Chapter 641 – Doubts and Unforgettable Faith

000

Aisha, who left her house led by the doctor’s hand, headed to the doctor’s carriage parked outside the northern gate of Asteris.

It was a bit conspicuous because it was painted red, and the horses that pulled her carriage also looked a little creepy because of the black cloth that covered her from her head to her hips, unlike her normal horses.

It’s a carriage that doesn’t seem to have a driver, but is it okay?

“Now, you can get on this carriage.”

As if seeing through Aisha’s anxiety, the doctor personally and kindly opened the carriage door, and the inside was an ordinary carriage that didn’t look so special.

It was wide enough for two people to hug, so Aisha nodded at the doctor’s words and went inside her carriage and sat down.

“Is your research facility far from Asteris?”

“Even if we move by this wagon, it will take about an hour. Actually, it’s not that it’s far, but it’s because the road is a bit rough.”

Aisha was relieved a little by the doctor’s kind answer.

Come to think of it, she knew very little about her, except for the fact that she was developing a cure for her attrition.

Age, name, place of residence.

It’s just that she has a research facility out of sight, and she’s always been told that she’s doing research there.

Even so- she was one of the few people who was kind to him.

Just by handing over the blood flowing through this body, he gave the three people money to live on.

In addition, it taught me how to overcome seizure-like symptoms that plagued both the body and mind.

With that alone, she was a benefactor to Aisha.

‘…Huh. Even if she doesn’t know much about the teacher, it’s true that she was able to live as a threesome thanks to the teacher.’

Aisha shook her head, suppressing the dark uneasiness she felt somewhere in her, as if putting a lid on her with that thought.

“Are you okay?”

Aisha’s attitude was somehow strange, so when the female doctor asked her, Aisha responded with a startled response.

“Ah!? Yes, yes… It’s okay.”

“Then I’m glad. Then, I’ll start the carriage.”

As she said that, she tapped the back of her hand twice on the wall on the side of her horse, and there was a rattle and the carriage started to move.

“Gwa, are you okay? It looked like there was no coachman.”

“Yes. The horse that pulls this carriage is clever. Even if there is no coachman, going to a set destination is not a job.”

Even though she was saying that, her expression could not be seen properly because of the bandages still wrapped around her body.

It was as if she put on a proud look on her face as she spoke her words as if she were talking about her own precious children.

“…M-You don’t do experiments on horses, do you?”

Somehow, she thought that if it were her, she would do it, so when Aisha jokingly asked, the doctor didn’t answer for a while.

“…”

When silence fell inside her carriage, Aisha smiled shyly and just nodded her head as if she didn’t have to answer.

001

The carriage carrying Aisha moved along the road north of Asteris, and ran smoothly along the well-traveled road, but suddenly the body of the carriage shook violently once with a feeling of rattling.

When I looked out the window to see if something had happened, the wagon had veered off the road and was moving in the direction of the rocky mountain.

When I look in the direction of the doctor in bewilderment, she sits with a calm attitude as if not to worry, and just quietly looks out the window.

If she is, then this situation must be controlled by her.

‘Teacher… You haven’t changed your posture since a while ago and keep looking at me…’

Even if part of her eye is covered with a bandage, she can easily notice it in the gaze looking at her.

It would be fine if those eyes were as kind as usual, but for some reason I felt a little uneasy.

“Teacher…? What’s on my face?”

“Ah, no. I’m sorry, Aisha. I was thinking about the first time I met you.”

Myself at the time-

Speaking of that, it was a situation where I was mentally very concentrated in a situation not long after the loss of my parents.

In a cold room where the wind blows in, every day I live trembling while enduring the darkness.

And, two people claiming to be her attendants who try to cheer her up somehow.

In a situation where money is needed to lead a human life no matter what, Aisha has little legacy she inherited.

She came to think that it might be easier for her to die than to live so painfully.

Aisha decided to wait for the day she would die slowly and slowly without saying anything.

She shook off one or two people to force herself to feed her, and shut herself up in her room.

When the hunger strikes to the point where she thinks that in the next few days, she will really starve to death.

Bang! It was her in front of her eyes that appeared when her door was forcibly opened (her door leaf fell off).

He had told her Aisha that he had been forced to give her nutritional injections and held her lifeline on hold.

Aisha’s blood will be the key to saving people suffering from attribution in the world.

With that one word, Aisha put her hopes into her hands that she might live a little longer.

That’s why, while Aisha believes in her like that, she sits in her seat and glances at her outside.

Then, the carriage passed the entrance of the mountain, moved around it, and soon entered a passage in a dark and nook where people could not notice.

It was dark inside the aisle, but it wasn’t such a scary place as you could see the exit.

Once inside the passage, the doctor takes out a pocket watch from his bosom, opens it with a click, and quietly watches the hands move.

And-

“3… 2… 1…”

She started counting down something, and the moment the number ‘0’ came out of her mouth, the carriage came to a stop as the aisle ended.

“Have you arrived?”

When Aisha asked such a question, the doctor nodded her head, moved her body, and first opened the carriage door with his hand.

“That’s right. Then, let’s get off.”

At her words as if it was okay to get off first, Aisha hesitated but cautiously got off the carriage and stood on the ground.

Then, what catches her eye is-

It was, as it were, a man-made fortress built in nature, surrounded on all sides by the gray cliffs of a rocky mountain.

What kind of technology should be used to dig out the mountain in such a clean, circular shape?

And, in the center of the space created by piercing the mountain range with a cylinder, there was a mansion that looked a bit shabby.

The size itself was quite large, so it could have been compared to a nobleman’s mansion, but the shabby one was simply outdated.

“This is my research facility, and I usually stay here.”

“…God, it’s in an amazing place. Your research facility…”

As she puts her feelings into her mouth, the female doctor takes Aisha’s hand as if there is no time to delay.

“Okay then, inside.”

“Ah yes…”

When Aisha, who was halfway dragged along, suddenly turned to the passageway they would have passed through in her carriage-

‘…Uh?’

There, there was no clear passageway, only a blocked road.

‘—I’ll be able to return properly…?’

Just like that, the facts about her that she had been ignoring began to attack her.

In any case, it is unavoidable that it has already arrived, whether voluntarily or unintentionally.

There was no change in the fact that it would be better for her to cooperate with her and finish her experiment quickly and return, so she decided to harden her heart for her coming here.

When she opens the door of the large mansion and goes inside, what immediately catches her eye is the hallway and entrance, which look quite old, just like the exterior of the mansion.

While looking at the scene, which was obviously spacious but did not feel luxurious, Aisha looked around as if she was a bit curious, and the female doctor told Aisha not to stop and follow her. , Led me to the spiral staircase going down to the basement.

“Eh…”

Her steps leading up the stairs leading to the dark basement seemed a bit impatient, and Aisha’s steps, which had to follow her – no, almost dragged her – naturally became faster.

“Now, wait a minute…! Just a little bit slower…”

“Do not worry. It’s because I’m in a hurry to make it back quickly. And watch your step, well, it’s a spiral staircase, so even if you fall, you’ll roll and hit the railing on the way to stop, so you won’t be seriously hurt.”

“Is that important!?”

Even as she snarls at the doctor’s insistence on her strange confidence in the spiral staircase, she almost runs down the stairs, and as soon as she arrives at the dark basement, Aisha feels-

‘…Ugh… The smell of blood…’

Fishy, ​​taste of iron felt at the tip of the mouth.

It was not difficult for her to understand that it was the scent of blood that filled this space.

Of course, rather than saying that she is familiar with the smell of her blood, it would be better to say that she is precisely familiar with ‘the smell of this blood’, so it is a fact that can be known.

It wasn’t too difficult for Aisha to notice that most of the smell of blood around her was her ‘her own’.

“Sorry, I have to do some cleaning on a regular basis. Living alone in this mansion…”

“Oh, it’s okay… More than that, are you really researching in a place like this…”

Now, with the shallow trust she has built up with her, Aisha seriously contemplates whether she can trust her actions more.

But the female doctor in her bandage nods her head to her.

Beneath that bandage- he must have been smiling ‘smirkingly’.

“Of course. Now, to this room.”

While talking like that, the place she took Aisha to was a room slightly better than an underground passage full of dark, gloomy, sticky moisture.

At least, things like the bed were clean, and the table looked like new compared to the rest of the furniture.

But…

‘… Iron bars on the door… Chains and shackles on the wall… This, completely—…’

Aisha was only poor, but she was not uneducated in her childhood.

She said that her common sense also existed, so when she saw this scene, one word came to her mind naturally.

What was more certain than whether or not this place was her research facility was that it was closer to a ‘dungeon’.

Naturally, cold sweat ran down Aisha’s back.

Of course, it could have been a space modeled after a dungeon—it was originally a dungeon and is now used by her as her research facility.

But even so-

It didn’t seem like she would be able to shake her off and run away as she was looking straight at herself like this.

Besides, I took her advance payment.

‘…Ah.’

Come to think of it, even if she went outside, the passage she saw when she came in was gone, so she didn’t even know how to get out.

‘Oh, what? Maybe I… In a desperate situation?’

Now that she has properly grasped the situation she is facing, her face turns pale in an instant, and the female doctor is talking to her.

“Then. Please sit on the bed and wait. Things like a change of clothes… There are things I need for testing and blood sampling, so I’ll bring them.”

While saying that, she left Aisha alone in her room, and when she heard the sound of her footsteps leaving her room, gradually receding, as she climbed the stairs.

Aisha stood up straight away, and she went to the door and looked.

With her tensed heart she raises her hand toward her door, and turns her doorknob with her strength—

After confirming that the door opened with a clicking sound, she let out a sigh of relief.

“…Eh, even if this door opens anyway, you know that you can’t go outside… Teacher.”

In a situation where she feels that she can no longer be trusted, she is a little fed up with herself being the victim of her doubts towards her benefactor, but given her circumstances, she can’t help it. Had no choice but to rationalize itself.

But then, a rustling sound came from inside her room.

“Huh?”

Are there any bugs in the room?

Or a rat?

Either way, it doesn’t matter because she’s familiar to her.

Cockroaches can be caught with bare hands, and rats are rather grateful beings that have the potential to become daily bread.

‘…No, it doesn’t change that much no matter which one appears now…’

She sighs and tries to give up on her escape, thinking that she’d better obey the doctor’s word here.

‘… Yes, throw away her doubts, Aisha. If you doubt the teacher like this now, isn’t she repaying her enemies for the grace she has received so far? Since he handed me a large sum of money every time, the teacher must also have financial difficulties. That’s why we built a research facility in such a special place, where no one is around… This mansion must have been cheap…’

Considering its size, it would have been a building that could not be bought cheaply.

Anyway, as she told her story, let’s sit quietly and wait.

She doesn’t do anything, and even though she hasn’t suffered anything yet, a spontaneous sigh comes from her mouth because of her fatigue.

“Hey.”

At that time, I heard something like a boy’s voice a little high from somewhere.

Boy? You should be the only one in this room.

“Who…”

“This way. Ceiling side.”

Then, thinking that she heard the same rustling sound again along with that voice, Aisha lifted her head and looked towards the ceiling.

And there- there was a doll in the form of a black cat’s head hanging upside down like a bat.

“… This, a doll?”

“Yeah, that’s right. It’s a homunculus to be exact.”

So don’t raise your voice and calm down, Aisha stared at the doll for a while.

She then opens her eyes wide, remembering that she has seen the doll before.

“Ah!? The doll I picked up at that time!”

“Sleep! Quiet! If you find out I’m here, I can’t help you!”

It must have been.

A doll in the shape of a black cat’s head that I picked up while cleaning the village before.

She even remembers what she brought home, but because the display case she had on display was broken and collapsed, she even remembers what was placed between the dolls, but it disappeared at some point after that.

Did you throw it away by mistake? It made me think, but it was to the point where I thought that maybe it was something she didn’t have from the beginning.

“Sir, I can’t believe the doll moves by itself…”

“What are you talking about in a world overflowing with magic and witchcraft like this… I’m ‘Schrödinger’. He is the savior who came to save you.”

Dismissing her suspicions of sounding strange, Schrödinger raises the corners of his mouth and speaks.

“Schrodinger… The savior?”

Aisha looks at Schrödinger with a suspicious glare, as if she doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but Schrödinger talks to her with a smile on her lips.

“It’s about helping you escape safely from that dangerous woman with bandages.”

“…”

Somewhere Schrödinger spoke in a trusting voice, and Aisha silently stared at him.

“I don’t think there’s any need to run away…”

“…Ah, no no! I’m going to tell you how dangerous that woman is!”

Conversely, when the flustered Schrödinger stutters, Aisha asks him another question.

“Huh… Why are you so desperate?”

“Because your life is at stake, right!? What is this guy!? Until a little while ago, I ignorantly doubted Darwin…!”

“But I decided not to doubt it. Even if you doubt it, the situation will not get better.”

Aisha answered her a little weakly, and Schrödinger looked at her like that and came down to her eyes as if he couldn’t help it.

“…Things never get better! Even when I could be giving up like that, if someone lends a hand.”

“…You don’t have hands?”

“Then why not borrow wings!”

Saying that, looking at Schrödinger flapping her wings, Aisha gave a small smile, ‘Haha…’ And then she spoke.

“…Thank you. For telling me that.”

“Whoa… Did you finally get the idea to doubt? The witch.”

Schrödinger patted her forehead with her wings, as if fortunately, and talked to Aisha while making eye contact with her.

“Then, what should I do?”

“Yes, of course. Do as I say…!”

‘… It’s strange that I’m not at all relieved…’

Saying that, Aisha thought a bit impolitely.