Chapter 1 The Child Named Luna (Patreon)

A young woman was running towards a house were a couple was living, carrying a bucket of warm water. She entered the open door and brought the water to a room where her friend Aria Brundle is about to give birth.

The woman who carried the water and Aria’s friend was the daughter of the midwife who is assisting Aria in her labor, her name was Nicole Runic. The midwife, Hilda Runic is checking on Aria’s condition and was currently pale understanding the laboring girl’s circumstances. The Aria is pale but determined to give birth despite her sickly composure the fire of life was burning in her deep blue eyes. 

Her husband, Luciel Brundle is currently out of town doing work to ensure that his family is well fed and won’t have any troubles however because of his wife becoming sickly in her late pregnancy, he doubled up the time working to buy medicine and supplies to support his wife in the best way he possibly could. 

Several hours past and then, 「Uwaah! Uwaaah! 」 the cry of a baby was heard, it was a healthy little girl. The midwife immediately cleaned up the baby and covered it with clean cloth offering it to the mother who was breathless almost about to faint after exhausting all her strength. The mother looked passionately on her child then in an almost inaudible voice called out the child’s name. 

「Your name will be Luna, just like the name of the goddess of the moon who brings harvest to everyone.」

In that few moments, the woman showed all of her affection to her child hugging it and kissing her forehead, and moments later Aria’s strength slowly faded along with her consciousness, never to awaken again.

Later that evening, the husband finally returned home from work hearing both good and bad news from the midwife who was taking care of his child. The man was at first happy for the successful delivery but then slumped in sadness after knowing that his wife died after. He loved his wife so much and they were still only a young couple so his feelings for his wife were far stronger than for his child. 

Lamenting the loss, he left the house that day to cry out in the forest only to return home late at night with bloodshot eyes from tears. Calming down, he held the child that was given to him by the midwife looking at the newborn not knowing what to do. 

「You’re wife called her Luna, please cherish her in her place. I will help with the childcare as much as I could and I could also let my daughter care for her for a while. 」

Nodding at the midwife, the man couldn’t utter a word as to how he would respond. Still the husband did his best to raise it with the help of the midwife’s family.

Several years have passed and the child grew up into a cheerful little girl with brown hair and deep blue eyes. Her hair resembled her father’s hair color while her eyes were inherited from her mother. She was an overly curious and friendly child who has befriended all the children in their small village.

But despite her cheerful state, her only family, her father was not that happy about it. As the days goes by, his longing for his wife deepened. Though he tried to tie himself with other women, he just couldn’t forget nor accept it, which was also noticed by everyone. At the time when the child could finally move on her own, her father’s neglect just increased leaving the child alone in the care of others which made everyone closer to the child but not her father.

This situation only started to get worse as days had gone by when the child finally reached the age of baptism at the age of 10. In the last few years, her father started drinking night after night returning home rugged and would always ignore the approach of his child. Then one night after the baptism, her father returned home with a big sack and rope when she was still asleep.

The man slowly tied up the child’s hands and feet, but not too tight for the child to notice. Then gagged the child and slapped her awake.

「Wake up you monster!!! You took my beloved, my Aria!!! You even took her eyes!!!」

The child who was awoken by the pain was so confused she didn’t understand what her father was doing to her. She then finally noticed that she was tied up and gagged. She then stared at her father with eyes filled with fear and her tears slowly run down her eyes. 

With bloodshot eyes filled with obsession, her father slapped her, punched her and kicked her several times and though they were all strong hits she was lucky enough not break any bone in her body but losing consciousness.

The man staring at her unconscious child screamed at her to return him his wife several times until he finally crumbled on his feet then finally waking up from his insanity, he once again looked at his beaten up child. Panicking at the thought that he might have killed her already, the man put her in the sack and silently went out of the village and into the forest.

Deep in the forest was a small marsh where the hunters of the village said to be the home of a powerful beast, there he tossed the sack containing his child and ran back to escape. Unfortunately for him though, he encountered a monster though not eating meat was a ferocious creature that would attack anyone entering their territory.

He somehow survived the attack and dragged his bleeding body back to the village only to collapse and die bleeding from the attack. It was only early in the morning when the patrols of the village discovered his corpse. Then later have the villagers discovered the disappearance of his daughter.

Deep in the marshes, a sack was being dragged by a lone skeleton. The skeleton plans to offer whatever was in the sack to the one who awakened it. Slowly as it dragged the sack, the one inside it regained consciousness from all the motion.

「Hmmmm… hmmmmm!!! Hmmmmm!?」

The child inside the sack wriggled about but the skeleton ignored it and continued its work.

『Where am I, what’s happening? What is this situation? 』

The child that awakened was not the child but a different person, then slowly memories of the child came rushing in causing her to suffer a severe headache and fell unconscious once more.

The skeleton finally reached destination after an hour of walking. What came into the skeleton’s view were a lone grave and a black crystal in a pedestal beside it. The skeleton emptied the contents of the sack and placed the child closed to the pedestal and left. 

A few moments later, the pedestal glowed dark and black haze oozed out from it. The haze slowly crawled towards the child and slowly permeated around her. This haze is what was known as miasma, a substance close to mana but is corrupted and would usually give birth to monsters.

When the miasma made contact with her skin, the child was awoken by severe pain as if she was being penetrated by thousands of needles. The child suffering from pain endured it and tried to understand the situation. This time with her mind more mature because of the fusion of consciousness, she tried in her best way to check the surroundings.

By then did she find the black ooze slowly creeping up her legs and with the basic knowledge that the other child possessed, she finally understood the situation and that it’s not a good one.

『Ugh, I have just awoken into this place and now I have to deal with something like this situation. 』

She whispered inside her head. The girl, Tsubaki Minako has awakened in the body of this girl and is now in a situation where she is slowly being corrupted by miasma. The last memory that she recalled from the other child Luna Brundle was the memory of her father beating her close to death.

Tsubaki’s memories were not clear and still in the middle of merging, but she could already understand just how sever her situation was. Surely if it was only this child then she would only be corrupted without a fight, but not Tsubaki.

The corruption was slow because she understood after remembering what the local villagers taught the girl Luna that miasma could only corrupt people with weak will. And Tsubaki’s will to survive is not by any means weak. Then finally after breaking away from her entanglement, she endured the pain and crawled towards what seems to be the source of the miasma.

She then grabbed the crystal despite further corrupting her and smashed it several times on the pedestal with whatever strength she had left. After several smacks, she could finally see some cracks which made her will even stronger using every bit of what she could muster to break it, and then finally succeeding.

As the sound of the crystal shattering, the miasma within was also scattered, but it also further corrupted her turning her hair white and eyes red. Still she somehow managed to survive barely turning into an undead. Now it will be a test of patience if she gets fully corrupted or somehow be able to survive it.

After staying still while clenching her teeth from the pain, the girl slowly stood up, then dragged her pain riddled body oozing with miasma to a trail which seems to be the trail created by the sack, though not that visible she at least able to discern a path.

Along the way, she encountered a fallen skeleton, but not understanding why it was there, she moves away from it and continue finally reaching a marsh after a long painful walk. She knows the marsh by memory because kids would sometimes wonder out here even without their parents’ permission. 

When she reached the location, she heard rustling sound probably from people moving about in the area. And so she called out.

「Help!!!」

Even in her low pitched weak voice, it seems like several of the rustling stopped and noticed her voice, then the rustling continue and several people came out of the trees surrounding marsh. They were people that she could recall raising her. Among them was a woman named Hilda.

However, shock was clearly shown in their face the moment they lay their eyes on her. Well anyone would be surprised if they saw a child looking like a beaten up kid with white hair and red eyes.

But only one person acted differently from the others, and that was Hilda. Hilda treated Luna like her own daughter and would care for her along with her children, especially in the days when her father left her home alone.

「Luna? Is that you Luna!? 」

Tears immediately rained down her eyes and Hilda almost rushed towards her. But she was held back by one of the villagers. She turned to the one who stopped her as if pleading, but the person only responded in a sad sigh swaying his head sideways.

Hilda turned back to Luna as if her whole world was crushed. She knows what is happening, in the same way that Tsubaki realized. She is still covered in miasma and is doing her best to suppress it.

Tsubaki, sad as she may be responded with her best smile at moment

「I will do my best, so please wait for me」

Tears also flowed out of Luna’s eyes as she helplessly stared at the person she considered her second mother. Then before turning back, she called out once more.

「I WILL DEFINITELY COME BACK!!! MOM!!! 」

Hearing those words, Hilda fell down the ground sobbing as she stared at Luna’s figure returning back inside the forest.