Innsmouth Village

After a long day’s work, John came home from the fields.

“I’m ho—home...”

His hand, holding his jacket, paused in midair for a moment, as if waiting for someone to come take it from him. But the whole house was empty.

“Ah...”

John gave a wistful smile, then gently lowered his hand and laid the jacket on the shabby table, riddled with wormholes.

He sighed. This farmer should’ve been in the prime of his youth, but his back was growing more and more hunched. From behind, he looked like a weathered old man in his sixties or seventies.

Using the table for support, John slowly sat down in a chair. He looked at the other, empty bed, and at the low chair across from him.

He sat there in a daze for a long time.

There should’ve been a little one here. She was his older brother and sister-in-law’s only child, his dearest little niece, his closest family—and the hope he’d worked toward for the rest of his life.

His little niece had been doing so well, too. She’d had a chance to enter the Church and compete for a position their poor family, generation after generation, had never dared to dream of. She could’ve had a better life.

But...

“It’s been fifteen days...”

Even with one person still living in the house, its emptiness could never be filled.

In fact, perhaps it was precisely because one person remained that the sighs could tear so recklessly into that void, making it grow ever wider.

......

The little chapel in Innsmouth

After finishing his work, Pastor Marshall was alone in the study behind the confessional.

This was where he worked, and where he taught a child to read and write.

They’d spent a very happy year together. She was clever and hardworking, and more importantly, her innocence and the things she said always gave Pastor Marshall fresh inspiration when he was tired.

It was nothing short of a blessing from the Lord.

Inspired by her, Marshall’s faith grew ever stronger. He’d also earned quite a bit of favorable notice within The Church.

Friends in the know had told him that some bishops had even taken an interest in what he had to say. It was something Marshall would never have dared dream of before.

He was deeply grateful to Leticia. At the same time, he wanted more and more to keep her by his side.

For that reason, he’d deliberately slowed down the lessons. The basic literacy course could’ve been finished in a year and a half, but he was dragging it out to three years, or even longer.

She could have a better life, and he could use that to make his faith purer.

But now...

The paper secretly delivered from Rhodes Church slowly crumpled in his hand.

“Aaargh!”

In a fit of rage, he swept everything on the desk onto the floor.

The pastor couldn’t control his emotions, though he soon calmed down.

Looking at the mess on the floor, Marshall took two deep breaths. He stared at the nearly torn paper in his hand, hesitated several times, then finally ripped it to pieces.

“Lu?”

There was no one behind him, but Marshall spoke anyway. “Go find her.”

This time—this time, finally, it could...

......

“Li~ttle~ one...”

The hoarse, low voice sounded like a ghost calling to her. Leticia jolted fully awake from her drowsy state.

“Y-yes, I’m here!”

Startled, Leticia scrambled up from the floor, then tripped over the chain around her ankle and nearly fell flat on her face.

Before she could steady herself, a sudden sting shot across her back. The child sucked in a breath, swayed, and nearly fell over.

“How many times have I told you...”

The same unchangingly dressed woman walked over, holding a whip braided from three rough branches. “When you answer, how should you do it, hmm?”

“You shouldn’t talk like an idiot. Be polite and dignified.”

Leticia answered obediently. She didn’t even try to rub her aching back, since that would only earn her another welt on her hand.

“And what did you just do?”

The Black-Clad Lady’s voice was just as unpleasant as ever. Still, her conversations with Leticia were rather amusing. If you could ignore the surroundings and who the two of them were, you’d think you were listening to a etiquette teacher and her student.

Honestly, Leticia was puzzled, too. Why was the Black-Clad Lady half-forcing her to learn all this?

It wasn’t like she’d ever need it. All that talk about a proper lady’s manners, or socializing in high society...

Just listening to it gave her a headache. But with the whip hanging over her, she had no choice but to submit.

Still, things were already much better than she’d imagined. Apart from having no freedom and being made to suffer pain now and then, the Black-Clad Lady hadn’t forced her to do anything else.

At first, Leticia thought the Black-Clad Lady wanted to make her a little slave. Who’d have guessed she just wanted to indulge her strange, insatiable passion for teaching?

She couldn’t quite make sense of it.

But the Black-Clad Lady never explained, and Leticia didn’t dare ask.

Just like, after all this time together, neither of them knew what to call the other.

Stano was the only one fretting like an ant on a hot pan.

He had to get his uncle’s information out as soon as possible!

And then some lunatic who’d come crawling out of nowhere had held him up!

He had to figure out a way to get out of here!

During these fifteen days that had felt like years, he’d respected Leticia’s request not to use her body without permission. But he hadn’t stopped for a moment from using her eyes to survey the surroundings and helping her think of ways to escape.

Sometimes even Stano Bansen wondered who exactly had been captured. Why didn’t Leticia seem to have any intention of escaping?!

He was the one observing their surroundings and looking for anything that might come in handy. And to figure out how those things worked, Stano had completely changed his usual habits and started spending every day in the study at home. He’d even made his mother wonder if a fever had fried his brain.

Still, none of that was a problem.

In the end, he’d have to be the one to help.

Without saying a word, he watched coldly as Leticia chatted with the neurotic madwoman, their conversation completely at odds with the surroundings. Meanwhile, Stano was piecing together a plan in his mind.

If only they could keep this connection going at night, too...

It’d be even better if that madwoman weren’t around... Stano sighed softly.

Still, things weren’t so bad...

They were deep in the forest now. No matter what happened, no one would know a thing, right?