Spring Flower (2)

“You calmed down a little now?”

“Sniff… uh-huh…”

Ariel nodded, her voice nasal.

I kept a gentle smile playing on my lips as I smoothed her disheveled red hair.

Maybe it was the lingering tears,

but every time my hand brushed her head, Ariel’s shoulders shook as if she were swallowing back sobs.

I stroked the girl carefully,

using the faint warmth from my body to remind her that I was there.

Thankfully, it seemed my feelings got through.

Soon enough, Ariel regained her composure enough to hold a normal conversation.

“Oh dear… your face is a total mess.”

“…It’s all because of you, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I quietly patted the whining girl.

The warmth seeping into my arms, turning them lukewarm.

I etched the resonating feeling of it into my chest before slowly parting my lips.

“I’m really sorry.”

“……”

“I was thinking about a lot of things wrong. I was so stupid, so foolish…”

I had to apologize.

To the people I’d so cruelly hurt.

Even if I’d picked up a sword because of a miserable sorrow,

the moment I wielded it against others, I took on all the blame for that misfortune myself.

A truth even the passing breeze knew.

I had ignored it all this time.

Blinded by grief, I’d recklessly slashed with the shards of self-loathing I’d been carrying.

‘The Empire’s worst thug…’

Maybe it was a nickname that was not entirely incorrect.

I swallowed the worthless thoughts.

And as I held Ariel in my arms, enveloped by silence for a while, a faint call reached my ear.

“……Oppa.”

“Speak.”

“Then, you won’t… leave us now…?”

The hesitant question betrays unease.

Like lingering regret, clearly, sharply, the girl tugged at my sleeve.

“Trying to die again… I don’t want that…”

“……”

“If oppa isn’t here, I’ll be…”

The most she could offer was a request not to kill myself.

My breath hitched in my throat.

I was already aware, but I’d burdened this child with such a cruel memory.

A surging, mournful tremble struck the back of my throat.

I struggled to regain control of my wavering emotions and opened my mouth.

“Don’t worry, I’ll always be by your side…”

In the moment I tried to reassure Ariel’s plea.

A small knock came from the closed door.

-Knock knock…

The soft noise broke the flow of our conversation.

I tried to ignore it, wanting to finish what I had been saying, but the voice that followed forced me to stop.

-Milady… are you inside?

A youthful voice holding a quiet beauty.

It was a voice all too familiar.

Without either of us saying it first, Ariel and I turned our gaze toward the door, murmuring.

“”Rachel…?””

While we were still in stunned reaction.

The girl’s voice continued.

-Young master has disappeared.

-I looked in the bedroom, the storeroom, the study… but I couldn’t find him anywhere.

-……Perhaps, he’s left the mansion.

Rachel seemed to have misunderstood something completely.

-I felt like this moment would come, so I was preparing myself…

-But I can’t possibly accept it.

-Just yesterday, the world was so brilliant, but now it feels like it’s all covered in black and white.

Each word she spoke calmly had a strange dampness to it.

She was probably holding back tears.

-I thought I should tell you first, Lady.

-So… so, I knocked on the door.

Only emptiness remained in the voice that had lost its vitality.

The girl’s faint breathing, echoing weakly, was precarious, as if it would break at any moment.

Ariel, unable to watch any longer, walks towards the door.

The red-haired girl, moving without hesitation, turned the doorknob without any wavering.

“I hope, Lady, you will let the young master go without too much pain…”

“Why are you sending my brother away?”

Ariel shouts powerfully towards the brown hair revealed through the door crack.

“Ah, Lady…?”

“My brother hasn’t left yet!”

She grabs Rachel’s arm, who was standing quietly, and drags her into the room.

Following that movement.

My and Rachel’s gazes meet, hidden behind the girl’s back.

“Y-Young master…?”

Her transparent eyes fix on me, as if time had stopped.

The gaze, filled with surprise.

Soon transforms into relief, joy, and sorrow, changing multiple times.

It was a look that strangely reminded me of Ariel from a few hours ago.

I felt like I had become a criminal for no reason.

No, maybe I really am a criminal.

I let out an awkward laugh and, forcing a bright tone, greeted her.

“Haha… G-Good afternoon…?”

It was a terribly pathetic line, but.

Rachel’s eyes went blurry, like she’d witnessed a miracle.

Finally, she burst into tears and threw herself at me.

“Master…!”

Rachel, her arms wide open, hugged me tight.

Ariel, who had been watching, seemed overcome with emotion again, and she wedged herself between us.

“Oppa…!”

“Master…!!”

Strange.

I was sure I had spent hours calming Ariel down.

Suddenly, there were two people I needed to soothe.

I swallowed a sigh I couldn’t utter.

Yeah… it’s karma, I guess.

Who else can I blame?

In the end, I had to comfort the two of them, sobbing like children, for a long time.

.

.

.

The situation only settled down after a while.

The scenery outside the window, once bathed in brilliant sunlight, was now turning crimson with the setting sun.

“Looks like everyone’s stopped crying.”

“I could still cry more…”

“Sniff… Me too…”

Ariel and Rachel, with their blank stares, were displaying a terrifying confidence.

Alarmed, I stopped them.

“You guys look like you’ll collapse if you cry any more… Please hold it in.”

Thankfully, they listened to my request.

I breathed a short sigh of relief and then sat the girls down side-by-side on the sofa.

Maybe it was the comfort of the softness.

They seemed to be regaining their composure.

I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and took in their appearance.

Two figures, leaning on each other’s shoulders like close sisters.

Their eyes were red and swollen from crying for so long.

“Pfft…”

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

I shouldn’t be laughing.

But my heart was softening, and I couldn’t hide the corners of my mouth from turning up.

“Is this situation amusing to you, Young Master?”

Rachel snapped, her tone sharp and petulant.

She was turning her head away, seemingly embarrassed by her dishevelled appearance.

How cute.

For a moment, I barely managed to swallow those words…

“How cute.”

Huh.

Looks like I didn’t swallow them.

A wave of realization washed over me, and I belatedly lifted my gaze to find a girl with an unmistakably flustered expression.

“Ehh…?”

Her voice was a nasal question mark.

A crimson rose was blooming riotously across her pale cheeks.

“Uh, eh, ugh…?”

For a while, Rachel’s reaction was glitched and broken.

Strange.

It’s usually rare to see Rachel so dishevelled like this; has she been so drained from all the events that have happened?

My heart felt strangely heavy, so I stood up from my seat.

“Ariel… and Rachel.”

I took a step towards the girls sitting across from me.

And then, I immediately stretched out my arms wide and pulled both of them into a tight embrace.

“B-Brother…?”

“Young Master…?”

There was a story I hadn’t properly told yet.

A story I had to tell you both.

“I’m sorry.”

I didn’t even know exactly *what* I was apologizing for.

I’d messed up so badly, it was hard to even itemize each mistake.

So, I said it in a lump.

But that didn’t mean the sincerity in my voice had faded.

“I didn’t want to hurt you guys again…”

In the end, I did hurt you.

In the most wretched, cruel, and despairing way.

When you witnessed my attempt at suicide, what were you feeling?

How much devastating wretchedness.

How much horrific cruelty.

How much dark despair must have engulfed you.

– *Hiccup*, Oppa!! No, don’t do it!!

– Th-that’s not a thing, Master…!! Just leaving you to die… What kind of…!”

That day, it wasn’t just me who broke.

While I was shattering, scattering, hating, turning to a handful of ash and blowing away.

You were withering beside me.

A bitter taste lingers in my mouth.

But I didn’t let go of the faint smile I had calmly put on.

This time, I couldn’t cry.

I had to smile brightly.

Because that was the least I could do for you, who had bloomed so many hopes for me.

“I promise.”

I moved my lips with a resolution I had firmly pressed down.

“I’ll never… leave again.”

I could feel the warmth in my arms stirring.

I savored the warmly rippling emotion and pulled the two of them closer.

“I won’t try to run away anymore… I’ll cling to life…”

My throat had been tight for a while, but strangely, no tears came.

Maybe it was because I had vomited out my sadness in front of the window this morning.

Only a cool, refreshing sensation remained now.

I asked softly,

“So… will you stay by my side from now on?”

Even though I hurt you, made you suffer.

If you still care for me, though.

So that I can overcome this terrible fever, and at winter’s end, gift you brilliant spring blossoms.

“Will you give me a chance…?”

Truth be told, I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if you refused.

The culprit was clearly me.

But even in that situation, the reason why there wasn’t a tremor in my question…

“Yes…!!”

“Hic, of course, we will…!”

I guess it means I don’t doubt your devotion, not even a little.

“Thank you.”

Ariel and Rachel nodded without a moment’s hesitation.

Overcome with an indescribable gratitude, I embraced the girls again, so tightly it felt like I would break them.

*

Meanwhile.

On the road connecting to the vicinity of the Rysht Duchy.

There was a carriage speeding along.

“Please… Please…”

A carriage lavishly decorated with the imperial crest.

Inside was none other than a girl with dazzling platinum blonde hair.

Her sea-blue eyes trembled, devoid of their natural light.

Her red lips were busy gnawing at her nails.

Disheveled, the girl was muttering to herself like a madwoman.

“Please… Raiden…”

The girl was searching for her knight.

“Don’t leave like this… Please, don’t abandon me…”

The girl sobbed, her voice a mix of cries and pleas.

A carriage barrels down the road, its destination, of course, the Lisette family manor.