The child blinked and turned her head.

When their eyes met, Aeli inadvertently averted her gaze and spoke.

“As Mari said, it’s getting late. Shall we wash up and go to bed now?”

“Does Lia know our Appa too?”

“I’m not unfamiliar with him…”

“Are you friends?”

“…Shall we go wash up?”

Aeli couldn’t bring herself to say something like “both your mom and dad don’t have any friends” to the child.

Just like Mari had done, she awkwardly tried to change the subject. The child nodded slightly, seemingly coming to some conclusion in her small head.

As the child climbed down from the bed with familiar ease to go to the bathroom, Aeli noticed something glinting around her neckline and asked:

“I don’t think I’ve seen that before. Are you wearing a necklace?”

“Ah, this… this is nothing!”

Startled by the sudden question, the child’s shoulders jumped as she hurriedly answered, trying to cover her neckline by adjusting her collar.

THUD-!

“Adi?!”

Apparently distracted by the pendant, the child hadn’t watched her step properly and fell to the floor with a loud crash. Her foot had caught on the slightly uneven wooden floor.

The child fell flat on her face with a surprisingly loud noise, causing Aeli to exclaim in alarm:

“Are you hurt?!”

“I-I’m… fine…”

Though she said this in a trembling voice, she didn’t look particularly fine.

At times like this, her resemblance to Lutis was clearly visible.

Though it hurt, she seemed more embarrassed than anything. The child, with her ear tips and nape flushed red, nodded while wiping away the tears that had welled up with the back of her arm.

Then, as she tried to get up.

“Ah…”

Perhaps due to the fall, the necklace that had slipped out from under her clothes could be seen slightly opened.

So it had a locket attached, Aeli thought as she blinked. Her gaze caught a glimpse of a purple flower petal.

‘Wait, she hasn’t been out, so where did that come from? It couldn’t have come from me, a ghost.’

Maybe it fell off Mari’s clothes.

In the room that had turned completely dark as night fell, that single colorful flower petal lying alone was sufficiently out of place.

Perhaps as much as Aeli herself.

As she silently stared at the flower petal, the child’s eyes followed Aeli’s gaze, sensing something amiss.

With a click, the child closed the locket and was about to get up with a grunt when she suddenly stopped.

The child sat back down on the floor, quietly picked up the fallen petal, and lowered her head.

As she fiddled with the petal for so long that Aeli worried it might wear out, the hesitating child finally asked in a small voice:

“Lia. You know…”

“Yes?”

“If there was no fairy in the garden today… then will the flowers in the flowerbed wither now?”

“Flowers?”

“The ones Mama likes…”

At the child’s question, Aeli opened her mouth slightly, then closed it.

The vase was already broken and cleaned up, so she couldn’t have seen it.

Even if she had seen it before, she wasn’t old enough to remember it.

Moreover, everyone thought they just cherished the vase, so no one around knew that she liked those flowers.

There was no one who could have told the child that…

‘…Did Mari tell her this too?’

Tilting her head and unable to think of anything else, Aeli guessed and answered while hiding her uneasy feelings.

“Hmm, they just started blooming, so they should be fine.”

“So they won’t wither?”

“At least for a while, I suppose?”

“For a while…”

Muttering like that, the child seemed to be pondering something deeply before asking her: What should I do to keep them from withering?

At the child’s question, Aeli let out a sigh. There were actually quite a few methods if they were to discuss it.

Several ideas immediately came to Aeli’s mind.

They could preserve them with magic like before. Or build a greenhouse that maintains a constant temperature to keep them blooming year-round. They could even plant seeds in a pot inside the mansion and grow them from scratch.

However, none of these could immediately fulfill what the child seemed to want. It looked like she wanted the currently blooming flowers to last.

After quietly choosing her words, Aeli carefully asked:

“Is there a reason why the flowers shouldn’t wither?”

“…Because.”

“Hmm?”

“…If they do, — won’t…”

“I see.”

Seeing how the child was mumbling with her gaze fixed on the floor as if she had done something wrong, Aeli sensed that it would be difficult to get a proper answer.

To show that she had no intention of scolding, Aeli spoke in a much gentler voice:

“Then shall we ask Mari to transplant the flowers into a pot before they wither and bring them to us?”

“A pot…?”

“Yes. They won’t be able to bloom for very long, but if you cherish them well, you’ll be able to see them in your room for over a month.”

“Maybe the fairy will even come here because she’s happy to see Adi loving the flowers so much.”

At those words, the child raised her head and met Aeli’s eyes.

Though she seemed to have tried not to show it, her emotions were clearly visible due to her lack of skill.

Seeing the curiosity and joy in her eyes, a smile spread across Aeli’s face as if it had been drawn there.

The child wiggled her toes slightly and asked in a small voice:

“…Even after my birthday?”

“Of course. Naturally.”

“…Then I’ll grow them.”

“Shall we wash up first? We’ll tell Mari before bed.”

“Okay…”

With those words, the child turned her body around while sitting.

She seemed to be doing something continuously as her small body squirmed with her back turned.

“By the way, …is Lia okay with flowers withering?”

The child suddenly turned her head and asked. At this somewhat unexpected question, Aeli blinked rapidly and thought.

If asked whether it was okay, there was nothing not okay about it. It’s not like she could do anything about flowers withering, right?

‘Now I’m not preserving them with magic like before anyway.’

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t disappointed that she couldn’t see them year-round, but it was literally unavoidable.

It’s natural for flowers to wither after blooming.

Aeli tried to treat it as no big deal and opened her mouth.

“It’s sad, but there’s nothing we can…”

Correction. She was about to speak but closed her mouth again.

Aeli’s face showed astonishment as she raised her head at something suddenly fluttering.

Flower petals, as translucent as her own body, were falling from somewhere in her line of sight.

An out-of-place bright light illuminating the dark room.

Even more unbelievable was the source of the scene unfolding before her eyes.

“…Child, did you do this?”

The child’s head moved up and down briefly.

In fact, she didn’t even need to ask.

The same faint light that was above Aeli’s head extended to around the child’s palm.

“You looked sad, Lia…”

“…Me? No, more importantly, how are you doing this when I’ve never taught you magic…?”

“I studied hard.”

This doesn’t seem like something achievable through effort alone. Aeli stared blankly, at a loss for words, while the child continued solemnly:

“I… I can show you.”

“Oh, um?”

“Since Lia told me how to see flowers for a long time, I’ll give Lia flowers too.”

“……”

“Th-they’re not real so they don’t have a smell and you can’t touch them… but still…”

But still, I can make them appear before your eyes whenever you want to see them. That’s what the child said.

She clearly didn’t realize how amazing this was, as she herself wanted real flowers.

What was Aeli’s maiden name again? None other than ‘Mason’.

That very Mason, descendants of the great mages, one of the founding families of the Empire.

Although she had become completely devoid of magical power after giving birth, her origins remained unchanged.

Even Aeli had never heard of being able to use such intricate illusion magic at that age.

Aeli unconsciously reached out to touch the flower petals before her eyes.

‘It doesn’t even disappear when touched…’

The flower petal passed through her finger as if nothing had happened and drifted down towards the floor.

For reference, illusion magic is supposed to disappear upon contact.

Unaware of Aeli’s shock as she stood frozen with her eyes wide open, the child said with a bright smile:

“Seeing flowers makes me feel good. I want Lia to be happy.”

“……”

“So stay with me for a long, long time.”

“…Adi-”

Aeli, not knowing what to do, opened her mouth. There was so much she wanted to say.

That I’m actually your mother, and that I’m already dead so I’m no longer alive.

That I don’t know how I can stay by your side like this, so I might disappear without a trace just as suddenly as I appeared. That even I can’t predict it.

She had to say it. It was the right thing to do, to prevent the child from getting hurt even more someday.

“Yes?”

“……”

…But somehow, the words just wouldn’t come out.

There was a question that naturally came to mind during the past month when she was left alone after the child fell asleep.

It was because thoughts naturally multiplied when you can’t eat or sleep in this form.

‘Why did I have to die? Why…’

Why me of all people.

She opened her eyes one day and had become a ghost overnight. Even after realizing that fact, it couldn’t have felt real right away.

Why did it have to be her out of all people?

Aeli just couldn’t comprehend it.

When the reality she had been half-avoiding weighed heavily on her, there were times she couldn’t control her expression even in front of the child.

She also knew that a tiny gaze persistently followed her at those times.

“……”

“You’ll do that for me, right?”

But really, she had no idea it would be like this.

From the child’s perspective, she was someone whose face she had only recently started seeing.

Yet to cheer her up, she studied magic on her own without being taught, practiced in secret, and presented it so beautifully before her eyes.

She truly had no idea.

…If she had known, she would have run away by any means necessary.

“Lia?”

“…Yes.”

Even though the child’s innocent smile painfully pierced her entire being.

Her heart was so beautiful that she just couldn’t open her mouth.

She was worried if it was okay to receive this when she hadn’t done anything for the child.

“You won’t go anywhere and stay with me forever, right?”

“…Yes.”

I want that too. Aeli finally succumbed helplessly to the damp emotions.

Flower petals were raining down. A kind she had never seen before.

Somehow, a fragrant scent similar to what she had smelled in her childhood seemed to linger in her nose.

So Aeli felt like she might cry a little.

‘…Actually, I wanted to live too.’

Despite all her resentment, there was only one face that came to mind at this moment.

‘Lutis…’

Where are you now?

She missed Lutis.

It was a misery she couldn’t express to anyone.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Your Grace, that was the last warp gate just now.”

“…I see.”

And the next day at dawn.

He returned on a day when light rain was falling.

Carrying a completely different bloody scent than before.