Chapter 151
She couldn’t breathe.
Before Cheshire’s pallid, wide-eyed gaze, the woman lay utterly still, without even the slightest movement.
She had always wondered.
What her mother looked like—she had longed to see her, even if just once, even for a fleeting moment.
‘But I didn’t want to see her like this.’
She must have once worn a splendid crown of flowers, an elegant queen leading the fairies.
Yet now, she was in such a complete wreck that no trace of that image could be imagined.
No spark of life emanated from her.
Her once radiant pink eyes were vacant, devoid of any focus.
Lying on the hard experiment table, she merely stared blankly at the ceiling.
Cheshire swallowed her anguish, forcing it down deep, and approached her closely.
And she gazed at her mother’s face for a long, long time.
How long had she been staring like that?
The woman, who had been as still as a broken doll, suddenly whispered.
“…I want to sleep.”
Cheshire bit her lower lip at the words rasped from those parched lips.
Swallowing the sob that welled up, she asked.
“Have you not been able to sleep for a long time? How long…?”
Of course, no answer came.
As if the brief whisper had been a lie, she simply lay there like a doll once more.
Only the faint rise and fall of her chest indicated that she was still alive.
Cheshire cautiously opened her mouth.
“Do you remember the lullaby you sang to me, Mom?”
“….”
“Since I can’t even give you a flower…. Since there’s nothing I can do for you.”
“….”
“So.”
She knew it was a meaningless act, one meant only to ease her own heart.
Still, Cheshire sang.
She sang a lullaby that wouldn’t reach her mother, who couldn’t even receive a single flower.
Just as her mother had sung a lullaby that wouldn’t be heard to her, still in the womb.
Was it a mere illusion?
Her mother’s expression seemed to relax, just a tiny bit.
It was while she had been singing for some time in the silent white room.
The laboratory door opened.
People in pristine white priestly robes entered.
Upon seeing the woman, they immediately marveled.
“As expected…! She’s already finished recovering.”
“There’s not even a trace of injury left. Truly remarkable.”
One of the priests approached, picking up a large knife from the display case on the laboratory wall.
It was a blade made from the same white mineral as a holy sword.
“We need results today…. It’s a meaningful day, after all.”
“It’s the sacred Day of the Nine. God will fill in the last one.”
Watching them chatter among themselves while selecting experiment tools, a fire raged within her.
Once again, Cheshire could only watch.
She had to etch every agonizing moment into her eyes, yet she could do nothing.
The fact that she couldn’t intervene in time that had already passed was despairing.
She couldn’t bear it any longer.
She couldn’t leave her mother floundering in endless torment.
Knowing it was futile, Cheshire screamed a cry that would never be heard.
“Snap out of it!”
She shouted with all her might and slammed down on the experiment table where she was bound.
Intending to smash the table, she swung her small fists wildly, but they merely passed right through with a whoosh.
Unable to control the force of her swings, she tumbled to the floor.
But Cheshire quickly got up again.
She didn’t stop her helpless thrashing.
“Then, commencing the 999th day experiment.”
The priest brought the razor-sharp blade to the woman.
Just before the edge touched her skin.
After swinging uselessly so many times, Cheshire’s fist slammed down on the experiment table with a bang.
“……!”
Everyone froze at the sudden burst of noise.
The priests exchanged bewildered glances.
“What was that sound just now?”
“Did you bump into something?”
“I was over here….”
As confused as they were, Cheshire stood frozen, her fist still raised in shock.
She quickly tried touching the experiment table again, but it passed through with the same whoosh.
She thought the fortunate accident had changed nothing.
But discovering something, Cheshire drew in a short breath.
A spark returned to the pink eyes that had been hazy until now.
No longer doll-like, she now scanned her surroundings with clear eyes.
The woman, having checked the priests debating with tools in hand and then her own utterly ruined body in turn, wore a bitter smile.
One priest, sensing something off, turned to the woman and recoiled in alarm.
“…She’s regained consciousness!”
They hurriedly searched for a syringe.
As they brought over a large syringe filled with an unidentified blue substance, the woman spoke.
“This will be my end.”
Her voice was rough and gravelly from long disuse.
In the moment everyone in the lab wore puzzled expressions at her incomprehensible words.
She gently closed her eyes.
At the same time, Cheshire felt a chilling sensation crawl up her spine.
In the instant her skin prickled and her hair stood on end.
An enormous power exploded.
It was like an unavoidable natural disaster.
Black flowers resembling darkness and sharp thorny bushes burst forth in an instant.
The priests in the lab were crushed to death by the flowers and bushes without even a chance to scream.
And that wasn’t all.
The black flowers and thorny bushes engulfed the entire area where the laboratory had been.
Cheshire, her body pulled up into the sky, witnessed the entire spectacle vividly.
And when the black flowers and thorny bushes that had swept the land vanished.
What remained was a barren wasteland, devoid of all life, consisting only of sand and stone.
A desolate plain where no seed could ever sprout.
It was the birth of the forsaken land.
Cheshire knew what would later take root in that all-too-familiar place.
‘The Backworld….’
The space that the witch Lichesia alone had cared for, ruled by Cheshire Basilian’s father.
That place had been created because of the previous fairy queen.
With the scene of sandstorms whipping across the desolate land as the end, Cheshire returned to pitch-black darkness.
It was the space bridging past to present, the ‘crevice of time.’
“….”
In that utter darkness, the rabbit doll’s face floated up gently.
She looked up at the rabbit doll, appearing like a massive moon.
The rabbit doll and Cheshire stared at each other in silence.
Though no words were spoken, their gazes held deep meaning.
Cheshire took a deep breath.
The interlocking circumstances, like gears, evoked an indescribable feeling.
It was as if all of this had been predestined from the start, pouring down toward her like inescapable stars.
Before following the turning wheel of fate that had begun to move, there was something Cheshire absolutely needed to know.
“…Is Mom alive?”
Fairies were beings meant to make all things in nature revive and flourish.
Yet in her final moment, she had reversed her power and let it run rampant.
The black flowers and thorny bushes had devoured all life, creating barren ground.
Thanks to that, her mother had escaped the laboratory, but her survival was uncertain.
Because she had used power that defied the natural order.
But now, certain that the previous fairy queen was her mother.
Cheshire thought she must have miraculously survived that rampage against nature.
Otherwise, Cheshire herself wouldn’t have been born.
Standing firm as if she wouldn’t back down until she heard the answer, the rabbit doll, which had been silent, finally spoke.
“This is fate and destiny.”
“A punishment from which you can never escape.”
“You can change nothing.”
“Yet you must change everything.”
The rabbit doll, which had loomed large like a full moon, gradually shrank.
Reduced to its original size, the rabbit doll extended its stubby cotton foot toward Cheshire.
“I will exist by your side eternally.”
“And I will aid your fate.”
Nestling into Cheshire’s arms, the rabbit doll said.
“As the crown of the fairy queen.”
