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An invisible hand pressed down on her shoulder.
Her body slowly sunk below the surface of the water.
Silence filled the ear holes and wrapped around her whole body.
She was free from the world and she was alone.
Yet it made her feel at peace, not loneliness.
It wasn’t because she didn’t think that anything could hurt her.
But because her ferocious self didn’t seem to hurt anyone.
It was because she had been the monster who wore iron-like thorns all over her body, and eventually pierced even the youngest to death.
The cold water covered the eyes after the mouth and nose.
She was out of breath, but she didn’t want to break this tranquility.
She didn’t think it would be bad to fall asleep like this forever.
—Mother!
Someone was calling her.
—Mother!
It was a sound that must never be ignored or forgotten.
And from the beginning, Elisha had no intention of doing that.
How can the wind cover a hope?
It could not extinguish even a single ember from the burning flames.
But.
Elisha, who had stretched out her right hand in the direction from which the sound was heard, stopped.
Didn’t want to approach it recklessly.
Didn’t want to hurt it again.
If she made him cry again….
She might make him die again.
There were sharp thorns all over her body, so just being next to someone would hurt him or her.
Every time she recalled a memory, a blue blade cut across her heart.
Despite the eerie sensation of the fluttering mass of flesh splaying from side to side, Elisha could not take her hand from the child beyond the surface of the water calling for her.
So, she put her free left hand to her right hand and broke the thorn that sprouted from her hand.
Dak! Daddak!
Pain rose from the broken thorn and her blood flowed, but Elisha did not stop.
But, it was strange.
No matter how much she stretched out her arms, no matter how much she struggled through the air out of the water, she did not reach the child.
She wanted to hold the little hand of the child.
She wanted to rub his fingertips and kiss him on his tender skin.
All the thorns had been broken.
It wouldn’t hurt anymore, it wouldn’t hurt, so it would be okay, wouldn’t it?
Elisha’s eyes widened as she saw the blood on her hand held up high, and the disgusting skin with the cross-section of broken thorns.
Ah…!
Did I scare him?
Did I frighten him?
Elisha’s fingertips trembled incessantly.
No.
It’s alright.
I can wipe off the blood quickly.
She grabbed the root of the thorns with the disgusting scar, and pulled it out…
As Elisha wiggled her hand, the water that had supported her until now suddenly became a net and wrapped around her.
The more she panicked, the stronger she would be dragged into the water, and she would eventually fall into the depths of the water.
Rather than holding it in, she forced herself to turn around, and the blocked breathing made her vision dark.
Just before Elisha was completely submerged in the water.
A touch of warmth touched the tip of her finger, which was sticking out of the water surface.
Tudukk! Tuk!
It was a water drop.
The blood was washed away.
At the same time, a small, delicate force began to pull her above the surface of the water.
Elisha shook her head.
She was afraid that even someone who was trying to save her would fall into the water.
If there is such a person, it must be Leon.
However, the more Elisha pushed, the more the opponent pulled her hand.
“No.”
At this time, Elisha opened her eyes.
Her vision brightened, and she could see the child’s face right away.
Leon, who was looking down at Elisha, hugged his mother tightly with tears along his face.
Elisha was startled and tried to back off, but she was unable to do anything because she was lying down and the bed was firmly behind her back.
“The thorns… ”
She just broke the one on her right hand.
As Elisha’s face stiffened completely from still reminiscing of the steel thorns that would still sprout elsewhere, the soft, soft hair of the child touched her cheek.
The wheezing sound of breathing was somewhat tight, but it did not seem like it was caused by enduring pain.
Right.
She was finally able to breath as she was relieved, cool air permeated deep into her lungs.
That was when she realized it was a dream.
Elisha’s nights usually came with nightmares, but she was never afraid of them.
It was because in the past, reality was nothing worse than a nightmare, and she had a child she could only meet there, so she even looked forward to it.
However.
The past left only traces, and everything changed when she thought that the present may not lead to the future if she keeps thinking only about the past.
The real thing started when she was afraid.
“Did you have a terrifying dream, Mother?”
When there was no answer, the child clasped Elisha’s neck with his thin arms.
“Are you in a lot of pain, Mother?”
“What about you?”
“Huh?”
Elisha turned her body while embracing Leon, who asked the question, and made eye contact with the child.
“Aren’t you in pain?”
“Why would I be in pain? Mother, are you sick?”
With that said, Leon’s complexion turned pale as if he was very surprised.
In addition to that, it reminded him of the event when Elisha collapsed in blood yesterday, and tears flowed down again.
Still, he wondered if it would make his mother feel worse, so he somehow managed to catch his breath and tried to pretend it was nothing.
“Why did you ask me that?”
“Ah.”
Elisha frowned slightly, then opened her mouth.
“I was a hedgehog in my dream.”
“A hedgehog?”
Leon’s eyes widened at the somewhat absurd content.
“I want to hug you, but I was worried that if I did, my thorns would pierce you.”
“Mother, seriously.”
Leon rolled his eyes and smirked.
“If Mother is a hedgehog, then I am a young hedgehog. Since we are both the same, your thorns won’t hurt me!”
Elisha was surprised after hearing the words that were casually said.
She had never thought of it like that.
“However.”
When his mother rolled her lower lip inward and her eyes blurred, the clever Leon noticed right away.
This wasn’t just a dream story. It was a very important part to his mother.
Having tough skin so that it doesn’t hurt even if they are stabbed…
He wouldn’t be able to relieve his mother’s anxiety just by saying that they will not feel pain from each other’s thorns.
Leon’s blue eyes, which had been moving around with his head, became clearer at some point.
“Mother.”
“What is it, Leon?”
“If you dream of becoming a hedgehog again. Then please hug me the hedgehog’s way, not the human way.”
Elisha blinked as if asking what he meant, and Leon added.
“Because we are humans, we hug each other tightly with our arms like this to comfort and express our feelings, but hedgehogs have short limbs.”
“That is… correct.”
“Each tribe has different appearances and different ways of living, wouldn’t it be the same with hedgehogs? For hedgehogs, making eye contact, waving their tails, or resting side by side in a distance where no thorns can reach has the same meaning as hugging a person. If Mother still doesn’t know what to do… At that time, when you see Leon the hedgehog, don’t be scared or back down. If you do, Leon the hedgehog will surely hug Mother in the hedgehog’s way. No one will get sick, and no one will get hurt.”
Leon patted Elisha.
The way when she told him it was okay when he peed and ruined the duvet and cried.
“If that hedgehog was me, it would love Mother the same as I do. So… don’t cry, Mother.”
Leon covered his mother’s cheek with his little hand.
Her expression was indifferent, but tears were flowing nonstop from her sky blue eyes.
Leaning to her side, a handful of tears filled Leon’s small palm, overflowing, and wet the pillowcase.
Whether this feeling was joy, remorse, or a growing pain, Elisha didn’t know what to do.
Meanwhile, the child fell asleep.
The morning was slowly coming out of the window, but Elisha didn’t care and pulled out the blanket to cover the child’s neck well.
It wasn’t easy to raise her arm.
It seems that many things that happened yesterday were difficult.
But more than anything.
Cha-rank!
Elisha just remembered it in her head before she looked up at the creature that had already appeared on the bed, who was just blinking her eyes.
Then Elisha’s forehead knitted, as if she was suffering a headache.
There was nothing surprising.
Because Elisha had already thought that it seemed like an out-of-standard existence.
But, still.
“It’s changed.”
Undine, who now had the form of a grown-up girl rather than a little girl, nodded her head as if she had heard Elisha’s small murmur.
However, as if her characteristic disposition had not changed, she immediately floated a drop of water in the air as if bored, and used it as a stepping stone, jumping around and playing pranks.
Every time Undine moves, the long skirt slowly unfolds and sinks like a wave blown by the wind.
“Are you growing up, or are you returning to your original form?”
The two may have the same result, but the essence is different.
Well, that was the only question that ran in her heart regarding the current situation.
Elisha licked her lips in fear of waking up the child. When the child tossed and turned a little, her shoulders were stiff and only her fingertips moved slightly, concentrating on patting the child.
Undine was still smiling and playing jokes around.
As if they both knew that it wasn’t time to hear the answer yet.
After a while, Elisha’s eyes closed.
Undine looked down at the two people hugging and comforting each other.
The water-blue transparent eyeballs, which were smoothly cut into one without distinction between the pupil and the white part, fluttered with the incoming light.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
A scream echoed through the space.
“What the hell? What happened?!”
“What’s the matter?”
From early in the morning, the maids, who had been busy doing their respective tasks, gathered in the central hall where the sound was heard.
They found Patrick sprawling near the central hall lion statue and screamed.
“How did this happen?”
Someone whispered to Annie, the first maid who shouted.
“Don’t you know what happened last night? He was probably so drunk and flirted with those good kids.”
“Ah…!”
Annie glanced at the faces of some of her colleagues, who were supposed to be the target, and then stopped.
Then she purposely grumbled loudly to change the mood.
“Didn’t the knights go this way a while ago? They must have seen it, but why didn’t they wake anyone up?”
“If it’s you, would you want to get involved in this matter? It’s better to pretend you don’t know and pretend you don’t see it.”
“Right…”
Regardless of the answer, Annie nodded her head.
It would be nice if they could do that too, but unlike the knights of the Duke family, the servants do what the master tells them to do.
Even if you don’t have to do it, you have to find the dirty and troublesome work on your own.
Being the first to find it was a sin. Annie, who had been pushed by the other colleagues, sighed and approached Patrick.