Chapter 16: Memories of the Flower Garden
“Come to think of it, you were sitting in front of the flower bed the other day. Does Miss Aizel like flowers by any chance?”
Zetto asked me and I stared at him blankly, then spoke up.
“……I like them. A lot.”
I used the excuse of liking flowers to tell him what I hadn’t been able to tell him the previous time.
I like you. I love you. Thank you. I’m sorry. There were a million things I wanted to say to him but just this much was the best I could do right now.
A moment later, Zetto bent down to meet me at eye level, it was a good habit of his.
Even though he couldn’t see the face of the person he was talking to, even though he was blind, he somehow tried to give the impression that he did.
Finally, his lips parted.
“…I like them, too.”
His cozy voice slowly tickles my ear.
He’s staring at me as he says that… and I feel terribly embarrassed, even though we’re not making eye contact.
I quickly turned away from him, pretending to look at the flowers.
As I did, memories of the previous round flashed through my mind. The day I defeated Krektar with Zetto and the conversation I had with him as we left his corpse behind flashed through my mind.
‘We did it somehow. I never thought I’d meet a demon.’
‘I know.’
‘I noticed he knew Ms. Aizel.’
‘I suppose there was something to that.’
I said and saw his smile fading at my answer.
‘Are you scared…?’
‘Scared, yes.’
‘You could have easily cut him down.’
‘It’s not like that…’
…I still haven’t forgotten what he said to me then.
“……Ms. Aizel?”
When I woke up, Zetto was calling out to me.
“I’m sorry, what did I say?”
I shook my head as I answered him.
Had he really killed Krektar? If so, why and how?
Now that I was facing him, my doubts were only growing stronger, and I didn’t feel like I was getting any closer to solving them so I struck up a meaningless conversation.
“I was wondering what your favorite flower is.”
“That’s… It’s a secret.”
“Even if you told me the name, I wouldn’t know.”
“…It’s still a secret.”
I bowed my head in response since I couldn’t tell him that my favorite flower is Zetto’s favorite flower.
I never had a favorite flower in the first place.
“…What kind of flowers does Zetto like?”
I asked, glancing at Zetto.
He tilted his head and opened his mouth.
“I don’t know, I like them, but I don’t know much about them…”
“Then it’s the one that smells the best in this flower garden right now.”
“Hmm… That’s a good idea, I’ll try to find it.”
Zetto stood up so I followed suit and stood up as well and we started walking through the flower garden.
The sun is beginning to set and his footsteps whisper in my ear as he follows the sweet scent of flowers wafting from the garden.
It was all coincidence, but it was the same.
Even the place where Zetto’s feet stopped as he took a deep breath… was the same.
He stood before the same flower and leaned his face close to the flower, then he pointed to it.
“This is my favorite flower,” he said, “it’s so fragrant and distant… I love this scent that doesn’t make my head hurt. What’s the name of the flower?”
Zetto then asked me.
For some unknown reason, I had a memory of him and was mimicking him from the previous episode. Or maybe he’s simply the same person, giving the same answer.
Either way, it was complicated for me but the important thing is that I don’t want to lose him again.
“…Opsion.”
“Opsion, I’ll have to remember that.”
I knelt down in front of the flower. It was a flower of so many colors and it was so rare that there was only one blooming in this flower garden.
“There is a story that has been passed down from time immemorial, about Obsion,” I said, “would you like to hear it?”
“An old tale… Okay.”
After Zetto’s affirmation, I began to recite the story about Opsion.
Opsion was the name of a woman and since time immemorial, she has brought misfortune and because of this, she was often mistaken for a demon but she had one lover who could be considered her only good fortune, a man named Julian.
One day, Opsion’s lover asked her to never leave the house until he came for her.
Opsion believed him at first and locked the door.
A day passed…Two days passed…Opsion was frustrated.
She wondered if Julian had left her….She wondered if she had earned his hatred by bringing him misery so she decided to check.
She went out to look for Julian, but he was nowhere to be seen, then she was met by a group of villagers with torches and weapons, but not Julian.
When they found her, they shouted that they had found a demon, and they grabbed her and tried to burn her.
Obsion ran hard, but her misfortune continued until the very end as she tripped over a branch and fell.
The people finally caught her.
She cried and cried and cried that she was not a demon, but no one believed her….And so she was burned alive.
But what was Julian, Obsion lover, doing?
He had somehow convinced the saint in the Holy Land to come back to the village with him in order to prove to the saint that the woman he loved so dearly was not a demon.
But what Julian saw in his eyes… was Obsion, already reduced to ashes.
The man sobbed as he swept up the ashes but there was nothing the saint could do.
He simply raised his hand and bestowed the blessing of the gods upon the poor, pitiful man.
The blessing of the gods and the tears of the man’s sorrow fell to the ashes……but the miracle of Obsion resurrection did not happen, as it should have.
Instead, a tiny flower bloomed from the grayish ashes.
“That flower…Obsion.”
Zetto muttered as he listened to my story.
“It’s a ridiculous story, isn’t it? Why didn’t the man explain enough and leave, and why didn’t Obsion believe him? It’s so full of errors, I don’t even know if it really happened.”
“Well, old stories are like that, what would Miss Aizel have done?”
“……I think I would have locked her up and left.”
It’s all a matter of patience, you see.
Zetto’s mouth drops open at my answer, which comes after a small pause.
“Hmm… You mean Julian’s side, not Obsion…”
“…Obsion was dangerous, but I guess she didn’t want to tell him that, in case he got hurt… I’m interpreting that as…”
I cut him off, adding my own explanation.
“That’s a pretty good interpretation. What’s the meaning of the flower, Opsion?”
“The meaning in the flower language is…”
The flower language of Opsion was the opposite of a tragic story.
“…a happy ending.”
Their story did not have a happy ending. Perhaps it was what they had hoped for and wished for that was inscribed in their flower words.
“A happy ending… That’s an interesting flower.”
Zetto’s face lit up when he heard the words.
“It is, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, that’s why I like it.”
I hope the smile on his face doesn’t fade now.
I wonder if one day I’ll make that choice for a happy ending and for his smile.
The choice to leave Zetto somewhere safe and go off on my own.
I shook my head and stood up.
“Then…”
That was enough of a conversation for me.
I felt like talking more would only confuse me as memories from the previous round were overlapping.
I had to leave him before my confusion got worse.
After all, it was hard to talk to him in a place that held such deep memories so I turned to leave the flower garden.
“Uh…?”
A panicked exclamation escaped my lips, and I tilted my head as I tripped over a stone beak on the ground.
My body was thrown without resistance toward Zetto, who was in front of me, and…
…He picked me up and held me in his arms.
“…Are you okay?”
I immediately heard Zetto’s gentle voice and felt his arms gently wrap around my waist.
“It’s… it’s… it’s…”
I couldn’t find the words.
…I may have hugged a defenseless Zetto, but I’ve never been hugged by him.
I can’t even lift my head to look at him. But I also didn’t want to leave his warm embrace.
Lately, I’ve noticed that other girls seem to be hitting on him…and it’s been hard.
The problem was that he was so sweet and sometimes I saw girls unintentionally getting involved with him, and I hated him for it.
I thought to myself, “He should only be nice to me.”
That was my Zetto.
Even in the north…
‘You two went to the sauna together…?’
‘No, Kaen went with us.’
…sweating with other women in a place I’d never been before.
At the time, I thought I was going crazy as I could barely contain my desires and my greed.
I can be just a little bit greedy for now.
“…I think my legs are getting a little weak from all the sitting, do you mind if I stay like this for a while longer…?”
I asked Zetto in a cautious voice, even though I knew what he would say and my heart sank.
“…”
Zetto seemed to be thinking about something. Luckily, my anxiety didn’t last long.
“…Yes.”
His cheerful reply came immediately and his answer gave me a little more courage as I dug deeper into his arms.
I could hear his heartbeat and I felt a little embarrassed to think that I was letting him hear my heartbeat every time, unobstructed.
I was smiling at the thought when……I felt a strange energy emanating from his chest.
‘What is it…? This energy…’
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but at least it didn’t seem to be something I would expect from a human.
“…Is that enough?”
Zetto pushes me away first.
“Oh, yeah. That’s it.”
With that one word, I fell out of his arms.
It was a strange thing. Something was lurking in his chest, hiding a negative, almost sinister energy.
‘A curse…?’
That was all I could think of.
I’m pretty sure I hadn’t felt anything like that before and that made it all the more shocking.
‘Something’s gone terribly wrong.’
Suddenly, my mind flashed back to the conversation I had with Krektar after I defeated him.
‘It’s not that…’
My head felt dizzy.
‘…I’m afraid we’re going to lose Miss Aizel, and I’m afraid.’
Me too. I’m scared of losing Zetto, too.
I looked up and met Zetto’s eyes as he stood in front of me.
He was still smiling at me.
Zetto, what am I going to do now?