The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 4: Strange Sister
"You mean, 'ritual'?"

"Yes."

"If I heard correctly, there is also 'evil worship'?"

"Yes."

"Oh...spells?"

"Yes."

To be honest, Roland didn't know whether Nina Collins's miserable situation was entirely due to an old woman's foolish obsession with the occult, or whether the torture of illness over the past few days had caused the young lady in bed to have unrealistic delusions of being persecuted.

That is to say, she is crazy.

Because those words were undoubtedly ridiculous, just like the plots in the forbidden stories that Yam secretly told him.

An old witch who casts a spell after swallowing a nail, or a knight who draws his sword, chants a scripture, and punishes monsters...

Rituals, spells, sacrifices.

It's really pitiful.

Roland had seen those madmen who were driven mad.

But now, he didn't know whether he should feel pity for his sister or for himself.

A madman and a blind man.

It fits well.

"Of course you don't believe it. Before I came here, I also thought that I could rely on some little invention to become a happy old lady with a lot of money and servants around me..."

She kept talking, and Roland couldn't hear or understand her.

"Ha, they thought I didn't know? Bloodletting?"

She suddenly became excited.

Roland tried to comfort her in a gentle voice, fearing that this sudden mania would get him into trouble: "I really don't believe in the rituals and spells you're talking about, but I, at least I'm willing to listen to you..."

Nina didn't refute, she just coughed and laughed.

"Then you have to come and look after me more, my dear 'brother'."

That night, Roland underwent a "treatment" under the guidance of the servant.

During this period, she was very silent and well-behaved, as if she really believed she was being cured.

Not only did he care deeply about his father, housekeeper, and servants, he also comforted them and told them not to worry.

The father and daughter had a very warm conversation, and agreed to let her go out for a walk when she felt better.

In the stinking room filled with feces, the father loves his daughter and the daughter loves her father.

Soon, drawing blood became a marker to tell the difference.

day after day.

Roland forgot the date - probably one or two weeks later, he finally got permission from the butler and got a wooden barrel and a piece of burlap that was as hard as iron from the servants.

Every night, while Nina Collins babbled neurotically, he would squat in the dark and clean her.

One of her calves had completely rotted away, revealing the hard bones.

Excrement was piled on the side of the bed, and his back, thighs and buttocks were covered with rotting sores, pus and maggots.

It’s hard to imagine how painful this is.

Why was she treated like this?
Is she not Mr. Collins's daughter?

However, the only thing she wouldn't let Roland touch was her face.

Roland tried to find out from the servants.

But the servants, whose voices and intonations were like those cast in the same mold, said nothing.

When Roland asked more questions, the butler Seth came to his house. He went to his bedroom and gently told him not to worry, because his condition was getting better.

day to day.

In the old house without sunlight and the days as rigid as clocks, Roland's concept of time became increasingly vague.

"Do I stink worse than a cesspool?"

He wrung out the cloth and held her wrist to wipe it bit by bit. He became more and more skilled at it: "The cesspool can't talk."

puff.

"You won't have a girlfriend."

"I have many friends in the workhouse."

"I'm talking about a different, more intimate relationship, little brother."

Roland paused: "...I don't know my age. Maybe I'm there, maybe I'm not."

"Let me feel it and I'll know."

“…I’m sorry, what did you say?”

Nina didn't answer, but just giggled.

After laughing for a while, she became silent again.

Roland was used to it.

These days, she basically behaved like this when facing him - sometimes telling dirty jokes, and then, before he could react, she would laugh uncontrollably;
Sometimes, they would suddenly fall strangely silent while talking, not saying a word until Roland finished wiping her body and turned to leave.

She cried and laughed at the same time, like a mad person (or maybe she was).

Roland often heard her mumbling in her dreams, calling "Mom".

But the only thing that goes on every day, besides 'therapy', is stories. Yes, stories.

Five, ten, countless stories, just like time.

Miss Nina, I don't know where my sister got all those strange stories from.

She told him the story every night.

When he was cleaning her body, or when the two of them were silent in the dark, they would suddenly start talking without beginning or end.

Roland was fascinated by what he heard.

"I see you're in a good mood today." He dipped the cloth into the bucket several times, wrung it out and placed it on the edge of the bucket. "You ate more than usual."

"You are really good at playing dumb." She said softly, "That's human blood and human flesh, can't you smell it?"

Roland didn't answer. He bent over and carried the bucket to the door with difficulty.

"The more I eat, the closer the ritual will be to completion."

she said to herself.

"You have noticed something now, but you don't know what to do. You are afraid, but you hesitate whether you should believe a 'crazy woman' who talks about the mysticism... You dare not do anything out of the ordinary, like a sparrow falling into an eagle's nest..." She pointed it out.

At the beginning, Roland also secretly hid bread and brought it to her several times.

"...but I can't eat anything else, or, do you like to clean up my vomit?" She was silent for a while, as if she didn't want to continue talking about this topic, and her voice suddenly became cheerful: "Let me think about what I should tell you today...um, about love, how about it?"

Roland leaned against the wooden barrel, hugged his knees and held his chin, laughing softly in the darkness: "Last time we told each other a love story... When Mr. Dawson froze to death, you howled for at least five minutes."

There was a pause, and the woman on the bed was visibly embarrassed.

After spending a long time together, both of them revealed their true nature to a considerable extent.

"I want to hear stories about dragons..."

Roland tried his best to suppress the upward curve of his mouth corners and tone of voice.

He is always very happy during 'story time'.

My own sister, Nina Collins, is like an inexhaustible fountain of books.

He liked to listen to her talk about those wonderful and dreamy things, but he was not willing to listen to those 'realistic', boring and dull stories about people.

Because any story involving 'monsters' is banned on the market - especially those about goblins, unicorns, vampires or elves.

They are all prohibited from being sold or distributed in public.

Occasionally Roland would be brave enough to listen to some of the stories, but they were mostly scary short stories like "Goblins will crawl in through the window at night and eat your heart and liver" and "Wildebeest will pierce your belly" - boring, really boring.

But in Miss Nina's story, these magical creatures and magical buildings are another dreamland hidden under the real world...

All came back to life.

They can move.

It's as if it really existed.

Whether it is a city hidden in the clouds, a silly-faced cat that can make plants grow, a beautiful girl riding a broom, or a large bathhouse where wild spirits bathe;
Or an elf who is strong and wields a scimitar in the wind, but dies of a broken heart due to sorrow;
A spell that can shrink a bear to the size of a tobacco pot using only a stick...

In Miss Nina Collins's words, Roland seemed to be able to "see" it.

There are countless wonderful and wonderful worlds.

Compared with the reality I experienced...

He also preferred to believe that the fantasy creatures in the fantasy world were not as terrifying as the stories told by Yam.

Roland couldn't help but wonder where on earth this sister of his whom he hadn't met for more than a decade got to know so many wonderful stories.

But Nina Collins didn't want to tell him.

"Dragon? There is no dragon in today's love story." The woman on the hospital bed told the story and the name of the protagonist.

"Mountain?" Roland blinked. "It sounds like the boys' story?"

Where he couldn't see, Nina looked strange.

“It’s really a story about boys…”

After half an hour.

Roland: ...

"This is a sin, Miss Nina. You'd better not spread this story to others."

Two men fall in love...

The church priests would whip them until they bled, and then throw them into prison after a trial. They had not seen each other for nearly ten years.

Roland was very sensitive about this because Yam often mentioned to him:
His face will get him into trouble.

This trouble comes not only from women, but more likely from men.

"Oh? So you're really a handsome guy? I can't tell. People with nice voices usually... I thought——"

Stopped abruptly.

At this time, Roland had stood up, walked to the bedside, and slowly stretched out his hand.

He finally understood why Nina didn't let him wipe her face, and he also understood why she didn't remind him that there was a chair in front of her when they first met.

On the face that was as thin as a skeleton, the eyeballs that should have been slightly bulging...

There are only two holes.

Her eyeballs were gone.

(End of this chapter)