Side Story 2: The Story of Jean Emilia
Chapter 2
“…Ugh.”
The moment she opened the door, a foul stench assaulted her senses. Karina wanted to slam the door shut and run away, but the smell wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.
‘The smell of rotting flesh…’
It was a familiar scent to her, who had been sent to battlefields countless times since entering the Imperial Palace. Not that it was a pleasant scent.
“Who’s there?”
Karina, startled by the childish voice, turned towards the sound. Two children were staring at her from inside the house.
Jet-black hair and eyes, skin as white as snow. Two identical, handsome faces.
For a moment, Karina wondered if she was seeing ghosts. Their presence was that strong.
“…Hello, I’m Karina.”
Karina, who had barged into their house, forced a smile, trying to calm her pounding heart. One of the children tilted their head.
“Karina?”
“Yes, Karina. That’s my name. What are your names?”
“Hmm, I’m Emilia! And this is Jean!”
The child who had tilted their head introduced themselves with an innocent smile. But “Jean,” unlike “Emilia,” seemed wary of Karina.
Karina, ignoring Jean’s piercing gaze, looked around the house.
“Ah, this is…”
She instinctively took a step back. There was a bed right next to the table where the twins were sitting, and a rotting corpse was lying on it, just as the soldier had described.
‘This must be the source of the stench.’
Judging from the skeleton, it was a woman.
Karina, her face grim, stared at the corpse, then turned to Emilia, who had come up to her.
“Who is this?”
“This is our mommy!”
It was Karina who had barged into their house and asked a 10-year-old child about the identity of a skeleton, but it was also Emilia who answered cheerfully, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Our mommy died after giving birth to me and Jean!”
“I… see.”
Karina, flustered, licked her dry lips. The child named Emilia seemed to lack common sense.
“You’re the first guest to visit our house, Sister!”
Emilia tugged on Karina’s sleeve excitedly.
“Haven’t any villagers come here?”
“Nope! The grown-ups in the village don’t care what we do! They’re so boring…”
Well, if anyone had visited this house, they wouldn’t have left the corpse alone.
“Do you two live here alone?”
Karina asked, continuing to look around the house.
“Yes! This is our house!”
Dust was piled up everywhere, as if the house had never been cleaned. The most baffling thing was that there was no sign of them using the kitchen, even though there was a space that clearly looked like a kitchen.
“Oh, right! Sister, Sister! Are you hungry? Mommy said we have to offer food to our guests!”
Emilia suddenly clapped her hands and ran back to the table, retrieving a stained cloth from underneath.
“Here, eat this!”
Karina, feeling a sense of foreboding, took the cloth from Emilia and opened it. And then, her face was filled with horror.
“You… eat this?”
“Yes!”
The cloth was filled with lumps of rotten flour, barely recognizable as bread.
Karina, momentarily dazed, took a deep breath and put the cloth on a shelf.
“Aren’t you going to eat? Aren’t you hungry?”
“…No, I’m not hungry.”
How had these children survived here?
If the skeleton on the bed was their mother who had died after giving birth to them, it meant that these children had been living here since they were born.
‘Is the barrier affecting them…?’
Karina’s face was gradually darkening.
She was seriously contemplating whether she should just leave or try to help these children, when she turned to the table where Jean was sitting.
“….”
Jean had been reading a book. Or rather, he had been hiding his face behind the book and glaring at her.
Emilia must have been reading too, as there was another book open on the table across from Jean.
“This is a book! It’s fun!”
Emilia seemed genuinely happy that Karina was interested. Karina, ignoring Emilia, who was jumping up and down excitedly, casually glanced at the open book.
“This is… a magic book.”
Karina’s eyes widened, she had assumed it was just a simple children’s book.
It was a magic book. And not just any magic book.
The thick book was filled with magic formulas. Formulas that even Karina had trouble understanding. Every page she flipped to was either about magic formulas or the formulas themselves.
‘What is this?’
These children, who didn’t even have basic common sense, were reading this and saying it was fun?
“Little one, …no, you said your name was Jean, right? Jean, can I borrow this book for a moment?”
She couldn’t believe it, so she wanted to check Jean’s book again. Jean looked at her suspiciously, but he reluctantly handed her the book at Emilia’s urging.
“This is a magic book too…”
And it was a different book than Emilia’s, filled with different formulas.
“Emilia, Jean, do you understand and read all of this?”
“Huh?”
Karina, flustered, opened the book to a random page and held it out to Emilia.
“Do you know what this means?”
Emilia stared at the sentence Karina was pointing at for a moment, then nodded vigorously.
“I know this! This is how you gather magic power in your hand! Like this!”
She demonstrated, gathering magic power in her hand. Karina gulped, seeing the lump of magic power forming on her hand.
“Jean, can you do it too?”
Jean, without hesitation, also gathered magic power in his hand.
“Sister? What’s wrong?”
Karina thought for a moment, then looked around the hut again.
She had missed something earlier. A cupboard in the kitchen. Instead of dishes, the cupboard was filled with dozens of books.
Karina opened the cupboard and checked the books. They were all magic books.
She asked Emilia and Jean if they had read all the books in the cupboard. Emilia, as if wondering why she would even ask such a question, nodded.
Karina’s lips twitched upwards.
‘These children…’
And it wasn’t just the children. The hut itself was unusual for a house in a remote mountain village.
The strange barrier surrounding the house. The corpse on the bed, untouched for over 10 years. The rotten bread piled up in a stained cloth. Two children, lacking common sense, who understood complex magic formulas.
Karina Yermel had a hunch.
These children were definitely “different.”
She took Emilia’s hand and approached Jean. Jean stiffened, seeing the stranger’s shadow approaching.
Karina, ignoring him, knelt down and met their eyes. And then, she said in a gentle voice,
“Emilia, Jean, will you come with me?”
“Come with you? What do you mean, Sister?”
Emilia and Jean looked at each other, their eyes wide. Karina grinned.
“I’m Countess Karina Yermel, the Chief Mage of the Imperial Palace Magic Department. Emilia, Jean, let’s go to my house. You can read even more books there than you have here.”
“…Really?”
It was Jean’s voice. He was showing interest in Karina for the first time.
“Yes, of course. And you can sleep in a comfortable, soft bed, and eat more delicious bread.”
“Really?! There’s even more delicious bread?!”
This time, it was Emilia.
“Of course. There are many more delicious foods in the world than what you’ve been eating. If you come with me, you can eat delicious things every day.”
“…Can we meet the prince and princess if we go with you, Sister?”
“Huh?”
“I want to meet the prince and princess…”
Emilia fidgeted, embarrassed. Karina chuckled. Even children in a remote village had their fantasies.
“There’s no prince in the Imperial Palace, but there is His Majesty the Emperor. And Her Majesty the Empress.”
“Ah, I know! His Majesty the Emperor, Her Majesty the Empress. They’re even more amazing than the prince and princess!”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Karina smiled. Emilia grabbed Jean’s arm and jumped up and down.
“Let’s go with Sister Karina, Jean! We can meet His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress!”
Jean hesitated, then mumbled,
“But… there’s Rem.”
“Rem?”
Karina, hearing the unfamiliar name, asked again, and Emilia raised her hand and answered,
“He’s a puppy who lives in the back hills! He always plays hide-and-seek with us. …Ah, right, Sister! Can we take Rem with us?”
“Of course you can. Is that all you need, Jean?”
“…Yes. We can really read a lot of books, right?”
“Of course. I’m not a bad person.”
Karina tried her best to smile kindly. Jean stared at her for a moment, then slowly nodded.
“Okay, let’s go. Call me Master from now on, Emilia, Jean.”
Karina, meeting their eyes one by one, said in a firm voice,
“I, Karina Yermel, guarantee you this. You will be the happiest people in Atlantis if you become my disciples.”