Chapter 6

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Chapter 6

TL/Editor: Yana/Gummy

Suddenly, I thought of the moment when he chopped off Cheneren’s head with an ax. Although he did not kill a living person, the murder I saw at that moment was real. Would Elliot have attacked the alter ego with an ax, if it turned out to be the real Cheneren?

I haven’t been away from the cornfield for less than a day yet the two unknown men were the only human beings I encountered, and neither of them looked like ordinary people. One worked magic, the other walked on strange tin legs and brandished an ax.

And they both seemed to know me. No, they probably knew the skin of the woman with which I was covered.

And now I was avoiding the blizzard in the house of the man with the ax. Can I count on Elliot’s favor? What if I become a doll again? There is no guarantee that Elliot will continue to sympathize after that.

I needed something to protect myself. Swallowing my saliva, I studied Elliot’s broad back, his thick forearms, his taut shirt sleeves, and his tall stature. I slid my gaze down to my thin wrists. They were no different from those of a doll, whose limbs were filled with leaves. I was still very weak.

I just became a human woman, but the world around me has changed. The air around me was cold and fierce. The tension and fear that I had never felt before when I was a doll was eating up my mind. Why? I feel no more secure now than I did during the day when I was stuck in the cornfield.

When I was a doll, I waited for Dorothy every day and dreamed of freedom. But now I could roam freely in human form.

And yet I still felt somehow tied up. Now and in the future. I had a hunch that I would live with this captivity forever. I didn’t know why. It was just a thought that came to mind.

I shouldn’t have relied on the aid of a stranger… I bit my lip, berating myself for naively following him. I needed to find out if he posed a threat to me.

“Elliot.”

Elliot stopped cutting when I called his name hesitantly. He put down the kitchen knife and slowly looked back at me. Looking at me with dark eyes, he moved his hand.

【“You know?… You just called my name for the first time.”】

“Sorry. I don’t know what your hand gestures mean.”

【“You have always called me an idiot, a fool who does not know the world. Sleep, fool.”】

When he finished gesturing, Pita lifted his head, which was buried in my glass. The bird peered at Elliot’s hand and yelled.

“Fool! Fool! Fool!”

Elliot’s face instantly reddened at Pita’s screaming.

“Fool! You fool! Fool! You fool!”

“…Did you just call yourself a fool?”

When I asked warily, Elliot shook his head quickly in a cold sweat.

【“No.”】

“You fool, fool! More useless than the shells I ate! You are a pig to be fried in oil.”

【“I didn’t say such harsh words!”】

Elliot glared at Pita. Not only his face and ears, but his neck was also reddish.

He stared at the little bird, gently flapping its wings, and shook his head. This seemed to imply that he was not calling himself a fool.

“Okay, you didn’t tell me anything awful, did you?”

Elliot nodded at my shaky question. An awkward silence fell between us. Only Pita’s low chirps broke the silence from time to time.

He looked at me for a while and began to prepare the food again. Soon the food was finished and he led me to the table.

Steam rose from the food. He cooked bacon, cut into slices, and laid it in front of me along with baked sausages, thick bread with cheese, and mashed potatoes mixed with walnuts and salt.

When I smelled the food, the anxiety that had been eating at me melted away. I completely forgot to be wary of Elliot and lifted my fork.

The first human food I had ever eaten was warm and tasty enough to melt on my tongue. But the amount of food was too much. To eat this much food the person needs to be big in the first place..

“My stomach is about to burst.”

Elliott couldn’t hide his disappointment when I told him it would be difficult for me to finish my plate. He sat down across from me and watched me as we ate with pleasure on his face. He was like a man with a great sense of duty to feed me my fill.

“Don’t you eat?”

When I asked him to pick up a large sausage with his fork, Elliot looked clearly puzzled. He shook his head, looking at me strangely. Tension spread over his boyish face and his expression gradually hardened.

At that moment, a foreign voice came from him.

“Don’t you know not to accept food from strangers?”

I was so shocked that I jumped up from my seat and stepped back. The chair I was sitting on fell to the floor with a bang.

Elliot rose slowly from his chair, staring at me. His eyes narrowed slightly.

“How disappointing. Are you not strong enough yet?”

Elliot spoke again but something was wrong. His mouth was closed but I could still hear the voice.

“Asha. I am everywhere and nowhere, I’m the Cheshire cat.”

A smiling mouth slowly appeared in the air just above Elliot’s head. Shortly thereafter, a pair of narrow feline eyes slowly opened. A black nose appeared along with long whiskers and the smiling mouth began to speak with the voice I just heard.

“You are the only fearless person in Oz, Asha. Who knows if the food is poisoned or has needles in it? You can’t trust anyone here.”

Purple fur slowly spread around the smiling mouth, and soon a fluffy cat face appeared in the air. The cat grinned above the expressionless Elliot. Unlike the two sharp sparkling eyes, the smile appeared sincere..

A purple torso slowly emerged beneath the cat’s head. The cat was curled up around Elliot’s head.

Elliot tensely pulled the cat’s tail away from his empty face as the long tail gently brushed against him. It was a crude side of him that he had never shown me before. His expression was so aloof that I anxiously wondered if he was stupid.

I stumbled and took a step back. Elliot’s impassive face slowly faded. My head was throbbing in unfamiliar pain. When I took another step back, touching my forehead, the cat chuckled at me.

“Do you feel itbetter now?”

“What the hell did you feed me?”

“It’s okay, I put some sleeping pills Oz made in there. You just need to get a good night’s sleep, Asha.”

The cat dugran its long tail into Elliot’s coat. He then pulled out a small glass jar with the tip of his tail. A bright green liquid glowed in the bottle.

“As soon as you attacked Cheneren, I should have run.”

I stared at Elliot and muttered loathingly as he frowned and clenched his fists. The impassive face becamewas terribly contorted. Betrayal and anger were clearly visible in his eyes. Why was HE feeling betrayed?!

“Calm down, little scrap pile.”

The cat calmed Elliot by patting him on the shoulder with its tail. He then smiled suspiciously at me.

“Asha, do you believe in Cheneren more than in Elliot?”

“He’s safer than the man who secretly drugged me!”

“Don’t be such a bitch. If Elliot was one step too late and you followed the lame one, fear and worries would still remain with you. They are both crazy! In fact, it’s quite difficult to find a sanen adequate person here.”

The cat chuckled and jumped onto the table causing Elliot’s cooked food to fall to the floor violently. The cat began to disappear and my vision gradually darkened.

【The Cheshire Cat traveled to Ruby City (formerly Emerald City) to announce the existence of Dorothy.】

【Elias is delighted to hear this story.】

【Elias is ready to leave. He’ll be here soon with the Cheshire Cat.】

【Hurry up and hide …】

The last thing I saw was parchment floating in the air and Elliot’s face rushing towards me. I collapsed into a warm embrace and passed out.