P. 244
Or to be correct, Teresa and Edgar was.
Lydia’s consciousness was floating around in herself as she still felt tired, but had managed to stay awake.
She could feel how angered the selkies have become. But Ulysses had possession of a ‘heart’ so he was able to remain unharmed.
With her left hand that remained under her control, Lydia searched for the aquamarine pendant.
P. 245
But, she wasn’t alone. It was all right for her to believe that, right?
Teresa was walking as she was clinging onto Edgar’s arm.
“Why do I have periods in my memory when I don’t remember anything?”
“I really did come by alive, didn’t I? I won’t be sent back to the land of the dead, right?”
To begin with, Lydia was told that the girl’s soul would only be able to remain inside Lydiafor one week. It was news that she wouldn’t want to believe. Even if she wasn’t the real Teresa, she had come to accept the life of Teresa and came to fall for Edgar, but she wondered how the girl would feel if she learned that she was going to loose everything once again.
Only with her left hand, Lydia froze. Why did she know about her.
Edgar’s act of being ignorant was so natural, that he seemed used to being questioned about another woman’s presence.
“Yesterday, that’s what you called me when I was asleep.”
“You must have been dreaming.”
Really? Then that means, Lydia, who didn’t know anything about this, must have been asleep.
“Sometimes, there’s a moment when I feel an aqwardness. I ask myself if this is really me. Like the distance to my tiptoes or was if my hand and nails were ever this clean and smooth.”
“The color of my hair, and when I looked in the mirror, everything just doesn’t seem exactly right. I was trying not to think about it that much, but when I heard the name Lydia, my doubt just got bigger and bigger….”
“This girl isn’t me. I died once and lost my body…., isn’t that right? You were so nice to me because this girl is special to you?”
P. 247
Lydia listened as she was on the edge of her seat.
“Teresa.”
Edgar lowered his eyes like he surrendered.
Teresa was shocked and made a painful sigh.
“Teresa, that scoundrel had deceived you and was trying to do what he wanted. So that you wouldn’t try to escape or give into despair and injure that body.”
From beyond the trees that grew scattered all around, a young man appeared.
P. 248
“Ulysses…”
Like she was shaken, she slowly backed away from Edgar.
“Come with me, Teresa. If it was me, I’ll let you become human. I can make that body become yours permanently.”
“I wonder if that kind of thing has any relation to her now. Oh, Teresa, don’t you want to be alive once more? You’re still so young and there was sure to be so much wonderful things to enjoy waiting to happen for you. If you do as I say, then I’ll let you stay in this realm. Or, do you want to remain unnoticed by anyone and disappear without anybody remembering you?”
Even if Edgar said that, Teresa started to walk over in a wobble to Ulysses’ direction.
“He was the man who killed you!”
No, you can’t, Teresa. Ulysses won’t hold his promise. Once he meets his goal, he’s sure to not leave anyone alive.
“Pick this up.”
“Let’s have you take that vanity box from that man and bring it over to me.”
But they couldn’t allow Ulysses to steal it away. It was the selkies that they had tried so hard to rescue.
However, Lydia was only able to move her left hand and nothing else.
“I can’t give you this.”
Whaaat?
You’ve got to be kidding!
“Stop it!” yelled Edgar, and Teresa stopped her hand.
“Weeell now, so you"re surrendering already?”
“Slowly, walk over to him. Oh, but you can’t get too close. Make sure to have the knife against your knife. It’s all right, even if your hand slipped, you won’t die. Since you died once already.”
She didn’t know what she really should do.
Even Edgar who was silently watching Teresa’s behavior without moving, must have felt the unsteadiness of her heart. He must be trying to think of a way to somehow repel Ulysses’ temptation from her.
“Lord, let’s have you set down the box and step away from it. Or, would you like to see some more blood?”
Hey, Edgar, you forced me to bear before even if I was in pain, so don’t go changing your mind and give the box over to him so easily.
If he called out to the sleeping Lydia and it was his true feelings that made him ask her to forgive him, then…..
But, wait, now wasn’t the time for this.
She looked back at him with a curious look.
“…….Maggie……”
P. 252
From his chest pocket, Edgar took out a handkerchief and unfolded it open to show it to her.
Oh, that was it, she was that girl, though Lydia as she remembered. The girl who said she was going off to meet a man who said he was Earl Ashenbert and her body was found the next day in the Thames River. The police detective said she was a seamstress and her name was Maggie Morris.
“Maggie, even you had someone who you held dear to you. You can remember, right? Who was it that taught you show to sow?”
“…..That, Momma said it was a good luck….charm….which Momma taught me….”
Edgar took a step out towards her.
P. 253
“Teresa, don’t listen to what that man says, if you stay as Teresa, you’re wishes will be granted! You won’t have to work for money anymore. You can even marry a n.o.ble!”
“Please, I ask of you, Maggie, I feel sorry for having to hurt you. But I have someone I hold very dear to my heart. I want to protect her body and heart. ….Please give me back Lydia.”
You sound like you really mean it, Edgar….
From Maggie’s hand that lost its strength, the knife fell out.
She looked up to Edgar and she smiled as tears were coming down her face.
“Don’t be stupid, you hated your birth and your family. That’s why when I said I was an earl, you were mad with joy!” yelled Ulysses stubbornly. But, Lydia thought different.
“I want to go home. To my Momma who was so pestering and my Papa who was so lazy and my bratty little brothers, they are my only family. ….Do you think I’ll be able to fly there.”
Huh, what? Why?
“Yes, I’ll be sure to hold her.”
Oh, my goodness, she"s figuring things out.
But right now, since Maggie was holding onto Edgar with both arms, Lydia couldn’t breathe and her heart was beating rapidly and she thought she was going to fall over.
P. 255
Inside her body, Lydia felt the sensation of a light breeze blow through her. At that same time, her body lost its strength to stand.
“Lydia, you’ve come back. I won’t let you go anymore.”
She had thought that he was so handsome when he had convinced Maggie, but he was so quick to joke around.
Lydia carefully looked over towards Ulysses. He tsked with his tongue and tried to take out a pistol.
And yet, Edgar whispered to Lydia that it was all right and held onto to her.
Raven attacked Ulysses, who tried to turn aside to dodge as fast as he could.
She thought he was going to cut his throat in one wave of his arm. However in one second earlier, Ulysses backed around a tree.
Even Ulysses must have known that he wasn’t any match to try to fight him one-on-one.
“A weapon that walks, huh. I didn’t want to come across with you and so I was trying to avoid you.”
“Do it,” ordered Prince and took out a water-colored ball from his pocket so that they could see it and played around with it in his hand.
Which means, those two are,
At the same time Lydia yelled out to him, a twisting wall of water came splas.h.i.+ng up to them.
She was going to be separated from Edgar. She couldn’t breathe because of the water coming up around her.
P. 257
P. 258
She opened her eyes, but it was pitch black. She was washed by the sweep of the water for just a short while, but she had no idea where it had taken her.
Which means she must be in a building some place.
She heard Edgar’s voice coming from the distance. She searched the area around her with her hands trying to touch anything around her. But, in the direction she thought the voice came from, a wall was blocking her path.
“I can’t see well. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No, I’m fine. But, I can’t figure out why we are in a place like this….”
“Then, that would mean we’re held captive by Ulysses?”
Perhaps this could have been a secret rebel of the selkies who had their coats in Ulysses’ grasp.
“Despite that, it’s so strange that my clothes aren’t wet at all when we were washed by the current.”
The captive selkies wished to be released from Ulysses and were still laying their hope on Lydia.
“All right…., but,”
She replied all right, and tried to squint her eyes to see around her, but even it was her eyes that had adjusted to the darkness, she couldn’t see anything.
“Maybe we’re underground of the hill. I think that this is the repelling charm that the Blue Knight Earl from the past had made built.”
“I heard that it was some sort magical-built fortress to protect Londonfrom an invasion from foreign enemies. Ulysses was ordered by Prince and came here to destroy that.”
She couldn’t see it, but from how their voices echoed so far, she felt it was quite an immensely large open s.p.a.ce. Even when she moved her body just a bit, her hands touched a stone wall or pillar and so she was able to image that it was made in a maze-like design, but then it was all the more impossible to be able to be destroyed by just one person.
In the next second, Lydia came to realize something.
In the house fire, the coats of the selkies that they weren’t able to rescue should have been burned. Since selkies had a strong bond within their kind, more members of their kind were gathered because of their sorrow and fury.
“Oh, no! Ulysses plans to use all those selkies!”
“When one of their kind is treated horribly, they have the trait of gathering into a group and exacting their revenge. Because of what Ulysses had done, there is an unbelievably large number of selkies that was gathered around the island for revenge. If all of them were to make an attack at once, a small island like this would be easily crumbled and washed away…..”
“But, why are they now attacking now?”
“So if a human has that, then it means the selkies couldn’t attack him and they would have to listen to what he says, huh.”
Even if he was hated by the selkies, Ulysses showed that he had one in his possession and was able to safely fence off with them. He had the ability that abled him to do that.
She was ashamed herself. Even if she considered herself a fairy doctor, in the most important moment, her inexperience was completely highlighted and stood out.
Edgar wasn’t able to stop the selkies himself.
At such an immensely heavy pressure, Lydia was starting to feel sick.
It was the vanity box. The enamel design that was all around it and the touch of the coral that was like little round candies made her be sure of it.
But, this wasn’t the time to be relieved.
And then, Lydiarealized something else that worried her.
“That’s it, Edgar, if Ulysses wants to destroy this place, then he might be somewhere close to us….”
Why? She thought, but then all sorts of worse possible change of events came up in her mind, and sent Lydia into a panic.
P. 263
“Edgar, hey, Edgar, where are you?”
She froze her steps because she felt a presence nearby that stepped on a pebble.
“I found you, Lydia.”
“Shall I say our secret word?”
“I love you, my fairy.”
He’s fooling around, she thought irritatingly, but as soon as she understood that he was here, Lydia felt like she was going to cry.
“Wh-why didn’t you give me a reply.”
She was revealed but she wanted to cry. Voice wasn’t enough. She wanted to make sure with her whole self if it was the real him who said with his words that he would stay by her side.
“Lydia?”
“Right now, as in?”
Lydia’s mind was so chaotic and lost that she couldn’t believe it herself at what she was saying.
“That’s why, right now, I think I’m acting strange. Maggie isn’t inside me anymore, but I feel that I might make an improper behavior.”
“NO.”
She even thought herself that she was making a sour and cynical att.i.tude.
Just like Maggie, if it was a girl who could cuddle up when she wanted to, then anyone would see her as adorable.
Then, if was naturally that Edgar didn’t fall in love with Lydiawho was always refusing him.
Being in this kind of condition, there was no way that they could become lovers. But, she just couldn’t suddenly be like Maggie.
His hand touched her shoulder. Then it traced down her arm gently and held her hand.
“That doesn’t matter now, let go.”
When she was asked that, she really didn’t mind it that much. Edgar was only resting Lydia’s fingers in his palm.
He kept his hand on hers and suddenly opened his mouth.
P. 266
Even though she said to let go, she was showing a completely vulnerable opening. She had the faint feeling that he antic.i.p.ated that she couldn’t refuse and deliberately took his chances, which left her filled with confusion.
“Since our eyes are useless, don’t you feel like our other senses have gotten stronger?”
“I can tell what kind of expression you have on your face. From the tension in your fingers, and from your voice, and from how you breathe,” he explained.
It was a pretty bad kind of closeness. If it was a normal situation, she might be already making a run. But using the excuse that she couldn’t see, she remained in that spot.
As she tried to convince herself that, she also knew that that was wrong.
Her nerves were relaxed and in the moment that her body let out the tension in her back, his delicate but strong fingers sneaked themselves over to her.
P. 267
“I said to not get near me.”
“It isn’t improper if you relied on your fiancé.”
“As long as you would allow me a kiss, then I’ll be able to convince you so quickly that I’m your fiancé.”
“You don’t hate me, do you? When we hold each other’s hand like this and you feel comfort in that, then you just need to wish further that you want to feel even more comfortable.”
Words that should have remained insider her came slipping out of her mouth.
“I don’t! That was a lie just now!”
Lydia didn’t know how she should continue talking.
Even in the town of her childhood, the girls who were the same age as her were talking amongst themselves about how they spent time with their lovers.
P. 268
However, that was only if a woman were to have someone she loved from the bottom of her heart. If they were talking about how they were fooling around, she couldn’t have possibly sympathized with them.
Hers, and even Edgar’s feelings were too distance that they couldn’t possibly overlap.
“There’s nothing to reg….” he said but stopped himself like he was undecided.
She could tell that Edgar slowly stood up. Their hands that were connected remained together, and he pulled her arm up.
“Where to?”
Eventually, in the place from beyond that, they were able to tell that there was an open s.p.a.ce that was lit up. There were rustling and bustling movements.
Edgar and Lydia slowly and quietly creeped up to it and peered around from a tall and wide stone pillar. That s.p.a.ce was filled with a number of lit candles, which made the s.p.a.ce look like it was an underground catacomb.
When Lydia saw that the old woman who had rescued her was also there, and that she was laying on the ground in an awful state, like she had been tortured with a whip, Lydia didn’t think but ran out to them.
“Madam, oh, why did this happen. Ohh……, it’s my fault. It’s because Ulysses found out that you had let me escape.”
“Everyone, you all have to hurry and get out of here….”
P. 270
The rope had mistletoe embedded into it, so it was a magical barrier that sealed in the fairies.
“Hold on just a moment, I’ll break this seal right away.”
“Can we not cut it?”
While Lydia was replying, Edgar cut the rope with a knife.
“You’re welcome.”
Lydia refocused herself, and she turned to face the selkies who were slowly easing their way out from inside the rope.
She opened the lid of the box in front of them as they erupted in a happily loud commotion.
P. 271
When the box became empty, Lydia realized something.
There was so sign of any coats left. Which means, oh, no, it might have burned….
“What, so she’s alive then. Thank goodness…..”
From his place, he moved over in an unnatural way to stand behind Lydia. And he suddenly said:
Huh? She turned around without thinking.
Edgar steadied her as she was able to fall over and hid the pillar away from her sight, but what she saw was burned into her mind.
“Most likely, Sir Stanley and Sir Clark.”
“No more than they could be.”
When she looked around, she saw that Ulysses came walking slowly down on the stone stairways that was located in the back of the s.p.a.ce.
The ones he brought with him were the two selkies from earlier and Ermine. And he had a pistol pointed to the back of Ermine.
“Lord, if this woman didn’t have an injury, then I wanted to have her fight you one more time, but that looks impossible.”
“Then why don’t you let her go. You should be satisfied with directly confronting me.”
“She only the use of being killed right in front of your eyes.”
“Now, you at least to shoot yourself, can’t you?”
“What do you think you’re doing, you coward!” yelled Lydia, but it didn’t seem to hurt or even scratch Ulysses.
“You, you shouldn’t be able to go against me…”
“Just like you ordered, I shall pull this trigger. It will go through your throat and into mine….”
“Raven, stop her!”
The sound of gunfire echoed against the walls and it was so loud that it hurt to listen.
If Ulysses was alive, then the bullet shouldn’t have grazed Ermine either. But, even so there wasn’t a second to relax.
In the moment Raven leaped back, Ulysses attempted to escape.
Raven kicked away the selkies and turned over to Ulysses and threw his knife.
It had the faint blue color of the ocean. Was that an aquamarine?
The one that was in Lydia’s possession right now, could also be….
If a piece of a human ear wasn’t attached to it, she thought she wouldn’t have hesistated, but Ulysses came down in one jump a second before Lydia who ran over to get it and picked it up into his hand.
“Lydia!”
Like he was used to it, Ulysses was able to get out of the maze-like place.
Under the cloud-filled gray sky, they could hear the rumbling sound of the rough waves. It seemed like the selkies’ rath had become even deeper and the waves were so violent and rough that they were splas.h.i.+ng up close to the top of the hill they were on, making the air around them filled with drizzling rain.
“Take a look,” said Ulysses who dragged Lydia near the fire so that they came to a place where they could look out over the ocean around them. He didn’t look like he cared about his ear that had a portion cut off and still made blood oozing down his cheek.
“I’m not considering. I am a fairy doctor.”
P. 276
“With just my will, I can wish for this island to be engulfed in the sea. Hah, hah, fun, I can’t wait.”
“You’re so energetic. But what is there that you can do? Just having the eyes that can see fairies, doesn’t make you useful at all.”
“This is the last one. You all grieve over yourselves for getting involved with him.”
But then, Edgar came running up from behind him to stop him by slamming himself into the young man’s back.
Right in front of Lydia’s eyes as she stood in a daze, Edgar striked down Ulysses and ran over to scatter and put out the burning firewood by kicking it with his foot.
“Well, well, even if you go so far and try to rescue those fairies, there’s no point in it, it isn’t like you to put your efforts in something so useless,” said Ulysses, in a stubborn attempt to be firm and self-a.s.sured as he got up onto his feet and whipped off the blood from his cut lip.
“You make me laugh. No more does the Blue Knight Earl exist in England country. And there aren’t any more decent fairy doctors. No matter what name you use, there is no power that can stop the selkies,” he said and held out the aquamarine out to the sea.
Lydia jumped around to look out towards the sea, and saw that the groups of selkies were starting to move.
She had to do something.
There aren’t any decent fairy doctors. That may be true, but if this aquamarine was a selkie’s heart, then right now, Lydia should have the same amount of power as Ulysses had.
But still, Lydia mustered up as much courage as she had, and she gripped her mother’s aquamarine and then held it out towards the sea.
sorrows!”
She was able to hear Ulysses’ whisper.
The bubbling water currents came towards her direction.
Edgar held out his hand to her as he was hanging onto a tree. She struggled to reach her hand to take his, but Ulysses grabbed a fist-full of her hair. Without letting go, she slipped under the waters with him.
No. I’d rather die than let you take it.
But, I can’t…. Just when she thought she was at her limit, something came up to them and slammed itself against Ulysses.
P. 279
P. 280
A number of selkies made Ulysses back down by circling around Lydia as they swan slowly in the water.
The water was filled with light and the selkies’ coats had air bubbles in them which made them reflect the ocean and make them have the same light blue color.
“We no longer have a reason to obey you.”
She was a short height when in human form, but perhaps because she lived a long life as a fairy, her natural form had a bold and magnificent presence.
“She also has a ‘heart.’ There is also the new Blue Knight Earl. As one of our friends, she will shoulder our pain with us.”
P. 281
“No, he is real. He is the earl that the merrows accepted.”
(We thought that they had all disappeared. The Blue Knight Earl and the fairy doctors that were here and there in the old days and the humans who we had trusted.)
“This little chit doesn’t have the power of a fairy doctor like they had in the past. Even if she had a heart with her, it isn’t like she’s able to save all of you. Don’t make me laugh.”
“If you go against me, there will be no hope for your kind!”
(The new Blue Knight Earl’s fairy doctor.)
Well, I wouldn’t recommend doing it, she sort of thought.
(Fairy doctor, we selkies cannot exist without a human friend. We shall make you, who had put so much effort for our kind as our hope.)
Ulysses made a tsk.
With those last words, he disappeared.
(Fairy doctor, the earl’s fortress has already gotten unpurified. We cannot guarantee if it has any strength left.)
After they said that, the swarm of selkies created a cloud of bubbles in the water, and swam away from Lydia into the distance.
She was revealed that he came for her, but when she saw how he came in such an arrogant manner, it made her furious at the same time.
“I felt bad about that. You can see that’s why I came to take you home.”
She really wanted to say the bold thing that she could go back herself, but she thought that was probably impossible, so Lydia just mumbled
“”Don’t be so angry. I really was so starving that I could nearly die.”
“That was, oh, fine, when we get back, I’ll let you rub the fur on my belly.”
But, for Nico to say that as he fumbled with his necktie in an embarra.s.sed way, it was his highest self-sacrificing method to soothe down Lydia’s anger.
After her mother pa.s.sed away and she was feeling lonely and crying, Nico would say oh, fine, then and let her borrow his belly.
She was nearly going to laugh, but she thought she still might be a child.
She had her hand pulled by Nico as they elevated upwards, she noticed that there was one particular selkie that remained with her.
P. 284
“This, is it perhaps Ermine’s?”
Lydia nodded with a serious face, and the old female selkie looked relieved and swam away.
For a blink of a moment, Lydia thought she saw that vanity box.
Teresa, is that you?
That was sure to be carved in the deepest part of one’s soul.
P. 285
The England summers were short, and go by in hardly any time at all. Even if the sun beamed down hard, when people started to feel that the sunset was coming down much faster than usual, it wasn’t long till the orange colored light filled the sky with the season of autumn.
After the fire of Mrs. Collins’ country estate, the one stream of events ended with the disappearance of three people.
The wave of the selkies crumbled one part of the hill and she heard that there was no one left inside the remains of the building. The selkies said they didn’t know if there was any power left in it, but that was something Lydia, and even Edgar, didn’t know, and it remained unclear if the Blue Knight Earl’s evil-repelling charm was protected.
Mrs. Collins and Suzy went back to Manchester.
In the end, the island, and the people who were on it, managed to not be swept away.
She was helped out by so many others and because she was supported, she was able to win her chance.
“Lydia, here you were.”
When Edgar was in a good mood, you had to be careful. Even when he wasn’t you should be careful, but since he had a smile on himself, people couldn’t help but let their guard down, so it was extremely dangerous for Lydia.
“But, you were in the middle of something.”
“There isn’t any kind of business that is worth refusing your invitation,” he worked out an excuse without changing his smile.
“Please don’t be so cold to me. During the three days you were missing, do you know how much I was worried? I was pacing up and down the beach day and night.”
“But, didn’t Nico tell you that it will be all right since he would be coming to take me back.”
Well, she did feel sorry about that part, and so Lydia slowed down her walking pace.
But when she realized that, it was already too late, as she felt he wouldn’t give back her umbrella no matter what and so she gave up.
“I have it. If she got her hands on that, she would lost her memories of when she was a human and become a selkie completely, right?”
“Although I don’t know if things will be all right like this,” she said.
P. 288
More importantly, said Edgar with a grin.
“I don’t want to. If you want to do that, then why don’t you take a walk with that woman from earlier.”
“Like that is highly possible.”
“Kiss? You kissed her?”
“Unbelievable!”
Blurting out the mistake himself, he rolled his eyes to the sky for an instant, but quickly pulled himself together and followed after her.
“It wouldn’t kill you if you didn’t!”
If it was a man like you, yes. She couldn’t deny the possibility. But even so, he was unbelievable.
That’s right, this isn’t something that I should be angry about. But, it still made her irritated.
“I’m not able to grab your heart, so I was beginning to feel like I didn’t know what to do,”
“That’s why I wanted to make sure,”
“When it comes to the point of time, if I can properly kiss or not.”
“When you would allow me.”
“Oh, Lydia, let’s walk more slowly. Since the sound of the waves and the blow of the wind feels so calm and peaceful.”
She pointed her chin in the opposite direction of him.
Lydia noticed there was someone walking towards them from the other direction. The earl imposter, for some strange reason, acted so friendly by taking and shaking Edgar’s hand.
P. 290
“Oh, please don’t poke fun at me. You are such a bad character. How could I have possibly guessed that you were the real Earl Ashenbert.”
“Lord Earl, the reply from the London newspaper company came back, and thankfully, I was able to get my share of earnings. When I return back over there, I’ll look for a good, proper job.”
And then, he turned over to Lydia and made a pleasant smile.
“Teresa, oh, right, you weren’t