chapter 13
13 – A younger brother needs a sister.(1)
As the Krause family’s lord’s castle is an elder family that has existed since the beginning of the empire, the lord’s castle, which has been with the family’s history, also preserves its long history through various anecdotes.
As the Isilia Pavilion was also built at the same time as the Yeongju Castle, there were various stories related to this building, the most widely known of which was the origin of the name Isilia.
An annex named after the hostess of the first Krause family. Isilia Hall.
That’s why this place has been used by the Krause family’s hostesses for generations, and despite the construction several times over a long period of time, the traces left by the previous hostesses still remain little by little in various forms.
The flower field we are walking through now was one of those traces.
This flower garden is one of the traces that Arwen Krauss, the mother of Damian and Alphonse and the hostess of the Krause family at the time, left in Isilia Pavilion.
When I was young, it was a flower garden I often walked with my mother, but after she left, no one in my family came here except for me, who stopped by occasionally. Father never came to Isilia House after Mother left, and for some reason Alphonse was reluctant to set foot in Isilia House.
That’s why I was always alone when I walked this place.
The garden was being kept clean by the employees, but it would have been difficult for them, who were in the position of being hired, to appreciate this place with peace of mind. After work, they were busy leaving the garden in a hurry, and as a result, I was the only visitor here.
However, a new guest came to such a flower garden after a long time.
With her beautiful appearance and flowers in the background behind her, there is no picture.
Elena, who gently held my hand, moved slowly as I guided her.
A flower garden is a space for viewing flowers.
As long as we were standing in that space, there was no need for words between us.
Walk slowly and smell the flowers that change from area to area and the scent that changes little by little. The sunny spring sky was blue, and the sight of the flowers swaying in the cool breeze made my heart calm.
Walking alone like this felt a little different from when I had been walking alone. The scent also felt different from what I normally smell. It felt like the empty side was being filled, or an unknown feeling of fullness rose up.
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Maybe it was because I was walking down this street with someone after a long time. I put aside the tickling heart and the instinct to crawl out little by little and looked at Elena.
Just in time, the hyacinths behind her were the same purple as her eyes.
Her appearance, which naturally melts into a flower, sometimes blows people’s reason far away.
I’ve felt it several times, but it’s a truly unreal appearance. Does that mean you have to be at that level to be the main character of a romance fantasy?
Unlike when she first came here, she was looking at the world with calm eyes, as if she had fallen into the picture the world showed her. I quietly turned my head and looked at the same place as her.
There was a landscape that no painter could paint.
its sillent.
The chirping of birds and the buzzing of bees’ wings are buried in that green world.
For a moment, we stop our steps and decide to stand still and watch.
How many minutes had passed, the wind blowing from somewhere moved the clouds and covered the sun.
As a shadow fell on the world, we started walking again, as if we had promised.
***
When she came out of the flower garden, her mood seemed to have completely relaxed, and she had changed to the Elena Edelweiss from when we first met. Her eyes as calm as a quiet lake and her face that looked somewhat indifferent were the same as the Elena I pictured while reading the novel.
But why does it look so new?
I’m sure that’s the Elena I know, but what is this unfamiliar feeling? Come to think of it, the only thing I saw after meeting her here was a smiling Elena. Crying Elena. There was nothing but Elena blushing with embarrassment.
No, it’s not even Eevee, there are so many different things.
After thinking about it, I could see that the figure of Elena Edelweiss that I was thinking of in my mind had really changed in a jumbled mess.
But that didn’t mean my head was as confused as before.
“Elena.”
“Yes? Damian. Why are you calling me?”
“No. I just called.”
A smile spread across her face in an instant at my question. When I saw that, I thought that I had found my place.
The corners of his mouth went up involuntarily in a feeling of satisfaction that he couldn’t figure out the reason for. Elena tilted her head in disbelief.
It would be nice if the ending could be easily changed like Elena’s expression. It’s just sad that it isn’t. Still, thanks to Elena’s behavior, which was different from the original, I don’t know if my heart has become lighter or if I’ve completely let it go and accepted it, but I feel more comfortable than before when I was just worried and suffering.
“How was the flower garden?”
“Ah, it definitely felt different from looking at it from here. Thank you, Damian, for giving me this experience.”
“Also, flowers are best viewed from a wide, open place rather than from a small private room. It is impossible to fully capture nature in artificial things.”
At my words, Elena agreed with a small smile.
The maid Ken and Elena had brought was gone.
Even so, Ken’s name was… Haley? In the original work, I remember him as a guy who continued to be threatened by Damian, hiding the abuse of Elena, and helping to accuse Damian at the end.
Perhaps the two avoided the seat out of consideration for Elena and me.
Originally, I was going to be an escort, so what?
I told her who was looking at the flower garden outside the window to see if there was still a afterglow left.
“The weather is nice.”
“Iknow, right.”
“Shall we go out next time?”
“…basket.”
“?”
“Let’s take some dessert in the basket and go out.”
Stop eating sweets… I’m not feeling well.
But Elena is a wizard, so she’ll do something.
I nodded at Elena’s words.
“Yes. Then let’s take a mat and go out. It’s going to be sunny for a while, so it wouldn’t be bad to go a little further. There are many places with good scenery in Sarham.”
To my words, she replied with a pouty face.
“When it comes to scenery, even Merohim won’t lose…”
“Well, that’s right. You’ll freeze to death if you sit down on a mat.”
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Merrohim. It is a place where the climate is no different from that of a brown bear.
When it snows, it’s an area where it snows so much that you can build a castle out of it. It’s fortunate that the Edelweiss family is famous for magic. If a samurai like us were there, they would have perished long ago unless they had a lot of resources.
“Let’s do it in Merohim someday. It wouldn’t be bad to sit on a mat on the ice. But for now, let’s start with Isilia Pavilion and look around.”
Rather than surviving in the North Pole, surviving in a 500-year-old castle came first.
***
“this person is?”
“She is our mother.”
Elena asked, standing in front of a portrait hanging on the wall. Other portraits hung in a row next to that portrait, but she found the exact portrait of Arwen Krauss.
Thanks to Isilia Pavilion serving as the hostess’s house, there were portraits of successive hostesses hanging here. So, it was not unusual for the portrait of Arwen, the mother, to be hanging there.
In fact, it is not surprising that Elena pinpointed the exact portrait of Arwen. For she had already met someone who looked very much like the person in the portrait.
I picked up a white cloth that had fallen on the floor.
Originally, it must have been the cloth used to cover the mother’s portrait.
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My father sent all the things related to my mother to Isilia House. Except for this portrait, all the pictures of my mother. The only reason the mother’s portrait was covered with a white cloth was to avoid seeing her face when she came here.
It wasn’t because my father hated my mother.
It was so because she loved her so much that shed tears just by looking at her face.
But this cloth fell to the ground. If it was a mistake made by the servant of the castle, it would have been nice to have it back, but why not? There must be no servant who doesn’t know about the hidden portrait in Isilia Pavilion.
The reason immediately became clear.
“Uh…Tongue, hyung…”
“Alphonse.”
A child came out of a room full of mother’s things.
A child who resembles the woman in the portrait.