Poe no Mura
When I was walking in the forest thinking about a deer that I had failed to shoot, it
got misty. Since something moved in the bush, I fired to catch the deer. A girl
appeared from the bush. A boy following her and yelled out, "Marybell!" I said,
"I'm Baron Glen Smith Longbaat. I misunderstood there was a deer. I didn't mean to
shoot her." The boy hit me with my rifle and told me to give him bullets.
I wasn't shot because another villager appeared and took me to a mansion with them.
In the mansion, I asked a woman if Marybell was ok. She said I didn't need to
worry. I found the boy in the garden and told him I would be responsible for her injury.
I asked him to send someone to the castle of Saint Down with my message because my
friends must have been worrying about me, who had lost while hunting. "It's not
necessary. If Marybell dies, I'll kill you. If she recovers, I'll let you go." said
the boy. He said I would not be able to get out of the village because every villager
knew the accident.
I met an old woman in the village and asked her where to the castle of Saint Down
was. She answered she had never heard of it. I was puzzled. I mustn't have been in the
mist so long. I wondered why there was no wheat, beans or cows in the village. Who and
how ruled the village? Did they make rose essence or jam out of the roses that filled
the village? The old woman said "The village is called the village of Poe. We raise
roses to live. Please go back to the mansion. You can't get out of this village alone."
I was very happy to hear Marybell got better. The next morning I found Marybell
in the garden. Surprisingly, her scar was almost cured. Marybell passed out at teatime.
Her adopted mother said she often passed out.
I decided to leave the village the next day because it was stormy that night.
I ate rose soup at dinner and thought I would eat steaks, cheese, sprouts, white bread,
wine and tea with cream.
I woke up in midnight and caught Edgar at doing something to me.
Edgar: Marybell is unwell. You need to give us a bit of your blood.
I: Did you suck my blood?
Edgar: New blood contains a lot of energy.
I: You sucked my blood. Vampanella! Then I'm going to turn into a Vampanella, too.
Edgar: Don't worry. You mistook my sister for a deer. You're not qualified. Leave
us tomorrow and enjoy the rest of your life as a human.
I: You've left a mark on my neck.
Edgar: There's no mark left. I can get energy through my fingertips touching you.
I: You kill roses in that way. You must be scared of light, garlic and the cross.
Edgar: Do we live in a coffin?
I: Are you really Vampanellas?
Edgar: Please call us by that name if you prefer, but we are the Poes. Good night.
A villager sent me off outside the village the next morning. I went back to the castle
of Saint Down two hours later. None of my friends knew of the village which was full
of roses. They suspected I had a dream.
I failed to find the village of Poe in the vicinity of the castle of Saint Down.
However, I'm sure it wasn't a dream since I found a slight mark left on my neck,
which disappeared soon though. I wonder if the boy shared the energy with his sister.
I wonder since when he's been living. I think nobody would believe the story about
the village of Poe, where villagers raise roses. So I wrote it down in my diary.
July 13, 1865
Glen Smith