Welcome to the Demon’s Cabin - Chapter 53

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Irene was currently in a state where her good mood was obvious to anyone who looked. To think she would see a daytime white owl, an animal with which she uniquely had no connection. Because she had given up on it entirely after leaving her snowy hometown, this white bird was uniquely more welcome.

Irene, completely excited, worked hard without any complaints despite the tedious fieldwork. The speed, which normally would have been slow enough to be of almost no help, somehow rose to the level of a cat’s helping paw.

‘What a wondrous thing this is, yet Mr. Idris’s reaction was rather lukewarm. Is it because he is an Imperial?’

At first, he seemed to congratulate her with his own version of sincerity, but as she repeated that story several times, his reaction became noticeably dull. It was obvious enough to show that he was thinking, ‘It is not some dragon from legend, so is seeing a single bird that much of an issue?’

‘Fine. In fact, I did not even expect anything. Because it is a bird famous due to the founding myth of Orihen, there is no way foreigners who exclude us could understand.’

Irene moved her steps while grumbling, as if asking when she had ever put forth various words wishing for a response. Since Idris was hopeless, she intended to go find an opponent who could sympathize with this bragging.

In the midst of the forest that was stained black like the forest on the opposite side due to the darkness, Irene continued to walk forward. As soon as she escaped from the forest, it felt as though faint starlight and moonlight were perceived from the wide-open sky.

Stepping on weeds that had lost their green color, she arrived in front of the lake. She stared intently at the lake, which was pitch-black to an unknowable depth and also sparkling as it reflected the milky way.

‘Marina would certainly have kept clapping for me.’

Although it was said that she was not even human and the place where she lived was the sea of magical beasts, which itself was not the territory of any country, still, that child was closest to Orihen. The location of the sea was so, but my influence was very large. Furthermore, she heard stories of Orihen countless times from Irene herself, and the name ‘Marina’ which I gave her was also a name quite visible in Orihen. Did she not even call me sister? If so, she would become close to belonging to Orihen in her own way.

Ah, of course Marina would not particularly sympathize and rejoice for her because of that either. She would have just smiled along because I smiled. It was just that she could not think that it was tedious or whatever.

‘The people of my hometown, or at least anyone who is a person of Orihen, would all have been able to sympathize with me.’

Since I can never see them again anyway, it is meaningless though.

‘At any rate, Marina would be better than Mr. Idris.’

Is she not? Anyway, the current Marina cannot give a response.

Irene thought while pulling the thread that fixed the coarse brown bodice connected to her overdress. The thick lines crossed in an X-shape were easily unraveled by her hand and became loose. Red eyes that shone even in the darkness blinked quietly.

Perhaps I just want to see Marina after a long time.

Because normally, it usually stopped at the level of calling out and complaining from outside the lake.

‘It cannot be helped. Going to find that child and seeing her with my own two eyes is a perfect thing to become gloomy.’

But a pleasant day like today will be fine, right?

It will certainly be so.

Irene, who formed a quite lively-looking smile, threw off her shoes. The low shoes worn after a long time tumbled over the grass. Bare feet that did not wear socks tread upon the ground.

“Because I was trying to come out while avoiding Mr. Idris, I inevitably came only at dawn……”

Calling out to the lake is also strange, and on top of that, she has no intention of explaining in detail to him about Marina, who is a siren.

Now that she was trying to go all the way to the front of the grave, she had no words to explain to him all the more. No, she could not even do so. Because it is a place where a normal person cannot even enter.

She, whose wheat-colored curly hair that kept flowing forward was pushed back, undid the black button of her bishop sleeve. She, who unfastened both sides, lightly turned her wrist once.

Soon, as her thin fingers directed toward her neck unfastened even the button of the cream-colored linen dress inside the overdress, the rough dress that was wrapping around her slid down and fell, thud, onto the grass. Her naked body, with only drawers and underwear remaining, shone stark white in the moonlight.

“It really is summer soon.”

Even though she threw off all her clothes, there was no feeling of it being cool or anything of the sort.

She, who threw off even her underwear without hesitation, roughly rolled up the dress and placed it next to the shoes.

Then, she leapt into the large lake without hesitation.

Splash! Along with a noisy sound, a stark white stream of water rose from the lake in the exact shape of the night sky. From the spot where Irene leapt in, waves in the shape of concentric circles spread out and the water surged. The surface of the water, which was shaking regularly like that, gradually subsided and became calm as if it had never been so.

‘I feel it anew, but it is truly deep.’

Irene, who dived while cutting through the pitch-black water, thought while looking at the distant bottom.

Irene moved her arms and legs to swim deeper and deeper into the lake. While cutting through the cool water, fish were dimly seen by her bright night vision. Seeing that there was no movement, most of them seemed to be asleep.

Irene, who was going down for a long time while sticking close to the brown wall of the lake, stopped her busily moving arms and legs as soon as she discovered a small red color. Irene, who grabbed a pillar that was protruding as if to pierce someone, where a necklace woven with rubies grain by grain was hanging, turned her body entirely just like that and faced her head upward. Her wheat-colored hair, which was not very long, fluttered as if dancing in the water.

Beneath the large grey pillar that resembled a thorn, there was a space inside a small wall. In that place, which was small for a cave and large for a hole, a bright red and tiny casket and a few ornaments were placed.

Irene suddenly looked up. It is darkness where not even a single star is properly seen. As Irene tried exhaling her remaining breath, plump air bubbles ascended in a line above the lake. The air bubbles ascended while gradually growing larger, then disappeared after disturbing a small school of fish that was resting near the surface of the water. Mr. Idris had certainly told me. Did he say it was a rainbow minnow? Irene, who did such meaningless thinking, straightened her head and fixed her gaze on the red box.