Prowling Lands, also known as-"
Her voice shot into my black soul.
"The Abyss."
What?
The hell?
Is she talking about?
My teeth clattered with shivers momentarily before I gripped them tight; I couldn't let myself fall into another episode of madness.
The Prowling Lands?
The Abyss?
We've been talking about an empty snowfield that stretches to nowhere.
They've complained to me about a wild 'horse' chase.
Not to mention, I've never, not once in the past 9 years, heard of these Prowling Lands.
I gulped.
Unless.
Unless you only receive this information upon approaching the veil of the Domain of Light.
A form of brainwashing?
But then what about the people who went to the edge and back? Would they not talk about it?
No.
Not unless the information is promptly removed the moment you leave the borders of the Domain of Light.
"...That's insane."