21. Let Us Fall in Love as Though Returning to the Womb

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/23/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

The Lenglands were the very picture of an ideal family.

Lilina’s father, Merrick Lengland, always devoted his days off to his wife and child, and routinely helped with the housework as well.
He kept the city safe as a soldier, and because he was employed by the kingdom, his pay was respectable.
Indeed, he was prosperous enough to build a home in the royal capital—where land prices continued to rise—at the age of thirty-two.

Lilina’s mother, Liza Lengland, was twenty-eight, four years younger than Merrick.
She was currently eight months pregnant.
Like Lilina, she wore her blond hair cut to her shoulders. She was a kindhearted woman who offered the same warm smile to everyone she met.
She kept the household in good order, and her cooking had improved greatly since her marriage. By now, Merrick looked forward to coming home every day.

Lilina loved both of her parents dearly.

At least, she had until the day she was changed into something inhuman.

After Chigusa saw her off, Lilina left the church and made her unsteady way home. Her body still carried the aftereffects of what had happened there.
In truth, she wanted to remain at the church—or even spend the rest of her life there, receiving Chigusa’s attention.
But she still had a task to complete.

Her mother was waiting at home, and Lilina loved her just as much as she loved her new companions.

“Mama should come over to this side too…”

She had to drag her in.

It was what Lilina wanted, and it was also Chigusa’s instruction.
There was therefore no reason not to see it through.
Her steps quickening, Lilina hurried home.

 

◇◇◇

The moment Lilina entered the house, she went straight to the kitchen, where her mother was preparing dinner, and hugged her from behind.

“Ah!”

Liza had not sensed her approach at all. She gave a little jump and cried out.

“Lilina! If you’re home, you should at least say, ‘I’m back.'”
“I’m back, Mama.”
“Honestly… Welcome home. And wash your hands before you hug me.”

It was not unusual for Lilina, still at an affectionate age, to cling to her mother this way.
Secretly pleased, Liza smiled as she watched her daughter head to the washroom.
As soon as Lilina had washed her hands, however, she returned to the kitchen and hugged her mother from behind once more.

“My, what has gotten into you? You’re especially clingy today.”
“Mama… I love you.”
“Hee hee. And I love you too, Lilina.”
“I love you. I love you so much. I want to stay with you forever.”

Something in those words struck Liza as faintly strange, and she wondered whether anything had happened to her daughter.
She had guessed that Lilina had probably gone to the church.
Yet the nuns there had an excellent reputation.
They listened earnestly to every concern, readily agreed to requests for help, and often played with the local children.
Liza had also heard that they were caring for Rellie and the others, who had recently lost both a fiancé and their parents in rapid succession.
Surely people like that would never do anything to hurt Lilina, she thought, puzzled.

“Why say that all of a sudden? Did something frighten you? Don’t worry. Mama will always be with you.”
“Really? Promise?”
“Yes. I promise.”
“Then can I sleep with you tonight?”

At that, Liza chuckled.
So that was what all this had been leading up to.
Even so, she sighed and thought, What am I going to do with you?
Lilina had only recently learned to sleep by herself in her own room.

“I had a scary dream, so…”
“I understand. Then you can sleep in our bedroom—”
“No, I want my room. I want to be with you, Mama.”

Lilina was gently excluding her father from the arrangement.
She was far too young for the sort of phase Liza might ordinarily have blamed, though Liza could understand her wanting her mother’s undivided attention.

“Your father will be sad if you say that.”
“…But I want you, Mama.”
“Oh, very well. If that is what you want, I’ll sleep in your room tonight. Will that do?”
“Yes!”

Lilina answered brightly and rubbed her cheek against her mother’s back.
Judging by how tightly she was holding on, she truly was delighted.
Liza felt a little sorry for her husband, but no mother could be unhappy to hear that her daughter wanted her company.
Smiling to herself, she continued preparing dinner.

 

◇◇◇

 

That night, Liza brought her own pillow to Lilina’s room.
There was only a single bed, so it would be cramped, but she did not expect that to be a problem.
Now that Lilina was in such an affectionate mood, Liza assumed her daughter would not let go of her anyway.

More importantly, Liza placed a hand on the cheek of her daughter, who sat waiting on the bed, and studied her with concern.
Lilina tilted her head and looked back at her mother.

“Are you truly all right? You still look pale to me.”
“I already told you I’m fine. I feel better than ever!”

Lilina flashed a broad smile. Hoping her concern was unfounded, Liza let the matter drop.
In fact, Lilina had not lied at all.
Her health was far better than before: her physical abilities now surpassed those of a human, and Chigusa’s magic filled her body.

“Never mind that. Let’s go to sleep, Mama.”
“All right, all right. Don’t rush me. If I move around too much, I might startle the baby.”

Carefully protecting her swollen belly, Liza climbed onto the bed and lay down.
Lilina settled beside her and held her close.
Liza reached for the lamp by the bed and switched it off.

Before long, the sound of two people sleeping could be heard in the darkened room.

Liza slept.
She did not know that her daughter had already become inhuman.
Nor did she know that Lilina’s touch was quietly placing her under a charm.
The unsuspecting mother slept on.

It was the last night the two would spend together as an ordinary mother and daughter.

 

◇◇◇

 

When Liza awoke the next morning, she found her daughter staring intently at her.
Lilina’s eyes were a clear, arresting red, her skin smooth and unnaturally pale, and her features subtly transformed.
Despite knowing this was her young daughter, Liza found herself held by that uncanny beauty.

“Good morning, Mama.”

Lilina placed a hand on Liza’s cheek and leaned closer.
For an instant, the charm clouded Liza’s sense of their proper relationship. She caught herself just in time, seized Lilina by the shoulders, and pushed her away.

“Ow…”

The pain on Lilina’s face brought Liza fully back to her senses.
What had she been doing? An ordinary good-morning kiss between parent and child was harmless, so why had her daughter’s approach frightened her?

“I’m sorry, Lilina! You startled me, that’s all.”
“That was mean, Mama…”

Tears gathered at the corners of Lilina’s eyes, deepening Liza’s guilt.
She tried to reassure herself that a simple parental gesture of affection meant nothing. Yet the strange agitation produced by the charm would not subside.
Telling herself once again that there could be no improper meaning in it, she gave Lilina a brief kiss on the forehead.

Even that small concession sent a disturbing jolt through her thoughts.
Lilina, aware of exactly what was happening, merely smiled and said, “I love you, Mama.”

 

◇◇◇

 

Liza first dismissed the incident as a momentary lapse, but the unease remained even after she left the bed and began making breakfast.
Lilina sat at the table and watched her back. Merely feeling that gaze made Liza conscious of an expectation she could not explain.

That was only the beginning.
Liza understood how seriously something had changed when Merrick came downstairs.

“Good morning, Liza. Good morning, Lilina.”

“Good morning,” Liza replied with a smile before returning to her cooking.

Merrick approached from behind and tapped her lightly on the shoulder.
When she turned, he greeted her with their customary kiss.

“You forgot something, didn’t you?”

His amused remark made Liza realize that they had not exchanged their usual morning greeting.
Normally, she was the one who asked for it.
Today, however, she had been so preoccupied with Lilina that she had forgotten it completely.

That might have seemed trivial to anyone else, but it shocked Liza.
Her love for Merrick had never once faltered since they began their life together.
Now, through the work of her own daughter, the charm was beginning to sever that bond.

 

◇◇◇

 

Liza kissed her husband goodbye when he left for work.
She felt nothing.

When her daughter left for school, Lilina asked for the same familiar sign of affection.
Liza’s thoughts fell into turmoil.

The charm urged her to misname that unnatural fixation as love.
Alone in the house, Liza searched desperately for some other explanation, but each attempt led her back to the same corrupted conclusion.
Having loved her husband for years, she knew what devotion felt like.
The influence inside her was reshaping her feelings for Lilina into a counterfeit of that devotion.

While Liza wrestled with herself, she heard the front door unlock.
It was not yet noon—far too early for either her husband or daughter to return.
She looked toward the living-room entrance.

“I’m back, Mama.”

Lilina stood there, though she was supposed to be at school.
Liza’s heart lurched.

“W-welcome home, Lilina. What happened? School shouldn’t be over yet.”
“I wasn’t feeling well, so I came home.”
“Is that so…?”

Lilina was certainly pale, but no more than she had been the day before, and Liza knew that she had claimed to feel perfectly healthy.
Perhaps the people around her had worried and urged her to leave early. Whatever the reason, her return could not have come at a worse time for Liza.
She had hoped for a little longer to bring her emotions under control.

“Then you should rest in bed. First, get changed—”
“Before that, Mama, don’t I get a welcome-home kiss?”

Lilina closed her eyes and waited.
Liza froze.
The worst part was not revulsion, but its absence. Under the charm, she found herself moving toward Lilina before she had made a conscious decision.
She gave her daughter the briefest possible familial greeting, then pulled away, struggling to recover her judgment.

“Mama,” Lilina whispered, pressing her advantage, “maybe I’ll get better faster if you lie down with me.”

Her voice clung to Liza’s thoughts like heavy honey.
Her mind slowed, as though its gears were binding; resistance left her dazed and breathless.
She searched for excuses, and when none sounded convincing, repeated only, This isn’t my fault.

At last, yielding to the supernatural influence, she nodded.
Lilina smiled.
Her face looked angelic and faintly demonic at once, and Liza was not imagining it.

 

◇◇◇

 

By the time Liza understood how far the charm had carried her, it was already too late.

Lying beside her daughter, she responded to repeated requests for affection. Each concession weakened another boundary, while Liza’s mind produced increasingly incoherent reasons to excuse what she knew was wrong.
Lilina deliberately encouraged that confusion. The Demi-Vamp’s altered values had stripped away her former moral restraints, and Chigusa’s power gave her the means to manipulate the mother she still, in her own corrupted fashion, loved.

Liza’s advanced pregnancy did not break the spell. Lilina instead took her mother’s heedlessness as proof that the charm was working and grew more confident.
When they paused, the two looked at one another no longer as an ordinary parent and child, but through the false relationship Chigusa’s influence had imposed.

Lilina then asked what Liza wanted and offered to let her decide what came next.
Liza hesitated, aware that crossing that line could destroy the relationship they had once shared.

“No, Mama. It’s the opposite,” Lilina insisted. “This way, we’ll always be mother and daughter. Mothers and daughters can be separated when one of them marries, but if our bond becomes something more, we’ll never have to part.”

The argument made no sense.
Nevertheless, the charm made Liza accept it.
She told herself that her devoted child only wished to stay with her forever, and that a mother ought to grant such a plea.

Lilina promised that they would make one another happy and remain together.
With her reason almost completely submerged, Liza embraced that promise.

What followed is left undescribed. Behind the closed bedroom door, Lilina completed the corruption Chigusa had set in motion, replacing the family’s proper bonds with a magically imposed imitation of love.
The consequences continued until shortly before Merrick returned home.