Episode 78

Unfortunately, the accommodation where Elisha grew up was under construction. It was a small building with the lowest height among the dormitories.

Even if they were abandoned by the family, most of the noble ladies were to marry for convenience when they reached adulthood. So, each outbuilding had a tall, pointed fence the color of gray walls.

'Long time no see.'

Elisha suddenly had an idea that she wanted to go inside. Elisha opened the front door and she stepped inside.

Elisha carefully inspected the inside of the building. She and she came out into the garden and she looked out of the fence.

“Why are you like that?”

“No, as a child……. I used to look at this fence of the monastery often. After all, there is a higher wall outside this fence. I imagined the world beyond this fence.”

“You must have been young then.”

“Because I'm a bit of a weird kid, I didn't want to go out of the monastery. The world outside the monastery is full of monsters and seething with thieves……. Because Miss Rosaria said……. I thought it was hell outside these fences.”

“That is not wrong. Because demons and thieves are real.”

Elisha nodded her head.

“Later, after being caught by Jacob, I often thought of this fence. That place, which sometimes felt like a stuffy prison, was the barrier that protected me. Do. The world outside the fence might have been hell.”

“Do you still feel that way?”

Elisha shook her head slightly.

“Today, Nora escorts me. We are safe now.”

“Is that so. Then, if the threats you feared as a child appear, I will continue to protect them from now on.”

Elisha smiled a little.

“Thank you, Nora. Even though you must have been disappointed with me lately, for saying that.”

At that, Nora's expression darkened. At that time, Elisha felt a slight prick on the nape of her neck.

“Elisha.”

Elisha jumped up from her seat. Her lucerne was calling her.

“What are you doing there?”

“There were some circumstances.”

“Come on out.”

But when she went to the door, Elisha realized her door was locked. Monastery doors were often broken in this way. For the safety of the girls, it was a structure that could lock the door from outside.

“The door must be broken because the hinges are worn out. I can't go out here.”

Lucerne was watching her from outside her fence.

“Come here.”

Then Lucerne told her to come to the fence on her side.

'It feels like going back to my childhood.'

She hummed when she was happy and ran around the fence. I imagined the world out there.

And at the end of the fence stood Lucerne.

“Shadow.”

Lucerne whispered.

“Ah!”

Elisha was lifted by the shadows in an instant. With that, she stroked Elisha's cheek as if licking it.

“I guess this guy likes you.”

Lucerne said as if he was dumbfounded. Elisha's body was on top of the fence. But her feet couldn't reach the edge of her sharp hedge. Because her whole body was floating in the air thanks to her shadow.

“Come on.”

Lucerne held out her arm. Elisha blinked her eyes.

The world beyond the fence that I had imagined as a child was unfolding. So by chance, in such a mess.

Widely. A shadow placed Elisha. Elisha landed on her floor in her lucerne's arms.

“Why.”

As it was, Lucerne asked, looking at her speechless Elisha.

“No, it seems different from the hell I imagined.”

“What are you talking about?”

Then, her door slammed, and her Nora eventually gave up and climbed over her fence on her own. Despite the tall fence, Nora seemed to have wings.

Elisha answered in a suppressed voice as she was cradled in Lucerne's arms.

“It's nothing.”

Elisha briefly remembered her old self. Memories of past lives. Among flash-like memories and detailed memories, it was a memory that passed by like a flash. But she just remembered something clearly.

Elisha said she had never been hugged like this by Lucerne before.

*​ *​ *​

One day in the future that has disappeared.

That day was the day the hunting festival was held at the duke's house. There was a small spring connected to the forest behind the duke's castle. The spring was mysteriously clean all year round and the inside was transparent.

The people of the ducal family, whose money was rotting, ordered a wizard to plant countless flowers in the spring. Inside, the flowers were always swaying, catching the steps of passers-by.

The men played a game of kicking a ball. The game, in which players competed by kicking a ball with a long stick, was a game called “Lofun”. During the game, it was the only time the lakeside was quiet.

Elisha took advantage of the absence of people to visit the place. People didn't like it when a shabby woman like Elisha was there.

On days when nobility were not present, employees visited the spring, so today was the only day Elisha could go to the spring during the year.

Then Elisha found someone. The moment she spotted him, the hairs on Elisha's body stood on end. He was the one Elisha feared the most, except for Jacob and Marco.

She said his name was She Zain. Zain had previously courted Elisha before her face was ruined and was dumped.

The problem was that Jain was a very distant relative of Carola. After she becomes an ugly woman with burns on her face by Elisha. Zain became the laughing stock of the knights.

'It's a disgrace to be beaten by such an ugly bitch!'

After that, when Jain saw Elisha, he couldn't be bothered. Elisha hid from her father.

“Ah!”

A plop, then her foot slipped and she fell into the fountain.

A booming sound spread over her head. It was frivolous laughter.

“So I'm talking about that bitch…….”

It seemed that the knights had been drinking. Elisha shuddered at her outbreak and she hid with only her head sticking out in the water. Before long those her men passed by.

'Huh?'

Elisha unconsciously searched for her arms. The ancient gold coin had disappeared.

'It's precious.'

A while ago she was taken to Marco's mansion. An ancient gold coin he gave her on the day her Lucerne saved her.

It had disappeared from her arms. Elisha's face went white.

'Have!'

Looking around, Elisha finally found an ancient gold coin among the flowers. Elisha picked it up and put her head above her sleep.

“You better not move.”

Then the bright sunlight hit her eyes. Someone said above her head. The spring was a hollow structure, with a wooden deck connecting the lake and land.

In the summer, it was a place where nobles sat and dipped their feet. A man was standing there. Elisha's face turned red.

It was Lucerne. Elisha hastily put the gold coin into her bosom. In doing so, the buttons on her wet top came undone. All of her breastbones were exposed.

“It looks good.”

He said bluntly. Her voice was so calm that Elisha thought she had heard it wrong.

Elisha hurriedly tried to get out of there. Lucerne laughed lightly.

“You are on top of an ancient thistle flower. The flower attracts whatever is entwined with its stem. I don't think I've ever heard that you shouldn't go into the lake this season.”

“Ah!”

Indeed, the more Elisha struggled, the more her body became more and more wrapped in the water. He was watching it

“Didn't I tell you to stay out of my sight?”

Lucerne said languidly. His tone……. It was friendly, but the tone was strangely cruel. It was like her tenderness deliberately designed to hurt her.

“Then, go.”

Elisha spat out. There was a gasping sound as she was out of breath.

“Tell me to save you.”

Lucerne whispered. It wasn't a loud voice, but it sounded so resounding and good that it stuck in Elisha's ears.

“Hurry.”

Elisha bit her lip and forced herself to speak.

“Please save me.”

Lucerne then bowed down to Elisha.

“Ah!”

Lucerne bent down and hooked Elisha up. Elisha, who was wet from the reaction, fell into his arms. Lucerne stood firm for a moment. Elisha's whole body trembled.

'That's right.'

But instead of hitting Elisha, he gave her arm a push. It was as if she was estimating Elisha's size.

“Why can't I stand alone?”

It was a sarcastic tone. Elisha's whole body heated up. It was only then that I realized that he had already let me go. She saw Lucerne from very close range for the first time, her field breathing.

Because he is so beautiful, because he is so tall. Because it's so elegant. Elisha felt her shame just by standing in front of her.

“It was you.”

Lucerne said. His gaze was persistently on the scar on half of Elisha's distorted face.

'Last time I was wearing an eyepatch…….'

The last time we met, Elisha was at Marco's mansion. Back then she was wearing an eyepatch. The blindfold covered half of his face.

After all, Lucerne would not have been interested in Elisha's face. The last time I hid behind a tree. The day he said he was wearing a green dress. That day, my face was hidden by a tree branch…….

'This person is seeing the scars on my face for the first time.'

So it was not strange that he was looking at something so strange. Elisha's whole body trembled.

He wanted to disappear from the world. Standing in front of interest……. She was so ugly

Lucerne held out her hand. He was looking at Elisha with the eyes of the unknown.

He held out a large palm and covered half of Elisha's face. First, it was on the burn scar side. Half of her normal face was exposed under his hand.

Then, the other half. He now only sees the ugly side.

“I'm not going to make that face.”

Lucerne said bluntly. But it was a strangely funny tone.

“The right side of your face is distorted like this. I can't see in my left eye right now.”

Lucerne said.

“I can't see anything with my eyes right now. It's a lot of fun.”

“…….”

“That's why I only remember the pretty side.”

Lucerne said. His face came closer. He laughed as if he was having fun and pushed Elisha's body.

And he ran over Elisha's whole body. The cloth, wet and damp, exposed the lines of her body. Needless to say, she was wearing a thin dress, and even the shape of her nipples could be seen through the flowing bustier.

Elisha blushed at her shame.

“Cover well.”

Lucerne whispered to her and pulled her cloak over Elisha's shoulders. It was very luxurious with a crimson cloak.

“Hope out of sight.”

He whispered a few more words in my ear.

Elisha watched him walk away and she stood there blankly.

I couldn't believe what Lucerne whispered at the end.

“This is the final warning. If you catch my eye just one more time. I won't be able to protest no matter what happens next time. I had a lot of fun just looking at you today, so I'll let you go.”

Elisha felt like she had been hit in the head.

'Why do you keep touching me? Am I that funny?'

He was a man who would not offend any woman in the world no matter what kind of lady he harassed.

Elisha only found out about her two months later. That Lucerne went blind in one eye as a side effect of the poison Marco fed him during last year's shrine ceremony.

Instead, Lucerne cut off Marco's finger, which sparked the family head's wrath.

Little by little going to Kati was becoming more hellish.

And a small change occurred in Elisha's heart. It's too small, too small, too shabby. It was a strange thing to attach pretty modifiers such as romance or love.

The heart of a woman no one wanted was grotesque and ugly.

She had nothing and only two things she had. Body and mind. Even those two were taken away and shaken.

Lucerne, how could he not call it hell to think of the man.

But he was too strange to just call it Hell. He keeps me awake at night and sometimes makes my heart ache.

Since she made her dream during the day, Elisha decided to call it a little hell.

And Elisha decided to close her eyes, cover her ears, and turn away from her feelings.