Chapter 293
Hypocrite
Red water kept pouring from the uncle who had been holding her.
It was the first time Nova had ever seen such water since she was born.
A color somewhere between black and red. A sharp, foul, fishy stench that pierced deep into her nose.
From the very moment she smelled it, Nova instinctively knew. This water… was something terrifying.
‘But Mama’s covered in red too.’
…Right now, she and her mother were collapsed inside a thicket. Her nose was filled with the scent of dirt and grass.
How had they fallen from the top?
She clearly remembered the moment her mother hugged her tightly. But she never imagined that her mother would pick her up and twist her body away so quickly.
〈Freesia!〉
She even heard the white devil with red eyes shouting. But rather than anger, there was a strange sorrow mixed into the cry.
As if scolding Mama for doing something foolish, like she was going to be caught any second.
But Mama didn’t run toward the palace. Instead, she dashed recklessly toward the distant river in the opposite direction.
Even though there was no land in the middle, and they’d end up falling straight down.
Along the way, scary men grabbed at Mama’s hair, pulling hard and painfully. But they couldn’t stop her body, already tilted down the slope.
〈My baby, don’t cry.〉
Nova did as her mother told her. She clung tightly to her, and even when her insides floated from the terrifying sense of falling, she didn’t scream.
Thud—
A horrible sound rang out, and pain surged through her body.
Her mother’s arms, which had been holding her tightly, gradually loosened. Just moments ago, it had been hard to breathe from how tightly she’d been held, but now that those arms had let go, Nova was instinctively afraid.
“M-Mama…?”
Freed from her mother’s arms, Nova hesitantly pushed herself up.
Her beautiful mother was stained with red water, and thin branches were stuck into her arms and legs in several places.
Nova wanted to pull them out and get rid of them, but she was scared that if she touched them with her hands, more red droplets would gush out.
Struck with fear, Nova shook the unmoving body.
“Mama, don’t fall asleep…”
This felt completely different from when Mama and Papa beside each other. This felt exactly the same as when Mama had fallen asleep in the glass coffin.
At this rate, it felt like Mama would never wake up again.
But just then, Mama opened her eyes, thin and curved like a pale green crescent moon.
“No…va.”
“Hicc, Mama!”
Tears poured from her eyes. Nova wanted to open her mouth wide and scream. She wished Mathilde or someone would come.
But because Mama whispered in a choked and breaking voice, she couldn’t cry loudly.
“What Mama… told you earlier…”
“Sniff, hiic…”
“Hurry…”
Nova immediately understood what Mama was trying to say.
〈You have to hide until Papa comes.〉
All the way. Nova pushed strength into her chubby, scratched-up legs. If she didn’t hide herself right now, that white-haired devil who was cruel to Uncle and Mama would come chasing her.
Leaving behind her unmoving Mama felt like doing something terrible, and tears kept falling.
She just wanted to stay hugged in Mama’s arms. But even while in pain, Mama was unrelentingly firm.
“Nova, quickly. Be a good girl…”
“Sniff…”
“Hide in the bushes, all the way… So no one can see you…”
Nova wanted to be a good girl, just like Mama said. And to do that, she had to hide. But it felt like she was becoming the worst child in the world as she limped away.
“Hic, sniff, sniff…”
She looked around… Was there any dark bush where she could hide without going too far from Mama?
Everything in the forest was actually bigger than Nova, so if she curled up as small as she could, it looked like there was nowhere she couldn’t hide.
‘But what about my clothes?’
Nova looked down at her outfit with teary eyes.
Her clothes were stained with the red water from Uncle and Mama. Wouldn’t wearing something like this get her caught right away by those scary people from before?
The red water also smelled weird…
‘Then… I’ll take it off and leave it here. I’ll leave it behind.’
Nova strained and struggled to take off the upper part of her dress, where the most blood had soaked in. Since it was a child’s outfit, the top and bottom were made to separate with ribbons and large buttons, so she was able to take it off with her small hands.
After setting the blood-soaked clothes down, Nova looked around nervously. Where should she throw it away?
But then, at the sound of water trickling nearby, her small lips parted.
“Water…”
It must be the river she saw before tumbling down with Mama.
Technically, it was a narrow stream that branched from the river, but Nova’s ears couldn’t tell the difference.
‘I’ll soak it in the water.’
Then the smell would go away, and it would take them longer to find her. At least until Papa came to get her.
Nova ran as fast as her short legs could carry her under the shadows of trees. As she released the clothes into the cold stream, an eerie sound echoed from the direction she had come.
A low rumble, like when big men shout.
The clattering sound of armor when they ran…
“Hic…!”
Nova frantically looked around.
The only thing she saw was a knothole in an old tree.
Because it had cracked and widened over long years, Nova could barely fit inside. Only after forcing her body in did the fear fully catch up to her.
‘I’m scared.’
What if she hadn’t hidden well enough?
No matter how much she curled up and tried to make herself small, she just couldn’t feel confident.
If hiding meant even abandoning Mama, and that turned out to be wrong…
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