episode_0308

Episode 308 #

The world is so beautiful. When I hear the noise of people bustling around in the market or just feel the warmth of the sun, my heart feels filled with happiness.

Okay, actually, I’m a little excited right now. My mother gave me permission to go out. Is it because you said ‘passed’ not long ago? Anyway, I am extremely happy right now.

I feel like walking around the streets of the royal capital and singing a song. Actually, is there anything that can’t be done? I immediately started singing to my heart’s content.

“La, lala, lala la. Lala lala-.”

People look at me with strange eyes. But I didn’t care about that and just sang louder. Soon, people’s reactions changed from incredulity to applause in sync with the song.

Thanks to the positive response from the onlookers, I sang even harder. Oh, but I never used magic. Because my mother told me firmly that I could never do that.

It doesn’t matter though. Because singing is magic in itself. Magic that makes people happy.

Among the people who came to watch, there were some children. Among them, the child who came out in front wore nice clothes, but his eyes looked uncomfortable. I felt almost blind. Nevertheless, when I saw the child smiling and clapping cheerfully, I felt that I should sing with even more strength.

But my song was cut off by someone’s sharp voice.

“Allie!”

It was a beautiful lady who came forward through the crowd. She seemed to be the girl’s mother. A girl named Allie stood in my way and glared at me with hateful eyes.

“How could you…!”

It was my first time seeing such scary eyes.

There were times when mom and mom fought, but they never had scary, sad eyes like that. Actually, the fight between you two was just a love fight.

I had no choice but to stop singing and look into his eyes. My body is shaking. No, it wasn’t my body that was shaking the most.

At that time, someone else blocked my path. Even though she was covered with a cape and helmet, I could tell it was Rika. Rika nodded to the lady and said something in a low voice.

After hearing something from Rika, the lady glared at me once again with cold eyes and took the girl with her before disappearing into the crowd.

Rika took me back to the palace, and that was the end of our brief, happy outing. I didn’t really understand what was going on.

After returning to the palace and hearing the story from Rika, my mother’s expression darkened greatly. I was very anxious because I felt like I had done something very wrong.

Was it really something I wasn’t allowed to sing? Or was it a mistake in itself to decide to go out?

After Rika left, my mother and I were alone and thought for a long time. For me, I couldn’t figure out what my mother was so worried about, so I was just worried.

After thinking about it, my mother spoke quietly to me.

“I have a story to tell you, Ayla.”

I nodded nervously. Mother started a fairly long story.

A story about an evil witch.

The story of a witch who disrupted the kingdom, sacrificed countless people, and was eventually caught by her mother.

As I listened to that story, I had a strange feeling.

Did you say it was déjà vu? I felt as if I had already heard that story somewhere.

But I’ve never seen anything like that in Sinia’s books…

It is said that my mother used numerous methods to convert the captured witch and make her obey.

Although he did not explain in detail, it is said that there were some very cruel things.

But it seems that even my mother couldn’t handle the witch’s wickedness.

So, my mother chose to rebuild the witch’s personality from scratch.

uh?

what?

I feel strange.

A black-haired witch. An evil witch who destroys the world by imbuing her magic with beautiful songs. It is said that a new personality resided in the witch’s body.

What is the witch’s name?

“Aila.”

I could only stand there in confusion.

Was I a witch? A witch who almost killed her mother and mother, ruined the husband and child of a noble woman named Juliana… and was just consumed by meaningless hatred, trying to color the world with darkness.

That was me?

My body is shaking. Together with my heart.

The world was no longer beautiful. It feels like the whole world has turned into my enemy in an instant. The unbearable weight of sin weighs me down.

I stretched out my trembling hands to my mother. Actually, I don’t even know what to say.

“Uh, mother… I… I…”

“Aila. That’s not you. But it’s also you. I… I, Sarah, made you, who knows nothing, bear that weight.”

Mother’s voice was very strict. The best I’ve ever heard.

But my mother’s voice was also trembling slightly. Although I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant.

My mother is a cruel person.

I already knew that my mother was a person who could be cruel when necessary.

But was what my mother did to me really so cruel?

Can the disappearance of the ‘former’ Aila and my birth be said to be cruel?

Maybe so. But I didn’t want to do that.

I wanted to make the right choice for my mother. I wanted to prove to myself that there was clear value in the life and opportunity given to me.

When I thought like that, I gained courage.

The courage to look again at my terrible sin and the scary eyes that covered my blind daughter.

Suddenly, my mother’s eyes, whose face was dark, widened in surprise.

My mother was looking at something around me. It was my first time feeling such clear mana flowing naturally from my body.

“…Aila, that mana…”

I asked my mother politely.

“Mother, I want to meet that person named Juliana again.”

* * *

This was my first time in my life at a place called the Academy.

It used to be a crowded place with lots of people, but that’s not the case anymore. I didn’t bother to ask why.

The meeting place was an empty auditorium.

There, my mother, Julianna, and Allie sat side by side.

Julianna is still looking at me with those calm, sad, scary eyes.

Mother was holding one of Juliana’s hands tightly.

You probably went through a lot of trouble to bring this mother and daughter to this place.

Little Allie didn’t seem to know anything yet.

I started singing in front of them.

“Lu Rururu, Lu-.”

My magic doesn’t have original lyrics.

This is magic created in a time before systematic language was created, when communication was done through the sounds produced in the throat.

The mystery of nature where one life is born, grows, gets sick, dies, and is reborn. Ancient people who saw it could only think it was magic.

My magic is modeled after that.

Mana spreads through the sound of the song. Julianna was so nervous that she looked like she wanted to scream at any moment. But her mother was holding Juliana’s hand even tighter.

Only Alli smiled and clapped while listening to my song. Now that I look at it, the movement of my hands seems to be uncomfortable. When I faced the sin I had committed, my feelings were completely different from when I saw her before.

But you can’t put that kind of dark energy into a song. What I’m going to use now is another power that my grimoire has that Aela didn’t know about before.

“Lu, la, lu, lala.”

“Huh?”

Allie seems to have realized that something has happened to her body. I looked around with a surprised face and started shedding big tears.

“Mother, I can see clearly…! Vivid, not hazy… Ah, ah…!”

Julianna also looked at me and Ally in surprise. But that only lasted for a moment, and soon Allie started hugging her and crying loudly.

My mother patted the two people for a moment and then came over to me. And he stroked my head without saying a word.

But this won’t be the end.

The sins committed by ‘Aila’ are endless and deep.

I don’t want to be a witch. I want to be a child that my mother is proud of.

I also know that in order to do that, I have to work harder than I do now.

In order to help my mother and remove the sadness and hatred in the world that I have created, this will still not be enough.

But my birth was not a punishment. It can never be said to be cruel.

That’s why I smiled and said to my mother with a complicated face.

“Thank you, mother.”