CH 3

Warning: It’s a little brutal from the flashback in the beginning.

It was the day of a small festival in the village. People ended the year happily by lighting a fire and dancing with each other, and Lathyrus’s house was just like any other. Lady Laurence, who had a petty quarrel with her husband earlier, was in the house as usual.

Her father went out to buy his daughters a gift to satisfy their mother’s anger, and unlike the usual hustle and bustle, the Laurence household was quiet.

That day, Lathyrus saw it. A huge and terrifying dragon.

｢Erica, Lathyrus! Run away!｣

By the time she realized its true nature, Lady Laurence had already been trapped in the dragon’s flames.

｢Mom!｣

The moment Lathyrus was shouting her mother’s name, Erica started running, holding her.

｢Sister! Mom, mom…｣

Despite Lathyrus’s slaps on her sister’s shoulder to find their mother, Erica did not stop her running legs.

Suddenly, the peaceful village became a wasteland, and people started to run away while pushing each other.

『Found it.』

At that moment, a great darkness fell over the two sisters, and a strange voice was heard. The voice echoed in her head, not her ears. The feet of the dragon the size of her house came to grab Erica’s head. But fortunately, a savior appeared.

Just before the scaly dragon’s claws snatched up Erica, another dragon that flew toward them so quickly that it could not be seen bit the gray dragon’s neck and rolled it over on the ground.

｢Arium!｣

Erica shouted at the two dragons who were tangled in each other. Maybe it was just one of the two names.

｢Run away, Erica!｣

At this time, another voice echoed in Lathyrus’s head. It even called her sister’s name in a friendly way. Erica hugged Lathyrus and hid behind a stable in someone else’s house, where there was less fire.

｢Sister, what about mother? Can’t we go find mother?｣

｢Lathyrus, it is already too late for mom…｣

｢Oh, let’s ask dad to save mom! We can go find dad first…!｣

Hugging her young sister while remembering her mother being wrapped in a fire in front of her eyes, Erica trembled. It wasn’t until a while later that Lathyrus realized that her sister was crying.

｢I’m sorry, Lathyrus. I’m sorry… ｣

｢…｣

｢As he said, we should have left sooner… I hesitated because I didn’t want to part with my family…｣

｢…｣

｢It’s all my fault…｣

No matter how young she was, Lathyrus could have noticed. The dragon who called her sister’s name and what her sister’s apology meant now that she was sorry to herself…

｢Sister, are you acquainted with that dragon?｣

Erica’s eyes trembled slightly as she met her sister’s eyes. It was like a sinner being caught in her own sin.

｢Lathyrus, I… Ah, ah…!｣

｢Sister…? What’s the matter?!｣

It was when Lathyrus grabbed her shoulder, startled by the sudden sight of Erica grabbing her heart while she was speaking.

As easily as a small house collapsed, a large stable then collapsed. The startled horses ran in a commotion, and one of them stepped on the leg of a girl who couldn’t move.

｢Aaaaah!｣

Lathyrus struggled with the intense pain she experienced for the first time in her life, but there was no way out of the pile of boards holding her body. It was as if there was no one to pay any attention to Lathyrus’s pain in this desperate situation where each of them was busy running away.

Except for her own sister.

｢Ugh… Sister… My sister…｣

Lathyrus called out her older sister, but it was not easy for her to find Erica lying on the plank pile just like herself. However, unlike the helpless Lathyrus, the gray dragon approached with a thump, sending off a huge ringing sound.

The blue dragon, which was fighting the gray dragon, was wriggling with its neck cut in half.

｢No! Sister… Sister!｣

Lathyrus shouted at Erica, but the fainted Erica did not move. The gray dragon thrust a sharp claw into the left chest of Erica, who was lying motionless in front of Lathyrus.

｢Sister…｣

What was drawn out by the dragon’s claws was a bright red heart. The same color as the blood that wet her sister’s clothes. Lathyrus closed her eyes.

｢Please, when I wake up, let all of this be a terrible nightmare.｣

~*~

The nightmare was reality.

Lathyrus, the only survivor, was rescued by a neighboring village and taken to an orphanage. Since she was trampled and crippled by a horse, she could not be adopted into a good house and came to Madame Margot’s as if sold by the director who received a penny.

‘Let’s stop thinking bad thoughts.’

The past was just the past. It was not possible to turn back time by thinking about it countless times. Lathyrus just wanted to focus on living the present moment faithfully.

“Lathyrus! I left the meal on the table, so you have to eat it and come back on time without making a fuss. Okay?!”

~pls read only at pinkmuffin tl~

“…Yes, Madame”

As usual, Lathyrus went into the woods with the meal Madame Margot had given her. Still, seeing the man who seemed to treat her like a person would give her some comfort.

She did not take care of them these days, so the birds and flowers were sad, but it was unavoidable. If that man leaves here too, Lathyrus won’t have a chance to talk to anyone again.

“Hey, Lathyrus!”

In the end, she was caught by Chris on the road in the wooded forest where she was going to meet the man.

“Chris… Why are you here…”

“I was wondering where you disappeared every day these days, so I went after you.”

Chris, who approached in stride, laughed meanly as he took the bag with today’s leftover meal.

“Go on your way. I will go with you.”

“I, I am fine…”

“Oh, well, did you hide something? I’m going with you, so why don’t you listen to me?”

“…”

“I want to know a little bit about where you go and who you meet with every day, like a stray cat, with the meal my mother made for you.”

Chris acted like Lathyrus was his pet or toy. For a long time, if Lathyrus was going to get close to someone, he would sabotage them in all sorts of ways. Not to mention, he would also physically harass Lathyrus, of course.

“Hey, why aren’t you talking?”

Anyway, she knew he would be angry if she didn’t say what he wanted. Lathyrus didn’t want to show the man she was being bullied by Chris. She didn’t want to make herself a tiring job for the man who every day leaned helplessly against the tombstone and closed his eyes.

So, what Lathyrus chose was silence.

Despite Chris’s coercion, Lathyrus simply shook her head and expressed her dislike. Again, Chris slowly began to get angry when Lathyrus wasn’t compliant.

“My mom fed and put a lame person like you to bed!”

“…”

“Are you against me without knowing grace? Do you dare to meet someone else without me knowing? Without my permission?!”

Chris’ face was as fierce and vicious as a brown bear.

“Why? Will you push me away like you did back then and run away?”

“Hey, don’t do this…”

“I will give you a chance. Take me to the guy you secretly meet.”

“I don’t want to…”

“Then do you want to be beaten here?”

“I still won’t do it!”

After refusing to the end despite threats and violence, Chris raised his hand with a red face.

‘Ah, this time it must be happening…!’

Lathyrus squeezed her eyes shut.

“Aaaah!”

But it wasn’t Lathyrus who screamed.

“…”

The first thing Lathyrus saw when she opened her eyes carefully was the fine hair that covered Chris’s gigantic face.

“For humans, females are much weaker than males.”

“Aaah!”

She closed her eyes helplessly, so she didn’t realize the man was much taller than Chris in height, shoulders, and hands.

“Let me explain in your language.”

His hand that was being held was twisted and broken. Chris, whom Lathyrus always feared, was small and shabby compared to the man.

“A gentleman doesn’t beat a lady.”

Unlike the brute force breaking Chris’ hand, his voice was as tiring as a teacher lecturing a child.

“Ugh! Who are you? Hey, let me go! My mother… Ahh!”

“Okay?”

“Lathyrus! Get this guy too, ugh!”

“I asked, do you understand?”

The tone of the man’s voice, breaking each syllable, showed that he had reached his limit. 

Fortunately, Chris was stupid, but he had the brains enough to notice his crisis.

“Oh, yes! So, this hand…!”

“You have to promise that you won’t come here again.”

“I won’t come! Ah, I will never come again!”

Then the man released Chris’ wrist.

“Lathyrus! You, see you later!”

Even in the midst of this, the cowardly Chris threatened Lathyrus, not the man, and disappeared.

Chris had gone and there were only two people left here, the man and Lathyrus. It was quite unusual for a man to leave the grave. As far as Lathyrus knows, the man never left there.

“Thank you for helping me!”

As the wind blew, the man’s hair, like the night sky, gently fluttered. He frowned after seeing Lathyrus once.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t help you. It was just noisy.”

“But still!”

“…”

“Still, thank you…”

Even if others saw her being abused by Madame Margot, or seeing her beaten by Chris, people turned their heads, pretending not to know. Lathyrus was still grateful to the only man who helped her.

“If you’re really grateful, you can leave today too.”

“…”

“Because I’m tired of that guy barking loudly.”

Lathyrus simply nodded her head. After all, it was time to go back to being tormented by Chris anyway.

“Hey, wait a minute…!”

Although he was always harsh, when Lathyrus caught him, the man stood still and waited for her.

In fact, she wanted to ask him for a long time, but he told her to shut up no matter what she said, so there was something she couldn’t ask.

“What’s your name…?”

Even though it was a trivial question, she was nervous. The man looked at Lathyrus without saying a word for a long time, then turned around without any regrets and left an ambiguous answer.

“You already called my name.”

She wanted to ask what that meant, but by then the man had already disappeared into the dark forest.

‘When did I say his name…?’

At first, she was just full of doubts. However, Lathyrus suddenly remembered the day she first met the man.

Flowers in full bloom on the grave.

When Lathyrus said the name of the flowers…

“Lisianthus…”

The flowers became a human form.

Lathyrus smiled slightly, glad that the man also had the name of a flower-like her.