They all cried out, their faces contorted in pain—but it felt like I was just watching this play out in a game. It didn’t feel real at all. In fact, I think I would have been more emotionally invested in a game. It was difficult to put into words, but it was as if I felt nothing for them at all.
I was more concerned about the icy feeling that had emerged from inside of me, which still seemed to be roaring throughout my body like a blizzard—one slowly eating away at me from within.
It’s so cold. So, so cold.
I gradually lost my sense of anything besides the cold. I did have the impression of someone saying something to me, very far away, but I couldn’t focus my attention on that. The blizzard howled louder and louder. My head was clouded. I felt like it would be easier if I just relinquished consciousness altogether.
The pitch-black darkness continued to expand.
“Katarina! Hey, Katarina, get a hold of yourself! Come to your senses... Maria and I are safe. We’re all right!”
I could faintly hear a voice crying out through the darkness. My field of vision opened up slightly. I could see Cezar, with a desperate look on his face, holding me by the shoulders, his voice raised.
So Maria and Cezar are okay. Thank goodness. Though I’d regained some visibility, and Cezar’s voice was just barely coming through, I still couldn’t move my own body, or speak at all. The icy blizzard billowing inside me wouldn’t stop. What should I do?
Seeing Cezar’s look of desperation, I realized that if I couldn’t return to my normal self, I would be upsetting Maria and everyone else.
I want to go back to normal. I want to stop the blizzard. But how to do it? Though I couldn’t move, I realized that I could feel something wet running down my cheeks.
I saw Cezar with his eyes wide open, having brought his elegant face right up close to mine.
Cezar? I was perplexed to see him so close to me. Then I felt something I could only describe as a chomp...
“Eh? C-Cezar! What are you doing?!” I screamed, before being so surprised by my own voice that I suddenly clapped my hands over my mouth.
Ah! I can move my hands! I tested my feet next, trying to take a step and finding I could. I was finally able to move my body.
“Good. Looks like you’ve come to your senses,” said Cezar with a relieved expression, as he watched me twirl my arms and legs around.
“Eh? Come to my senses?”
What’s he talking about?
“Your eyes went totally black in the middle, and you completely lost control of yourself.”
W-Was I really in such a state?! Well, I guess that explains why Cezar looked so desperate when he was trying to get my attention.
“Then you started making all that weird black stuff. I knew I had to do something, or we’d all be in trouble, but calling out to you was no use. If you were a man, I would have just hit you lightly to snap you out of it, but of course, I couldn’t raise my hand against a woman. As I wondered what to do, you started crying, which made me even more anxious...” At this point, Cezar’s expression turned to one of remorse. “To snap you out of it, I bit you. Sorry for that.”
“Huh?!”
When Cezar said this, I was able to recall what had just happened. My field of vision had opened up again, and I saw Cezar calling out to me with a look of desperation on his face. Then his beautiful face came up close to mine. And then, he’d chomped down on my nose. Having remembered that, I pressed my hand against my nose.
“Does it hurt?” asked Cezar, sounding concerned.
“No, no, not at all. I was surprised when I was bitten, but it didn’t hurt,” I declared.
“Really?” said Cezar, with a relieved expression.
That’s right. Cezar bit me on the nose, and I was so surprised that I was able to move my body again. Then, before I knew it, that blizzard inside me—that felt so cold before—had stopped.
“It was a spur of the moment thing; even I don’t really understand why I did it. At any rate, sorry. Pretend that a dog licked you instead, and forget about it,” said Cezar, looking remorseful once again.
But having just been saved by Cezar, I couldn’t stand to see him looking so troubled.
“No, I mean, please stop apologizing. Rather, I should be thanking you for saving me. If no one had done anything, I don’t know what might have happened.”
I felt sure that, if I had given myself over entirely to the icy blizzard raging inside of me, and fully relinquished my consciousness, then I never would have been able to return from the other side. When I considered that possibility, having my nose bitten seemed like no problem at all. In fact, I felt like I couldn’t thank Cezar enough.
“It’s such a relief to hear you say that,” said Cezar, pausing for a moment before adding, “Right, then let’s consider that matter settled, and figure out what to do about our situation.”
I gasped and finally took a good look at my surroundings. Maria’s eyes were still closed, but her complexion looked far healthier than it had when I first saw her, and she was lying peacefully on the floor. The other people, however, had all just collapsed. Not only that, but remnants of a black haze were still clinging to their bodies. It was a very eerie scene.
And I had done that to them.
I could still dimly remember that—mere moments ago—my body had moved on its own, and a mass of darkness that looked like a black snake had emerged from my staff. It was that snake of darkness that had left them in this condition. They were all unconscious, with pained expressions frozen on their faces. Sarah was the only one whose face I couldn’t see, since her hair had covered it when she fell, but I felt sure that she had made the same face the others had made.