Chapter 56: Hyde Exorcising a Ghost from a Woman’s Body! (2)

When I was young,

I heard a shocking story.

It was that the strawberry milk I love actually contains bugs!

I thought it was a lie.

But it was true.

Strawberry milk contained coloring made from bugs!

Is it still like that?

Anyway,

That’s when I learned about these things called “cochineal.”

I also learned that these things were used as a luxurious dye after a rather elaborate processing in the old days.

Bobbing─.

These bugs were floating on the well water that was dyed red like blood. They were mixed in the water, but when I touched them with my hand, the bugs themselves were dry.

They weren’t simply dried, but rather dried through a complex process in a high-temperature, dry environment.

“Pretty good technique.”

It must be someone who knows a lot about bugs.

And someone smart enough to know the ancient Incan dyeing technique.

Also, it must be someone who had access to the well.

“Didn’t Lucy disappear saying she had to draw water from the well?”

I looked around.

Lucy Emma was nowhere to be seen.

“It’s a curse!”

“I, it’s a witch’s curse! It must be a terrible curse!”

“This convent is truly cursed! We must all leave this place!”

“The well is contaminated! What are we going to drink now!”

The nuns’ panic grew.

They were all clamoring to abandon this convent and leave.

Aha─.

I felt like I had grasped a clue here.

But it seemed like I had to calm the nuns down first.

“Everyone, calm down! This isn’t real blood, it’s just water dyed red! There’s nothing to be afraid of!”

It’s similar to strawberry milk.

The taste might be different, but you won’t die from drinking it.

Of course, just in case, we should leave the well alone until it’s purified.

“Shut up!”

“What do you know! Do you know more about blood than us women? That’s blood! Heeee!”

Fuck.

Panicked women were such a pain in the ass.

Very annoying.

I want to take out my mask and make them quiet.

But I couldn’t do that.

On this cramped island, where I’m the only man, becoming Lust would be like openly promoting my true identity.

Of course, there were many ways to do it without getting caught, but I didn’t want to transform in front of Psyche if possible.

“What, it’s not real blood?”

At that moment, Milione bravely stepped forward and touched the well water scooped up in a bucket with her hand.

Milione, who had a lot of experience with getting blood on her hands, seemed to realize that this wasn’t real blood.

Is she a bit reliable in times like these?

“Tsk, I wish it was real blood.”

She’s a crazy bitch after all.

Soon, Psyche also took a sip of the water.

“It doesn’t seem to have any poison. It’s just red water. Who on earth would do such a thing? It seems like these bugs are the problem─.”

As expected, Psyche was quick-witted.

Since I had grasped the culprit and their intention, I spoke without hesitation.

“Psyche, please call Lucy Emma.”

There weren’t many people who had access to the well this morning.

And I thought I knew Lucy Emma’s purpose.

Lucy Emma.

She wasn’t possessed.

And my guess was that it wasn’t a tic or Tourette’s either.

She was just a liar.

I truly believed in Lucy Emma.

To think she would try to play a prank like this using my trust.

Unacceptable.

Guilty!

---

“Hehe.”

Lucy Emma was in a good mood.

Because she had played a prank on the bad woman, Anemone.

Anemone was a bad woman.

She was a woman who secretly went to the beach every night and recited blasphemous prayers.

‘Anemone was definitely a witch! But no one believed me!’

Lucy was called a liar.

No one believed Lucy’s words.

Childhood─.

Because Lucy told all sorts of lies to get people’s attention, people started to hate her.

Now, Anemone greatly tormented and scolded Lucy, who suspected her. Lucy had to do all the chores every day, had to say boring prayers, was scolded, and was whipped.

‘But Hyde believed me! He punished Anemone! And he said he would take me off this island! He’s the first person to believe me!’

Lucy had never left this island and convent since she was born. Nuns would come to the island or leave freely, but only Lucy couldn’t leave this island.

Perhaps she would be trapped on this island until the day she died.

‘I want to go to the mainland too. Even if it’s just to another convent! Why do I have to stay in this convent? Abbess Midnar won’t let me out either!’

Lucy only learned about the outside world through ‘books.’

The Grand Cathedral.

High mountains.

Beautiful meadows and fields were just letters to Lucy, not experiences or scenery.

‘I want to see them for myself! Not as letters, but in real life!’

So Lucy made a plan.

A plan to escape this convent.

Lucy wanted to go to the mainland and see the Grand Cathedral, and she wanted to eat something called ice cream.

She wanted to see puppies and sheep.

Especially, what set her heart on fire was the book “The Way of the Beast” she had picked up by chance recently.

The stories of the people in it were embarrassing, but they made her feel that everyone was living their lives to the fullest.

Everyone was truly living their lives to the fullest.

Lucy thought that only her life was at a standstill, and she was so sad that she couldn’t bear it.

‘I’m going to leave this island too! And by now, everyone must be surprised and flipped out, right? They’ll think it’s a curse. Lust’s curse! They’ll think that!’

A foreign book she had read a long time ago.

She had learned how to make water red like blood using bugs, and she thought it was fascinating.

She used that to make the well look like it was under a ‘blood curse.’

If someone who didn’t know saw it, they would really think it was cursed.

Then, the nuns would abandon this convent and leave, and Lucy would also be able to escape this convent and the dreadful Stone Island.

‘They say Lust is an omnipotent man. Cursing the well on this island would be easy for him. I’m just borrowing Lust’s name for a bit!’

“Pfft.”

It was when she was laughing to herself thinking that.

Someone knocked on Lucy’s door.

“Who is it?”

“Lucy, it’s Psyche!”

Psyche.

One of the people Lucy liked. Psyche was kind, pure, and one of the friends who listened to Lucy well.

“Psyche! What’s up! I was just about to ask you to go eat breakfast together, what a coincidence!”

“Lucy, I didn’t come here because of breakfast. Lucy, did you lie to me?”

“Lie? No!”

Lucy felt guilty, but she shook her head.

Psyche looked at Lucy with narrowed eyes.

It was the same look that people who had doubted Lucy in the past had given her.

“I want to believe that too, but… Lucy, it’s better to be honest from now on. There are people in the world who can help you. You shouldn’t lie to those people too. It might not be my place to say, but….”

Saying that, Psyche led Lucy somewhere.

The stone chapel.

All the nuns were seated solemnly there, and the dreadful Abbess Midnar was also holding a whip in her hand.

‘Yikes!’

Lucy was slightly startled inwardly.

Because the atmosphere was too strict and scary.

‘Did they find out that I contaminated the well water?’

Cold sweat seemed to be dripping down her back.

But there was no need to worry.

Lucy had a secret weapon.

‘I’ll just pretend to have a mental illness!’

Book.

According to a book that Abbess Midnar had brought when she took office, there was research on a mental illness where people ramble on.

Abbess Midnar was someone who viewed ‘possessed people’ as having a ‘mental illness,’ and Lucy used that to act like she had a mental illness and gain sympathy and attention from people.

‘Hyde pitied me too!’

When Abbess Midnar was about to whip Lucy,

Hyde stepped forward and protected Lucy.

It was the first time that had happened, so Lucy was deeply moved.

“Lucy.”

Hyde, who was like that, called Lucy in front of the chair placed in the center of the chapel’s platform.

“Why did you lie to me?”

“Me? I didn’t lie!”

“Lucy, I think you’re the only one who would know about cochineal. And last night, you were the one who wrote with blood, weren’t you?”

Lucy was startled.

To think that Hyde, the man from the mainland, had figured out her crime at once!

It seemed like he was looking at her as a liar.

‘In this case, I have to use my secret weapon right away!’

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut.

And she trembled and acted like a sick person.

“Sex! Dick! Vagina! Ugh, oh, uh, oh, dick!”

They were very embarrassing words.

Could anyone say such things in their right mind?

Lucy was embarrassed, but she shouted loudly, feeling like she had to act like a real sick person.

“I, I don’t want to say these things! Sometimes, I don’t even know─. I don’t even know, it just comes out! I have another personality inside me! This is, this is called a split personality!”

“Split personality?”

Hyde seemed interested.

Lucy realized that Hyde was a kind person who would listen to her story.

Just like Psyche had said, Hyde was a truly kind person!

“Split personality! I have, that, another personality inside me! So it makes me say and do things I don’t want to do! It’s not my fault, Lucy! It’s Emma’s fault!”

“I see. Then I’ll exorcise that other personality from you, Lucy. I know more about dissociative identity disorder than anyone else in the world.”

Dissociative─what?

Lucy didn’t understand Hyde’s words.

Soon, people started tying Lucy’s hands and feet to the chair, and Lucy was completely bound.

Hyde held out a coin tied to a string in front of Lucy.

“Do you know what hypnotherapy is? Lucy, you’re now going to enter your inner world and face your other personality.”

---

Tics, Tourette’s were incurable diseases even in the 21st century.

Meaning even I can’t cure them.

But fortunately or unfortunately, Lucy was a ‘liar.’

There was no such disease in the first place.

So there was something I could do.

“Now, we’re going to enter a hypnotic state. Look closely at this swinging coin.”

Hypnotherapy.

It was a treatment method that began to be formally established by an Austrian doctor in the 18th century. In this barbaric world, hypnosis was the latest treatment method─that’s what it meant.

Of course, I didn’t know how to do hypnotherapy.

I’ll just pretend to do it.

What could be better than a fake treatment method to treat a fake illness?

I’ll give this wicked girl who plays pranks on people with her lies a few flicks on the forehead and pinch her cheeks under the pretense of hypnotherapy.

You need to be taught a lesson!

“Now, Lucy, when I snap my fingers, you’ll fall into a deep inner world until I snap them again. Three, two, one─.”

Snap-.

I snapped my fingers.

Then, Lucy Emma’s gaze instantly became unfocused.

I asked Lucy,

“Now, Lucy. Let’s talk about when your other personality emerged. Lucy, how old were you and where were you? What do you see?”

“Hyde.”

“Are you saying you can see me? Who are you? Are you Lucy’s other personality?”

“I’m Emma. Emma who was burned to death by the nuns in this convent! I told you I would come back! I’ve come back to kill you all!”

Emma.

Lucy Emma.

Was it a setting where two people shared one name?

As I was thinking that, the nuns were greatly surprised.

“E, Emma?”

“What kind of prank is this?”

“Is… is it really Emma?”

“I’m Emma! Emma whom you tied to a tree and burned to death!”

“Don’t lie!”

“Why would we tie you to a tree and burn you to death!”

“You crazy bitch!”

The nuns shouted menacingly at Emma, who was tied to the chair. Seeing them, Milione reacted by saying, “Everyone’s getting angry.”

Of course, the angriest one was Lucy, or rather, the woman tied to the chair who claimed to be Emma.

“The pain from that time! It’s still vivid! No one saved me even when I cried until my body melted and my bones turned to ash!!! I’ll burn you all to death just like that!!!”

Whoosh-.

The candles and lamps that were burning in the dark chapel suddenly flared up. It was a surprising sight, and the intensified flames soon spread to the chapel.

Whoosh, whoosh-!

The fire suddenly started.

This time, it wasn’t a fire I started?

As I felt puzzled by this situation, Midnar grabbed her face.

“Is it really Emma? She’s just like Emma. Even having a talent for magic─.”

Magic.

At those words, my eyes widened.

I knew that beings like ‘witches’ and ‘wizards’ existed in this world, but most of them were fake.

Holy Power, Aura, Mana.

Among these three miracles, Mana was said to be an extremely rare and innate talent.

“S, save me! Emma! I was asleep at that time! I didn’t know you were dying!”

“It was Anemone! Anemone told us to burn you to death! I opposed it!”

“Heiii! It’s really the vengeful spirit of a witch! A witch has possessed her daughter and come to kill us!”

“Save me! Save me! I only threw one piece of firewood! I didn’t know you would die from that! Really!”

The nuns went crazy.

They tried to escape from this chapel, but the flames were too strong, and they couldn’t do anything.

Seeing this, Milione chuckled.

“The chapel is on fire? Good. I don’t know what’s going on, but burn more! If the Grande Convent disappears, I won’t have to spend another year here!”

This is crazy.

As expected, the only one I can trust is Psyche.

“Psyche!”

“I know! If we stay like this, we’ll all burn to death! Hyde, I’ll take care of it from now on, so don’t worry! Lucy! Stop it!”

Whoosh-.

Psyche dashed towards Lucy.

And she grabbed the rampaging Lucy.

“Lucy! Come to your senses!”

“We are Emma!”

Whoosh-!

Flames erupted from Lucy Emma’s body. It was spontaneous combustion, and the heat was so intense that it even melted Psyche’s clothes─.

I had a feeling that it might be real.

It might be a real devil or ghost.

Then, power surged from my body.

Now is the time for me to step up!

“Emma! You were the ghost that was consuming Lucy! In the name of the Lord, I command you, Emma! Return to where you belong!!!!”

I shouted powerfully.

Emma slowly turned her head towards me.

“Really? Hyde, have you ever heard the voice of God? Have you ever seen his face? Do you truly believe in a being you’ve never seen? It’s a lie, isn’t it? Ha. Ha. Ha! The only thing that exists in this world is the devil!”

You’re saying my exorcism, which is more devout and powerful than anyone else’s, is useless?

Strange.

If there were devils or ghosts, there’s no way a devout clergyman like me wouldn’t be able to exorcise them.

Perhaps it’s not a devil─.

As I was thinking that, Psyche was in pain.

“Hyde! Don’t listen to this woman! Just like that Lust, devils have tongues that deceive humans! Ugh! It’s, it’s hot!”

“Oh my, really. Psyche, Hyde, what are you doing?”

Milione moved and slapped Emma’s face.

It was a powerful force, and Emma was sent flying and crashed into the wall.

But Emma got up as if nothing had happened.

“Hyde, don’t you want to hear about the secrets of the world? Whether the God you believe in so much exists or not! We know everything. Ask us anything. We’ll give you the answer.”

You’ll tell me anything?

It was a tempting offer.

I had more questions than anyone else.

Whew- I took a deep breath in the hot air.

“Alright, Emma. You’re saying you’re a being who knows all the secrets of the world? Then what’s my name?”

“Hyde.”

“Is that all?”

“……”

Lucy Emma couldn’t answer my question. She seemed to not understand my question itself, and she didn’t seem to know the intention of my question either.

I felt relief at that fact, and at the same time, a wave of disappointment washed over me, calming my heart.

As expected, it wasn’t a devil.

“You were a fake after all. You’re not a devil or anything like that. Dissociative identity disorder is a defense mechanism caused by extreme trauma experienced during infancy.”

“What? We are a devil! A legion of ghosts!”

“No, you’re just a trauma where the memory of a woman burned to death has stuck to you like soot. So─.”

Lucy.

She was just a sick person.

There was no devil like Emma anywhere.

“Get out. Forever.”

Snap-.

I snapped my fingers again.