Chapter 152
She had known the rabbit doll was no ordinary thing.
From the fact that the doll spoke at all, it was already far removed from anything normal.
The remarks it tossed out while playing philosopher had a peculiar way of piercing right through Cheshire’s circumstances.
So, she had anticipated it must be some mystical being.
‘It was a crown.’
Cheshire hugged the rabbit doll tightly as it nestled into her.
This might sound a bit ridiculous if said out loud, but….
It felt like inheriting something from her mother.
The soft, plush doll looked up at Cheshire with its round button eyes.
It patted her arm clumsily and awkwardly with its stubby feet, as if trying to comfort her.
Receiving those gentle pats, Cheshire thought.
‘Does the crown know all the truths?’
It was highly unlikely.
Because after her mother had gone rampant and disappeared, the crown had been sealed in the Holy Empire for a long time.
Even if it knew all the truths, it didn’t seem inclined to tell Cheshire honestly.
In the end, the rabbit doll hadn’t given a clear answer to her question.
It had only vaguely strung together cloudy, ambiguous words.
‘Maybe she crossed through time.’
Circumstantially, that seemed the most plausible hypothesis.
But if so, then who on earth was Cheshire’s biological father?
She had long assumed she was conceived in the laboratory through unwanted relations, but the priests’ attitudes toward her mother had been detached.
There even seemed to be a hint of fear.
Given their efforts to avoid any unnecessary contact, it appeared that Cheshire’s biological father wasn’t among those crushed to death by the thorny bushes.
As Cheshire pondered the still-unfilled gaps in the puzzle, she slowly looked down at her own palm.
It would be best to search for the time period her mother might have crossed into.
But the newly awakened power wasn’t something she could wield freely yet.
It might be because she hadn’t fully awakened as the queen, but more than that, it felt like a power that wasn’t meant to be used at will from the start.
‘There’s still so much I don’t know.’
But she had learned far more than before.
Cheshire now knew her mother’s face, her voice.
And the fact that her mother had loved her….
That alone gave her the energy to keep moving forward.
Cheshire pressed down on the rabbit doll’s head with her hand and said.
“Let’s do our best, Bunny.”
Thinking about the various things the fairy queen’s crown had done to her, honestly, there were plenty of reasons to get fired up in anger.
But in the current situation, it was the being that could help Cheshire the most.
Since things had come to this, she intended to forget the past and work well together.
As she stroked its head with her hand, the rabbit doll flapped its ears in protest.
“I am the crown of the fairy queen. Though I have taken the form of a lowly creature, my essence is that of the great fairy…!”
“Are you going to announce to the whole neighborhood that you’re a crown?”
“…I shall permit you to call me Bunny.”
Of course, the protest was swiftly suppressed.
Watching the drooping rabbit ears, Cheshire let out a short laugh and placed the rabbit doll on top of her head.
The rabbit doll’s limbs dangled over her head.
It looked a bit comical for a crown, but as long as it functioned properly, she didn’t mind.
Cheshire closed her eyes and drew up the power flowing within her body.
She felt the sensation of intricately tangled times brushing past.
Soon, flowers bloomed, cutting through the darkness, and she escaped the crevice of time, returning to the present.
Cheshire slowly opened her eyes.
Having been in the darkness for so long, her vision didn’t adjust to the sudden brightness.
She furrowed her brows slightly and waited for her eyes to get used to the light.
After some time passed, the surrounding scenery gradually came into clear focus.
“…?”
Even when her vision wasn’t fully clear, something had felt off.
Because not a single voice from the fairies, who should have joyfully welcomed her safe return, could be heard.
The fairies who had surrounded the Fairy Tree while singing were nowhere to be seen.
At first, she thought maybe they had all stepped away for a moment….
“There are no flowers at all.”
The fairy kingdom had been filled with countless flowers.
In this place where rich floral scents had surged like waves, not a single flower was visible.
Cheshire looked up at the Fairy Tree she had been sucked into.
The Fairy Tree, which had been blooming with flowers of every color, was now clean from branches to trunk.
As if it had never bloomed with all those various flowers, it had returned to being just an ordinary tree.
In the fairy kingdom where both fairies and flowers had vanished, only an endless green meadow stretched out.
Awkwardly staring at the silent space filled entirely with green, Cheshire pulled down the rabbit doll still perched on her head.
Shaking it vigorously enough to make its long ears flap, she asked.
“Do you know anything?”
“….”
The rabbit doll stayed silent when it was disadvantageous.
This time too, it clamped its mouth shut and pretended not to know.
Cheshire looked at the rabbit doll with incredulous eyes and asked.
“Should I leave here?”
“….”
Given the continued silence, it seemed she could act as she pleased.
Cheshire decided to leave this place for now.
‘Since it looks like no one’s here.’
She didn’t know where everyone had gone, but rather than waiting in a place with no one around, it seemed much better to go out and search.
And she felt uneasy, wondering if something had happened….
‘Hailon didn’t do something bad, did he?’
Recalling the Chains of Condemnation that had plunged into the fairy kingdom just before she fell into the crevice of time, she felt so anxious that she couldn’t possibly wait calmly.
Cheshire approached the golden door.
When she placed her hand on the massive door, unlike her first entry when she had hacked at it with an axe, it opened obediently.
Creak—the light poured in through the widening gap.
As she stepped out, it led straight into the illusory domain.
Being her second time, she didn’t panic and climbed back up the rabbit-hole-like passage in reverse.
She looked for the pocket watch among the objects floating here and there, but it wasn’t visible.
She wondered if the watch she had seen was really Kierne’s.
Later, she thought she should casually ask Kierne to show her his watch.
She was also curious about what the ‘ROSE’ inscribed on the inside of the lid meant.
“Phew!”
Finally emerging from the illusory domain, Cheshire let out a big breath.
It was reality.
Having stayed in the illusory domain for so long, and even traveling through the crevice of time to the past hundreds of years ago.
Coming back to reality after all that felt incredibly welcoming.
“But where is this?”
Cheshire blinked in confusion.
And for good reason—usually, when entering and exiting the illusory domain, one returned to the last location.
By all rights, Cheshire should have returned to the plaza of the Holy Empire.
Since she had been dragged to the fairy kingdom by the crown from there.
But the landscape before Cheshire’s eyes now was completely unfamiliar.
A lush, verdant forest.
This place, where birdsong echoed clear and bright, was somewhere she had never been before.
Tilting her head in puzzlement, she first took tentative steps forward.
After walking a bit, a clucking sound came from somewhere.
And not long after, her view opened up, revealing a blue horizon undulating like waves.
Cheshire, completely bewildered, muttered.
“The sea…?”
A forest on a high hill, a harbor village nestled below, and the blue ocean.
She stared blankly at the surging sea.
She had no idea how she had ended up near the sea.
‘Did the Holy Empire get submerged in water in the meantime?’
For a moment, she entertained an absurd imagination, then slapped a flower that concealed her presence onto her forehead.
And cautiously descended toward the village.
The seaside village was bustling with activity.
The salty scent of seawater wafted strongly, and seagulls soared through the sky.
The market was selling fresh, flopping fish and various seafood.
In the inland capital, most fish was eaten salted, so it was hard to see anything this fresh.
Cheshire stopped in front of one shop while looking around with curious eyes.
Through the window, she could see a calendar hanging on the inner wall of the shop.
Upon checking the date on the calendar, Cheshire rubbed her eyes with her hand.
But the date written on the calendar remained unchanged.
“…No, it can’t be.”
Denying reality, she quickly searched for another shop with a calendar hanging.
But they were all the same.
Standing stock-still in the middle of the market, Cheshire muttered with a pale face.
“This is big trouble….”
After Cheshire had disappeared from the Holy Empire’s plaza.
A full year had passed.
