Chapter 34 - The magic was cancelled (1/2)

“What’s the matter, in a place like this?”

I was being bullied by the neighborhood children, and I was hiding by the side of our house hugging my knees, and I had been secretly crying when I heard a calm voice above me.

“……Nothing’s the matter, I’m fine.”

I didn’t want my mother who I loved so much to worry about me, so I told a lie and hurriedly wiped away my tears, but……

“If you’re crying by yourself in a place like this, your painful feelings definitely won’t go away. When it’s painful, mother will be by your side, and listen to what you have to say, so don’t cry by yourself.”

Mother hugged me tightly as she said so.

When I was growing up, it was only mother and I living together.

Mother would still hold me even while working, even though it should have been really hard on her, she always had a smile on. We weren’t well-off in our lifestyle or anything, but…… “I’m so lucky to have such a wonderful son” is what mother would say as she hugged me, giving me lots of love. Those were peaceful and happy days.

I didn’t know anything about my father. His name, or whether he was alive or not. Because of that, I kept getting bullied by the children in the neighborhood, and it would be a lie to say that I didn’t care about it, but…… Somehow it felt like mother was really reluctant to talk about father, I could feel so even as a child, and I didn’t probe too deeply.

However, I would soon regret that. If I had known about my father…… I might have been able to change what happened.

And so, the peaceful, happy daily life I had with my mother came to a sudden end. That happened during spring when I was nine years old.

It happened during dusk, when I was returning home with my mother. I think some big men that we’ve never seen before suddenly appeared in front of us, and - a cloth was pressed against my mouth, and I inhaled a sweet smell…… I went unconscious after that.

When I woke up I was in a dimly lit room. There was no natural light at all, there was only one lamp lighting the room. From what I could make out on the walls, there were tightly packed letters of some sort written on them, and it gave off an incredibly creepy feeling.

There were ten or so people next to me in that room.

I was lying down in the middle of the room, and they were standing around me as if to surround me. The men who attacked us were among them as well. They were probably the ones who brought me here.

I was tied up, and I tried to move but couldn’t budge at all. There was also a cloth tightly packed into my mouth, and I couldn’t make any sounds.

Standing right in front of me, were a man dressed in all black that seemed to fit right in with this dark room somehow, and a woman in all red with a sparkling crimson dress and a gem around her neck with the same crimson color.

“Child, you’ve awoken. Now, bring that boy here.”

When the woman in red said so, a large man came forth. Under his arm, he was holding a boy about the same age as me.

The boy was laid down next to me on a clean cloth very carefully. Looking at him closely, he seemed to be overly skinny, and his complexion was bad as well, and it looked like he was having difficulties breathing. He’s probably very sick with something.

However, other than the fact that he was very ill, he looked quite like me. Red hair, grey eyes, and his face as well -

I wonder who exactly this boy is. Then, while I was still observing the boy, the woman in red spoke up again.

“Now everything is ready. Then, let’s begin the sacrifice.”

What’s ready? What exactly are they doing in such a dark room? What’s a sacrifice? I think I’ve heard the word in a story mother read to me once…… I wonder what it was……

I still hadn’t realized the situation I was in and was still thinking things like that.

The boy was brought opposite to me, then the man brought out another person.

That person was…… the mother that I loved so much. Almost as if she was being dragged, she was brought over here. Her beautiful face was swollen up. She also had an injury of some sort on her leg, she was limping.

“Mother!!”

I shouted with all my might through the cloth stuffed in my mouth, but in actuality only a muffled sound made it out.

Mother was struggling. However, a man standing close to me pushed her down onto the cold floor.

“Stop!!”

Mother was screaming, and pushing back against the man.

While staring at us with very cold eyes, the woman in red spoke up.

“Take care to not treat that boy’s body too badly. After all, his body’s going to become my precious Sirius’s body.”

She’s probably talking about me when she said that boy. My body’s going to become Sirius’s body? Who’s Sirius? I was confused and didn’t understand what was going on at all.

“……Marchioness, if you hate me, it doesn’t matter what you do to me…… So please, I’m begging you, please spare my son……”

My injured mother was desperately begging the woman in red. Mother was calling her marchioness. I wonder if she knows her?

Also…… I wonder what mother meant by hating her.

Mother wasn’t only gentle towards me, she was nice to everyone in the neighborhood and was liked by everyone as well. I can’t even imagine anyone hating my mother.

However, the woman in red’s eyes became even colder as she looked at mother.

“……I’m amazed at how impudent you can be. You stole my husband from me, and even had a child, yet you’re still begging me.”

“…………I was only the marquis-sama’s partner due to a momentary whim of his. That’s why, I have no intentions of getting close to the marquis-sama. I only want to live a peaceful life together with my son.”

“Smack!” A sound loudly resounded throughout the dark room. The woman in red had slapped my begging mother on her cheek. “Mother!!” I tried but failed again to shout out.

“……Even though they’re both Marquis Deek’s children, born at almost the same time…… Why are you and I so different. ……You’re beautiful, and have a healthy body. And, your son is healthy and energetic as well…… Why do you have everything? ……I don’t have anything, I’m not that beautiful, I have a weak and sickly body, my husband doesn’t love me, and even though I was finally able to give birth to a child, he’s just as weak and sickly as I am, and what’s more he caught an incurable disease, and doesn’t have long to live……”

The woman in red grabbed and shook my mother.

“……Only you…… I definitely won’t allow you and your child to live a happy life!! ……Begin!”

At the woman in red’s command, the man dressed entirely in black walked in front of my mother. Then, in a voice that sounded almost completely emotionless, he began muttering words I’ve never heard before.

They were such mysterious words. Even though they’re probably a foreign language that I’ve never heard before, when I heard them they felt nostalgic to me somehow.

However, as the man in black continued speaking, I began to get goosebumps all over my body. The air felt incredibly stagnant, and something felt really bad.

Then - the man stopped speaking. And then, the already dark room was completely enveloped in darkness.

In this darkness where I couldn’t see anything, I could hear my mother screaming.

When light appeared in the completely dark room again, I immediately looked for my mother. Then, just two or three steps away from me, I saw her laying there limp on the ground.

Even with my tied up body, I desperately tried to reach my mother. As I got closer, I saw that mother’s face had no life to it at all, and it didn’t seem like she was breathing.

Although she had been injured, it didn’t seem to be something serious to this extent. Why? What’s the matter?

“Mother! Mother!” I desperately tried shouting for her through the cloth in my mouth.

Then, I met my mother’s eyes. Mother looked firmly into my eyes.

“——Please——”

She said so in a voice that was so quiet it could barely be heard, and then she became quiet and stopped breathing.

“Well? Did it succeed?”

“Yes. Just like how it’s written in the book, he successfully obtained the power without any problems.”

The man in black was answering the woman in red’s question.

“I see. Then, let’s immediately use that power to transfer Sirius’s consciousness to this boy’s body.”

I heard what they were talking about, but…… Right now, nothing was entering my head. I can’t accept what’s happened here right now at all.

Just a bit earlier, I had been making dinner plans with mother on our way home……

And before I realized it, I was brought to this dark room for some reason…… And…… mother whom I loved so much…… wasn’t breathing anymore……

“Okay. Well, I’m starting.”

While also touching the body of the boy laying next to me, the man in black placed his hand on my forehead.

At that instant, my head was filled with images that I had never seen before. Strange images that even included sound as well. People and places I didn’t know…… Almost as if it was a life that had been experienced by someone else, is the feeling I got. These images kept entering my head one after the other, and my head hurt so much it felt like it would crack open.

Then - when all the images finally stopped coming…… I finally understood everything. Why I was brought to a place like this, and why my mother died in a dark room like this……

The images that came into my mind told me everything. This redheaded woman’s plan -

The redheaded woman is the wife of a noble called Marquis Deek, and she’s the mother of the boy named Sirius laying next to me.

However, she wasn’t loved by the marquis. The marquis was a feckless womanizer playboy, and his ways didn’t change even after marrying. When he fulfilled his duty of siring an heir, Sirius Deek, upon his lawful wife, he never showed himself in front of her again.

Because of that, she only had one child, Sirius, and her whole existence revolved around him. Every day, she would bitterly complain about her misfortune to her young son.

However, the only support for her heart, her son…… came down with an incurable disease.

She made full use of their wealth and political power, and had so many doctors visit, but they all told her it was useless so then she tried some dubious magic, but……

She wasn’t able to cure her son, and he got weaker every day. The idea of losing her son…… She couldn’t accept the thought at all.

One day, after dabbling in so many different types of dubious magic, she finally found out about the existence of dark magic. Magic that can manipulate the heart and mind, and even replace memories.

When she learned this, she came up with an idea. If she could transfer her son’s mind to another healthy body, it might be a way to save her son.

It was an exceedingly quixotic plan, a thoughtless plan that could almost never be realized - but, since she didn’t have any ideas left anymore that could save her son…… Even though this plan was such an impossible plan, it was all she could cling to in order to try saving her son.

And so, she searched for the way to obtain dark magic - and also for a suitable vessel for her son.

Her son’s vessel must be in good health, and, it was necessary that he be as close to her son as possible in age and looks. If it looked too different, he wouldn’t be able to inherit from Marquis Deek.

Then, she found it. A boy that looked very similar to her son and was the same age - almost as if he had been born just to become Sirius’s vessel -

That boy was the son of one of Marquis Deek’s former maids. In the past, this beautiful maid had worked for Marquis Deek and was favored by him, and she disappeared from the mansion when she had gotten pregnant.

The maid had given birth to a son who looked much like Marquis Deek and they were living together happily.

The marchioness decided that the maid’s son would become a vessel for her son Sirius.

Then, she succeeded in finding out the way to obtain dark magic powers. Dark magic can be acquired by sacrificing another’s life. Meaning, it was necessary to make a living sacrifice in order to obtain dark magic.

The marchioness decided to sacrifice the vessel’s mother, that woman who seemed like she was living such a happy life.

And so, today was the day she finally put that plan into action.

She had the vessel and the woman who was to be the sacrifice captured, and had an underling who had dark magic perform the sacrificial ritual to obtain dark magic on the vessel - then, she had her son Sirius’s memories transferred to the vessel.

If everything had gone according to the marchioness’s plan, Sirius’s memories should have been transferred over to me who was to be a vessel, and I should have died…… I was supposed to have become Sirius Deek, but……

However…… Sirius’s memories - even though I had memories of everything he’s seen and heard before inserted into my head…… I’m still me.

Certainly, I now have Sirius’s memories in my head. But that’s all. Even though I have the memories - the boy named Sirius is nowhere to be found. However, all I could feel was “I’m so tired. I wish it could all just end,” nothing but painful feelings.

He had been everything to his mother, his mother completely relied on him mentally, even more so when he was on the verge of death, and she would always be crying by his bedside, but…… All the boy Sirius wanted was to be free from it all. Even though he was so young, he had already gotten tired of living. He had no other feelings at all in his memories.

And so, I didn’t become Sirius, I just obtained his memories without any of his thoughts.

The marchioness’s plan had failed.

……However, if she learns the truth, I’ll probably be killed here immediately, so I’ll use Sirius’s memories.

I can’t die here…… It’s the strongest feeling I’ve ever had. I can’t die yet…… Not until I fulfill my mother’s last wish……

Before I realized it, the cloth that had been tightly packed into my mouth had been removed.

I suppressed all of my feelings, and greeted the woman I hate most in the world -

“……Mother……”

That’s what I called her. That’s how Sirius Deek has always addressed her. Then, a big smile appeared on her face.

“Ahh, Sirius! It’s you! The dark magic succeeded!”

As she said so, Marchioness Deek hugged me tightly.

I felt strongly repulsed, but I endured the best I could in order to prevent my body from shaking. Because, I can’t afford to die here just yet. I’ll live on, in order to fulfill my mother’s last wish.

“……Well then, Madam. My job here is finished. Would it be alright for me to return to my hometown together with my family now?”

The man in black asked the marchioness nervously.

“That’s right, you’ve done very well. Thanks to you, my Sirius was able to obtain such a healthy body.”

“……Then, would it be alright for you to return my family now?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll let you meet them immediately. You guys!”

The marchioness beckoned towards the other strong-looking men in the room. A relieved expression appeared on the man in black’s face, and the other men approached. Then - all of them stabbed the man in black with their swords.

“………Why……”

With his body pierced and bleeding all over, the man reached his hand out towards the marchioness.

“Didn’t I just say I’d let you meet them immediately? Your family’s already dead, and waiting for you in the next world.”

The marchioness was laughing gracefully at him.

“……You promised you would return my family safely to me if I helped you…… Even though I did so much for you…… You…… deceived me……”