CH 68

Alive

Volume 3.

10. Skit

A few days later, Joey delivered Laura’s message.

「Kyrie, my cutie! Did you hear the story? Maybe you can live like you used to! I’m looking at the situation, so please work a little harder. Don’t think about bad things! With love, Laura Fort Ducaine.」

Seeing Laura’s distinctive handwriting and cheerful tone, Kyrie felt like she could hear Laura, and it made her smile. Her letter was also accompanied by a small package. There were several small mana stones.

「P.S. It’s a prototype that our family made in a hurry! It’s a mana stone that changes your hair color, so I’m sending it to you because I’m wondering if you’re bored when you’re in the house, right?」

Kyrie was finally able to go outside after being cooped up for two weeks. She seemed to be relieved going out not with her light purple hair, but with brown hair, and even dressed in clothes she had borrowed from Josephina. Soldiers had to be avoided, but that itself was fine. Holding Federica’s hand, she went out to the street with Joey, who was escorting her from somewhere, and there was a smell of people.

“Mom, is there a meat side dish today?”

“Last discount!” 

“Oh, it’s cold. When will winter end?”

“The price of firewood has gone up too much…….”

“A thief broke into a house in the upper district.” 

“Oh, my God!”

“All the fine wines have been sold to the palace.” 

The scene of the noisy street couldn’t be so lovely. Just in case, Federica grabbed Kyrie’s hand, walking with her face covered excitedly.

“Unnie, that’s Trevor over there! …The Howards are more behind.…!”

Occasionally, a passerby who knew Frederica would stop for a chat, Frederica would smile broadly, and they would smile back and carry on. Aaron’s voice, which persistently lingered in her ear, was buried in the noisy commotion of the market.

After a very long time, Kyrie felt alive.

Another two weeks went by like this.

Balls were held every day at the palace. Despite the constant snow, people were lively. Kyrie had acquired a knack for avoiding the patrolling soldiers, and so began to run errands for the household.

“How much do you want today?”

“Give me one muscle.”

(PR/N: 1 geun = 1 Korean pound = 1 catty = 1 muscle = 1 600 grams)

“I think Miss should take one muscle per person.”

Antonio, a well-known butcher’s house, made a joke. Kyrie smiled.

“I’m eating more than I used to.”

“You mean, you’ve gained some weight? That’s how it should be!”

Antonio handed over the wrapped meat, squinting his tear-stained eyes.

“Thank you. Have a nice evening, Antonio.”

“You too, Miss!” 

The way back after buying things was always lively. The sunset in the evening was wonderful, and the sound of people speaking was more beautiful than orchestral music.

“It’s freezing.” 

“Last discount!” 

“Fort Ducaine’s ship has entered Clasico.”

“Is this the start of an ice age?” 

“The price of firewood has gone up too much…….”

“A thief broke into the house in the lower district.”

“There seems to be a lot of robberies lately.”  

“I wish I could live in the palace too. It’s oat porridge again today.” 

Everything looked perfect.

“Kir Unnie! What are you going to teach me today?”

“I want to hear about the North Continent! There’s an elf there, is it true?”

Josephina baked bread at a bakery in town, so she was away during the day. She and the other parents in the slums left to work early in the morning, so Kyrie began taking care of Federica and a few other children on their behalf.

Although they were naughty, the children were mostly obedient, and they were cute too. Kyrie soon became well-fed and healthy.

“Miss, I didn’t think about it when you were skinny, really….. but if you told me you were a princess, I would believe you.”

Kyrie blushed at the comment. Though the nightmares still plagued her, when she looked at Frederica sleeping soundly beside her, she was able to go back to sleep.

In the evening, Kyrie went grocery shopping to buy food for the day. The street vendors were always sweet to Kyrie.

“Kir, what can I get you today?”

Hesna, the first person she met, smiled tenderly. 

“I’d like to buy some green beans.”

“Are you going to make fritters?” 

“I’m not the one making it.”

Kyrie awkwardly avoided her gaze. She had never learned how to cook. She was clumsy in helping clean up, but her fingertips were not good enough even in her own eyes. Kyrie, who had never done a part of anything else, was depressed. Hessna, noticing it, smiled brightly and handed over the paperbag.

“Do you have to be a good cook? Catch a man who cooks well. Or catch a man who can hire cooks.” 

“Hessna, you’re wise. Thank you for your advice.”

Usually, after buying green beans, she went straight to the butcher’s.

“Antonio, I’m here to buy chicken.”

“Oh, you’re here? I just caught something!”

Antonio quickly skinned the chicken and served it. Antonio quickly chopped up the chicken and packaged it for her.

“Make a lot of delicious food. Gain some weight. Eating is living.”

“Thank you.”

When she bought meat, it meant that most of the grocery shopping was over. Still, Kyrie spent the rest of her time touring the streets. People were nice. Running away from the place where she stayed still where only her beating heart could only be heard, everything was fresh and lovely.

“Strawberries are precious.” 

“Clearance sale!” 

“Well, beyond the continent, there’s a tiger the size of a house.” 

“Get rid of the snow in the yard, Mister…….”

“The price of firewood has gone up too much…….”

“The beggars are freezing to death.”

“Tch tch.”

“The palace must have everything! Can you control everything at your fingertips?” 

The merchants who were familiar with Kyrie greeted her, and she responded awkwardly

When she thought of the boy who had wanted to die with her, even though she was healthy, she felt suffocated.

“Die, Noona.”

Kyrie suddenly slumped down on the street, the shopkeepers and neighbours who knew her took her back to Josephina’s.

“Why does she fall down so often?”

“Shh. Federica. It’s because she is heartbroken. I want you to stay with her, okay?

“Yes!”

There were days when she fell asleep strangled by her own self-pitiness, listening to Josephina and Federica’s conversation heard through the cracks in the door while lying in bed.

Joey was guarding her the whole time, but the outside guard around the city didn’t seem to have been eased. 

“Not yet with the escape route?”

“Not yet. I’m sorry.”

Kyrie, who asked every day about how to escape Sel Arellano, also stopped asking at some point.

It was not by any means that she would not live up to Aaron’s will. However, almost every moment in Josephina’s house, Federica was attached to her, and when she tried to volunteer in a remote place, an accident happened around her. Whether a child fell into a sewer, witnessed a husband using violence against his wife on the street, or a lost child crying. When she managed to climb onto the roof of the building or find and hold the blade, Joey appeared and stopped Kyrie.

It happened repeatedly, and seemed to have just excused herself because she didn’t want to die.

‘Aaron, I’m sorry, Aaron. I’m still not dead.’

Guilt tore through her mind day  after day, but the streets of the market and Federica’s laughter when she opened her eyes in the morning were dazzling.

“Unnie! Will you stay with me? Can’t you really do that? I like Maria, but she doesn’t play with me. I like Kir Unnie more! Stay with me!”

Kyrie’s heart was clearly melting as she responded to Federica’s naive remarks.

***

Kyrie was on her way home listening to the surrounding noise as usual. It was almost the same day as usual, but it was different. It was shortly after Kyrie, who left the butcher’s shop, turned to a spice retailer.

“Kyaaaa! Die!” 

She heard someone’s evil maniacal howling nearby. The screams of people were heard as well. People were screaming.

“Argh!”

“You’re crazy!”

“Someone stop him!”

“I will kill you all!” 

After hearing the disturbance in the back, Kyrie turned away. And at that moment, she made eye contact with a man running from across the street with a knife. The man’s eyes glistened. She turned and was suddenly face to face with a man brandishing a knife at people on the street. As he looked at her his eyes flashed. 

“Four years!”

In that crowd, the man was looking directly at Kyrie. Kyrie stiffened, unsure of what to do when a hand covered her face. 

“Get out of here.”

“Joey?”

“Have a rest at home.”

A tinnitus began to ring in her ears. As if the sky and the ground were turned upside down, dizziness flocked.

“Stop there! You bitch……!”

“Run!”

“Fuck! Stop! It won’t be over until after four years!”

“Miss Buchanan!”

There was no time to ask what it was. Kyrie rushed to Josephina’s house.

“You don’t know that this city…..!”    

There was a scream backed by an evil from behind, but it was soon cut off with a whacking frenzy.  It was a terrible sound.  Leaving behind the remaining traces in her ears, the street seemed to be spinning throughout the run.  Without a break, Kyrie climbed the stairs to the fourth floor.  As she roughly opened the door, Federica, who was playing in the living room, opened her eyes wide.

The man’s unholy scream sounded right behind her, the rest of his sentence buried under a frenzied whacking. It was awful. 

“Unnie?  What happened?”

“Huh, huh….”

“Unnie!”

“Federica…..”

“A scary person is chasing you?”

Kyrie sat down with weakened legs.  Federica and Dodo approached and hugged Kyrie’s shoulder. Kyrie sank down to the floor, her legs weak.

“Evi! Blow away the scary person!”

Federica performed the childish ritual of warding evil away, but Kyrie couldn’t smile. A cold sweat oozed from her skin as she stared blankly at the ingredients spilled across the floor

‘Scary person……?’

The man’s cry hung in her ear. Even his gaze. Kyrie’s hands trembled.

“Unnie?”

Kyrie hugged Federica a little more strongly. The last sentence that the man couldn’t finish stuttered to her mind.

‘What did he mean this city is like a skit…..?’

***

“He’s just a madman.”

Joey said to her when he returned that night. She looked at him with a face that was pale and fearful.

“So you said a mad man was coming at me out of all the people on the street.”

It was a rather anxious voice.

“You just caught his gaze by accident.”

“He obviously wanted to kill me.”

“No.”

“The man said at the end that it was ‘like a play’.”

“He’s a crazy person talking bullshit.”

Joey’s reaction was strange. She thought of the man that obviously knew who she was. She felt his intent to kill her.

‘But why?’

Nathaniel’s men couldn’t have done such a predictable thing. If he had a grudge against the death of the guards, the word ‘skit’ lost its meaning. Kyrie grabbed her forehead.

‘There’s a lack of information. The puzzles aren’t all gathered.’

Joey coughed when he saw her.

“The man was safely brought to the police, and Miss Buchanan’s location will not be revealed.”

“No. It doesn’t make sense.”

Kyrie grabbed the window frame and lowered her head.

“If it were really unrelated, Joey, you wouldn’t have stepped up.”

She got a migraine. She couldn’t hide her anxiety and bit her lips deeply.

“Skit…?” 

“Miss Buchanan.”

“The families of the guards? No, then what he said was not right……. Why does he hold a grudge against me..…? No, how can I be here….”

All sorts of thoughts got tangled up in her head.

Guards, skit, Aaron Fitz, Dead Man, Winter…… firewood…… refrigerant……snow……in the palace……?

It was then. The door to Kyrie opened a little. Joey disappeared, hiding his presence like an arrow.

“Unnie…”

Federica appeared holding a pillow and rubbing her eyes.

“Federica. Did you wake up?”

Kyrie hastily adjusted her expression.  Federica hugged Kirie’s leg as she yawned.

“Unnie, why aren’t you sleeping? Do you hate sleeping with Federica…  ?”

“Federica, go to bed.  I’ll be there soon.”

“Hnn, I don’t want to…  Sleep with Federica…”

“Federica.”

“Unnie, you’re going to leave me, aren’t you…”

Kirie was speechless. The child was sharp at times.

“…Did it look like that?”

“Yeah…”

Federica nodded sullenly. Kyrie couldn’t speak. After a moment of silence, she held Federica up.

“I won’t. Don’t worry about it. Shall we go to bed together?”

“Yes!”

Federica grinned and hugged Kyrie by the back of her neck. Obviously Federica’s behavior was cute and delightful, but Kyrie felt stuffy for the first time.

‘I don’t think I can afford to think about anything because I’m taking care of Federica.’

At that moment, Kyrie stopped walking as if she had been struck by lightning.

“Unnie?”

She stopped at Federica’s call and remained motionless with her eyes wide open. She got goosebumps all over her body at a thought that passed by inadvertently.

‘That can’t be true.’

Even though it occurred to her that she has too much self-consciousness, a single assumption gradually emerged from underwater to the surface. The more it floated in the sea of unconsciousness, the colder Kyrie’s body became.

‘That can’t be true.’

Kyrie, who had not moved for a long time, later put Federica down without saying a word. She slowly put her hand on Federica’s shoulder.

“…Federica.”

“Yes, Unnie?”

Federica tilted her head. She had clear and pure eyes. To the point where even Kyrie’s “some doubt” felt sinful. Kyrie’s hands trembled. She was silent with her head down, and whispered low. 

“…No, nothing.”

“You’re weird.”

“Yeah, I’m weird.” 

“Are you okay?”

“…”

Kyrie pursed her lips and stared into Federica’s black eyes.

“Unnie?”

At Federica’s call, which seemed a little unsettling, Kyrie finally came to her senses and smiled faintly.

“……Should we sleep, Federica?”

“……Yes.”

Federica nodded with a face that pretended not to be afraid. Kyrie took the child by the hand and moved on.

‘I don’t think so.’

Kyrie’s eyes closed tightly.

‘It could not be.’ 

***

The dawn was  breaking. Josephina made breakfast for her and Federica before leaving for work. After breakfast, Kyrie took Federica out for a walk. The child grasped her skirts when they reached the place where the man with the knife appeared.

“Unnie, the strange man was here yesterday!”

Kyrie patted Federicka’s head and knelt to examine the pavement. It was clean as though nothing had happened. She touched the cold cobbles and stood up. Just up ahead was the fruit stall run by Tess, a chubby woman who wrapped a scarf around her head. She looked up from wiping the fruit as Kyrie and Federicka approached.

“Kir, you came out to town in the morning already? Oh, Federica came too.”Good morning.”

“We’re sightseeing!”

“Is that right? Would you like a pear?”

Federica grinned and ate a piece of pear from Tess. Tess turned to Kyrie belatedly.

“What’s the matter? You don’t look so happy.”

“Tess, do you remember what happened yesterday?”

“Yesterday? Oh, of course I remember.”

Tess put down the cloth that she used to wipe the fruit and put her hand on her waist.

“You’re talking about that lunatic making a fuss? Don’t talk about it. I thought the security had gotten better once the Legend was running things, but things are like this in this district.”

“What happened to the man?”

“Maybe he was taken to the sanitorium because he was crazy.” 

“Did you know him, Tess?” 

“I’ve never known such a lunatic! Ho-ho.”

“Do you remember the last thing he said?” 

Asking questions, Kyrie made careful and persistent eye contact with Tess. Tess shrugged without even blinking.

“Some kind of skit, maybe he has schizophrenia or something?”

“……Is that so?”

Kyrie lowered her eyes. Tess suggested she sit down, but Kyrie refused and headed to another store.

“Antonio, do you know about the man who went on a rampage yesterday?”

“Huh, how would I know such a guy?”

She nodded and moved to the next store again. More than ten times since then, she asked people about the man, but there had been no answer to any information. People’s answers were consistent.

I don’t know. Wasn’t he crazy? What did he say? Don’t pay attention to the ramblings of a madman…..

Everyone answered without blinking, smiling sweetly and bringing up another topic.

The last one was Hessna’s vegetable shop.

“Hessna, do you know anything about the man who was holding a knife yesterday? Like where he used to live.….”

“Yuseong district has lots of boarding places and complicated streets, so I don’t know. Why do you ask?”

“Have you seen him before, or something like that?”

”Yeah, not that too.”

Hessna tilted her head, shaking her short curly hair.

“Kir. You don’t look so good.”

“Maybe it’s because it’s cold. I’m weak against the cold.”

“It has been snowing a lot lately.”

They both looked up at the sky as if  on cue. She could feel the snowflakes on top of her eyelashes. Hessna asked.

“Kir, do you happen to know him?”

“Not really.”

“Shall I ask the Merchants Association?”

Hessna came over the stand and took Kyrie’s hand.

“Your hands are so cold…….”

The violet-colored eyes looking at Hessna shook finely. As Kyrie hesitated and groaned a little, Hessna was even more at a loss.

“What’s the matter, Kir? Your face turned white. I don’t think it’s going to be easy to go home alone……. Wait a minute, I’ll take you to the bakery.”

After Hessna said so, she began to take off her apron. Seemed like they really went to Josephina. Her eyes were filled with concern. Kyrie smiled at the sight of it.

‘That can’t be. She couldn’t have gone that far. She’s going to lean on me.’

Kyrie took a step back.

“No, Hessna. It’s okay. I guess I got tired for a while. I can go alone.”

“But…”

“It’s all right…Thank you. I just fell into a strange thought for a second.”

“Really?”

Kyrie smiled and nodded. Hessna hesitated to put the apron back on. She soon smiled with dimples on her cheeks.

“Okay. If your blood pressure drops suddenly, do you have to sit down and rest? Federica, take care of Unnie.”

“Yes!”

“You’re so brave.”

Kyrie soon took Federica by the hand and took her to the streets.

The streets were beautiful and friendly. People were busy doing their own jobs. Kirier stood in the middle of the street and listened to all that energy.

“Mom, I want a chicken saute for dinner!”

“Clearance sale!” 

“I heard Fort Ducaine brought in some strange objects from the North.”

“The snow is never ending.” 

“The price of firewood has risen so much.” 

“There was a carriage accident in the upper district.”

“Is the palace warm?”

Kyrie looked up at the sky. She couldn’t even remember when the sky was clear. Maybe when the snow stopped.

Yes, the snow.

Because of this never-ending snow, she must have been mistaken.

Obviously, it was just winter.

As she walked the streets, a carriage drew up next to her roughly. She jumped back, startled. The carriage door opened and her eyes widened at the sight of the person sitting inside

“Get in. We don’t have time.”

***

Somewhere in Sel, at that moment, in a room with a fireplace that was only playing a decoration, there were two people. One of them was the Duke of Old Ciudad, who stood at the door hesitantly, before stepping forward.

“She’s in contact.”

The man sitting by the window turned his head and whispered in a satisfied voice.

[Then it’s today. Get ready.]

***

The color of Nathaniel’s iris, according to the author.

T/rant: when I started to translate this chp I thought even Federica is obsessed with Kyrie, after few lines I understood one thing.

This novel is a fucking horror story.

I got chills while Translating