Chapter 182: Chapter 182 Child-rearing Diary_1
The unnamed witch held the "life" authority...
Aiden suddenly remembered that the archives of the Heresy Tribunal had recorded that the unnamed witch indeed performed the miracle of rapid crop growth and had helped the villagers overcome famine.
This skill, in fact, could be achieved with black magic and Magic Potion, but firstly, the scale of personal black magic was very small, and the cost of Magic Potion was far higher than the output of the crops, making it impossible to apply on a large scale in agriculture.
From this perspective, the unnamed witch was not simply using some modern knowledge to increase the crop yield in the village, she probably also harnessed the power of the language of the gods.
The power of the "life" authority could prevent people from falling ill, which was likely a positive characteristic after adapting to the authority.
A bit envious—this was Aiden’s first thought, as he himself had died early due to illness in his previous life.
Aiden roughly relayed the matter to Abigail and had her continue to turn the pages.
The latter part of the diary was still written every ten days or half a month, mostly about discoveries and progress in research. The owner of the diary seemed accustomed to only writing when she encountered something she wanted to record, and she also used animals to study the effects of the hatching egg.
Then one day, the witch noted a big event.
"I plan to raise a daughter.
Living alone in this forest is indeed too dull; I feel like I’m almost losing the ability to speak.
From previous experiments, the hatching egg can rapidly clone organisms. Although it can only hatch one individual at a time, the cloned organism grows five to ten times faster than ordinary creatures, and yet after reaching adulthood, their lifespan is similar to that of normal beings.
I took some of my blood and put it in a cup, soaking the hatching egg in it.
At night, I saw an embryo appear inside, hoping everything goes well."
Up to this point, what Abigail mentioned was confirmed: the unnamed witch used the hatching egg to clone herself and left offspring. Then, the bulk of the following diary entries were essentially the diary owner’s childcare diary.
The diary owner named her "daughter" born from the hatching egg Alice—a name that indeed seems like someone who had traveled through would choose.
The clone born from the hatching egg seemed to develop more completely than ordinary humans. Alice was born already with baby teeth and could eat normal food. Moreover, she was growing at a rate far exceeding that of ordinary people. In just a month, she could start walking, and in half a year, she had learned to speak, which saved her caretaker a lot of the trouble of raising a child.
The childcare diary was filled with everyday occurrences like "Alice can laugh now," "Alice can call me mother," "She looks exactly like me, but after all, this body is just another person’s body used for my rebirth" and the like, at some places even simply sketched like a graphic diary.
The unnamed witch who had been studying black magic and the language of the gods gradually shifted her focus to raising the child, even taught her a little magic, and seemed to be enjoying it. But it appears she did not teach Alice about her own original world or the language of the gods, probably fearing that one day her reclusive life in the Misty Forest would be exposed, attracting the attention of Death.
This life continued for about two years, and Alice had grown to look like a normal person of about ten years old. The recorded events were mostly trivial, and there was a period when the quality of the diary entries stabilized.
However, quite a few entries started to show the diary owner’s daily forgetfulness, and the frequency seemed to be increasing.
But two years later, one day, the quality of the diary abruptly declined.
The date at the beginning of this diary entry was edited: first "May 19" was written, then "19" was crossed out and "21st" was written instead.
The content of the diary was also full of crossed-out corrections, like a worn piece of clothing patched all over. It was somewhat difficult to read:
"Woke up feeling terrible this morning, my head is a jumbled mess.
I keep forgetting things, even burned the ▉▉gan yesterday.
At noon, when Alice asked, I realized I hadn’t even prepared the meal.
I wanted to jot some things down on paper, but as soon as I picked up the pen, I forgot what I was going to write.
Even now.
I can’t even remember how to write the words, it’s killing me.
Don’t seem to have a fever either...
Better rest for a day and see."
Aiden continued to read and found that in the following several days, the diary’s owner made entries, yet the mistakes and corrections kept increasing.
"May 22nd.
I felt like I had a terrible nightmare, it felt like someone was talking to me in the dream, and when I woke up, I could almost hear that person’s voice.
But mysteriously, I just can’t remember it at all.
I feel a bit uneasy, always feeling like I’ve forgotten something very important."
"May 23rd.
My head hurts, I keep feeling like I can hear someone whispering.
This morning, I don’t know why, but I zoned out for half an hour, and it’s like a piece of my memory has been scooped out.
Three whole days have passed, and there’s been no improvement in my condition.
Alice has started to worry about me, I’m a bit scared."
"May 24th.
I had another nightmare, feeling like my head has cleared up a bit, the voice that’s been echoing in my mind became clearer, it’s Melindale’s voice.
She kept laughing, mocking me, calling my name.
This isn’t an illusion, it’s real!
I’m certain I am still lucid, she must have done something to me!
There’s no witch from the correspondence I can consult...
What should I do?"
The diary entry from May 24th seemed to end there, but beneath it, there was an inexplicably added line, written in this world’s common language:
"I’m coming back, did you miss me? Dear."
This line appeared abruptly, written in large letters, the handwriting was slanted and flowed like calligraphy, very different from that of the diary’s owner.
Aiden immediately realized this line must have been written by someone other than the owner of the diary.
He recounted the contents to Abigail, who, after a slight pause, quickly turned the page for him, evidently she remembered this page well, and was curious about what was written next.
The next page didn’t have a date, the recorded content was messier than any previous page, the crooked writing looked like a bunch of sun-dried worms, but every stroke was made with an abnormal amount of force, with several places soaked through with spilled ink.
"I asked Alice, asked her if she touched any of my things.
She said no.
I actually know that, she couldn’t possibly get her hands on my diary.
The diary has always been locked in a box!
And I recognize that handwriting!
That’s Melindale’s writing!!
The person who wrote that sentence should actually be me!
I finally understand what’s happening to me, Melindale has always been on me!
She has always been on me!!
Her will is eroding my consciousness, she wants to turn me into her!!"
