Chapter 69
Unlike Kiss, Katya simply kept her mouth shut with an indifferent expression.
It was a completely different attitude from Charlotte, who spoke warmly and cheerfully.
“Hello, Katya. But this is a friend I haven’t met before?”
Charlotte turned her gaze toward Messy, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
Messy tilted his head slightly and smiled at Nina.
“You’re the niece of the captain of the guard you mentioned last time, right?”
“Yes, I’m Charlotte. I came to Lohas for some recuperation. Charlotte, this is my friend Messy. He looks just like this doll, doesn’t he?”
“Ahaha, how cute. Nice to meet you, Messy. I’m Charlotte Noir. I haven’t been in Lohas for very long.”
Katya snorted quietly.
Luckily, it was so noisy around them that only Nina heard it.
“Nice to meet you.”
Messy offered a light greeting, and Charlotte felt a faint blush rise on her cheeks.
“And this is Uncle Günther, and you met Uncle Kiss before, right? Over there are Mira and Uncle Smoky, and Sister Lisa.”
At Nina’s sequential introductions, Charlotte looked puzzled.
“Why is that uncle called a sister?”
“Well…”
Nina felt a bit awkward and glanced at Messy.
Messy replied as if it was obvious.
“That’s just the custom in Lohas.”
“Oh… is that so? Hello everyone, nice to meet you. Can I come along too?”
The adults simply nodded, still looking slightly bewildered.
Katya looked slightly displeased but didn’t say a word.
Charlotte gestured to her nanny standing a little way off, then turned back and grabbed Nina’s hand.
“This is exciting. Actually, it’s my first time watching the carnival in Lohas.”
“Me too. But is it okay to just let the nanny go like that?”
“Yes, it’s her rare day off, so she’ll be fine with it.”
However, when Nina glanced back, Charlotte’s nanny was running over, her face full of concern.
“Miss, you must take your medicine!”
“Huh? Ah, right. Thank you.”
“Don’t forget, you must take it. And don’t overdo it.”
After handing over the basket of medicine and repeatedly reminding her, the nanny finally turned to leave.
‘She’s such a kind nanny.’
To Nina, who had never experienced such a nanny, it was truly fascinating.
For her, nannies were the type who appeared only when they felt like it, bringing only the essentials, or giving her Sally’s juice every time she cried.
‘I almost died early on, huh?’
Just being alive and breathing normally now made her realize how lucky she might be.
‘But does Katya not like Charlotte very much?’
As she glanced at Katya’s expression with concern, Mira suddenly started acting out again.
“Wait, wait. This isn’t something you can just brush off! Hey, come over here!”
Nina had to step in to stop Mira from lunging at Günther.
“M-Mira! By the way, I just remembered—did you read all the books I gave you?!”
“Huh? When did the pretty girl give me a book…”
“No, I mean the storybook I told you to read! Did you finish it?”
“No. Sorry, but I really dislike books.”
“…Is that something to be proud of?”
Seeing Nina let out a deep, despairing sigh, Mira’s eyes shook with agitation.
Thunk!
“Well, it wasn’t about being proud…”
“I read them all.”
“Me too!”
Taking advantage of the moment, Smoky and Kiss proudly claimed they had read them too.
As a result, they received Mira’s fearsome retaliation.
“Who do you think you are, acting so smart!”
“Ahhhh!”
It seemed the book reports would have to be addressed properly later.
The group, made up of four children and five adults, made a noisy procession through the festival streets.
As they approached the square, transformed into a theme park, a very unusual procession passed through the crowd.
Unlike the previous parade of massive structures inspired by landmarks and mythological figures, these movers dressed entirely in white appeared as if carrying something, though their shoulders were empty.
“Who are those people? Why aren’t they carrying anything?”
“I was wondering the same.”
Charlotte’s question made Nina tilt her head in curiosity as well.
“They’re from the Transparent Temple. See how they’re all in white?”
“Yeah.”
Nodding, Nina listened as Messy kindly added an explanation.
“That’s their ceremonial attire. They’re probably transporting a Transparent Dragon.”
“So it’s actually transparent, so we can’t see it…?”
“They say only people with deep faith can see it.”
“Ah…”
Nina, whose faith was not very deep, turned her gaze to the following procession.
These movers seemed to be from the temple as well, but this time they were carrying ordinary(?) massive structures.
There were gigantic models of white-furred wild dogs, or wolves.
Nina could guess that they were representations of Neuroi, the daughter of the fox sister from the founding myth.
However, the smaller models following closely behind were impossible to identify.
Though they were supposed to be Neuroi’s descendants, the paired models were mottled in patchwork rather than purely white or black.
All wolf spirits associated with Neuroi were said to be either white or black.
Moreover, one had a curled tail, not like a wolf, but more like a mixed-breed dog.
“What on earth is that…?”
Messy kept quiet as if he didn’t know this time, so Katya stepped in to explain.
“You guys don’t know? That’s Lyka.”
“Lyka…?”
The unfamiliar yet strangely familiar name left Nina even more puzzled.
“The main character from that storybook?”
“Ah, yes, same name. But it’s actually a very famous old story. Haven’t you heard it in the Hwangdo?”
“No, I haven’t. What’s it about?”
Nina asked seriously, and Katya shrugged, rubbing the tip of her nose.
“How strange. Everyone here knows it. It’s like an unofficial history, what do they call it…”
“Yasa?”
Charlotte interjected quietly.
Katya surprisingly nodded obediently.
“Yes, Yasa. Anyway, they say there used to be many descendants of that wolf lady in our country. Now they’re all extinct, though.”
“That’s right. Neuroi supposedly made a lot of contributions to the empire through a contract with the Cherni family.”
Ignoring Charlotte’s comment, Katya continued.
“They thought the wolves would go extinct, so they took the remaining wolves and made Lyka.”
“Made? How?”
“I don’t know either. But even so, they were still technically extinct. In that temple, they seem to treat Lyka as the Hellhound.”
Ah, that was why the Transparent Temple conducted the procession.
Nina turned her gaze back to the Lyka models.
Even if it was unofficial history, she had never heard of this story.
She didn’t recall reading it in any book.
Judging from Charlotte’s expression, it seemed it wasn’t well known in Hwangdo either.
It was strange that this story was so common only in Lohas.
“…But if that’s the case, there couldn’t have been just one. Why are they all simply called Lyka?”
It was a question that came out without much thought.
“Because their names were all the same anyway.”
The answer came from Messy, not Katya.
“What? You knew and just didn’t bother to tell us!”
Katya scolded, and Nina quickly turned to Messy.
“All their names were the same…?”
Messy met her gaze with an expression she had never seen before.
In his golden eyes was a fleeting, serene bitterness, mixed with tender compassion.
It lasted only for a brief moment.
Then Messy nodded as warmly as ever.
“Yes. Names are individuality.”
For beings born according to others’ whims, individuality is unnecessary.
Nina asked without realizing it.
