CH 92
Chapter 92: The Weeping Woman (Part 2)
"Oh my, what adorable travelers have arrived. I wonder how you found your way in."
Someone embraced Nero from behind.
Since their senses weren't perfectly synchronized, the voice didn't come through clearly - a muffled tone as if heard through water.
The embrace also made it impossible to turn and see the speaker's face.
"I'm sorry, but visitors shouldn't enter here. Let me help you find the exit."
Click-clack─ Click-clack─
Footsteps echoed through the hall as their field of vision advanced.
Nero remained docile throughout, offering no resistance.
'...At least they don't seem hostile.'
Animals were said to possess a supernatural sense for distinguishing good from evil.
Though Ray couldn't confirm if Nero's transmitted sensations were this exact ability, he strongly felt no malice from the speaker.
Creeeak──
The mansion's entrance opened, revealing the garden.
The distant gate neared with each step until Ray severed his sensory link with Nero and opened his eyes.
"We should meet the mansion's owner," he declared.
The description matched perfectly:
Crimson aura. Mage. Female.
A voice with familiar cadence.
The odds seemed implausible, yet every clue converged on one possibility.
●
"My, my."
The woman rose with a gentle smile, straightening from her bowed position.
She observed Nero slipping through the bars to nuzzle Ray's feet.
"I hadn't realized the young gentleman from the bookstore was a mage."
Her smile remained unchanged, showing no surprise - clear proof she'd recognized Nero as a familiar from the start.
"What brings you here? This isn't where proper ladies and gentlemen would wander."
Her laughing eyes swept over the group.
Philip appeared shaken to discover their host was the woman from the bookstore, while Veronica failed to fully conceal her wariness toward the revealed mage.
Ray stepped forward.
"We have questions."
"What might those be?"
"Our friends disappeared. We thought you might know something."
The direct query hung in the air as their gazes locked.
Though Ray's face stayed neutral, the chill came from the woman's smiling countenance.
After prolonged tension, she finally quirked her lips.
"Have you eaten? I was just about to take lunch."
●
Four pairs of footsteps shattered the corridor's silence like rippling waves:
Click-clack─ Click-clack─ at the front
Tap-tap─ Tap-tap─ in the middle
Tock─ Tock─ Tock─ Tock─ trailing behind
"All the lights are out..."
"Strange... Maintaining this mansion must cost fortune, yet..."
Veronica and Philip whispered as they advanced. True to their words, every chandelier stood dark. Though sunlight through wall-mounted windows permitted movement, the deliberate darkness felt unnerving.
As they progressed, windows grew sparse, shadows deepening until the hallway felt like a light-devouring forest.
"Wouldn't surprise me if ghosts appeared..."
"Ghosts aren't real!"
Their hushed argument was interrupted by:
"Ahaha~! So then...haha~!"
"Heehee~! Yesterday I...heehee~!"
Dozens of laughing voices echoed down the hall - the same ones Ray heard through Nero. The unprepared Philip and Veronica froze before scurrying after Ray with newfound timidity.
At the dining room entrance, the woman threw open the doors with vigor.
"Welcome, Madam!"
"We've been waiting! Let's eat together!"
Light flooded their vision. Squinting, they saw an enormous banquet table surrounded by 18 children - including Petro who'd vanished yesterday. An arched window behind the empty head seat poured sunlight into the room.
"Madam! Sit here!"
"Forks and knives arranged properly! Just like you taught us!"
The children clamored around the woman, ignoring the newcomers in their single-minded focus.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. You must be starving."
The woman made eye contact with each child as she spoke.
"But first, let me introduce our guests."
Eighteen pairs of eyes snapped toward the group.
"Such attention... Especially from the boys, it's overwhelming."
"...I-I'm scared."
Philip and Veronica gulped under the intense scrutiny.
"They'll be joining us today. Some might even know each other. Let's welcome them warmly."
Clapclapclapclapclap──!
"Hi! New face! Which district are you from?"
"Come sit! You're so handsome!"
Amid the barrage of greetings, the group followed the woman inward.
"Joseph, Hormel - could you shift seats? I need to converse with our new guests."
"Yes, Madam!"
"Understood, Madam!"
The empty seat by the window was presumably the woman's designated spot. The children sitting diagonally across suddenly stood up, carrying their utensils and trays as they relocated elsewhere. The party followed the woman's lead and took their seats.
"You must have many questions," she said. "Shall we converse over dinner?"
"......"
Rey observed the emotions swirling within the woman's vessel - anger, hatred, regret, sorrow. The composition and distribution of these emotions matched exactly what he'd witnessed at the bookstore. Rey's unanswered question lingered: 'Why hasn't it exploded yet?' This volume of emotion should have erupted long ago. After all, accumulated feelings inevitably detonate.
Of course, there were exceptions where emotions simply filled the vessel without bursting. 'Like when we carefully infused artificial emotions into Skyle.' That had been a meticulously controlled special case, supplemented by minor emotional releases like discreetly pocketing tableware. 'Moreover, the accumulated greed felt completely static.' Like densely congealed cheese.
But this woman's emotions differed. Each type churned violently within her vessel like superheated air, creating conditions ripe for imminent explosion. 'Then how...' could she maintain such a composed exterior?
Clink.
While Rey pondered, the woman first picked up her utensils. Clink. Clink. The children followed suit, eating not with street-learned voracity but with proper fork-and-knife etiquette. Their conversation flowed as calmly as their table manners.
'Now that I notice, their clothes are immaculate too.' 'The Madam must have redressed them all.'
Philip and Veronica exchanged glances before looking to Rey. With everyone eating, they should follow - but was it safe? Rey gave a slight nod.
Though the woman's vessel overflowed with negative emotions, none targeted them. There was no reason to poison the food. With Rey's approval, Philip and Veronica began eating cautiously.
Clink— clink—
"We followed the crimson light," Rey initiated conversation.
"So you've seen it," she replied with an incongruously gentle smile for someone discovered. "I've been trying to be discreet to avoid alarming people."
"I settled here ten years ago," she continued unprompted. "For convalescence." Her sparse explanation revealed only basics - her name Renia, Second Circle mage status, and recent charity work with street children.
"I suffered... an incident," she confessed. "The world seemed to collapse around me, keeping me mansion-bound for years. But I've recently overcome that grief." Her benevolent gaze swept over the children as maternal love - mana glowing with pale scarlet warmth - swelled disproportionately in her vessel.
Rey monitored his companions' reactions.
"......"
Philip's dazed expression was predictable - he'd also been separated from his mother a decade prior. Though knowing Renia wasn't his parent, the timeline reignited hopeful 'what-ifs.'
Veronica attempted:
"When you say 'rescue,' did you obtain the children's cons—" She choked back her question upon seeing their genuinely happy faces - expressions unimaginable during their street days.
"......"
Veronica fell silent.
Subsequent polite inquiries yielded nothing:
-"Your necklace has an exquisite design," Rey probed about Mercrad's clue.
-"Might I ask... your previous residence?" Philip ventured with lingering hope.
-"What motivated your rescue efforts?" Veronica pressed about the children.
Each sensitive query met expert deflection:
-"What kind of life do the children—"
-"My, what a doll-like young lady! You'll break hearts when older! Hehe~"
-"Oh! M-me? Pretty... heehee!"
-"Your hair's quite damaged from travels! Shall I share restoration secrets?"
-"Yes! Please! Let me just... find my notebook... Huh?!"
Veronica snapped from her frantic notetaking daze, realizing:
This was adult conversation sorcery - where questions evaporated mid-discussion. 'Is... is this rhetorical witchcraft?' Feeling outmatched, she desperately glanced at their expedition's negotiator...
"......"
...Only to find Philip staring vacantly at Madam Renia - their would-be charmer temporarily out of order.
"How remarkable," the woman enthused about their magical prowess, particularly grilling Rey with twice Veronica's questions.
Then—
"Oh dear, I forgot after-dinner tea! One moment please."
As the door closed behind her...
Utensils stilled.
Laughter died.
Eighteen pairs of eyes locked onto the trio.
