IATAOTHKG | CHAPTER 115

CHAPTER 115

“Tira.”

“She’s the big sister who gave us this house.”

Nyniel answered.

“Tira?”

Meyna quietly repeated the name that somehow sounded familiar, and a memory suddenly surfaced in her mind.

‘Right. At the café in Jibrey Square.’

The day she met Biterion.

The owner of the café, humming to herself while arranging small trinkets and baking cookies.

Tira, with blue hair.

“I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

“Me?”

“Have we met before, by any chance?”

Even after hearing that it was their first meeting, the woman had tilted her head and stared closely at Meyna’s face.

“Hmm? That’s strange.”

“I’m sure I’ve seen you before……”

After pondering for a while, Tira had soon brushed it off, stood up, and started sweeping.

And after Biterion appeared at the café and disappeared, Meyna had completely forgotten about her.

Could it really be just a coincidence that they share the same name?

But the feeling that it could not be dismissed as coincidence threw Meyna into confusion.

“Can you tell me a little more in detail?”

When Meyna asked Nyniel, Theon answered instead.

“She was a big sister who gathered the kids in our village and played with us.”

“Uh-huh. And?”

“She was about this tall, and sometimes she wore thick glasses and read books.”

“She drew pictures every day, and she went outside without the adults knowing.”

“Outside?”

“Where do you mean?”

“We don’t know!”

Nyniel cut in to answer.

“They said kids weren’t allowed to go outside.”

“Not until the Goddess comes and saves us.”

“The Goddess?”

Nod, nod.

Nyniel bobbed her head and pointed at the portrait with her finger.

“Yes!”

Meyna could not help but recall the conversation she had shared with Caliph a few days ago.

About the agent of God described in the Byzantine Scripture.

“What color was Tira’s hair?”

“Blue.”

“A really pretty blue!”

Theon and Nyniel answered at the same time.

‘Just as I thought…….’

Meyna realized it.

That she was drawing closer to some unknown truth.

She needed to meet Tira and ask her.

Why she drew this picture, and why the woman in it looked exactly like Meyna herself.

Whether the Goddess the children spoke of truly meant an agent of God.

Whether their meeting at the café that day had been inevitability rather than coincidence.

And……

Who the people living together in this dungeon really were.

“Where is Tira now?”

Meyna asked in a trembling voice.

At that, Nyniel and Theon’s expressions fell at the same time.

Their round eyes slowly dropped toward the wooden floor, tinged with sadness.

“We can’t see her anymore.”

Theon answered.

“Why?”

“Because Tira is dead.”

“……!”

Meyna’s gaze wavered violently, like a candle flickering in the wind.

Dead?

When?

As if she had heard the question forming in Meyna’s mind, Nyniel spoke.

“She died a very, very long time ago.”

The two children lowered their heads together.

Meyna stared at the picture in her hands for a long while.

Just like looking into a mirror, or a photograph, she gazed at her own unmistakable face.

Then—

“Gasp!”

With a terrified expression, Nyniel pointed outside the window.

* * *

Following the siblings, who were panic-stricken as if they had seen a ghost, Meyna rushed out into the alley in a daze.

“Kids, you’ll fall.”

“Okay?”

She tried to calm them, but it was no use.

“Hurry, Meyna!”

Nyniel shouted, stamping her feet.

What Nyniel had seen through the window was not a person, but the sky.

The black night sky was fading into blue as dawn approached.

“We have to go back quickly.”

“If the sun rises, Mother and the adults will find out we were here.”

Theon urged Meyna on, cold sweat running down his face.

Running through the alley as if about to trip, Nyniel looked back at Theon.

“What do we do, big brother!”

“It’s okay.”

“We just need to hurry back and lie in bed.”

“Like we were sleeping.”

Theon calmly soothed his sister.

Seeing the two children running in sheer terror, Meyna could not bring herself to waste any time.

As they retraced the long, narrow alley, the horizon gradually began to glow brightly.

“Huff. Huff.”

Just as Nyniel stopped for a moment to catch her breath—

“Mother.”

“You’re saying the children disappeared?”

“Yes……!”

“We thought they might have gone out at night, but they weren’t in their bedroom……”

“Oh?”

“Young Lady?”

They ran straight into Mother and the village women.

Amali, who was walking ahead, noticed Meyna first and looked startled.

“The children are over there, Mother.”

Three or four women reassured Mother, but the two children stepped back and froze in place.

Mother silently bit her lip.

“Young Lady.”

“Were you with the children?”

“How did that happen……?”

Amali trailed off, looking confused.

Watching Mother’s complexion twist as she glanced between the children, Meyna answered calmly.

“I went to the children’s bedroom.”

“I had something to ask them.”

“Something to ask?”

In an instant, Mother’s expression sharpened as she glared at Meyna.

“Yes.”

Meyna nodded calmly.

“My children.”

“About what?”

“It’s difficult to explain right now.”

Mother’s limbs began to tremble violently.

Her gaunt body convulsed as if possessed, and Amali moved to steady her.

“You.”

Mother, who had been glaring at Meyna, seemed to change her target.

As she muttered at the children with a terrifying expression, a small gasp sounded from behind.

“Go home right now.”

“Yes, Mother!”

“We’re sorry!”

Like puppies trained harshly, the children bowed their heads and obediently moved to run in the direction Mother pointed—

“No.”

Meyna spoke to Mother and grabbed the children.

The two kids trembled and looked up at Meyna’s face.

“There’s still something I need to talk about with the children.”

At Meyna’s words, Mother’s face turned deathly pale.

“……What did you say?”

“It won’t take long.”

“But since you might worry, we’ll go to the guest room that Madam Amali kindly offered us.”

Mother’s eyes began to fill with blood.

Just like the night before, they turned vividly red.

Meyna turned her gaze away from Mother, who was grinding her teeth, and added while looking at Amali and the other women.

“That should be fine, right?”

“It’s a room you offered us out of kindness.”

“That way, everyone here can rest easy.”

Amali slowly lifted the corners of her lips.

“Of course.”

As she looked at Meyna, her pupils expanded like a black pit, until pitch-black darkness rippled across the entirety of her eyes.

“……!”

A horrific fear swept over Meyna.

Startled, she quickly erased her expression and pulled the children’s hands toward herself.

“Then, then……”

Muttering while trembling, Mother squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again.

“Let’s all go to my house together.”

The children squeezed Meyna’s hands tightly, as if on cue.

As if to say no.

“I’ll come too.”

Mother added.

Before Meyna could answer, Amali smiled in satisfaction.

“That’s a good idea.”

She said, staring at Meyna with jet-black eyes.

“It’s just about time to prepare breakfast to see off our guests.”

“Shall we all go to Mother’s house together?”

Just as Meyna stood there, unable to respond, gripped by the feeling that something terrible would happen if she refused—

“What are you doing?”

A familiar voice came from behind her.

When she spun around, Caliph, who had been standing crookedly in the darkness, slowly walked out under the streetlight.

“Sir Lenox.”

Still holding the children’s hands tightly, Meyna headed toward Caliph.

Amali and the women’s faces stiffened like plaster statues.