Chapter 94 – The Weeping Woman (Four)

Ray opened his eyes slightly to check his current location.

A dim corridor.

A view swaying slightly up and down.

Thump— thump— thump—

And the sound of four pairs of footsteps coming from right below.

Currently, he was being carried somewhere by the children.

‘…Where are they taking me?’

Ray observed his surroundings and memorized the route.

After a not insignificant number of corridors and corners passed before his eyes.

Thud.

The children’s footsteps stopped.

At a door at the end of the corridor, the children opened the door, entered, carefully laid Ray down on a bed, and then left the room.

Creak— thud.

“……”

Ray quietly opened his eyes and sat up, first checking the locations of Philip and Veronica.

The presence of the two people, sensed through the Binding Magic, was located in two different rooms not far away.

Judging by their slight movements within a certain radius, they seemed to be inspecting the rooms.

Swish.

Ray also half-sat up and examined the room.

Desk, bed, table, wardrobe, etc.

It was a room with an upscale atmosphere furnished with various pieces.

However, all the furniture was smaller than the usual size, giving the impression that it was made for young children.

And another peculiarity.

‘Denine.’

The missing Captain of the gang was sitting in a chair in front of the desk.

Only his back was visible, and judging by the faint breathing sounds, he seemed to be asleep.

Click— click—

Just as he was about to get up, footsteps sounded from beyond the door.

Ray quickly lay his upper body back down on the bed and opened his eyes slightly.

Creeeak— thud.

The room was dim because the window was small, but it was bright enough to distinguish who had entered.

It was Madam Renia.

After glancing in this direction for a moment, she turned and approached Denine, conjuring a small light cluster in her palm.

─No matter… how… he’s not 16… rather… around my age….

A voice tinged with faint bewilderment and worry.

The muttering was too soft to hear the full content.

After dismissing the light cluster, she pinched the red gemstone on her necklace between her thumb and forefinger.

Then.

Huum—

The gemstone began to emit a faint red light.

‘It’s a Charging Stone. I can clearly feel the Mana stored in the gem.’

Another clue was added to the speculation that Madam Renia was an operative of Mercread.

But the phenomenon caused by the gemstone didn’t end there.

The emotions pooled in Denine’s Vessel began to be sucked toward the gemstone.

The Vessel soon dried up completely, like a pond in a drought.

Huum—

The gemstone, having finished its feast, emitted a stronger light, and the red light touched Denine’s body and seemed to seep in before disappearing.

The light soon vanished.

Darkness returned.

Click— click—

At the sound of approaching footsteps, Ray hurriedly closed his eyes.

Soon, the darkness before his closed eyes brightened, and muttering reached his ears.

“I’ve been waiting, my son. This time, Mom will definitely protect you.”

It was a voice mixed with sobs.

Madam Renia activated the necklace in the same way as before, but soon encountered an unexpected situation.

“……?”

No matter how much time passed, the gemstone’s light didn’t grow stronger.

Nor did the red light shoot out and seep into the boy named Ray.

In a way, it was only natural.

After all, there were no emotions in Ray’s Vessel that could be absorbed.

‘Why? This never happened when using it on the other children….’

But the woman, who couldn’t possibly know that fact, could only be extremely flustered.

“……!”

It was then that a chilling sensation enveloped her entire body.

Instinctively using Teleportation Magic, the woman vanished from her spot and reappeared a few steps away.

Swish!

By a hair’s breadth, a fierce trajectory passed through the empty space where the necklace had been, as a hand clenched at it.

“Did you use that to turn the children into puppets?”

Ray, who had risen from the bed and taken a stance, spoke while levitating several fireballs around him.

If the opponent was indeed a Mercread operative, he thought he should first seize the Charging Stone, which could be a variable in combat.

Unfortunately, he didn’t succeed.

‘I didn’t expect her to react to an ambush at that speed.’

A reaction speed impossible without considerable combat experience.

It was a moment that further solidified his existing suspicions.

Whoosh!

Crimson flames illuminated the faces of the boy and the woman.

“H-how, how are you awake?”

“What is that necklace?”

“I, I didn’t mean to…”

“What were you planning to do by making the children like that?”

“I, I’m not at fault, I’m not at fault at all… It was all for the children…”

Ray tilted his head.

‘They said all Mercread operatives show high aggression.

Renia isn’t attacking.

She was busy retreating like someone caught committing a crime, and no hostility toward him was visible in her Vessel.

Rather, she herself was becoming unstable.

Emotions of anger, sorrow, and regret were churning inside her Vessel with even more heated movements.

Instability itself.

A state looking as if it would explode at any moment.

The doubt he felt upon first seeing her resurfaced.

‘Why aren’t emotions piled up that much erupting… Ah.’

Ray soon realized the reason.

It was because of the gemstone.

The gemstone’s red light enveloped the Vessel, suppressing the emotions to prevent them from exploding.

He could intuitively guess what would happen to Renia’s Vessel if this continued.

‘The Vessel will shatter into pieces. Like Walter’s.’

In Walter’s case, it happened because emotions accumulated much faster than they were released, but in any case, since the emotions had reached their peak, the result likely wouldn’t be different.

‘To hear the details, I need to resolve those emotions first…’

Whether the opponent is a Mercread operative.

Or not.

Tap. Click.

It was then that Renia, stepping backward, bumped into a switch on the wall.

Bzzzt—

Raising his head, he could see a flickering light.

Bzzzt— Bzzzt—

A light with a clumsily broken circuit, one that hadn’t been used for a very long time.

At first, the flickering continued precariously as if it would die out any moment, but soon the light regained its function and began to shine with a fierce intensity.

Bzzzt—! Bzzzt—! Bzzzzzt—!

Light reversing like madness.

A view ceaselessly brightening and darkening.

Light and darkness rampaging through the room as if to tear at each other’s throats.

Finally.

Pop!

His vision was dyed with light.

Ray’s scrunched-up field of view.

The first thing he saw was Renia, her face turning pale.

“Ah, aah…”

Her pupils were fixed on the light’s stark white glow.

The benevolent look usually in her eyes was stained with deep fear.

Her lips, which used to depict elegance, trembled violently, overwhelmed by irresistible terror.

“Aah… Ah, aah…”

Reflected in her pupils were.

The figures of the old enemies that night, breaking the window and intruding into the lit room.

The figure of her young kin, brutally killed under their blades.

“Kyaaaaah──!!!”

Madam Renia clutched her head and collapsed on the spot.

Crash! Shatter!

At the sharp scream, the window shattered into pieces, and frames, vases, and other items in the room shook and fell relentlessly.

Ray could only momentarily flinch and retreat.

“Aaaah──! D-don’t come! You devil! D-don’t you dare lay a hand on my son!”

Crack!

A crack appeared on the Ward Ray had reflexively conjured.

Madam Renia’s scream grew even sharper, creating the illusion that the building itself was shaking.

“……”

No, it wasn’t an illusion.

Creeak!

If he wasn’t seeing things, fragments were falling from the walls and ceiling that had begun to split.

‘…It’s Magic. Using her voice.’

Every time Renia screamed, the Mana from her Ring spread and raced through her entire body.

Also, the emotions in her Vessel, as if resonating with the scream, rampaged with even more violent and forceful momentum.

But still, due to the red gemstone’s suppression, they couldn’t erupt.

“Aak─!! Aaaah──!!”

The surroundings began to shake as if an earthquake had occurred.

He had to stop her from using Magic first.

The moment he took a step with that thought.

“D-don’t come! Don’t come closer!”

The figure of the terrified Madam Renia began to distort.

Soon, a Flicker of Mana was felt where she had disappeared, and immediately afterward, the same Flicker was detected at a point on the fourth floor, the top floor of the mansion.

‘Teleportation Magic. She fled.’

Should he have used some other method to calm her down?

Calming another person’s emotions was, after all, something unfamiliar to him.

Raising his head, Ray looked toward the fourth floor where the Mana Flicker had been felt.

He had already grasped the Mana’s Color and activation principle of the Teleportation Magic from seeing it once.

‘Should I chase?’

Using only the Mana within his Ring wouldn’t allow sufficient coloration, but it would be roughly possible if he drew on the Atmospheric Mana.

But suddenly, a voice echoed in his mind.

「You must never use Atmospheric Mana! If you keep using it, you’ll get Mana Addiction! You must only use the purified Mana from your Ring!」

It wasn’t actually a bad idea.

Telling Veronica later about using Atmospheric Mana.

And being able to admire the White Sun of breathtaking beauty that appears in her Vessel when she worries about him.

“……”

But he didn’t want to.

…Why?

He was a boy who had lived until now assigning specific causes and reasons to all his actions and thoughts.

Therefore, such a will that couldn’t be explained by logic caused him considerable confusion.

“……”

After pondering, he convinced himself.

This was a rejection stemming from the fear of potential Mana Addiction.

Also, since he didn’t know how to calm Madam Renia’s emotions, chasing her alone now would be meaningless.

‘Destroying the necklace would release the emotions, though.’

The necklace was something he really wanted to get his hands on and examine closely.

Therefore, destruction was a method to be used only as a last resort.

「Aak──! Aaaak──!」

Rumble—!

The still-audible screams and the mansion shaking violently.

First, let’s find the cause of Madam Renia’s rampage.

Having quickly made a judgment, Ray examined the room.

Clatter.

Ray picked up a picture frame from among the glass shards.

In the palm-sized photo, a young Madam Renia and a child who looked about 6-7 years old were smiling happily.

Focusing his mind, he recognized the child’s face.

And his impression was.

‘We look alike. Him and me.’

His own face, seen through Nero’s gaze, and the child’s face in the photo now.

They weren’t exactly identical, but there were similarities in their overall impression.

Was this why she kept looking at me, both at the bookstore and in the mansion?

Rustle—

“This is…”

The next item he found was an old diary inside the desk drawer.

He slowly turned the pages from the front.

Flip. Flip.

The crookedly written diary mainly contained accounts of a child named Joshua spending happy times with his mother.

Studying together.

Learning Magic together.

Eating meals together.

Going to bed together.

Flip.

The diary abruptly stopped in the middle.

Without any warning.

Going back to check, the date of the last diary entry was a full 10 years ago.

‘The child in the photo seems to be the owner of the diary. If he was about 6 years old 10 years ago…’

He would be about 16 now.

But he hadn’t seen any child presumed to be Joshua in the mansion.

Wondering if he might be in another room somewhere, he turned the remaining pages.

Flip. Flutter.

Then he found one sentence.

「Mom is sorry.」

「For not being able to protect you.」

The pages were full of dried tear stains.

Ray tucked the diary and photo into his clothes and simultaneously flung his body to the side.

Swish—! Crash—!

Regaining his posture, he turned his head.

In front of the desk split in half, he could see Denine, gripping a broken chair leg and panting heavily.

“You—! How dare you threaten the Madam! I’ll kill you—!”

Denine.

He had momentarily forgotten.

At first glance, Denine seemed to have no issues.

His eyes were focused normally, and he spoke his sentences clearly.

But.

‘There’s no emotion.’

There were no emotions in his Vessel.

And he was acting as if he had emotions, in a state of having none.

An intense question squirmed and bloomed.

The boy asked inwardly.

What on earth are you?