Chapter 9

Tap, tap, tap… thud. And then again, tap, tap.  

A sound that came at regular intervals every few seconds.  

‘It sounds like something is bumping into something.’  

At least it’s a relief that it doesn’t seem to be hitting the clinic.  

‘Could it be a fight among wild animals? But it sounds too regular for that. Maybe something is caught on the weather vane…?’  

After a moment of contemplation, Alice pushed the covers aside and sat up.  

‘Let’s check it out directly. That’s quicker than theorizing.’  

Being fearless was one of her few advantages.  

She was confident that she had experienced all the terrifying situations a person could face, except for war.  

Especially around last year when she was examining patients who were dying one after another from a plague; after dozing off briefly and waking up to see a moving corpse, her threshold for fear had increased infinitely.  

It turned out that the corpse was being taken away by grave robbers.  

‘Everything has a reason.’  

Even if it’s a damn useless reason.  

Instinctively searching for a candle at her bedside and cursing under her breath, Alice fumbled on the floor as she got out of bed. The outline of the window, illuminated by moonlight, appeared softly against the darkness.  

Taking a deep breath, she slightly pulled back the curtain.  

All she could see was darkness.  

Tap, tap, tap…  

The sound came from the opposite side—near the entrance and stairs.  

‘But what would I see if I went to the entrance?’  

Damn it. Why can’t I turn on the light?  

Alice felt along the wall and slowly exited the clinic room. The contents of her bag, carelessly strewn about for later organization, attacked her toes.  

Damn it, did I leave it this messy? In just moving five meters, she must have bitten her lower lip dozens of times.  

Finally reaching the entrance hallway, she found that nothing was visible beyond the window in the same direction as the entrance.

The earlier ‘tap, tap’ sound had grown closer—close enough to deduce its components. 

‘Is that the sound of grass being stepped on?’  

The sound of grass crunching and sometimes dirt crumbling beneath pressure.  

Should I open the door? No, what if someone comes in?  

Would pressing my nose against the window give me a better view of outside? No, but what if our eyes meet…?

The confidence born from having slept among corpses began to wane in this unfamiliar environment. A slight sweat started to form at her feet.

As she cautiously moved forward, she almost collapsed when she heard a squeak as her foot lifted off the floorboard. If this side is listening intently to those sounds, then they might be hearing this side too…?

‘…I can’t retreat either way.’  

Alice clenched her teeth once more and wiped her wet hands and feet on her skirt. If opening the door felt anxious, there were other methods.

‘How about looking from upstairs?’  

Remembering her mentor’s presence late in the game, Alice lifted her head and doubted her eyes at an unexpected sight.

A faint light was seeping from under the second-floor door.

‘Did someone turn on a light?’  

No matter how many times she asked, Adelaide insisted on not lighting fires at night.

Was Nathan an exception? Could he break this rule like he would at a boarding school?

Resolving to catch Nathan at dawn and bombard him with questions, Alice slowly climbed up the stairs while outside, the tapping sounds continued without pause.

Just as she reached halfway up the stairs,

the light on the second floor went out.

‘Oh no.’  

She stood awkwardly on the stairs waiting for something to happen. But after a brief clattering sound from inside the second-floor room that seemed like something being organized, silence fell again.

‘Did he lie down to sleep?’  

Wouldn’t it be better to speak before he falls asleep…? But ultimately Alice turned around.

She had never heard anything good by interrupting Nathan’s personal time. The nagging thoughts about why she should sacrifice her personal time for an inquiry without any academic value resurfaced in her mind.

Eventually pushing aside her questions, she crawled down on all fours down the stairs. When she leaned outside toward the entrance, all she could hear now was the sound of wind and crickets.

No matter how long she waited, that strange ‘tap, tap’ sound did not return.

‘Did I just imagine it earlier?’  

Alice carefully stood up from her position. The creaking noise of the floorboards made her stop, but there was no sound coming from outside.

To be precise, there were no longer any ‘strange’ sounds—only a peaceful rural night flowed by as if painted.

‘What came and went…?’  

It would be comforting to dismiss earlier sensations as mere hallucinations and go to sleep.

However, Alice crawled back into the clinic room and grabbed hold of the edge of an old stove. She found a candle that had been shallowly placed earlier in the day but still had its wick intact.

‘The matches are in my bag’s side pocket.’

Not allowed to light a fire? But just a minute ago I witnessed an exception. If it was fine for the professor, surely there could be an exception here too.

She didn’t want to allow an unknown fear cloaked in mystery to leave without confrontation.

The match struck against darkness.

A pungent flame ignited.

Wrapping her hand around the candle’s base, Alice returned to the entrance hall. After checking several times that the door was locked, she opened a window and slowly brought forth the candle toward it—though not far enough to reach beyond into the yard…

…the ‘tap, tap’ sound had definitely stopped earlier.

Now even the sound of crickets had ceased.

And from afar came a tap, tap, tap…..

Tap… 

Tatatatatatak!

Something was rushing toward her. The long shadow cast by candlelight stabbed into all directions across the field.

Alice instinctively tried to close the window but felt her trembling hand slip over its handle.

Damn it! Damn it! The glass keeps slipping through my hands…!

Thud! 

The window barely shut.

And then—

Thud.

At first, Alice didn’t realize what had happened. The window, which had resembled a pitch-black frame, was now filled with the pale face of a person.

The face withdrew for a moment, then came back with a thud—again, and again. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud…

“Hey! You!”  

It was only then that Alice realized who the woman repeatedly slamming her face into the window was—a village resident.

The window shook as if it would shatter. She barely remembered her name but couldn’t hear anything over her own panic as she reached for the doorknob in desperation when suddenly Nathan burst through from upstairs.

“Idiot! Turn off that light!”  

“What?”  

“Put out that damn candle!”  

“If I put this out—”  

“Are you going to keep babbling nonsense?”  

Instead of asking further questions, Alice pinched out the wick with her fingers and opened the door.

“Cherry!”  

The resident introduced during dinner, Cherry, seemed to recognize her name and turned around. Was she the woman with red makeup around her eyes? With her face now smeared with blood, such details no longer mattered.

“Cherry… can you hear me?”  

Her small mouth quivered slightly.  

“It’s too bright…”  

With those words finished, Cherry’s body tilted dangerously sideways. The weight of what Alice caught felt strangely light.

***

I lost track of how the night passed. 

I immediately moved the patient to the bed and opened my medical bag, only to realize too late that any action taken in the darkness would be closer to torture than treatment. While checking the bleeding trend and consciousness, Cherry suddenly jumped up, insisting she wanted to go home, and I had to hold her back…

Adelaide, who had been called in late, calmed Cherry down and helped her out. It was only then that my legs gave way, and I sat down heavily, looking up at the sky where the sun was already rising.

She couldn’t afford the luxury of even a moment’s rest. By the time she forced herself to chew and swallow the dry bread, Adelaide arrived at the clinic. It seemed like it was time for her to be scolded.

“I didn’t realize you were this reckless, Alice.”

I had no rebuttal to Adelaide’s cold assessment. What excuse could someone who broke the rules from the very first day in town offer?

“I’m sorry… I’m truly sorry to Cherry as well. I have no words for taking the rules so lightly.”

“You knew better… Sigh.”

“Is Cherry okay?”

“That’s not a question for you.”

“I’m sorry.”

She still couldn’t understand how the resident had gotten injured, but looking at the outcome, there was nothing she could say, even if she had a hundred mouths.

Adelaide, still visibly furious with her breath hot with anger, couldn’t bring herself to say anything harsher in front of Alice, who was deeply bowed.

“Alice. Why did you turn on the light?”

“Well…”

A strange noise came from outside. Since Nathan had left the light on in his room, I thought it would be fine if I turned mine on too.

…I shouldn’t say this honestly. It would be wrong to shift the arrow meant for me onto Nathan.

“I wanted to go to the bathroom… I thought it would be okay if I turned it off quickly.”

“Sigh… Did Nathan not tell you where the chamber pot is?”

Nathan flinched.

“I thought you would take care of that yourself. Next time, just wake me up instead.”

“Please do that. And Alice.”

“Yes?”

“We can’t laugh this situation off. But it wasn’t intentional, and according to Cherry, you came out to help right away…”

Adelaide handed over a stack of papers.

“This is the town’s rules. Don’t come out of the clinic until you’ve memorized all of this.”

Each page contains about six or seven sentences. There are about ten pages in total. Alice felt relieved to receive what she should have done anyway as a punishment.

“Understood.”

“I can’t explain all the reasons why these rules were made. Just remember that each one is tied to the safety of the residents.”

Right. They couldn’t have written “Do not turn on lights at night; Cherry loses her sanity and gets hurt.”

Arno, who received the same rule sheet beside her, frowned.

“Do I have to memorize this too?”

“In principle, yes. Mr. Arno can read it comfortably while moving around.”

“Yes, understood.”

“I’ll bring you something to eat later. Rest well.”

With those words, Adelaide left the clinic.

On the first floor of the clinic, traces of last night’s chaos remained intact in the treatment room. Arno groaned.

“What on earth happened last night?”

“Well…”

Alice honestly recounted what had happened yesterday. She explained how she heard strange sounds during the night and thought it would be fine after seeing Professor Nathan turn on his light; she turned hers on too when suddenly Cherry came running and started banging her face against the window…

Arno snickered.

“You lied to protect your master.”

“There was no need for both of us to suffer unnecessarily. Why did Professor turn on his light? How did nothing happen even after breaking a rule… No.”

Alice suddenly realized what that ‘tap-tap’ sound from last night had been.

“It wasn’t nothing.”

“……”

“You knew that turning on the light would bring Cherry closer, didn’t you, Professor?”